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https://hackaday.com/2021/02/24/hacking-a-non-dimmable-led-fixture/ | Hacking A Non-Dimmable LED Fixture | Dan Maloney | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"architectural",
"dali",
"dimmable",
"fixture",
"led",
"lighting",
"mosfet",
"pic",
"pwm"
] | For most of us, the solution to having a non-dimmable LED light bulb but needing a dimmable one is a simple as a drive to the store to get the right kind of bulb. But that seems downright boring, not to mention wasteful, so when [Leo Fernekes] was faced with this problem, he looked for a way to
make a non-dimmable bulb dimmable
.
To be fair, there was a financial aspect to this hack, too. [Leo] had a bunch of cheap non-dimmable light fixtures he wanted to put to use. He started with a teardown and reverse-engineering of a light strip, which contains little more than LEDs and a small buck converter. His analysis of the circuit led him to a solution for dimming the light: inserting a MOSFET as a shunt around the LEDs. That and the addition of a diode to isolate the LEDs from the current regulator would allow for simple PWM-control of the lights via a microcontroller.
As is typical with these things, there were complications. [Leo] found that a timing problem resulted in flickering LEDs; the fix came from adding a sync circuit that cleverly leveraged a flip-flop inside the PIC16 microcontroller he chose for the circuit. His prototype incorporates these modifications, plus an interface that supports
the DALI protocol
for architectural lighting control. As always, [Leo] is quick to point out that mixing line voltage into your projects is not without risks, which he takes pains to mitigate. And as is also typical for his projects, [Leo] gives just the right amount of detail to understand the theory behind his design. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6325788",
"author": "reg",
"timestamp": "2021-02-24T23:10:40",
"content": "I did not watch the video yet, the SO is watching tee vee, but it seems to me if you put a shunt across the LED’s you are just turning the power you are shunting into heat and bypassing the whole reason using... | 1,760,373,177.707845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/24/taking-a-capacitor-microphone-to-the-next-level/ | Taking A Capacitor Microphone To The Next Level | Jenny List | [
"hardware",
"Parts"
] | [
"audio",
"capacitor microphone",
"condenser microphone"
] | There was a time when a microphone for most people was a cheap plastic affair that probably came for free with their sound card, but in the age of pandemic video streaming no desktop is complete without a chunky model that looks for all the world as though it escaped from a studio. Few people make their own microphones, so the work of [DJJules] in
building very high quality condenser microphones
is a particularly fascinating read.
A condenser microphone is a capacitor in which one plate is formed by a conductive diaphragm. A bias voltage is supplied to the diaphragm via a resistor, and since the charge on the plate remains constant as its capacitance changes with the sound vibrations, the voltage on the capacitor changes accordingly. This is picked up by a high impedance buffer and from there fed to a normal microphone input. This Instructable uses a commercial condenser microphone capsule, and takes the reader through generating the bias voltage for it before describing the op-amp buffer circuit.
The most interesting part comes at the end, as we’re shown how the sensitivity pattern of a dual-microphone array can be tuned to be omnidirectional, cardoid, or figure-of-eight. This is probably the norm among audio engineers, but we rarely see this sort of insight in our community. We may never build a microphone of our own, but it’s fascinating to see this one from the ground up in the video below the break.
If you’re confused about the difference between a condenser microphone and the more common electret condenser microphone,
we have published a guide to that topic
. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6325778",
"author": "josephsleary",
"timestamp": "2021-02-24T22:30:05",
"content": "Very cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6325804",
"author": "CW",
"timestamp": "2021-02-25T00:24:38",
"content": "Mid-Side Masteri... | 1,760,373,177.602981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/22/diy-neuroscience-hack-chat/ | DIY Neuroscience Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"action potential",
"Bioamplifier",
"biohacking",
"Hack Chat",
"neurology",
"neuron",
"neuroscience"
] | Join us on Wednesday, February 24 at noon Pacific for the
DIY Neuroscience Hack Chat
with
Timothy Marzullo
!
Watch a film about a mad scientist from the golden age of Hollywood and chances are good that among the other set pieces, you’ll see human brains floating in jars of cloudy fluid wired up to electrodes and fancy machines. It’s all made up, of course, but tropes work because they’re based on a kernel of truth, and we in the audience know that our brains and the other parts of our nervous system do indeed work on electricity. Or more precisely, excitable tissues in our nervous systems pass electrochemical signals between themselves as waves of potential across cell membranes.
Studying this electrical world locked away inside our heads is a challenging, but by no means impossible, pursuit. Usable signals can be picked up, amplified, digitized, and recorded to help us understand what’s going on when we think, feel, move, sleep, wake, or just be. Neuroscience has made tremendous strides looking at these signals, but the equipment to do so has largely remained the province of large universities and teaching hospitals with ample budgets, leaving the amateur neuroscientist out of luck.
Tim Marzullo, co-founder of
Backyard Brains
, is looking to change all that. While working on his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Michigan, he and Greg Gage looked for ways to make the tools of neuroscience research affordable to everyone. The result is the Neuron SpikerBox, a low-cost bioamplifier that can tap into the “spikes” of action potential in live neurons. Open-source tools like these have helped educators bring neuroscience experiments to STEM students, and even helped other scientists set up novel, low-cost experiments.
Tim will join us on the Hack Chat to talk about doing DIY neuroscience and designing the instruments that make it possible. Bring your “mad scientist” questions as we push back the veil of ignorance on how our brains work, one neuron at a time.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, February 24 at 12:00 PM Pacific time (UTC-8). 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. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6325138",
"author": "jafinch78",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T22:25:00",
"content": "Specific movies come to mind like The Big Game (1973), Scanners (1981), Brainstorm (1983), Control Factor (2003), Listening (2015)… and the very thorough official documentary by Aaron & Melissa Dykes… T... | 1,760,373,177.754763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/22/improving-cheap-ball-screws/ | Improving Cheap Ball Screws | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"ball screw",
"ballscrew",
"lead screw",
"leadscrew"
] | Most 3D printers use leadscrews for at least one axis. These are simple devices that are essentially a steel screw thread and a brass nut that travels on it. However, for maximum precision, you’d like to use a ball screw. These are usually very expensive but have many advantages over a leadscrew. [MirageC] found cheaper ball screws but, since they were inexpensive, they had certain limitations. He designed a
simple device that improves the performance of these cheap ball screws
.
Superficially, a ball screw looks like a leadscrew with an odd-looking thread. However, the nut is very different. Inside the nut are ball bearings that fit in the grooves and allows the nut to spin around with much less friction. A special path collects the ball bearings and recirculates them to the other side of the nut. In general, ball screws are very durable, can handle higher loads and higher speeds, and require less maintenance. Unlike leadscrews, they are more expensive and are usually quite rigid. They are also a bit noisier, though.
Ball screws are rated C0 to C10 precision where C10 is the least accurate and the price goes up — way up — with accuracy. [MirageC] shows how cheaper ball screws can be rolled instead of precision ground. These screws are cheaper and harder, but exhibit more runout than a precision screw.
This runout caused wobble during 3D printing that was immediately obvious on the prints. Using a machinist’s dial gauge, [MirageC] found the screws were not straight at all and that even a relatively poor C7 ball screw would be more precise.
The solution? A clever arrangement of 3D printed parts. ball bearings, and magnets. The device allows the nut to move laterally without transmitting it to the print bed. It is a clever design and seems to work well.
If you want to
learn more about ball screws
, we can help. Although the accompanying video is dead,
Mitsumi had some very good information
to share about them, too. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6325021",
"author": "Roman",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T16:52:31",
"content": "Cool solution for super low loads on ballscrews, though I feel that for loads this low, a simple belt or cable drive would do the same thing for a much lower cost.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,178.116005 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/22/a-brief-history-of-viruses/ | A Brief History Of Viruses | Will Sweatman | [
"Curated",
"Featured",
"History",
"Medical Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"antivirus",
"COVID",
"Covid-19",
"vaccine",
"virus"
] | It was around the year 1590 when mankind figured out how to use optical lenses to bring into sight things smaller than the natural eye can observe. With the invention of the microscope, a new and unexplored world was discovered. It will likely be of great surprise to the reader that scientists of the time did not believe that within this new microscopic realm lay the source of sickness and disease. Most would still hold on to a belief of what was known as
Miasma theory
, which dates back to the Roman Empire. This theory states that the source of disease was contaminated air through decomposing organic materials. It wouldn’t be until the 1850’s that a man by the name of Louis Pasteur, from whom we get “pasteurization”, would promote
Germ Theory
into the spotlight of the sciences.
Louis Pasteur.
Source
Pasteur, considered by many as the father of microbiology, would go on to assist fellow biologist Charles Chameberland in the invention of the aptly named Pasteur Chamberland filter — a porcelain filter with a pore size between 100 and 1000 nanometers. This was small enough to filter out the microscopic bacteria and cells known at that time from a liquid suspension, leaving behind a supply of uncontaminated water. But like so many other early scientific instrumentation inventions it would lead to the discovery of something unexpected. In this case, a world far smaller than 100 nanometers… and add yet another dimension to the ever-shrinking world of the microscopic.
This is when we began to learn about viruses.
Discovery of the Virus and the Vaccine
The word “virus” stems from the Latin phrase “
slimy fluid
“. In 1898, a man by the name of Martinus Beijerinck passed a solution containing a still unknown infectious agent that targeted tobacco plants through a Pasteur Chamberland filter. The purified solution was applied to a healthy tobacco plant and to his great surprise the plant became infected. He concluded that the infectious agent was unfilterable, and took an even further leap to describe the infectious agent as a “living liquid”.
The Brome Mosaic virus easily passed through filters.
Source
In that same year, a pair of German scientists, Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosch, performed the same experiment which returned the same results with what we now know as Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMDV) in livestock. They, however, did not agree with Beijerinck’s conclusion of the infectious agent being a living liquid. But instead believed it to be a particulate that was smaller than the porcelain filter pore size. They pushed forward with their belief by heating the filter element to “destroy the agent’s infectivity”, though it was not clear to them as to how heat destroyed it. Nevertheless, they were successful in creating an FMDV vaccine for cows and sheep from the infectious solution that was passed through the heated filter, which put more precedence on understanding a virus as an ultrascopic living particulate, and not a living liquid.
It should be noted that the smallpox vaccine was widely used at this time, though no one had any understanding of how it worked or what it even was. Indeed, the term
vaccine
is derived from the Latin word
vacca
, which translates directly to
cow
. This odd relationship owes its history to the somewhat accidental discovery that milkmaids who often contracted a very mild disease called cowpox did not get infected with the much more severe smallpox disease. In 1796, a cruel experiment was performed by a man named Edward Jenner. He took puss from a cowpox blister and purposely infected a young boy. Once the boy recovered, he repeated the process with smallpox and found that the boy did not get the disease. Jenner’s vaccination technique would not only go on to save millions of lives from smallpox; it would be used to vaccinate people from several other diseases, including polio and yellow fever.
The Birth of Molecular Biology
A molecular view of the COVID-19 protein “spikes”.
Source
The next few decades would identify hundreds of viruses of all shapes and sizes, and along with them various types of vaccines. But it was the study of exactly what these viruses were and how the vaccines actually worked that would give rise to a revolutionary new science — molecular biology.
New technologies such as electron microscopy, along with other advances in scientific understandings would show that viruses are some of the smallest lifeforms on earth. It could even be argued that they’re not alive at all… an debate that carries on to this day. Our own [Dan Maloney]
has written several articles
on the details of
how viruses and our immune system work at a molecular level
. And the
clever ways we try to stop viruses
. However, there is still much to be learned.
Understanding viruses at the molecular level presents a very real modern day challenge. Despite the full power, wealth, and knowledge of our modern civilization, a tiny packet of RNA enclosed in a fatty drop continues to wreak havoc on our world. The COVID-19 virus has in some shape, form, or fashion effected every single human being on earth. Those viruses once invisible to us now stand before our very eyes in full view, and yet we have suffered terrible losses to this one. Our best tool is
a breakthrough barely 30 years old
— our ability to tailor messenger RNA (mRNA) a targeted purpose — has very quickly led to a viable vaccine. There is no doubt in my mind that eventually this virus will succumb to the might of human ingenuity that has been unlocked by more than a century of cumulative scientific knowledge. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324993",
"author": "Mike Massen, Perth Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T15:28:06",
"content": "Tah, FWIW I understand seawater has some 25 billion phage viruii per litre ie Almost all are bacterial viruses, hence why dipping infected body parts in seawater can (sometime... | 1,760,373,177.887053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/22/slick-web-oscilloscope-is-ready-in-a-flash-literally/ | Slick Web Oscilloscope Is Ready In A Flash (Literally) | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328p",
"Google Chrome",
"oscilloscope",
"software",
"web based",
"Web Serial API"
] | A bench oscilloscope is one of the most invaluable tools in the hardware hacker’s arsenal, but even the slimmest digital models are a bit large to be part of your everyday electronic carry. Sure you could throw one of those cheap pocket scopes in your bag, but what if there was an even easier way to take a peek at a few signals while you’re on the go?
For those who roam, the
Arduino-web-oscilloscope project created by [David Buezas] is worth a close look
. Using the Web Serial API built into recent versions of Google’s Chrome browser, this project allows you to pop open a software oscilloscope without installing anything locally. Whether it’s a public computer or that cheap Chromebook you keep around for emergencies, a valuable tool is just a few clicks away.
Flashing the MCU from the web interface.
Of course, there has to be
some
hardware involved. Despite what you might think given the name of the project, the code currently only supports the Logic Green LGT8F328P microcontroller. This cheap ATmega328P clone not only runs at 32 Mhz but according to [David], many operations can be done in fewer clock cycles than on the original 328P. In short it’s fast, and fast is good if you want more samples.
One of the best parts about this project is that a function to flash the firmware to the LGT8F328P is built right in the web interface. With the oscilloscope running in the browser, you just need to plug in a blank board, click the button to flash it, and start taking measurements. You could outfit a whole classroom or hackerspace with basic oscilloscopes in minutes, with a per-seat cost of just a few bucks.
Now as you might expect, there are some pretty hard limits on what you can realistically measure with this setup. For one thing, the board can’t handle anything higher than 5 volts.
Even the cheapest oscilloscope kit
is still going to be an upgrade, but the fact you can spin this up almost anywhere for the cost of a cheap MCU board makes it hard to complain about the results.
[Thanks to Bill for the tip.] | 27 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324955",
"author": "Daniel Dunn",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T12:16:25",
"content": "I am so happy that web serial exists! And this is really a wonderful project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324964",
"author": "Wh... | 1,760,373,177.819705 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/22/mastering-the-tricky-job-of-soldering-sma-connectors/ | Mastering The Tricky Job Of Soldering SMA Connectors | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"brass rod",
"sma",
"soldering"
] | There’s a satisfaction in watching someone else at work, particularly when they are demonstrating a solution to a soldering problem you have encountered in the past. SMA panel sockets have a particularly tiny solder bucket on their reverse, and since they often need to be soldered onto brass rod as part of microwave antenna construction they present a soldering challenge. [Andrew McNeil] is here to help, with
a foolproof method of achieving a joint
that is both electrically and mechanically sound.
The best connections to a solder bucket come when the wire connected to it nestles within its circular center. If this doesn’t happen and a blob of solder merely encapsulates both wire and bucket, the mechanical strength of the solder blob alone is not usually sufficient. The brass rod is wider than the bucket, so he takes us through carefully grinding it down to the right diameter for the bucket so it sits in place and can have the solder sweated into the gap. The result is very quick and simple, but has that essential satisfaction we mentioned earlier. It’s a small hack, but if you’ve ever soldered to a too-small RF connector you’ll understand. For more fun and games with RF connectors,
take a look at our overview
. | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324942",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T10:28:49",
"content": "Hmmm… So, basically the “hack” is: if you need to stick a stick into a hole, but it doesn’t fit then reduce the size of the stick.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,373,177.512042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/how-tiny-can-a-microcontroller-dev-board-be/ | How Tiny Can A Microcontroller Dev Board Be! | Jenny List | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny",
"ATtiny402",
"dev board"
] | With innumerable microcontroller boards on the market it’s sure that there will be one for every conceivable application or user. Among them are some seriously tiny ones, but this wasn’t enough for [Alun Morris].
Wanting to see how small he could make an ATtiny board without a custom PCB
, he took a SOIC-8 version of the popular minimalist processor and mated it to a 6mm by 8mm piece of 0.05″ prototyping board to create a device that is dwarfed by its connectors.
It’s an extremely simple circuit and hardly something that hasn’t been done before, but the value here is in the tricky soldering to make it rather than its novelty. The ATtiny402 and three passive SMD components are fitted on the smallest possible sliver of prototyping board to contain them, and the female headers and set of programming pins contribute far more to the volume of the device than the board itself. He also tried a side-on design with two smaller slivers of board before settling on the more conventional layout. The demonstration of the system in action seen in the video below the break is a magnetic flux detector, dwarfed by the 40-pin DIP Z80 it is sitting on.
A lot of boards claim to be tiny, but few are this small.
This ESP32
is a more usual contender. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324917",
"author": "Mike Massen, Perth, Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T06:11:20",
"content": "Wow, tiny indeed, nice post, thanks :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6324921",
"author": "jonmayo",
"timesta... | 1,760,373,177.649426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/beautiful-and-bouncy-rgb-led-skirt-reacts-to-movement/ | Beautiful And Bouncy RGB LED Skirt Reacts To Movement | Kristina Panos | [
"LED Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"LED skirt",
"leds",
"QT Py",
"RGB LEDs"
] | Is there any garment so freeing to wear as a skirt, assuming it isn’t skin tight? (Well, unless that’s your thing — we won’t judge.) Skirts and dresses are pretty darn freeing compared to pants, so it’s too bad that most of them come without pockets. And it’s really too bad that pretty much all skirts and dresses come without RGB LEDs that can react to movement. Maybe someday.
Until then, we’ll just have to design our own LED skirt like [makeTVee] and his girlfriend did, and hope that it looks half as good.
This skirt has six RGB LED strips running down the front for a total of 120 LEDs
. The strips are held in place with hook and loop tape and all the electronics — an Adafruit QT Py, a 6-DOF IMU, and a USB power bank — are tucked into the waistband and can be easily removed when it’s time to wash the skirt. Continuing with the practicality theme, there are no LEDs on the back, though they could easily be added in for getting down on the dance floor.
We really love the fabric choices here. The overlay fabric looks good on its own, but it also does a great job of showing and diffusing the light, while at the same time hiding the LED strips themselves. It’s clear that they took comfort and practicality into consideration and made a wearable that’s truly wearable. [makeTVee] calls this a work in progress, but has already got a few nice animations going, which you can see in the video after the break.
If you don’t care whether your wearables are practical,
try this fiber optic jellyfish skirt on for size
. | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324898",
"author": "BobbyMac99",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T03:16:39",
"content": "With a small audio pickup you could have it music active. Filter it for 800hz cutoff to pickup the low frequencies and have it change with the beat. You could even put an adjustable pot in the controll... | 1,760,373,178.05295 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/hackaday-links-february-21-2021/ | Hackaday Links: February 21, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"astronomy",
"cnc",
"hackaday links",
"laser",
"LSI",
"Mars 2020",
"Perseverance",
"pick and place",
"semiconductor",
"sky crane",
"supply chain",
"TCXO"
] | Well, that was quite a show! The Perseverance rover arrived on Mars Thursday. Don’t tell the boss, but we spent the afternoon watching the coverage in the house on the big TV rather than slaving away in the office. It was worth it; for someone who grew up watching Jules Bergman and Frank Reynolds cover the Apollo program and the sometimes cheesy animations provided by NASA, the current coverage is pretty intense.
A replay of the coverage
is available – skip to about the 1:15:00 mark to avoid all the filler and fluff preceding the “Seven Minutes of Terror” main event. And not only did they safely deliver the package, but
they absolutely nailed the landing
. Perseverance is only about 2 km away from the ancient river delta it was sent to explore for signs of life. Nice shooting!
We’re also being treated to early images from Jezero crater.
The first lowish-rez shots
, from the fore and after hazard cameras, popped up just a few seconds after landing — the dust hadn’t even settled yet! Some wags complained about the image quality, apparently without thinking that the really good camera gear was stowed away and a couple of quick check images with engineering cameras would be a good idea while the rover still had contact with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Speaking of which, the HiRISE camera on the MRO managed to catch
a stunning view of Perseverance’s descent under its parachute
; the taking of that photo is an engineering feat all by itself. But all of this pales in comparison to a shot from one of the down-looking cameras in the descent stage, show
Perseverance dangling from the skycrane
just before touchdown. It was a really good day for engineering.
Would that our Earthly supply chains were as well-engineered as our Martian delivery systems. We’ve been hearing of issues all along the electronics supply chain, impacting a wide range of industries. Some of the problems are related to COVID-19, which has sickened workers staffing production and shipping lines. Some, though, like a fire at
the AKM semiconductor plant in Japan
, have introduced another pinch point in an already strained system. The fire was in October, but the impact on the manufacturer depending on the plant’s large-scale integration (LSI) and temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TCXO) products is only just now being felt in the amateur radio market. The impact is likely not limited to that market, though — TCXOs pop up lots of gear, and the AKM plant made LSI chips for all kinds of applications.
What do you get when you combine a 3D-printer, a laser cutter, a CNC router, and a pick-and-place robot?
Drones that fly right off the build plate
, apparently. Aptly enough, it’s called LaserFactory, and it comes from MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. By making different “bolt-on” tools for a laser cutter, the CSAIL team has combined multiple next-generation manufacturing methods in one platform. The video below shows a drone frame being laser-cut from acrylic, to which conductive silver paste is added by an extruder. A pick-and-place head puts components on the silver goo, solders everything together with a laser, and away it goes. They also show off ways of building up 3D structures, both by stacking up flat pieces of acrylic and by cutting and bending acrylic in situ. It’s obviously still just a proof of concept, but we really like the ideas presented here.
And finally, as proof that astronomers can both admit when they’re wrong and have fun while doing so,
the most remote object in the Solar System has finally received a name
. The object, a 400-km diameter object in a highly elliptical orbit that takes it from inside the orbit of Neptune to as far as 175 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, is officially known as 2018 AG
37
. Having whimsically dubbed the previous furthest-known object “Farout,” astronomers kept with the theme and named its wayward sister “Farfarout.” Given the rapid gains in technology, chances are good that Farfarout won’t stay the Sun’s remotest outpost for long, and we fear the (Far)
n
out trend will eventually collapse under its own weight. We therefore modestly propose a more sensible naming scheme, perhaps something along the lines of “Farthest McFaraway.” It may not scale well, but at least it’s stupid. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324870",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-02-22T00:10:41",
"content": "“Would that our Earthly supply chains were as well-engineered as our Martian delivery systems.”Not engineering, economics. If people are willing to pay for it yes they can have better.",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,373,177.556507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/python-settles-bet-about-best-strategy-in-childrens-board-game/ | Python Settles Bet About Best Strategy In Children’s Board Game | Donald Papp | [
"Games"
] | [
"board game",
"game",
"python",
"simulation",
"strategy"
] | Simulating a tabletop game can be done for several reasons: to play the game digitally, to create computer opponent(s), or to prove someone wrong. In [Everett]’s case,
he used Python to prove which adult was right about basic strategy in a children’s game
.
[Everett]’s 5-year-old loves a simple game called
Hoot Owl Hoot!
in which players cooperatively work to move owls along a track to the safety of a nest. Player pieces move on spaces according to the matching colors drawn from a deck of cards. If a space is already occupied, a piece may jump ahead to the next available spot. The game has a bit more to it than that, but those are the important parts. After a few games, the adults in the room found themselves disagreeing about which strategy was optimal in this simple game.
It seemed to [Everett] that it was best to move pieces in the rear, keeping player pieces grouped together and maximizing the chance of free moves gained by jumping over occupied spaces. [Everett]’s wife countered that a “longest move” strategy was best, and one should always select whichever piece would benefit the most (i.e. move the furthest distance) from any given move. Which approach wins games in the fewest moves?
This small Python script
simulates the game enough to iteratively determine that the two strategies are quite close in results, but the “longest move” strategy does ultimately come out on top.
As far as simulations go, it’s no
Tamagotchi Singularity
and [Everett] admits that the simulation isn’t a completely accurate one. But since its only purpose is to compare whether “no stragglers” or “longest move” wins in fewer moves, shortcuts like using random color generation in place of drawing the colors from a deck shouldn’t make a big difference. Or would it? Regardless, we can agree that
board games can be fitting metaphors for the human condition
. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324860",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T23:15:29",
"content": "This reminds me of many rogue lite video games (road redemption at the moment). You get some points that can be used to make permanent upgrades, but unused points get wasted. The best strategy is upgrading u... | 1,760,373,178.172914 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/inside-an-oscillator-with-ken-shirriff/ | Inside An Oscillator With [Ken Shirriff] | Al Williams | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"chip decap",
"cmos",
"ken shirriff",
"oscillator",
"shirriff"
] | We are always glad to see [Ken Shirriff] tear into something new and this month he’s looking inside
a quartz oscillator module
. Offhand, you’d think there’s not much to these. A slab of quartz and some sort of inverter, right? But as [Ken] mentions, “There’s more happening in the module than I expected…”
If you’ve ever wanted to decap devices, big hybrid modules like these are a good way to get started since you don’t need exotic chemicals to get at the insides. [Ken] managed to break the fragile crystal wafer on the way in. Inside was also a small CMOS IC die. Time to get out the microscope.
If you follow [Ken’s] blog, you know he’s no stranger to analyzing IC dice. The oscillator IC is a pretty standard Colpitts oscillator but it also provides a programmable divider and output drive.
The circuit uses some unusually configured capacitors. [Ken] takes the time to point out CMOS logic structures throughout. If you haven’t seen one of [Ken’s] deep dives before, before, it’s a great introduction.
You can learn more about
crystal oscillator theory
. We used some test equipment to
characterize a crystal
a few years ago. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324822",
"author": "Jan Praegert",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T18:58:01",
"content": "++ for Ken, always a pleasure to read.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324835",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T20:0... | 1,760,373,178.397264 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/volumetric-3d-television-is-here/ | Volumetric 3D Television Is Here! | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"3dtv",
"volumetric display",
"volumetric video"
] | Volumetric 3D displays that allow the viewing of full 3D images without special glasses are not unknown in our community, usually taking the form of either a 3D LED matrix or a spinning rotor either with an image projected onto it or holding an LED array. They are impressive projects, but they are often limited in what they can display. Pretty patterns and simple 3D models are all very well, but they are hardly 3D television. Thus we’re quite impressed with [Evlmnkey]’s bachelor’s degree project,
which combines motion capture and a volumetric display for a genuine volumetric 3D closed-circuit television system
.
Finding the details takes a bit of dredging through the Reddit thread, but the display is an off-the-shelf Adafruit single-sided LED matrix driven by an ESP32, all mounted on a motor with a pair of slip rings for power. Data is fed to the ESP via WiFi, with the PC responsible for grabbing the image sending it as uncompressed frames. There’s little detail on the 3D capture, but since he mentions a Kinect library we suspect that may be the source.
This is perhaps not the highest resolution TV you’ll ever have seen, indeed we’d liken it to the flickering 30 lines of 1930s mechanical TV, but it’s still a functioning volumetric 3D live CCTV system. If you’re interested by 3D displays, you might like to see
our examination of the subject
.
Thanks [nandkeypull] for the tip. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324780",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T15:58:05",
"content": "Reminds me of an episode of sliders (TV series) that had a classroom with a 3D display in the ceiling. Showing DNA if memory serves.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,178.234468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/apple-ii-talks-to-3d-printer-with-a-little-modern-help/ | Apple II Talks To 3D Printer With A Little Modern Help | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"apple II",
"Apple IIc",
"baud",
"ender 3",
"serial port",
"unity"
] | Controlling most desktop 3D printers is as easy as sending them G-code commands over a serial connection. As you might expect, it takes a relatively quick machine to fire off the commands fast enough for a good-quality print. But what if you weren’t so picky? If speed isn’t a concern, what’s the practical limit on the type of computer you could use?
In an effort to answer that question,
[Max Piantoni] set out to control his Ender 3 printer with an authentic Apple IIc
. Things were made a bit easier by the fact that he really only wanted to use the printer as a 2D plotter, so he could ignore the third dimension in his code. All he needed to do was come up with a BASIC program that let him create some simple geometric artwork on the Apple and convert it into commands that could be sent out over the computer’s serial port.
Unity controlling the Ender 3
Unfortunately, [Max] ran into something of a language barrier. While the Apple had no problem generating G-code the Ender’s controller would understand, both devices couldn’t agree on a data rate that worked for both of them. The 3D printer likes to zip along at 115,200 baud, while the Apple was plodding ahead at 300. Clearly, something would have to stand in as an interpreter.
The solution [Max] came up with certainly wouldn’t be our first choice, but there’s something to be said for working with what you know. He quickly whipped up a program in Unity on his Macbook that would accept incoming commands from the Apple II at 300 baud, build up a healthy buffer, and then send them off to the Ender 3. As you can see in the video after the break, this Mac-in-the-middle approach got these unlikely friends talking at last.
We’re reminded of a project from a few years back that aimed to
build a fully functional 3D printer with 1980s technology
. It was to be controlled by a Commodore PET from the 1980s, which also struggled to communicate quickly enough with the printer’s electronics. Bringing a modern laptop into the mix is probably cheating a bit, but at least it shows the concept is sound. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324734",
"author": "Mog",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T12:14:26",
"content": "Seriously cool stuff!If anyone wants to complain about the use of a modern computer as a go-between, it could almost certainly be done with period-accurate technology, too. There were various third-party (and... | 1,760,373,178.72661 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/21/this-slimline-word-clock-uses-laser-etching-to-keep-things-simple/ | This Slimline Word Clock Uses Laser Etching To Keep Things Simple | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"ESP32 RTC",
"laser etch",
"matrix",
"neopixel",
"word clock"
] | Judging by the tips we get, it seems like the popularity of word clocks has perhaps started falling off lately. But back at peak word clock, we were seeing dozens of designs, some better than others.
