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https://hackaday.com/2020/12/01/lets-encrypt-will-stop-working-for-older-android-devices/ | Let’s Encrypt Will Stop Working For Older Android Devices | Lewin Day | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"certificate",
"certificate authority",
"let's encrypt",
"Letsencrypt",
"ssl",
"tls"
] | Let’s Encrypt was founded in 2012, going public in 2014, with the aim to improve security on the web. The goal was to be achieved by providing free, automated access to SSL and TLS certificates that would allow websites to make the switch over to HTTPS without having to spend any money.
Hundreds of millions of sites rely on Let’s Encrypt for their HTTPS certificate needs. HTTPS security helps protect sites and users, and makes it harder for malicious actors to steal private information.
The project has just announced that,
come September 1, 2021, some older software will stop trusting their certificates.
Let’s look at why this has come to pass, and what it means going forward.
Certificates Expire
When Let’s Encrypt first went public in early 2016, they issued their own root certificate, by the name ISRG Root X1. However, it takes time for companies to include updated root certificates in their software, so until recently, all Let’s Encrypt certificates were cross-signed by an IdenTrust certificate, DST Root X3. This certificate had been around much longer, and was already supported by the vast majority of OSes and browsers in regular use. This allowed Let’s Encrypt to hit the ground running while they waited for the majority of software to support their own root certificate.
The problem looming on the horizon is the expiration of DST Root X3, on September 1, 2021. Of course, for those running up-to-date operating systems and browsers, there’s no major issue. But for those on platforms that haven’t been updated since 2016 or so, and don’t support the ISRG Root X1 certificate, things will break. This affects any secure communication that uses their certificates, whether it be browsing websites with HTTPS enabled or making connections over SSL or SFTP.
The company notes that perhaps the biggest area of concern is the Android handset market. As most telecommunications networks customise Android software, along with the handset manufacturer themselves, it takes coordination between many organisations to put out an OS update for an Android phone. There’s also little financial incentive for companies to support phones that have already been sold. Thus, many users find themselves locked out from OS updates entirely as networks or manufacturers simply neglect to do the work.
Data on the Android installed base, as of September 2020.
Android users on versions older than 7.1.1 are the ones who will face issues when DST Root X3 expires on September 1 next year. Based on recent statistics, these users make up roughly a third of the Android userbase – a significant number. With a conservative estimate pegging Android users as a whole
making up approximately 80% of the total smartphone installed base
, and around 3 billion smartphone users worldwide, back of the envelope calculations show us that leaves around 750 million users that could have issues in the coming year.
Of course, workarounds are possible. While the Android OS, and presumably web browser, are long out of date, there’s nothing stopping users installing newer software that supports the ISRG Root X1 certificate. Firefox is available as a browser on the platform, and packs in its own list of trusted root certificates, so is a useful workaround for day to day web use. For developers, it’s possible to include ISRG Root X1 as a trusted certificate within an individual app,
and discussions are ongoing among those taking to this route.
After all, adding an new trusted certificate is just putting a file in a directory, but you need root permissions to do so, which on locked Android phones means a jailbreak.
Let’s Encrypt could also seek a cross-signature from another Certificate Authority, similar to when they started out. However, Certificate Authorities take on some responsibility for the certificates they sign, and it’s unlikely that another CA would wish to shoulder that burden for Let’s Encrypt. Particularly, as the entity is a non-profit, there is little money to be made. As a major pillar in the Internet’s shift towards HTTPS encryption as the norm, Let’s Encrypt consider it important that the project stand on its own, rather than relying on other for-profit organisations. Given that their root certificate is now widely recognised, outside these edge cases from 2016 and earlier, that seems like a sound decision.
With security on the Internet now more important than ever, this is a problem that isn’t going away. In order to play nice with all the other computers on the global network, regular updates are simply the cost of doing business. The benefit of having an open certificate provider like Let’s Encrypt around is that their transparency as to the issues and clear communication gives web hosts, developers, and end users more time to deal with the coming changes. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6299201",
"author": "Trumpy",
"timestamp": "2020-12-01T15:12:50",
"content": "What’s next I have to bin my Win7 laptop because Win10 doesn’t support it?Green minded people should push back.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6299... | 1,760,373,271.112402 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/12/01/zelda-ii-redux-rom-hack-plays-how-you-remember-the-original/ | Zelda II Redux ROM Hack Plays How You Remember The Original | Drew Littrell | [
"Games"
] | [
"NES hack",
"nintendo",
"ROM hack",
"rom hacks",
"videogames"
] | Going back to classic games can be a difficult experience. The forward passage of time leaves technology to stagnate, while the memories attached to those old games can morph in mysterious ways. Therein lies the problem with how you remember a game playing versus the reality of how it actually does. Developer [Jorge] saw that situation arising around Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and
it inspired him to create the Zelda II Redux ROM hack
.
Years in the making, Zelda II Redux takes a relatively light-handed approach to revising the original NES game. Graphical enhancements include: a reworked HUD complete with the series’ tradition of hearts, animated enemy icons in the over world, a new title screen, and giving Link the shield from
the Famicom Disk System release’s box art
. Text speed has been increased and a revised translation of the Japanese script has been incorporated. Under the hood, all sorts of boss battles have been re-balanced while casting magic spells doesn’t require multiple return trips to the pause menu. Though Zelda II Redux’s most important feature may be the inclusion of manual saving via “Up + A” on the pause menu. There are also a whole host of other changes Zelda II Redux incorporates in order to bring Link’s second adventure more inline with the rest of the Legend of Zelda series that
can be found on the project’s change log
.
To play Zelda II Redux requies an IPS patching program,
like LunarIPS
, along with a clean dumped image of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Dumping NES cartridges is easier than ever these days due to many cartridge dumper devices being plug-and-play over USB. A successfully patched ROM file can be played in an emulator or on actual NES hardware through a flash cart. A video of a tool-assisted speedrun has been included below, so there may be some new strategies to employ. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6299167",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2020-12-01T12:43:36",
"content": "Nintendonot launches a battalion of lawyers in 3…2…1…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6299169",
"author": "Sunoo",
"timestamp": "2020... | 1,760,373,270.566392 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/12/01/building-a-vector-graphics-machine-from-scratch-including-the-crt/ | Building A Vector Graphics Machine From Scratch Including The CRT | Jenny List | [
"Games",
"hardware"
] | [
"crt",
"game",
"vector graphics"
] | Over the years we’ve seen quite a few projects involving vector graphics, but the spaceship game created by [Mark Aren] especially caught our eye because in it
he has tackled building a vector display from scratch rather than simply using a ready-made one such as an oscilloscope
. As if the vector game itself wasn’t interesting enough, the process of designing the electronics required to drive a CRT is something that might have been commonplace decades ago but which few electronics enthusiasts in 2020 will have seen.
In his write-up he goes into detail on the path that took him to his component choices, and given the unusual nature of the design for 2020 it;s a fascinating opportunity to see the job done with components that would have been unheard of in the 1950s or 1960s. He eventually settled on a high voltage long-tailed pair of bipolar transistors, driven by a single op-amp to provide the differential signal required by the deflection electrodes. The mix of old and new also required a custom-fabricated socket for the CRT. On the game side meanwhile, an ATmega328 does the heavy lifting, through a DAC. He goes into some detail on DAC selection, having found some chips gave significant distortion.
All in all this is an impressive project from all angles, and we’re bowled over by it. Of course, if you fancy a play with vector graphics,
perhaps there’s a simpler way
. | 24 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6299118",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2020-12-01T09:26:07",
"content": "Oh – I thought you were saying he made the CRT as well.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6299190",
"author": "mechanism853",
"... | 1,760,373,270.6336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/usb-webcams-out-of-stock-make-one-with-a-raspberry-pi-and-hq-camera-module/ | USB Webcams Out Of Stock? Make One With A Raspberry Pi And HQ Camera Module | Donald Papp | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"raspberry pi",
"USB camera",
"videoconferencing",
"webcam"
] | More people working from home has had an impact on the cost and availability of USB webcams, so [Jeff Geerling] got around the issue with a DIY solution that rang in around $100. It consists of
a Raspberry Pi and HQ camera module acting as a USB webcam
, and there is no messy streaming of ffmpeg over the network masquerading as a camera device or anything. It works just as a USB camera should.
[Jeff] chose a Raspberry Pi Zero and HQ camera module for his unit, making a tidy package that might not be quite as small as commercial webcams, but is certainly perfectly respectable as a USB camera. That being said, there are a few drawbacks, namely the lack of a microphone or autofocus, latency issues at higher resolutions, and the need to shut down the Pi cleanly.
Check out the GitHub repository
for everything needed to set up your own, including a complete hardware list and some options for mounting. [Jeff] also tested whether the camera would work with the new
keyboard-embedded Raspberry Pi 400
, and it absolutely does. Embedded below is a video walkthrough and demonstration of the whole project, so check it out. | 34 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6299060",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2020-12-01T06:12:54",
"content": "Assuming you can find the HQ Camera Module, that is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6299098",
"author": "lkjsdf lkjsdfpoi",
"times... | 1,760,373,270.945809 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/recovering-metal-from-waste/ | Recovering Metal From Waste | Bryan Cockfield | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"Chemistry",
"copper",
"copper nitrate",
"metal",
"nitric acid",
"recovery",
"sulfuric acid",
"thermal decomposition",
"waste"
] | Refining precious metals is not as simple as polishing rocks that have been dug out of the ground. Often, complex chemical processes are needed to process the materials properly or in high quantities, but these processes leave behind considerable waste. Often, there are valuable metals left over in these wastes, and [NerdRage] has gathered his
chemistry equipment to demonstrate how it’s possible to recover these metals
.
The process involved looks to recover copper and nitric acid from copper nitrate, a common waste byproduct of processing metal. While a process called
thermal decomposition
exists to accomplish this, it’s not particularly efficient, so this alternative looks to improve the yields you could otherwise expect. The first step is to react the copper nitrate with sulfuric acid, which results in nitric acid and copper sulfate. From there, the copper sulfate is placed in an electrolysis cell using a platinum cathode and copper anodes to pass current through it. After the process is complete, all of the copper will have deposited itself on the copper electrodes.
The other interesting thing about this process, besides the amount of copper that is recoverable, is that the sulfuric acid and the nitric acid are recoverable, and able to be used again in other processes. The process is much more efficient than thermal decomposition and also doesn’t involve any toxic gasses either. Of course, if collecting valuable metals from waste is up your alley, you can also take a look at
recovering some gold as well
.
Thanks to [Keith] for the tip! | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6299038",
"author": "jafinch78",
"timestamp": "2020-12-01T04:00:50",
"content": "Really great topic with a history that is really neat also.Especially in modern times researching old mines waste and recovering what was a waste product then and is now a highly valuable commodity mate... | 1,760,373,270.684974 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/gathering-eclipse-data-via-ham-radio/ | Gathering Eclipse Data Via Ham Radio | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"10 mhz",
"beacon",
"doppler shift",
"eclipse",
"ham",
"radio",
"receiver",
"solar",
"time station",
"volunteer"
] | A solar eclipse is coming up in just a few weeks, and although with its path of totality near the southern tip of South America means that not many people will be able to see it first-hand, there is an opportunity to get involved with it even at an extreme distance. PhD candidate [Kristina] and the organization HamSCI are trying to learn a little bit more about the effects of an eclipse on radio communications, and all that is required to help is a
receiver capable of listening in the 10 MHz range during the time of the eclipse
.
It’s well-known that certain radio waves can propagate further depending on the time of day due to changes in many factors such as the state of the ionosphere and the amount of solar activity. What is not known is specifically
how
the paths can vary over the course of the day. During the eclipse the sun’s interference is minimized, and its impact can be more directly measured in a more controlled experiment. By tuning into particular time stations and recording data during the eclipse, it’s possible to see how exactly the eclipse impacts propagation of these signals. [Kristina] hopes to take all of the data gathered during the event to observe the doppler effect that is expected to occur.
The project requires a large amount of volunteers to listen in to the time stations during the eclipse (even if it is not visible to them) and there are only a few more days before this eclipse happens. If you have the required hardware, which is essentially just a receiver capable of receiving upper-sideband signals in 10 MHz range, it may be worthwhile to give this a shot. If not, there may be some time to
cobble together an SDR
that can listen in (even an RTL-SDR set up for 10 MHz will work) provided you can use it to record the required samples. It’s definitely a time that
ham radio could embrace the hacker community
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6299003",
"author": "ian",
"timestamp": "2020-12-01T00:12:27",
"content": "” (even an RTL-SDR set up for 10 MHz will work) ”A standard RTL-SDR won’t go down to 10MHz.There are techniques that will extent the range – eg. an up-converter can be used for HF",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,270.788437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/building-a-dishwasher-from-scratch/ | Building A Dishwasher From Scratch | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"dishwasher",
"ESP8266",
"kitchen"
] | [Billy] was no fan of doing the dishes, but also found commercial solutions lacking. The options on the market simply didn’t fit his cookware and flatware. Instead of compromising,
he set out to build a dishwasher of his own design.
The build consists of a whole heap of hardware all lumped in a sizeable plastic tub. A washing machine solenoid lets water into the system, and it’s heated by an element in the base of the tub. It’s then pumped through a garden sprinkler head to give the dishes a good all-over spraying. At the end of a wash cycle, the drain pump then dumps the water to let everything dry off. An ESP8266 and a bank of relays are in place to run the show, with the user selecting wash programs via buttons and a small screen.
It may have taken a couple of years to come together, but [Billy’s] dishwasher seems to get the job done.
Files are on Github
for those interested, however we’d caution against attempting such a build unless you’re familiar working with plumbing and mains electricity.
The other benefit of building your own dishwasher is that you’re less likely to have to patch it against widespread exploits
– the security is instead up to you. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Adrian for the tip!] | 49 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298955",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T21:44:54",
"content": "Why didn’t I think of this? My dishwasher was the wrong size, so I bought new crockery.Changing the machine didn’t occur to me, but is so much a better answer.And I already have no apparent grounds to c... | 1,760,373,270.871033 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/a-crust-cutting-carrot-chopping-robot/ | A Crust-Cutting, Carrot-Chopping Robot | Kristina Panos | [
"Lifehacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"emf",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi 4",
"robot"
] | [3DprintedLife] sure does hate bread crust. Not the upper portion of homemade bread, mind you — just that nasty stuff around the edges of store-bought loaves. Several dozen hours of CAD later, [3DprintedLife] had themselves
a crust-cutting robot that also chops vegetables
.
This De-Cruster 9000 is essentially a 2-axis robotic guillotine over a turntable. It uses a Raspberry Pi 4 and OpenCV to seek and destroy bread crusts with a dull dollar store knife. Aside from the compact design, our favorite part has to be the firmware limit switches baked into the custom control board. The stepper drivers have this fancy feature called StallGuard™ that constantly reads the back EMF to determine the load the motor is under. If you have it flag you right before the motor hits the end of the rail and stalls,
bam
, you have a firmware limit switch. Watch it remove crusts and chop a lot of carrots with faces after the break.
This is far from the dangerous-looking robot we’ve seen lately.
Remember this hair-cutting contraption? | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298927",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T20:41:27",
"content": "That’s awfully wasteful of bread crusts, he should make a crutonizer machine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298932",
"author": "B1AUAD",
... | 1,760,373,271.157132 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/amazon-sidewalk-should-you-be-co-opted-into-a-private-neighbourhood-lora-network/ | Amazon Sidewalk: Should You Be Co-Opted Into A Private Neighbourhood LoRa Network? | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"home hacks",
"News",
"Rants",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"amazon",
"Amazon Echo",
"Amazon Ring",
"Amazon Sidewalk",
"privacy"
] | WiFi just isn’t very good at going through buildings. It’s fine for the main living areas of an average home, but once we venture towards the periphery of our domains it starts to become less reliable. For connected devices outside the core of a home, this presents a problem, and it’s one Amazon hope to solve
with their Sidewalk product
.
It’s a low-bandwidth networking system that uses capability already built into some Echo and Ring devices, plus a portion of the owner’s broadband connection to the Internet. The idea is to provide basic connectivity over longer distances to compatible devices even when the WiFi network is not available, but of most interest and concern is that it will also expose itself to devices owned by other people. If your Internet connection goes down, then your Ring devices will still provide a basic version of their functionality via a local low-bandwidth wide-area wireless network provided by the Amazon devices owned by your neighbours.
I Can See Your Amazon Ring From Here
It looks so harmless, doesn’t it. Amin,
CC BY-SA 4.0
The massive online retailer and IoT cloud provider would like to open up a portion of your home broadband connection via your home security devices over a wireless network to other similar devices owned by strangers. In the Amazon literature it is touted as providing all sorts of useful benefits to Ring and Echo owners, but it has obvious implications for both the privacy of your data should it be carried by other people’s devices, and for the security of your own network when devices you don’t own pass traffic over it. For the curious there’s a whitepaper offering more insights into the system, and aside from revealing that it uses 900 MHz FSK and LoRa as its RF layer there is not a lot information on how it works. As you might expect they have addressed the privacy and security issues through encryption, minimising the data transmitted, and constantly changing identifiers. To read
the Amazon document
at face value is to enter a world in which some confidence can be gained in the product.
The question on the lips of skeptical readers will no doubt be this: what could possibly go wrong? We would expect that the devices themselves and the radio portion of the network will be investigated thoroughly by those who make it their business to do such things, and while there is always the chance that somebody could discover a flaw in them it’s more probable that weaknesses could be found in the applications that sit atop the system. It’s something that has plagued Amazon’s IoT offerings before, such as last year when their Neighbors app
was found to sit atop a far more garrulous API than expected
, leading to a little more neighbourly information being shared than they bargained for. If Amazon’s blurb is to be believed then this system is to be opened up for third-party IoT device and app developers, and with each one of those the possibility of holes waiting to be discovered increases. We’ll keep you posted as they emerge.
Products such as Amazon Echo and Ring are incredible showcases of 21st century technology. They’re the living embodiment of an automated
Jetsons
future, and we’d be lying if we said we didn’t want a little slice of that future. But as you all know, the version of that future peddled by them and their competitors is a deeply flawed one in which the consumers who buy the products are largely unaware of how much data is created from them. From a purely technical perspective the idea of home security products that automatically form a low bandwidth network for use in case of main network failure is an exceptionally cool one, but when coupled with the monster data slurp of the Amazon behemoth it assumes a slightly more worrying set of possibilities. Is it possible to be George Jetson without Mr. Spacely gazing over your shoulder? | 61 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298882",
"author": "jim",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T18:31:58",
"content": "Does anyone know how accessible this will be? Living in an area with no loraWAN this sure is appealing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6298968",
... | 1,760,373,271.050064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/precision-optics-hack-chat-with-jeroen-vleggaar-of-huygens-optics/ | Precision Optics Hack Chat With Jeroen Vleggaar Of Huygens Optics | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"grinding",
"Hack Chat",
"Interferometry",
"lens",
"light",
"microscope",
"mirror",
"optics",
"precision",
"reflector",
"refraction",
"telescope"
] | Join us on Wednesday, December 2nd at noon Pacific for the Precision Optics Hack Chat with Jeroen Vleggaar!
We sometimes take for granted one of the foundational elements of our technological world: optics. There are high-quality lenses, mirrors, filters, and other precision optical components in just about everything these days, from the smartphones in our pockets to the cameras that loom over us from every streetlight and doorway. And even in those few devices that don’t incorporate any optical components directly, you can bet that the ability to refract, reflect, collimate, or otherwise manipulate light was key to creating the electronics inside it.
The ability to control light with precision is by no means a new development in our technological history, though. People have been creating high-quality optics for centuries, and the methods used to make optics these days would look very familiar to them. Precision optical surfaces can be constructed by almost anyone with simple hand tools and a good amount of time and patience, and those components can then be used to construct instruments that can explore the universe wither on the micro or macro scale.
Jeroen Vleggaar, know better as
Huygens Optics
on YouTube, will drop by the Hack Chat to talk about the world of precision optics. If you haven’t seen his videos, you’re missing out!
When not conducting optical experiments such as
variable surface mirrors
and
precision spirit levels
, or
explaining the Double Slit Experiment
, Jeroen consults on optical processes and designs. In this Hack Chat, we’ll talk about how precision optical surfaces are manufactured, what you can do to get started grinding your own lenses and mirrors, and learn a little about how these components are measured and used.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, December 2 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones baffle you as much as us, 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 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298901",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T19:37:10",
"content": "His youtube channel is awesome, definitely want to join this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6299071",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
... | 1,760,373,270.739267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/leaking-data-slowly-by-switching-ethernet-speeds/ | Leaking Data Slowly By Switching Ethernet Speeds | Lewin Day | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"ethernet"
] | Airgapping refers to running a machine or machines without connections to external networks. Literally, a gap of air exists between the machine and the outside world. These measures present a challenge to those wishing to exfiltrate data from such a machine, leading to some creative hacks.
[Jacek] has recently been experimenting with leaking data via Ethernet adapters.
The hack builds on [Jacek]’s earlier work with the Raspberry Pi 4, in which the onboard adapter is rapidly switched between 10 and 100 Megabit modes
to create a signal that can be picked up via radio up to 100 meters away
. Since then, [Jacek] determined the Raspberry Pi 4,
or at least his particular one
, seems to be very leaky of RF energy from the Ethernet port. He decided to delve deeper by trying the same hack out on other hardware.
Using a pair of Dell laptops connected back to back with an Ethernet cable
, the same speed-switching trick was employed. However, most hardware takes longer to switch speeds than the Pi 4; usually on the order of 2-5 seconds. This limited the signalling speed, but [Jacek] was able to set this up to exfiltrate data using QRSS, also known as very slow speed Morse code. The best result was picking up a signal from 10 meters away, although [Jacek] suspects this could be improved with better antenna hardware.
While slow data rates and the one-way nature of such communication limit the utility of such an attack, it nonetheless shows that securing a machine isn’t as simple as unplugging it from the network.
We’ve done a feature on such hacks before for those interested in learning more
. Video after the break. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298842",
"author": "Danjovic",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T16:42:58",
"content": "Tempest…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298860",
"author": "Ken",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T17:25:37",
"content": "A couple questions:A... | 1,760,373,271.203452 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/lithium-what-is-it-and-do-we-have-enough/ | Lithium: What Is It And Do We Have Enough? | Matthew Carlson | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"battery",
"Chemistry",
"cobalt",
"Li-ion",
"lithium"
] | Lithium (from Greek lithos or stone) is a silvery-white alkali metal that is the lightest solid element. Just one atomic step up from Helium, this magic metal seems to be in everything these days. In addition to forming the backbone of many kinds of batteries, it also is used in lubricants, mood-stabilizing drugs, and serves as an important additive in iron, steel, and aluminum production. Increasingly, the world is looking to store more and more power as phones, solar grids, and electric cars continue to rise in popularity, each equipped with lithium-based batteries. This translates to an ever-growing need for more lithium. So far production has struggled to keep pace with demand. This leads to the question, do we have enough lithium for everyone?
It takes around 138 lbs (63 kg) of 99.5% pure lithium to make a 70 kWh Tesla Model S battery pack. In 2016, OICA estimated that the world
had 1.3 billion cars in use
. If we replace every car with an electric version, we would need 179 billion pounds or 89.5 million tons (81 million tonnes) of lithium. That’s just the cars. That doesn’t include smartphones, laptops, home power systems,
massive grid storage projects
, and thousands of other products that use lithium batteries.
In 2019 the US Geological Survey estimated the world reserves of identified lithium was 17 million tonnes. Including the unidentified, the estimated total worldwide lithium was 62 million tonnes. While neither of these estimates is at that 89 million ton mark, why is there such a large gap between the identified and estimated total? And given the general rule of thumb that the lighter a nucleus is, the more abundant the element is, shouldn’t there be more lithium reserves? After all, the US Geological Survey estimates there are around 2.1 billion tonnes of identified copper and an additional 3.5 billion tonnes that have yet to be discovered. Why is there a factor of 100x separating these two elements?
What is Lithium and Where Does It Come From?
Lithium is geologically rare because it is unstable atomically due to it having the lowest binding energies per nucleon than any other stable nuclide. This is good for nuclear reactions (lithium was used as fuel in the first early nuclear reactions in 1932) but bad for finding it in nature. Further compounding its volatility, lithium is an alkali and will combust if allowed to come in contact with elements it reacts with, such as those found in the air. Pure lithium needs to be stored in oil to be transported safely.
A 660 gram sharply terminated crystal of spodumene: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com
Given that it’s rare and reactive, the process of extraction differs from other metals. Currently, there are two ways that lithium can be extracted. The first way is from ionic compounds, such as
pegmatitic minerals
(made of quartz, feldspar, mica, and other crystals). For a long time, this was the world’s primary source of lithium. Much of Australia’s lithium production as of 2020 comes from spodumene, a pyroxene mineral that occurs in pegmatites and aplites.
In addition to being in minerals, lithium can be found in brines and ocean water because of its solubility as an ion. This means lithium saturated brines found in South America and Nevada can be dried using a solar evaporator, then once a good concentration is reached, the lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide are precipitated by adding sodium carbonate (washing soda or soda ash) and calcium hydroxide (slaked lime or caustic lime). The brine extraction process usually takes 18 to 24 months.
However, the different processes are not equal in the lithium they produce. As mentioned earlier, battery manufacturers require 99.5% pure lithium and the remaining 0.5% is important. Brining tends to bring in iron or magnesium, impurities battery manufacturers try to avoid. Spodumene also has the advantage of purity as the deposit in Australia is an estimated 2.4% lithium. However, the sheer abundance of lithium in brines makes it very compelling even though the concentration is much lower (0.2-0.3%). An estimated 230 billion tons of lithium is dissolved in the oceans, but at 0.1-0.2ppm, it will be a while before extraction becomes economically viable. The difference between the identified reserved and the total estimated reserves can be mostly explained by brines. Brines are hard to estimate as they vary in concentration drastically and are often hidden in strange locations.