This simple but classy word clock
seems to benefit from all that prior art, making the design just about as simple as it can get while still looking great.
The main tool for [t0mg]’s build is a laser cutter, which is a great choice for keeping the design simple. The tricky part of word clocks is getting the “word search” matrix executed cleanly, and we’ve seen everything from
laser-cut wood
to
inkjet prints
, and even
commercially produced PCBs
, used for the job. [t0mg] opted instead to spray paint a piece of glass and etch away the characters with the laser, which results in superb text quality. Etching the underside of the glass also has the advantage of protecting the paint layer while giving the finished clock a glossy face that really looks nice. Under the template lie layers of MDF that hold the Neopixel strips and act as light guides, while an ESP32 and RTC perform timekeeping and LED-driving duties. [t0mg] finished off the clock with a nice web interface to set the clock, change the colors, and perform maintenance functions. The video below shows the software in use.
We really think this clock looks great, and for those with access to a laser cutter, it seems like a great way to go about building your own. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324722",
"author": "Alphatek",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T10:34:02",
"content": "Nice. I made one using the same approach for the faceplate a few months ago (but attiny for control). From memory, it took a lot less power than I expected (about 5mA at 200mm/s on a K40) , and less than... | 1,760,373,178.556218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/its-noodles-all-the-way-down-ramen-comes-to-3d-printer-support/ | It’s Noodles All The Way Down: Ramen Comes To 3D Printer Support | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"simplify3d",
"support material"
] | While ramen support might sound like a help desk for soup, it is actually a technique [GeoDroidJohn] uses to get
easy-to-remove support structures
on 3D prints. We saw the video below and we have to admit that it did remind us of a brick of uncooked ramen noodles.
We had to dig a little further to find out how he did it. We finally found a
Reddit post
that gives the recipe for Simplify 3D:
Nozzle diameter/2= layer height
Support material every other layer, 15% crossing at -45, and 45
5 dense layers at 90% 0 gap layers top or bottom.
We have to admit, we try to avoid support where we can, and where we can’t we just pick one of the stock Cura settings. It wasn’t entirely clear how — or even if — you could replicate this in slicers other than Simplify 3D. The layer height, of course, is a given. We think 15% support density with [-45, 45] in the “line directions” box might get partially there. Maybe someone who is an expert in Simplify and some other slicers can help translate.
In any event, it did make us think about experimenting with different support structures. We’ve played with Cura’s tree supports before this and liked them. So maybe the defaults aren’t always the best.
We’d like to have time to try more of what we
read about supports
. You can also fit your
printer with a marker
if you want to try that. | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324684",
"author": "ncrmnt",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T06:19:00",
"content": "At first I thought he managed to somehow use actual ramen as a 3d printer material instead of pla or abs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324689",
... | 1,760,373,179.016373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/how-did-the-nintendo-virtual-boy-work/ | How Did The Nintendo Virtual Boy Work? | Jenny List | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"nintendo",
"V810",
"virtual boy"
] | What do you know about the Nintendo Virtual Boy?
Everybody
knows that it was the console giant’s mid-90s foray into 3D graphics and VR, and that it was a commercial flop. Sickness and headache-inducing graphics are probably first to mind, and that’s it. But since most of us will never have handled one in real life, all we have on this legendary console is this Received Opinion. What was it
Really
like? [Rodrigo Copetti] has put up
a detailed technical examination
, and it reveals a machine well ahead of its time in more than just the market it was trying to create.
The first surprise is that this machine eschews the expected LCD screens that were the norm on handheld consoles of the day, instead using a persistence-of-vision display with a single vertical bar of LEDs facing a vibrating mirror through a lens system. He goes into significant detail on how this system worked, and in doing so gives us a new respect for the console.
The meat of this article lies though in a detailed look at the console’s architecture. The NEC V810 CPU was significantly more powerful than those in other portable consoles of the day, and we get a peek of how it and the custom silicon handled the graphics. The GPU had dual framebuffers for each display to ensure each frame could be delivered smoothly while the next one was being created.
Everything that can be said about the Virtual Boy in the marketplace has been done to death, leading to the received opinion we mentioned at the start of the article. This write-up provides new information on one of Nintendo’s rarer machines and casts it in an entirely new light.
There have been understandably few Virtual Boy projects that have made it to these pages. One that has, was
a VGA interface for the console
.
Via
Hacker News
. | 42 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324664",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T03:28:17",
"content": "i got to play one of these which was set up as a demo at a retail store. i was actually rather impressed. but the thing completely flopped before i could beg mom to get me one.if they weren’t incredib... | 1,760,373,178.807307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/vintage-calculator-design-shows-just-how-much-we-take-for-granted-today/ | Vintage Calculator Design Shows Just How Much We Take For Granted Today | Donald Papp | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"70s",
"blue pill",
"calculator",
"rockwell",
"vintage"
] | [Amen]’s Rockwell 920 calculator from the 70s was a very impressive piece of hardware for its time. It sported a 16-digit display, a printer, and it could run programs. It even had a magnetic card reader/writer that could be used to store programs and data externally. Seen through today’s eyes, it was less like a calculator and more like what we would call a single-board computer. They are also
a window into another era, a time when many of the electrical design assumptions we take for granted hadn’t happened yet
. When the time came to dig into what made the calculator tick, [Amen] had a lot of work to do just to get basic tools running.
For example, [amen]’s
Blue Pill
(an open-source, multipurpose test and measurement tool) is, on one hand, the perfect tool to snoop on the inner workings. However, those inner workings happen to use negative logic at -17 Volts, which means a logical zero is -17 V and a one is 0 V. Oh, and it uses an oddball clock rate, to boot. Since the Blue Pill doesn’t support -17 V negative logic (does anything?) a bit of custom work was needed to craft an interface. Once that was working, the Blue Pill was off to the races.
The unfamiliar elements didn’t end there. The pins on each IC, for example, are in a staggered layout quite unlike the DIP pattern most of us (and our tools, breadboards, and IC clips) are familiar with. As for the processor itself, [amen] has access to low-level documentation on Rockwell processors and instruction sets, but the timing diagrams are puzzling until one realizes the processor has two clock inputs at two different frequencies, resulting in what [amen] describes as four separate “clock phases”.
These design decisions were certainly made for good reasons at the time, and they even have a certain internal harmony to them, but it’s still a window into an era when the elements underpinning much of what we now have and work with had not yet happened.
Check out the video embedded below to see [amen] explain what it took to hook the Blue Pill up to a Rockwell 920. Also, if you’d like to see one of these vintage machines demonstrated in all its functioning glory,
here’s a video of one being put through its paces
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324628",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2021-02-21T00:25:57",
"content": "How many hundreds or thousands of time more powerful is the Blue Pill than the Rockwell 920? Like a super advanced alien doctor that breathes methane, fixing up a human.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,179.060807 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/a-look-at-the-risky-tech-in-nasas-martian-helicopter/ | A Look At The “Risky” Tech In NASA’s Martian Helicopter | Tom Nardi | [
"Science",
"Space"
] | [
"helicopter",
"mars",
"mars rover",
"open source",
"Perseverance"
] | On February 18th, the
Perseverance
rover safely touched down on the Martian surface. In the coming days and weeks, the wide array of instruments and scientific payloads tucked aboard the robotic explorer will spring to life; allowing us to learn more about the Red Planet. With a little luck, it may even bring us closer to determining if Mars once harbored life as we know it.
Among all of the pieces of equipment aboard the rover, one of the most intriguing must certainly be
Ingenuity
. This small helicopter will become the first true aircraft to take off and fly on another planet,
and in a recent interview with IEEE Spectrum
, operations lead [Tim Canham] shared some fascinating details about the vehicle and some of the unorthodox decisions that went into its design.
Ingenuity’s
downward facing sensors.
[Tim] explains that, as a technology demonstrator, the team was allowed to take far more risks in developing
Ingenuity
than they would have been able to otherwise. Rather than sticking with legacy hardware and software, they were free to explore newer and less proven technology.
That included off-the-shelf consumer components, such as a laser altimeter purchased from SparkFun. It also means that the computational power packed into
Ingenuity
far exceeds that of
Perseverance
itself, though how well the helicopter’s smartphone-class Snapdragon 801 processor will handle the harsh Martian environment is yet to be seen.
On the software side, we also learn that
Ingenuity
is making extensive use of open source code. Not only is the onboard computer running Linux, but the vehicle is being controlled by an Apache 2.0 licensed framework developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for CubeSats and other small spacecraft.
The project is available on GitHub for anyone who wants it
, and according to the changelog, the fixes and improvements required for the “Mars Helicopter Project” were merged in a few releases ago.
The fact that code currently ticking away on the surface of Mars can be downloaded and implemented into your own DIY project is a revelation that’s not lost on [Tim]. “It’s kind of an open-source victory because we’re flying an open-source operating system and an open-source flight software framework and flying commercial parts that you can buy off the shelf if you wanted to do this yourself someday.”
Of course, it took a whole lot more than some Python libraries and a handful of sensors from SparkFun to
design and build the first space-going helicopter
. But the fact that even a small slice of the technology inside of a project like
Ingenuity
is now available to the average hacker and maker is a huge step towards democratizing scientific research here on Earth.
[Thanks to Måns for the tip.] | 35 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324595",
"author": "NSFW",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T21:14:06",
"content": "“… if you wanted to do this yourself someday.”Alas, the shipping costs are out of reach for most of us.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324607",
... | 1,760,373,178.662746 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/google-inspired-usb-pd-sniffer-for-the-diy-crowd/ | Google-Inspired USB-PD Sniffer For The DIY Crowd | Tom Nardi | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"open hardware",
"sniffer",
"USB C",
"USB-PD"
] | If you want to hack around with the communication protocol that USB Power Delivery devices use to negotiate their power requirements with the upstream source, a tool like
Google’s Twinkie
really helps. With it you can sniff data off the line, analyze it, and even inject your own packets. Luckily for us, the search giant made the device open source so we can all have one of our own.
Unfortunately, as [dojoe] found out, the Twinkie isn’t particularly well suited for small-scale hobbyist manufacturing.
So he came up with a revised design he calls Twonkie
that replaces the six layer PCB with a much more reasonable four layer version that can be manufactured cheaply by OSHPark, and swaps out the BGA components with QFP alternatives you can hand solder.
That said, it’s still likely to be a challenging build for the home gamer. There’s quite a few 0402 passives on there, and while those are doable with an iron,
it can certainly be tricky
. To take some pressure off, [dojoe] says he tried to optimize the board layout as much as possible for hand assembly. He was even able to avoid needing hot air by straddling the PCB with USB-C mounts intended for vertical applications.
Given the current chip shortage
, [dojoe] says the biggest problem might actually getting your hands on the STM32F072CB microcontroller at the Twonkie’s core. To that end, the board supports TQFP44 and QFN44 footprints, and you can even use a STM32F072C8 at the cost of some functionality. With a bit of luck, hopefully you can find a chip that will work in the parts bin. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324572",
"author": "neo",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T19:22:46",
"content": "Would be cool if you could replace the micro usb with the same usb-c plug. This would reduce the amount of different components on the bom",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,373,179.113432 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/it-aint-broke-but-should-i-fix-it/ | It Ain’t Broke, But Should I Fix It? | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"maintenance",
"micropython",
"mqtt",
"newsletter",
"NodeMCU"
] | Five years ago, I wrote a
series on getting started with your own MQTT-based home information/automation network
. Five years is a long while in Hackaday time. Back then, the ESP8266 was a lot newer, and the 8266 Arduino port wasn’t fully in shape yet, and the easiest software framework to get MQTT up and running was NodeMCU; so that’s what I used for the article series, and as a consequence a handful of devices around my house run minor modifications of that basic “hello world”, but doing useful stuff.
Since then, NodeMCU has changed a bunch of its libraries and the ESP32 has replaced the ESP8266 in my parts drawer. If you tried to run my code, you’d find that it won’t run on an ESP8266 without porting or compiling an old version of NodeMCU for yourself anyway, and it won’t run on an ESP32 at all. When [Chris Lott] tried to follow my guide,
he discovered that Micropython is probably a better language choice in 2021
. To minimize lines of code, I’d agree, although the Arduino and Espressif’s own native IDF have grown into the job just about as well. In short, anything but NodeMCU.
Built in an hour, survived for five years.
But my home automation system doesn’t care. Those little guys are running 24/7, flipping bits like it was still 2016. Thermometers, light sensors, and power meters haven’t changed much in five years, and although I’ve revamped the databasing, display, and user control a number of times since then, using a fixed communication transport protocol means that they’re still talking the same language. Indeed, even if NodeMCU is dead to me, the MQTT content of my original series is all still valid, and installing a broker on a Raspberry Pi has only become easier in the intervening five years.
So I’ve got a bunch of legacy code running within the walls of my own home, and it makes me nervous. If the devices fail, or maybe
when
they eventually fail, it’s not going to be “just flash another ESP8266 and replace it”, because even though I have some ancient NodeMCU binaries sitting around, I know when to throw in the towel. But there’s no good reason to pull them down and start reflashing either. Except that it makes me a little bit itchy, just knowing that there’s orphaned, dead-end code running all around me. Surrounding me. Staring deep into my hacker’s heart.
I know better than to tear down a running system, even though I could do it one device at a time, and each module would surely be a simple, independent fix; even though I’d love the excuse to play around with Micropython and its MQTT implementation on the ESP8266, or maybe even swap some of them out for ESP32s; even though these were all temporary quick hacks that have somehow served for five (5!) years. I certainly know better, right? (Right?)
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
! | 76 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324517",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T15:07:34",
"content": "Go on, rip em out and replace them! It will provide at least 5 articles, so it’s a business expenses, right?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324518"... | 1,760,373,178.960642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/stochastic-markov-beats/ | Stochastic Markov Beats | Matthew Carlson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"beats",
"Markov chain",
"midi",
"midi sequencer",
"music"
] | [Attoparsec] has been building intriguing musical projects on his YouTube channel for a while and his latest is no exception. Dubbed simply as “Node Module”, it is a
rack-mounted hardware-based Markov chain beat sequencer
. Traditionally
Markov chains
are software state machines that transition between states with given probabilities, often learned from a training corpus. That same principle has been applied to hardware beat sequencing.
Each Node Module has a trigger input, four outputs each with a potentiometer, and a trigger out. [Attoparsec] has a wonderful explanation of all the different parts and theories that make up the module at the start of his video, but the basic operation is that a trigger input comes in and the potentiometers are read to determine the probabilities of each output. One is randomly selected and fired. As you can imagine, there are loops and even dead-end nodes and for some musical pieces there is a certain number of beats expected, so a clever reset signal can be sent to pull the chain back to the initial starting state at a regular interval. The results are interesting to listen to and even better to imagine all the possibilities.
The module itself is an Arduino-based custom PCB that is laid out quite cleanly. The BOM, code, and KiCad files
are available on GitHub
if you want to make one yourself. This isn’t
the first instrument we’ve seen [Attoparsec] make
, and we’re confident it won’t be the last.
Thanks [smellsofbikes] for sending this one in! | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324499",
"author": "lukilukeskywalker",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T13:37:57",
"content": "Really an interesting Idea. And awesome board, even if the crystal is so far away from the micro-controller. It shows what dedication can create",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,373,178.846318 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/20/launching-an-open-source-keyboard-system76-has-published-their-design-files/ | Launching An Open Source Keyboard; System76 Has Published Their Design Files | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"cherry mx",
"hot swap sockets",
"keyboard",
"open source ethics",
"pop!_os",
"QMK",
"system76"
] | System76, a computer manufacturer known for selling machines which run Linux, recently unveiled the complete sources for their
forthcoming Launch mechanical keyboard
. Made with familiar tools, mass produced, and backed by a stable company it looks like the Launch will be a compelling entrant into the world of mechanical keyboards.
Back in March of 2020 System76
published a blog post
about a new project they were embarking on; a mechanical keyboard with an unusual layout. At the time there was scant information available besides a summer 2021 target and little was heard until last week when they opened up access to the Launch repository. Everything should be recognizable if you’ve ever looked at the sources for a customized mechanical keyboard before, which is what gets our attention. Electrical sources are authored with KiCad and should be easy to tweak or fabricate. And mechanical components are provided in STEP files with mechanical drawings, presumably because they intend to actually manufacture these.
Feature wise all the usual hallmarks of a well designed keyboard are here. The Launch uses hostswap sockets to make it easy to install the usual Cherry MX compatible switch options, and includes per-key RGB backlighting courtesy of SK6805 LEDs. The ATmega32U4 runs the popular and extremely capable QMK firmware instead of something bespoke, so it should be easy to customize to the user’s desire.
System76 touts an unusual
key layout
, but if you’ve seen a 75% keyboard before it shouldn’t be too threatening (though we do wonder about that shrunken right shift). The most unusual feature is that it features a USB hub capable of full speed 10 gigabit USB 3.1 Gen 2 on two USB-C and two USB-A ports. It’s worth checking out the schematic to appreciate how much more complicated the hub design is than the rest of the keyboard, which is practically vestigial in comparison.
The remaining unknown is how the Launch integrates with Pop!_OS, System76’s awkwardly named remix of Ubuntu. They promise deep, compelling integration and we’re excited to see how that manifests. | 46 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324486",
"author": "Stappers",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T11:05:50",
"content": "What a great opportunity to pitchhttps://github.com/wez/flutterby-rsThat project is about keyboard firmware written in Rust, yes indeed also for an ATmega32U4.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,179.301192 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/writing-pretty-flux-patterns-to-old-floppy-disks/ | Writing Pretty Flux Patterns To Old Floppy Disks | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"applesauce",
"archival",
"picture disk"
] | Floppy disks are rapidly aging, and archivists are working hard to preserve what data is left. This has led to the development of advanced floppy controllers capable of capturing the raw flux data from disks. [bzotto] was experimenting with the Applesauce archival hardware,
and had some fun with the tools
.
The result is a highly esoteric Easter egg. [bzotto]’s Picturedsk tool takes a bitmap image as input, and imprints that image into the magnetic flux of the disk. Thus, when viewing a dump of the disk’s magnetic flux on an archival program, the hidden image will be revealed. As an extra treat, it also writes a 1-bit version of the image to track 0, along with a barebones Apple ][ program to display the image and implore the user to investigate further.
It’s a fun hack that we could imagine being used as part of a game at a retro computing con, when we get to go back to those of course.
We’ve seen Applesauce used before, too.
If you’ve got your own archival projects on the go,
be sure to let us know! | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324456",
"author": "rnjacobs",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T06:10:42",
"content": "I like this magnetic analog of a DiscT@2.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6324469",
"author": "None",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T07:31:19",
... | 1,760,373,179.343598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/3d-print-your-next-antenna/ | 3D Print Your Next Antenna | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"antenna",
"QFH",
"QFH antenna",
"quadrifilar helical antenna",
"satellite antenna"
] | Building antennas is a time-honored ham radio tradition. Shortwave antennas tend to be bulky but at VHF frequencies the antenna sizes are pretty manageable. [Fjkaan’s] 2 meter quadrifilar helicoidal antenna is a good example and the
structure for it can be created with 3D printing
combined with electrical conduit.
Many people, including [G4ILO] use
PVC pipe for the structure
, and that design inspired [Fjkaan]. Despite being a bit less substantial, the conduit seems to work well and it is easy to cut. The helical design is common for satellite work owing to its circular polarization and omnidirectional pattern.
A quadrifilar helicoidal antenna is really two antennas in one, with a phase difference of 90 degrees between the two. There are several ways this can be accomplished, but in practice, most of these antennas use different loop sizes for the two antennas. One loop will be a bit larger than the frequency of interest, and thus will be inductive. The other loop will be a little smaller, and therefore will exhibit capacitive reactance at the center frequency.
Even though the antennas are both reactive, in parallel, the reactances cancel leaving a nice resistive load to match the radio. The feed at the top, however, needs to balance through some form of balun or choke.
We’ve seen these antennas
do great things
before. If you need a
satellite receiving primer
, we saw a good one last year. | 40 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324431",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T03:10:30",
"content": "“Even though the antennas are both reactive, in parallel, the reactances cancel leaving a nice resistive load to match the radio”But don’t you need to use a base plate of pre-famulated amulite surmo... | 1,760,373,179.422357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/homebrew-doorknob-caps-for-high-voltage-fun/ | Homebrew Doorknob Caps For High-Voltage Fun | Dan Maloney | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"axial",
"capacitor",
"ceramic",
"doorknob",
"epoxy",
"high voltage",
"laser",
"potting",
"radial",
"tea"
] | Mouser and Digi-Key are great for servicing most needs, and the range of parts they offer is frankly bewildering. But given the breadth of the hardware hacking community’s interests, few companies could afford to be the answer to everyone’s needs.
That’s especially true for the esoteric parts needed when one’s hobby involves high voltages and homemade lasers, like [Les Wright]. He recently came up with
a DIY doorknob capacitor design
that makes the hard-to-source high-voltage caps much easier to obtain. We’ve seen [Les] use these caps in his
transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) lasers
, a simple design that uses high-voltage discharge across a long, narrow channel filled with either room air or nitrogen. The big ceramic caps are needed for the HV supply, and while [Les] has a bunch, they’re hard to come by online. He tried
a follow-up using plain radial-lead ceramic capacitors
, and while the laser worked, he did get some flashover between the capacitor leads.
[Les]’s solution was to dunk the chunky caps in acetone for a week or so to remove their epoxy covering. Once denuded, the leads were bent into a more axial configuration and soldered to brass machine screws. The dielectric slug is then put in a small section of plastic tubing and potted in epoxy resin with the bolts protruding from each end. The result is hard to distinguish from a genuine doorknob cap; the video below shows the build process as well as some testing.
Hats off to [Les] for taking pity on those of us who want to replicate his work but find ourselves without these essentials. It’s nice to know there’s a way to make unobtanium parts when you need them. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324414",
"author": "LightningPhil",
"timestamp": "2021-02-20T00:56:35",
"content": "Very neat. Only taken caps apart by massively and suddenly over volting them. Not generally useful afterwards :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,373,179.470061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/12-note-polyphony-on-an-arduino-synth/ | 12-Note Polyphony On An Arduino Synth | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"Arduino Uno",
"atmega328"
] | When synthesizers first hit the scene back in the mid-20th century, many were monophonic instruments, capable of producing just one pitch at a time. This was a major limitation, and over time polyphonic synthesizers began to flood into the scene, greatly expanding performance possibilities. [Kevin] decided to build his own polyphonic synthesizer,
but far from taking the easy route, he built it around the Arduino Uno – not a platform particularly well known for its musical abilities!
[Kevin]’s build manages 12-note polyphony, an impressive feat for the ATmega328 at the heart of the Arduino Uno. It’s done by running an interrupt on a timer at a steady rate, and implementing 12 counters, one per note. When a counter overflows, a digital IO pin is flipped. This outputs a square wave at a certain pitch on the IO pin, producing the given note. The outputs of 12 digital IO pins are mixed together with a simple resistor arrangement, producing a basic square wave synth. Tuning isn’t perfect, but [Kevin] notes a few ways it could be improved down the line.
[Kevin] has added features along the way, expanding the simple synth
to work over several octaves via MIDI
,
while also building a small tactile button keyboard, too.
It’s a project that serves as a great gateway into basic synthesis and music electronics, and we’re sure [Kevin] learned a lot along the way. We’ve seen other microcontroller synths before too,
like this tiny device that fits inside a MIDI plug
. Video after the break. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324401",
"author": "Taper Wickel",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T23:48:19",
"content": "Very clever! If I’m remembering right, this is the sort of deal you used to be able to get as a dedicated chip for electronic organs, called a “top octave generator” — you’d then use flipflops or bi... | 1,760,373,179.517249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/plotter-uses-dual-disks/ | Plotter Uses Dual Disks | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"polar"
] | If you want to move a pen (or a CNC tool, or a 3D printing hot end) in the X and Y plane, your choices are typically pretty simple. Many machines use a simple cartesian XY motion using two motors and some sort of linear drive. There’s also the core-XY arrangement where two motors move belts that cause the head to travel in two directions. Delta printers use yet another arrangement, but one of the stranger methods we’ve seen is the
dual disk polar printer
which — as its name implies — uses two rotating disks.
The unique mechanism uses one motor to rotate a disk and another motor to rotate the entire assembly. The print head — in this case a pencil — stays stationary. as you can see in the video below.
We enjoyed [heinz’s] write up and that he cited his influences. There’s the
Theta printer
. There was also a proposal on the
RepRap forum back in 2006
. But this plotter is his.
We’ve often thought of using a rotary Z axis for 3D printing, although that would take some approximation math since each layer would really be a spiral depending on where you were in the rotation. However, that doesn’t help you if you wanted to make a plotter or other flat machine like a laser engraver. This setup would work for those cases, but we aren’t sure if there is any real benefit compared to existing schemes. Except that it looks cool in motion.
If you want to learn more about core-XY, we’ve got some
reading for you
. The Theta printer was part of one of our contests, so you can
read more about it
, too. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324377",
"author": "blitzkraft",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T21:25:46",
"content": "Isn’t that a variation on the scara mechanism? Here the table/bench is moving, instead of the arm?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324467",
... | 1,760,373,179.569611 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/practical-sensors-the-many-ways-we-measure-heat-electronically/ | Practical Sensors: The Many Ways We Measure Heat Electronically | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [
"RTD",
"sensors",
"thermistor",
"thermocouple",
"thermopile",
"thermostat"
] | Measuring temperature turns out to be a fundamental function for a huge number of devices. You furnace’s programmable thermostat and digital clocks are obvious examples. If you just needed to know if a certain temperature is exceeded, you could use a bimetalic coil and a microswitch (or a mercury switch as was the method with old thermostats). But these days we want precision over a range of readings, so there are thermocouples that generate a small voltage, RTDs that change resistance with temperature, thermistors that also change resistance with temperature, infrared sensors, and vibrating wire sensors. The bandgap voltage of a semiconductor junction varies with temperature and that’s predictable and measurable, too. There are probably other methods too, some of which are probably pretty creative.
Bimetalic coil by [Hustvede],
CC-BY-SA 3.0
.
You can often think of creative ways to do any measurement. There’s an old joke about the smart-alec student in physics class. The question was how do you find the height of a building using a barometer. One answer was to drop the barometer from the top of the building and time how long it takes to hit the ground. Another answer — doubtlessly an engineering student — wanted to find the building engineer and offer to give them the barometer in exchange for the height of the building. By the same token, you could find the temperature by monitoring a standard thermometer with a camera or even a level sensor which is a topic for another post.
The point is, there are plenty of ways to measure anything, but in every case, you are converting what you want to know (temperature) into something you know how to measure like voltage, current, or physical position. Let’s take a look at how some of the most interesting temperature sensors accomplish this.
Thermocouples
Thermocouples take advantage of something called the Seebeck effect. When two dissimilar metals form a junction and experience a temperature gradient, an electric potential forms. The key is that it is a gradient in temperature that makes the device work. Thermocouples have a hot junction and a cold junction. If you want to measure temperature, you need a reference junction. As an aside, the effect works in reverse — the Peltier effect — where passing current through a pair of junctions makes one side hot and the other one cold.
In the old days, you’d plunge the cold junction into a bucket of ice. Today, it is more likely that you’ll use another method to get the temperature of the cold junction and then compensate. There are chips that will do that for you, of course.
Thermocouple by [Achim Hering] –
CC-BY-SA-3.0
.
Why not just use the other method to start with? Thermocouples have several advantages. For one thing, you can measure up to a few thousand degrees with one. Since they are just two pieces of wire, they are robust and reliable. In hot or harsh environments, they are easy to manage and, usually, at the cold end you have a little nicer environment.
The downside is that the temperature reading is not linear. You’ll see different types of thermocouples and each type uses two different wire materials. The type tells you what calibration curve to use and, of course, you select the metal for the application you need. For example, a type J uses iron as one of the two wires and a type T uses copper.
The only other big consideration is how you run wires to the thermocouple. Since the device operates on a junction between two different types of wires, you have to be careful how you connect other wires to the device. Want to know more?
[Bil Herd] did a deep dive into how to build a thermocouple amplifier
.
Thermocouples that measure infrared from a distance are known as thermopiles. These are common in non-contact thermometers and passive IR (PIR) sensors. A PIR sensor detects the difference in temperature between two sensors and infers that something has changed in the field of view.
Resistance Devices
There are several different types of material that can exhibit temperature changes with resistance. The biggest factor is if the device has a positive or negative temperature coefficient. In other words, does the resistance go up or down in response to a change in temperature?
Thermistor (on left); by [gratuit],
CC-BY-SA-3.0
Most of these devices are also non-linear, but they are also inexpensive and easy to use. You can measure the resistance using any method you like. A common technique is to use the resistor as part of a voltage divider or bridge and measure the output voltage. However, if you’d rather not tie up an analog input, you can connect the resistor to a capacitor and measure the time it takes to charge.
Thermistors are slightly different in construction from resistance temperature detectors, or RTDs. Usually, thermistors have less hysteresis and self-heating problems than the metal-based (often platinum) RTDs. However, in either case, you’ll have to measure resistance and fit it to a curve to get the real temperature.
Reading thermistors is a very common operation and
there are a lot of tricks
people have developed over the years. You can also spend math processing to get better curve fits, or do simple math and get less accuracy.
Semiconductor Junctions and Accidental Sensors
The bandgap voltage of semiconductor material varies predictably with temperature. If you ever get deep into solid state design, you’ll see the T term in the diode equation and all its manifestations. It is no surprise, then, that a lot of ICs use this property for sensing temperature.
Some chips are made to be temperature sensors. For example, the common
LM34
and LM35 chips exploit this property with some additional circuits to provide a nice 10mV per degree (the LM34 measures Farhenheit and the LM35 measures Celcius). That makes them very easy to use.
Some chips, like the CPU in your PC, use the same method to measure internal temperature for reporting and thermal management. However, there are other ways non-temperature sensor ICs can measure temperature.
It turns out, almost all of our circuits are sensitive to temperature in some way. Measuring the internal clock of a CPU against an external reference can show temperature-induced changes.
Oddball Sensors
There are a multitude of other ways to measure temperature. For example, a vibrating wire sensor uses what amounts to a guitar string. The measurement involves exciting the string and detecting the frequency of vibration. As the supporting structure shrinks and expands with temperature changes, the tone of the string changes.
You can get an approximate temperature in degrees Fahrenheit by counting the
number of chirps crickets make
. Count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone’s done that in some obscure instrument. [Kevin] in Terre Haute says the number is 40 in the video below, and not 37, but I guess it isn’t an exact science.
Of course, an increasingly common way to measure temperature is to use some form of smart sensor. A module or IC can use any of the methods we’ve talked about, convert it to engineering units, and send the data over something like an I2C bus. This is a level abstraction, but you still ought to understand the underlying benefits and limitations involved with the sensor you want to use.
While there may be more, there aren’t any other common techniques for measuring temperature. But there are still lots of sensors left to talk about in future articles.
Featured image:
Wood thermometer on white background
by
Marco Verch
under
Creative Commons 2.0 | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324317",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T18:26:48",
"content": "i made a light to permanently mount on my bike, and i wanted to put a simple charge-state sensor using just a few transistors. i’m pretty novice at this so i was very proud of the 2-transistor circuit i d... | 1,760,373,179.801313 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/hackaday-podcast-106-connector-kerfuffle-tuning-fork-time-spinach-contact-prints-and-teslas-permanent-memory/ | Hackaday Podcast 106: Connector Kerfuffle, Tuning Fork Time, Spinach Contact Prints, And Tesla’s Permanent Memory | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys recount the coolest hacks from the past week. Most clocks keep time with a quartz crystal, but we discuss one that uses a tuning fork… like the kind you use to tune a piano. Ghidra is a powerful reverse engineering tool developed by the NSA that was recently put to good use changing an embedded thermometer display from Celsius to Fahrenheit. We talk turkey on the Texas power grid problems and Tesla’s eMMC failures. And of course there’s some room for nostalgia as we walk down memory lane with the BASIC programming language.
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 106 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Trouble With The Texas Power Grid As Cold Weather Boosts Demand, Knocks Out Generators
Texas’ natural gas production just froze under pressure – The Verge
No, frozen wind turbines aren’t to blame for Texas’ power outages
Anti-icing and De-icing Technologiesfor Wind Turbines
(PDF)
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Print-in-Place Connectors Aim To Make Wiring Easier
A Tubular Fairy Tale You Control With Your Phone
Tuning Fork Keeps This Throwback Digital Clock Ticking
Understanding The Quartz Crystal Resonator
Ghidra Used To Patch Fahrenheit Into An Air Quality Meter
Spinach Photo Prints
Can You Develop Film With Coffee And Vitamin C?
Truck Bed Liners Improve 3D Prints
3D Printering: Print Smoothing Tests With UV Resin
Food Safe Printing Techniques
Manned Electric Helicopter With 7 Tail Rotors
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Continuous Excitation Piano Machine Looks Nervous, Sounds Grand
Tiny Motors Enable Experimental Piano Performance
DRehmFlight: Customizable Flight Stabilisation For Your Weird Flying Contraptions
A Volume Control From A VCR Drum
Mike’s Picks:
PCB Mods Silence Voltage Warnings On The Pi 4
Bitbanged DVI On A Raspberry Pi RP2040 Microcontroller
VGA Without The Hassle, From Your PlayStation One
Can’t-Miss Articles:
BASIC: Cross-Platform Software Hacking Then And Now
BASIC Interpreter Hidden In ESP32 Silicon
TinyBASIC
Tesla Recalls Cars With EMMC Failures, Calls Part A ‘Wear Item’ | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324364",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T20:45:06",
"content": "Phase differences in large area synchronous AC grids determine the direction of the power flow, and in order to produce a phase difference one area must run higher or lower in frequency for some time to buil... | 1,760,373,179.619238 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/laser-galvos-and-an-esp32-recreate-old-school-asteroids/ | Laser Galvos And An ESP32 Recreate Old-School Asteroids | Dan Maloney | [
"Games"
] | [
"Asteroids",
"ESP32",
"galvanometer",
"galvo",
"raster",
"retro",
"state machine",
"vector",
"video game"
] | Playing
Asteroids
now isn’t quite what it used to be when it came out 40 years ago. At the time, the vector-scan display was part of the charm; making do with an emulator running on a traditional raster display just doesn’t quite do it for purists. But if you manage to build your own
laser-projector version of the game
like [Chris G] did, you’re getting close to capturing some of the original magic of the game.
There’s a lot to unpack about this project, and the video below does a good job explaining it. Where the original game used a beam of electrons flashing inside a CRT to trace out each object in the game, [Chris] substituted an off-the-shelf two-axis galvanometer from eBay and a 5-mW laser LED. This can project a gamefield on a wall up to two meters on a side, far bigger than any version of the machine ever built. The galvos are driven by op-amp drivers and an SPI DAC on a custom PCB. And in comparison to the discrete logic chips and 6502 running the original game, [Chris] opted for an ESP32.
As interesting as the hardware for this is, the real story is in the software. [Chris] does an excellent job running through his design, making the bulk of the video feel like a master class in game programming. His software is from scratch — no emulations here. As such it doesn’t perfectly reproduce the original games — no flying saucers and no spaceship explosion animations (yet) — but when coupled with the laser vector display, it certainly captures the feel of the original.
Being devoted
Asteroids
fans from back in the day, this one really pushes our buttons. We’ve seen
laser-based recreations of the game
before, but this one makes us think we can finally afford to recapture the glory of our misspent youth. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324000",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T21:07:25",
"content": "Awesome! Love it. Needs sound effects – pew-pew",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324015",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2021-02-... | 1,760,373,179.72845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/dynamic-macro-keyboard-controls-all-the-things/ | Dynamic Macro Keyboard Controls All The Things | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino pro micro",
"cherry mx",
"e-ink",
"macro keyboard",
"waveshare"
] | Keyboard shortcuts are great. Even so, a person can only be expected to remember so many shortcuts and hit them accurately while giving a presentation over Zoom. [Sebastian] needed a good set of of shortcuts for OBS and decided to make a macro keyboard to help out.
By the time he was finished, [Sebastian] had macro’d all the things and built a beautiful and smart peripheral
that anyone with a pulse would likely love to have gracing their desk.
The design started with OBS, but this slick little keyboard turned into a system-wide assistant. It assigns the eight keys dynamically based on the program that has focus, and even updates the icon to show changes like the microphone status.
This is done with a Python script on the PC that monitors the running programs and updates the macro keeb accordingly using a serial protocol that [Sebastian] wrote. Thanks to the flexibility of this design, [Sebastian] can even use it to control the office light over MQTT and make the CO2 monitor send a color-coded warning to the jog wheel when there’s trouble in the air.
This project is wide open with fabulous documentation, and [Sebastian] is eager to see what improvements and alternative enclosure materials people come up with. Be sure to check out the walk-through/build video after the break.
Inspired to make your own, but want to start smaller?
There are plenty to admire around here
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324063",
"author": "George",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T00:21:15",
"content": "Which software did you use to create the assembly animation?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324119",
"author": "Sebastian",
"times... | 1,760,373,179.674132 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/a-brief-history-of-optical-communication/ | A Brief History Of Optical Communication | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"fiber optic",
"laser communication",
"LiFi",
"optical communication",
"satellite internet"
] | We live in the information age where access to the internet is considered a fundamental human right. Exercising this right does largely rely on the technological advances made in optical communication. Using light to send information has a long history: from ancient Greece, through Claude Chappe’s semaphore towers and Alexander Graham Bell’s photophone, to fiber optic networks and future satellite internet constellations currently developed by tech giants.
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into the technologies that were used to spread information with the help of light throughout history.
Semaphores and Heliographs
Reconstruction of a hydraulic telegraph at Thessaloniki Technology Museum. Credit:
Gts-tg
, CC BY-SA 4.0
Since light can travel in air much further than sound, visual communication has always been the method of choice to broadcast information over long distances. One of the earliest examples is the Phryctoriae from ancient Greece, a system of towers built on mountaintops that could send messages by lighting torches. Allegedly, this is how the news of the fall of Troy was spread throughout the country. The Greeks came up with different methods of encoding messages. One was to have two groups of five torches where each torch would represent the row and column in a 5×5 matrix of Greek letters known as the
Polybius square.
The other is the
hydraulic telegraph
which consisted of a container filled with water and a vertical rod floating within. The rod was inscribed with various messages along its height. When the remote torch signal was received, water from the container was slowly drained until the torch went out again. Through the position of the inscribed rod, the water level could be correlated with a specific message.
Semaphore towers and coding scheme devised by Claude Chappe. Credit:
Govind P. Agrawal
, Public Domain
In the late 18th century the Chappe brothers devised and erected a network of semaphore towers in France for military communication. On the top of each tower was a semaphore comprised of two movable wooden arms connected by a crossbar. By adjusting the angle of each arm and the crossbar a total of 196 symbols could be displayed which were observed from the next tower with a telescope. By waiting for the downline station to copy the symbol, the communications protocol already included an
ACK signal
as a means of flow control. In terms of data rate, the system could reach about 2-3 symbols per minute; taking about two minutes for a symbol to travel from Paris to Lille over 22 stations and 230 km.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, the heliograph was widely used for military communication. It consisted of a mirror that could be pivoted or blocked with a shutter to generate flashes of sunlight and was mostly used to transmit Morse code. Even though the heliograph was rendered obsolete by most armies in the 1940s it was still used by Afghan forces during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s and is still included in many survival kits for emergency signaling.
Bell’s Greatest Invention
Illustration of the transmitter part of the photophone. Credit:
Wikimedia Commons
, Public Domain.
Many of you probably know the kind of DIY projects where an
audio signal is transmitted by a laser beam
which is surprisingly easy to build. The invention goes back to Alexander Graham Bell, who in 1880 invented the photophone which he thought to be his “greatest invention ever made, greater than the telephone”. It could transmit speech wirelessly using a flexible mirror mounted at the end of a speaking tube to modulate the intensity of the reflected sunlight. The receiver part consisted of a selenium photocell at the focus of a parabolic mirror. Bell and his assistant Tainter also build nonelectric receivers using materials coated with lampblack thereby discovering the
photoacoustic effect
. Even though Bell was immensely proud of his invention up to the point where he wanted to name his second daughter “photophone”, the device never really hit it off. This was mainly because radio wave transmissions as pioneered by Marconi a few years later far surpassed the distance achievable with light and did not require a direct line of sight.
Guiding Light Through Glass
Increase of the bandwidth-distance product throughout history. The squares mark the introduction of new technologies like wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) and space-division multiplexing (SDM). Credit:
Govind P. Agrawal
Apart from a few military projects, telecommunication in the 20th century was mainly conducted via coaxial cables and microwave signals in the relatively low frequency 1-10 GHz range. This was until the development of fiber-optic communications in the 1970s, which was enabled by the invention of low-loss optical fibers and semiconductor lasers.
The main drawback of high-speed communication via coaxial cables is that signals have to be repeated about every kilometer to make up for cable losses. With wireless radio frequency (RF) communication, the repeater spacing can be a lot larger, but in both cases, the bandwidth is limited to ~100 Mbit/s due to the “low” frequency of the RF carrier.
The frequency of visible and infrared light is about 10
14
Hz, much higher than the 10
9
Hz “Gigahertz” frequencies used for RF communication. As a consequence, the optical spectrum is about 2600 times wider, in terms of frequency, than the
entire
RF spectrum. This broader bandwidth enables much higher data rates.
One of the first applications of fiber optics included the control of short-range missiles through a fiber optic tether attached to the back of the missile that rapidly unspooled during flight. In 1977, General Telephone and Electronics sent the world’s first live telephone traffic through a fiber-optic system at 6 Mbit/s. Today, the worldwide optical fiber network is estimated to span more than 400 million kilometers, close to three times the distance to the sun.
Optical fiber communication soon far surpassed the transmission speeds of RF communication and was further boosted by multiplexing techniques like
wavelength-division multiplexing
(sending multiple wavelengths down the same fiber),
time-division multiplexing
(separating signals by their arrival times), or
space-division multiplexing
(using multi-core or multimode fibers). Using a combination of these techniques,
data rates of up to 11 Pbit/s have been demonstrated in the lab
. The low light losses of 0.2 dB/km (i.e. the intensity loses only around 5% after 1 km) in modern fiber cables enable repeater spacings of ~80 km.
Internet From Your Light Bulb
We still mostly use the RF spectrum for wireless communication, but there has been some renewed interest in wireless optical. At short distances, this goes under the catchy name LiFi and became a trendy topic about 10 years ago, partly triggered by
this TED talk
. It advertised the idea of using the already existing infrastructure of regular LED lighting for data transmission.
Some of the advantages being that it is more efficient, more secure against eavesdropping, and enables higher bandwidths. However, the idea of having your WiFi at home transmitted through your light bulbs never really became popular. Arguably one of the reasons might be that having a connection that depends on light shining onto your device is not always considered an advantage. Up to now, LiFi is only used in some industrial applications where electromagnetic interference or security are important issues. But lower bandwidth versions are prime areas for hacking.
Going Long Range
The optical transmission of data over long ranges goes under the name free-space optical communication (FSO). You may remember Facebook’s Aquila drone program, a giant solar-powered vehicle that should stay in the stratosphere for months to beam internet to remote areas. In addition to standard GHz frequency bands for air-to-ground communication, they were also experimenting with free-space optical links. The technology behind this is still similar to Bell`s photophone, although we now use IR lasers instead of sunlight. Shortly after Facebook canceled its Aquila drone program in 2018, it became public that they are
working on a similar system that uses satellites instead of drones
due to technical difficulties. In September 2020, Facebook’s subsidiary PointView Tech launched the
Athena satellite
which is supposed to test a laser ground link.
Google (or Alphabet if you prefer) is/was working on similar projects called
Loon
and
Taara
. Maya Posh just wrote
a more detailed article about Loon
. Its goal was to send a network of high-altitude balloons into the stratosphere providing internet access to underserved areas, but the project was shut down a few weeks ago. Within project Loon a 155 Mbit/s laser communication between two balloons more than 100 km apart was achieved. Project Taraa builds on this success and aims at developing towers that use free-space laser communication to deliver 20 Gbit/s connectivity over distances of 20 km. Compared to installing fiber optic cables, this would be a cost-effective and quickly deployable way to bring high-speed connectivity to remote areas.
Transmitter-receiver pair of the open-source project Ronja. Credit:
Twibright Labs
Similar systems are already commercially available by a company called
Koruza
delivering up to 10 Gbit/s, albeit over a modest range of 150 m. Of course,
hackers have also played around with the technology
. Way back in 2001, the open-source project
Ronja
provides instructions to build a low-cost transmitter-receiver pair capable of 10 Mbit/s communication over a 1.4 km range. As a transmitter it just uses a standard red LED collimated by large lenses salvaged from magnifying glasses. Ronja works in most weather conditions including rain and snow but fails during fog.
Artist rendering of inter-satellite link via laser communication. Credit:
Mynaric
This marks one of the major downsides of FSO. While requiring a direct line of sight makes communication more secure, it also imposes some restrictions. Cloudy weather can make satellite-to-ground communications break up, so microwave signals are considered more viable in this case. However, future internet satellite constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink, OneWeb, or Amazon’s Project Kuiper are likely to use laser communication as a secure, high bandwidth link in between satellites. At the forefront of developing this hardware are the German companies
Tesat
and
Mynaric
. Both companies offer laser systems with data rates of up to 10 Gbit/s between LEO satellites and ground stations. For inter-satellite linking Tesat’s laser systems can achieve 1.8 Gbit/s between geosynchronous satellites up to 80,000 km apart while Mynaric’s laser communication products carry 10 Gbit/s over distances up to 8,000 km.
The advancement of optical communication from the ancient Phryctoriae to modern laser communication was driven by the goal to expand humanity’s interconnectedness. Since the beginning, the communication data rate has increased by ~12 orders of magnitude and culminated in a space race to provide global broadband access via satellite networks. Bringing internet access to underserved areas is certainly a noble goal but we may also question the meaningfulness of enabling ever-higher bandwidths when it is mostly devoured by video streaming. Although there is no strict fundamental limit to the bitrate achievable with optical communication it also interesting to ask the question of what comes beyond, perhaps
neutrino communication
? | 44 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323941",
"author": "Bryant Underwood",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T18:27:26",
"content": "Don’t forget the work by one of our Hero’s; Forrect Mims. Great things done by Forest with optical and laser communications.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,179.989733 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/coding-a-dynamic-menu-for-character-lcds-on-arduino/ | Coding A Dynamic Menu For Character LCDs On Arduino | Lewin Day | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"code",
"code hacks",
"hd44780",
"menu",
"menu code"
] | These days, there’s a huge variety of screens on the market for use with microcontrollers. OLEDs and graphic LCDs abound, while e-ink devices tempt the user with their clean look and low energy consumption. However, for many purposes, the humble HD44780 character LCD does the job just fine. If you’re using such a device, you might want to implement a simple menu system, and in that case,
[MyHomeThings] has you covered.
The menu code is simple to modify and implement. It allows the user to define a certain number of menu items, along with button labels and functions to be executed with button presses. By default, it’s set up to work with left and right function buttons, with up and down buttons to toggle through the menu’s various entries. This suits the commonly available Arduino shields which combine a 16×2 character LCD with a set of four tactile buttons in a cross formation. However, modifying the code to use an alternate button scheme would be simple for those eager to tweak things to their liking.
For the absolute beginner to programming, it’s a great way to put together a simple interface for your microcontroller projects. It’s the sort of thing you might use if you’d built a do-everything Arduino handheld device,
as we’ve seen built before.
If you find text menus too archaic for your purposes, though, be sure to sound off with your favourite solutions in the comments. | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323918",
"author": "Kaiser",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T17:17:53",
"content": "Looks neat and like a very light weight alternative to “ArduinoMenu” (github) which I bookmarked to test next time I have a menu to navigate in a project.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,373,180.040703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/nasa-selects-spacex-to-launch-lunar-gateway/ | NASA Selects SpaceX To Launch Lunar Gateway | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"Artemis",
"commercial space",
"human spaceflight",
"lander",
"Lunar Gateway",
"moon",
"nasa",
"SpaceX"
] | While not a Cabinet position, the NASA Administrator is nominated by the president of the United States and tasked with enacting their overall space policy. As such, a new occupant in the White House has historically resulted in a different long-term directive for the agency. Some presidents have wanted bold programs of exploration, while others have directed NASA to follow a more reserved and economical path, with the largest shifts traditionally happening when the administration changes hands between the parties.
So it’s no surprise that the fate of Artemis, a bold program initiated by the previous administration that aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon, has been considered uncertain since the November election. But the recent announcement that
SpaceX has been awarded a $331.8 million contract to launch the first two modules of the lunar Gateway station
, an orbital outpost that will serve as a rallying point for astronauts coming and going to the Moon’s surface, should help quell some concerns. While the components still aren’t slated to fly until 2024 at the earliest, it’s a step in the right direction and strong indicator that the new administration plans on seeing Artemis through.
Two For the Price of One
The contracted launch is unique in that SpaceX is being tasked with launching two separate modules, the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) built by Maxar Technologies, and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) from Northrop Grumman, on the same rocket. These two core Gateway components, which essentially make up a miniature space station themselves, will be mated on the ground at Kennedy Space Center and tested for several months before being loaded onto a Falcon Heavy.
While the mass of these two modules is well within the capabilities of the Falcon Heavy, their combined length will require SpaceX to develop an extended payload fairing. They will also need to build a new mobile gantry at launchpad 39A that will allow for the modules to be attached to the rocket vertically, rather than horizontally as is the case with all current Falcon and Falcon Heavy launches. The new fairing and integration facility naturally represent a considerable investment by SpaceX, but long term, these changes will
enable the Falcon Heavy to carry large national security satellites for the Pentagon
and provide the company with a lucrative new revenue stream.
Originally the PPE and HALO modules would have flown on two separate rockets, possibly even by different launch providers, needing an autonomous docking maneuver after their rendezvous at the Moon. But to reduce costs and get the Gateway operational sooner, it was decided to send them both at the same time. This does introduce the possibility that a failure could result in the loss of both modules, but since their functionality is so intrinsically linked anyway, NASA believes it’s worth the risk to expedite the program.
Deep Space Legacy
As with many NASA projects, Gateway is the end result of a long and winding development process. The PPE is an evolution of the electric propulsion module intended for the agency’s now-canceled Asteroid Redirect Mission, and the idea of a small self-contained space station being sent to lunar orbit has its roots in the Deep Space Habitat concept that engineers have been working on since the retirement of the Shuttle refocused NASA’s long-term goals on activities outside of low Earth orbit.
Orion and cargo atop the EUS.
Back in 2017,
NASA was calling this concept the Deep Space Gateway
, and envisioned it as a stepping stone to distant destinations such as Mars. The three initial modules of the Deep Space Gateway would be launched into orbit around the Moon using the upgraded Block 1B variant of the Space Launch System. In this configuration, the booster would use the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) and have enough power to carry a station module and Orion crew capsule in one launch. At that point, commercial launches were only being considered for less critical components which would be added on later, such as an airlock or additional laboratory module.
But the EUS, much like the Space Launch System itself, is taking far longer to bring online than anyone at NASA anticipated. Despite being in development since 2014, the design only
made it through the final review stage a few months ago
, and actual flight hardware isn’t expected to be completed until at least 2025. This would put it beyond all the currently scheduled Artemis missions, though if everything goes according to plan, by that time both
Gateway and a potential outpost on the lunar surface
will be able to benefit from the enhanced cargo capabilities of the SLS.
Competition, or Lack Thereof
Launching large objects to the Moon and Mars is arguably why NASA is building their Space Launch System in the first place, and yet according to the current timeline, Gateway will be up and operational before the megarocket is capable of delivering any noteworthy amount of cargo. Much like the
recent announcement that NASA will fly the
Europa Clipper
on a commercial booster
, this is another example of the agency’s homegrown vehicle losing a high profile mission to a smaller and cheaper rocket.
Starship would land on the Moon independently.
At this point, one of the few clear uses for the Space Launch System and its EUS in the context of the Artemis program is for delivering large landers to the Moon. Whether they go directly into lunar orbit or rendezvous with the Gateway, two out of the three commercial Human Landing Systems selected by NASA are designed to be launched aboard an SLS Block 1B. Although as a contingency, their principle components can also be carried on smaller rockets and assembled in orbit.
But the third lander, proposed by SpaceX, is a variant of their Starship vehicle that can take off from Earth and land on the Moon under its own power. As a completely independent system, it doesn’t require the Gateway or SLS to complete its mission. On one hand, this is a clear advantage given how frequently NASA’s own plans miss their deadlines and slip further into the future. But there’s certainly an argument to be made against pinning so much of the Artemis program on a single contractor.
A long-term sustainable program for lunar exploration and utilization should include a fleet of boosters and spacecraft that are independently designed, manufactured, and operated. Yet as of right now, SpaceX is the sole company responsible for both launching Gateway and
sending regular resupply missions to it
. Whether it’s Old Space or New Space, there’s an inherent risk in relying so completely on any one entity. But unless something changes in the next few years, it looks like that’s exactly the situation NASA’s Artemis program could find itself in. | 37 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323886",
"author": "kc8rwr",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T16:03:25",
"content": "I’m glad they still plan to launch it at all. I just hope they actually use it and it doesn’t become another Skylab.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,180.248167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/custom-3d-printed-vitamins-are-just-a-few-clicks-away/ | Custom 3D Printed Vitamins Are Just A Few Clicks Away | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"3d printing",
"food printer",
"paste extruder"
] | It’s recently come to our attention that a company by the name of Nourished has carved out a niche for themselves by offering
made-to-order gummy vitamins produced with their own custom designed 3D printers
. Customers can either select from an array of pre-configured “stacks”, or dial in their own seven layers of gelatinous goodness for a completely bespoke supplement.
Now we can’t vouch for whether or not taking a custom supplement like this is any better than just popping a traditional multi-vitamin, but we’ll admit the hardware Nourished has developed is pretty interesting. As briefly seen in the video after the break, large syringes are filled with the seven different vitamin suspensions, and then loaded into what appears to be a heated chamber for extrusion. This is not unlike other food-grade 3D printers we’ve seen,
such as the Cocoa Press
.
It looks like all of the syringes are being depressed simultaneously with a plate and a pair of beefy lead screws, so it seems the order in which the layers are placed down must be different for each nozzle.
A blog post on the company’s site from early last year
shows a wildly different machine being used to produce the vitamins, so either their core technology is changing rapidly, or perhaps the printer being used depends on whether they’re running off the customized stacks versus the standard formulations.
Interestingly, this is very similar to
a concept floated by the U.S. Army’s Combat Feeding Directorate (CFD) back in 2014
. They reasoned that a 3D printer could be used to produce meal bars that were customized for each soldier’s personal nutritional needs. Being largely impractical for the battlefield, the program didn’t get very far. But thanks to consumers who are willing to pay the premium that Nourished is charging for this service, it seems the idea has turned into a lucrative business model. | 39 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323804",
"author": "yetihehe",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T12:28:51",
"content": "If they just do stacks, maybe making sheets of supplement, cutting and stacking them will be faster/cheaper? 3d printing is good if you need custom shapes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,373,180.517877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/internet-of-clams/ | Internet Of Clams | Chris Lott | [
"News"
] | [
"biosensors",
"clams",
"Fat Kathy",
"mussels",
"water pollution"
] | Sensors aren’t just limited to the electrical, mechanical, or chemical realm. Up until 1986,
canaries were used
as Carbon Monoxide detectors, and food tasters are still used by some heads of state. These so-called
sentinel species
have been known and used for decades if not centuries. But recent projects using clams to detect water pollution are providing real-time electronic feedback. They are using the species
Actinonaias ligamentina
, which, as you no doubt recall, was declared “Mussel of the Month” by the University of Wisconsin’s MUSSEL Project back in January 2010. They are more commonly known as mucket clams or mucket mussels, and are particularly sensitive to water pollution — they will clam-up, so to speak, in the presence of contaminated water.
Clam Sensor Wiring Mississippi River Project
Several municipalities along the Mississippi River installed
clam-based sensors
back in 2015, and another system was installed in the Anacostia River Estuary in 2011. Polish director Julia Pekla
produced a documentary
about the clam-based sensors installed at the Dębiec Water Treatment Plant on the Wisła River near Warsaw which has been in operation since 1994. Her documentary is titled “Gruba Kaśka (Fat Kathy)” and
won the In Vivo Award
at the 2020 Imagine Science Film’s 13th annual film festival (see trailer below).
As shown in the lead photo, a simple electrical contact is mounted on each clam, which closes a circuit with the base contact when the shell is clamped shut. The systems along the Mississippi River use multiple clams, 11 in Minneapolis Minnesota and 16 in Moline Illinois. The system in Poland uses eight clams — when four or more clams are in agreement the system automatically shuts down and alerts the operators. These clams only work for three months, after which they are put into retirement with a mark so they won’t be required to serve again.
We’ve written about a
clam-shaped underwater sensor
before, and also reported on the potential of using
clams as batteries
. This biological sensing technique came to our attention via [
Embedded FM podcast #357
]. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323773",
"author": "behle",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T09:16:02",
"content": "This would have made a great example for the yesterday hack chat.Clam conditioned water quality sensor :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6323828",
... | 1,760,373,180.098902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/custom-inlaid-retro-keycaps-clay-is-the-way/ | Custom Inlaid Retro Keycaps: Clay Is The Way | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed keycaps",
"clay",
"keycap",
"keycaps",
"sla printing"
] | They say experience is the best teacher, and experience tells us they are right. When [Thomas Thiel] couldn’t find any resources about re-creating the groovy ‘caps of thocky old keebs like the Space Cadet and the C64 (or find any to buy),
it was time for a little keycap experimentation
.
These babies are printed in black resin and the inlay is made with white air-dry clay. After printing, they are sprayed with acrylic, and then [Thomas] works a generous amount of clay into the grooves and seals the whole thing with clear spray. [Thomas] soon figured out that the grooves had to be pretty deep for this to work right — at least 1 mm. And he had better luck thick fonts like Arial Black instead of thin fonts.
Of course, as [Thomas] mentions, you’re not restricted to white or even air-dry clay. You could go nuts with colored clay and make a retro-RGB clackable rainbow.
Still not tactile or custom enough for you?
These hand-stitched keycaps are technically re-legendable
, though it would take a considerable amount of time. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324278",
"author": "Shannon",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T16:22:21",
"content": "I think we can get into Thomas’s phone with these keycaps.They are very nice though, I haven’t really considered printing my own keycaps, I worry they’d turn out unbearably rough.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,373,180.174272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/this-week-in-security-isns-patch-tuesday-and-clubhouse/ | This Week In Security: ISNs, Patch Tuesday, And Clubhouse | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"Clubhouse",
"NUMBERJACK",
"telegram",
"This Week in Security"
] | Let’s talk TCP. Specifically, how do the different TCP connections stay distinct, and how is a third party kept from interrupting a connection? One of the mechanisms that help accomplish this feat is the TCP sequence number. Each of the two endpoints of a TCP connection tracks an incrementing 32-bit number, corresponding to the bytes sent in the connection. It’s handy, because each side can use that value to track what parts of the data stream they have received. On missing packets, a message can be sent requesting bytes 7-15 to be resent, for instance.
Each side of the connection sets their own Initial Sequence Number (ISN), and it’s important that this number is unique, as collisions can cause stream confusion. That statement should make your security spidey sense tingle. If a collision can cause problems when it happens by chance, what can a hacker do with it intentionally? Potentially quite a bit. Knowing the current sequence number, as well as a couple other pieces of information, a third party can close a TCP stream or even inject data. The attack has been around for years, originally known as the
Mitnick Attack
. It was originally possible because TCP implementations used a simple counter to set the ISN. Once the security ramifications of this approach were understood, the major implementations moved to a random number generation for their ISNs.