Uyuni Salt Flat by
Leonardo Rossatti
from Pexels
For example, most of the world’s lithium brines are concentrated in a region known as “The Lithium Triangle”, an intersection of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. This triangle is believed to contain over 75% of the existing known lithium. One such source of brine is the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in southwest Bolivia near the top of the Andes (almost 12000 ft or 3700 meters above sea level).
There’s a layer of salt on top that ranges from a few centimeters to several meters thick. Underneath the hard crust is a liquid brine with a relatively high concentration of lithium (0.3%). A hole drilled into the crust allows the brine to be pumped out and processed. As you can imagine, the high altitude complicates extraction and makes it more complex to transport the extracted lithium.
Battery Technologies
Why does lithium work so well as a battery? The myriad number of battery varieties using lithium seem endless. There is Li-MnO2, the most common consumer-grade battery chemistry, Li-FePO4, Li-CSVO, Li-CFx, Li-CuFeS, and Li-FeS2 are just some of the variants that are in common use today.
Lewin Day wrote a beginner’s guide to lithium batteries
that can help sort them out.
How a Li-ion battery discharges. Image by
Sdk16420
CC-BY-SA
Every battery has three parts: an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. Most batteries today use a liquid electrolyte, which is made of lithium salts suspended in an organic solvent. Solid-state lithium batteries offer some promise but are still very much in development. They use solid lithium oxides as their electrolytes because being solid, they cannot leak, which is a safety issue for their liquid-based counterparts. The anode is often a material such as graphite or lithium titanate
intercalated
(a reversible layering) with lithium. Cathodes are often made from lithium nickel cobalt (LMO) or Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC).
The reversible reaction inside a lithium battery is quite similar across all lithium batteries. During discharge, an oxidation half-reaction occurs as the anode that forms negative electrons and positive lithium ions. The lithium ions head towards the cathode while the electrons move through the circuit towards the anode. They recombine there in a reduction half-reaction. Apply an electrical current and this reaction is reversed. Since both the cathode and the anode allow the lithium ions to intercalate within their structures, the lithium ions are said to “rock” back and forth between the two electrodes. Thanks to lithium’s relative instability and atomic structure, it is easy to form a lithium-ion and transport it through the battery.
This reaction does have its limits. Overvolting a battery (5.2 volts) leads to the synthesis of cobalt oxide, which causes damage to the electrodes. Letting the voltage potential drop too low results in the production of lithium oxide, which damages the battery irreversibly by reacting to the battery itself. You can learn a bit more about battery chemistry
in this wonderful Bob Baddeley wrote last year
.
Cathode/Cobalt issues
As I mentioned, the cathodes of batteries are often made with cobalt. Funny enough, cobalt is in someways rarer than lithium. Despite its rarity, the demand for cobalt has continued to skyrocket thanks to lithium-ion batteries. More than half of the world’s supply is in DR Congo, which is an infamously exploited area of the world. Child and slave labor are repeatedly reported in the mines and many companies have tried to find ethical sources of the material. Progress has been made to reduce the amount of cobalt required per battery and it has dropped from 1/3rd (NMC111) to 1/10th (NMC811) of the cathode. Many companies are trying to make batteries without cobalt entirely, for example, the Tesla Model 3 has an LFP cathode which is cobalt-free. Even with new technologies being put into production, we are still a long way from being cobalt-free and the majority of batteries today are still cobalt-based. We may face a cobalt shortage long before we face a lithium shortage.
Do We Have Enough For Everyone?
The short answer is probably. Dozens of different Universities and National Labs have come out with studies predicting one way or another. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab said in a 2011 study that we could build a billion 40 kWh lithium batteries with our existing reserves, however, they assumed only 10kg of lithium per battery (1/6th of a Tesla Model S). Even if we have enough raw materials, the process of converting it into a usable form needs to be considered.
Consumption has grown around 25% per year since 2012, outpacing the 4 to 5% yearly gain in production. At some point, something is going to have to change. Several have compared these market conditions to the oil industry. The demand for oil led to new methods for extraction and new technology that weren’t commercially viable before. We still have a large amount of research and development to do before extracting lithium from less concentrated sources such as the ocean becomes more economically viable. That said, there are a few things we could do that might ease the bumps along the way.
Recycling Lithium
Recycling lithium has been a dream of researchers and engineers alike. A few hurdles stand in the way of that dream, namely designing for recycling and cost-effectiveness. Unlike lead-acid batteries, which are designed with recycling in mind and
achieve around a 98% recycling rate by mass
, lithium-ion batteries are often focused on fitting the size and shape of the product they are in. Recycling also requires labeling to tell what chemistry the battery is, which lithium-ion batteries often do not. Unlike lead-acid, lithium batteries have anodes and cathodes of similar density, which makes them hard to separate out for recycling. This requires complex chemical or magnetic separation steps that vary according to the battery chemistry.
That said,
universities are working to improve the process
. While their results are incredibly promising, there’s still the problem that recycling is not economically viable yet. Just buying the raw materials and making new batteries is cheaper than recycling old ones.
New Battery Technologies
Every few years or so, some new battery technology gets heralded as our potential savior. It seems that the promises of new and better batteries being just around the corner are held up each year anew. We’ve
covered the current contenders
as well as some promising upstarts such as
lithium-sulfur
and
lithium-ceramic
. Each promises different things like higher energy density, faster recharge, or being more environmentally friendly. While the general consensus is that we’ll believe the battery breakthrough hype when we see it in a consumer product, we still must give credit to all the researchers and engineers over the last few decades creating the steady stream of improvements to the lithium-ion battery.
So next time you look at the small lithium battery in your project or the large bank of 18650 cells, take a moment to appreciate where they came from and perhaps even allow yourself to wonder what will come next. | 138 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298804",
"author": "Old Guy",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T15:18:41",
"content": "“due to it having the lowest binding energies per nucleon than any other stable nuclide.”Measure twice, cut once. “lowest…than” needs editing.“lithium was used as fuel” Harrumph. “Target” not “fuel”. ... | 1,760,373,271.682704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/urban-explorers-reveal-a-treasure-trove-of-soviet-computing-power/ | Urban Explorers Reveal A Treasure Trove Of Soviet Computing Power | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"elektronika",
"pdp-11",
"PDP-8",
"Saratov",
"soviet computing"
] | It’s probably a dream most of us share, to stumble upon a dusty hall full of fascinating abandoned tech frozen in time as though its operators walked away one day and simply never returned. It’s something documented by some Russian urban explorers who found an unremarkable office building with one of its floors frozen sometime around the transition from Soviet Union to Russian Federation. In it they found their abandoned tech, in the form of
a cross-section of Soviet-era computers from the 1970s onwards
.
As you might expect, in a manner it mirrors the development of civilian computing on the capitalist side of the Iron Curtain over a similar period, starting with minicomputers the size of several large refrigerators and ending with desktop microcomputers. The minis seem to all be Soviet clones of contemporary DEC machines. with some parts of them even looking vaguely familiar. The oldest is a Saratov-2, a PDP/8 clone which we’re told is rare enough for no examples to have been believed to have survived until this discovery. We then see a succession of PDP/11 clones each of which becomes ever smaller with advancements in semiconductor integration, starting with the fridge-sized units and eventually ending up with desktop versions that resemble 1980s PCs.
While mass-market Western desktop machines followed the path of adopting newer architectures such as the Z80 or the 8086 the Soviets instead took their minicomputer technology to that level. It would be interesting to speculate how these machines might further have developed over the 1990s had history been different. Meanwhile we all have a tangible legacy of Soviet PDP/11 microcomputers in the form of Tetris, which was first written on an Elektronika 60.
We know that among our readers there is likely to be a few who encountered similar machines in their heyday, and we hope they’ll share their recollections in the comments. Meanwhile we hope that somehow this collection can be preserved one day. If your thirst for dusty mincomputers knows no bounds, read about the collectors who bought an IBM machine on eBay
and got more than they bargained for
.
Via
Hacker News
.
DVK-1 desktop computer, «Переславская неделя» / В. С. Спиридонов
CC-BY-SA 3.0
. | 45 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298770",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T12:26:08",
"content": "Very cool. They even copied the DEC flip-chip module handles (although those look like cheap phenolic PCBs, rather than glass-epoxy).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,373,271.503784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/30/pushing-the-fpga-video-player-further/ | Pushing The FPGA Video Player Further | Matthew Carlson | [
"FPGA",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"arty",
"fpga",
"media player",
"RISC-V",
"RISCV",
"video player"
] | A fact universally known among the Hackaday community is that projects are never truly done. You can always spin another board release to fix a silkscreen mistake, get that extra little boost of performance, or finally spend the time to track down that weird transient bug. Or in [ultraembedded’s] case,
take a custom FPGA player from 800 x 600 to 1280 x 720
. The hardware used is a Digilent Arty A7 and PMOD boards for I2S2, VGA, and MicroSD. We previously
covered this project back
when it was first getting started.
Getting from 800 x 600 to 1280 x 720 — 31% more pixels — required implementing a higher performance JPEG decoder that can read in the MPJEG frames, pushing out a pixel every 2.1 clock cycles. The improvements also include a few convenience features such as an IR remote. The number of submodules inside the system is just incredible, with most of them being implemented or tweaked by [ultraembedded] himself.
For the FPGA Verilog, there’s the SD/MMC interface, the JPEG decoder, the audio controller, the DVI framebuffer, a peripheral core, and a custom RISC-V CPU. For the firmware loaded off the SD card, it uses a custom RTOS running an MP3 decoder, a FAT32 interface, an IR decoder, and a UI based on LVGL.
We think this project represents a wonderful culmination of all the different IP cores that [ultraembedded] has produced over the years. All the code for
the FPGA media player is available on GitHub
.
I think I’ve built myself an HD (720p50) video player out of an #FPGA, #RISCV, #MJPEG and 27,000 lines of Verilog! Going from 800×600 -> 1280×720 just worked with 10 more MHz! I actually plan to sit down and watch a movie on this one evening!
https://t.co/4G1ZiN2ipY
– ultraembedded (@ultraembedded)
November 21, 2020 | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298803",
"author": "Rik",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T15:10:36",
"content": "That is a really impressive project, and a lot of re-usable HDL blocks, which is always great :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6299012",
"aut... | 1,760,373,271.729378 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/mouse-controlled-mouse-controller-is-silly-but-could-be-useful/ | Mouse-Controlled Mouse Controller Is Silly, But Could Be Useful | Lewin Day | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"mouse",
"useless machine"
] | Useless machines are generally built as a fun pastime, as they do nothing of value by their very definition. The most popular type generally involves a self-cancelling switch. However, there’s plenty of other useless machines to build,
and we think [Jeffery’s] build is particularly creative.
The build consists of an XY gantry that moves a standard computer mouse. To control the gantry, a Raspberry Pi feeds the system G-Code relative to the motion of a second mouse plugged into the single-board computer. It’s pretty standard fare overall, with the Pi sending commands to an Arduino that runs the various stepper motors via a CNC controller shield.
Yes, it’s a mouse that moves a mouse – and on the surface, this appears to be a very useless machine. However, we could imagine it being useful for remote control of a very old system that uses a non-standard mouse that is otherwise difficult to emulate. Additionally, it wouldn’t take much extra work to turn the XY gantry into a competent pen-plotter –
of which we’ve seen many
. Video after the break. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298726",
"author": "ziew",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T07:34:08",
"content": "That’s awesome cybersecurity-wise. An airgapped mouse!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6298744",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp... | 1,760,373,272.127234 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/calendar-printer-makes-you-a-hard-copy-on-the-daily/ | Calendar Printer Makes You A Hard Copy On The Daily | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"calendar",
"google calendar",
"thermal printer"
] | We’re blessed to have cloud-based calendars that store all the relevant data on our hyper-busy lives for easy access anywhere and everywhere. However, sometimes a hard copy is nice for when you’re tired of looking at screens. In this vein,
[lokthelok] produced a compact device that prints out your schedule on the daily.
The device uses an ESP32 to connect to WiFi, and then query Google Apps for a given user’s calendar details on a daily basis. After grabbing the data, it’s fed out to a thermal printer connected over serial at 9600 baud. As a twist, [lokthelok] has produced two versions of firmware for the project.
The master version
simply scrapes calendar data and outputs it neatly.
The Useless version
goes further, jumbling up appointments and printing them out of order. If you’ve got nothing on for the day, it will instead spool out the remainder of the thermal paper on the roll.
It’s a build that would make a handsome desk toy, though we suspect tossing out each day’s calendar could become tiresome after a while.
Alternatively, consider a clock that highlights your upcoming events for you
. Video after the break. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298682",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T03:11:57",
"content": "I like that.I’d have no use for the “Useless” version, of course.But, the hardcopy is nice to have. Also, it could print out a To Do list or grocery list.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,373,271.774854 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/hackaday-links-november-29-2020/ | Hackaday Links: November 29, 2020 | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"apple",
"arm",
"art",
"Crew Dragon",
"hackaday links",
"international space station",
"M1",
"robotics",
"servo controller"
] | While concerns over COVID-19 probably kept many a guest room empty this Thanksgiving, things were a little different aboard the International Space Station. The four-seat SpaceX Crew Dragon is able to carry one more occupant to the orbiting outpost than the Russian Soyuz, which has lead to a somewhat awkward sleeping arrangement: there are currently seven people aboard a Station that only has six crew cabins. To remedy the situation,
Commander Michael Hopkins has decided to sleep inside the Crew Dragon itself
, technically giving himself the most spacious personal accommodations on the Station. This might seem a little hokey, but it’s actually not without precedent; when the Shuttle used to dock with the ISS, the Commander would customarily sleep in the cockpit so they would be ready to handle any potential emergency.
Speaking of off-world visitation,
the Hayabusa2 spacecraft is nearly home after six years in space
. It won’t be staying long though, the deep-space probe is only in the neighborhood to drop off a sample of material collected from the asteroid Ryugu. If all goes according to plan, the small capsule carrying the samples will renter the atmosphere and land in the South Australian desert on December 6th, while Hayabusa2 heads back into the black for an extended mission that would have it chasing down new asteroids into the 2030s.
Moving on to a story that almost certainly
didn’t
come from space, a crew from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
recently discovered a strange metal monolith hidden in the desert
. While authorities were careful not to disclose the exact coordinates of the object, it didn’t take Internet sleuths long to determine its location, in part thanks to
radar data that allowed them to plot the flight path of a government helicopters
. Up close inspections that popped up on social media revealed that the object seemed to be hollow, was held together with rivets, and was likely made of aluminum. It’s almost certainly a guerrilla art piece, though there are also theories that it could have been a movie or TV prop (several productions are known to have filmed nearby) or even some kind of military IR/radar target. We may never know for sure though,
as the object disappeared soon after
.
Even if you’re not a fan of Apple, it’s
hard not to be interested in the company’s new M1 chip
. Hackers have been clamoring for more ARM laptops and desktops for years, and with such a major player getting in the game, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing less
luxurious
brands taking the idea seriously. After the recent discovery that
the ARM version of Ubuntu can run on the new M1 Macs
with a simple virtualization layer, it looks like we won’t have to wait too long before folks start chipping away at the Walled Garden.
In the market for a three phase servo controller? A reader who’s working on a robotics project worth as much as a nice house recently wrote in to
tell us about an imported driver that goes for just $35
. Technically it’s designed for driving stepper motors, but it can also (somewhat inefficiently) run servos. Our informant tells us that you’d pay at least $2,000 for a similar servo driver from Allen-Bradley, so the price difference certainly seems to make up for the hit in performance.
Finally, some bittersweet news as
we’ve recently learned that Universal Radio is closing
. After nearly 40 years, proprietors Fred and Barbara Osterman have decided it’s time to start winding things down. The physical store in Worthington, Ohio will be shuttered on Monday, but the online site will remain up for awhile longer to sell off the remaining stock. The Ostermans have generously supported many radio clubs and organizations over the years, and they’ll certainly be missed. Still, it’s a well-deserved retirement and the community wishes them the best. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298662",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T01:16:22",
"content": "” It’s almost certainly a guerrilla art piece, though there are also theories that it could have been a movie or TV prop (several productions are known to have filmed nearby) or even some kind of military I... | 1,760,373,271.822362 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/mqtt-dashboard-uses-sharp-memory-lcd/ | MQTT Dashboard Uses SHARP Memory LCD | Jenny List | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"IoT",
"mqtt",
"Sharp Memory LCD"
] | One of the more interesting display technologies of the moment comes from Sharp, their memory display devices share the low power advantages of an e-ink display with the much faster updates we would expect from an LCD or similar. We’ve not seen much of them in our community due to cost, so it’s good to see one used in
an MQTT dashboard project
from [
Raphael Baron
].
The hardware puts the display at the top of a relatively minimalist 3D printed encloseure with the
LOLIN32 ESP32 development board
behind it, and with a plinth containing a small rotary encoder and three clicky key switches in front. The most interesting part of the project is surprisingly not the display though, because despite being based upon an ESP32 development board he’s written its software with the aim of being as platform- and display-independent as possible. To demonstrate this he’s produced it as a desktop application as well as the standalone hardware. A simple graphical user interface allows the selection of a range of available sources to monitor, with the graphical results on the right.
All code and other assets for the project can be found
in a handy GitHub repository
, and to put the thing through its paces he’s even provided a video that we’ve placed below the break. User interfaces for MQTT-connected devices can talk as well as listen, for example
this MQTT remote control
. | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298646",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T23:26:24",
"content": "HaD should have showed the picture with the hand it it – ie it’s tiny, the display is only 2.7inch.. Though I suppose the size of the esp32 module should have been enough… For a moment there I thought sha... | 1,760,373,271.862859 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/making-a-unpickable-lock/ | Making A “Unpickable” Lock | Danie Conradie | [
"lockpicking hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"lock",
"lockpicking",
"lockpickinglawyer",
"machining",
"shane wighton",
"stuff made here"
] | Every time manufacturers bring a new “unpickable” lock to market, amateur and professional locksmiths descend on the new product to prove them wrong. [Shane] from [Stuff Made Here] decided to try his hand at
designing and building an unpickable lock
, and found that particular rabbit hole to be a lot deeper than expected. (Video, embedded below.)
Most common pin tumbler locks can be picked thanks to slightly loose fits of the pins and tiny manufacturing defects. By lifting or bumping the pins while putting tension on the cylinder the pins can be made to bind one by one at the shear line. Once all the pins are bound in the correct position, it can be unlocked.
[Shane]’s design aimed to prevent the pins from being set in unlocked position one by one, by locking the all pins in whatever position they are set and preventing further manipulation when the cylinder is turned to test the combination. In theory this should prevent the person doing the picking from knowing if any of the pins were in the correct position, forcing them to take the difficult and time-consuming approach of simply trying different combinations.
[Shane] is no stranger to
challenging projects
, and this one was no different. Many of the parts had to be remade multiple times, even with his
well-equipped home machine shop
. The mechanism that holds the pins in the set position when the cylinder is rotated was especially difficult to get working reliably. He explicitly states that this lock is purely an educational exercise, and not commercially viable due to its mechanical complexity and difficult machining.
A local locksmith was unsuccessful in picking the lock with the standard techniques, but the real test is still to come. The name
[LockPickingLawyer]
has probably already come to mind for many readers. [Shane] has been in contact with him and will send him a lock to test after a few more refinements, and we look forward to seeing the results! | 51 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298554",
"author": "mrehorst",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T18:23:04",
"content": "If you deny access to the cylinder and pins by inserting the key completely inside the lock, it becomes nearly impossible to pick.I think…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,373,271.956734 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/diy-induction-heater-draws-1-4-kw-and-gets-metal-hot/ | DIY Induction Heater Draws 1.4 KW And Gets Metal Hot | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"induction",
"induction heater"
] | Induction heaters can make conductive objects incredibly hot by generating eddy currents within the metal. They’re used in a wide variety of industrial processes, from furnaces to welders and even heat treatments.
[Schematix] whipped up his own design, and put it through its paces on the bench.
The build in question is a fairly compact design, roughly shoebox-sized when fitted with its six-turn coil. Running off anything from 12 V to 48 V, the heater put out at a massive 1.4 kW in testing. At this power level, the high current draw led the power traces to heat up enough to melt solder, and eventually burn out. [Schematix] plans to rebuild the heater with added copper wiring along these traces to support the higher power levels without failure.
The heater is able to quickly heat ferrous metals, though was not able to meaningfully dump power into aluminium under testing. This is unsurprising, as non-ferrous metals primarily undergo only Joule heating from induction, forgoing the hysteresis portion of heat transfer due to being non-magnetic. However, modification to the design could improve performance for those eager to work with non-ferrous materials.
We’ve seen a few induction heaters before, for purposes as varied as
soldering
and
casting
. Video after the break. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298508",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T15:31:38",
"content": "Aquarium pump and ice bucket for the coil, notebook blower for electronics. Or ready made unit from usual suspects for half the price.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,373,272.010079 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/advanced-printer-control-aims-to-stop-idle-waste/ | Advanced Printer Control Aims To Stop Idle Waste | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer"
] | 3D printers are capable of creating complex geometries with a minimum of fuss, but one of the tradeoffs is the long period of time it takes to print a part. Often, printers are left to run for many hours with a minimum of supervision to complete their tasks. This can leave printers idling for long periods of time after their work is finished. Noting this,
[TheGrim] put together the Advanced Printer Control.
The aim of the APC is to monitor 3D printers, and shut them off when their work is complete. The aim is to avoid leaving printers running for hours after their prints are finished, which causes needless wear on fans and screens which can have a limited life. This is achieved by putting an ESP8266 in charge of the printer’s AC power supply, via a triac. It measures the current drawn by the printer when idling and in use to set a baseline. Then, whenever the printer drops back to idle levels, a timer begins. When the timer runs out, the printer is switched off. There’s also an option to automatically trigger shutdown with an I/O pin, too.
It’s a project that aims to extend printer life and save power, too. Of course, if you’re really worried about power draw,
you could use a solar powered printer instead.
If you’ve got your own printer controller hacks,
be sure to drop us a line. | 21 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298474",
"author": "Ergotron",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T12:14:43",
"content": "An interesting idea, but can’t say I’ve ever been too concerned about the fans in my printer being overused. Come to think of it, they stop on their own after awhile of not printing. So not really sure w... | 1,760,373,272.070155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/29/a-clap-activated-machine-for-all-your-applause-needs/ | A Clap-Activated Machine For All Your Applause Needs | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"applause",
"clapper"
] | Applause is greatly revered as a symbol of warmth and adoration from a crowd. TV shows that film in front of a live audience often cue their audiences to clap in order to generate the desired auditory atmosphere. Of course, you don’t have to rely on squishy humans to do all the work. [Dillon] built a machine of dubious utility – one which
generates mechanical applause when activated by the sound of clapping
. (Video, embedded below.)
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the project was built for a Useless Machine contest, but that doesn’t diminish its value as a learning exercise. An Arduino runs the show, using a microphone module to listen out for loud noises such as claps. If two claps are detected in the nominated timeframe, the machine begins to flash its “APPLAUSE” lights and clap its hands. The Arduino achieves this with the help of a relay, which switches on a motor spinning a belt-driven cam which seperates the hands. The hands are then pulled back together to clap via a length of stretchy bungee cord.
With an incredibly noisy drivetrain and somewhat amateur clapping ability, the sound coming from the machine isn’t exactly recognisable as “applause”. However, it’s a start, and it remains the best clapping machine we’ve seen this decade. If you’ve got your own under construction,
consider dropping us a line.
And if all this has you waxing nostalgic for the vintage Clapper circuit,
you can always build one of those, too. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298440",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T09:18:35",
"content": "The sound of the motor complete overwhelmed the sound that it should be making. I assume that was a clap… I just could not hear it. Therefore I understand the idea of using this for an entry to a useless mach... | 1,760,373,272.168611 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/open-hardware-gps-tracker-works-on-your-terms/ | Open Hardware GPS Tracker Works On Your Terms | Tom Nardi | [
"gps hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP32",
"gps tracker",
"GSM module",
"open hardware"
] | These days, there’s plenty of options if you want to get a GPS tracker for your vehicle. Unfortunately, they come with the sort of baggage that’s becoming increasingly common with consumer tech: subscription fees, third-party snooping, and a sneaking suspicion that you’re more commodity than customer. So [Viktor Takacs] decided to take things into his own hands and
create an open GPS tracker designed for privacy minded hackers
.
As [Viktor] didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, his design leverages several off-the-shelf modules. The core of the tracker is the ESP32, which gives him plenty of computational power while still keeping energy consumption within reasonable levels. There’s also a NEO-6M GPS receiver which works at the same 3.3 V level as the ESP32, allowing the microcontroller to read the NMEA sentences without a level shifter. He decided to go with the low-cost SIM800L GSM modem, but as it only works on 2G networks, provisions have been made in the board design to swap it out for a more modern module should you desire.
For the code to glue it all together, [Viktor] pulled in nearly a dozen open source libraries to create a feature-complete firmware that uses MQTT to create a database of location data on his personal server. From there the data is plugged into Home Assistant and visualized with Grafana. This is enough to deliver core functionality, but he says that more custom software components as well as a deep-dive into the security implications of the system is coming in the near future.
We’ve seen custom built GPS trackers before
, as generally speaking, it
doesn’t take a whole lot to spin up your own solution
. But we think the polish that [Viktor] has put on this project takes it to the next level, and ranks it up there among some of the most
impressive bespoke tracking solutions we’ve seen over the years
. | 19 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298439",
"author": "Ewald",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T09:17:57",
"content": "depending on where you live, LoRa might be a good alternative voor GSM especially for these kinds of low-data applications",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,373,272.293184 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/ham-radio-needs-to-embrace-the-hacker-community-now-more-than-ever/ | Ham Radio Needs To Embrace The Hacker Community Now More Than Ever | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"hackers",
"ham radio"
] | As many a radio amateur will tell you, ham radio is a hobby with as many facets as there are radio amateurs. It should be an exciting and dynamic place to be, but as those who venture forth into it sometimes sadly find out, it can be anything but. Tightly-knit communities whose interests lie in using $1,000 stations to chase DX (long-distance contacts), an advancing age profile, and a curious fascination of many amateurs with disaster communications. It’s something [Robert V. Bolton, KJ7NZL] has sounded off about in an open letter to the amateur radio community entitled “
Ham Radio Needs To Embrace The Hacker Community Now More Than Ever
“.