Now to this week’s story:
researchers at Forescout took the time to check 11 TCP/IP stacks
for vulnerability to the old Mitnick Attack (
PDF Whitepaper
). Of the eleven embedded stacks texted, nine have serious weaknesses in their ISN generation. Most of the vulnerable implementations use a system time value as their ISN, while several use a predictable pseudorandom algorithm that can be easily reversed.
CVEs have been assigned, and vendors notified of “NUMBER:JACK”, Forescout’s name for the research. Most of the vulnerable software already has patches available. The problem with embedded systems is that they often never get security updates. The vulnerable network stacks are in devices like IP cameras, printers, and other “invisible” software. Time will tell if this attack shows up as part of a future IoT botnet.
Microsoft Patch Tuesday
Last week, Microsoft released their monthly round-up of patches, and there are a few interesting bugs.
CVE-2021-24074
is a potential RCE resulting from improper handling of source routing packets. “Source routing” is one of the mostly forgotten IP options, though it does see some use in niche applications. Packets using this option are generally blocked by routers and security devices, making it essentially impossible to send such packets over the public internet. Windows clients also block these packets, but generate an ICMP response when such a packet is blocked. Reading between the lines, it seems that the vulnerability is triggered by the process of building the ICMP response. (
Not a new problem
) The patch is available, as is a simple workaround: simply dropping the incoming packets without a response.
Two other CVEs are potentially notable, though there is even less information available about them.
CVE-2021-24078
is a wormable vulnerability in the Windows DNS server. Thankfully a server is only vulnerable if the DNS component has been turned on. The other is
CVE-2021-26701
, a rather vague “.NET Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability”. It has a severity rating of critical, and Microsoft has indicated that the details are known in the wild.
Clubhouse Security Growing Pains
You may have heard that Clubhouse is the new social media flash-in-the-pan. Or, maybe it will stick around, who knows. If you haven’t looked into it, Clubhouse is something of an audio chatroom, where a celebrity or teacher can have a conversation with an audience. It’s still prelaunch, and there are already eight million downloads. As you might imagine, this success has put Clubhouse on the radar of security researchers,
like the folks at Zerforschung
. It seems that Clubhouse is built on the Agora.io platform, and the attack here is to talk directly to Agora.io rather than go through the Clubhouse app. The results? The attacker can leave the room, but maintain the connection to the backend. The username disappears, but still receives audio, and can even speak into the room. This breaks the ability to put a room into single-speaker mode and makes ejecting a user impossible.
Telegram Self-Destruct Messages
The problem?
They aren’t actually destructed.
[Dhiraj Mishra] did his research on the MacOS version of Telegram, and discovered that audio and video files sent in a self-destruct message is still available on the computer hard drive, even after the message timer has expired. For extra pwnage, this version of Telegram also stores the passcode in plaintext in some cases. Both issues have been fixed, so make sure you update if you use Telegram on MacOS.
More NPM Dependency Confusion
Last week we covered [Alex Birsan]’s dependency confusion attack, where a package can be uploaded to NPM that uses the name of a private package. If a company has their build system misconfigured, the public package can be pulled into the final build instead of the intended private package. Since [Alex] publicly announced the attack,
nearly 300 such packages have been uploaded to NPM taking advantage of this technique
. Note these are the packages that have been discovered, there are almost certainly more packages that are out there, but are yet to be discovered. [Alex] pointed out that some of these are likely other researchers aiming for bug bounties, but there might even be some legitimately malicious packages in the mix.
We’ll do our best to keep you up to date on these stories, and the rest that pop up each week, so stay tuned! | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324257",
"author": "anonymous",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T15:37:19",
"content": "Y’know, it ticks me off that it took a shaming by CVE for Microchip to fix their ISN generation. I sent them a big report about it in 2010 noting that both ephemeral port and initial sequence number wer... | 1,760,373,180.378741 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/the-raspberry-pi-pico-cant-run-linux-but-it-can-run-fuzix/ | The Raspberry Pi Pico Can’t Run Linux. But It Can Run Fuzix. | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Fuzix",
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"unix"
] | The great divide in terms of single board computers lies between those that can run some form of Linux-based distribution, and those that can not. For example the Raspberry Pi Zero is a Linux board, while the Raspberry Pi Pico’s RP2040 processor lacks the required hardware to run everybody’s favourite UNIX-like operating system. That’s not to say the new board from Cambridge can’t run any UNIX-like operating system though,
as [David Given] shows us with his Fuzix port
.
Fuzix
is a UNIX-like operating system for less capable processors, more in the spirit of those original UNIXes than of a modern Linux-based distribution. It’s the work of the respected former Linux kernel developer and maintainer [Alan Cox], and consists of a kernel, a C compiler, and a set of core UNIX-like applications.
The RP2040 port maybe needs a little more work to be considered stable. For now, the multitasking support isn’t quite there and NAND flash support is broken, but it does have SD card support for a proper UNIX filesystem and the full set of core tools. Perhaps most interestingly, it only occupies a single core of the dual-core chip, leaving the possibility of the other core and those PIOs to be used for other purposes.
Fuzix has made the occasional appearance here over the years, but perhaps not as often as it should. If you’d like to learn a little more about the genesis of UNIX,
we took a look in 2019
.
Header: Michiel Henzler (
CC BY-SA 4.0
). | 96 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324161",
"author": "Rog77",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T12:12:29",
"content": "That chip isn’t a Cray Supercomputer with WiFi, so I don’t like it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324163",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
... | 1,760,373,180.686189 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/19/a-smart-way-to-wire-smart-switches/ | A Smart Way To Wire Smart Switches | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"IoT",
"relay",
"smart light",
"smart switch"
] | Smart switches are fun, letting you control lights and appliances in your home over the web or even by voice if you’re so inclined. However, they can make day-to-day living more frustrating if they’re not set up properly with regards to your existing light switches. Thankfully, with some simple wiring,
it’s possible to make everything play nice.
The method is demonstrated here by [MyHomeThings], in which an ESP8266 is used with a relay to create a basic smart switch. However, it’s wired up with a regular light switch
in a typical “traveller” multiway switching scheme
– just like when you have two traditional light switches controlling the same light at home. To make this work with the ESP8266, though, the microcontroller needs to be able to know the current state of the light. This is done by using a 240V to 3.3V power supply wired up in parallel with the light. When the light is on, the 3.3V supply is on. This supply feeds into a GPIO pin on the ESP8266, letting it know the light’s current state, and allowing it to set its output relay to the correct position as necessary.
This system lets you use smart lighting with traditional switches with less confused flipping, which is a good thing in our book. If you’re using standalone smart bulbs, however,
you could consider flashing them with custom firmware to improve functionality.
As always, if you’ve got your own neat smart lighting hacks,
be sure to let us know! | 33 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324134",
"author": "fizzymagic",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T10:06:31",
"content": "An entire 3.3V power supply? Wouldn’t a resistor and a diode accomplish the same thing?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6324137",
"auth... | 1,760,373,180.443237 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/nerf-gun-upgrade/ | A Nerf Gun Upgrade | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"air",
"automatic",
"high speed",
"nerf",
"pneumatic",
"toy",
"upgrade"
] | A lot of us have nostalgia for our childhood toys, and as long as they’re not something like lawn darts that nostalgia often leads to fun upgrades since some of us are adults with industrial-sized air compressors. Classics like Super Soakers and Nerf guns are especially popular targets for improvements, and
this Nerf machine gun
from [Emiel] is no exception.
The build takes a Nerf ball-firing toy weapon and basically tosses it all out of the window in favor of a custom Nerf ball launching rifle. He starts with the lower receiver and machines a pneumatic mechanism that both loads a ball into the chamber and then launches it. This allows the rifle to be used in both single-shot mode and also in fully-automatic mode. From there, a barrel is fashioned along with the stock and other finishing touches.
[Emiel] also uses a high-speed camera to determine the speed of his new Nerf gun but unfortunately it isn’t high-speed enough, suffering from the same fate as
one of the fastest man-made objects ever made
, and he only has a lower bound on the speed at 400 km/h. If you don’t want to go fast with your Nerf builds, though, perhaps you should
build something enormous instead
. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324113",
"author": "MacAttack",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T07:47:54",
"content": "Lawn Darts, aaaahh, those were the good days!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6324115",
"author": "sewwes12",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T07:... | 1,760,373,180.563593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/an-e-book-reader-but-just-for-haiku/ | An E-Book Reader, But Just For Haiku | Lewin Day | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"e-ink",
"e-ink display",
"e-paper",
"eink",
"epaper",
"haiku",
"poetry"
] | E-ink displays haven’t revolutionized the world so much as served us humbly in e-book readers such as the Kindle and its ilk. Most such readers are designed for extended sessions reading novels and the like,
but [Roni Bandini] decided a haiku-sized device was in order.
The diminutive device runs off an ESP32, which has plenty of clock cycles for easily driving displays. It’s paired with a 2.9 inch Waveshare e-ink display, upon which it delivers poetry in the popular Japanese haiku format –
5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
. Writing to the display is easy with
the GxEPD library
, which is compatible with a variety of common e-ink displays. Presently the poetry is hardcoded in the program, and there’s plenty that could be included with the ESP32’s roomy program storage. However, [Roni] notes it would be simple to have the reader pull poems from an SD card instead.
It’s a fun project, and a great way to get familiar with the basics of working with e-ink displays. We’d love to see a WiFi-enabled version that pulls down the hottest daily haikus fresh from the web, too. Funnily enough, our own archives only feature
one other reference to the famous Japanese art
, which has little to do with poetry. If you fancy changing that, make something relevant and
drop us a line
. Video after the break. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324084",
"author": "rpavlik",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T03:53:36",
"content": "A daily haiku would be a cool project for the Adafruit Mag Tag, and probably less depressing than my current covid-19 stat tracker.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,180.730533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/18/slim-sypherdeck-skips-the-keyboard-packs-x86-cpu/ | Slim Sypherdeck Skips The Keyboard, Packs X86 CPU | Tom Nardi | [
"Cyberdecks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"cyberdeck",
"cyberpunk",
"Lattepanda"
] | There are few hard and fast rules in the world of custom cyberdecks, but many of these bespoke machines do share a certain level of commonality. They generally use a low-power ARM board such as the Raspberry Pi that doesn’t consume much power or require any exotic thermal management, and a large mechanical keyboard is almost a given. But at a glance, it’s clear that
[Daan Gerits] wasn’t concerned with the status quo when designing the Sypherdeck
.
Now to be fair, dropping the ARM single-board computer for x86 isn’t completely unheard of. But those builds tend to be considerably bulkier than the Sypherdeck. The secret here seems to be that the 3D printed enclosure doesn’t hold much else than the LattePanda and a seven inch LCD touch screen. The hatch on the side covers the rear of the power, USB, and HDMI bulkhead connectors, but it looks like there’s enough room in there to squeeze in a bit of custom electronics should you wish. There’s no obvious place to install any batteries, so if you wanted to take the show on the road, you’ll need to use an external pack.
The bigger surprise is the complete lack of an integrated keyboard. Obviously this allowed [Daan] to create an even more svelte enclosure, but of course at the cost of having to carry around an external keyboard. That said, if you’ve got some kind of use case that is completely fulfilled by the touch screen, that could be seen as an advantage. It sounds like the original plan was to make the keyboard clip onto the bottom or top of the deck, but that feature didn’t make the cut for this first version.
With a desire to pack in as much hardware as possible
, many of the
cyberdecks we’ve seen have been quite large
. While some might balk at the limited feature set of the Sypherdeck, we think there’s something to be said for its slim lines and impeccable portability. | 19 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6324074",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-02-19T02:50:52",
"content": "Non-portable tablet is closer to reality than cyberdeck. I also made my own custom-laptop/cyberdeck, and I also played fast and loose with the rules of cyberdecking, but no battery and no keyboard? I guess a... | 1,760,373,180.783355 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/ps2-gets-integrated-hdmi/ | PS2 Gets Integrated HDMI | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"console modding",
"hdmi",
"ps2"
] | It might be difficult to imagine in our modern HDMI Utopia, but there was a time when game consoles required proprietary cables to connect up to your TV. We’re not just talking about early machines like the NES either, turn of the millennium consoles like the PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and the original Xbox all had weirdo A/V ports on the back that were useless without the proper adapter.
But thanks to the efforts of [Taylor Burley],
you can now upgrade your Slim PS2 with integrated HDMI capability
. It’s not even a terribly difficult modification, as these things go. Sure there’s a lot of soldering involved to run from the console’s A/V connector to the commercially-made HDMI dongle he’s hidden inside the case, but at least it’s straightforward work.
Tapping into the console’s A/V connector.
As [Taylor] shows in the video after the break, all you have to do is remove the proprietary connector from the HDMI adapter dongle, and wire it directly into the console’s A/V port with a bit of ribbon cable. There are only 8 pins in the connector that you need to worry about, and the spacing is generous enough that there’s no problem getting in there with your iron and some standard jumper wires. You’ve also got to pull 5 V from the board to power the adapter, but that’s easy enough thanks to the system’s nearby USB ports.
There’s a perfect spot to mount the adapter board next to the console’s Ethernet connector, and once that’s tacked down with a bit of adhesive, the only thing left to do is cut a hole in the back of the enclosure for the HDMI port and snip away a bit of the metal RF shield. Presumably the same modification could be done on the original “fat” PS2, though you’ll be on your own for finding a suitable place to mount the board.
While modern game consoles can easily emulate their earlier peers
, providing enhanced graphical fidelity and introducing modern conveniences like wireless controllers in the process, there’s still something to be said for playing classic games on the original hardware. Even if these projects are fueled by little more than youthful nostalgia, it’s a safe bet we’ll
continue to see folks keeping these older machines running
far into the future. | 35 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323734",
"author": "Johnny",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T06:42:29",
"content": "Heh, RCA is called proprietary when HDMI (which requires a licence is not)…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6323742",
"author": "DH",
... | 1,760,373,180.859115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/diy-bread-slice-paper-goes-against-the-grain/ | DIY Bread Slice Paper Goes Against The Grain | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"paper",
"paper pulp",
"recycling"
] | It’s the dead of winter here in the northern hemisphere, and between the pandemic and the polar vortex, we’re getting pretty tired of staring at the same four walls and eating incessantly. It’s the perfect recipe for trying something new and low-calorie, like
baking a loaf of bread-shaped note paper from the stuff in the recycling bin
.
[SusanLand] likes to make paper out of whatever discarded things she has on hand, including old jeans. When she tried making paper out of nothing but toilet paper tubes, it didn’t work so well, but it gave her an idea for cooking up some offbeat stationery. She beefed up the pulp with shredded office paper and corn starch, and dialed in the whole wheat hue with a pinch of yellow and orange paper. Once the pulp was ready, she poured it into bread-shaped molds made from a plastic milk jug.
This tidy introduction to making your own paper covers everything from pulping techniques to drying methods. Once the slices are dry, [SusanLand] embellishes them with a scoring tool, colored pencils, and a handful of seeds to complete the look. Check out that process in the videos after the break.
Don’t want to make paper out of your paper?
Use it to weigh your car
, or
fold up a fleet of airplanes
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323708",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T03:49:26",
"content": "I guess this deserves a crumb or two of commendation, if this is your jam, for the rest of us it might be spreading it on a bit thick. But any way you slice it, it’s better than loafing around.",
... | 1,760,373,180.907971 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/building-replica-amigas-to-preserve-digital-artwork/ | Building Replica Amigas To Preserve Digital Artwork | Tom Nardi | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"amiga",
"Amiga 1000",
"crt",
"digital art",
"digital preservation"
] | A few years back, the Andy Warhol Museum ran into an unusual problem. They wanted to display digital pieces the pop artist created on his Amiga 1000 back in the 1980s, but putting the vintage computers on the floor and letting the public poke around on them wasn’t really an option. So the team at
[Iontank] were tasked with creating an interactive display that
looked
like a real Amiga
, but used all modern technology under the hood.
The technical details on the electronics side are unfortunately a bit light, as the page on the [Iontank] site simply says all of the internals were replaced with “solid-state hardware” and an Amiga emulator. To us that sounds like a Raspberry Pi is now filling in for the Amiga’s original motherboard, but that’s just a guess. The page does note that they went through the trouble of making sure the original mouse and keyboard still worked, so it stands to reason a couple microcontrollers are also along for the ride doing translation duty.
Milling the curved display lens.
While we don’t know much about the computers, [Iontank] do provide some interesting insight into developing the faux CRTs sitting atop the non-Amigas. There were some promising rear-projection experiments conducted early on, but in the end, they decided to use a standard LCD behind a milled acrylic lens. This not only made for a perfect fit inside the original monitor enclosures, but gave the screen that convex depth that’s missing on modern flat panels.
The end result looks like the best of both worlds, combining the sharp bright image of an LCD with just a hint of retro distortion.
With a scanline generator in the mix
, this technique would be a great way to
simulate the look of a CRT display in an arcade cabinet
, though admittedly being able to mill down an acrylic lens of the appropriate size would be a tough job for most home gamers.
[Thanks to Derek for the tip.] | 41 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323674",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-02-18T00:22:38",
"content": "I imagine Amiga Forever would be the easiest route and yes an x86 board would be needed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6323776",
"author... | 1,760,373,181.032607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/a-3d-printed-camera-arm-for-great-3d-print-timelapses/ | A 3D Printed Camera Arm For Great 3D Print Timelapses | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"octolapse",
"Octoprint"
] | If you’re a maker that publishes projects online, you’ll be well across the production values arms race that’s been raging over the past decade. For those in the 3D printing space, this means that you’ll need to be producing slick timelapse videos of your prints. [BuildComics]
is now doing just that
, with a custom camera arm to help do the job. (Video, embedded below.)
The arm relies on a 3D-printed gear train that allows a stepper motor to turn it slowly throughout the print’s duration. It’s controlled by an Arduino that receives commands via Firmata. The arm is mounted on top of the printer, holding a webcam above the build plate for a good view. It’s setup via Octolapse to take images as each layer is finished, giving that haunting look of a model materialising on the print bed throughout the duration of the timelapse.
Files are available for those wishing to build their own
. The design as used is for the Prusa Mini, but it should be adaptable to other printers without too much trouble. We’ve reported on Octolapse before, with its videos proving to be the gold standard
when it comes to the art of the printing time lapse. | 17 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323632",
"author": "mrehorst",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T21:44:32",
"content": "Nice! Maybe you could add a light to the camera holder and kill the room lights so the print is only lit by the light on the arm.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,373,180.957397 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/cosmic-ray-flips-bit-assists-mario-64-speedrunner/ | Cosmic Ray Flips Bit, Assists Mario 64 Speedrunner | Lewin Day | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"speed run",
"speed running",
"speedrun",
"speedrunning",
"super mario 64"
] | We’ve all heard about cosmic rays flipping bits here and there, but by and large, it occurs rarely enough that we don’t worry too much about it on a day-to-day basis. However,
it seems just such a ray happened to flip a crucial bit that assisted a speedrunner in the middle of a competition.
The flip happened to [DOTA_Teabag], who suddenly found Mario flying upward to a higher part of a level, completely unexpectedly.
Testing by [pannenkoek12]
seems to indicate that this may have been due to a single-bit change to Mario’s height value, from C5837800 to C4837800, leading to the plucky Italian plumber warping upwards through the level. The leading theory is that this bit flip was caused by a cosmic ray event, though the likelihood of such an event is exceedingly rare.
It’s possible that there remains another cause for the flip, though after much work from the community replicating the situation in emulation, none has been found. Other suggestions involve electrical noise or other malfunctions causing the flip, though one would rarely expect such an occurrence to change just one bit of RAM. For now, the jury remains out, but who knows – maybe in the future we’ll find out it was a hidden, undiscovered exploit all along. Of course, if Nintendo doesn’t get you going,
try speedrunning Windows 95
. Video after the break. | 66 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323583",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T19:45:37",
"content": ">though the likelihood of such an event is exceedingly rare.“Studies by IBM in the 1990s suggest that computers typically experience about one cosmic-ray-induced error per 256 megabytes of RAM per month.”",
... | 1,760,373,181.223376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/james-west-began-40-years-at-bell-labs-with-world-changing-microphone-tech/ | James West Began 40 Years At Bell Labs With World-Changing Microphone Tech | Mike Szczys | [
"Biography",
"Hackaday Columns",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"acoustics",
"bell labs",
"electret",
"electret microphone",
"James West",
"profiles in science"
] | I’d be surprised if you weren’t sitting within fifty feet of one of James Edward Maceo West’s most well-known inventions — the electret microphone. Although MEMS microphones have seen a dramatic rise as smartphone technology progresses, electret microphones still sit atop the throne of low-cost and high-performance when it comes to capturing audio. What’s surprising about this world-changing invention is that the collaboration with co-inventor Gerhard Sessler began while James West was still at university, with the final version of the electret springing to life at Bell Labs just four years after his graduation.
A Hacker’s Upbringing
James’ approach to learning sounds very familiar: “If I had a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, anything that could be opened was in danger. I had this need to know what was inside.” He mentions a compulsive need to understand how things work, and an inability to move on until he has unlocked that knowledge. Born in 1931, an early brush with mains voltage started him on his journey.
Image source:
Cultural programs of the National Academy of Sciences
Having found a radio in the trash, he set out to repair it. James describes the event by mentioning that this was in the days before houses had outlets in the walls; the only source of electricity was the light socket. He got up on a bed and when plugging in the radio, receiving a shock that prevented him from letting go to break the connection by himself. His older brother knocked him loose, and although he wasn’t seriously injured, he became determined to understand how electricity worked.
This curiosity made him a perfect helper for a cousin who was taking on jobs wiring up rural homes. During high school he was fascinated by the telephone system, but his parents forbade from using the phone without a serious reason for it. He and a friend stole wire from a telephone company lot, stringing a line between their houses. They made their own telephone system.
The Long Way to a Career in Physics
It’s obvious James had a strong interest in the sciences, yet his parents did not support this pursuit as a career path. Growing up in Virginia, Jim Crow laws and widespread racism meant these professions were closed off to black people.
His parents had power over the purse, so James entered school as pre-med. Their hope was that he would go into practice with his uncle who had built a clinic — but James did not enjoy it. His father was adamant that he stick to it or just not even bother going to school at all, going so far as to introduce James to two black men he knew who had earned their Ph.D but could not find employment.
In working to switch his major he dropped out of Wilberforce University mid-term in 1950 and was drafted into the Korean war before he could begin anew. Two years, and two purple hearts later, James was back from the war and entered Temple University where he studied Physics.
Life at Bell Labs
Applying en masse for interships posted on a bulletin board at school, James found his way to Murray Hill, the location of AT&T’s Bell Labs. He was assigned to the Acoustic Research department studying the interaural time delay. This is the difference in your left and right ear detecting sound, and it’s one way we locate the direction from which sounds originate.
The electret microphone is small, affordable, and ubiquitous
The lab was using condenser microphone technology as headphones, but they put out a very very limited amount of sound and it was limiting research into the topic. James West found a German research paper on solid dielectric elements. He changed the test rig to use this technology, powering his new headphones with a 500 V battery (!). It worked, and his talent turned heads at the labs.
James went back to school in the fall with a spring in his step, but by November the research team was calling with a problem: the headphones had stopped working. They sent him a ticket to come back to Murray Hill and troubleshoot. Once again, the compulsion for understanding struck, leading him down a rabbit hole. This was the beginning of his march to unlock the secret of electrets, and in researching the phenomenon he began working with Gerhard Sessler. The two would go on to invent the electret microphone together.
An Extraordinary Microphone
James West and Gerhard Sessler at Bell Labs in 1976 [image source (PDF):
Center for History of Physics at AIP
]
Two microphone technologies were dominant at the time James West graduated from Temple in 1957, the carbon microphone and the condenser microphone. Condenser mics had a far superior sound, but they use charged plates that require a very high potential of a few hundred volts. This wouldn’t work with the telephone system unless a battery or other source were added to the handset, so AT&T’s telephone system continued to use the older carbon microphone technology.
Ultimately the work that West and Sessler did is a story of material science. (This is a recurring theme for Bell Labs inventions,
I highly recommend reading
The Idea Factory
for a deeper dive into this). Their electret design uses a diaphragm made of a metal-coated polymer film that was able to reliably trap a charge and retain it permanently. It delivered the qualities of the condenser mics but didn’t require recharging the plates. Even better, it did it at a fraction of the price. James West explains this in his own words during
a fantastic set of video interviews conducting by The History Makers in 2013
(free to watch but registration required):
…when we published in 1962, we were confident from the experiments we had done in the lab, that we had learned to trap charge in this material. And that the activation energy, how much energy you had to apply to that trap to open up, was very high, 150 degrees C, okay. Which meant that we could extrapolate the lifetime at room temperature, from what we call Arrhenius plots, that said that the lifetime at room temperature of that electret would be two, three, four hundred years.
Electret microphones could be manufactured at up to four orders of magnitude less than existing condenser mics, completely solved the problem of high bias voltages, lasted an incredibly long time over a huge range of operating temperatures, and they’re quite small. They were nothing short of an astounding breakthrough. By the 1970’s they were popping up in consumer products, and have been the go-to technology for decades since. For more background on electret microphones,
check out Jenny List’s article from last year
.
Electret microphone
patent
drawing
James continued on at Bell Labs for more than four decades. During that time he published prolifically in journals and books, and awarded more than two hundred patents. Looking back on his time there, he mentions that the open-endedness of the work — being able to pursue problems he was interested in and work with others across different disciplines — kept him perpetually engaged in each of his pursuits.
A Leader for Inclusive and Equitable Organizations
James West’s mother, Matilda Omega Miller West, was one of the people featured in the book
Hidden Figures
. She worked as a mathematician (at the time they were known as computers) for Langley Research Center. Matilda was an officer in the NAACP, and James recalls her losing her job because of Senator
Joseph McCarthy
‘s view of that organization as adverse and communist. James’ own career might not have happened if he had heeded advice at the time pointing to a lack of opportunity for black people in the sciences. It’s no surprise that he wants to break down these barriers to entry for others following after him. During his tenure at Bell, and since retiring and joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins University in 2001, he has been a strong advocate for fostering diversity in all walks of our society.
In
an inverview with
Acoustics Today
from last September
, James discusses his approach to encouraging inclusivity in the STEM fields. Acknowledging the absences of women and underrepresented minorities (W&URM in the quote below) as a problem, one way to enact change is through mentorship. He tells the story of a Baltimore Public Schools STEM initiative that had very low diversity when he joined the board of directors, but with a few years of work the students in the program now more closely reflect the actual demographics of the community:
To make a long story short, the funnel was empty, and the funnel needs to be filled, or at least partially, with qualified W&URM people that want to enter STEM. If you can increase and open that pipeline that will only bring positive change. How can you help? Find and mentor qualified W&URM students in your local area and improve their training so that they have the opportunity and potential for a future in STEM.
Accolades and Current Work
How different would the world have been if James had finished that medical degree? As co-inventor of the electret microphone he made a huge impact and has been recognized many times over for it. He has received honorary doctorates from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Michigan State, U Penn, Princeton, and Temple. In 2006, President George W. Bush awarded James the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, just one of numerous awards he has received.
At the age of 89, he continues to pursue everything beyond his current understanding through his research at Johns Hopkins.
His most recent patent
was published in 2020 and applies electret technology to energy harvesting. | 27 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323555",
"author": "permakent",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T18:06:15",
"content": "Wow! Great article on a good man.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6323558",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T18:22:30",
... | 1,760,373,181.547249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/ender-v2-layer-shift-problem-rectified-with-cooling/ | Ender V2 Layer Shift Problem Rectified With Cooling | Lewin Day | [
"News"
] | [] | Released in early 2020, the Creality Ender V2 is a popular desktop 3D printer in the maker market. However, some users began having problems with machines ordered in the latter half of the year, with repeated layer shifts occuring during long prints. After much investigation,
it appears a fix has been found.
After much experimentation by [Fountain_of_Wisdom], it was determined that layer shifts were occuring at the same time as loud thumps or knocks from the printer. This was often during long X or Y traversals, and when these noises occurred, the print head would shift slightly, perpendicular to the axis of travel. Further investigation led to suspicion of the drive signals to the stepper motors, and it was then determined that the driver chips were becoming excessively hot during long prints. The solution landed upon was to install a fan and improve venting to cool the driver electronics, which curtailed the layer shift problem entirely.
However, such problems aren’t the norm, and since then, owners of the affected units with version 4.2.2 motherboards have been advised to upgrade to version 4.2.7. The exact root cause of the problem is not clear, but
we’ve seen earlier Ender models upgraded with newer stepper drivers before;
perhaps a similar fix is what makes the later revision motherboard a winner in the V2. If you’ve got insight into the problem, sound off in the comments!
[Thanks to Prodigity for the tip!] | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323554",
"author": "DD",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T18:06:12",
"content": "oddly specific but I dig it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6323600",
"author": "johnrpm",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T20:15:20",
"content": "Hot... | 1,760,373,183.491927 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/listening-in-on-muscles-with-the-bioamp-emg-pill/ | Listening In On Muscles With The BioAmp EMG Pill | Maya Posch | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"Bioamplifier",
"electromyography",
"emg"
] | Ever felt like what your MCU of choice misses is a way to read the electrical signals from your muscles? In that case [Deepak Khatri] over at Upside Down Labs
has got your back
with the
BioAmp EMG Pill
. Described as an affordable, open source
electromyography
(EMG) module, based around a
TL074
quad low-noise JFET-input opamp. At just over 32×10 millimeters, it’s pretty compact as well.
The onboard opamp ensures that the weak electrical signals captured from the muscles when they move are amplified sufficiently that the ADC of any microcontroller or similar can capture the signal for further processing. Some knowledge of how to set up an EMG is required to use the module, of course, and the TL074 opamp prefers an input voltage between 7-30 V. Even so, it has all the basics onboard, and the KiCad project is freely available via the above linked GitHub project.