In it he laments that the influx in particular of those for whom disaster preparedness is the reason for getting a licence is to blame for amateur radio losing its spark, and he proposes that the hobby should respond by broadening its appeal in the direction of the hacker community. The emphasis should move from emergency communications, he says, and instead topics such as software defined radio and digital modes should be brought to the fore. Finally he talks about setting up hacker specific amateur radio discussion channels, to provide a space in which the talk is tailored to our community.
Given our experience of the amateur radio community we’d be bound to agree with him. The hobby offers unrivalled opportunity for analogue, mixed-signal, digital, and software tinkering in the finest tradition of the path set by the early radio amateurs around a hundred years ago, yet it sometimes seems to have lost its way for people like us. It’s
something put into words a few years ago
by our colleague Dan Maloney, and if you’re following [KJ7NZL]’s path you could do worse than read Dan’s long-running $50 ham series
from the start
.
Via
Hacker News
.
Header image: Unknown author,
Public domain
. | 236 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298383",
"author": "WolfgangBlack",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T03:10:44",
"content": "Ham radio was the original hacker community.There’s still lots of people experimenting with ham radio with lots of open sourcesoftware and hardware being made.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,373,273.093827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/taking-over-the-amazing-control-panel-of-a-vintage-video-switcher/ | Taking Over The Amazing Control Panel Of A Vintage Video Switcher | Mike Szczys | [
"classic hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"control panel",
"fpga",
"Grass Valley",
"Kalypso",
"lcd",
"reverse engineering",
"video switch",
"video switcher"
] | Where does he get such wonderful toys? [Glenn] snagged parts of a Grass Valley Kalypso 4-M/E video
mixer
switcher control surface from eBay and since been
reverse engineering the button and display modules to bend them to his will
. The hardware dates back to the turn of the century and the two modules would have been laid out with up to a few dozen others to complete a video
mixing
switcher console.
[Glenn’s] previous adventures delved into a strip of ten backlit buttons and
gives us a close look at each of the keyswitches
and the technique he used to pull together his own pinout and schematic of that strip. But things get a lot hairier this time around. The long strip seen above is a “machine control plane” module and includes a dozen addressible character displays, driven by a combination of microcontrollers and FPGAs. The square panel is a “Crosspoint Switch Matrix” module include eight individual 32 x 32 LCDs drive by three dedicated ICs that can display in red, green, or amber.
[Glen] used an STM8 Nucleo 64 to interface with the panels and wrote a bit of code to help map out what each pin on each machine control plane connector might do. He was able to stream out some packets from the plane that changed as he pressed buttons, and ended up feeding back a brute-force of that packet format to figure out the LED display protocols.
But the LCDs on the crosspoint switch were a more difficult nut to crack. He ended up going back to the original source of the equipment (eBay) to get a working control unit that he could sniff. He laid out a man-in-the-middle board that has a connector on either side with a pin header in the middle for his logic analyzer. As with most LCDs, the secret sauce was the initialization sequence — an almost impossible thing to brute force, yet exceedingly simple to sniff when you have a working system. So far he has them running under USB control, and if you are lucky enough to have some of this gear in your parts box, [Glen] has painstakingly recorded all of the details you need to get them up and running. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298361",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-11-29T00:20:19",
"content": "“The hardware dates back to the turn of the century…”Geeze, thanks for making me feel like Methuselah’s older brother!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,373,272.829672 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/scratch-building-a-supersized-cnc-router/ | Scratch Building A Supersized CNC Router | Tom Nardi | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"CNC router",
"scratch built"
] | Many of us have spent the better part of a year on COVID-19 lockdown, and what do we have to show for it? Bit of progress on the Netflix queue? Maybe a (slightly) cleaned up garage or workshop? Not if you’re [Bob] of
Making Stuff
fame: he’s spent the last nine months working on a
completely custom CNC router big enough to take a whole sheet of plywood
.
The build is documented over a series of nearly a dozen YouTube videos, the first of which was put out all the way back in January of 2020. Seeing [Bob] heading to the steel mill to get his frame components with nary a mask in sight is a reminder of just how long he’s been working on this project. He’s also put together a comprehensive Bill of Materials on his website should anyone want to follow in his footsteps. Coming in at only
slightly
less than $4,000 USD, it’s certainly not a budget build. But then when we’re talking about a machine of this scale, nothing comes cheap.
Every component on this build is heavy-duty.
Even if you don’t build you own version of this router, it’s impossible to watch the build log and not get
inspired about the possibilities of such a machine
. In the last video we’re even treated to a bit of self-replicating action, as the jumbo CNC cuts out the pieces for its own electronics enclosure.
You can tell from the videos that [Bob] is (rightfully) proud of his creation, and isn’t shy about showing the viewer each and every triumph along the way. Even when things don’t go according to plan, there are lessons to be learned as he explains the problems and how they were ultimately resolved.
Of course, we know
a home-built CNC router doesn’t need to cost thousands of dollars
or
take up as much space as a pool table
. The average Hackaday reader probably has no need of a monster like this, and wouldn’t have anywhere to keep it even if they did. But that doesn’t mean we can’t look on with envy as we wait to see what kind of projects [Bob] churns out with such an incredible tool in his arsenal. | 26 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298335",
"author": "Vladimir",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T21:11:07",
"content": "4k for a router this size, it´s a bargain. It´s even too cheap, the frame does not look THAT sturdy",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6298352",
... | 1,760,373,272.588014 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/this-debug-connector-brings-your-issues-to-the-edge/ | This Debug Connector Brings Your Issues To The Edge | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"hardware",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"card edge",
"connector",
"debug",
"edge connector",
"libre",
"pcba",
"Pogo pin",
"programmer",
"standard"
] | Given an unknown PCBA with an ARM processor, odds are good that it will have either the standard 10 pin 0.05″ or 20 pin 0.1″ debug connector. This uncommon commonality is a boon for an exploring hacker, but when designing a board such headers require board space in the design and more components to be installed to plug in. The literally-named
Debug Edge standard
is a new libre attempt to remedy this inconvenience.
The name “Debug Edge” says it all. It’s a debug, edge connector. A connector for the edge of a PCBA to break out debug signals. Card edge connectors are nothing new but they typically either slot one PCBA perpendicularly into another (as in a PCI card) or hold them in parallel (as in a mini PCIe card or an m.2 SSD). The DebugEdge connector is more like a PCBA butt splice.
It makes use of a specific family of
AVX open ended card edge connectors
designed to splice together long rectangular PCBAs used for lighting end to end. These are available in single quantities starting as low as $0.85 (part number for the design shown here is 009159010061916). The vision of the DebugEdge standard is that this connector is exposed along the edge of the target device, then “spliced” into the debug connector for target power and debug.
Right now the DebugEdge exists primarily as a standard, a set of KiCAD footprints, and prototype adapter boards on OSHPark (
debugger side
,
target side
). A device making use of it would integrate the target side and the developer would use the debugger side to connect. The standard specifies 4, 6, 8, and 10 pin varieties (mapping to sizes of available connector, the ‘010’ in the number above specifies pincount) offering increasing levels of connectivity up to a complete 1:1 mapping of the standard 10 pin ARM connector. Keep in mind the connectors are double sided, so the 4 pin version is a miniscule 4mm x 4.5mm! We’re excited to see that worm its way into a tiny project or two.
We’ve seen plenty of
part-free debug
and
programming connectors
before. Have a favorite? Let us know in the comments! | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298317",
"author": "Artenz",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T18:16:26",
"content": "I use a 3 pin SWD interface. SWDIO, SWCLK and GND, usually on 0.1″.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298322",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,272.761279 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/sims-style-plumb-bob-broadcasts-your-mood/ | Sims-Style Plumb Bob Broadcasts Your Mood | Kristina Panos | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"Adafruit Feather",
"bluetooth",
"Mood ring",
"neopixel ring",
"plumb bob",
"the sims"
] | While there are a lot of objects from the Sims that we wish were real, we probably wish more than anything that everyone had a mood indicator hovering above their heads at all times. It would make working from home go a lot more smoothly, for instance.
[8BitsAndAByte] made this Bluetooth-controlled plumb bob as part of their Sims Halloween costume
, but we think it has real day-to-day value as this pandemic wears on, either as a mood ring or a portable free/busy indicator.
The hardware is about as simple as it gets — an Adafruit Feather nRF52 Bluefruit controls a pair of NeoPixel rings, one for each half of the translucent 3D-printed plumb bob. Power comes from a 500mAh battery, and all the electronics are situated inside of an attractive hat. Check out the build video after the break.
There’s more than one way to use color to convey information.
This seven-segment temperature display does it with thermochromic film
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVB0mBhCtFM | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298326",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T19:42:17",
"content": "Now it just needs a couple of servos and an accelerometer (and a bigger battery) to keep it plumb.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298333",
"aut... | 1,760,373,272.507199 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/tmd-2-a-bigger-better-more-collaborative-turing-machine/ | TMD-2: A Bigger, Better, More Collaborative Turing Machine | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"ocr",
"open cv",
"Pi Cam",
"python",
"Raspberry Pi 4",
"tesseract",
"Turing machine"
] | One of the things we love best about the articles we publish on Hackaday is the dynamic that can develop between the hacker and the readers. At its best, the comment section of an article can be a model of collaborative effort, with readers’ ideas and suggestions making their way into version 2.0 of a build.
This collegial dynamic is very much on display with
TMD-2, [Michael Gardi]’s latest iteration of his Turing machine demonstrator
. We covered the original
TMD-1
back in late summer, the idea of which was to serve as a physical embodiment of the Turing machine concept. Briefly, the TMD-1 represented the key “tape and head” concepts of the Turing machine with a console of servo-controlled flip tiles, the state of which was controlled by a three-state, three-symbol finite state machine.
TMD-1
TMD-1 was capable of simple programs that really demonstrated the principles of Turing machines, and it really seemed to catch on with readers. Based on the comments of one reader, [Newspaperman5], [Mike] started thinking bigger and better for TMD-2. He expanded the finite state machine to six states and six symbols, which meant coming up with something more scalable than the Hall-effect sensors and magnetic tiles of TMD-1.
TMD-2 has a camera for computer vision of the state machine tiles
[Mike] opted for optical character recognition using a Raspberry Pi cam along with Open CV and the Tesseract OCR engine. The original servo-driven tape didn’t scale well either, so that was replaced by a virtual tape displayed on a 7″ LCD display. The best part of the original, the tile-based FSM, was expanded but kept that tactile programming experience.
Hats off to [Mike] for tackling a project with so many technologies that were previously new to him, and for pulling off another great build. And kudos to [Newspaperman5] for the great suggestions that spurred him on. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298283",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T12:44:36",
"content": "While I shouldn’t object to taking something far beyond its usefulness, I have two words: feature creep.The Turing machine was a thought experiment. Alan Turing recognized that everything that coul... | 1,760,373,273.141647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/28/hackrf-portapack-firmware-spoofs-all-the-things/ | HackRF PortaPack Firmware Spoofs All The Things | Tom Nardi | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"HackRF",
"HackRF PortaPack",
"radio",
"sdr",
"spoofing"
] | The HackRF is an exceptionally capable software defined radio (SDR) transceiver, but naturally you need to connect it to a computer to actually do anything with it. So the PortaPack was developed to turn it into a stand-alone device with the addition of a touchscreen LCD, a few buttons, and a headphone jack. With all the hardware in place, it’s just a matter of installing a firmware capable enough to do some proper RF hacking on the go.
Enter MAYHEM, an evolved fork of the original PortaPack firmware that
the developers claim is the most up-to-date and feature packed version available
. Without ever plugging into a computer, this firmware allows you to receive, decode, and re-transmit a dizzying number of wireless protocols. From firing off the seating pagers at a local restaurant to creating a fleet of phantom aircraft with spoofed ADS-B transponders, MAYHEM certainly seems like it lives up to the name.
[A. Petazzoni] recently put together a
detailed blog post about installing and using MAYHEM on the HackRF/PortaPack
, complete with a number of real-world examples that show off just a handful of possible applications for the project. Jamming cell phones, sending fake pager messages, and cloning RF remotes is just scratching the surface of what’s possible.
It’s not hard to see why some have already expressed concern about the project, but in reality, none of these capabilities are actually new. This firmware simply brings them all together in one easy-to-use package, and
while there might be an argument to be made about proliferation
, we all know that the responsibility to behave ethically rests on the user and not the tools. | 45 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298276",
"author": "smerrett79",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T10:05:20",
"content": "Perhaps the name MAYHEM is not helpful if the people creating and publishing (?) the tools are interested in promoting responsible use. Or maybe they aren’t.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,273.276879 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/an-imac-all-in-ones-new-life/ | An IMac All-In-One’s New Life | Matthew Carlson | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"display",
"hdmi",
"imac",
"imac g5"
] | There’s a sleek form factor for desktop computers known as an “all-in-one” that enrobes a computer in a monitor. While the convenience of having all your computing in a neat package has some nice benefits, it comes with an unfortunate downside. Someday the computer inside is going to be old and outdated in comparison to newer machines. While a new OS goes a long way towards breathing life into an old machine, [Thomas] has decided to take the path less travelled and converted
an old iMac all-in-one into a discrete monitor
.
The iMac in question is the 20″ iMac G5 iSight (A1145) with an LG-Philips LM201W01-STB2 LCD panel. Looking back, [Thomas] would recommend just ordering an LCD driver controller kit from your favourite auction house. But for this particular modification, he decided to do things a little bit more manually and we’re quite glad he did.
Luckily for [Thomas], the panel supports TMDS (which both DVI and HDMI are compatible with). So the next step was to figure out the signalling wires and proper voltages. After some trouble caused by a mislabeled power line on the iMac PCB silk-screen (12v instead of 3.3v), he had all the wires identified and a plan starting to form. The first step was a circuit to trick the inverter into turning on with the help of a relay. The female HDMI plug with a breakout board was added and sticks out through the old firewire port. The minuscule wires in the display ribbon cable to the monitor were separated and soldered onto with the help of [Thomas’] daughter’s microscope. Resistances were checked as HDMI relies on impedance matched pairs. To finish it off, an old tactile toggle switch offers a way to turn the monitor on and off with a solid thunk.
We love seeing old hardware being repurposed for new things. This project nicely complements the
iMac G4 Reborn With Intel NUC Transplant
we saw earlier this year, as they both try to preserve the form factor while allowing a new computer to drive the display. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298272",
"author": "Lukino",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T09:23:54",
"content": "Like what I was doing with my old 24″ imac, already ordered the driver from the eastern site. Was looking for a nice way to fit a Ryzen in there too, maybe drilling some of the back. Then, middle daughter ... | 1,760,373,273.188533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/hes-the-operator-of-his-pocket-arduino/ | He’s The Operator Of His Pocket Arduino | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"electronic",
"Kraftwerk",
"loop",
"mixer",
"music",
"stylophone",
"synthesizer"
] | The band Kraftwerk hit the music scene with its unique electronic sound in the 70s in Germany, opening the door for the electronic music revolution of the following decade. If you’re not familiar with the band, they often had songs with a technology theme as well, and thanks to modern microcontroller technology it’s possible to
replicate the Kraftwerk sound with microcontrollers
as [Steven] aka [Marquis de Geek] demonstrates in his melodic build.
While the music is played on a
Stylophone
and a Korg synthesizer, it is fed through five separate Arduinos, four of which have various synths and looping samplers installed on them (and presumably represent each of the four members of Kraftwerk). Samplers like this allow pieces of music to be repeated continuously once recorded, which means that [Steven] can play entire songs on his own. The fifth Arduino functions as a controller, handling MIDI and pattern sequencing over I2C, and everything is finally channeled through a homemade mixer.
[Marquis] also dressed in Kraftwerk-appropriate attire for the video demonstration below, which really sells the tribute to the famous and groundbreaking band. While it’s a great build in its own right and is a great recreation of the Kraftwerk sound, we can think of one more way to really put this project over the top —
a Kraftwerk-inspired LED tie
. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298258",
"author": "Ben Chaosbc",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T06:51:22",
"content": "Music non-stop",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6298260",
"author": "ScubaBearLA",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T07:17:47",
"... | 1,760,373,273.322357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/finally-the-rom-you-wished-your-sinclair-spectrum-had/ | Finally! The ROM You Wished Your Sinclair Spectrum Had! | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"game development",
"rom",
"sinclair spectrum",
"Sinclair Zx Spectrum",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | If there is one thing that Sir Clive SInclair was famous for, it was producing electronic devices that somehow managed to squeeze near-impossible performance out of relatively meagre components. This gave us some impressive products, but it’s fair to say that sometimes this philosophy pushed the envelope a little too far. Thus even some of the most fondly remembered Sinclair products concealed significant flaws, and this extended to both their hardware and their software.
Sir Clive never gave us this!
The SInclair ZX spectrum’s ROM for example had more than its fair share of bugs, and its BASIC programming experience with single keypress was unique but also slow to run. It’s something [Jonathan Cauldwell] has addressed with
his Arcade Game Designer ROM
, a complete and ready to run replacement for the original Spectrum ROM that contains a scripting language, a compiler, editors for in-game assets, and a game engine upon which to run your games. It’s the ROM you wanted back in 1983, when you were struggling to fit a bit of Z80 code in a Sinclair Basic REM statement.
If you’re a Spectrum enthusiast and think
this sounds a little familiar
then you are of course correct. It builds upon his past work with his
Arcade Game Designer
, with the distribution by ROM allowing the developer to use the full 48k available on all but a very few early 16k machines. You’ll need your own EPROM on which to burn it, but we suspect that if you’re the kind of person who has a Spectrum and has writing these games in mind, you already have access to the relevant equipment.
If you’re new to all this Spectrum stuff and where its ROM came from, then
maybe it’s time for a trip down memory lane
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298231",
"author": "Sykobee",
"timestamp": "2020-11-28T00:14:40",
"content": "Hmm, wonder if this is easily installable within a Spectrum Next…AGD is a popular 8-bit game maker on the Spectrum, and the CPC to a lesser extent, so anything to make it more accessible, and make full us... | 1,760,373,273.380403 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/atreus-gets-a-trackpoint-and-layer-leds/ | Atreus Gets A TrackPoint And Layer LEDs | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"atreus",
"keyboard layers",
"keyboardio atreus",
"leds",
"thinkpad",
"TrackPoint"
] | Fancy, split keyboards are cool and all, and they can really help with repetitive strain injury issues depending on a lot of different factors. But the big, glaring problem is that they often lack nice features that regular keyboards have — things like a number pad, media buttons, or in [discordia]’s case, a ThinkPad-style pointing stick.
Fortunately, there’s a perfect spot for one between the two halves of the Keyboardio Atreus
.
[discordia] is happy with the Atreus, but the whole layers thing can take some getting used to. Since Atreus only has 44 keys, it utilizes
a layering system
to change their function to cover all the keys you’d find on a full keyboard. After getting stuck in one rarely-used layer for a while, they decided to remedy the situation with some RGB LEDs to indicate the active layer. If you’ve got an Atreus that could use a few upgrades, check out [discordia]’s step-by-step instructions for adding a trackpoint and one-wire RGB LEDs.
If you have an old enough ThinkPad on your hands,
then you may want to liberate the clicky keyboard, too
. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298197",
"author": "socksbot",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T21:37:56",
"content": "I love that I can type C-x M-c M-🦋https://xkcd.com/378/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298241",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2020... | 1,760,373,273.430024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/hackaday-podcast-095-booting-freedos-from-a-vinyl-record-floating-on-mushrooms-and-tunneling-through-a-living-room/ | Hackaday Podcast 095: Booting FreeDOS From A Vinyl Record, Floating On Mushrooms, And Tunneling Through A Living Room | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams are talking turkey about the world of hardware hacking. This short episode brings news updates about the Nintendo Game and Watch hacking progress, the sad farewell to Areceibo, the new chip from Espressif, and the awesome circuit sculptures from our recent contest. We wrap up the show with a lightning round of quick hacks.
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
(17 MB)
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
Google Podcasts
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
Episode 095 Show Notes:
New This Week:
DOOM Running On The Nintendo Game & Watch
Playing Super Mario Bros. 3
Playing Game Boy (Pokemon?)
Espressif Leaks ESP32-C3: A WiFi SoC That’s RISC-V And Is ESP8266 Pin-Compatible
The Battle For Arecibo Has Been Lost
Eulogy To Arecibo: With Demise Of A Unique Scientific Facility, Who Will Carry The Torch?
No Wonder These Projects Won The Circuit Sculpture Contest
Circuit Sculpture Touch Lamp with PCB shade
Electronics craft concert
Circuit Sculpture LED Tiara
waldian
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks:
Escape Tunnel In Your Living Room: A Different Take On The Infinity Mirror
Intel’s Forgotten 1970s Dual Core Processor
Mushroom Canoe Is Rooted In Nature
Elliot’s Picks:
High-Speed Spectrometer Built With Cheap Linear CCD
3D Printable Cloth Takes Advantage Of Defects
Miura fold – Wikipedia
Booting A PC From Vinyl For A Warmer, Richer OS | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298948",
"author": "Mats Karlsson",
"timestamp": "2020-11-30T21:27:38",
"content": "Gobble gobble! Loved the episode as usual. Was quite surprised (and a bit sad) when it ended after only 15 minutes. Can’t wait until next episode drops! Keep up the amazing work!",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,373,273.472832 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/repurposing-large-electronic-price-tags/ | Repurposing Large Electronic Price Tags | Tom Nardi | [
"Parts"
] | [
"digital signage",
"e-ink",
"e-paper",
"signage"
] | If you’ve recently braved the pandemic long enough to make a trip to a big box retailer, you may have spotted a few massive e-paper price tags affixed to large items like appliances. These seven inch displays were likely designed to be used in e-readers such as the Kindle, but through some surplus deal, are now shouting out clearance savings on last year’s washing machine. After checking out a particularly good price for a Samsung refrigerator at the local Home Depot,
[YodaLogic] got to wondering if they could be bent to the hacker’s will.
Now to be clear, [YodaLogic] didn’t steal any of these tags. It turns out you can pick them up on eBay for less than $15 a pop, or at least that’s what they cost
before
this article went out. It’s an exceptionally good price when you realize that these displays are actually capable of color…albeit only two. Apparently when the retailer orders the so-called “Chroma 74” tags, they can pick between either yellow or red as the secondary color. While not quite as exciting as a full-color display, it certainly sets them apart from most of the e-paper panels we’ve seen used in DIY projects thus far.
The panel gets mighty close to the HaD color scheme
We’d like to tell you that [YodaLogic] cracked one of these things open and was able to wire it right up to a Pi or microcontroller, but the truth is a bit more complicated. Connecting the Chroma 74’s panel to the control board intended for a similar Waveshare 7.5 inch display didn’t seem to do anything. After some poking and prodding, it became clear that the WFD0750BF19 e-paper panel used in the Chroma needed a custom software profile to bring it to life. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a datasheet available for this particular panel.
By combining what could be gleaned from the datasheets of similar displays with a bit of experimentation, [YodaLogic] came up with a configuration profile that
mostly
works. It doesn’t seem like the yellow is as vibrant as it should be, and a refresh can take as long as 20 seconds, but it’s certainly a start. Perhaps the code can be tightened up with some input from the community, or even better, maybe somebody out there knows where we can get our hands on the datasheet for this panel.
While we’ve started to see more projects use e-paper displays
, their high price still keeps many hackers away. Being able to repurpose cheap hardware like this
could really spur some interesting development
, so we’re excited to see [YodaLogic] put the finishing touches on this project and opened it up to a wider audience. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298167",
"author": "NQ",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T17:59:28",
"content": "I really enjoy seeing these e-paper or e-ink hacks. That’s the first thing I thought of when I was in Kohl’s and saw their digital price tags all around the store was how to hack them. There are many purpos... | 1,760,373,273.534121 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/so-close-to-landing-a-model-rocket-on-its-tail/ | So Close To Landing A Model Rocket On Its Tail | Danie Conradie | [
"Space",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"bps.space",
"flight computer",
"model rocket"
] | We’ve become so used to seeing SpaceX boosters land themselves back on the pad with clockwork reliability, that it’s easy to forget it took them a good number of attempts to get right. Inspired by SpaceX’s work, [Joe Barnard] of [BPS.Space] started working to replicate it at the model scale five years ago, with no engineering education or experience. On the latest attempt with a brand-new thrust vectoring Scout E rocket, he has gotten tantalizingly close to doing a
controlled propulsive landing
with a solid-fuel rocket motor.
We’ve all been thrilled to see the SpaceX rockets return to earth, landing elegantly on a floating pad. But those are liquid-fueled. The trick with a solid-fuel rocket motor is it can’t be throttled directly, which is a challenge when you need precision control to land. Thanks to [Joe]’s custom
AVA flight computer
and the remarkably consistent thrust curve of the Estes F15 black powder motors he used, it becomes a matter of igniting the descent motor at the right moment to make the vertical velocity zero at touchdown. However, [Joe] found that the time between sending the ignition signal and when peak thrust is reached was inconsistent, so he had to work around that. He did this by controlling how much of the thrust is spent in the vertical direction, by vectoring the motor side to side to spend some trust horizontally.
View from rocket of the ascent motor falling away immediately after being ejected
In this attempt, the rocket tipped over on landing due to excessive horizontal movement at touchdown. Joe tracked the cause down to a weak GPS signal caused by antenna position and a possible bug in the Kalman filter that fuses all the sensor data for position and velocity estimation. Thanks to incredibly detailed telemetry and logging done by the flight computer, data from every launch are used for future improvements. We are looking forward to the next flight in a few weeks, during which [Joe] plans to tune and test the control software, among other minor improvements.