In addition, [Deepak] also
tweeted
about working on an affordable, open source active prosthetics controller (and human augmentation device), which has us very much interested in what other projects may come out of Upside Down Labs before long. After, all we’re no strangers to
hacking with biosignals
. | 49 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322855",
"author": "CRImier",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T07:31:11",
"content": "Ooh it’s such an amazing project! I’ve seen this on Twitter and this perfectly fits an idea we’ve been discussing with a friend for the last month.We want to make a smartphone interface where you don’t ev... | 1,760,373,183.382516 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/the-tube-map-in-glorious-8-bit/ | The Tube Map, In Glorious 8-Bit! | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"basic",
"bbc basic",
"BBC Micro",
"Tube map"
] | There was a time when visitors to London would carry an A to Z map to navigate the city’s Undergound railway system, referring to the iconic London Transport map printed on its back as they did so. Now it’s likely they’ll do the same with their smartphones, with apps ranging from simple analogues of the printed version through to fully annotated route planners with up to the minute train information. Is this a new technology, something only possible in the last decade? Serial British rail YouTuber [Geoff Marshall] thinks otherwise, and
has programmed a Tube map on a vintage BBC Micro
.
We don’t expect anyone to heft a pile of vintage hardware onto the Central Line at rush hour even though in reality he’s running it on an emulator due to his real BBC Micro being kaput. Perhaps someone should drop him a line about capacitor replacement in that power supply. But it does provide an entertaining jaunt back into afternoons in a 1980s school computer lab, with
MOVE
,
DRAW
, and
PLOT
commands as he wrestles with the limited colour palette of
MODE 2
. The result only covers Tube Zone 1, or the very centre of London, so to visit
London Hackspace
you’ll have to remember to take the Bakerloo line northbound out to Zone 4 and disembark at Wembley Central.
Happily as you can see in the video below the break he enlists the help of a friend to run it on real hardware. He posted the code as a comment to the video but it’s really hard to find.
Try this direct link and scroll down
, it should be the first comment but you need to click “Read more” to unfold the code. We think the Tube Map would make a great test for any retrocomputer, so we look forward to this feat being repeated. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322823",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T03:15:45",
"content": "The display coordinate range was actually 1280×1024, although the display resolution was much less than that. I would probably have used a bunch of DATA lines to store the points to be plotted, but anyway,... | 1,760,373,183.221344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/drehmflight-customizable-flight-stabilisation-for-your-weird-flying-contraptions/ | DRehmFlight: Customizable Flight Stabilisation For Your Weird Flying Contraptions | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"drones",
"flight controller",
"RC airplane",
"Teensy 4.0",
"vtol"
] | The availability of cheap and powerful RC motors and electronics has made it possible for almost anyone to build an RC flying machine. Software is usually the bigger challenge, which has led to the development of open-source packages like BetaFlight and Ardupilot. These packages are very powerful, but not easy to modify if you have unconventional requirements. [Nicholas Rehm] faced this challenge while doing his master’s degree, so he created
dRehmFlight, a customizable flight controller for VTOL aircraft
. Overview video after the break.
dRehmFlight runs on Teensy 4.0 with a MPU6050 or MPU9250 IMU
[Nicholas] has been building unique VTOL aircraft for close to a decade, and he specifically wanted flight stabilization software that is easy to modify and experiment with. Looking at the dRehmFlight
code
, we think he was successful. The main flight controller package is a single file of fewer than 1600 lines. It’s well commented and easy to figure out, even for an inexperienced programmer. A detailed PDF manual is also available, with full descriptions for all the functions and important variables, and a couple of tutorials to get you started. Libraries for interfacing with accelerometers and RC gear is also included. It runs on a
600 Mhz Teensy 4.0
, and all the programming can be done from the Arduino IDE.
[Nicholas] has repeatedly demonstrated the capabilities of dRehmFlight with several unique aircraft, like the
belly flopping RC Starship
we covered a while ago, a
VTOL quad rotor biplane
,
VTOL F35
, and the
cyclocopter
seen in the header image. dRehmFlight might not have the racing drone performance of BetaFlight, or advanced autopilot features of Ardupilot, but it’s perfect for getting unconventional aircraft off the ground. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322797",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T00:59:36",
"content": "Ah yes, the final piece for my creation, the vessel that will rule the airways, a toroid shaped kyloon with a savonius rotor bladed helicopter in the center, and a high aspect ratio rogallo swing win... | 1,760,373,183.541691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/a-volume-control-from-a-vcr-drum/ | A Volume Control From A VCR Drum | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"helical scan",
"vcr",
"vcr head",
"volume control"
] | The VHS VCR has now passed from widespread use, and can thus be found as a ready supply of interesting parts for the curious hardware hacker. [
Clewsy
] has a novel use for a VCR head scanning drum, the part that is supposed to be tasked with reading information off of magnetic tape. Instead, it’s reading information from fingers
as the knob for a USB volume control
. Underneath the drum is an optical encoder disk which is read by an ATmega32U4 for USB interfacing with a host computer.
The helical-scan video recorder was a mechanically complex solution to the problem of recording a high-bandwidth video signal onto a tape that could be made slow-moving enough to be practical. By recording the video in diagonal stripes across the tape from a fast-moving spinning head they avoided the need for huge reels of tape, enabling hours of video to be fitted into a roughly book-size cassette.
While over time the mechanics of a VCR mechanism were simplified and cheapened to a great extent, the heads and drum were the one area that could not be compromised. Thus the VCR head was for a time the most high-precision mechanical device owned by most consumers, and the drums usually have exceptionally nice bearings. All of this makes one a particularly good choice for a volume knob or indeed any other large rotational control, so much so that we’re surprised it hasn’t become a more frequent occurrence. So scour the electronic junk, and you might just find the ultimate in free high quality control hardware.
Of course, this isn’t the only thing a VCR head drum can do. How about
a centrifuge
? | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322746",
"author": "kc8rwr",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15T21:55:07",
"content": "I’ve thought for a long time that it would be great to make a rotary encoder for tuning an SDR with an analog feel out of one of these. But I never got around to it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,373,183.605298 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/racing-game-crashes-into-its-next-life-as-a-sound-bender/ | Racing Game Crashes Into Its Next Life As A Sound Bender | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"echo",
"leds",
"lenticular",
"looper",
"reverb",
"sound bender"
] | They say the best things in life are free, but we would loudly argue that a dollar can go a long way, too. It all depends on what you do with it. When [lonesoulsurfer] saw this busted-up handheld racing game at the junk store, he fell in love with the lines of the case and gladly forked over a buck in order to give it a new life as a
wicked little sound-bending machine with dancing LEDs
.
Here’s how it works: [lonesoulsurfer] records a few seconds of whatever into the mic with the looping function switched off, then turns it back on to start the fun. He can vary the pitch with the speed controller pot, or add in some echo and reverb. Once the sound is dialed in, he works the pause button on the left to make melodies by stopping and restarting the loop, or just pausing it momentarily depending on the switch setting.
The electronics are a mashup of modules mixed with a custom PCB that combines the recording module with an LM386 amplifier and holds the coolest part of this build — those LEDs that dance to the music behind the toy’s original lenticular screen. Like most of [lonesoulsurfer]’s builds, it’s powered by an old cell phone battery that’s buck-boosted to 5 V. Check out the build and bleep-bloop video after the break.
Lenticular lenses are all kinds of fun.
Get one that’s big enough, and you can use it to disappear for a while
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322824",
"author": "Charles Stephens",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T03:32:17",
"content": "This guy’s work is great! I love his use of off-the-shelf components and sources.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,373,183.175062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/signal-conditioning-hack-chat-this-wednesday/ | Signal Conditioning Hack Chat This Wednesday | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"A/D",
"amplifier",
"differential",
"dsp",
"Hack Chat",
"sensors",
"signal conditioning"
] | Join us on Wednesday, February 17 at noon Pacific for the
Signal Conditioning Hack Chat
with
Jonathan Foote
!
The real world is a messy place, because very little in it stays in a static state for very long. Things are always moving, vibrating, heating up or cooling down, speeding up or slowing down, or even changing in ways that defy easy description. But these changes describe the world, and understanding and controlling these changes requires sensors that can translate them into usable signals — “usable” being the key term.
Making a signal work for you usually requires some kind of signal processing — perhaps an amplifier to boost a weak signal from a strain gauge, or a driver for a thermocouple. Whatever the case, pulling a useful signal that represents a real-world process from the background noise of all the other signals going on around it can be challenging, as can engineering systems that can do the job in sometimes harsh environments. Drivers, filters, amplifiers, and transmitters must all work together to get the clearest picture of what’s going on in a system, lest bad data lead to bad decisions.
To help us understand the world of signal conditioning, Jonathan Foote will drop by the Hack Chat. You may remember Jonathan as the “recovering scientist” who did
a great Remoticon talk
on virtual modular synthesizers. It turns out that synths are just a sideline for Dr. Foote, who has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a ton of academic experience. He’s a bit of a Rennaissance man when it comes to areas of interest — machine learning, audio analysis, robotics, and of course, signal processing. He’ll share some insights on how to pull signals from the real world and put them to work.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, February 17 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. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322665",
"author": "Max S.",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15T18:11:03",
"content": "And also important is cable shielding … done correctly as not to create current loops. That probably does more signal “cleaning” than conditioning hardware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,373,183.429269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/the-rotary-x-engine-is-a-revolution-in-thermodynamics/ | The Rotary-X Engine Is A Revolution In Thermodynamics | Kristina Panos | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"4-stroke",
"Atkinson cycle",
"diesel",
"generators",
"Otto cycle",
"portable power",
"rotary engine",
"Wankel"
] | If you’re running an army, chances are good that you need a lot of portable power for everything from communications to weapons control systems. When it comes to your generators, every ounce counts. The smaller and lighter you can get them, the better.
Connecticut-based company LiquidPiston is developing a high-powered generator for the US Army that uses the company’s own rotary x-engine
— a small, light, and powerful beast that sounds like a dream come true. It can run on gasoline, diesel, natural gas, kerosene, or jet fuel, and
is scalable from 1 to 1,000 horsepower
(PDF).
Co-founder and CEO Alex Schkolnik describes the design as a combination of the best parts of the Otto and Atkinson cycle engines, the Diesel, and the Wankel rotary while solving the big problems of the latter two. That sounds impressive, but it doesn’t mean much unless you understand how each of these engines work and what their various advantages and disadvantages are. So let’s take a look under the hood, shall we?
Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow
For the purposes of this discussion, the Otto cycle, the Atkinson cycle, and the Diesel are all four-stroke engines. This means that for every pulse of power produced, the pistons move four times, the crankshaft rotates twice, and ignition occurs once. These four strokes are called intake, compression, power, and exhaust, or as they’re known colloquially, suck, squeeze, bang, and blow.
Any given piston engine’s efficiency can be explained in terms of the compression ratio of the cylinder. The static compression ratio refers to the difference between the volume in the cylinder when the piston is at the bottom of the stroke — the beginning of compression — versus the volume when the piston is at the top of the stroke, or the end of compression. Calculating the dynamic compression ratio also takes into account the gasses entering and exiting the cylinder. In general, the higher the compression ratio, the better. A high compression ratio makes the most of the fuel in the tank.
The differences in these engines lie in the number and shape of the moving parts, the air and fuel intake schemes, and the ignition of the fuel. As a jumping off point for the purpose of discussing the four strokes in general, let’s look at the typical gasoline-powered internal combustion engine found in many cars, aka the Otto cycle engine.
Otto Cycle
An
Otto cycle
engine consists of one or more pistons moving within cylinders. The pistons are attached to a crankshaft via connectors that turn the up and down motion of the piston into rotational motion of the crankshaft. This rotational motion is delivered to the gearbox and on to the wheels, moving the car forward or backward.
During the intake stroke, the piston moves downward toward bottom dead center, and the cylinder fills with a fuel and air mixture from a valve at the top of the cylinder. On the compression stroke, the piston moves back up toward top dead center and squeezes the air-fuel mixture, compressing and heating it up. Power is produced when the spark plug sparks, igniting the compressed air-fuel mixture and forcing the piston back downward, which turns the crankshaft a second time. Finally, the piston moves back toward top dead center on the exhaust stroke and pushes the spent air-fuel mixture out through the exhaust port. The speed at which the engine does this is anywhere from 600 to 1,000 revolutions per minute (RPM) at idle to the point where a given consumer gasoline engine redlines — usually somewhere around the 5,500-7,000 RPM mark.
The more pistons an Otto cycle engine has, the smoother it will run. The main advantages of the Otto cycle engine are that it doesn’t burn much oil, it’s fuel efficient, and has fewer harmful emissions than Diesel engines. One of the main downsides is that these engines have a lot of moving parts, and when they fail, they tend to fail spectacularly.
Animation by MichaelFrey via
Wikimedia Commons
Atkinson Cycle
Atkinson cycle engines
have been around since the late 1800s and are commonly found in hybrid cars today. The Atkinson is a four-stroke internal combustion engine much like the Otto cycle, but there’s a big difference: the intake valve stays open during the first part of the compression stroke.
It may sound wasteful, but that air-fuel mixture isn’t just lost through the open intake — it gets pushed into the next piston, preheated and ready to burn. Since variable valve timing wasn’t a thing yet, the original Atkinson cycle engines used a linkage to vary the piston timing.
The expansion ratio of the Atkinson cycle engine is greater than the compression ratio, which means it’s more efficient. It has less power, but when paired with an electric motor, the two complement each other. Other advantages are reduced pumping losses — pumping in air and fuel and pumping out exhaust takes work, and less power is needed to perform these functions.
Diesel
Rudolph Diesel’s engine is also a four-stroke, but it does things a little differently. During the intake stroke, the cylinder only takes in air — no fuel. The compression stroke squeezes the air and heats it up to ~1300 °F. At the beginning of the power stroke, fuel is injected into the cylinder where it ignites instantly amid the hot air, forcing the piston downward. The exhaust stroke is the same — the spent air-fuel mixture is vented out the exhaust valve.
The interesting thing about the Diesel is the lack of spark plugs. They don’t need ’em — compression heats up the air enough that when the fuel is injected, it explodes without needing a spark. Diesels have better fuel economy than Otto cycle engines, but they cost more to buy and maintain than gasoline-engine cars. Diesel fuel is often more expensive, too.
Because they are compression-ignited, Diesel engines have a higher compression ratio (and longer cylinders) than gasoline engines. This produces more torque, which is good for heavy loads, but the cost comes in a slower takeoff speed.
Animation by Y_tambe via
Wikimedia Commons
Wankel rotary
Here’s where things get really interesting.
Felix Wankel developed his rotary engine in the 1950s based on a dream he had as a teenager
. Instead of pistons and cylinders, a Wankel rotary has one big rotor with three sides moving in an oval-shaped housing. The rotor is connected to an eccentric shaft, and the because of its design, the engine converts combustion pressure directly to rotating motion of the eccentric shaft.
The Wankel is a compact engine with fewer moving parts. It utilizes the same four strokes, but only in the thermodynamic sense — the rotor and the eccentric shaft are the only parts that move. The eccentric shaft acts like a crankshaft, delivering power to the drive train.
Wankel engines are smoother-running and can rev higher, but they are designed to burn oil in order to keep the internal seals lubricated. As you might imagine, this means they have terrible emissions.
On the left, a 49cc Honda Metropolitan moped engine. On the right, LiquidPiston’s 70cc X-Mini engine. Image via
LiquidPiston
Rotary X: An Inside-Out Wankel
The jaw-dropping thing about the rotary x-engine is the amount of power relative to the size. For example, LiquidPiston demonstrated their engine to the Army by building a Compact Artillery Power System (CAPS) generator to power the digital fire control system on an M777 howitzer.
Today, the system requires a generator that needs a truck to move it around. LiquidPiston built one that weighs 41 pounds (18.6 kg) and is roughly the size of a gaming PC. The Army was so impressed that
they awarded LiquidPiston a Small Business Innovation Research contract
to further develop the generator for “a range of military use cases”.
If you want to understand how the Rotary X-engine works, take almost everything you know about the Wankel and turn it inside out. The Wankel has a triangular rotor in an oval housing, and the Rotary X has an oval-shaped rotor in a triangular housing. Both engines only have two major moving parts — the rotor and the shaft.
Each of the three housing chambers in the Rotary X is comparable to a piston. The intake and exhaust ports and chambers are built into the rotor itself. For every revolution of the rotor, there are three combustion events. This engine is able to be so small and efficient because LiquidPiston redesigned the thermodynamic cycle to squeeze out more power. The video below explains it quite well.
Will we ever see these engines in consumer cars? Maybe someday, but a lot has to happen before then. More than likely, it would take a major manufacturer to adopt the technology and put it in a car the way Mazda put Wankels in RX-7s and 8s. Even then, it’s not guaranteed to take off, although LiquidPiston says they are suited to be either the primary engine or part of a hybrid system.
LiquidPiston are offering
x-mini development kits
starting at $30,000, but you have to promise not to reverse-engineer it. However, there’s probably enough information out there to make a 3D printable version, so we’ll be waiting to see what you come up with. | 119 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322582",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15T15:26:24",
"content": "Looks like a slightly modified Wankel engine, complete with all of the problems associated with them (apex seals, poor emissions due to oil/fuel mix required to lubricate engine, etc.). All they did w... | 1,760,373,183.770594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/minimal-mqtt-with-micropython/ | Minimal MQTT With Micropython | Chris Lott | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"how-to",
"Slider",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"AM2302",
"ESP32",
"home automation",
"micropython",
"mqtt",
"NodeMCU"
] | I have been meaning to play around with MQTT for some time now, and finally decided to take the plunge one evening last week. I had three cheap home temperature and humidity sensors, and was bothered that they often didn’t agree. Surprisingly, while the analog one had a calibration adjustment in the back, I have no idea how to calibrate the two digital ones. I took this as a sign that it was time to learn MQTT and be able to install my own, accurate sensors. Of course, I began by ordering the cheapest sensors I could find, but I can always upgrade later on.
Three Cheap Sensors
While we have written quite a bit about MQTT in Hackaday, I had to go all the way back to 2016 to find
this introductory four-part series
by Elliot Williams. Five years is a long time in the tech world, but I decided to give it a try anyway.
Building a Broker
The
first article
worked perfectly, although instead of a Raspberry Pi, I used an old desktop that my wife was about to throw away. After wiping out Windows, doubling the RAM, and installing Debian, I had a new lab machine up and running. I installed the
mosquitto
packages from the standard repositories, and used them without issues to follow along with this article (I briefly tested on an Ubuntu and Mac machine, too). Installation is as easy as:
Debian and Ubuntu
sudo apt install mosquitto
sudo apt install mosquitto-clients
MacOS
brew install mosquitto
Networked Nodes
The trouble began with the
second article
. Elliot used an ESP-8266 module and NodeMCU. I had been wanting to give NodeMCU a try, so I plunged ahead. While I didn’t have any 8266 modules on-hand, I did have an ESP32 DevKitC module. In the past I brought up these and similar modules running GRBL, Micropython, and bare metal — “How difficult could this be?”, I thought to myself.
Well, in fact it proved to be quite difficult. I proceeded to build NodeMCU custom images online, was able to make the
esptool.py
talk to and program my board. But try as I might, and I tried for hours, I could not get my board to boot up without errors. The board programmed and hashed correctly, but always gave errors on boot. I read many similar reports from users online, so at least I am not alone in my problem in my frustration.
I reached out to a couple of professional programmers, and the advice I got was to move on. They suggested that NodeMCU is outdated and weren’t surprised I was having difficulties. I am confident that I could have eventually made NodeMCU to work — evidence points to a hardware bootup issue (I/O pin or setting), the online image was being loaded at the incorrect address, or it was just plain wrong. But after so many wasted hours, I wanted to experiment with MQTT, not become a NodeMCU expert.
Having used Micropython before, and seeing there was an MQTT module I could just import, I decided to take this approach. The toolchain setup is a bit involved, but the
instructions
in the Micropython Github repository were easy enough to follow.
Information about the MQTT server in Micropython can be found
here
, and I found this two-part tutorial by [boneskull] quite helpful as well:
Get on the Good Foot, part 1
Get on the Good Foot, part 2
Once everything was all installed, I could pop into a REPL and start programming. I typically use
rshell
when using Micropython on embedded systems:
pip install rshell
rshell --editor nvim --port /dev/cu.usbserial-1410 --baud 115200
If you prefer to connect wirelessly, there is also the
WebREPL
method which I tested and seemed to work fine. And of course you can just connect with a terminal emulator but file saving and editing becomes an issue.
I made my demo sensor node along the same lines as the one in the original article. See
this Github repository
which contains the resulting Micropython flash drive. Copy this to your board, editing the MQTT and WiFi details:
MOGI_ID = 'esp32a-mogi'
MOGI_BROKER = 'underdog.lan'
WIFI_SSID = 'Covid-19-Laboratory'
WIFI_PASSWORD = 'yourpasswordhere'
Enter the REPL using
rshell
or whatever method you prefer, and start the node by running
mystation()
. Once it’s tested out, you can make a
main.py
file so it will auto-start on boot if desired. (
Note:
MOGI
is the Korean word for mosquito.)
Control and Clients
I didn’t go too deep into the
third article
in the series. I did find a couple of iOS apps which played well with my server out of the box.
EasyMQTT
MQTTool
Power and Privacy
I think the meat of the
final article
is still valid. I haven’t put my test sensor node on batteries yet, so I can’t confirm these numbers. That will be a project for another day.
All in all, the basic material in Elliot’s original series is still relevant today. Not surprisingly, the software details have changed a little over the years. Rather than digging myself into a deeper hole with NodeMCU, I switched up and got a similar demo up and running with Micropython. Now that I’m hooked on MQTT, I’ll be delving deeper into battery powered nodes and pretty graphical displays of data before long. My ultimate plan is to hack my home’s automation network. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323487",
"author": "Menga",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T15:18:30",
"content": "Were you able to set QoS in micropython?When i made my MQTT server i discover you can use an ESP as server, and i was able to replace my super expensive beaglebone black with an ESP12 and save some money.I ... | 1,760,373,183.289851 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/this-stackable-pi-portable-is-ready-to-rumble/ | This Stackable Pi Portable Is Ready To Rumble | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cyberpunk",
"portable computer",
"rugged raspberry pi",
"ruggedized"
] | The proliferation of desktop 3D printing and powerful single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi has given rise to an absolute explosion of small bespoke computing devices. Whether or not you think these cobbled together devices are close enough to Gibson’s original vision to call them cyberdecks, it’s a remarkable shift from the norm that brings us closer to the “High Tech, Low Life” philosophy so prevalent in cyberpunk literature and films.
[Jay Doscher] has been on the front lines of this movement for some time now, producing several very popular designs.
His latest creation leans hard into the more utilitarian aspects of the cyberpunk ethos
, inspired more by the grit of
The Expanse
than the lusciously upholstered interiors of
Star Trek’s
Enterprise-D. The culmination of lessons learned over the last several years, the new
Kuiper Deck
is cheaper and easier to build than his previous designs, thanks at least in part to the fact that you no longer need to go out and get an expensive Pelican case.
Like his previous designs, the
Kuiper Deck
makes extensive use of 3D printed components. But this time around, [Jay] is using an array of smaller pieces that are bolted together on an acrylic front panel. This not only means the project is compatible with a wider array of machines,
such as the Prusa Mini
, but it’s also easier to print as larger parts have an annoying tendency to warp. The downside is that you’ll need some way to get the acrylic panel cut to shape, though you can buy one through him if you don’t have any way to get it made locally.
In place of the Pelican case his previous designs used as an enclosure, [Jay] has found a heavy-duty stackable plastic tote available from McMaster Carr for $12 USD. It’s not particularly nice looking, nor is it waterproof. But that’s also sort of the point. If you’re just trying to put together a small computer that you can toss around the shop and not have to worry about breaking, the Pelican case was always a bit overkill.
The electronics bill of materials is similarly sparse, comprising mainly of the Raspberry Pi 4, a cooling fan, and a 10 inch LCD from Pimoroni. Everything gets screwed to the rear of the panel and connected with pre-made cables, making assembly very simple. That said, there’s still plenty of room inside the case for custom hardware should you want to put something custom together such as a mobile software defined radio rig.
[Jay] created the original Raspberry Pi Field Unit in 2015
, but it wasn’t until he
unveiled the revised Raspberry Pi Recovery Kit in 2019
that the idea of sticking a Raspberry Pi into a Pelican case became something of hacker meme. It sounds like the
Kuiper Deck
is going to be his final word on the subject for now, but it’s a safe bet we’ll be
seeing folks putting together similar builds for years to come
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323430",
"author": "jalnl",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T13:29:12",
"content": "I’d say add some nice batteries in all that empty space and have a portable device.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6323495",
"author": "RW ver 0.0... | 1,760,373,183.130647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/17/custom-firmware-for-ikeas-orsala-lamp/ | Custom Firmware For IKEA’s ORSALA Lamp | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ikea",
"ikea hacks",
"lamp"
] | These days, home appliances are equally as likely to have soft buttons and rotary encoders as they are to have a simple old clunk/clunk power switch and an analog knob for controls. This is all well and good if the device aligns with your personal philosophy about how such controls should work; otherwise, it’s absolutely maddening. [j-zero] ran into this problem with their ORSALA lamp from IKEA,
and set about rectifying the problem with some custom firmware.
The ORSALA lamp uses a rotary encoder for setting both brightness and color temperature, with a button to toggle modes. A long press is required to switch the lamp off. The custom firmware modifies this behaviour, such that the lamp can be switched on and off with a simple button press. Turning the encoder modifies brightness, and turning it to minimum switches the lamp off too. Meanwhile, the less commonly used color temperature setting can be modified by using the button while adjusting the encoder.
The hack was executed by reprogramming the ORSALA’s onboard microcontroller, the STM8S003F3P6, via its SWIM interface. The pads for the interface are easily located on the board, making the hack easy. Other than the inputs, the lamp packs separate TTP932 LED drivers for the warm white and cool white LEDs, making it easy to code a custom firmware to handle all the necessary functions.
It’s a great example of a hacker taking control of their own device and remaking it to suit their needs. Of course, if you want to go for another hacker trope,
just stuff a Raspberry Pi in there instead! | 29 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323385",
"author": "src1138",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T10:36:07",
"content": "Very nicely done – and extra cool that you just reprogrammed the existing mc rather than stuffing a dev board in there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,373,183.833872 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/arduino-announces-board-based-on-raspberry-silicon/ | Arduino Announces Board Based On Raspberry Silicon | Lewin Day | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"pico",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | The Raspberry Pi Pico burst onto the microcontroller scene last month with much fanfare, and is already popping up in projects left, right and center. Notable for its high clock speed and exciting IO features, it’s a breath of fresh air in a market slowly weaning itself onto ARM architectures and away from 8-bit staples. Not one to miss out on a slice of the action,
Arduino have announced their own upcoming board based on the Pico’s RP2040 chip.
The board is named the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, a moniker that’s not just a mouthful but likely to be confused with existing Arduino Nano products. It sports several differences to the Raspberry Pi Pico, namely packing WiFi, Bluetooth, and an IMU on board which should make developing motion-sensitive and IoT projects easier, particularly in cases where the Pico’s flexible IO could be useful.
Naturally, Arduino IDE integration will be a major plus point that gets many makers on board, and we can imagine there will be swift development of libraries leveraging the RP2040’s PIO subsystem. If you still haven’t gotten the low down on the Raspberry Pi Pico yet, though, never fear –
our own [Elliot Williams] can tell you everything you need to know!
[Thanks to Darrell Flenniken for the tip,
via Tom’s Hardware
] | 62 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323328",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T06:26:25",
"content": "i was wondering what arduino’s plan to stay relevant was, and here it is. now esp32 might be on the chopping block.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,373,183.924265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/software-challenges-solution-shows-reverse-engineering-in-action/ | Software Challenge’s Solution Shows Reverse Engineering In Action | Donald Papp | [
"how-to",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"challenge",
"decompiler",
"disassembly",
"reverse engineering"
] | [0xricksanchez] participated in a software reverse-engineering challenge and
recently wrote up the solution, and in so doing also documented the process used to discover it
. The challenge was called
Devil’s Swapper
, and consisted of a small binary blob that output a short message when executed. The goal of the challenge? Discover the secret key and the secret message within. [0xricksanchez]’s writeup, originally intended just as a personal record, ended up doing an excellent job of showing how a lot of reverse engineering tools and processes get applied to software in a practical way.
What’s also great about [0xricksanchez]’s writeup is that it uses standard tools and plenty of screenshots to show what is being done, while also explaining why those actions are being chosen and what is being learned. It’s easy to follow the thought process as things progress from gathering information, to chasing leads, and finally leveraging what’s been learned. It’s a fascinating look into the process of applying the reverse engineering mindset to software, and a good demonstration of the tools. Give it a read, and see how far you can follow along before learning something new. Want more? Make sure you have checked out the Hackaday 2020 Remoticon videos on
reverse engineering firmware
, and doing
the same for PCBs
. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323337",
"author": "Innocent Bystander",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T07:01:52",
"content": "I don’t like underrating these works, but when I saw the title what I was expecting was a real world reverse engineering case applied in a “software development” competition. Instead this is a ... | 1,760,373,184.214346 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/hackaday-links-february-16-2021/ | Hackaday Links: February 16, 2021 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"crypto mining",
"Google TOS",
"gpu",
"hackaday links",
"laptops",
"light box",
"macrophotography",
"Mars 2020",
"navy",
"patents",
"Perseverance",
"sky crane",
"UFO"
] | This is it; after a relatively short transit time of eight months, the Mars 2020 mission carrying the Perseverance rover has almost reached the Red Planet. The passage has been pretty calm, but that’s all about to end on Thursday as the Entry Descent and Landing phase begins.