Almost every single part of this rocket is a display of engineering ingenuity. The landing struts are designed to absorb as much impact as possible without bouncing while being light and quick to deploy. The ascent motor is ejected simply by moving the thrust vectoring mount to one of its extremes, allowing the descent motor to drop into place. The rocket also features a complete emergency abort system with a parachute, which can be activated manually, or by the flight computer if it calculates that landing isn’t feasible. We already covered [Joe]’s latest
launch pad
, which is a very interesting project all by itself. | 44 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298110",
"author": "Claptrap",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T12:41:14",
"content": "Elon Musk – give this guy a job…..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6298136",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T15:20:11"... | 1,760,373,274.173814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/shhh-robot-vacuum-lidar-is-listening/ | Shhh… Robot Vacuum Lidar Is Listening | Inderpreet Singh | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"deep learning",
"internet of things",
"IoT",
"laser microphone",
"lidar",
"robot vacuum",
"roomba",
"xiaomi"
] | There are millions of IoT devices out there in the wild and though not conventional computers, they can be hacked by alternative methods. From firmware hacks to social engineering, there are tons of ways to break into these little devices. Now, four researchers at the National University of Singapore and one from the University of Maryland have published a new hack to allow
audio capture using lidar reflective measurements
.
The hack revolves around the fact that audio waves or mechanical waves in a room cause objects inside a room to vibrate slightly. When a lidar device impacts a beam off an object, the accuracy of the receiving system allows for measurement of the slight vibrations cause by the sound in the room. The experiment used human voice transmitted from a simple speaker as well as a sound bar and the surface for reflections were common household items such as a trash can, cardboard box, takeout container, and polypropylene bags. Robot vacuum cleaners will usually be facing such objects on a day to day basis.
The bigger issue is writing the filtering algorithm that is able to extract the relevant information and separate the noise, and
this is where the bulk of the research paper is focused
(PDF). Current developments in Deep Learning assist in making the hack easier to implement. Commercial lidar is designed for mapping, and therefore optimized for reflecting off of non-reflective surface. This is the opposite of what you want for laser microphone which usually targets a reflective surface like a window to pick up latent vibrations from sound inside of a room.
Deep Learning algorithms are employed to get around this shortfall, identifying speech as well as audio sequences despite the sensor itself being less than ideal, and the team reports achieving an accuracy of 90%. This lidar based spying is even possible when the robot in question is docked since the system can be configured to turn on specific sensors, but the exploit depends on the ability to alter the firmware, something the team accomplished
using the Dustcloud exploit
which was presented at DEF CON in 2018.
You don’t need to tear down your robot vacuum cleaner for this experiment since there are a lot of
lidar-based rovers
out there. We’ve even seen
open source lidar sensors that are even better for experimental purposes
.
Thanks for the tip [Qes] | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298089",
"author": "WilkoL",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T10:10:08",
"content": "HAL are you in there?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298127",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T14:13:37",
"content": "When a t... | 1,760,373,273.855785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/chess-computer-retires-to-play-jazz/ | Chess Computer Retires To Play Jazz | Kristina Panos | [
"Games"
] | [
"chess computer",
"jazz",
"jazz chords",
"python",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi Zero"
] | Years ago, [Leo Neumann]’s girlfriend gave him a 1970s chess computer game that was missing almost everything but the super cool clicky keyboard. Noting the similarity of chess move labeling to chord notation, [Leo] decided to turn it into something even nerdier —
a jazz chord game where you jam with the computer
.
To play the game, you and the computer take turns entering jazz chords that progress musically from the last one played. The hardware is simple — a Raspberry Pi Zero and a WM8960 audio hat with amplifier in speakers. [Leo] also put in a slightly larger display than the original and printed a new bottom half for the case. We love the look of this build, especially the groovy custom line font [Leo] designed.
On the software side, [Leo] made a Python prototyping environment using PYO Module and Kivy UI. Not content with other approaches to tonal consonance, [Leo] played a couple thousand chords and rated them according to their progressive harmony. Shake out those jazz hands and check it out after the break.
Want to play chess with computers?
Make Alexa your go-between
. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298097",
"author": "Nathan",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T10:54:37",
"content": "Smooth.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298211",
"author": "Paula",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T22:50:11",
"content": "hehe… Baby steps to G... | 1,760,373,273.901934 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/tinytacho-rotational-speed-measurement-without-the-bulk/ | TinyTacho: Rotational Speed Measurement Without The Bulk | Jenny List | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"oled",
"tacho",
"tachometer"
] | An electronic tachometer is a straightforward enough device, in which the light reflections from a white spot on a rotating object are detected and counted over time, measuring the revolutions per minute (RPM). It’s a technique that has its roots in analogue electronics where the resulting pulses would have fed a charge pump, and it’s a task well suited to a microcontroller that simply counts them. But do you need an all-singing, all-dancing chip to do the job?
[Stefan Wagner] has done it with a humble ATtiny13
.
His TinyTacho is a small PCB with an IR LED and photodiode on one end, a small OLED display on its front, and a coin cell holder on its rear. The electronics may be extremely simple, but there’s still quite some effort to get it within the ATtiny’s meagre resources. Counting the revolutions is easy enough, but the chip has no I
2
C interface of its own and some bitbanging code is required. You can find all the design files and software you need
in a GitHub repository
, and he’s put up a video of the device in action that you can see below the break.
Tachometers are a popular project hereabouts, and we’ve featured a lot of them over the years. Perhaps the best place to direct readers then is not to another project, but to
how to use a tachometer
. | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298064",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T07:14:17",
"content": "19K rpm from that little motor? I wouldn’t have thought so…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6298067",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp... | 1,760,373,274.043135 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/building-a-workshop-crane-from-scratch/ | Building A Workshop Crane From Scratch | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"crane",
"tools",
"workshop"
] | Buying tools is all well and good, but it doesn’t suit the ethos of Youtube channel [Workshop From Scratch]. Building what you need is much more the go, and that’s demonstrated ably
with this home-built electric workshop crane
.
The crane is put together in a straightforward manner using basic steelworking techniques. Plates and bars are machined with a drill press, bandsaw and grinder, though we could imagine you could use hand tools if you were so inclined. An ATV winch is pressed into service to do the heavy lifting, powered by a set of 12V lead acid batteries placed in the base. This design choice does double duty as both a mobile power supply for the crane, and acts as a counterweight in the base.
The final result looks sharp in its orange paint finish, and does a good job of moving heavy equipment around the workshop. The legs are reconfigurable, so that even very heavy loads can be lifted with appropriate counterweight placed on the back. It’s a significant upgrade on the earlier version we featured last year,
which was hydraulic in operation
. Video after the break. | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298028",
"author": "Douggie",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T00:44:00",
"content": "Have to point out that you should not use a winch as a hoist. Their braking mechanisms aren’t inherently safe. Hoists are designed such that nothing short of a catastrophic failure of major components wil... | 1,760,373,274.087513 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/alfa-romeo-gauge-cluster-gets-a-fresh-set-of-leds/ | Alfa Romeo Gauge Cluster Gets A Fresh Set Of LEDs | Tom Nardi | [
"car hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"gauge cluster",
"instrument cluster",
"LED replacement",
"SMD LED"
] | On older vehicles, if you noticed that the lights had gone out behind one of your gauges, you knew it was time to snake your hand back there and replace the little incandescent bulb that had given up the ghost. But what are you supposed to do if you’re seeing the same problem on a modern vehicle that’s already made the leap to LED dash lighting? That’s what [Tysonpower] recently had to find out
when the fuel indicator on his Alfa Romeo Giuletta QV went dark
.
In the video after the break, [Tysonpower] details how to remove the instrument cluster from the Giuletta’s dash, which we imagine would be a useful little tutorial for anyone who owns the same vehicle. Once he has it out on the bench, he strips it down to the bare PCB and starts (literally) poking around.
He eventually noticed that if he pushed on the board near the fuel indicator he could get the appropriate 3528 SMD LED to light up, but touching up the solder joints didn’t seem to fix the issue. Assuming the LED must be defective internally, he simply replaced it and all was good again.
Well, not exactly. The light produced by the new part didn’t match the color or brightness of the other dozen or so white LEDs that were installed on the board, so [Tysonpower] decided to just dive in and replace them all. While it obviously took a lot more time and effort, he says the end result is that the instrument cluster looks noticeably brighter and crisper when driving at night. Not bad for an afternoon’s work and a couple bucks worth of LEDs.
Most of the time, when we see somebody messing around behind the dash it’s because they intend on
replacing the original instruments with something more capable
. But projects like this,
which add just a touch of refinement to the existing hardware
, prove that stock components aren’t
always
a disappointment. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6298011",
"author": "PB",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T22:42:06",
"content": "I did a similar LED soldering job on a friend’s BMW E46, several warning lights were not lighting up when switching the gauge cluster to test mode. It turned out that some of the LEDs had been blatantly ripped... | 1,760,373,274.230905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/literally-tearing-apart-a-spacex-starlink-antenna/ | Literally Tearing Apart A SpaceX Starlink Antenna | Tom Nardi | [
"internet hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"antenna",
"phased array",
"satellite dish",
"SpaceX",
"Starlink",
"teardown"
] | While SpaceX’s constellation of Starlink satellites is nowhere near its projected final size, the company has enough of the birds zipping around in low Earth orbit to start a limited testing period they call the
Better Than Nothing Beta
. If you’re lucky enough to get selected, you have to cough up $500 for the hardware and another $100 a month for the service. Despite the fairly high bar for getting your hands on one,
[Kenneth Keiter] decided to sacrifice his Starlink dish to the teardown Gods
.
We say sacrifice because [Kenneth] had to literally destroy the dish to get a look inside. It doesn’t appear that you can realistically get into the exceptionally thin antenna array without pulling it all apart, thanks in part to preposterous amount of adhesive that holds the structural back plate onto the PCB. The sky-facing side of the phased array, the key element that allows the antenna to track the rapidly moving Starlink satellites as they pass overhead, is also laminated to a stack-up comprised of plastic hexagonal mesh layers, passive antenna elements, and the outer fiberglass skin. In short, there are
definitely
no user-serviceable parts inside.
The dish hides many secrets under its skin.
Beyond attempting to analyze the RF magic that’s happening inside the antenna, [Kenneth] also takes viewers through a tour of some of the more recognizable components of the PCB; picking out things like the Power over Ethernet magnetics, a GPS receiver, some flash storage, and the H-Bridge drivers used to control the pan and tilt motors in the base of the dish.
It also appears that the antenna is a self-contained computer of sorts, complete with ARM processor and RAM to run the software that aims the phased array. Speaking of which, it should come as no surprise to find that not only are the ICs that drive the dizzying array of antenna elements the most numerous components on the PCB, but that they appear to be some kind of custom silicon designed specifically for SpaceX.
In short, there’s still
plenty we don’t know about how this high-tech receiver actually works
. While [Kenneth] does a respectable job of trying to make sense of it all, and we admire the dedication required to rip apart such a rare and expensive piece of kit, it’s still going to be awhile before the hacker community truly masters the
tech that SpaceX is putting into their ambitions global Internet service
.
[Thanks to Alex for the tip.] | 85 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297685",
"author": "Alex99a",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T21:01:17",
"content": "SpaceX lawsuit filing coming in 4… 3…2…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297689",
"author": "Hummmmmmmmmmm",
"timestamp": "2020-11-... | 1,760,373,274.359912 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/tv-head-is-great-replacement-for-your-real-head/ | TV Head Is Great Replacement For Your Real Head | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"costume",
"tv"
] | The head is one of the few parts of the body that it seems impossible to live without. Many people are, of course, not happy with the one they’ve been given. For those dreaming of a more digital replacement,
[Vivian’s] TV Head might be just the accessory to meet those needs
.
The build starts with an old CRT, which [Vivian] promptly gutted to make room for her head. In place of the original tube, a thin polycarbonate sheet was installed with window tint applied. Behind this, rows of WS2812B are set up in a grid, spaced apart just enough to allow the wearer to see through. The setup is controlled by a Circuit Playground Express. A small PS/2 keyboard is used to control the light show, and the onboard accelerometer can be used for gravity reactive animations.
For some reason, screens as heads are remarkably emotive, and we kind of want one for daily wear. We can imagine it making a great Halloween costume, too. If you’ve always wanted to cosplay as one of those
colorful robots from the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 World Cup
, here’s your chance. You will not be surprised that
this isn’t the first TV head we’ve featured
. Video after the break. | 19 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297654",
"author": "Atltvhead",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T19:38:27",
"content": "Nice build!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6297662",
"author": "doobie",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T19:52:17",
"content": "Mike TV would... | 1,760,373,274.524572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/enhance-is-now-a-thing-but-dont-believe-what-you-see/ | “Enhance” Is Now A Thing, But Don’t Believe What You See | Lewin Day | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Interest",
"Machine Learning",
"Slider"
] | [
"enhance!",
"neural network",
"neural networks",
"upscale",
"upscaling"
] | It was a trope all too familiar in the 1990s — law enforcement in movies and TV taking a pixellated, blurry image, and hitting the magic “enhance” button to reveal suspects to be brought to justice. Creating data where there simply was none before was a great way to ruin immersion for anyone with a modicum of technical expertise, and spoiled many movies and TV shows.
Of course, technology marches on and what was once an utter impossibility often becomes trivial in due time. These days, it’s expected that a sub-$100 computer can easily differentiate between a banana, a dog, and a human, something that was unfathomable at the dawn of the microcomputer era. This capability is rooted in the technology of neural networks, which can be trained to do all manner of tasks formerly considered difficult for computers.
With neural networks and plenty of processing power at hand, there have been a flood of projects aiming to “enhance” everything from low-resolution human faces to old film footage, increasing resolution and filling in for the data that simply isn’t there. But what’s really going on behind the scenes, and is this technology really capable of accurately enhancing anything?
An Educated Guess
A heavily enhanced clip
from a film shot in San Francisco just 4 days prior to the 1906 earthquake. [Denis] uses free tools to colorize, upscale, and increase the frame rate of old footage.
We’ve featured neural networks doing such feats before,
such as the DAIN algorithm that upscales footage to 60FPS.
Others, like [Denis Shiryaev], combine a variety of tools
to colorize old footage, smooth out frame rates, and upscale resolutions to 4K.
Neural networks can do all this and more, and fundamentally, the method is the same at the basic level. For example, to create a neural network to upscale footage to 4K resolution, it must first be trained. The network learns from image pairs, with a low-resolution picture and the corresponding high-resolution original. It then attempts to find transformation parameters that take the low-resolution data and produce a result corresponding as closely as possible to the high-resolution original. Once appropriately trained on a large enough number of images, the neural network can then be used to apply similar transformations to other material. The process is similar for increasing frame rates, and even colorization, too. Show a network color content, and then show it the black and white version. With enough training, it can develop algorithms to apply likely colors to other black and white footage.
A team at Duke University created a tool to produce high-resolution portraits from heavily pixelated images. However, the resulting output is a fabrication, and not necessarily one that matches the original face in the low-resolution source image.
The important thing to note about this technology is that it’s merely using a wide base of experience to produce what it
thinks
is appropriate. It’s not dissimilar from a human watching a movie, and guessing at the ending after having seen many similar tropes in other films before. There’s a high likelihood the guess will be in the ballpark, but no guarantee it’s 100% correct.
This is a common thread in using AI for upscaling, as explained by the team behind the PULSE facial imaging tool
. The PULSE algorithm synthesizes an image based on a very low-resolution input of a human face. The algorithm takes its best guess on what the original faces might have looked like, based on the data from its training set, checking its work by re-downscaling to see if the result matches the original low-resolution input. There’s no guarantee the face generated has any real resemblance to the real one, of course. The high-resolution output is merely a computer’s idea of a realistic human face that
could
have been the source of the low resolution image. The technique has even been applied to video game textures,
but results can be mixed.
A neural network doesn’t always get the guess right, and often, a human in the loop is required to refine the output for best results.
Sometimes the results are amusing
, however.
It remains a universal truth that when working with low-resolution imagery, or black and white footage, it’s not possible to accurately fill in data that isn’t there. It just so happens that with the help of neural networks, we can make excellent guesses that may seem real to a casual observer. The limitations of this technology come up more often then you might think, too. Colorization, for example, can be very effective on things like city streets and trees, but performs very poorly on others, such as clothing. Leaves are usually some shade of green, while roads are generally grey. A hat, however, could be any color; while a rough idea of shade can be gleaned from a black and white image, the exact hue is lost forever. In these cases, neural networks can only take a stab in the dark.
Due to these reasons, it’s important not to consider footage “enhanced ” in this way as historically relevant. Nothing generated by such an algorithm can be definitively trusted to have basis in truth. Take a colorized film of a political event as an example. The algorithm could change subtle details such as the color of a lapel pin or banner, creating the suggestion of an allegiance with no basis in fact. Upscaling algorithms could create faces with an uncanny resemblance to historical figures that may never have been present at all. Thus, archivists and those who work on restoring old footage eschew such tools as anathema to their cause of maintaining an accurate recording of history.
This footage
was shot in New York in 1993 with a then-cutting edge 1080p camera. It has a crispness and quality not reached by upscaled historical footage.
Genuine perceived quality is also an issue.
Comparing a 4K upscaled film from Paris in 1890
simply pales in comparison to
footage shot with a genuine 1080p camera in New York in 1993
. Even a powerful neural network’s best guess struggles to measure up against high quality raw data. Of course, one must account for over 100 years worth of improvement in camera technology as well, but regardless, neural networks won’t be replacing quality camera gear anytime soon. There’s simply no substitute for capturing good data in high quality.
Conclusion
Applications do exist for “enhancement” algorithms; one can imagine the interest from Hollywood in upscaling old footage for use in period works. However, the use of such techniques for purposes such as historical analysis or law enforcement purposes is simply out of the question. Computer fabricated data simply bears no actual connection to reality, and thus can’t be used in such fields to seek the truth. This won’t necessarily stop anyone trying, however. Thus, having a strong understanding of the underlying concepts of how such tools work is key for anyone looking to see through the smoke and mirrors. | 64 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297633",
"author": "Paulie",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T18:57:31",
"content": "Link to futurism site refuses to load with an adblocker enabled.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297659",
"author": "Dude",
"timest... | 1,760,373,274.469013 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/building-a-mask-to-induce-lucid-dreaming/ | Building A Mask To Induce Lucid Dreaming | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Circuit Playground Express",
"lucid dream",
"lucid dreaming"
] | While dreams are generally thought of as the unconscious wanderings of the mind, that’s not the full story. Lucid dreams are ones in which the individual is conscious or semi-conscious in the dream state, and may be able to control the dream environment. Over the years, various devices have been used to generate these dream states more reliably. [
Ben] decided to have a go at building his own, inspired by designs from the 1990s
.
To induce lucid dreaming, the aim is to first detect that the mask wearer is in REM sleep. This is commonly done with an infrared eye tracker, which detects the rapid twitching of the eye. [Ben] used the onboard IR proximity sensor on the Adafruit Circuit Playground Express to pull this off. The accelerometer hardware was then used to detect if the wearer was still, indicating they are indeed fully asleep. Once the user is in the correct state, the mask then flashes LEDs which are intended to be visible to the wearer while dreaming. This allows them to realise they are dreaming, and thus enter a conscious, lucid state.
[Ben] doesn’t report the success rate at using the mask, but we’d love to know more about how well the mask works. We’ve seen others do similar work before,
and even a recent Hackaday Prize entry
. Video after the break. | 33 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297586",
"author": "petsci",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T16:39:11",
"content": "I hate to be the person who does this… But there is no evidence to suggest that you are doing anything but dreaming that your are lucid dreaming, and you are only doing that because you are obsessed/inter... | 1,760,373,274.593831 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/the-wow-signal-and-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence/ | The Wow! Signal And The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence | Dan Maloney | [
"Engineering",
"History",
"Space"
] | [
"feedhorn",
"hydrogen line",
"parapolic",
"parapoloid",
"Radio Astronomy",
"readio telescope",
"reflector",
"SETI",
"SNR",
"waveguide"
] | On a balmy August evening in 1977, an enormous radio telescope in a field in the middle of Ohio sat silently listening to the radio universe. Shortly after 10:00 PM, the Earth’s rotation slewed the telescope through a powerful radio signal whose passage was noted only by the slight change in tone in the song sung every twelve seconds by the line printer recording that evening’s data.
When the data was analyzed later, an astronomer’s marginal exclamation of the extraordinarily powerful but vanishingly brief blip would give the signal its forever name: the Wow! Signal. How we came to hear this signal, what it could possibly mean, and where it might have come from are all interesting details of an event that left a mystery in its wake, one that citizen scientists are now looking into with a fresh perspective. If it was sent from a region of space with habitable planets, it’s at least worth a listen.
The Big Ear
John D. Kraus, Ph. D. Source:
North American Astrophysical Observatory
.
Understanding the Wow! Signal requires a look at the instrument that produced it. Affectionately known as “The Big Ear”, the Ohio State University Radio Observatory was the vision of John D. Kraus, a physicist at Ohio State. Dr. Kraus was no stranger to big science — during WWII he developed methods for degaussing naval ships to protect them from magnetically detonated mines, and he worked on a massive cyclotron for the University of Michigan.
Dr. Kraus first described his idea for a telescope capable of detecting extraterrestrial radio signals in an article for Scientific American in 1955. The design of the telescope would be extremely simple, especially compared to the more typical fully steerable dish antenna. It consisted of a large, flat reflector section of steel mesh standing across an open space from a wide, stationary paraboloid reflector. Between these two elements lay a large, flat ground plane area of aluminum-covered pavement. At the focal point of the paraboloid reflector was a small shack containing the feed horns, which could move across the width of the telescope on railroad tracks. Although in general the telescope was static and pointed wherever the Earth’s rotation took it, the feedhorn tracking coupled with adjustments to the tilt of the flat reflector gave some control to which part of the sky was being surveyed.
Cross-section of the Big Ear telescope. Source:
North American Astrophysical Observatory
.
The Big Ear
was
big: the flat reflector alone was 33 meters tall and 100 meters wide, and the ground plane stretched 150 meters between the two reflectors. But Dr. Kraus had actually designed a much, much bigger antenna.
His original design called for 600-meter-wide reflectors, but when the National Science Foundation grant came through in 1955 at a paltry $48,000, the design was reduced to what was possible. And even then, a great deal of “sweat equity” went into the construction of the Big Ear, with graduate students learning to weld specifically to build the telescope, and with critical equipment such as the parametric amplifiers needed for the receiver being built at cost by an OSU alumnus.
The Big Ear. The steerable flat reflector is in the background, the fixed parabolic reflector is in the foreground. At the far end of the ground plane is the track holding the twin feed horns. Source:
North American Astrophysical Observatory
.
It took the better part of a decade to build the Big Ear, and once it was switched on, its main goal was the completion of the Ohio Sky Survey for extragalactic radio sources. The observatory was also used to study the Andromeda galaxy. But by the early 1970s, an interest in searching for potentially intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations by listening for specific radio signatures began to take hold of the radio astronomy community. The Ohio observatory, by virtue of its unique construction and its ability to do sky surveys, was identified early on by SETI scientists as the perfect tool for the job. And so, in 1973, the Big Ear began its near-constant search for ET.
6-E-Q-U-J-5
Jerry Ehman, Ph.D. Source:
North American Astrophysical Observatory
.
Despite capturing the popular imagination through the star-power of backers like Carl Sagan, SETI was not particularly well-funded. Most SETI programs were filler projects, designed to take advantage of downtime on radio telescopes between observations for more traditional studies. Running on shoestring budgets, most of the early SETI programs devoted the bulk of their funding to telescope time, and little to data analysis. As a result, a lot of manual effort went into searching through the data for interesting signals.
And so it was that in August of 1977, astronomer Jerry Ehman was poring through data from Big Ear’s survey of the sky, recorded on page after page of fanfold printer paper. On the left of each sheet were 50 vertical columns of characters, one column for each channel monitored by the Big Ear’s receivers. The program for recording the data, written by Ehman and his colleague Bob Dixon, basically recorded the signal-to-noise ratio on each channel over a 10-second observation period as a single character. An SNR of zero was recorded as a blank space, followed by numerals for SNRs from one to nine. From 10 onward, increasing SNRs were represented by a single letter in alphabetical order.
The paper before Ehman was a sea of blanks and ones, with the occasional spike to six or seven scattered about. But as he scanned the data captured around 10:15 PM Eastern time on August 15, 1977, he noticed a sequence of numbers at the extreme left-hand side of the data that astounded him. On channel 2, the sequence “6EQUJ5” appeared, an outburst lasting 72 seconds before fading back to the noise floor (each observation was ten seconds long, plus an additional two seconds for computer processing.) The signal had been so strong at its peak that it went through all the numbers and 80% of the alphabet — between 30- and 31-fold higher than the noise floor. Ehman was so floored when he saw the signal that he grabbed his red pen, circled the vertical column of characters, and wrote “Wow!” in the left margin. His ebullience at the result stuck, and the signal has been known as “The Wow! Signal” ever since.
The Wow! Signal is born: Dr. Ehman’s notes from August 15, 1977. Source:
North American Astrophysical Observatory
.
The Where of the Wow!
The Wow! Signal has been subject to a lot of scrutiny since 1977, and rightly so. Initial thoughts were that it was of terrestrial origin, perhaps a stray signal from an unknown military satellite, or a signal that had bounced off the Moon. But no other radio telescope operating that night had heard the same thing, which would be the case for a locally generated signal, and the Moon wasn’t in the right place at the time to act as a reflector. Other hypotheses such as a star going supernova, a computer glitch, radio-emitting comets, or “interstellar scintillation” have been blamed, but nothing has stuck. Then again, despite nearly 50 years of looking, nothing even remotely close to the Wow! Signal has been recorded. So it’s hard to draw any firm conclusions about the observation.