The “Seven Minutes of Terror”
, which includes a supersonic parachute deployment, machine-vision-assisted landing site navigation, and a “sky-crane” to touch the rover down gently in Jezero crater, will all transpire autonomously 480 million km away. We’ll only learn about how it goes after the eleven-minute propagation delay between Mars and Earth, but we’ll be glued to
the NASA YouTube live stream
nonetheless. Coverage starts on February 18, 2021 at 11:15 AM Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8). We’ve created
a handy time zone converter and countdown
so you don’t miss the show.
As amazing as the engineering on display Thursday will be, it looks like the US Navy has plans to unveil technology that will make NASA as relevant as a buggy-whip company was at the turn of the last century. That is, if you believe
the “UFO Patents”
are for real. The inventor listed on these patents, Dr. Salvatore Pais,
apparently really exists
; he’s had peer-reviewed papers published in mainstream journals as recently as 2019. Patents listed to Dr. Pais stretch back to 2004, when he invented a laser augmented turbojet propulsion system, which was assigned to defense contractor Northrup Grumman. The rest of the patents are more recent, all seemingly assigned to the US Navy, and cover things like a “high-frequency gravitational wave generator” and a “craft using an inertial mass-reduction device”. There’s also a patent that seems to cover a compact fusion generator. If any of this is remotely true, and we remain highly skeptical, the good news is that maybe we’ll get things like
the Epstein Drive
. Of course, that didn’t end well for Solomon Epstein. Or for Manéo Jung-Espinoza.
Of course, if you’re going to capitalize on all these alien patents, you’re going to need some funding. If you missed out on the GME short squeeze megabucks, fret not — there’s still plenty of speculative froth to go around. You might want to try your hand at cryptocurrency mining, but with GPUs becoming near-unobtainium, you’ll have to get creative, like throwing together
a crypto mining farm with a bunch of laptops
. It looks like the Weibo user who posted the photos has laptops propped up on every available surface of their apartment, and there’s also a short video showing a more industrial setup with rack after rack of laptops. These aren’t exactly throw-aways from some grade school, either — they appear to be brand new laptops that retail for like $1,300 a pop. The ironic part is that the miner says this is better than the sweatshop he used to work in. Pretty sure with all that power being dissipated in his house, it’ll still be a sweatshop come summer.
A lot of people have recently learned the hard lesson that when the service is free, you’re the product, and that what Google giveth, Google can taketh away in a heartbeat, and for no discernable reason.
Indie game studio Re-Logic and its lead developer Andrew Spinks found that out last week
when a vaguely worded terms-of-service violation notice arrived from Google. The developer of the popular game
Terraria
was at a loss to understand the TOS violation, which resulted in a loss of access to all the company’s Google services. He spent three weeks going down the hell hole of Google’s automated support system, getting nothing but canned messages that were either irrelevant to his case or technically impossible; kinda hard to check your Gmail account when Google has shut it down. The lesson here is that building a business around services that can be taken away on a whim is perhaps not the best business plan.
And finally, we watched with great interest Big Clive’s secrets to getting those crisp, clean macro shots that he uses to reverse-engineer PCBs. We’ve always wondered how he accomplished that, and figured it involved some fancy ring-lights around the camera lens or a specialized lightbox. Either way, we figured Clive had to plow a bunch of that sweet YouTube cash into the setup, but we were surprised to learn that in true hacker fashion, it’s really just a translucent food container ringed with an LED strip, with a hole cut in the top for his cellphone camera. It may be simple, but you can’t argue with the results. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323247",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T00:15:09",
"content": "In my head I’ve always referred to that effect as “magnetic current”. It’s hard to observe because the effect is unmeasurable in most circuits due to the drift velocity of electrons being so damn slo... | 1,760,373,184.263248 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/making-a-toothbrush-from-scratch-right-down-to-the-bristles/ | Making A Toothbrush From Scratch, Right Down To The Bristles | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bespoke brush",
"machining",
"toothbrush"
] | Most of us probably get by with a toothbrush costing a couple dollars at most, made of injection-moulded plastic for delicate, tender mouths. Maybe if you’re a real cleantooth, you have a fancy buzzy electric one. We’d wager few are machining their own bespoke toothbrushes from scratch, but if you want some inspiration,
[W&M Levsha] is doing just that.
Much of the work will be familiar to die hard machining enthusiasts. There’s careful crafting of the wood handle, involving a stackup of multiple stained and varnished woods – in this case, hornbeam being the paler of the two, and amaranth providing that rich red color. The stem is a stylish stainless steel piece, elegantly bent to a tasteful curve. Finally, the assembly of the brush head alone is worth the watch. It’s custom made – with a steel backing plate and fishing wire bristles custom cut with an automated jig using stepper motors. We’re suspect fishing wire is not rated for dental use, but the nylon strands are at least in the ballpark of what regular toothbrushes use.
While we probably wouldn’t slide this one betwixt our lips without consulting a dental professional first, it’s a great video for learning about what it takes to make beautiful bespoke objects in the workshop. We’ve seen elegant work from [W&M Levsha] before, too –
in the form of a delightfully eclectic cap gun lighter.
Video after the break. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323201",
"author": "Batutek",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T22:10:01",
"content": "So delightfull to watch",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6323204",
"author": "peter",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T22:28:15",
"content": "Beau... | 1,760,373,184.597221 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/13/open-source-its-the-little-things/ | Open Source: It’s The Little Things | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"freecad",
"gimp",
"inkscape",
"open source",
"software"
] | I use open source software almost exclusively; at least on the desktop — the phone is another matter, sadly. And I do
a lot
of stuff with and on computers. Folks outside of the free software scene are still a little surprised when small programs are free to use and modify, but they’re downright skeptical when it comes to the big works of professional software. It’s one thing to write
xeyes
, but how about something to rival Photoshop, or Altium?
Of course, we all know the answer — mostly. None of the “big” software packages work exactly the same as their closed-source counterparts, often missing a few features here and gaining a few there, or following a different workflow. That’s OK, different closed-source programs work differently as well. I’m not here to argue that GIMP is better than Photoshop, but rather to point out what I really love about open software: it caters to the little guys and gals, the niche users, and the specialists. Or rather, it lets them cater to themselves.
I just started learning
FreeCAD
for a CNC milling project, and it’s awesome. I’ve used Fusion 360, and although FreeCAD isn’t “the same” as Fusion 360, it has most of the features that I need. But it’s the quirky features that set it apart.
The central workflow is to pick a “workbench” where specific tasks are carried out, and then you take your part to each bench, operate on it, and then move to the next one you need. But the critical bit here is that a good number of the workbenches are
contributed
to the open project by people who have had particular niche needs. For me, for instance, I’ve done most of my 3D modelling for 3D printing using
OpenSCAD
, which is kinda niche, but also the language that underpins Thingiverse’s customizer functionality. Does Fusion 360 seamlessly import my OpenSCAD work?
Nope
. Does FreeCAD? Yup, because some other nerd was in my shoes.
And then I started thinking of the other big free projects. Inkscape has plugins that let you create Gcode to drive CNC mills or strange plotters. Why? Because nerds love
eggbots
. GIMP has plugins for every imaginable image transformation — things that 99% of graphic artists will never use, and so Adobe has no incentive to incorporate.
Open source lets you scratch your own itch, and share your solution with others. The features of for-pay, closed-source software are driven by the masses: “is this a feature that enough of our customers want?” The features of open-source software are driven by the freaky ideas of nerds just like me. Vive la différence!
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
! | 108 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321887",
"author": "r",
"timestamp": "2021-02-13T15:09:10",
"content": "I hate to be that guy, but I have only one word: Yes",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6322430",
"author": "Fred",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15... | 1,760,373,184.53178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/13/experiment-with-sfp-modules-with-this-handy-breakout/ | Experiment With SFP Modules With This Handy Breakout | Lewin Day | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"fiber optic",
"fibre optic",
"sfp"
] | While most home networking hardware comes with network ports baked in from the factory, industrial grade gear is typically more versatile. Using standards like Small Form-factor Pluggable, or SFP, network switches can be used with a variety of transport mediums by simply swapping tranceivers in and out. These network devices typically handle the nitty gritty of transmitting Ethernet over fiber optics, and for those keen to experiment,
this breakout may come in handy.
The board design comes complete with an SFP receptacle, allowing a variety of compatible receivers to be plugged in for experimentation. With the standard using differential signalling, the board carries hardware to allow the transceiver to be fed with single-ended signals instead,
though a differential version is available too
. The board can be used for transmitting different signals over fiber, outside just Ethernet, or used as a simple way to reprogram SFP modules via I2C. The latter can be useful to get around DRM in network switches that attempt to lock out generic transceiver modules.
It’s a useful piece of hardware for the fiber optic tinkerer and network admin alike. You might also find it useful if you’re
building your own 10-gigabit network at home
! | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321859",
"author": "Pyrofer",
"timestamp": "2021-02-13T12:12:54",
"content": "Neat! I remember making one of these nearly a decade ago for experimenting at work. I built two of my own Fibre testers using the boards I made up, they communicated over the fibre link so each end saw th... | 1,760,373,184.650035 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/13/tuning-fork-keeps-this-throwback-digital-clock-ticking/ | Tuning Fork Keeps This Throwback Digital Clock Ticking | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"440 Hz",
"clock",
"inductor",
"oscillator",
"retro",
"tuning fork"
] | Whatever kind of clock you’re interested in building, you’re going to need to build an oscillator of some sort. Whether it be a pendulum, a balance wheel, or the atomic transitions of cesium or rubidium, something needs to go back and forth in a predictable way to form the timebase of the clock. And while it might not make the best timepiece in the world,
a tuning fork certainly fits the bill
and makes for a pretty interesting clock build.
One of the nice things about this build is that [Kris Slyka] got their inspiration from
a tuning fork clock that we covered a while back
— we love it when someone takes a cool concept and makes it their own. While both clocks use a 440 Hz tuning fork — that’s an A above middle C for the musically inclined — [Kris] changed up the excitation method for their build. She used a pair of off-the-shelf inductors, placed near the ends of each arm and bridged by a strong neodymium magnet to both sense the 440-Hz vibrations and to provide the kick needed to keep the fork vibrating.
As for the aesthetic of the build, we think [Kris] really nailed it. Using through-hole components, old-school seven-segment displays, and a home-etched PCB, she was able to capture a retro look that really works. The RS-232 port and the bell jar enclosure complete the feel, although we’re not sure about the custom character set [Kris] designed — it’s cool and all, but makes it hard for anyone else to read without a little practice. Regardless, this is a fun build, and we’d imagine the continuous tone coming from the clock is pretty pleasing. | 37 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321847",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2021-02-13T10:48:13",
"content": "So will the next revision be inside a “double wall borosilicate glass coffee mug” covered on the open end with a cap/base of thermablok aerogel insulation or even just expanded polystyrene. Add a few heatin... | 1,760,373,184.336698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/everything-old-is-new-again-another-6502-board-is-born/ | Everything Old Is New Again: Another 6502 Board Is Born | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"basic",
"retrocomputing"
] | [Jeff] says that designing your own 6502 computer is a rite of passage, and he wanted the experience. His
board
can accept a real 6502 or the newer CMOS variant that is still available. There are a few modern conveniences such as USB power and provisions for using a USB serial port.
We are spoiled today with microcontrollers having everything in one package, but with this class of CPU you need your own memory, I/O devices, and other support chips. [Jeff] took a traditional approach, but picked components that are still easy to obtain. Some designs now push all the support functions to a more modern processor like an Arduino, which is very simple to do, but doesn’t feel as authentic, somehow.
For software, there are several versions of BASIC, one based on Ohio Scientific’s variant. There’s also a monitor image. With 32K of RAM, this would have been a respectable machine in its day. The BASIC interpreter dates from 1977. There are plenty of old BASIC games from those days and [Jeff] shows a famous version of poker running on the board. The 6502’s assembly language isn’t that bad, either.
We love these old retro builds. If you don’t fancy all the support chips you can, as we mentioned,
use another processor
. Or, try an
FPGA
. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321857",
"author": "justsayin",
"timestamp": "2021-02-13T12:10:08",
"content": "Could we get a quick rundown of the specs, w/o having to Wade through a video, please? 32K RAM is all that was divulged there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,373,184.382085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/mit-prints-robots-with-lasers/ | MIT Prints Robots With Lasers | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Laser Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"CSAIL",
"laser cutter",
"laserfactory",
"mit",
"mit csail"
] | MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) wants to
convert laser cutters into something more
. By attaching a head to a commercial laser cutter and adding software, they combine the functions of a cutter, a conductive printer, and a pick and place system. The idea is to enable construction of entire devices such as robots and drones.
The concept, called
LaserFactory
, sounds like a Star Trek-style replicator, but it doesn’t create things like circuit elements and motors. It simply picks them up, places them, and connects them using silver conductive ink. You can get a good idea of how it works by watching the video below.
While it is true that all of this technology exists today, there’s some synergy in having them all together. For example, the video shows etching grooves into acrylic with the laser, filling the grooves with silver ink, and then using the laser to set the silver forming a sort of printed circuit board. Then the pick and place can put components down which the machine can laser solder into place.
Of course, it remains to be seen how durable this construction is. Also, it is obvious that you are going to have a limited palette of options depending on what components are available. That is, you can’t build a tank with quadcopter parts.
We’ve seen
laser soldering rigs before
. Homebrew
pick and place
machines are around, too. It doesn’t seem too far a stretch that you could fabricate your own version of this with a laser module, a paste extruder, and a few other odds and ends. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321801",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-02-13T03:52:53",
"content": "Skynet will be able to construct its own robots, thanks to this technology.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6321803",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",... | 1,760,373,184.697642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/your-own-11-2-ghz-radio-telescope/ | Your Own 11.2 GHz Radio Telescope | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Science",
"Space"
] | [
"Radio Astronomy",
"Radio Telescope",
"satellite TV"
] | Modern life has its conveniences. Often, those conveniences lead to easier hacks. A great example of that is the rise of satellite television and the impact it has had on
amateur radio telescopes
. There was a time when building a dish and a suitable low noise amplifier was a big deal. Now they are commodity parts you can get anywhere.
The antenna in use is a 1.2-meter prime focus dish. Some TV dishes use an offset feed, but that makes it harder to aim for use in a radio telescope. In addition to off-the-shelf antenna and RF components, an AirSpy software-defined radio picks up the frequency-shifted output from the antenna. There is more about the software side of the build in a
follow-up post
. We liked that this was a pretty meaty example of using GNU Radio.
A little math predicts that the telescope will see about 1.45 degrees of sky in the half-power bandwidth. Since coax is very lossy at 11.2 GHz, a converter sits right at the feed point and shifts the incoming signal down to about 1.4 GHz. The signal then goes through a bandpass filter, an amplifier, and on to the AirSpy.
As radio telescopes go, 1.2 meters isn’t huge, though you can easily see the sun and the moon transit. The post says you should be able to hear the Milky Way, but that other stellar radio sources may be too faint for the modest equipment.
We see a lot more
radio telescope projects
these days. Even a
relatively small set up
can do some things. | 26 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321778",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2021-02-13T01:03:25",
"content": "How long before the FCC auctions off that band to wireless telecoms?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6321789",
"author": "Anthony Selby",... | 1,760,373,184.775674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/ikea-shelf-becomes-kid-friendly-mp3-player/ | IKEA Shelf Becomes Kid Friendly MP3 Player | Lewin Day | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"NodeMCU",
"rfid",
"vs1053"
] | IKEA’s flatpack furniture has long been popular among makers for its modular nature and low cost, making it ideal for whacky experiments and custom builds. [Claus] is one such person,
and built a fun MP3 player for his kids out of a basic LACK shelf.
The music is handled by an NodeMCU ESP8266, working in concert with a VS1053 audio board. The VS1053 is a highly capable chip, capable of decoding a variety of raw and compressed audio formats as well as MIDI, but here it’s used to read SD cards and play MP3s. An RC522 is used to read RFID cards to trigger various tracks, allowing kids to choose a song by simply placing a tag on the shelf. A cheap PAM8302 amplifier and speaker are used to output the music. All the hardware is installed neatly inside the LACK shelf, an easy job thanks to the primarily cardboard construction.
RFID cards are more fun than we normally give them credit for,
and we’ve seen a few builds along similar lines to this one.
Video of [Claus’s] child rocking out after the break. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321713",
"author": "Gösta",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T21:36:42",
"content": "It could use some more cowbell.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6321726",
"author": "Alberto Fujimori (@bob_smithey)",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12... | 1,760,373,184.826276 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/vga-without-the-hassle-from-your-playstation-one/ | VGA Without The Hassle, From Your PlayStation One | Jenny List | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"ps1",
"sony",
"vga"
] | The original Sony PlayStation was a nifty console for its day; that grey box may have only had a 33 MHz MIPS processor and 4 MB of RAM, but for the early to mid 1990s its games were some of the best to be had. From the days when it would have sat under a family TV with a composite video or RF connection, you might expect that the PlayStation would require some form of converter box to drive a higher quality monitor. As [Wesk] found out though,
present on the PS1 mainboard are all the required H and V sync as well as RGB video signals to drive a VGA monitor at 15 kHz
.
It’s a wallow in the past for anyone who spent the 1990s using their SMD soldering skills to install modchips in PS1s, but it’s pleasing to find that those sync lines aren’t only available from tricky-to-solder IC pins, instead they appear on handy pads. Along with RGB lines from the normal video output they’re brought out via lightweight co-ax to a VGA socket that sits in a 3D printed bracket in the space where a removed system link port would have been. A small trim of the internal shield is requited to clear the new socket, leaving the VGA port on the back of the reassembled console looking for all the world as though it was installed in the Sony factory. Given how simple this mod turned out to be and the sharpness of the resulting image, it’s surprising that this wasn’t tried back in the day. Perhaps we were all too busy playing
Wipeout
.
While you’re idly rekindling your interest in a PS1, should you buy one then
perhaps you’ll need a modchip
.
Thanks [John] for the tip. | 47 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321682",
"author": "doragasu",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T20:38:03",
"content": "The problem with these mods, is that monitors supporting 15 kHz are extremely uncommon unless you grab your time machine and travel back to the eighties.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,373,184.906884 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/europa-decision-delivers-crushing-blow-to-nasas-space-launch-system-sls/ | Europa Decision Delivers Crushing Blow To NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"commercial space",
"Europa",
"Falcon Heavy",
"nasa",
"sls",
"Space Launch System",
"SpaceX"
] | These days, NASA deciding to launch one of their future missions on a commercial rocket is hardly a surprise. After all, the agency is now willing to fly their astronauts on boosters and spacecraft built and operated by SpaceX. Increased competition has made getting to space cheaper and easier than ever before, so it’s only logical that NASA would reap the benefits of a market they helped create.
So the recent announcement that
NASA’s
Europa Clipper
mission will officially fly on a commercial launch vehicle
might seem like more of the same. But this isn’t just any mission. It’s a flagship interplanetary probe designed to study and map Jupiter’s moon Europa in unprecedented detail, and will serve as a pathfinder for a future mission that will actually touch down on the moon’s frigid surface. Due to the extreme distance from Earth and the intense radiation of the Jovian system, it’s considered one of the most ambitious missions NASA has ever attempted.
With no margin for error and a total cost of more than $4 billion, the fact that NASA trusts a commercially operated booster to carry this exceptionally valuable payload is significant in itself. But perhaps even more importantly, up until now,
Europa Clipper
was mandated by Congress to fly on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). This was at least partly due to the incredible power of the SLS, which would have put the
Clipper
on the fastest route towards Jupiter. But more pragmatically, it was also seen as a way to ensure that work on the Shuttle-derived super heavy-lift rocket would continue at a swift enough pace to be ready for the mission’s 2024 launch window.
But with that deadline fast approaching, and engineers feeling the pressure to put the final touches on the spacecraft before it gets mated to the launch vehicle, NASA appealed to Congress for the flexibility to fly
Europa Clipper
on a commercial rocket. The agency’s official line is that they can’t spare an SLS launch for the Europa mission while simultaneously supporting the Artemis Moon program, but by allowing the
Clipper
to fly on another rocket in the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress effectively removed one of the only justifications that still existed for the troubled Space Launch System.
To Europa, Eventually
There’s no question that the SLS, at least on paper, would have been the ideal vehicle to carry the
Europa Clipper
on its epic journey. The megarocket would have enough energy to send the roughly 6,065 kg (13,371 lb) probe on a direct trajectory towards Jupiter during its closest pass in 2024, which would bring the planet within 611 million kilometers (380 million miles) of Earth. On this flight path, it would take a little less than three years for the
Clipper
to enter orbit around Jupiter and begin its scientific mission.
Europa as seen by the Galileo spacecraft.
Unfortunately, there’s simply no replacement for the SLS in terms of raw power. While future vehicles from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance could be compelling options, they simply won’t be ready in time for the 2024 launch window. Even if they’re operational by then, which is by no means a guarantee, they certainly won’t have enough flights logged to prove their reliability. NASA could conceivably wait until one of the later launch windows in 2025 or 2026 to give commercial operators more time to bring their next-generation heavy lift vehicles online, but at least for now, that’s not in the cards.
So how do you get to Europa without the massive boost provided by the SLS? In a word, slowly. While there was some previous speculation that the spacecraft could be fitted with a small “kick stage” to make up for the reduced initial velocity,
the preliminary launch contract information provided by NASA
specifies that the spacecraft will make use of gravity assist maneuvers by flying what’s known as a Mars-Earth-Gravity-Assist (MEGA) trajectory. This will allow the
Europa Clipper
to reach its destination without any hardware modifications, but the downside of this complex orbital dance is that the journey will take more than twice as long to complete, with the probe not reaching Europa until 2030 at the earliest.
No determination has yet been made as to which rocket will ultimately launch the
Clipper
, and the decision isn’t likely to come until next year after the completion of a formal selection process. That said, as it has the highest payload capacity of any currently operational rocket in the world, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy is far and away the most likely choice. Even still, it will potentially have to launch in the as of yet unused fully expendable mode.
So Long, Shelby
This first public acknowledgement that NASA is no longer planning to fly
Europa Clipper
on the Space Launch System comes just days after Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, one of the SLS program’s staunchest supporters, announced he would be retiring next year. Concerned that
President Obama’s 2010 cancellation of the Constellation program
would mean the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama would no longer be the center of America’s spaceflight industry, Senator Shelby fought hard to
make sure SLS would be a flagship program to rival the Saturn V and Space Shuttle:
While few would complain about politicians taking an active interest in space exploration, and keeping hundreds of high-paying aerospace jobs in his district was a commendable achievement, Shelby’s support of NASA came at a cost. He has been vehemently opposed to NASA’s partnerships with commercial launch providers, going so far as to call the agency’s early contracts with companies like SpaceX a “faith-based initiative” and “a welfare program for the commercial space industry” as the fledgling aerospace firms had yet to demonstrate they could actually build a booster capable of reaching orbit.
It’s a safe bet that Senator Shelby’s replacement will take a similarly bullish approach to Marshall Space Flight Center, but it’s difficult to imagine they will be able to ignore the leaps and bounds made by commercial launch providers in the last few years. As private industry rapidly iterates through cutting-edge engine and booster technology, the Space Launch System’s reliance on Shuttle-derived hardware conceived in the 1970s only becomes harder to defend.
Difficult Decisions Ahead
Between the embarrassing “Green Run” failure in January
, the loss of the
Europa Clipper
mission, and the retirement of Senator Shelby, the future of the Space Launch System has never been more uncertain. Add in a White House that’s far more concerned with fighting a deadly pandemic than leaving new boot prints on Mars or the Moon, and it’s not hard to see how the oft-delayed and incredibly expensive program might finally be running out of road.
To be sure, the SLS will fly at least once. NASA and Boeing are getting ready to repeat the failed engine test in the next few weeks, and too much time and money has been invested to not go ahead with the Artemis I mission. Even if NASA ultimately decides to wind down the SLS program in favor of further commercial cooperation, the shakedown flight is just as much a test of the Orion crew vehicle. With several more Orion capsules already under construction for future Artemis missions, development of the Apollo-like capsule is
almost certainly going to continue with or without the SLS
. | 110 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321618",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T18:15:24",
"content": "“While future vehicles from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance could be compelling options, they simply won’t be ready in time for the 2024 launch window. ”And the SLS would be?B^)",
"parent_... | 1,760,373,185.692957 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/hackaday-podcast-105-486-doom-on-fpga-how-thick-is-your-filament-raspberry-pi-speaks-android-auto-and-were-headed-to-mars/ | Hackaday Podcast 105: 486 Doom On FPGA, How Thick Is Your Filament, Raspberry Pi Speaks Android Auto, And We’re Headed To Mars | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams unpack great hacks of the past week. We loves seeing the TIL311 — a retro display in a DIP package — exquisitely recreated with SMD electronics and resin casting. You might never need to continuously measure the diameter of your 3D printer filament, but just in case there’s a clever hall-effect sensor mechanism for that. Both of us admire the work being done in the FPGA realm and this week we saw a RISC-V core plumbed into quite the FPGA stack to run a version of Doom originally played on 486 computers. And we’re getting excited for the three ring circus of engineering acrobatics that will land NASA’s Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars next week.
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 105 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Cyberattack On Florida City’s Water Supply
Feeling The KiCad 6 Electricity
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
A Modern Homage To The TIL311 Display
Ice40 Runs DOOM
Actually, it was 32 kB on a 16 kB CoCo now that I think about it. Sorry.
Motor Controller Reverse Engineering Releases Smoke
Simple Sensor Makes Filament Measurements A Snap
And Hall Effect is the
voltage
perpendicular to the main current. I said current. Oops.
Raspberry Pi Takes Over Volvo’s Integrated LCD
3D Printer? Laser Cutter? CNC? Yes, Please
Hands On With The Voltera V-One PCB Printer
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks:
Building A Continuously Variable Transmission With Lego
Building A Cheap Kubernetes Cluster From Old Laptops
An ESP Will Read Your Meter For You
Elliot’s Picks:
Reverse Engineering USB Protocols On A Function Generator
When Is Apple Beige Not Apple Beige?
Stay Focused With This Distraction Free Cyberdeck
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Getting Ready For Mars: The Seven Minutes Of Terror
Hands-On: The RISC-V ESP32-C3 Will Be Your New ESP8266 | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321864",
"author": "jjho",
"timestamp": "2021-02-13T12:43:47",
"content": "You mentioned about kicad cross hatch fill. Its purpose used to be on old wave soldered boards without selective plating (i.e. whole pcb is covered in solder => cheaper) . It was to relieve bubbling under th... | 1,760,373,185.27901 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/building-a-half-toy-half-model-tank-robot/ | Building A Half Toy Half Model Tank Robot | Matthew Carlson | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"airbrush",
"hexapod",
"tank"
] | For some, the idea of several hours of painting and designing intricate models with minute details and features sounds like a delightful afternoon spent. Some of us would much rather just have it come already painted with motors so that it can move. [Cory Collins] sought to combine these two hobbies
by building a highly detailed motorized tank dubbed Tankbot 2.3
. (Video, embedded below.)
It’s based on a simple hexapod kit ordered online that includes a built-in Arduino compatible board (it’s based on the Arduino 2560 Mega). The legs were redesigned to match the aesthetic that [Cory] was going for. The redesign allows for an extra pivot in the leg mechanism. The turret section was designed and built on top of the base with support for a servo to turn it (though the firmware isn’t quite there yet). After all the parts were 3d printed, the laborious process of painting began. With some delicate airbrushing and some quick stencils cut for the decals, it was complete.
We are amazed by the types of kits and parts that you can find online and the fact that they’re usually inexpensive to boot. We’ve come a long way since 2013 when
we covered a much simpler Arduino based tank
.
Thanks [Cory] for sending this one in! | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321577",
"author": "Jace",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T16:39:26",
"content": "https://nerf.fandom.com/wiki/Combat_Creatures",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6321590",
"author": "lthemick",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T17:21:44"... | 1,760,373,185.533065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/this-week-in-security-morse-code-malware-literal-and-figurative-watering-holes-and-more/ | This Week In Security: Morse Code Malware, Literal And Figurative Watering Holes, And More | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"morse code",
"This Week in Security",
"Watering Hole"
] | Code obfuscation has been around for a long time. The obfuscated C contest first ran way back in 1984, but there are examples of natural language obfuscation from way earlier in history. Namely Cockney rhyming slang, like saying “Lady from Bristol” instead of “pistol” or “lump of lead” instead of “head”. It’s speculated that Cockney was originally used to allow the criminal class to have conversations without tipping off police.
Code obfuscation in malware serves a similar purpose — hiding from security devices and applications. There are known code snippets and blacklisted IP addresses that anti-malware software scans for. If that known bad code can be successfully obfuscated, it can avoid detection. This is a bit of a constant game of cat-and-mouse, as the deobfuscation code itself eventually makes the blacklist. This leads to new obfuscation techniques, sometimes quite off the wall. Well this week, I found a humdinger of an oddball approach.
Morse Code
.
Yep, dots and dashes. The whole attack goes like this. You receive an email, claiming to be an invoice. It’s a
.xlsx.hTML
file. If you don’t notice the odd file extension, and actually let it open, you’re treated to a web page. The source of that page is a very minimal JS script that consists of a morse code decoder, and a payload encoded in Morse. In this case, the payload is simply a pair of external scripts that ask for an Office 365 login. The novel aspect of this is definitely the Morse Code. Yes,
our own [Danie] covered this earlier this week
, but it was too good not to mention here.
Literal Watering Hole Attack
You may have seen the breathless news articles, that
a cyber bioterrorism attack almost poisoned a city
. Let’s talk about what actually happened. The city in question has a population of under 15,000, and a dedicated water system. The primary control computer in the treatment plant legitimately had a remote access program installed on it. An unauthorized user used that remote access program from the outside early in the day, but only connected for a moment. This first access was assumed to be a legitimate use of the remote access system, but later in the day, it became obvious that something was afoot. When the system was accessed the second time, the remote user turned the sodium hydroxide level up, presumably to maximum, and logged back out.
Well it turns out that
the Windows 7 machine in question was running TeamViewer, with a single password shared among all the city’s computers.
Christopher Krebs suggests that a ticked-off employee is likely to blame, which is a decent guess.
Metaphorical Watering Hole Attack
These headlines write themselves, but this watering hole attack has quite a twist. We’ve covered problems like typosquatting and malicious project takeovers on platforms like
pip
and
npm
. [Alex Birsan] came up with a related attack he calls “
Dependency Confusion
“. The inspiration was finding PayPal code that wasn’t intended for public release on Github. What intrigued him about this code was the list of dependencies, some of which were open source packages on
npm
, while some were clearly proprietary packages. This mix brings a question to mind. If a package was uploaded to
npm
with a name collision with a local package, which version would be used?
As an enterprising researcher, [Alex] decided to find out. He does make the important caveat that he has authorization to do live penetration testing on all his targets, either through the terms of public bounty programs, or through private agreements. Without that authorization, trying to pull off an attack like this could land you in serious hot water.
So what happens when a build system requests a package that exists both locally and on a public repository? It depends, but in many cases, the package with the higher version number is used. [Alex] pulled information on proprietary package names from every source he could find, and carefully crafted proof-of-concept packages. To collect the list of successes, the spoofed packages exfiltrated a few bytes of data encoded over a DNS request. The roster of companies that were vulnerable to the attack is impressive, as is the amount of payout. Apple, Paypal, and Shopify all confirmed the efficacy of the technique, and paid out a cool $30,000 bounty each. Sometimes it’s very good to be a security researcher.
All Your Barcode Are Belong to Us
It’s no great surprise that barcode scanners are popular cell phone apps. You have a handheld computer with a camera and an internet connection. Pointing at a barcode and getting instant information about the product is potentially invaluable. One of the very popular barcode scanner apps on Android, with over ten million installs, has
recently started a very aggressive adware campaign
. The publisher of that app was LavaBird LTD.
Once the bad behavior was noticed, the app was pulled from the play store. This doesn’t remove it from devices, so you might check your devices for any LavaBird software. The Malwarebytes blog points out that sometimes malicious activity like this is a result of a third-party advertising library, and not the fault of the app developer. In this case, the bad code was directly in the app itself, signed by the developer’s key, and obfuscated to be hard to detect. All in all, the situation is reminiscent of the Great Suspender debacle we covered last week. It makes me suspect that something similar happened. Likely, the original app author sold to a shady third party, who filled the app with malware.
Noteworthy Notes
Firefox
released 85.0.1 about a week ago
, and there is an interesting note in the changelog: “Prevent access to NTFS special paths that could lead to filesystem corruption.” This rather cryptic note is a reference to
bug 1689598
, which is still restricted as of time of writing. We can get a look at
the changelog that fixes the issue
. Apparently there was a way to invoke a special file handler like
$MFT
or
$Volume
when opening a file. A malicious invocation can result in filesystem corruption, hence a potentially serious denial of service attack.
Remember the
sudoedit
bug from a couple weeks ago? A few vendors, namely Apple, considered themselves immune to the bug, since they didn’t have the
sudoedit
symlink.
It didn’t take long for the internet to figure out
that it is simple enough to create the symlink yourself, and then trigger the bug.
Google seems to be already making good on their “Know, Prevent, Fix” initiative, publishing
the Open Source Vulnerabilities database
. Currently,
the OSS-Fuzz project
is the sole data source, but more are planned. The purpose seems to be a automatable data source for tracking down vulnerabilities. Time will tell what further tools will result from the KPF push. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321640",
"author": "KOB",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T19:18:53",
"content": "Thanks for the heads up about the Barcode Scanner app.This is the first I’ve heard about that issue and I’ve purged it from my phone since reading this article.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,373,185.236462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/bitbanged-dvi-on-a-raspberry-pi-rp2040-microcontroller/ | Bitbanged DVI On A Raspberry Pi RP2040 Microcontroller | Jenny List | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"dvi",
"hdmi",
"rp2040"
] | When we first saw the Raspberry Pi Pico and its RP2040 microcontroller last month it was obvious that to be more than just yet another ARM chip it needed something special, and that appeared to be present in the form of its onboard PIO peripherals. We were eagerly awaiting how the community might use them to push the RP2040 capabilities beyond their advertised limits. Now [Luke Wren] provides us with an example,
as he pushes an RP2040 to produce a DVI signal suitable to drive an HDMI monitor
.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the chip can be overclocked, however it’s impressive to find that it can reach the 252 MHz necessary to generate the DVI timing. With appropriate terminations it proved possible for the GPIO lines to mimic the differential signalling required by the spec. A PCB with the RP2040 and an HDMI socket was created, also providing a couple of PMOD connectors for expansion. All code and software can be found in a GitHub repository.
The result is a usable DVI output which though it is a relatively low resolution 640×480 pixels at 60 Hz is still a major advance over the usual composite video provided by microcontroller projects. With composite support on monitors becoming a legacy item it’s a welcome sight to see an accessible path to an HDMI or DVI output without
using an FPGA
.
Thanks [BaldPower] for the tip. | 66 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321466",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T12:07:19",
"content": "If only they sold them for the same price in the country they were made as in the rest of the world.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6321468",
... | 1,760,373,185.48745 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/12/pcb-mods-silence-voltage-warnings-on-the-pi-4/ | PCB Mods Silence Voltage Warnings On The Pi 4 | Tom Nardi | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"low voltage",
"Pi 4",
"power supply",
"raspberry pi",
"schematic"
] | If you’ve ever pushed the needle a bit on your Raspberry Pi, there’s a good chance you’ve been visited by the dreaded lightning bolt icon. When it pops up on the corner of the screen, it’s a warning that the input voltage is dipping into the danger zone. If you see this symbol often, the usual recommendation is to get a higher capacity power supply. But experienced Pi wranglers will know that the board can still be skittish.
Sick of seeing this icon during his MAME sessions, [Majenko] decided to attack the problem directly by
taking a close look at the power supply circuitry of the Pi 4
. While the official schematics for everyone’s favorite single-board computer are unfortunately incomplete, he was still able to identify a few components that struck him as a bit odd. While we wouldn’t necessarily recommend you rush out and make these same modifications to your own board, the early results are certainly promising.
The first potential culprit [Majenko] found was a 10 ohm resistor on the 5 V line. He figured this part alone would have a greater impact on the system voltage than a dodgy USB cable would. The components aren’t labeled on the Pi’s PCB, but with a little poking of the multimeter he was able to track down the 0402 component and replace it with a tiny piece of wire. He powered up the Pi and ran a few games to test the fix, and while he definitely got
fewer
low-voltage warnings, there was still the occasional brownout.
Do we
really
need this part?
Going back to the schematic, he noticed there was a 10 uF capacitor on the same line as the resistor. What if he bumped that up a bit? The USB specifications say that’s the maximum capacitive load for a downstream device, but he reasoned that’s really only a problem for people trying to power the Pi from their computer’s USB port.
Tacking a 470 uF electrolytic capacitor to the existing SMD part might look a little funny, but after the installation, [Majenko] reports there hasn’t been a single low-voltage warning. He wonders if the addition of the larger capacitor might make removing the resistor unnecessary, but since he doesn’t want to mess with a good thing, that determination will be left as an exercise for the reader.
It’s no secret that
the Raspberry Pi 4 has been plagued with power issues
since release, but a
newer board revision released last year
helped smooth things out a bit. While most people wouldn’t go this far just to address the occasional edge case, it’s good to know folks are out there experimenting with potential fixes and improvements. | 122 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321425",
"author": "YGDES",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T09:12:52",
"content": "What about the same problem with the other generations of boards ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6321428",
"author": "Charles",
"ti... | 1,760,373,185.855074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/using-midi-to-solve-a-keyboard-shortcut-problem/ | Using MIDI To Solve A Keyboard Shortcut Problem | Donald Papp | [
"how-to",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"lego",
"midi",
"niche",
"slide advance",
"streaming"
] | [Pete] admits that his
MIDI-based slide advance alert system
is definitely a niche solution to a niche problem, but it is a wonderful example of using available tools to serve a specific need. The issue was this: [Pete] is involved in numerous presentations streamed over video, and needed a simple and effective way for the Presenter to notify the Producer (the one responsible for the video streaming and camera switching) to discreetly advance slides on cue.
To most of us, this is a simple problem to solve. Provide the presenter with a USB macro keyboard to trigger the keyboard shortcuts for slide advancement, and the job’s done. But that didn’t quite cut it for [Pete]. In their situation, the Producer is managing more than just the slides as they switch between cameras, watch the chat window, and manage the video streaming itself. Triggering slide advancement via keyboard shortcuts only works if the presentation software is in focus when the buttons are pressed, which isn’t guaranteed.
[Pete’s] solution was to make a small two-button device (one button for next slide, one for previous slide) that uses MIDI to communicate with a small custom application on the producer’s machine, and doesn’t care about application focus. Pressing the slide advance button plays a distinct tone into the producer’s headphones, plus the custom application displays “Forward”, “Back”, or “Waiting” in a window, depending on the state of the Presenter’s buttons.
The design is available on Instructables
for anyone wanting a closer look.
[Pete] reports that it works and it’s far more discreet than saying “next slide, please” twenty or more times per presentation. You may notice from the photo that LEGO bricks play a prominent part in the device, and if you’d like to see more of that sort of thing, make sure to check out
these other brick-mountable PCB designs
. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323392",
"author": "Robert",
"timestamp": "2021-02-17T10:57:04",
"content": "“small custom application on the producer’s machine”Why doesn’t it just post keyboard shortcuts into the presentation’s software keyboard queue? Just because he likes messing with producer?",
"parent_i... | 1,760,373,185.908357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/trouble-with-the-texas-power-grid/ | Trouble With The Texas Power Grid As Cold Weather Boosts Demand, Knocks Out Generators | Jenny List | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"electricity grid",
"power",
"Power Distribution",
"Texas",
"texas interconnect"
] | It comes as something of a shock that residents of the Lone Star State
are suffering from rolling power blackouts in the face of an unusually severe winter
. First off, winter in Texas? Second, isn’t it the summer heat waves that cause the rolling blackouts in that region?
Were you to mention Texas to a European, they’d maybe think of cowboys, oil, the hit TV show
Dallas
, and if they were European Hackaday readers, probably the semiconductor giant Texas Instruments. The only state of the USA with a secession clause also turns out to to have their own power grid independent of neighboring states.
An accurate and contemporary portrait of a typical Texan, as understood by Europeans. Carol M. Highsmith,
Public domain
.
Surely America is a place of such resourcefulness that this would be impossible, we cry
as we watch from afar the red squares proliferating across the outage map
. It turns out that for once the independent streak that we’re told defines Texas may be its undoing. We’re used to our European countries being tied into the rest of the continental grid, but because the Texan grid stands alone it’s unable to sip power from its neighbours in times of need.
Let’s dive into the mechanics of maintaining an electricity grid, with the unfortunate Texans for the moment standing in as the test subject.
Combination of Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, and Wind Power Generators Knocked Out by Cold
If a power grid was as simple as a collection of generating stations connected full-time to a constant load, its running would be a relatively straightforward affair of shoveling some sort of fuel in at one end and receiving the benefit of the electricity at the other. Sadly the reality of powering a human population is never so predictable, and the grid utility plays a constant game of anticipating variable demand in order to match it with generating capacity. Entire power stations exist with the specific application of providing near instantaneous extra power — you may remember
our reporting on UK’s Electric Mountain
. Grid strategists make it their business to predict our actions as they relate to power use down to the minute.
Since Texas has blistering hot summers they are used to their periods of peak load happening as Texans turn on their air conditioning en masse, with the relatively mild winters in a state bordering the Gulf of Mexico providing little stress to the system. But here we have a perfect storm of energy facilities closed by the weather being unable to cope with the extra demand has Texas turn to electric heat to keep them warm.
Their current cold snap has replaced the relatively balmy with the frozen Arctic, causing
ice storms that have halted half of the wind power generation for the state
as of Sunday morning. According to grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the
majority of the generation plants that were knocked offline by the cold
beginning on Sunday were a combination of gas, coal, or nuclear energy. (Outages in Mexico were also reported
due to frozen natural gas pipelines
incoming from Texas.) While wind power did make up a quarter of Texas’ power generation in 2020, those turbines are
reportedly not run at full capacity during the winter months
.
North America, in power grid terms. Fjbfour,
Public domain
.
In times of need, can you borrow a cup of energy from a neighbor? Continental North America has two large power grids, one on each side of the Rockies, and a few smaller grids of which the Texas Interconnect is one. The reason for its existence is historical, and in part its continuation is because as a single-state entity it is not subject to some Federal or international (with Canada) regulations. It has some relatively modest DC interconnects with its neighbours, but they are not of sufficient capacity to allow generators in warmer states to take up the slack. There is an ambitious plan for
a much larger DC interconnect project to link both the Eastern and Western grids with the Texan one
, which in turn gives us a chance for a look at how grids are synchronised.
Phase Sync Makes Connecting AC Grids Tricky
Huge thyristors used in the converter plants of the DC link between North and South Islands, New Zealand. Marshelec,
CC BY-SA 3.0
.
Connecting two AC electricity grids is not simply a case of wiring them together, as
their AC frequency and phase must both match exactly
in order for a connection to work. The Texas grid has the same nominal frequency of 60Hz as its neighbours, but in practice there will be a slight difference in frequency and phase that can not be reconciled without the impractical step of powering down the entire state and restarting all its generators in synchronisation. The solution when transferring power between grids is therefore to convert it to DC for the intermediate stage, then back to AC at the correct grid frequency and phase. Many undersea cables such as those linking the UK, Scandinavia, and continental Europe take this approach, meaning that those grids are linked for the purpose of trading power but not synchronised. Thus when in 2018 a political stand-off in Kosovo
caused a load imbalance that sent Europe’s grid frequency into a downward spiral
, the British grid was unaffected. This is how the ambitious American grid interconnect mentioned earlier is slated to work, with DC links from all three grids meeting in New Mexico with a superconducting cable interconnect for an extra efficiency boost.
Electricity at the scale in which most Hackaday readers encounter it is a cinch to manage with a switching regulator here and there or maybe even a breaker or two in low-power mains circuits. At the scale of a grid, a country, or a continent though it enters an order of magnitude in which a single semiconductor switching device can be the size of a small house, and engineers must concern themselves with not only the matters of power handling but also human behaviours and geopolitics. If you’re a Texan Hackaday reader hunkering down for a cold spell then you have our sympathy and best wishes for a speedy thaw, and meanwhile for the rest of us it’s worth remembering that
it could just as easily happen anywhere else
.
Header image including USA map, Wapcaplet,
CC BY-SA 3.0
. | 253 | 36 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323063",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T18:23:36",
"content": "“isn’t it the summer head waves”Well, the tail waves are notable too!B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6323280",
"author": "Based Whale",
... | 1,760,373,186.358388 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/new-contest-earth-day-challenge/ | New Contest: Earth Day Challenge | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"Earth Day",
"Earth Day Challenge"
] | The
Earth Day Challenge
is now under way! Spin up your take on an Earth-Day-themed electronics project and you’ll be in the running for one of the three $200 shopping sprees at Digi-Key, who are sponsoring this contest.
Gutters to Gardens
is a great project example; using a rain barrel and solar panel for off-grid automation.
This is all about raising awareness for environmental protection. You might considered something as direct as measuring and plotting air quality data, or as abstract as weighing your home’s recycling bin and garbage bin and making a game out of generating less waste in general, and boosting your recycling-to-landfill ratio. Find an application that can be moved from grid-power to solar power, or build a carbon-savings counter that calculates the impact you have when choosing your bike over a car. The coolest projects are the ones that make us all think in new ways.
In addition to those $200 prizes for the top three projects, there are $50 Tindie gift cards for the twelve most artistically presented projects. Digi-Key is looking for great images to include in a wall calendar for 2022.
Pop over to
Hackaday.io
to start your entry today. Don’t forget to use the “Submit project to:” drop-down box on the left sidebar of your project page to make sure it’s considered in the contest. You must have your entry in by April 19th! | 6 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6323062",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T18:21:47",
"content": "That looks like a fragile platform for that rain barrel!When full how much weight will be pushing down on it?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6323098",... | 1,760,373,185.963938 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/a-hydraulic-bench-vise-made-on-the-bench/ | A Hydraulic Bench Vise, Made On The Bench | Jenny List | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"hydraulic",
"vise",
"workshop"
] | When we sit down to a build video and see that it’s from [Workshop From Scratch], we know it’ll be a good one, full of plenty of gratuitous metal-wrangling with the promise of an ingenious and useful take on a workshop essential at the end. The home made
hydraulic bench vise
is the latest from that particular workshop, so settle down with the video below the break for a treat.
Unlike the lead screw we’d expect from a more conventional vise, this one uses a hydraulic pull cylinder and its associated compressor which is powered by compressed air. A substantial vise frame is constructed around the cylinder from thick steel plate, with some careful welding and grinding to ensure a smooth finish. The result is substantial clamping force with a very smooth and quick action, which doesn’t overhang the edge of the bench in the way a more traditional one does. The hydraulic tube is tucked away through a hole in the bench, and the foot-operated pump lies out of sight on the floor.
Looking at this vise with blacksmith-trained eyes, it raises the question of how it might perform were something in it to be hammered. Overhanging vises are vulnerable to splitting when hammered, so there’s the possibility that this one with its flat mounting might fare a little better. Either way it would be an asset to any workshop.
When it comes to vises, [Workshop From Scratch]
is where we saw that magnetic vise earlier last year
. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322991",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T16:17:21",
"content": "India makes a pretty affordable vice, out of all those decommissioned cruising ships that we get to see run-aground on YouTube. I’ve absolutely brutalised mine, yet it’s still fit for purpose, years later. It j... | 1,760,373,186.029109 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/basic-cross-platform-software-hacking-then-and-now/ | BASIC: Cross-Platform Software Hacking Then And Now | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Development"
] | [
"basic",
"Basic Language",
"quickbasic",
"smallbasic",
"tiny BASIC"
] | Surely BASIC is properly obsolete by now, right? Perhaps not. In addition to inspiring a large part of home computing today, BASIC is still very much alive today, even outside of retro computing.
There was a time, not even that long ago, when the lingua franca of the home computer world was
BASIC
. This wasn’t necessarily always the exact same BASIC; the commands and syntax differed between whatever BASIC dialect came with any given model of home computer (Commodore, Atari, Texas Instruments, Sinclair or any of the countless others). Fortunately most of these licensed or were derived from the most popular microcomputer implementation of BASIC:
Microsoft BASIC
.
BASIC has its roots in academics, where it was intended to be an easy to use programming language for every student, even those outside the traditional STEM fields. Taking its cues from popular 1960s languages like
FORTRAN
and ALGOL, it saw widespread use on
time-sharing
systems at schools, with even IBM joining the party in 1973 with VS-BASIC. When the 1970s saw the arrival of microcomputers, small and cheap enough to be bought by anyone and used at home, it seemed only natural that they too would run BASIC.
The advantage of having BASIC integrated into these systems was obvious: not only were most people who bought such a home computer already familiar with BASIC, it allows programs to be run without first being compiled. This was good, because compiling a program takes a lot of RAM and storage, neither of which were plentiful in microcomputers. Instead of compiling BASIC source code,
BASIC interpreters
would interpret and run the code one line at a time, trading execution speed for flexibility and low resource use.
After turning on one’s microcomputer, the BASIC interpreter would usually be loaded straight from an onboard ROM in lieu of a full-blown operating system. In this interpreter shell, one could use the hardware, write and load BASIC programs and save them to tape or disk. Running existing BASIC code as well as compiled programs on one’s computer, or even typing them in from a listing in a magazine all belonged to the options. As BASIC implementations between different home computers were relatively consistent, this provided for a lot of portability.
That was then, and this is now. Are people actually still using the Basic language?
BASIC Joystick Fun
To start off with, let’s see a bit of what BASIC is about. For an extremely simple but fun example of how BASIC can be used, let’s take a look at an application for the Commodore 64 (
courtesy of C64-Wiki
) that moves an arrow around the screen while printing its screen coordinates using a joystick connected to the second joystick port. The C64 runs
Commodore BASIC
2.0, which is based on Microsoft BASIC.
10 S=2: X=150: Y=150: V=53248: GOTO 100
15 J=PEEK(56320): IF J=127 THEN 15
20 IF J=111 THEN POKE 56322,255:END
25 IF J=123 THEN X=X-S
30 IF J=119 THEN X=X+S
35 IF J=125 THEN Y=Y+S
40 IF J=126 THEN Y=Y-S
45 IF J=122 THEN Y=Y-S
50 IF J=118 THEN Y=Y-S
55 IF J=117 THEN Y=Y-S
60 IF J=121 THEN Y=Y-S
65 IF X=>252 THEN X=10
70 IF X=<10 THEN X=252 75 IF Y>254 THEN Y=44
80 IF Y<44 THEN Y=254
85 PRINT CHR$(147);CHR$(158);CHR$(17);"X-POS:";X;" Y-POS";Y
90 POKE V,X:POKE V+1,Y: GOTO 15
100 FOR Z=832 TO 853 : POKE Z,0: NEXT Z
105 FOR Z=832 TO 853 STEP 3: READ J: POKE Z,J: NEXT Z
110 POKE V+21,1: POKE V+39,7: POKE V+33,0: POKE V+29,1
115 POKE 56322,224: POKE 2040,13: GOTO 85
120 DATA 240, 224, 224, 144, 8, 4, 2, 1
Each of the lines above are entered as-is, including the line number. On the next line after the code we enter
RUN
and hit ‘Return’ (or ‘Enter’, depending on one’s keyboard). Assuming we didn’t mistype anything, the code will now execute to show the following screen:
In this exciting game, we move the arrow around the screen using the joystick.
So what does this code do? As with any
BASIC program
, it starts at the first line which here is 10. It defines a few variables here, before jumping to line 100 (using
GOTO
). In a
FOR
loop, we
POKE
(i.e. write a hardware register) and repeat this in a few more addresses, which updates the display to its initial configuration. Here the READ command is used to read constants which are defined by
DATA
.
Many of these memory addresses directly address the video adapter (VIC-II in the C64). When we use
PEEK
at line 15, it reads the contents of the memory address 56322, which corresponds to the current input values on the second joystick port. After that we can check the state of each input using the bit values and adjust our on-screen arrow accordingly (line 90), along with the coordinates (line 85).
The C64 Wiki page for this program includes a bitwise comparison version. That should run marginally faster, as it has fewer lines of code. For moving an arrow around the screen, the difference would be unlikely to be noticed, however.
Important to note here is that BASIC implementations on different microcomputers would have to POKE and PEEK different memory addresses to get the same effect due to the different system layout of each computer. Some implementations would also provide commands tailored specifically to that microcomputer system, which became more relevant as graphics and audio capabilities grew.
Interpreted Versus Compiled
A familiar sight for some people: the QuickBasic IDE.
The interpreted nature of BASIC on most microcomputers was both a benefit and a disadvantage. On one hand, it’s very flexible, and you can simply run your latest program and quickly modify it without having to deal with lengthy compile cycles (on a <10 MHz Z80 or 6502 MPU, no less). On the other hand, because any errors in the code will not become apparent until the program is run by the interpreter, this leads to the same joyful experience as with modern-day JavaScript and Python scripts, where the code will run fine until the interpreter suddenly keels over with an error message (if one is lucky).
With BASIC this usually comes in the form of a ‘Syntax error on line <line>’ error. Running the same code through a compiler would however have found those errors. This feature of interpreted code means that the easy distribution method of code as listings in computer magazines and reference books would only be as good as the quality of the printed code and one’s own typing skills. Fortunately, on the C64 and similar systems, fixing a mistyped line would be as easy as retyping it, hitting ‘Return’ and the interpreter shell would update the line in question.
BASIC Today
The PureBasic Visual Designer.
All good and well, you may say at this point, but nobody is dragging out that C64 to do some BASIC programming today. Aside from folks who like to play with old computers, of course. Here it should be noted that BASIC didn’t live and die with Commodore and Atari. Over at Microsoft, BASIC spawned Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and VB .NET. The latter allows writing VB code for the .NET runtime.
Microsoft also released
Small Basic
in 2008, which it says targets novice programmers, for example students who used a visual programming language like
Scratch
previously. This is not to be confused with
SmallBASIC
, which is an open source (GPL) BASIC dialect with accompanying interpreters for modern platforms.
BASIC dialects
can also be found in many graphing and programmable calculators from Ti, HP, Casio and others, although many of these dialects are not directly compatible with the original
BASIC standard
(ISO/IEC 10279:1991). Since the 1980s, BASIC evolved to no longer require line numbers, instead using labels which it can jump to, along with adopting new programming paradigms. This was introduced with
QuickBasic
in 1985 and is a common sight today.
Also on the commercial side of the fence is
PureBasic
by Fantaisie Software, which provides an IDE and compiler for a number of target platforms.
True BASIC
is a modern BASIC toolchain and IDE which moves closer to FORTRAN in its syntax, and is developed by the original developers of BASIC (
Darthmouth BASIC
).
In terms of today’s open source BASIC interpreters and compilers, there is
Chipmunk Basic
, which dates back to the Apple MacIntosh, Microsoft recently
open-sourced its GW-BASIC
, and you’ll even find
a healthy OSS ecosystem
around BASIC. If none of that tickles your fancy, you can implement
Tiny BASIC
, straight from the
BNF grammar
as listed
in the first issue of Dr. Dobb’s Journal from 1976
. A few years ago our own Tom Nardi
wrote about his experiences
bringing a 1990s QuickBasic project into the modern world with
QB64
.
Making the case for BASIC
Clearly, BASIC is not dead then. It sees daily use in its commercial forms, the myriad of open source projects and in the vibrant retrocomputing community. Aside from still being a (arguably) good language to teach programming with, it’s also a nice option for embedded applications, especially where many use MicroPython or kin today, as the system requirements are much lower. We
reported on an ARM MCU
which came with a BASIC interpreter a number of years ago, for example.
There are also projects like
UBASIC PLUS
on GitHub, targeting STM32F0 MCUs and requiring as little as 8 kB of RAM and 64 kB of Flash. Another project for ARM and PIC32 (as well as DOS and Windows) is
MMBasic
, which lists its requirements as 94 kB of Flash and at least 16 kB of RAM.
With BASIC having evolved in an era when home computers had less memory and storage than a $5 microcontroller has today, it makes for an excellent, low-resource language for situations which call for the use of interpreted scripts rather than precompiled binaries, without having to shell out for MCUs with more Flash and RAM.
Are any of our readers regular users of BASIC in some form today? If so, be sure to leave a comment with your experiences and tips for those who might be interested in giving BASIC a shot, whether on desktop, retro systems or embedded :)
[Header Image:
The HP 2000 system
, mainly used for running time-shared BASIC, CC-BY 3.0] | 125 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322964",
"author": "gregg4",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T15:13:00",
"content": "Actually BASIC is very important. I frequently use it on the Stamp microcontrollers from Parallax. And even QB on MSDOS based systems, now inside the occasional VM. And also on my TRS-80 Model 102.",
"... | 1,760,373,186.663526 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/continuous-excitation-piano-machine-looks-nervous-sounds-grand/ | Continuous Excitation Piano Machine Looks Nervous, Sounds Grand | Adam Zeloof | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Grand Piano",
"music",
"piano",
"raspberry pi",
"Self-Playing"
] | It’s not every day we see a
grand piano with a Raspberry Pi inside, let alone one with 96 motors
, but sometimes we get lucky. The contraption in question is one developed by [Konstantin Leonenko], as part of a collaboration with composer [Patricia Alessandrini] for a piece she created inspired by Ada Lovelace. Specifically, [Patricia] was inspired by Ada’s idea that an “analytical machine” would, someday, be able to create music on its own. [Konstantin] and [Patricia] worked together to make a machine that would learn from it’s human co-performers and create music with them.
Their creation, rather than just one tricked-out keyboard, is actually a portable attachment that can be easily fitted to any grand piano. Each of the device’s 96 motors drives a plastic “finger” that excites the piano’s strings. The result is a sound unlike any other — and you really need to experience it so click through that link at the top for the demo video.
Rather cleverly, the fingers are designed such that their dynamics help to mask the sound of the motor (a must for performances) while simultaneously enhancing the string’s timbre. Like any project, this one went through a number of iterations over the two-year design process, and even spun off into an entirely new, glove-based version.
We’ve seen some
awesome music tech hacks
, and this one fits right in with the rest. It’s always exciting to see an instrument as ubiquitous as the piano be used in new and refreshing ways. Be sure to check out the link at the top for a video of this incredible instrument in action! | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322930",
"author": "solipso",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T12:42:40",
"content": "How is the third string in the triplet supposed to be excited with no motor drive? All in all, I do not like this particular design of vibrating motors hanged by their connectors, exciting 2 of 3 strings.... | 1,760,373,186.739158 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/16/manned-electric-helicopter-with-7-tail-rotors/ | Manned Electric Helicopter With 7 Tail Rotors | Danie Conradie | [
"drone hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"brushless motor",
"helicopter",
"manned drone flight",
"mosquito helicopter"
] | One of the best things to come from the growing drone industry is the development of compact and powerful brushless motors. We’ve seen several multi-rotors capable of carrying a human, but electric helicopters are rare. [OskarRDA] decided to experiment with this,
converting his single-seat ultralight helicopter to electric power
and giving it seven tail rotors in the process. Flight footage after the break.
The helicopter in question started life as a Mosquito Air, a bare-bones kit helicopter originally powered by a two-stroke engine. The engine and gearbox were replaced with an EMRAX 228 109 kW brushless motor. Initially, he used the conventional drive-shaft powered tail rotor but wanted to experiment with multiple smaller rotors powered by separate motors, which has several advantages. He only really needed four of the 5008 or 5010 size motors with 18″ props to get comparable thrust, but he added more for redundancy. The new setup was also lighter, even with its independent batteries, at 7.5 kg compared to the 8.1 kg of the old tail rotor assembly.