It should go without saying that the possibility of the Wow! Signal being from an extraterrestrial intelligence is among the lowest probability explanations for the event. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and every mundane possibility needs to be eliminated before one starts blaming ET for the signal. But there are a couple of tantalizing facts about the Wow! Signal.
First, its frequency. The Wow! Signal occurred at 1,420 MHz — the famous “hydrogen line” frequency that occurs during changes in the energy state of neutral hydrogen atoms. These 21-cm wavelength microwave signals would be known to any civilization that had mastered enough physics to have radio communications. Whether this frequency could be considered a universal “hailing frequency” between technically literate civilizations is open for debate, but it is interesting that the signal was heard on a frequency long-speculated to be just that.
The twin feed horns of the Big Ear. It’s impossible to say which horn received the Wow! Signal, but their footprints in the sky contain 66 Sun-like stars that may harbor habitable exoplanets. Source:
North American Astrophysical Observatory
.
Second, the profile of the signal is exactly what would be expected of an extraterrestrial signal — in the sense of having an origin outside of the local Earth environment, as opposed to from a non-human intelligence. A telescope located at the latitude of Ohio using the rotation of the Earth to scan the sky would be expected to have a 72-second window on any point in the sky, so a signal coming from a long way off would increase for 36 seconds before decreasing and tailing off again. The “6EQUJ5” signal strength forms a curve that’s exactly the right shape.
The other intriguing aspect of the Wow! Signal is its apparent origin. The Big Ear had two feed horns at its focus, long axes parallel to each other but each pointed in a slightly different direction. It’s impossible to say exactly which feed horn heard the signal because of the way the data was processed, but it is known that only one of the feed horns heard it. That means that, barring some Earthly origin or natural phenomenon, there are two relatively small areas, both within the constellation Sagittarius, where the signal could have come from. And that gives astronomers somewhere to start looking.
Sixty-Six Stars
One astronomer on the hunt for a potential source for the Wow! Signal is Alberto Caballero. Alberto has been spearheading the
Habitable Exoplanet Hunting Project
for a while now, which aims to entice amateurs to use their telescopes to detect the subtle changes in apparent brightness of a star when one of its planets transits across its face. It seems like the kind of measurement that would take millions of dollars of equipment to accomplish, but as we discussed with Alberto in
a Hack Chat last January
, the gear needed is surprisingly accessible and affordable.
2MASS 19281982-2640123, a Sun-like star within the Wow! Signal footprint. Source: Alberto Caballero.
As an offshoot to that effort, Alberto has taken an in-depth look at the stars located within the two slivers of sky that the Wow! Signal might have come from. In
a preprint of the paper
documenting the work, Alberto studied 66 G- and K-type stars in the target area, among many thousands of others. (Our own Sun is a G-type star, while K-type stars are smaller and cooler; both are attractive SETI targets.)
Out of that group, fifteen stars appear to be both Sun-like. And only one of those stars, 2MASS 19281982-2640123, has the luminosity data needed to start a serious exoplanet hunt.
Of course, all this is just speculative. The Wow! Signal could just as easily have been an artifact, a natural phenomenon, or even have come from outside the galaxy. But if one of the stars within the area the Big Ear was listening to on August 15, 1977 proves to have a potentially habitable planet orbiting it, it’ll be yet one more layer on the mystery of the Wow! Signal.
[Featured images:
North American Astrophysical Observatory
] | 54 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297554",
"author": "Rulon Rock",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T15:10:27",
"content": "Wow!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297581",
"author": "Lons",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T16:22:08",
"content": "Yep, it... | 1,760,373,274.691761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/a-raspberry-pi-400-ups-add-on-its-not-all-plain-sailing/ | A Raspberry Pi 400 UPS Add-On, It’s Not All Plain Sailing | Jenny List | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"hat",
"raspberry pi 400",
"ups"
] | Since the recent launch of the all-in-one Raspberry Pi 400, the global hardware community have taken to the new platform and are investigating its potential for hardware enhancements. On the back it has the same 40-pin expansion connector as its single-board siblings, but it’s horizontal rather than vertical, which means that all of the conventional HATs sit in a rather ungainly upright position.
One of the first Pi 400 HATs we’ve seen comes from [Patrick Van Oosterwijck], who has made
a very neat 18650-based UPS add-on
that is intended to eventually fit in the back of the machine in a similar way to the home computer cartridge peripherals of old. Unfortunately not all has gone according to plan, and in finding out why that is the case we learn something about the design of the 400, and maybe even take a chance to reflect on the Pi Foundation itself.
On the face of it the 400’s interface is the same as that of its single board computer stablemates, but something this project reveals is that its 5 V pins have a current limit of 1 A. This turns out to preclude the type of plug-in Pi UPS that sits on a HAT that we’re used to, in that 1 A through the 5 V pin is no longer enough to run the computer.
This effectively puts a stop to [Patrick]’s project, though he can repurpose it for a Pi 4 and its siblings once he’s dealt with a converter chip overheating problem. He does however make a complaint about the Pi Foundation’s slowness in releasing such data about their products, and given that long-time Pi-watchers will remember a few other blips in the supply of Pi hardware data he has a point. A quick check of
the Raspberry Pi GitHub repository
reveals nothing related to the Pi 400 at the time of writing, and though it shares much with its Pi 4 sibling it’s obvious that there are enough differences to warrant some extra information.
Hardware hackers may not be part of the core education focus of the Pi range, but a healthy, interested, and active hardware community that feels nurtured by its manufacturer remains key to the supply of interesting Pi-related products feeding into that market. We’d like to urge the Pi Foundation to never forget the hardware side of their ecosystem, and make hardware specification an integral part of every product launch on day one.
If the Pi 400 catches your interest,
you can read our review here
. | 51 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297510",
"author": "CRImier",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T12:10:45",
"content": "Hehe, the “no useful schematics” problem strikes again, except they didn’t even bother publishing *any* schematics for the 400 model. I also tried to look them up when designing my own Pi 400 adapter – to... | 1,760,373,274.830196 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/smd-challenge-extreme-edition-gets-our-flux-flowing/ | SMD Challenge Extreme Edition Gets Our Flux Flowing | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"contests",
"hardware"
] | [
"challenge",
"skills",
"skills challenge",
"smd",
"soldering",
"Supercon"
] | Skills challenges have become a fun way to facilitate friendly competition amongst anyone who appreciates a fine solder joint. If you’ve seen any Supercon / Remoticon coverage there’s surely been a mention of the infamous soldering skills challenge, where competitors test their mettle against surface mount components sized to be challenging but fair. What if there was a less friendly SMD challenge designed to make you hold your breath lest you blow the components away? Well now there is, the
SMD Challenge Extreme Edition
by friend-of-the-Hackaday and
winner of the 2019 Supercon soldering challenge
[Freddie].
When assembled the SMD Extreme Edition uses a 555 timer and a 74HC4017 decade counter to light a ring of 10 LEDs lights around its perimeter, powered by a coin cell. However the Extreme Edition deviates from the typical SMD Challenge format. Instead of ramping up in difficulty with ever-shrinking components, the Extreme Edition only has one size: torturous. See those gray blobs in the title image? Those are grains of rice
.
The Extreme Edition’s 0201-sized LEDs aren’t the absolute smallest components around, but to minimize enjoyment all passives are 01005. (Check out the
SMD Challange Misery Edition
for even 01005 LED action.)
The Extreme Edition has other tricks up its sleeve, too. That 555 may be venerable in age, but this version is in an iron-frustrating 1.41 x 1.43 mm BGA package, which pairs nicely with that decade counter in 2.5 mm x 3.5 mm QFN.
Despite the wordwide pandemic locking down travel and conferences,
a few
brave
challengers
have already taken up their iron and succeeded at Extreme SMD. Want to see it in action? Check out the original Tweets after the break.
Well that was a lot of fun! took about 30 minutes to solder. Didn't have a small enough banana, so rice for scale
pic.twitter.com/ifCVVgYczB
— Fred Temperton (@FredTemperton)
November 3, 2020 | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297489",
"author": "Sylvain Munaut",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T09:10:20",
"content": "That was a fun challenge and done completely without hot air, soldering iron only :DThe LEDs are a pain because although there are bigger (0201) they don’t have any exposed leads on the side, there... | 1,760,373,274.744187 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/tiny-ethernet-routers-now-available-in-gigabit-speeds/ | Tiny Ethernet Routers Now Available In Gigabit Speeds | Lewin Day | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"ethernet",
"ethernet switch",
"switch"
] | If you need to move a lot of data, and fast, Gigabit Ethernet is a great way to do it. However, most network hardware outside of datacenters is fairly space inefficient, a headache if you’re building a robot or drone.
Enter the Gigablox, a super-compact Gigabit router for just these applications.
The Gigablox takes its mission seriously, with its compact size the ultimate design goal. The entire switch fits on a tiny 45 mm x 45 mm PCB. To this end, it eschews the common RJ45 connector, which is bulkier than necessary. Instead, thin Molex PicoBlade connectors are used for the five ports on board. Cables are included to convert between the two connectors, and obviously crimping ones own is easy to do, too. For those who need to connect more devices, several Gigablox can be hooked up in the same way as any other Ethernet switch. The Gigablox is a non-blocking switch, too – meaning all five ports can run at full speed simultaneously.
The design is the sequel to the SwitchBlox
, and the later
SwitchBlox Nano
, both designed by [Josh Elijah] earlier this year. The pace of development is impressive, and it’s great to see [Josh] bring Gigabit speeds to the compact form factor. We can imagine a few good uses for these boards; share your best ideas in the comments below! Video after the break. | 63 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297945",
"author": "CRImier",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T18:12:28",
"content": "Impressive and, without doubt, very useful in hobbyist-grade embedded applications. Price tag isn’t the most commendable part about the product, but it does show some smart design decisions.",
"parent... | 1,760,373,275.063287 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/cornhole-boards-play-victory-songs/ | Cornhole Boards Play Victory Songs | Kristina Panos | [
"Games"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino nano",
"bag toss",
"Cornhole",
"DFPlayer",
"spring vibration sensor",
"vibration sensor"
] | How do you instantly make any game better? By lighting it up and playing at night. We would normally say ‘drinking’, but we’re pretty sure that drinking is already a prerequisite for cornhole — that’s the game where you toss bean bags at holes in angled boards.
[Hardware Unknown] loves cornhole, and was gifted a set of portable, folding boards that light up around the ring for nighttime action.
These turned out to be the perfect basis for reactive boards that light up and play sound whenever points are scored
. Both boards have a vibration sensor to detect bags hitting the top, and an IR break-beam sensor pair across the hole. An Arduino Nano reads from the sensors and controls an amplifier and a DF Player for sound.
Players get a point and a song for landing a bag on top of the board, and three points and a different song for making it in the hole. We love the Easter egg — anyone who manages to trip both the vibration sensor and the break-beam detector at the same time will be treated to the sound of a flock of honking geese. Check out the build journey after the break.
No good at cornhole?
This one doesn’t let you miss
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297953",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T18:39:06",
"content": "I prefer to call it “Bean Bag Toss”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6298206",
"author": "magnetichorseshoes",
"timestamp": "2020-11-27T22:23:42"... | 1,760,373,276.605691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/electric-bmx-with-friction-drive/ | Electric BMX With Friction Drive | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"belt",
"bike",
"bmx",
"dual motor",
"ebike",
"friction drive",
"lipo",
"lithium polymer",
"motor pair"
] | Electric bikes have increased in popularity dramatically over the past few years, and while you can easily buy one from a reputable bicycle manufacturer, most of us around here might be inclined to at least buy a kit and strap it to a bike we already have. There aren’t kits available for every bike geometry, though, so if you want an electric BMX bike you might want to
try out something custom like [Shea Nyquist] did with his latest build
. (Video, embedded below.)
BMX frames have a smaller front triangle than most bikes, so his build needed to be extremely compact. To that end, it uses two small-sized motors connected together with a belt, which together power a friction drive which clamps against the rear tire to spin it directly. This keeps the weight distribution of the bike more balanced as well when compared to a hub drive, where the motor is installed in the rear wheel. It also uses a more compact lithium polymer battery pack instead of the typical 18650 lithium ion packs most e-bikes use, and although it only has a range of around three miles it’s more than enough charge to propel it around a skate park.
The build boasts impressive numbers too, at 2.5 kW peak power per motor. This puts it in electric motorcycle territory, and it’s indeed fast despite its small stature. For a true high speed e-bike experience, though, you’ll need a
slightly larger frame and motor
even if it means tossing safety out of the window. | 9 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297883",
"author": "Bigfoot T",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T12:15:13",
"content": "All fun until the Li-Po goes pop in between your legs!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297924",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,373,277.126856 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/26/adding-usb-to-a-keyboard-the-way-it-used-to-be-done/ | Adding USB To A Keyboard The Way It Used To Be Done | Jenny List | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Apple extended keyboard",
"keyboard",
"keyboard matrix",
"usb"
] | The world of custom keyboards has over the years developed its work into an art form, as mechanical key switches meet USB-HID capable microcontrollers for a plethora of designs as individual as their creators. This was however not always the case, and from the days of 8-bit home computers onwards making a custom keyboard often meant taking a surplus one from elsewhere and adapting its matrix to suit whatever controller interface was at hand. [
Julian Calaby
]’s
USB conversion of an Apple Extended keyboard
may be unusual in this day and age and was probably a late example even 15 years ago when he made it, but it remains a glorious piece of bodge-wire hardware hacking at its finest.
The task at hand with this type of conversion is to cut the matrix PCB tracks and replace them with soldered wires to create the new matrix required. This can then be wired to the controller, which in [Julian]’s case came from a cheap USB keyboard. He added a small USB hub to allow for a pair of USB sockets where Apple had put an ADB socket, making for quite a decent older keyboard with an unexpected USB interface.
Now older and wiser, he has plans to revisit his old keyboard with a modern microcontroller board, and needs to revisit the matrix again and give the peripheral new life. We still like the original though, as it captures a moment in time when keyboard matrix hacking made sense, and reminds us of our own youthful hardware follies.
Paging through Hackaday past it’s a testament to the old-school nature of this board that all we can find are microcontroller-based conversions.
That’s not to say that cutting up old ‘boards is out of the question though
. | 20 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297858",
"author": "jensma",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T09:35:28",
"content": "Two words: Soarer’s Converter",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297859",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T09:40:15",
... | 1,760,373,276.709278 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/audio-fingerprinting-skips-a-shows-intro-reliably/ | Audio Fingerprinting Skips A Show’s Intro, Reliably | Donald Papp | [
"Software Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"audio fingerprinting",
"chapter skip",
"ffmpeg",
"fingerprinting",
"mkvmerge",
"video"
] | Lacking a DVD drive, [jg] was watching a TV series in the form of a bunch of .avi video files. Of course, when every episode contains a full intro, it is only a matter of time before that gets too annoying to sit through.
Chapter breaks reliably inserted around the intro, even when it doesn’t always occur in the same place.
The usual method of skipping the intro on a plain video file is a simple one:
Manually drag the playback forward past the intro.
Oops that’s too far, bring it back.
Ugh reversed it too much, nudge it forward.
Okay, that’s good.
[jg] was certain there was a better way, and
the solution was using audio fingerprinting to insert chapter breaks
. The plain video files now have a chapter breaks around the intro, allowing for easy skipping straight to content. The reason behind selecting this method is simple: the show intro is always 52 seconds long, but it isn’t always in the same place. The intro plays
somewhere
within the first two to five minutes of an episode, so just skipping to a specific timestamp won’t do the trick.
The first job is to extract the audio of an intro sequence, so that it can be used for fingerprinting. Exporting the first 15 minutes of audio with
ffmpeg
easily creates a wav file that can be trimmed down with an audio editor of choice. That clip gets fed into the open-source
SoundFingerprinting
library as a signature, then each video has its audio track exported and the signature gets identified within it. SoundFingerprinting therefore detects where (down to the second) the intro exists within each video file.
Marking out chapter breaks using that information is conceptually simple, but ends up being a bit roundabout because it seems .avi files don’t have a simple way to encode chapters. However, .mkv files are another matter. To get around this, [jg] first converts each .avi to .mkv using
ffmpeg
then splices in the chapter breaks with
mkvmerge
. One important element is that the reformatting between .avi and .mkv is done without completely re-encoding the video itself, so it’s a quick process. The result is a bunch of .mkv files with chapter breaks around the intro, wherever it may be!
The script is available here
for anyone to play with, and
the project page
is a good learning reference because [jg] kindly provides all the command-line options used for each tool. Interested in using audio fingerprinting in your own projects? Remember to also check out
Olaf, the Overly Lightweight Acoustic Fingerprinting
method that can be implemented in embedded systems and web browsers. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297844",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T07:54:54",
"content": "I remember in “Contact” by C. Sagan, there was this company specialized in devices for skipping commercials, government announcements and religion-related talks. In the Spanish translation I read they were c... | 1,760,373,276.772365 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/zoombombing-the-eu-foreign-affairs-council/ | Zoombombing The EU Foreign Affairs Council | Jenny List | [
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"eu",
"journalism",
"security",
"video conferencing"
] | Those with security clearance are capable of making foolish mistakes, just like the rest of us. So is the story of how
a Dutch journalist made an appearance on video meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council
(Dutch language,
Google Translate link
).
Netherlands Defence MInister Ank Bijleveld’s Tweeted picture, with the access details blacked out by Daniël Verlaan.
Like any other video call, if you had the link you could enter the meeting. So when Netherlands Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld Tweeted a photo of a video call last Friday, the address bar of the browser gave away the secret to anyone with a keen eye.
Dutch journalist Daniël Verlaan working for the broadcaster RTL saw the URL
on the screen and deduced the login credentials for the meeting.
We say “deduced”, but in fact there were five of the six digits in the PIN in the clear in the URL, leaving him with the difficult task of performing a one-digit brute-force attack and joining with the username “admin”. He joined and revealed his presence, then was admonished for committing a criminal offence before he left.
On one level it’s an opportunity for a good laugh at the expense of the defence ministers, and we certainly wouldn’t want to be Ank Bijleveld or probably the EU’s online security people once the inevitable investigation into this gets under way. It seems scarcely credible that the secrecy on such a high-security meeting could have sat upon such a shaky foundation without for example some form of two-factor authentication using the kind of hardware available only to governments.
EU policy is decided not by individual ministries but by delicate round-table summits of all 27 countries. In a pandemic these have shifted to being half-online and half in-real-life, so this EU defence ministers’ meeting had the usual mosaic video feed of politicians and national flags. And one Zoom-bombing journalist. | 33 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297792",
"author": "𐂀 𐂅",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T03:27:34",
"content": "That last digit does make it a hack and unlawful, but my greatest concern is that governments trust Zoom at all.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297... | 1,760,373,277.078039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/25/cleaner-laser-cutting-with-a-3d-printed-nozzle/ | Cleaner Laser Cutting With A 3D-Printed Nozzle | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"laminar flow",
"laser cut",
"Laser cutting",
"Nozzle"
] | [Nervous System] does a lot of laser cutting, and [Jesse]
shared a fascinating experimental improvement to their laser cutter that consists of a 3D-printed nozzle for cleaner cuts
. You can see the results for yourself above, where the difference between the two cuts is striking.
[Jesse]’s modification doesn’t affect the laser beam itself; it is an improvement on the air assist, which is the name for a constant stream of air that blows away smoke and debris as the laser burns and vaporizes material. An efficient air assist is one of the keys to getting nice clean laser cuts, but [Jesse] points out that a good quality air assist isn’t just about how
hard
the air blows, it’s also about how smoothly it does so. A turbulent air assist can make scorch marks worse, not better.
3D-printed nozzle to promote laminar air flow on the left, stock nozzle on the right.
As an experiment to improve the quality of the air flowing out the laser nozzle, [Jesse] researched ways to avoid turbulence by creating laminar flow. Laminar flow is the quality of a liquid having layers flowing past one another with little or no mixing. One way to do this is to force liquid through individual, parallel channels as it progresses towards a sharply-defined exit nozzle. While [Jesse] found no reference designs of laminar flow nozzles for air assists, there were definitely resources on making laminar flow nozzles for water. It turns out that interest in such a nozzle exists mainly as
a means of modifying Lonnie Johnson’s brilliant invention, the Super Soaker
.
Working from such a design, [Jesse] created a custom nozzle to help promote laminar flow. Sadly, a laser cutter head carries design constraints that make some compromises unavoidable; one is limited space, and another is the need to keep the laser’s path unobstructed. Still, after 3D printing it in rigid heat-resistant resin, [Jesse] found a dramatic improvement in the feel of the air exiting the nozzle. Some test cuts confirmed a difference in performance, which results in a noticeably cleaner kerf without scorching around the edges.
One of the things [Nervous System] does is make their own custom puzzles, so any improvement to laser cutting helps reliability and quality. When production is involved, just about everything matters; a lesson [Nervous System] shared when they discussed
making the best plywood for creating their puzzles
. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297756",
"author": "Alex",
"timestamp": "2020-11-26T00:22:28",
"content": "That’s awesome! This is a great example of the strength of 3D printing. I never would have looked at that part and thought that a 3D printed part could be better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,276.996272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/true-networked-kvm-without-breaking-the-bank/ | True Networked KVM Without Breaking The Bank | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"administrator",
"csi",
"hat",
"hdmi",
"ip kvm",
"kvm",
"network",
"Pi-KVM",
"raspberry pi",
"remote",
"usb"
] | For administering many computers at once, an IP KVM is an invaluable piece of equipment that makes it possible to get the job done over the network without having to haul a keyboard, monitor, and mouse around to each computer. The only downside is that they can get pricey, unless of course you can roll one out based on the Raspberry Pi and the
PiKVM image
for little more than the cost of the Pi itself.
The video linked below shows how to set all of this up, which involves flashing the image and then setting up the necessary hardware. The build shows an option for using HDMI over USB, but another option using the CSI bus would allow for control over options like video resolution and color that a USB HDMI dongle doesn’t allow for. It also makes it possible to restart the computer and do things like configure BIOS or boot from removable media, which is something that would be impossible with a remote desktop solution like VNC.
The creator of PiKVM was
mentioned in a previous post about the creation of the CSI bus capture card
, and a Pi hat based on this build will be available soon which would include options for ATX controls as well. Right now, though, it’s possible to build all of this on your own without the hat, and is part of what makes the Pi-KVM impressive, as well as its very low cost. | 27 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297476",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T08:10:34",
"content": "Assuming all the machines are network capable, why not use one or more instances of a remote desktop application? There’s no extra hardware involved. You would need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor just one t... | 1,760,373,276.929792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/real-spectrum-analysis-goes-virtual/ | Real Spectrum Analysis Goes Virtual | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"fft",
"fourier transform",
"google cardboard",
"RTL-SDR",
"spectrum analysis",
"virtual reality"
] | One of the hard things about electronics is that you can’t really see the working parts without some sort of tool. If you work on car engines, fashion swords, or sculpt clay, you can see with your unaided eye what’s going on. Electronic components are just abstract pieces and the real action requires a meter or oscilloscope to understand. Maybe that’s what [José] was thinking of when he built
a-radio
. This “humble experiment” pipes a scan from a software-defined radio into VR goggles, which can be as simple as a smartphone and some cardboard glasses.
The resulting image shows you what the radio spectrum looks like. Granted, so will a spectrum analyzer, but perhaps the immersion will provide a different kind of insight into radio frequency analysis.
[José] admits the project is the result of a “boring morning” so there is probably some room for improvement. We wondered if an array of antennas could give you head tracking so you could see what direction a signal was coming from, or — at least — where it was strongest.
Is this really better than just staring at a waterfall display? Perhaps not. But it is still a novel approach and we have to wonder if it couldn’t be used for other things? Maybe a VR circuit simulator or visualizing antenna patterns, for example.
A spectrum analyzer used to be a big purchase,
but not anymore
. For that matter,
VR headgear
used to be a big deal, too. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297448",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T05:41:27",
"content": "VR is still a pretty big deal. The Valve Index is $1300 or so for a full kit. I wish the companies producing the OSVR hadn’t abandoned it. I’m not nearly good enough at programming to push that project ahead... | 1,760,373,276.815094 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/diy-camera-motion-rig-is-mostly-3d-printed/ | DIY Camera Motion Rig Is Mostly 3D Printed | Lewin Day | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"6-axis",
"camera rig",
"motion control"
] | These days, Youtube is more competitive than ever. Creators put out videos of wildly expensive, complex projects with equally pricy camera gear. [Do It Whenever?] wanted to join the arms race,
building his own camera rig for smooth, swooping shots.
The rig consists of a series of 3D printed axes all joined together into a 6-axis motion rig. Additionally, actuators attached to the lens of the camera allow zoom and focus to be be controlled programmatically too. An Arduino runs the show, interpreting G-code and running the various axes, with a Raspberry Pi acting as a gateway to allow the rig to be commanded from PCs or smartphones.
Currently, control is largely manual, by entering G-code commands to move the rig in various ways. The rig can also have its motors temporarily disengaged by a button, allowing the camera to be aimed by hand, before holding the position. In this way, it acts as a highly versatile tripod. Future plans involve more automation if suitable open-source software can be found.
It’s an impressive rig, even if it hasn’t quite found the perfect software to fully exploit its capabilities yet.
We’ve seen similar builds before, too
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Zane Atkins for the tip] | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297424",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2020-11-25T01:53:39",
"content": "Wow! I’d say it needs to have a free manual movement mode that records the movement and can play it back on command. Then you can single handedly frame the perfect shot and be in it at the same time without ... | 1,760,373,276.652607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/digispark-spoofs-ir-to-get-speakers-under-control/ | Digispark Spoofs IR To Get Speakers Under Control | Tom Nardi | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"Digispark",
"IR remote",
"speakers",
"spoof"
] | The Microlab 6C are a pretty nice pair of speakers, but [Michał Słomkowski] wasn’t too thrilled with the 8 watts they consume when on standby. The easy fix is to just unplug them when they aren’t in use, but unfortunately the digital controls on the front panel mean he’s got to turn them on, select the correct input, and turn the volume up to the appropriate level every time they’re plugged back in. Surely there must be a better way.
His solution was to
use a Digispark to fire off the appropriate IR remote codes
so they’d automatically be put back into a usable configuration. But rather than putting an IR LED on one of the GPIO pins, he simply spliced it into the wire leading back from the speaker’s IR receiver. All his code needs to do is generate the appropriate pulses on the line, and the speaker’s electronics think its a signal coming in from the remote.
Distinctive patterns on the IR sensor wires.
Power for the Digispark is pulled from the speaker itself, so it turns on once [Michał] plugs them back in. The code waits five seconds to make sure the hardware has had time to start up, then proceeds with the “Power On”, “Change Input”, and “Volume Up” commands with a few seconds in between each for good measure.
Not only was it easier to skip the IR and inject the signals directly, but it also made for a cleaner installation. Since the microcontroller doesn’t need line of sight to the IR receiver, [Michał] was able to hide it inside the speaker’s enclosure. From the outside, the modification is completely invisible.
We’ve seen
similar code injection tricks used before
, and it’s definitely one of those techniques you should file away mentally for future reference. Even though more and more
modern devices are embracing WiFi and Bluetooth control
, the old school IR remote doesn’t seem like it’s going away anytime soon. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297388",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T22:07:28",
"content": "8w standby, are they insane?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297404",
"author": "hartl",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T23:35:42",
... | 1,760,373,276.867769 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/alfred-jones-talks-about-the-challenges-of-designing-fully-self-driving-vehicles/ | Alfred Jones Talks About The Challenges Of Designing Fully Self-Driving Vehicles | Mike Szczys | [
"car hacks",
"cons",
"Featured"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Remoticon",
"Alfred Jones",
"autonomous vehicle",
"computer vision",
"keynote",
"lidar",
"Lyft",
"radar",
"self-driving",
"sensor fusion"
] | The leap to self-driving cars could be as game-changing as the one from horse power to engine power. If cars prove able to drive themselves better than humans do, the safety gains could be enormous: auto accidents were the
#8 cause of death worldwide in 2016.
And who doesn’t want to turn travel time into something either truly restful or alternatively productive?
But getting there is a big challenge, as Alfred Jones knows all too well. The Head of Mechanical Engineering at Lyft’s level-5 self-driving division, his team is building the roof racks and other gear that gives the vehicles their sensors and computational hardware. In
his keynote talk at Hackaday Remoticon
, Alfred Jones walks us through what each level of self-driving means, how the problem is being approached, and where the sticking points are found between what’s being tested now and a truly steering-wheel-free future.
Check out the video below, and take a deeper dive into the details of his talk.
Levels of Self-Driving
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) established
a standard outlining six different levels of self-driving
. This sets the goal posts and gives us a way to discuss where different approaches have landed on the march to produce robotic chauffeurs.
Alfred walks through each in detail. Level 0 is no automation beyond cruise control and ABS brakes. The next level up, “driver assistance”, adds features like lane holding and distance-aware cruise control. Level 2, “partial autonomous driving” combines two or more of these functions. (Telsa’s “Full Self-Driving” mode is truly only
partially autonomous
.) In these modes, the driver is responsible for watching the system, and deciding when its use is safe.
Level 3 allows the system to turn itself off and hand control back to the driver. This is the first level where the car starts to make higher level decisions about the overall traffic situation, and is the beginning of what I think is the general public’s de facto definition of self-driving. With Level 4 the vehicle should be able to drive itself completely autonomously in restricted areas and get itself safely to the side of the road even if the driver doesn’t take over. Level 5 is the top and the holy grail: the vehicle controls itself in any condition a human driver would have, with zero human intervention or oversight necessary.
Why This is So Hard?
Virtual and empirical testing to ensure the sensor suite stands up to real-world conditions
Generally speaking, this is a sensor problem. By and large the actual control of the vehicle is a solved problem. Alfred mentions that there are important issue to consider like latency between self-driving control hardware and the vehicle’s computer systems, but making the car go where you want it to is already happening. From millisecond to millisecond, those decisions of where the vehicle s
hould
go are the very difficult part.
Pointing out the obvious, the road is crazy, people are unpredictable, and changes in road conditions like weather, closures, and construction make for an ever-changing playing field. Couple this with roadways that were designed for human drivers instead of robot operators and you have a crap shoot when it comes to interpreting sensor data. Interim solutions, like traffic lights that communicate directly with self-driving cars rather than relying on the sensors to detect their state, are possible ways forward that involve changes outside of the vehicles themselves.
Buzzing About Sensor Fusion
The most interesting part of the talk is Alfred’s discussion of sensor fusion. It’s an often thrown around buzzword, but rarely deeply explained with examples.
Some combination of cameras, lidar, and radar are used to sense the environment around the vehicle. Cameras are cheap and high resolution, but poor at determining distance and can be obscured by something as simple as road spray. Alfred calls lidar “super-fantastic”, able to depth map the area around the vehicle, but it’s expensive and can’t detect color or markings. It’s also low-reliability because lidar sensors include moving parts. Radar can see right through some things that foil the other two, like fog, but its output is very low resolution.
Effect of dust and smoke on lidar
Combining all of these is the definition of sensor fusion and one great example of how that works is the exhaust from a vehicle parked on the side of the road. Lidar picks up particles in the cloud and would slam on the breaks if this were the only input for decision making. Radar sees right through it knowing there is no threat. And the camera can correlate that a parked vehicle has an exhaust pipe and what the other sensors have detected fits the expectation from past learning.
Actually Doing It
This is fun to talk about, but Alfred Jones is actually doing it, and that means diving into the minutia of engineering. It’s fascinating to hear him talk about the environmental testing employed for proofing the sensor array against huge temperature ranges, wet/humid conditions, and all challenges common to automotive applications. His thoughts on sensor recalibration in the Q&A at the end is of interest. And all around we’re just excited to hear from one of the engineers grinding away through all barriers in pursuit of the next big breakthrough. | 44 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297371",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T20:51:32",
"content": "Despite all the hype about using AI for self-driving cars, currently no implementations actually use any machine learning. Instead, all the detection an instruction is written by human programmers. It’s ... | 1,760,373,277.252384 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/garrett-augustus-morgan-made-the-world-safer/ | Garrett Augustus Morgan Made The World Safer | Kristina Panos | [
"Biography",
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"gas mask",
"hair straightener",
"smoke hood",
"traffic light"
] | Some people invent with the intent of seeking fame and prestige. Few inventors seem to truly care about other people the way that Garrett Augustus Morgan did. His inventions saved many lives, including those of a few people who were rescued by Garrett himself after an explosion tore through a tunnel beneath Lake Erie.
Though he had little formal education, Garrett’s curiosity took him into many fields from sewing machine repair to gas masks to transportation problems. He achieved great success and improved many lives along the way.
Of Seams and Straighteners
Image via
Wikipedia
Garrett Augustus Morgan was born March 4th, 1877 in Claysville, Kentucky. He was the seventh of eleven children born to Sydney and Elizabeth Morgan, who had both been slaves. His mother was part Native American.
Armed with a sixth grade education and ten cents in his pocket, Garrett left home at fourteen look for work, which was common for kids his age at the time. He first landed in Cincinnati and spent a few years working as a handyman.
In 1895 he moved to Cleveland and started repairing sewing machines. This is where he developed his taste for the way things work. After a decade or so, he opened his own sewing machine shop. He had gotten married in the meantime, and a few years later, he and his wife Mary Anne, a seamstress, opened a discount ladies clothing store and hired thirty-two employees to make all the suits, coats, and dresses in-house.
One day Garrett was sewing a woolen fabric that kept getting scorched by the extremely high speed of the sewing machine needle. He experimented with a few chemicals to coat the needle and keep it cool. As the story goes, he wiped his hands off on a piece of cloth and went to lunch. When he came back, the wavy fibers in the fabric had been completely straightened by the chemical.
Curious, he tried the solution on his neighbor’s dog’s fur, and it straightened that, too. Then he worked up the nerve to try it on his own hair, and discovered the hair relaxer. He turned the solution into a cream and established the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company to sell his hair relaxer to African Americans. The company was terrifically successful and Garrett earned enough money from sales to keep inventing.
Image via
US Patent #1113675
A Hero in Pajamas
In 1914, Garrett patented a safety hood that shielded the wearer from inhaling smoke and noxious gases. The hood worked on the principle that smoke rises, and featured long hoses that brought cool, clean air up from ground level. The hood also used a wet sponge to cool and filter the incoming air.
Garrett promoted the device to fire departments and often demonstrated its effectiveness himself. It won first prize at the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation, and became the prototype for the gas masks used in World War I.
When it came to showing the hood to the public, Garrett distanced himself from the invention. He would hire a white actor to pose as the inventor while he himself portrayed a Native American man named Big Chief Mason. Garrett would demonstrate the hood’s effectiveness himself by building a chemical fire in a tent and then sit inside it for twenty minutes.
Garrett rescues someone from the tunnel. Western Reserve Historical Society via
Popular Mechanics
One early morning in 1916, Garrett’s breathing apparatus was spontaneously put to the test. City workers were drilling a fresh water supply tunnel beneath Lake Erie when they hit a pocket of natural gas. The resulting explosion trapped several workers underground, breathing mostly toxic fumes and dust.
Someone roused Garrett from bed, and he and his brother Frank rushed to the tunnel in their pajamas with Garrett’s ventilation hoods in tow. They managed to save two lives before the rescue operation was shut down.
Unfortunately, the publicity hurt sales because people found out that the inventor of the smoke hood was African American. Garrett and his brother weren’t recognized by the city for their heroic efforts at Lake Erie until much later. Although the mayor had been at the scene and called them heroes, the newspapers only mentioned them in passing.
Image via
US Patent #1475024
A Better Traffic Signal
No matter how he was received, Garrett couldn’t stop his desire to invent things. He was an early adopter of the automobile and eventually developed a friction drive clutch. In 1923 he designed a new kind of motorized traffic signal after witnessing an accident at a notoriously bad intersection.
At the time, traffic signals were basically ‘stop’ and ‘go’ with no warning between the two. Garrett’s signal had a warning light that told drivers they would need to stop soon — the yellow light. It also had a ‘stop all directions’ setting that gave pedestrians time to cross the street. Although Garrett acquired patents for the traffic signal, he reportedly sold the rights to General Electric for $40,000.
Garrett began developing glaucoma in 1943 and lost most of his sight. He died in 1963, one month before the centennial celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation where he was recognized by the government for his achievements.
Garrett Augustus Morgan was a great inventor who wanted to make people’s lives better, and did so in the most varied ways. He deserves recognition for his heroic efforts at Lake Erie as much as his lifesaving inventions. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297363",
"author": "Gabriel",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T20:17:36",
"content": "Great read! Shame that the city of CLE does not have anything where his house used to be.Just an empty lot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6297365"... | 1,760,373,277.389235 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/over-the-top-cyberdeck-is-really-a-geiger-deck/ | Over-the-Top Cyberdeck Is Really A Geiger-Deck | Dan Maloney | [
"Cyberdecks"
] | [
"Arduino Leonardo",
"cyberdeck",
"cyperpunk",
"geiger counter",
"lcd",
"Raspberry Pi 4"
] | If you like it when a hack has a little backstory, then you’re going to love
this cyberdeck build log
, the first half of which reads like a [Tom Clancy] novel. And the build itself looks the part, like something that fell off a military helicopter as the Special Forces operators were fast-roping into a hot LZ. Or something like that.
The yarn that [Paul Hoets] spins around his cyberdeck, dubbed RATIS for Remote Assault and Tactical Intelligence System, is pretty good reading and pretty imaginative. The cyberdeck itself looks very much the part, built into a Pelican-style air travel case as such things usually are. Based on a Raspberry Pi 4, the lid of the case serves as a housing for keyboard and controls, while the body houses the computer, an LCD display, and an unusual peripheral: a Geiger counter, which is very much in keeping with the device’s “mission profile”. The handheld pancake probe and stout coiled cord with its MILSPEC connectors really sell the look, too.
Imaginative backstory aside, the construction method here is what really shines. Lacking access to a 3D-printer to produce the necessary greebling, [Paul] instead used a laser cutter to make acrylic panels with cutouts. The contrast between the black panels and the yellow backgrounds makes it all look official, and it’s a technique to keep in mind for builds of a more serious nature, too.
Feel free to look through our fine collection of cyberdeck builds. Some have
a fanciful backstory
like [Paul]’s, others are intended for
more practical purposes
. Build whatever you want, just make sure to tip us off when you’re done. | 26 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297320",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T17:22:33",
"content": "To add to its tactical nature, could an SDR fit in the case as well?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297406",
"author": "paulhoets",
"... | 1,760,373,277.320978 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/eulogy-to-arecibo-with-demise-of-a-unique-scientific-facility-who-will-carry-the-torch/ | Eulogy To Arecibo: With Demise Of A Unique Scientific Facility, Who Will Carry The Torch? | Maya Posch | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"Arecibo Observatory",
"asteroid tracking",
"astronomy",
"Radio Astronomy",
"radio telescopes"
] | Few telescopes will get an emotional response from the general public when it is ultimately announced that they will be decommissioned. In the case of the Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the past months has seen not only astronomers but also countless people across the world wait with bated breath after initial reports of damage to the radio telescope’s gigantic dish.
When the National Science Foundation
announced that they would be decommissioning the telescope
, there was an understandable outpouring of grief and shock. Not only is Arecibo a landmark in Puerto Rico, it is the telescope from iconic movies such as
GoldenEye
(1995) and
Contact
(1997). Its data fed public programs such as the Seti@Home and Einstein@Home projects.
Was Arecibo’s demise truly unavoidable, and what does this mean for the scientific community?
What Defines Arecibo
The Green Bank Telescope.
The real question is, what have we lost? Are there successors to Arecibo that are able to fill the very large gap now facing the scientific community? Looking at the aspects of the telescope that made it unique helps us find those answers.
Telescopes are essentially highly sensitive instruments for observing remote sources of electromagnetic radiation. In the case of optical telescopes, this means the visible part of the EM spectrum. Radio telescopes work in a similar way but are tuned to receive radio frequencies. Arecibo was capable of capturing between 1-10 GHz with multiple receivers using an effective 221 meters of its 304 meter diameter. Much like how an optical telescope’s primary mirror largely determines how much light will ultimately reach the sensor, so too does the size and shape of a radio telescope’s primary mirror (dish).
Most telescopes can be adjusted to point the reflector at different parts of the sky. This is mostly a matter of what mechanics and engineering allow, with the
Green Bank Telescope
in West Virginia currently the largest fully steerable radio telescope with a dish diameter of 100 meters. Puerto Rico’s Arecibo and China’s
FAST
radio telescope have fixed reflectors that make use of natural depressions in the terrain left by a
karst
sinkhole. Within this bowl-shaped depression the elements that make up the dish are installed, largely following those contours, with a moveable receiver array to aim the telescope. While convenient, this limits the view of these telescopes to a fairly narrow part of the sky.
The illuminated area of the FAST telescope on the primary dish.
Both newer and physically larger, it would seem obvious that China’s FAST telescope is superior to Arecibo, this is not entirely true. Arecibo’s dish reflectors are mounted in place more rigidly than FAST’s. While the latter is more flexible with winches able to adjust the shape of the reflector mesh, this comes with trade-offs at these higher frequencies. Even with upgrades to FAST’s receivers similar to the upgrades which Arecibo received in 1997, FAST would only be able to cover frequencies up to about 5 GHz, only half of Arecibo’s performance.
In addition to these properties, there is also the question of
radar astronomy
, which requires the transmission of powerful radar signals. Arecibo has four radar transmitters, of 20 TW (continuous), 2.5 TW (pulsed), 300 MW and 6 MW. These take up a significant amount of space, and therefore cannot be mounted in FAST’s secondary platform alongside its receivers due to weight and space concerns. Arecibo is only one of two telescopes that have seen regular use in radar astronomy, the other being the 70 meter
Goldstone Solar System Radar
, with a 500 kW transmitter.
With the detection of asteroids and comets being an essential part of Arecibo’s radar astronomy duties (tracking & early warning system), this has left a major blind spot. Without Arecibo, we have to mostly rely on optical telescopes to track these objects as they hurtle through the solar system.
The Infrastructure Budget Dance
Perhaps not surprisingly, Arecibo is a Cold War artifact, envisioned as part of an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) shield. Installations like Arecibo would provide detection duties, being presumably sensitive enough to filter out the real warheads from the fake ones within a
MIRV
ICBM from their radar signature. Without a solid understanding of the exact physics of a re-entering ICBM, Arecibo was part of an ARPA-led effort to fill in the knowledge gaps here.
As the Cold War dragged on and priorities shifted before the final dissolution of the Soviet Union, Arecibo saw itself placed in a situation not dissimilar to the rust and flaking paint-covered marvels of the Soviet Union. Unneeded as a military asset, it saw its operational budget reduced year over year. Even with asteroid research as one of its unique mission profiles, in 2001
NASA announced
that they would cut funding by 27% and ‘encouraged’ the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund the $11 million budget of the whole program.
In 2007, the
NSF announced
that due to their own budget being reduced, they would have to close Arecibo unless other sources of funding could be found. Of note here is that Puerto Rico itself is rather poor, with its government not having the financial means to support even such an iconic telescope, and no senators in Washington DC to lobby on its behalf due to Puerto Rico not being a US state.
NASA funding for the telescope was restored in 2010, with an increase in 2012 to $3.5M/year. Despite this, the NSF made changes to the way Arecibo Observatory was run during this period, seeking commercial and other partners and removing Cornell University from the project. By 2015, the NSF
was signalling
that it was looking at decommissioning the facility.
When hurricane Maria damaged the 430 MHz feed line and part of the primary dish in 2017, a consortium led by the University of Central Florida (UCF) managed to stave off the observatory’s decommissioning through financial support, but then on August 10th, 2020,
one of the secondary platform support cables broke
, damaging the primary dish and the receiver platform.
As the decades of limping on with a minimal operating budget caught up with reality, November 7th
saw a second cable snap
, further damaging the primary dish. After engineers
examined the facility
following this second accident the statement to the press said that:
Preliminary analysis indicates the main cable, which failed on November 6, should have easily handled the extra load based on design capacity. Engineers suspect it is likely that the second cable failed because it has degraded over time and has been carrying extra load since August.
All of this seems to point towards the lack of a maintenance budget leading to the situation where the many cables of the Arecibo Observatory were not regularly inspected, maintained, or replaced. Especially in a fairly humid and warm climate like that of Puerto Rico where the corrosion of steel cables would be accelerated, a lack of maintenance would have caused reductions in carrying capacity.
What Could Have Been
Arecibo Observatory from the air in happier days.
A major problem with scientific installations like Arecibo is that they are not flashy or cool enough to warrant a constant flow of funding, with some
Administrations worse than others
. The main reason is that a lot of science involves mostly waiting, digging through years worth of data, more waiting and crunching more numbers and running models in the hope that you see a theorem confirmed.
When a politician or the average person on the street is asked what their thoughts on Arecibo’s demise are, it’s unlikely that many could sum up what the facility was used for, and why its loss is felt far beyond the astronomy community.
The Ángel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center located near the observatory was opened in 1997. It serves as an educational center with exhibits and displays not only about the Arecibo Observatory, but also astronomy and the atmospheric sciences. With the loss of the observatory the future of this center and the role of Puerto Rico in astronomy is put very much into doubt.
For the Future
In a world where some individuals count their worth in billions and Wall Street marks its progress in trillions, the operation and maintenance budget for a facility such as Arecibo is microscopically small. Despite that, there seems to be no indication that the decision to decommission Arecibo will be reverted. Whether or not a replacement facility will be built in Puerto Rico or anywhere in the US is still left up in the air at this point.
All that we know for certain right now is that despite its different geographical location and lack of radar transmitting capacity, the FAST telescope along with a host of smaller radio telescopes will be able to pick up most of the slack there. Due to China’s treatment of large scientific projects as a sign of prestige, in addition to building FAST, they are also scheduled to bring the country’s fully steerable 110 meter
Qitai Radio Telescope
online in 2023, which would make it the largest of its kind in the world.
One can only hope that the US and others take the bait and begin a friendly competition with China on building the best, most useful telescopes and other scientific projects to further humankind’s reach to the stars. Because in the end, having only crumbling sites like Arecibo to show for one’s economic prowess isn’t worth much at all when that one large asteroid manages to not avoid Earth. | 50 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297293",
"author": "carpetbomberz",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T15:24:44",
"content": "Maya, thanks for that budget and funding chronology for Aricebo. This is invaluable in showing the erosion and decline as management shifted between organizations and Presidential administrations. E... | 1,760,373,277.878698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/bet-you-didnt-know-arduinos-are-psychic/ | Bet You Didn’t Know Arduinos Are Psychic | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino nano",
"random number generator",
"rng"
] | Are you running out of ways to entertain yourself and your family? If you’ve read all the books and watched all the movies,
it might be time to explore the psychic abilities of silicon
. [Hari Wiguna] has just the trick to keep them guessing for a good long time.
This trick doesn’t take much, just a couple of Arduinos, some momentary buttons, a number pad, and a large helping of math. As you can see in the demo after the break, there is nothing connecting the two, not even 802.11(n). On the randomizer Arduino, [Hari] generates random numbers with the push of a button until the audience sees one they like. Then [Hari] locks in the number with the other button.
What happens next is key: the randomizer generates another random number, but uses it as a hint to set a sentinel digit. The randomizer Arduino subtracts the larger of the two digits in the number from nine and stores the result as the flag. When the next number comes up that has the flag digit in the correct place, the number after that will be the random number chosen at the beginning.
The psychic Arduino’s secret is that it knows the first guess it receives is special. It does the same sentinel digit math as the randomizer, so when the guesser enters the guess with the sentinel digit, it knows the next number entered is the winner. Clear as mud? Check out the second video below where [Hari] explains the trick, a new take on a magic classic.
Looking for a more exciting way to generate random numbers? Try using
fish tanks
,
lava lamps
, or
muons from outer space
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297399",
"author": "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T23:28:37",
"content": "No comments yet because most users short circuited their own brains trying to understand the trick",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "629741... | 1,760,373,277.921702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/24/trashed-tablet-lives-again-thanks-to-new-charger-ic/ | Trashed Tablet Lives Again Thanks To New Charger IC | Tom Nardi | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Tablet Hacks"
] | [
"charger",
"repair",
"samsung",
"tablet",
"TP4056"
] | Have you ever pulled a piece of electronics from the trash that looked like nothing was wrong with it, only to take it home and find out it really is dead? Since you’re reading Hackaday, we already know the answer. Trash picking is an honored hacker tradition, and we all know it’s a gamble every time you pull something from the curb. But when the Samsung Galaxy Tab S that [Everett] pulled from the e-waste bin wouldn’t take a charge,
he decided to crack it open and see if it was really beyond repair
.
The first step was using a USB power meter to see if the tablet was actually pulling any current when plugged in. With just 10 mA on the line, [Everett] knew the device wasn’t even attempting to charge itself. So his next step was to pull the battery and charge it from a bench supply. This got the tablet to wake up, and as far as he could tell, everything else worked as expected. It seemed like the only issue was a blown charging circuit.
Where we’re going, we don’t need ribbon cables.
Now at this point, [Everett] could have just gone online and bought a new motherboard for the tablet and called it a day. But where’s the fun in that? Instead, he wired up a simple charging circuit using a TP4056 IC on a scrap of flexible PCB and mounted it to a square of Kapton tape. He then used 34 AWG magnet wire to connect it between the tablet’s USB port and the battery, bypassing the tablet’s electronics entirely.
The fix worked, but there was a slight problem. Since the TP4056 only goes up to 4.2 V and the battery maxes out at 4.35 V, [Everett] says his hacked charger can only bring the tablet up to 92% capacity according to Android. But considering the alternative, we think its more than a worthy trade-off.
It’s easy to dismiss tablets as largely disposable devices, but
this isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody save one
with little more than solder and patience. Of course,
what you do with that old tablet once you get it fired back up
is another story entirely. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297267",
"author": "rewolff",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T12:52:55",
"content": "The 8% sacrifice in per-charge longlevity of the battery you will get back double (as in double the lifespan) in lifetime of the batery.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,277.579513 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/a-cpu-less-computer-with-a-single-nor-gate-alu/ | A CPU-Less Computer With A Single NOR-Gate ALU | Dan Maloney | [
"Parts",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"74xx",
"ALU",
"computer",
"CPU-less",
"discrete",
"logic",
"NOR-gate",
"retrocomputer"
] | We see a lot of discrete-logic computer builds these days, and we love them all. But after a while, they kind of all blend in with each other. So what’s the discrete logic aficionado to do if they want to stand out from the pack? Perhaps
this CPU-less computer with a single NOR-gate instead of an arithmetic-logic unit
is enough of a hacker flex? We certainly think so.
We must admit that when we first saw [Dennis Kuschel]’s “MyNor” we thought all the logic would be emulated by discrete NOR gates, which of course can be wired up in various combinations to produce every other logic gate. And while that would be really cool, [Dennis] chose another path. Sitting in the middle of the very nicely designed PCB is a small outcropping, a pair of discrete transistors and a single resistor. These form the NOR gate that is used, along with MyNor’s microcode, to perform all the operations normally done by the ALU.
While making the MyNor very slow, this has the advantage of not needing 74-series chips that are no longer manufactured, like the 74LS181 ALU. It may be slow, but as seen in the video below, with the help of a couple of add-on cards of similar architecture, it still manages to play Minesweeper and Tetris and acts as a decent calculator.