One of the major advantages of a conventional helicopter over a multirotor is the ability to autorotate safely to the ground if the engine fails. A coupled tail rotor bleeds some energy from the main rotor while autorotating, but since the tail rotor has independent power in this case, it allows all the energy to be used by the main rotor, theoretically decreasing decent speed by 120 feet per second. [OskarRDA] did some
engine failure
and
autorotation
test flights, and the results were positive. He likes his new tail rotors enough that he doesn’t plan on going back to a single large rotor.
Power for the main motor is provided by a 7.8 kWh, 40 kg LiPo battery pack mounted beneath the seat. Theoretically, this would allow flight times of up to 27 minutes, but [OskarRDA] has kept most of his flights to 10 minutes or less. He didn’t add any electronic gyro for stabilization, but he did add some electronic coupling between the main motor and tail motors, to reduce the torque correction required by the pilot. Even so, it is clear from the flight footage that [OskarRDA] is a skilled helicopter pilot.
While being able to lift a human is cool, this would also make an excellent unmanned platform for a heavy lift applications. Besides
manned multi-rotors
, we’ve also seen
electric powered paragliders
, and of course
[Peter Sripol]’s scratch built electric planes
.
Thanks [smerrett79] for the tip! | 56 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322887",
"author": "RetepV",
"timestamp": "2021-02-16T09:36:09",
"content": "Seriously. I would never fly such a thing without wearing at least a full leather motorbike suit, with padding all around.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,373,186.842225 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/print-in-place-connectors-aim-to-make-wiring-easier/ | Print-in-Place Connectors Aim To Make Wiring Easier | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cam",
"compliant mechanism",
"connector",
"lever",
"print in place",
"terminal",
"WAGO",
"wiring"
] | One thing some of us here in the United States have always been jealous of is the WAGO connectors that seem so common in electrical wiring everywhere else in the world. We often wonder why the electrical trades here haven’t adopted them more widely — after all, they’re faster to use than traditional wire nuts, and time is money on the job site.
Wago 221 compact lever connector via the
Wago YouTube channel
This print-in-place electrical connector
is inspired by the WAGO connectors, specifically their
Lever Nut series
. We’ll be clear right up front that [Tomáš “Harvie” Mudruňka’s] connector is more of an homage to the commercially available units, and should not be used for critical applications. Plus, as a 3D-printed part, it would be hard to compete with something optimized to be manufactured in the millions. But the idea is pretty slick. The print-in-place part has a vaguely heart-shaped cage with a lever arm trapped inside it.
After printing and freeing the lever arm, a small piece of 1.3-mm (16 AWG) solid copper wire is inserted into a groove. The wire acts as a busbar against which the lever arm squeezes conductors. The lever cams into a groove on the opposite wall of the cage, making a strong physical and electrical connection. The video below shows the connectors being built and tested.
We love the combination of print-in-place, compliant mechanisms, and composite construction on display here. It reminds us a bit of
these printable SMD tape tamers
, or
this print-in-place engine benchmark
. | 115 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322500",
"author": "Tadpole",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15T12:04:20",
"content": "THIS is why I love 3D printers. There isn’t a lot of great stuff out there, but things like this are fantastic. Thank you for sharing!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,187.197438 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/15/ghidra-used-to-patch-fahrenheit-into-an-air-quality-meter/ | Ghidra Used To Patch Fahrenheit Into An Air Quality Meter | Maya Posch | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"celsius",
"Fahrenheit",
"Ghidra",
"imperial units",
"metric system"
] | Even though most of the world population couldn’t tell you what room or body temperature is in Fahrenheit, there are some places on this globe where this unit is still in common use. For people in those areas, it’s therefore a real hassle when, say, a cheap Chinese air quality measurement systems only reports in degrees Celsius. Fortunately, [BSilverEagle]
managed to patch such a unit
to make it display temperature in Fahrenheit.
The reverse engineering begins by finding a way to dump the firmware. It’s nice to hear that [BSilverEagle] used some the skills demonstrated in
[Eric Shlaepfer’s] PCB reverse engineering workshop
from Hackaday Remoticon last November to trace out the debug header and the SWD pins of STM32F103C8 MCU. After that, OpenOCD could be used to dump the firmware image, with no read protection encountered. The firmware was then reverse-engineered using
Ghidra
, so that [BSilverEagle] could figure out where the temperature was being calculated and where the glyph for the Celsius symbol was stored. From there this it was a straight-forward rewrite of those two parts of the original firmware to calculate the temperature value in Fahrenheit, change the glyph and reflash the MCU.
So why buy this thing in the first place if it didn’t spit out units useful for your current locale? Cost. Buying this consumer(ish) device was about the same cost as buying the individual parts, designing and manufacturing the PCB, and writing the firmware for it. The only downside for their use case was the lack of Fahrenheit. Not a problem for those who demand full control of the hardware they own.
Need a boot camp for using Ghidra? Matthew Alt put together
a spectacular video series on Reverse Engineering with Ghidra
. | 73 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322469",
"author": "CRImier",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15T09:12:35",
"content": "Ooh that’s impressive. I would love to see more hacks like these!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6322482",
"author": "McLovinGyver",
"timest... | 1,760,373,187.01523 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/14/machine-learning-helps-you-track-your-internet-misery-index/ | Machine Learning Helps You Track Your Internet Misery Index | Dan Maloney | [
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"classification",
"cnn",
"emotion",
"Jetson",
"NVIDIA",
"VGG19",
"Xavier"
] | We all seem to intuitively know that a lot of what we do online is not great for our mental health. Hang out on enough social media platforms and you can practically feel the changes your mind inflicts on your body as a result of what you see — the racing heart, the tight facial expression, the clenched fists raised in seething rage. Not on Hackaday, of course — nothing but sweetness and light here.
That’s all highly subjective, of course. If you’d like to quantify your online misery more objectively, take a look at the aptly named
BrowZen
, a machine learning application by [Nick Bild]. Built around an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX and a web camera, BrowZen captures images of the user’s face periodically. The expression on the user’s face is classified using a facial recognition model that has been trained to recognize facial postures related to emotions like anger, surprise, fear, and happiness. The app captures your mood and which website you’re currently looking at and stores the results in a database. Handy charts let you know which sites are best for your state of mind; it’s not much of a surprise that Twitter induces rage while Hackaday pushes [Nick]’s happiness button. See? Sweetness and light.
Seriously, we could see something like this being very useful for psychological testing, marketing research, or even medical assessments. This adds to [Nick]’s array of AI apps, which range from
tracking which surfaces you touch in a room
to
preventing you from committing a fireable offense on a video conference
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322450",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15T07:02:23",
"content": "“Not on Hackaday, of course — nothing but sweetness and light here.”Bu of course. Plenty of LEDs involved.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6322457",... | 1,760,373,186.894454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/14/the-first-hacker-camp-to-show-up-on-google-maps/ | The First Hacker Camp To Show Up On Google Maps | Jenny List | [
"cons"
] | [
"BornHack",
"hacker camps",
"MCH2021",
"pandemic"
] | Our summer gatherings at hacker camps are fleeting and ephemeral, anticipated for months but over far too quickly. Afterwards we have only our memories, and perhaps the occasional Hackaday write-up. We think BornHack 2020 in Denmark was the only hacker camp that wasn’t forced to go online-only by the pandemic last year, and now as far as we know it has also become the only one ever that has left its mark for the wider world
by being captured for posterity by Google Earth
.
Visible in the forest is the sparsely populated and socially distanced main field of what was a considerably smaller camp than normal, as well as in separate clearings the speakers tent and the loud field. Perhaps it doesn’t help as much in explaining to outsiders what a hacker camp is as might a picture of one of the larger ones, but it does at least serve as a visible reminder that we weren’t quite snuffed out last year.
It’s a moment of nostalgia to see BornHack 2020 on Google Maps for those of us who were there, but perhaps the point of all this is to take a moment to consider the likely prospects for similar events in 2021 given the pandemic. Both the British
EMF Camp
and American
Toorcamp
had to cancel their events last year and should return in 2022, there’s no word as yet about 2021 from the Serbian
BalCCon
or the Italian IHC, our latest update on Luxembourg’s HaxoGreen is that
it’s still slated to go ahead with its move to 2021
, and currently both
BornHack
and the Dutch
MCH
are expecting to run as normal this summer.
In the grip of a savage third wave of the pandemic where this is being written, it’s by no means a foregone conclusion that 2020’s cancellations may not repeat themselves. International borders remain difficult to cross without exacting quarantine requirements. If you make it to a camp this year you may be one of the lucky few, and in the increasingly likely event that we don’t, we’ll be suitably envious. Don’t loose hope, we shall all meet again… eventually.
If you fancy a closer look at BornHack 2020,
have a read of our write-up
. | 23 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322432",
"author": "heatgap",
"timestamp": "2021-02-15T04:15:02",
"content": "IDK if they still do them but for over 15 years I’ve wanted to attend a CCC camp. It always seemed to be so fun when I would read about them afterwards.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,373,187.65961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/14/freetouchdeck-upgrades-its-hardware-and-its-name-esp32-touchdown/ | FreeTouchDeck Upgrades Its Hardware And Its Name: ESP32 Touchdown | Matthew Carlson | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"stream deck",
"touch screen"
] | With many folks continuing to work from home for far longer than they ever thought, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing the rise of small DIY devices to make that video call or virtual presentation a little easier. [Dustin Watts] was interested in the functionality of the Elgato Stream Deck — a macro keyboard where each key is its own screen. But that kind of fancy hardware comes with a formidable price tag. So he built his own, and made it open source!
His first iteration — FreeTouchDeck — was built using commonly available modules but has since evolved into
the ESP32 Touchdown
which does it all with a single PCB. It’s a highly-customizable touchscreen macro keyboard which provide easy access shortcuts and macros for quick actions. Need a quick mute button, want to switch camera views on OBS, or maybe you want smarter shortcut keys for your CAD of choice. This will can get you there.
There a few key differences from
the first version (FreeTouchDeck)
. The ESP32 dev board was ditched for a tidy PCB the directly integrates the module. This one has a capacitive touch controller (FT6236) rather than a resistive one as the capacitive screens deliver a far nicer user experience. A built-in battery and charger circuit (which the FreeTouchDesk didn’t have) allows for the extra bit of flexibility to stream from anywhere (within wireless range of course). Multiple case designs are available in STL form that allows it to be placed on a wall or desk with ease.
Datasheets, gerbers, kicad files, BOMs, and example firmware
is provided on GitHub
. The software is easily configurable so it can be set up to do any sort of macro, key combination, or action. This isn’t just limited to emulating a Bluetooth keyboard as there are examples showing how to connect to Home Assistant. All in all, this is a wonderful example of continued iteration on a project.
Thanks [Timothy Gregory] for sending this one in! | 23 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322354",
"author": "Carl",
"timestamp": "2021-02-14T21:38:27",
"content": "Would love to buy one of these boards. Looked around and couldn’t find?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6322369",
"author": "BenC",
"t... | 1,760,373,187.268053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/14/how-to-bake-brownies-with-a-perfect-glossy-skin/ | How To Bake Brownies With A Perfect Glossy Skin | Lewin Day | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"baking",
"brownies",
"cooking",
"cooking hacks",
"kitchen"
] | If you’re anything at all like this writer, you don’t spend a lot of time inspecting brownies past the initial object identification phase, preferring to insert them directly into the mouth post-haste. But those with more of an aesthetic focus take great care to produce brownies with a glossy, attractive skin.
[Adam Ragusea] decided to find out what it takes to get a perfect brownie skin, time after time.
After many, many trays of brownies, [Adam], with the assistance of [Dr. Pia Sörensen], determined that the key seems to be making a brownie mixture with very finely dissolved sugar, in sucrose form, with a carefully controlled amount of water in the mixture. This produces a thick mixture which can hold together against the gases bubbling out during the cooking process, and produces a nice glossy skin. Too much water, and the mixture isn’t viscous enough to hold up, leading to brownies full of pock marks, while alternative sugars like fructose and glucose likely disrupt the ordered structure of sucrose molecules necessary for a shiny surface.
Together, [Adam] and [Pia] do a great job of exploring the molecular chemistry behind the process, as well as ruling out several myths that have been perpetuated in the viciously insular brownie subculture. All they’re missing is a set of standardised reflectivity tests executed with an Arduino and some photodiodes, but we’ll assume that was just cut for time. We’ve seen other hacks in the realm of molecular gastronomy before,
like this homebrew kitchen centrifuge
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to dkt01 for the tip!] | 35 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322273",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2021-02-14T18:12:30",
"content": "Hmm. Interesting. I always associated the shiny papery skin with icky factory brownies, and the nice textured top surface with yummy fresh-from-our-own-oven taste. I had no idea shiny skin was a desired ... | 1,760,373,187.348027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/14/stray-cat-shelter-is-nicer-than-our-first-apartment/ | Stray Cat Shelter Is Nicer Than Our First Apartment | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"cat food",
"cat shelter"
] | There are a lot of stray cats roaming around [Red Tie Projects’] neighborhood, and no one seems to care much about what happens to them. Fortunately for the cats, [Red Tie Projects] cares quite a lot, as evidenced by
this colossal cat condo
they built. The cats retain their freedom, but get food and a warm, sheltered bed whenever they decide to grace [Red Tie Projects] with their presence.
[Red Tie Projects] built this sturdy shelter from pallet wood and did a fine job of it, sealing all the seams and screws up with wood putty and waterproofing it with silicone. Inside there’s a heated pillow, a light, and a remote-controlled camera so RTP] can pan around and keep an eye on the cats. All the wires run out through a weatherproof junction box attached to the side and over to a control box made from an ATX power supply.
Most of the build is made from scrap, including the best part — an Arduino-driven motorized zip line for delivering food from the balcony to the cat porch. Details on the control box and the food delivery system are coming soon, as [Red Tie Projects] teases in the video after the break. We’re looking forward to seeing those. Oh, and don’t worry — there’s more than enough footage to cover the cat tax.
If [Red Tie Projects] ever takes any of those cats in, their demands will only increase.
Maybe they can handle the sound of a motorized chair that follows the sun
, since they’re tough street cats and all. | 59 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6322232",
"author": "saindman",
"timestamp": "2021-02-14T16:27:43",
"content": "{RTP} came so close to creating a complete solution to the cat dilemma. Good Work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6322309",
"author": "ca... | 1,760,373,187.455668 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/gme-tracking-rocketship-for-the-diamond-handed-traders/ | GME-Tracking Rocketship For The Diamond-Handed Traders | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"gamestop",
"gme",
"stock tracker",
"stocks",
"stonks",
"trading"
] | If you’ve been on the internet lately, you’ve been bombarded by stories about retail traders attempting to beat Wall Street at their own game by trying to force a short squeeze on GameStop stock. It’s inspired memes, songs, and all manner of political discourse,
along with this cute stock-tracking device built by [dickdemodickmarcinko].
The device is based on the typical exhortation that a given stock or cryptocurrency is going “to the moon”, i.e. skyrocketing upwards to great heights. IT consists of an ESP8266 in a 3D printed housing, with a HD44780 alphanumeric LCD displaying the GME stock price and percentage change over time. The microcontroller also controls a stepper motor, which rotates a 3D-printed rocketship up or down relative to the stock’s price changes. If it’s pointing straight up, prospects are good for those holding the stock!
Whether or not the GME squeeze happens, the build is a fun way to learn about electronics and the stock market at the same time, and could be readily repurposed to track other markets in future. We’ve featured other price trackers before,
like this traffic light keeping an eye on Bitcoin.
Video after the break. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321418",
"author": "Thomas Anderson",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T08:29:36",
"content": "inb4 crusty old men complaining about reddit hype",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6321460",
"author": "Canoe",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,373,187.695057 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/nanotube-yarn-makes-strong-bionic-muscles/ | Nanotube Yarn Makes Strong Bionic Muscles | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"nanotechnology",
"nanotubes",
"polymer",
"smart fabric",
"yarn"
] | What’s just a bit thicker than a human hair and has ten times the capability of a human muscle?
Polymer-coated carbon nanotube yarn
. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas created this yarn using carbon nanotubes coated with a polymer and coiled with a diameter of about 140 microns.
Passing a voltage through the fiber causes the muscle yarn to expand or contract. Previous similar fibers have to do both actions. That is, they expand and then contract in a bipolar movement. The polymer coating allows for unipolar fibers, critical to using the fibers as artificial muscles.
Another improvement is the development of a solid electrolyte so the fibers don’t have to float in a liquid bath. The researchers say this is important for the creating of smart fabrics and, of course, the material has obvious applications in any sort of robotic design. In addition to smart clothing, medical implants and prosthetics could benefit from this material, too.
The only problem, of course, is production at scale. It is one thing to make a few centimeters of yarn in a lab, and another to smart shirts in every big box store in the world.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this university toying with
artificial muscles and carbon nanotubes
. Some
artificial muscle fibers
need a laser, but that’s not very handy. | 17 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321375",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T03:36:16",
"content": "This reminds me of an article from a few years back, using twisted lengths of fishing line to make artificial muscles, it may have been here on HaD thinking about it. I remember giving it a go myself, it w... | 1,760,373,187.746266 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/pc-overclocking-with-an-air-conditioner/ | PC Overclocking With An Air Conditioner | Al Williams | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"air conditioning",
"cooling",
"overclocking"
] | We never insist that a hack be practical. [Tech Ingredients] is living proof as they modded a computer case to use a window air conditioner for
overclocking a computer
. They think they haven’t hit the ceiling yet, and got their AMD Ryzen 8-core processor up to 4.58 GHz.
An advantage of forcing air from an air conditioner is that the air forced into the system is quite dry and clean. The trick is to create a simple duct to attach to a 5,000 BTU air conditioner. It doesn’t actually interface with the CPU cooling block, instead it just forces cool air into the case and this tends to cool everything inside. Admittedly, it isn’t any worse than plunging your computer in liquid nitrogen, and we’ll admit that air conditioning units are made to keep large areas cold and work at high duty cycles. With the air conditioning running, they disconnected at least some of the stock fans. The temperatures stayed cool even at high speeds.
We really liked the thermal interface test rig, which they used to test interface media. We wondered though, if you could tap into the cooling loop and actually push refrigerant through a water cooling block. An alternative would be to use a double loop as a nuclear reactor does, with a water loop on the CPU and the refrigerant loop in the air conditioner. Still, the way they did it has the advantage of being simple and reversible.
This is making us think about just 3D printing a faceplate for our air conditioner to hold a few
Raspberry PI boards
. Cheaper than a
Dewar flask
. | 51 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321325",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-02-12T00:11:58",
"content": "“We never insist that a hack be practical. [Tech Ingredients] is living proof as they modded a computer case to use a window air conditioner for overclocking a computer. ”Considering how cold it is right... | 1,760,373,187.831406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/vacuum-forming-key-cap-covers-doesnt-quite-work-out/ | Vacuum Forming Key Cap Covers Doesn’t Quite Work Out | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"keycap",
"keycaps",
"vacuum forming"
] | Retrocomputing is as much about physical preservation as it is about electronics and computer science. Plastic is an awful material when it comes to decade-long timescales, and the forces of sun, air and water are unrelenting on these materials. [Drygol] has long experimented with techniques to preserve and refresh keycaps, and decided to try some fun vacuum forming techniques for something new.
It sadly didn’t go to plan, however
.
The basic idea was to use a vacuum-forming machine to coat keycaps in a thin layer of translucent plastic, for both aesthetic benefit and to preserve them from falling apart. Initial small-scale tests were promising, creating a key with a tight, form-fitting blue plastic wrap through which the original labels were still visible.
However, scaling up the process proved fraught. Uneven heating of the plastic film and a lack of rigidity in the carriage used to stretch it over the keycaps led to poor results. The final product showed many wrinkles and was distinctly unappealing.
[Drygol] isn’t giving up however, and plans to build a new vacuum table with greater performance. We can imagine this technique being an accessible way to colorize keycaps for a vintage cyberdeck or chiptune rig, without permanently modifying the keys. If you’ve got the inside knowledge on how to make this work, sound off in the comments.
We’ve seen [Drygol]’s work in this space before, too,
like this extreme modded Amiga.
If you’re executing your own retro repairs,
be sure to drop us a line! | 27 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321270",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2021-02-11T21:22:43",
"content": "“Plastic is an awful material when it comes to decade-long timescales, and the forces of sun, air and water are unrelenting on these materials. ”Mouse wears out every four years, and every new one made f... | 1,760,373,187.976786 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/aoi-by-diy/ | AOI By DIY | Jenny List | [
"LED Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"led",
"optical inspection",
"pcb inspection"
] | As anyone who has ever assembled a run of PCBs will tell you, quality inspection of solder joints can be a difficult process. Even under a microscope their appearances can be deceptive, and one silver blob can be perfect while its neighbour conceals a problem. The electronics industry have developed inspection tools to help, including optical inspection devices. It’s one of these that [Sina Roughani] has built,
in the form of a hemispherical 3D printed dome with concentric rings of coloured LEDs mounted within it
.
The principle behind this tool is as unexpected and simple as it is clever; by having different colours of light from different elevations of the dome it ensures that each different angle of the solder joint surface reflects a different colour. Thus a colour photograph shot from directly above the board allows visual inspection of the quality of the solder joints by the rainbow of colours that appears around their edges. This process can even be automated with OpenCV or similar, hence the process is referred to as Automated Optical Inspection, or AOI.
The technique is demonstrated with some pictures of a Raspberry Pi Pico, on which it shows really well the rainbow-edged solder joints and the red colour reflected from flat pads. What at first might seem like a novelty lighting effect becomes a very useful inspection tool.
PCB inspection is a subject we’ve covered before, though
perhaps we don’t all have access to X-rays
. | 27 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321253",
"author": "Tweepy",
"timestamp": "2021-02-11T20:59:07",
"content": "Awesome, I’ve been looking for such project for a while now, but the sweatwork type of job involved is pretty steep.What about using single pixels led (WS2811 or SK6805) with 1515 or 2020 package, already ... | 1,760,373,187.905972 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/linux-fu-serial-untethered/ | Linux Fu: Serial Untethered | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [
"linux",
"rs232",
"ser2net",
"serial",
"serial port",
"socat"
] | Serial ports used to be everywhere. In a way, they still are since many things that appear to plug in as a USB device actually look like a serial port. The problem is that today, the world runs on the network. Sure, you can buy a terminal server that converts a serial port to an Ethernet port, but what fun is that? In this article, I’m going to show you how to stream serial ports over the network using some available Linux tools. It isn’t perfect, and it won’t work for every case, but when it works it works well.
Everything is a File, Until it Isn’t
At some point in the past, Unix — the progenitor of Linux — treated virtually everything as a file, and all files were created more or less equal. Programs didn’t care if a file was local, on the network, from a tape drive, or arriving over a named pipe.
But things started to change. Even though a serial port is just a file under Linux, it has some special attributes that let you set, for example, baud rates. Worse, some programs “know” too much about files and insist on certain naming conventions. So, in theory, you should be able to create a network socket, connect one end to a serial port and the other end to a program, and be done with it. In theory.
The practice is different, of course. That might work in some very simple cases. You can use a utility called
socat
(like cat for a socket) to set it up. However, if the program you are trying to fake tries to set a baud rate, for example, it is probably going to throw up its hands. Some programs won’t even recognize your fake serial port.
About socat
The
socat
program is like a magic adapter cable that simply pipes everything from one place to another and also handles the reverse traffic. The program can read from files, pipes, devices, sockets, and a few other items. For example, you might want to build a simple TCP proxy to forward connections on the local host to another host. That’s easy with
socat
:
socat TCP4-LISTEN:88 TCP4:10.1.1.125:8000
That will only handle one connection, but you can even ask
socat
to fork off a new connection to handle multiple requests.
The Problem
If you try doing this with a serial port, though, it is unlikely to work without a lot of setup. This is such a common desire that there are several programs available to help. Most Linux distributions will support
ser2net
, a program made to handle the task of converting a serial port to a socket. If
ser2net
doesn’t suit you, there’s also some Python code that ships as an example with
the
pyserial
library
, but your distribution version of
pyserial
maybe too old to support it. If that’s the case, you’ll need to install it outside of your package manager using
pip
, for example. I’m going to assume you are using
ser2net
.
The
ser2net
program normally installs as a system service and you can edit
/etc/ser2net.conf
to configure it. I took out all the default lines and added the two serial ports I wanted to expose along with the baud rates I wanted:
7777:telnet:0:/dev/ttyUSB0:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT remctl
7778:telnet:0:/dev/ttyUSB1:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT remctl
Then you’ll need to restart the service (probably
systemctl restart ser2net
; if it fails to restart the first time, try again as sometimes it tries to start before the old copy is totally shutdown).
For debugging, you might want to stop the service and run with some debugging messages:
ser2net -d -C "7778:telnet:0:/dev/ttyUSB1:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT remctl"
Either way, once the service is running, the ports you specify (7777 and 7778 in my configuration file) will act like the associated serial ports.
A few notes. If you are doing this with a 3D printer and you have something like Octoprint running, you’ll need to shut it down or otherwise make it let go of the printer port before you set all this up. This would be true of any program that would hold the serial port you are interested in opening. For some standard ports, you need to make sure login is not holding the port open and waiting for a user. Exactly how all that works will depend on your setup. The same goes for your firewall. If you are listening on port 7777 and you use a firewall, you’ll need to set it up to allow connections on that port. Don’t forget you usually have to be root to open up low-numbered ports, too.
The Client Side
On the client side, you can use
socat
, but some programs will figure out it isn’t a real serial port. You can still, try though:
socat pty,link=$HOME/dev/ttyNET0,waitslave tcp:10.1.1.125:7777
Some programs are only going to look for devices in
/dev
, though. If that’s the case for you, you are going to need to run
socat
as root (use
sudo
) and then also set
/dev/ttyNET0
so that you have read and write permissions (e.g.,
sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyNET0
).
Testing 1, 2, 3…
Instead of trying your program right away, though, I suggest you test using something like
picocom
. For example, on the client machine after you run
socat
, you should be able to run something like:
picocom -b 115200 $HOME/dev/ttyNET0
Picocom can talk across the network using a virtual serial device
Obviously, you’ll need to use the right name and baud rate. You should be able to talk to the remote device. If not, figure out why before you run the regular program. If your serial device isn’t text-based, you might have more luck with
cutecom
but, alas, the program knows your fake serial port is fake and won’t let you select it. On the other hand, the program is open source, so you could easily create a local version that used any device name you like. There are other choices, of course. For example,
gtkterm
will let you pick up the fake serial port.
If you run into a protocol error, you may find that the serial port has moved (e.g., it was
/dev/ttyUSB0
and now it is
/dev/ttyUSB1
) or you have an invalid baud rate. The error message isn’t very helpful, but don’t forget to use the -d option in
ser2net
while troubleshooting.
The
ttynvt
program doesn’t have great documentation graphics, but they are accurate.
When you do run the regular program, it might work. However, it also might throw an error or, in some cases, refuse to let you select the file because it isn’t really a serial port. In some cases, you are simply out of luck. However, a smarter client that understands the serial port might help, too. The
ttynvt
program is one example of that. You will probably have to build it from source, but it is very easy to do that. it does depend on
libfuse
, but otherwise doesn’t need anything exotic.
Once you have it built, try something like this:
sudo src/ttynvt -M 199 -m 6 -n ttyNET0 -S 10.1.1.125:7777
This will create the
/dev/ttyNET0
device (so you need to be root). On my system, the new device had read and write permissions set for root and the dialout group. You might need to check and fix the permissions, though, depending on your setup.
Again, test with
picocom
, and then try your target program. Cross your fingers!
Why, Oh Why?
My original goal was to run Lightburn software for my laser cutter on a big machine using a remote desktop. I wanted the laser cutter plugged into the USB port on the local machine and have the software talk to a fake port on the bigger computer.
Alas, as of today, Lighburn is too smart for my naughty tricks and refuses to show my virtual serial ports. There’s no way that I know of to force it to use a file name of my choice, so I can’t even try to see if it would work. However, I was able to test the setup with some other G code software and it does work. I’ve mentioned this to Lightburn, so maybe it will be fixed by the time you read this.
The paradigm that “everything is a file” is very powerful. Unfortunately, every year it gets less true and that causes more hoops to jump through when you want to do something interesting like this. Still, in true Linux fashion, there’s always a way to get there. I have no doubt that I could trace the calls Lighburn is making to open the port and find a way to fake them for the serial client. I’m hoping, though, that I don’t have to. | 28 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321167",
"author": "Zombielinux.org",
"timestamp": "2021-02-11T18:08:19",
"content": "Just as an FYI to future readers. The ser2net configuration syntax changed to a YAML output with the jump to Version 4.0.The underlying code didn’t change so It should be just as functional.For Ex... | 1,760,373,188.056118 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2021/02/11/tiny-motors-enable-experimental-piano-performance/ | Tiny Motors Enable Experimental Piano Performance | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"max",
"piano"
] | Just when you think you’ve seen every possible way to play the piano, [Alessandro Perini] came up with a new one. In
this piece
, written for the percussionist [Irene Bianco], hand-held motors become a tangible interface between composer, electronic music equipment, and the performer.
The performance involved ten small disc motors, held above the strings by a wooden frame. The motors are controlled by a Arduino Nano, which turns the motors on or off based on MIDI commands from a computer. However, the performance is not entirely automated. [Irene] wears a pair of contact microphones on her fingers, which she moves around inside the piano to capture the sounds of the strings vibrating in harmony with the motors themselves.
[Alessandro] has been kind enough to share a tutorial
on how to recreate the hardware and software behind the performance for those keen to create similar work of their own. As with any musical endeavour,
MIDI can always make it better.
Video after the break. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6321158",
"author": "Arudatu",
"timestamp": "2021-02-11T17:51:32",
"content": "This is still very raw.. Much potential still awaits to be explore",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6321170",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,188.215257 |
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