We really like the look of this build, and we congratulate [Dennis] on pulling it off. He has open-sourced everything, so feel free to build your own. Or, check out some of the other CPU-less computers we’ve featured: there’s
the Gigatron
,
the Dis-Integrated 6502
, or the jumper-wire jungle of
this 8-bit CPU-less machine
. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297218",
"author": "Squonk42",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T08:39:27",
"content": "It is possible to build a CPU without a single gate:http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/inst/ag-ki/rojas_home/documents/tutorials/SmallestCPU.pdf",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,373,277.741104 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/roll-your-own-photo-sharing-minus-the-social-networking-baggage/ | Roll Your Own Photo Sharing, Minus The Social Networking Baggage | Donald Papp | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"instagram",
"javascript",
"photo sharing",
"php",
"progressive web app"
] | [Niklas Roy] rolled his own photo diary, because he found the core functionality of something like instagram attractive, but didn’t want the social network baggage that it came with. His simple system is called
my own insta ;)
and it consists of some javascript and PHP to create a nice progressive web app photo diary and backend that can be accessed just fine from a mobile device. It is
available on GitHub
for anyone interested in having their own.
This project came up because [Niklas] sometimes found himself working on small projects or experiments that aren’t destined for proper documentation, but nevertheless could benefit from being shared as a photo with a short description. This dovetails with what many social networks offer, except that those platforms also come with other aspects [Niklas] doesn’t particularly want. His
online photo diary
solves this by having a simple back end with which he can upload, sort, and caption photos in an easy way even from a mobile device.
Rolling one’s own solution to some small core functionality offered by a social network is one way to avoid all the extra baggage,
but another method is to simply automate away all the pesky social bits with a robot
. | 9 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297205",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T05:08:53",
"content": "Cool",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6297270",
"author": "Matthew Smith",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T13:18:25",
"content": "This is cool, but ... | 1,760,373,277.784605 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/the-mystery-of-a-particular-attiny85-fuse/ | The Mystery Of A Particular ATtiny85 Fuse | Inderpreet Singh | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"fuses",
"lock",
"unlock"
] | First-timers playing with 8-bit micros such as the AVR and PIC will at some point in their lives, find themselves locked out of their MCUs. This is usually attributed to badly configured fuses that disable certain IO functions rending the device unprogrammable via conventional ICSP methods. [Uri Shaked] shares his story of
how his ATtiny85 got locked and became the subject of a lengthy investigation into fuse bit configurations
.
[Uri]’s journey started when he accidentally left some pins of the device connected to a second board while he was flashing the firmware. He quickly researched online for a solution for the problem and it turns out, there are a
number of recipes
to resolve the issue. As it turns out, his problem was not so straight-forward and warranted more digging. [Uri] ended setting up a High Voltage Programming serial programming setup and then probing the communications. He discovered that the chip refused to reset its fuses and would reject attempts to set fuses.
Further investigation of the fuse bits and reading them proved useful in understanding that the memory protection features were preventing alteration of the device. The quick-fix was to erase the ATtiny and things were back to normal thereafter. [Uri] details his pursuit of reading and comparing fuse bits from the impacted chip against a fresh device which is where he makes the discovery. The write-up is a case study in the investigation into the i
diosyncrasies of device programming and will be a great resource for many and reduce hair loss for some.
Once you
get your hands on an ATTINY, there are a number of small experiments to be done to cure boredom
. Be sure to share your experiments and stories with us to inspire the masses. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297160",
"author": "Gösta",
"timestamp": "2020-11-24T00:37:33",
"content": "That’s a nice writeup, I could really have used it when I bricked my first mcu :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6297163",
"author": "LordNothin... | 1,760,373,277.974642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/coaxial-connectors-starting-with-the-pl259/ | Coaxial Connectors, Starting With The PL259 | Jenny List | [
"Parts",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"coaxial cable",
"coaxial connectors",
"PL259"
] | For the casual breadboard experimenter with a microcontroller and a few peripherals, there’s little concern over interconnects as a set of jumper wires will suffice. But as any radio amateur will tell you though, at higher frequencies it’s a very different affair. [Ria Jairam N2RJ] has embarked upon a series of videos exploring co-axial cable and its various connectors, and
her first offering features the humble UHF connector
, sometimes known as the PL259. Though it’s one of the older choices and its design flaws mean that “UHF” is more of an aspiration for it than a reality, it remains a common connector at the lower end of the amateur radio frequency range.
She starts with a brief history of co-axial cable, before introducing the UHF connector. We’re the introduced to its major flaw, in that it doesn’t present a constant impedance. The resulting mismatch presents a significant problem to a transmitter, especially at higher frequencies. We’re then taken through the various different models of UHF connector, including those with honeycomb dielectric to minimize the mismatch, and the fancy expensive plugs with strain relief. Finally she takes us through the proper fitting of a PL259 plug, something that there’s a bit more to than most of us might think. Altogether it’s an interesting and informative watch from an engaging and knowledgeable host, and we look forward to more.
Meanwhile, the field of RF connectors is
something we’ve dipped a to into from time to time ourselves
. | 30 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297119",
"author": "Alex99a",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T22:11:35",
"content": "I put on hundreds of those miserable things in my old job. Hated every minute of it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6297228",
"author": "t... | 1,760,373,278.039358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/wireless-mouse-gets-a-charging-house/ | Wireless Mouse Gets A Charging House | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"charging dock",
"magnets",
"mouse",
"mouse charging",
"TC4056A"
] | Mouse batteries always seem to die at the worst possible moment, like when you’re in the middle of pwning noobs or giving a presentation at work. [AyhamAS] was tired of having to look around for a replacement battery and
decided to build a nice little charging dock for their mouse
.
At the heart of this build is a TC4056A charging board inside the dock. Since this board is designed to charge 3.7 V batteries, [AyhamAS] removed the charge current-limiting resistor and replaced it with a pair of through-hole resistors. A switch on the back of the dock lets [AyhamAS] choose between the two values for fast or slow charging.
On the mouse side, [AyhamAS] cleverly used the receiver storage cubbyhole to house the contacts. Magnets in in the mouse and the dock and spring-loaded contacts add even more tactile feedback to the whole experience. The dock itself looks great, too — it’s made from acrylic that’s been sanded down to a matte finish. Check out the build video after the break.
If your mouse has a battery pack, you could always
upgrade to a bigger one as long as there’s room
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297088",
"author": "ScubaBearLA",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T20:15:03",
"content": "I watched the video and looked at his Instructable, but he doesn’t say where those contacts came from that I could find. They look very nice… does anyone know where to get them?",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,373,278.08776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/linux-fu-vpn-for-free-with-ssh/ | Linux Fu: VPN For Free With SSH | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"linux",
"Linux Fu",
"networking",
"ssh",
"sshd",
"virtual private network",
"vpn"
] | If you see a lot of banner ads on certain websites, you know that without a Virtual Private Network (VPN), hackers will quickly ravage your computer and burn down your house. Well, that seems to be what they imply. In reality, though, there are two main reasons you might want a VPN connection. You can pay for a service, of course, but if you have ssh access to a computer somewhere on the public Internet, you can set up your own VPN service for no additional cost.
The basic idea is that you connect to a remote computer on another network and it makes it look like all your network traffic is local to that network. The first case for this is to sidestep or enhance security. For example, you might want to print to a network printer without exposing that printer to the public Internet. While you are at the coffee shop you can VPN to your network and print just like you were a meter away from the printer at your desk. Your traffic on the shop’s WiFi will also be encrypted.
The second reason is to hide your location from snooping. For example, if you like watching the BBC videos but you live in Ecuador, you might want to VPN to a network in the UK so the videos are not blocked. If your local authorities monitor and censor your Internet, you might also want your traffic coming from somewhere else.
Using SSH for VPN will work for both cases, although if you are mostly interested in the first case, you are probably going to be happier using a dedicated router or a small computer like a Raspberry Pi dedicated to the task. However, if you are leasing a server somewhere, that option isn’t going to work for you.
Prerequisites
You really only need root access to both machines and SSH server on the remote machine along with the SSH client. There is some configuration required on both sides. I use KDE so I used NetworkManager to set things up, although that isn’t necessary. It just makes things easier.
The server needs a few special items set up, but those items may already be present. In
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
you will want
PermitTunnel=yes
and you may need to set
AllowTCPForwarding
to yes, as well. The firewall may need some tweaks, too. The setup instructions for the
NetworkManager plug-in
will be useful even if you don’t want to use it.
Client Side
If you are using NetworkManager, you’ll need the plug-in. For Neon and other Debian-type distributions, you can find the
network-manager-ssh
package and that’s all you need. If you don’t want to use it, you can use this line from the plug-in author’s
blog
:
ssh -f -v -o Tunnel=point-to-point -o ServerAliveInterval=10 -o TCPKeepAlive=yes -w 100:100 root@YOUR_SSH_SERVER \
'/sbin/ifconfig tun100 172.16.40.1 netmask 255.255.255.252 pointopoint 172.16.40.2' && \
/sbin/ifconfig tun100 172.16.40.2 netmask 255.255.255.252 pointopoint 172.16.40.1
You will need to be root on both ends because you are creating a tunnel device. This leads to a few problems, even if you use the plug-in. Obviously, you aren’t going to want SSH bugging you for passwords and host key verifications, but if you establish the VPN manually, you could deal with that.
Problems
However, most modern systems don’t allow root login with a password, or even at all. So you’ll need to fix that first. In addition, when the NetworkManager runs SSH, it will be looking for host keys and such as root, not as your user. If it can’t find things, it will just die. So you’ll need to make sure that root can log in with no intervention.
To allow root logins to the server, you need to edit
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
and change
PermitRootLogin
to yes. I suggest you do this only long enough to do the next few steps. You’ll need to restart the
sshd
server which means something like:
systemctl restart sshd
or
/etc/init.d/ssh restart
Then, logged in as your normal user on your local machine, use
ssh-copy-id
to install your certificate to the host computer. As soon as that works, you should go back and change
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
to use “
PermitRootLogin prohibit-password
.” That way you can log in as root with a certificate, but not with a password.
If you’ve logged on from your root account once, SSH probably asked you if you want to accept the server key. If not, that’s going to be a problem. If you can, log in and answer yes so it quits asking. However, if you can’t, we can also turn off
StrictHostKeyChecking
.
In theory, you can pass extra ssh options to the NetworkManager plugin, but for some reason that doesn’t work on the version from the repositories. If you are starting manually, of course, you can add what you want. However, it is also possible to set root’s SSH configuration in
/root/.ssh/config
or the global configuration at
/etc/ssh/ssh_config
.
If you do change the global, consider using
/etc/ssh/ssh_config.d
if your system supports it. That lets you put snippets in for a particular host that won’t get written over on system upgrades. For example, you might make a file in that directory named
hackaday.conf
:
Host *.hackaday.com hackaday.com
StrictHostKeyChecking no
Tunnel yes
Again, if you object to the host key checking, then just log in from your root account once and manually accept the remote key. Or, if you are brave, manually edit
/root/.ssh/known_hosts
.
Prosper
That should do it. If you are using the NetworkManager plug in, just make a new connection. From there, pick the VPN connections section and select SSH.
You’ll have to put in a few parameters, including the certificate you want to use to log in to the remote machine:
Once you save the connection, you can activate it like you would any other network interface. If you want to see if it works, ask a website for
your IP address
. Then activate the VPN and do it again. If you have trouble getting the VPN to connect, you can look in the system log to find out what errors SSH is throwing.
Of Course…
There are other VPN solutions. However, since it is almost a sure bet that your remote computer has an SSH server on it, this is very simple to set up with very little planning.
You can do a lot with SSH if you
know the tricks
. We especially like using it to
mount files
. | 44 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297063",
"author": "Kryptylomese",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T18:43:19",
"content": "“sshuttle” is an alternative based on SSH that whilst not being a full VPN in that it does not transfer UDP other than DNS, it is far easier to setup.However, SSH is not bandwidth efficient, so I wou... | 1,760,373,278.190551 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/escape-tunnel-in-your-living-room-a-different-take-on-the-infinity-mirror/ | Escape Tunnel In Your Living Room: A Different Take On The Infinity Mirror | Danie Conradie | [
"Art"
] | [
"coffee table",
"infinity mirror",
"optical illusion",
"woodworking"
] | Most infinity mirrors are just minor variations on the same old recipe. Take a frame, add a normal mirror in the back, a one-way mirror on the front, and put some LEDs between them. [Stevens Workshop] took a slightly different approach and built an
escape tunnel coffee table that really caught our attention.
To create the tunnel and ladder illusion, [Steven] kept the mirrors, but made a deeper wood frame, installed a light bulb in an industrial-looking socket instead of the usual LEDs, and added a single ladder rung. The end result makes for a very interesting conversation piece, and some of us prefer it to the multicolored LED look. Though he added his own touches, the idea was actually borrowed from from [
asthhvdrt36
] and [
BreezleSprouts
] on Reddit who used slightly different light and ladder designs.
While there’s nothing groundbreaking here, it’s certainly a case of “why didn’t I think of that”. Sometimes the old and familiar just needs a different perspective to create something fascinating. One of the advantages of the classic infinity mirror is the thin profile, which we’ve seen integrated into everything from
guitars
to
coasters
. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6297019",
"author": "UnderSampled",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T16:57:26",
"content": "If the light cowling were cut in half and then placed right against the mirror, it would halve the frequency of lights relative to rungs, which I think would be a lot nicer. Another use of that techn... | 1,760,373,278.252476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/the-cost-of-moving-atoms-in-space-unpacking-the-dubious-claims-of-a-10-quintillion-space-asteroid/ | The Cost Of Moving Atoms In Space; Unpacking The Dubious Claims Of A $10 Quintillion Space Asteroid | Bob Baddeley | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"16 Psyche",
"asteroid",
"deep space",
"dyson sphere",
"economics",
"iron",
"minig",
"nasa",
"outer space",
"space",
"space probe"
] | The rest of the media were reporting on an asteroid named 16 Psyche last month worth $10 quintillion. Oddly enough they reported in July 2019 and again in February 2018 that the same asteroid was worth $700 quintillion, so it seems the space rock market is similar to cryptocurrency in its wild speculation. Those numbers are ridiculous, but it had us thinking about the economies of space transportation, and what atoms are worth based on where they are. Let’s break down how gravity wells, distance, and arbitrage work to figure out how much of this $10-$700 quintillion we can leverage for ourselves.
The value assigned to everything has to do with where a thing is, AND how much someone needs that thing to be somewhere else. If they need it in a different place, someone must pay for the transportation of it.
In international (and interplanetary) trade, this is where
Incoterms
come in. These are the terms used to describe who pays for and has responsibility for the goods between where they are and where they need to be. In this case, all those materials are sitting on an asteroid, and someone has to pay for all the transport and insurance and duties. Note that on the asteroid these materials need to be mined and refined as well; they’re not just sitting in a box on some space dock. On the other end of the spectrum, order something from Amazon and it’s Amazon that takes care of everything until it’s dropped on your doorstep. The buyer is paying for shipping either way; it’s just a matter of whether that cost is built into the price or handled separately. Another important term is arbitrage, which is the practice of taking a thing from one market and selling it in a different market at a higher price. In this case the two markets are Earth and space.
Where did $10/$700 quintillion come from?
Here’s what we know:
The best mass estimate right now is (2.41±0.32)×10
19
kg (
source PDF
).
10 quintillion is 1×10
19
(yes, 1 quintillion is 1×10
18
, but the units work out better this way).
Estimates at the composition of the asteroid are metals, mostly iron and nickel, with about 10% being silicate rock with a sprinkling of other elements inside. This is from
surface spectral analysis,
as well as calculations of its density, but for all we know it could be filled with nougat and gold.
The current price of iron ore (on Earth) at the time of writing is $0.1235/kg.
The current price of nickel is $14.857/kg.
The current cost of putting a kilogram of material into low earth orbit on a Falcon 9 is roughly $2700.
The handy thing about these facts is that we can cancel out some units and pretend that there’s 2.4 kg of stuff and it’s worth $10. Subtract 10% from the silicate rock and you have 2.16 kg. If it were all iron, it’d be worth $.27. If it were all nickel it’d be worth $32.09. If it’s 50/50 then it’s $16. So the $10 quintillion is just a giant guess using current market prices of the metals that are likely present in the asteroid, and assuming the material is already on Earth. In fact, the
author who came up with the number said exactly that
.
To get $700 quintillion, consider the fact that the mass is already in space and that we want to keep it there. That means that each kilogram that’s already up there is worth $2700/kg in transportation costs and then we add the $10 quintillion in arbitrarily assigned value based on its worth on Earth, so the asteroid is worth $5,842 quintillion. Ok, I don’t know how they got $700 quintillion, but it’s a pointless clickbait number anyway.
Why Would We Even Want It Here?
An asteroid of 100km in diameter entering our atmosphere would completely sterilize Earth by imparting enough energy to boil the oceans. A mere 10 km rock could be an extinction level event. At a diameter of 200 km, we really don’t want all that mass crashing down on us, especially if it’s a particularly heavy metallic beast like 16 Psyche that won’t break up or burn up in the atmosphere. That would really hurt the market for iron or nickel. Even if it were broken into lots of pieces, anything larger than the size of a car crashing down without something to decelerate it is going to do considerable damage wherever it lands. That kind of risk, as well as the security threat of any country or organization controlling it, makes parking an asteroid in Earth’s orbit extremely unsettling. Besides that, there’s already a giant rock filled with iron in Earth’s orbit (3,474 km in diameter), and we’ve already landed on it before.
There’s a lot more iron and nickel here on Earth, and it’s readily available on all continents. Getting these ores from an asteroid and bringing them to Earth would be like getting your drinking water in a square bottle from a foreign island and flying it back to you when you have tap water nearby.
Current iron ore production worldwide is 2.6×10
9
kg/year. Nickel is less than 1% of that. At our current consumption rates of those materials, it would take us a mere 8.3 billion years to consume it all, during which the value of those ores would likely decline.
What Would It Take to Bring It Back?
My orbital mechanics are rusty, so this next bit might be off by a few orders of magnitude, but to move the asteroid from its current position to Earth’s orbit would require a
Delta-V of about 10 km/s
.
E=1/2mv
2
, so
1.2x10
19
*10000
2
= 1.2x10
27
joules
, or
3.3x10
20
kWh
. This is, of course, ridiculous (a theme in this article). Maybe you could even hurl chunks of it backwards and trade mass for velocity. You wouldn’t want to move the whole thing at once, either; you’d probably mine a chunk at a time. And it would make the most sense to set up a refinery on the asteroid so that only the most valuable materials were shipped back. Assume, then, that you can set up a station on the asteroid that refines the material, bundles it up into a pretty package, and hurls it towards Earth.
Next, you’d need to be able to crash it down on Earth reasonably well enough to narrow its return to a few hundred mile radius, preferably in the middle of the ocean, so as not to destroy entire cities. It probably won’t float when it lands, so you’d have to have the equipment to go recover it before it sinks.
If the contents are just iron, you have to be able to do all of this for under $.1235/kg, or else you can’t compete with home-grown ores. Even if it’s palladium or platinum, you’ll probably barely turn a profit once you take into account getting all the mining and transportation equipment up there, getting the material back, and recovering it.
The Real Value of 16 Psyche
16 Psyche imaged by the Very Large Telescope’s adaptive optics SPHERE imager with a Richie Rich filter. (CC BY 4.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Psyche_asteroid_eso_crop.jpg
)
The way 16 Psyche could be useful to us is the fact that it’s already in space. If the future of humanity is in getting off the rock we’re quickly spoiling, then that means moving materials out of the gravity well of Earth or using resources that are already out there. Most asteroids are rock that is not very practical, but 16 Psyche has been identified as one that has a lot of the materials we like to use for building structures. If we sent the appropriate refining equipment to the asteroid, it could become a viable starting point for the construction of space vehicles. Then the $2700/kg could be spent on the materials like electronics and plastics and other raw supplies that can’t be sourced elsewhere, yielding a lower overall cost for the ship created in space. Going back to the arbitrage term, the market for iron already in space is very different from the market for iron on Earth; it would be a bad financial decision to try to sell the space iron on Earth. There are
missions to visit
this and other asteroids like it to figure out what exactly they are made of. If they are valuable materials for the construction of space habitats and vehicles, then it might make sense to mine them. But the likelihood is low that the material is plentiful on the asteroid and not on Earth and valuable enough on Earth that sourcing it off-world and bringing it back is the best option commercially.
Ultimately, the value of something is not just in the thing itself but also the cost to get it to where you want it. Putting $10 quintillion on an asteroid in deep space is completely meaningless because nobody wants all that material way out there right now, it would take billions of years to use it all, and it’s a plentiful material that’s readily available here on Earth already. But if that number is still interesting to you, I’ve got a local star putting out 3.846×10
26
watts, which at $.12/kwh is about $4.6×10
22
or $46 hextillion dollars an hour. All you have to do is build a
Dyson sphere
. | 43 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296999",
"author": "CircuitGizmos",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T15:40:17",
"content": "Fully utilizing that asteroid would only get me a fraction of a percent of the material I’d need for a Dyson sphere.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,373,278.339656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/full-8-bit-computer-on-breadboards/ | Full 8-Bit Computer On Breadboards | Bryan Cockfield | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"8 bit",
"breadboard",
"computer",
"diy",
"homebrew",
"solder"
] | Getting into a big electronics project often involves the use of specialized tools, namely the use of some sort of soldering iron or other way to apply solder to often intricate, tiny, and heat-sensitive parts. While it’s best to learn to pick up this skill at some point, it’s not always necessary, even for big, complicated projects like [DerULF1]’s
full 8-bit computer that he built entirely on breadboards
.
For a fully featured 8-bit computer, this build goes deep into the details of how the computer works. The clock allows programs to be stepped through one cycle at a time, and even the memory can be individually accessed with a set of switches. There are plenty of other interesting features as well, such as using registers to access extra memory. It features an SPI port and PS/2 keyboard controller and also loads programs from an SD card.
The build was inspired by some of [Ben Eater]’s projects which famously focus on using logic gates and TTL chips to perform complex tasks, such as
another breadboard computer which plays snake on a small display
. It’s certainly a great way to learn about the inner function of computers, and better still that no soldering is required. But you may need a few extra breadboards.
Thanks to [Duncan] for the tip! | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296959",
"author": "ChronicPessimist",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T12:12:38",
"content": "Given how failure prone some breadboard contacts are this would be a hell to hardware debug.I wouldn’t try this myself, even with the wiring 100% correct i’d still have something not work.Cheers ... | 1,760,373,278.392059 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/23/booting-a-pc-from-vinyl-for-a-warmer-richer-os/ | Booting A PC From Vinyl For A Warmer, Richer OS | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"8255 PPI",
"audio",
"bootloader",
"cassette",
"equalization",
"ibm",
"Model 5150",
"pc",
"riaa",
"rom",
"vinyl"
] | If you’ve scrolled through the list of boot options offered on any PC’s BIOS, it reads like a history of storage technology. Up top we have the options to boot from disk, often a solid-state drive, then USB disk, optical drive, removable media, and down the bottom there’s usually an option to boot from the network. Practically no BIOS, however, has an option to
boot a PC from a vinyl record
— at least until now.
Clearly a project from the “Because why not?” school of hacking, [Jozef Bogin] came up with the twist to the normal booting process for an IBM-PC. As in
the
IBM-PC — a model 5150, with the putty-colored case, dual 5-1/4″ floppies, and one of those amazing monochrome displays with the green slow-decay phosphors. To pull off the trick, [Jozef] leverages the rarely used and little known cassette tape interface that PCs had back in the early days. This required building a new bootloader and burning it to ROM to make the PC listen to audio signals with its 8255 programmable peripheral interface chip.
Once the PC had the right bootloader, a 64k FreeDOS bootable disk image was recorded on vinyl. [Jozef] provides infuriatingly little detail about the process other than to mention that the audio was sent directly to the vinyl lathe; we’d have loved to learn more about that. Nonetheless, the resulting 10″ record, played back at 45 RPM with some equalization tweaks to adapt for the RIAA equalization curve of the preamp, boots the PC into FreeDOS just fine, probably in no more time than it would have taken to boot from floppy.
It’s may not be the first time we’ve seen
software on vinyl
, but it’s still a pretty cool hack. Want to try it yourself but lack a record-cutting lathe? Maybe
laser-cutting your boot disc
will work.
Thanks to [John] and a bunch of other folks who tipped us off on this one. | 60 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296921",
"author": "Wouter Warnaar",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T09:16:53",
"content": "Thanks for the warning, but awesome job.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6296931",
"author": "name",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T09:44:30... | 1,760,373,278.492044 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/the-most-annoying-among-us-tasks-created-in-real-life/ | The Most Annoying Among Us Tasks Created In Real Life | Lewin Day | [
"Games"
] | [
"among us",
"NFC",
"oled",
"Teensy 3.2",
"vfd"
] | Among Us
is a hit game of deception and intrigue. Those who have played it know the frustration of trying to complete some of the intentionally difficult tasks onboard the
Skeld.
[Zach Freedman] decided to
recreate some of these in real life
.
[Zach] built what are arguably the three most frustrating tasks from the game. There’s the excruciatingly slow upload/download station built out of an old Samsung tablet and an NFC tag, and the reactor start console created using a Raspberry Pi 3B, Teensy 3.2, and a custom mechanical keyboard. But perhaps most annoying of all is the infamous card reader. Built with another Teensy, it requires the user to swipe their ID card at
just the right speed,
except that speed is randomly generated for every swipe. Also, the machine fails 20% of good swipes
just because.
Perhaps what we love most is the way [Zach] recreated the classic VFD look by putting an OLED display behind bottle-green plastic and using a 14-segment font.
It’s a fun homage to a wildly successful indie game, and we could imagine these props would be a hit at a makerspace party.
We’ve featured other
Among Us
themed builds before, too
. Video after the break. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296900",
"author": "Michał Margula",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T06:58:57",
"content": "I tried to play this game multiple times. And for some reason I suck at it big time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6296972",
"auth... | 1,760,373,278.540953 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/hackaday-links-november-22-2020/ | Hackaday Links: November 22, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"boston dynamics",
"C-V2X",
"DSRC",
"electrostatic",
"exoplanet",
"fcc",
"hackaday links",
"levitation",
"mars",
"microphone",
"Perseverance",
"plasma",
"Radio Telescope",
"robot",
"SETI",
"spectrum",
"spot",
"wifi"
] | Remember DSRC? If the initialism doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry —
Dedicated Short-Range Communications
, a radio service intended to let cars in traffic talk to each other, never really caught on. Back in 1999, when the Federal Communications Commission set aside 75 MHz of spectrum in the 5.9-GHz band, it probably seemed like a good idea — after all, the flying cars of the future would surely need a way to communicate with each other. Only about 15,000 vehicles in the US have DSRC, and so
the FCC decided to snatch back the whole 75-MHz slice and reallocate it
. The lower 45 MHz will be tacked onto the existing unlicensed 5.8-GHz band where WiFi now lives, providing interesting opportunities in wireless networking. Fans of chatty cars need not fret, though — the upper 30 MHz block is being reallocated to a different Intelligent Transportation System Service called
C-V2X
, for Cellular Vehicle to Everything, which by its name alone is far cooler and therefore more likely to succeed.
NASA keeps dropping cool teasers of the Mars 2020 mission as the package containing the
Perseverance
rover hurtles across space on its way to a February rendezvous with the Red Planet. The latest:
you can listen to the faint sounds the rover is making
as it gets ready for its date with destiny. While we’ve heard sounds from Mars before —
the
InSight
lander used its seismometer to record the Martian wind
—
Perseverance
is the first Mars rover equipped with actual microphones. It’s pretty neat to hear the faint whirring of the rover’s thermal management system pump doing its thing in interplanetary space, and even cooler to think that we’ll soon hear what it sounds like to land on Mars.
Speaking of space, back at the beginning of 2020 — you know, a couple of million years ago — we kicked off the Hack Chat series by
talking with Alberto Caballero about his “Habitable Exoplanets” project
, a crowd-sourced search for “Earth 2.0”. We found it fascinating that amateur astronomers using off-the-shelf gear could detect the subtle signs of planets orbiting stars half a galaxy away. We’ve kept in touch with Alberto since then, and he recently tipped us off to
his new SETI Project
. Following the citizen-science model of the Habitable Exoplanets project, Alberto is looking to recruit amateur radio astronomers willing to turn their antennas in the direction of stars similar to the Sun, where it just might be possible for intelligent life to have formed. Check out
the PDF summary of the project
which includes the modest technical requirements for getting in on the SETI action.
A few months ago
we reported
that Boston Dynamics was finally finding customers with use cases that fit their flagship product, the “Big Dog” robot nicknamed Spot. The customer was Ford and the application involved periodic surveys of their enormous transmission plant, normally performed by engineers. At the same time, BP was training Spot for a far more dangerous job:
oil rig inspections
. Normally, operators on offshore oil platforms make the rounds several times a day to spot anything out of the ordinary: leaks, corrosion, or other situations that can pose a hazard to the platform and the people on it. After oil rig simulator training, Spot moved on to BP’s “Mad Dog” rig in the Gulf of Mexico, where it wanders about making sure everything’s copacetic. They’ve even trained Spot to read gauges and discern valve handle positions, and they’ve equipped the robot with sensors for methane to detect leaks.
And finally, how about a little high-voltage fun? Jay Bowles over at Plasma Channel just released
a new video where he explores electrostatic levitation
. We had Jay on for a Hack Chat not too long ago where we discussed his passion for plasma. The new video doesn’t have much plasma, but it does focus on how to use a 70-kV voltage multiplier to float scraps of tinfoil in the air. Jay even throws himself into the circuit at one point, levitating things with his bare hands. It seems like good fun, even if we wouldn’t recommend it as particularly safe. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296870",
"author": "sudos",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T03:16:11",
"content": "“The lower 45 MHz will be tacked onto the existing unlicensed 5.8-MHz band where WiFi now lives,”you mean 5.8-GHz. Typo.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,373,278.812285 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/espressif-leaks-esp32-c3-a-wifi-soc-thats-risc-v-and-is-esp8266-pin-compatible/ | Espressif Leaks ESP32-C3: A WiFi SoC That’s RISC-V And Is ESP8266 Pin-Compatible | Jenny List | [
"Parts",
"Slider"
] | [
"esp32-C3",
"espressif",
"New Part Day",
"RISC-V"
] | Six years on from the emergence of the Espressif ESP8266 we might believe that the focus had shifted to the newer dual-core ESP32. But here comes a twist in the form of the newly-revealed ESP32-C3. It’s a WiFi SoC that despite its ESP32 name contains a RISC-V core in place of the Tensilica core in the ESP32s we know, and uses the ESP8266 pin-out rather than that of its newer sibling.
There’s relatively little information about it at the time of writing, but CNX Software have gathered together what there is
including a draft datasheet whose
English translation is available
as a Mega download. As with other ESP32 family members, this one delivers b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) 5, where it differs is the RISC-V 32 Single-core processor with a clock speed of up to 160 MHz. There is 400 kB of SRAM and 384 kB ROM storage space built in.
While there is no official announcement yet, Espressif has been dropping hints. There’s been
an OpenOCD configuration file for it in the Espressif repositories
since the end of last month. And on Friday, Espressif Software Engineering Manager [Sprite_tm]
answered a reddit comment, confirming the RISC-V core
.
ESP-01: Kjerish,
CC BY-SA 4.0
, RISC-V logo: RISC-V foundation,
Public domain
.
Why they are releasing the part as an ESP32 rather than giving it a series number of its own remains a mystery, but it’s not hard to see why it makes commercial sense to create it in an ESP8266-compatible footprint. The arrival of competing parts in the cheap wireless SoC space such as
the Bouffalo Labs BL602 we mentioned recently
is likely to be eating into sales of the six-year-old chip, so an upgrade path to a more capable part with minimal new hardware design requirements could be a powerful incentive for large customers to stay with Espressif.
We’re left to guess on how exactly the rollout will proceed. We expect to see similar developer support to that they now provide for their other chips, and then ESP32-C3 powered versions of existing ESP8266 boards in short order. It’s also to be hoped that a standard RISC-V toolchain could be used instead of the device-specific ones for current Espressif offerings. What we should not expect are open-source replacements for the blobs that drive the on-board peripherals, as the new chip will share the same closed-source IP as its predecessors for them. Perhaps if the PINE64 initiative to reverse engineer blobs for the BL602 bears fruit, we might see a similar effort for this chip. | 56 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296846",
"author": "Mike Massen, Perth Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T00:31:42",
"content": "More mutations, just like viruii, might be worth pursuing as the core is not proprietary and could well become more common in lots of devices. Maybe with more development tool... | 1,760,373,278.915396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/doom-running-on-the-nintendo-game-watch/ | DOOM Running On The Nintendo Game & Watch | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"doom",
"Game & Watch",
"game and watch",
"nintendo",
"stm32"
] | Today the newly-released
Nintendo Game & Watch can play DOOM
. Sure, there are caveats…this is a watered down version due to the restraints of the hardware itself. But the important thing is that this shows the hardware has been fully owned. This is code written to replace the firmware that ships on the STM32 within, and that makes this a gorgeous little hardware platform that is completely open to homebrew hacking.
Honestly, you had to assume this was going to happen pretty quickly considering the effort being thrown into it. We
first reported on Tuesday
that the EEPROM memory which stores the ROMs on the Game and Watch had been decoded. Shortly after that was published, [
stacksmashing
] and [
Konrad Beckmann
] were
showing test patterns on the display and mentioning the audio was working
as well. Turns out they were able to dump the stock firmware despite the chip being security locked.
We’ll have to wait for more details on exactly how to dump firmware, but [stacksmashing] drops enough of a mention in the video below to confirm the obvious. A common approach to dumping code from a locked microcontroller is to find a vulnerability that grants execution of custom code. Being able to run just a few lines of your own code is enough set up something as simple as looping through all internal flash memory addresses and dumping them over a few GPIO pins. In this case our two heroes discovered some ARM code was being loaded from the EEPROM onto the STM32, and managed to inject their own directives to perform the dump. They have promised full details soon.
What we have today is a pretty tricky hack not just to load code, but to get DOOM to run on meager hardware specs. Notably, 128 k of SRAM and 1.3 MB of external RAM. There’s also a bottleneck with the 1.1 MB of FLASH for storing game files. The textures were stripped down, and memory allocation was rewritten, but the proof of concept is there and the game runs. Homebrew, here we come!
[Thanks @arturo182] | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296812",
"author": "tym0tym",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T21:26:44",
"content": "Wow, that was fast!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6296847",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-11-23T00:32:45",
"content": "So, does i... | 1,760,373,278.652578 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/artistic-robot-has-paints-will-travel/ | Artistic Robot Has Paints, Will Travel | Lewin Day | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"paint bot",
"paintbot",
"painting"
] | Creativity is a very human trait, and one that many try to emulate with robots. Some focus on the cerebral side of things, working with neural networks and machine learning to produce new artistic output. Others work on the mechanical side, building ‘bots that can manipulate tools in the real world for artistic purposes. [Technovation]’s latest build falls into the latter category –
a small Arduino-powered ‘bot that likes to paint.
The robot moves around on two wheels, each driven by a stepper motor for accurate movement. The paintbrush itself is controlled with another stepper, which rotates it between the paint pots and the canvas. A servo is used to dip the brush into pots, and to apply it to the canvas. An Arduino Uno runs the show, with the robot currently programmed to paint random lines of various colors on the canvas.
By virtue of its roving design, it could theoretically paint on arbitrarily large canvasses. It’s a platform that could prove highly capable when paired with a neural network and perhaps some machine vision to allow it to concoct more complex artworks.
We’ve seen other paint bots before, too
. Video after the break. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296815",
"author": "jacques1956",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T21:53:12",
"content": "Another reminder of LOGO language and its turtle. MIT Seymour Papert was doing that in the 80shttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(robot)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,373,278.600841 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/blue-pill-as-a-nerdy-swiss-army-knife/ | Blue Pill As A Nerdy Swiss Army Knife | Inderpreet Singh | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"blue pill",
"firmware",
"open source",
"stm32",
"test equipment"
] | Not everyone can afford an oscilloscope, and some of us can’t find a USB logic analyzer half the time. But we can usually get our hands on a microcontroller kit, which can be turned into a makeshift instrument if given the appropriate code. A perfect example is
buck50
developed by [Mark Rubin], an
open source firmware to turn a STM32 “Blue Pill” into a multi-purpose test and measurement instrument
.
buck50
comes with a plethora of functionality built in which includes an oscilloscope, logic analyzer, and bus monitor. The device is a two way street and also comes with GPIO control as well as PWM output. There’s really a remarkable amount of functionality crammed into the project. [Mark] provides a Python application that exposes a text based UI for configuring and using the device though commands and lots of commands which makes this really nerdy. There are a number of options to visualize the data captured which includes gnuplot, gtk wave and PulseView to name a few.
[Mark] does a fantastic job not only with the firmware but also with the documentation, and we really think this makes the project stand out. Commands are well documented and everything is available on [
GitHub
] for your hacking pleasure. And if you are about to order a Blue Pill online, you might want to check out
the nitty-gritty of the clones that are floating around
.
Thanks [JohnU] for the tip! | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296763",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T15:48:50",
"content": "Another addition to toolbox after Cypres FX2 and BusPirate. Does it fully working on Pulseview yet?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "62... | 1,760,373,279.009039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/rgb-party-bike-flashes-with-the-beat/ | RGB Party Bike Flashes With The Beat | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike",
"neopixel",
"RGB LED",
"ws2812b"
] | One of the biggest dangers to a cyclist is not being seen at night. To counteract this, all manner of lighting and reflective gear is available to help ensure bicycles are seen on the streets. Of course, you don’t have to stop at the purely practical. [TechnoChic] decided to have some fun with her ride,
festooning her party bike with many, many LEDs.
As you’d expect, the RGB illuminations are thanks to WS2812B LED strips. Running the show is a trio of Arduino Nano 33 IoTs – one for the LEDs on the bike’s frame, the other two mounted on the front and back wheels respectively. This allowed for the easy control of LEDs on the spokes without having to pass data and power lines to the rotating wheels. The LEDs on the frame are even music-reactive, with the Arduino sampling music input via one of its analog-to-digital converters.
Paired with a boombox on the bike, the build makes for a great way to hype up group rides through the city at night. We can imagine such a bike being an absolute hit at Critical Mass, though you’ve probably gotta add a laser or glitter cannon if you’re going to draw attention at Burning Man. If you’re tired of pedaling,
you might consider an electric conversion, too
. Video after the break. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296733",
"author": "Jerry",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T14:06:41",
"content": "Blue and red are reserved for emergency vehicles. I see a ticket and possible impound in the near future.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6296809",
... | 1,760,373,278.960197 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/22/intels-forgotten-1970s-dual-core-processor/ | Intel’s Forgotten 1970s Dual Core Processor | Jenny List | [
"Parts",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"8271",
"8273",
"dual core",
"intel"
] | Can you remember when you received your first computer or device containing a CPU with more than one main processing core on the die? We’re guessing for many of you it was probably some time around 2005, and it’s likely that processor would have been in the Intel Core Duo family of chips. With a dual-core ESP32 now costing relative pennies it may be difficult to grasp in 2020, but there was a time when a multi-core processor was a very big deal indeed.
What if we were to tell you that there was another Intel dual-core processor back in the 1970s, and that some of you may even have owned one without ever realizing it? It’s a tale related to us by [Chris Evans], about
how a team of reverse engineering enthusiasts came together to unlock the secrets of the Intel 8271
.
If you’ve never heard of the 8271 you can be forgiven, for far from being part of the chip giant’s processor line it was instead a high-performance floppy disk controller that appeared in relatively few machines. An unexpected use of it came in the Acorn BBC Micro which is where [Chris] first encountered it. There’s very little documentation of its internal features, so an impressive combination of decapping and research was needed by the team before they could understand its secrets.
As you will no doubt have guessed, what they found is no general purpose application processor but a mask-programmed dual-core microcontroller optimized for data throughput and containing substantial programmable logic arrays (PLAs). It’s a relatively large chip for its day, and with 22,000 transistors it dwarfs the relatively svelte 6502 that does the BBC Micro’s heavy lifting. Some very hard work at decoding the RMO and PLAs arrives at the conclusion that the main core has some similarity to their 8048 architecture, and the dual-core design is revealed as a solution to the problem of calculating cyclic redundancy checks on the fly at disk transfer speed. There is even another chip using the same silicon in the contemporary Intel range, the 8273 synchronous data link controller simply has a different ROM. All in all the article provides a fascinating insight into this very unusual corner of 1970s microcomputer technology.
As long-time readers will know,
we have an interest in chip reverse engineering
. | 56 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296705",
"author": "Artenz",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T10:39:04",
"content": "> but there was a time when a multi-core processor was a very big deal indeed.Because multi-core didn’t make sense when clock speeds were still increasing rapidly. Why add complexity of a 2nd core when you... | 1,760,373,279.113527 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/beer-pong-difficulty-level-10/ | Beer Pong Difficulty Level: 10 | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games"
] | [
"arduino",
"beer pong",
"belt",
"CUPS",
"difficulty",
"motor",
"track"
] | Beer pong is a fun enough game for those of a certain age, but one thing that it lacks is a way of cranking up the difficulty setting independent of the amount of beer one has consumed. At least, that was the idea [Ty] had when he came up with
this automated beer pong table
which allows the players to increase the challenge of this game by sliding the cups around the top of the table.
The build uses a belt-driven platform under a clear cover with a set of magnets attached. Each of the cups on the table has a corresponding magnet, which allows them to slide fairly easily back and forth on the table. The contraption is controlled by an Arudino Nano with a small screen and dial that allows the players to select a difficulty level from 1 to 10. The difficulty levels increase the speed that the cups oscillate on the table, which certainly adds another layer of complexity to this already challenging game.
While we hope to eventually see a beer pong table that can automatically arrange the cups as the game is played, we do appreciate the effort to make an already difficult game even more difficult. Of course, if you have problems with the difficulty level you might want to pick up a
PongMate CyberCannon Mark III
to help with those clutch beer pong shots. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296755",
"author": "mrehorst",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T15:00:24",
"content": "one word: servomotorhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ5lE-RGFmw",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6296826",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,373,279.15219 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/a-computer-in-the-game-of-life/ | A Computer In The Game Of Life | Matthew Carlson | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"conways game of life",
"game of life",
"python",
"turing complete"
] | We often hear the term “Turing-complete” without giving much thought as to what the implications might be. Technically Microsoft PowerPoint, Portal 2, and Magic: the Gathering all are Turing-complete, what of it? Yet, each time someone embarks on an incredible quest of perseverance and creates a computer in one of these mediums, we stand back in awe.
[Nicolas Loizeau] is one such individual who
has created a computer in Conway’s Game of Life
. Unlike electricity, the Game of Life uses gliders as signals. Because two orthogonal gliders can cancel each other out or form a glider eater if they intersect with a good phase shift, the basic logic gates can be formed from these interactions. This means the space between gates is crucial as signals need to be in phase alignment. The basic building blocks are a period-60 gun, a 90-degree glider reflector, a glider duplicator, and a glider eater.
All the Python
code that generates these structures is on GitHub
as the sheer size of the machine couldn’t possibly be placed by hand. The Python includes scripts to assemble the basic programs as a bank of selectable glider generators. It’s all based on Golly, which is an excellent program for simulating Conway’s Game of Life, among other things. While this isn’t the first computer in the Game of Life as
[Paul Rendell] published a design in 2000
and
[Adam Goucher] published a Spartan universal computer constructor in 2009
, we think this is a particularly beautiful one.
The actual architecture has an 8-bit data bus, a 64-byte memory with two read ports, a ROM with 21 bits per line, and a one-hot encoded ALU supporting 8 different operations. Instructions have a 4-bit opcode which is decoding in a few different instructions. The clock is four loops, formed by the glider reflectors as the glider beams rotate. This gives the computer four stages: execution, writing, increment PC, and write PC to memory.
The Game of Life is an excellent example of Cellular Automaton (CA). There are several other types of CA’s and the history behind them is fascinating. We’ve covered this
field before and delved into this beautiful fringe of computer science
. Check out the video below to truly get a sense of the scale of the machine that [Nicolas] has devised. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296661",
"author": "Sok Puppette",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T03:33:47",
"content": "> Technically Microsoft PowerPoint, Portal 2, and Magic: the Gathering all are Turing-complete,No system with bounded storage is Turing complete (and all behaviors of evolving computing systems with ... | 1,760,373,279.258945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/a-rocket-powered-ejection-seat-for-model-aircraft/ | A Rocket Powered Ejection Seat For Model Aircraft | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"ejection seat",
"model rocketry",
"rc",
"RC airplane",
"remote control"
] | As radio control planes don’t typically have human pilots onboard, the idea of installing an ejection seat in one is somewhat frivolous. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a lot of fun, and
[James Whomsley] has set his mind to achieving the task
.
The build process is an iterative one, with [James] solving problems step-by-step and testing along the way. The first task was to successfully launch a small action figure and his flight seat vertically in a controlled fashion. After a few attempts, a combination of rocket motors and guide rails were settled upon that could achieve the goal. Next up, a drogue parachute system was designed and tested to stabilize the seat at the height of its trajectory. Further work to come involves handling seat separation and getting the action figure safely back to the ground.
While action figures aren’t alive and the ejection seat serves no real emergency purpose, we can imagine it would be a hit at the local flying field – assuming the parachutes don’t get tangled in someone else’s model. For those interested in the real technology,
our own [Dan Maloney] did a great piece on the topic
. Video after the break. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296640",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-11-22T00:34:46",
"content": "Nice work, but as always the Simpsons have done it before.https://youtu.be/d1da10zCS7Y?t=63",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6296862",
"author":... | 1,760,373,279.199499 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/among-us-emergency-meeting-button-becomes-reality/ | Among UsEmergency Meeting Button Becomes Reality | Lewin Day | [
"Games"
] | [
"among us",
"emergency push button",
"game",
"gaming"
] | Among Us
has been an indie gaming success story. A game built by a small team has, after several years on the market, become a worldwide sensation. Gameplay consists of players attempting to find the imposter amongst their ranks and an “Emergency Meeting” can be called if players need to speak to each other. [john lemme] wanted to be able to do the same with his roommates,
and set about building the real thing.
The build relies on an ESP32, which reads the state of a big red emergency button. When pressed, the ESP32 uses its WiFi connection to trigger a Discord conference call containing all the roommates. Naturally, it also plays the buzzer sound from the actual game, too – via a small amplifier and a speaker yanked from some headphones.
It’s a fun build, though [john] notes it has its limits. The call takes 10 seconds to initiate after the button press, and the audio hardware doesn’t do a great job of recreating the buzzer noise from the game. However, it’s a good starting point, and we think the concept could actually prove useful with some refinement. Video after the break. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296612",
"author": "Lons",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T21:49:05",
"content": "If you were gonna post about making among us stuff IRL, why not:https://youtu.be/NJTJqJyBLic?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6296658",
"autho... | 1,760,373,279.30063 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/high-speed-spectrometer-built-with-cheap-linear-ccd/ | High-Speed Spectrometer Built With Cheap Linear CCD | Tom Nardi | [
"Parts",
"Science"
] | [
"line sensor",
"linear CCD",
"spectrometer"
] | If you’ve ever dreamed of building a proper spectrometer, it looks like the ESPROS epc901 CCD sensor is absolutely worth your attention. It’s fast, sensitive, easy to interface with, and at just $24 USD, it won’t break the bank. There’s only one problem: implementing it in your project means either working with the bare 2×16 0.5 mm pitch BGA device, or shelling out nearly $1,400 USD for the development kit.
Thankfully, [Adrian Studer] has come up with a compromise. While you’ll still need to reflow the BGA to get it mounted, his
open hardware breakout and adapter boards for the ESPROS epc901
make the sensor far easier to work with.
It’s not just a hardware solution either, he also provides firmware code for the STM32L4 based Nucleo development board and some Python scripts that make it easy to pull data from the sensor. The firmware even includes a simple command line interface to control the hardware that you can access over serial.
With the sensor successfully wrangled, [Adrian] partnered with [Frank Milburn] to
build an affordable spectrometer around it
. The design makes use of a 3D printed chamber, a simple commercial diffraction grating, and an array of entrance slits ranging from 0.5 to 0.0254 millimeters in width that were laser-cut into a sheet of stainless steel.
In the videos after the break, you can see the finished spectrometer being used to determine the wavelength of LEDs, as well as a demonstration of how the high-speed camera module is able to study the spectral variations of a CFL bulb over time. [Adrian] tells us that he and [Frank] are open to suggestions as to what they should point their new spectrometer at next, so let them know in the comments if you’ve got any interesting ideas.
We’ve seen an incredible number of spectrometer builds over the years
, and some of the more recent ones are really pushing the envelope in terms of
what the DIY scientist is capable of doing in the home lab
. While they’re still fairly niche, these instruments are slowly but surely finding their way into the hands of more curious hackers. | 37 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296576",
"author": "phil barrett",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T18:54:07",
"content": "très cool!Something like this has been on my TechnoBuckList for ever. I’m a little intimidated by BGA. especially at 24 bucks a try – could get expensive fast… But, hey, you can’t take it with you.O... | 1,760,373,279.381344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/why-you-need-to-finish/ | Why You Need To Finish | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"finishing",
"inspiration",
"newsletter",
"rants"
] | Mike and I were talking about an interesting
smart-glasses hack
on
the podcast
. This was one of those projects where, even if you don’t need a pair of glasses with LEDs on them to help you navigate around, you just couldn’t help but marvel at a lot of the little design choices made throughout.
For instance, I love the way the flex PCB is made to do double duty by wrapping around the battery and forming a battery holder. This struck me as one of those quintessential hacks that only occurs to you because you need it. Necessity is the mother of invention, and all that. There was a problem, how to fit a battery holder in the tiny space, and a set of resources that included a flex PCB substrate. Cleverly mashing that all together ended up with a novel solution. This wouldn’t occur to you if you were just sitting at the beach; you’d have to be designing something electronic, space-constrained, and on a flex PCB to come up with this.
Mike made an offhand comment about how sometimes you just need to finish a project for the good ideas and clever solutions that you’ll come up with along the way, and I think this battery holder example drives that point home. I can’t count the number of my projects that may or may not have been dumb in retrospect, but along the way I came up with a little trick that I’ll end up using in many further projects, outliving the original application.
Finishing up a project on principle is a reasonable goal just on its own. But when the process of seeing something to conclusion is the generator of new and interesting challenges and solutions, it’s even more valuable. So if you’re stuck on a project, and not sure you want to take it all the way, consider if the journey itself could be the destination, and look at it as an opportunity to come up with that next long-lasting trick.
Bad News: Arecibo
If you read the newsletter last week, you heard me wondering aloud if the damage to Arecibo Observatory had crossed the threshold into where it’s no longer economically viable to keep it running, and the sad news has just come in and
the battle for Arecibo has been lost
. We said we’d shed a tear, and here we are. Sic transit gloria mundi. Here’s hoping something cooler replaces it!
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
! | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296561",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T17:13:50",
"content": "Can someone help me understand what point this comment was making? I can’t find one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6296570",
"author"... | 1,760,373,279.47022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/reduce-reuse-injection-mold/ | Reduce, Reuse, Injection Mold | Al Williams | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"injection molding",
"plastic",
"recycle",
"stepper motor"
] | Many people have the means now to create little plastic objects thanks to 3D printing. However, injection molding is far less common. Another uncommon tech is plastic recycling, although we do occasionally see people converting waste plastic into filament. [Manuel] wants to solve both of those problems and created an
injection molder specifically for recycling
.
The machine — Smart Injector — is automated thanks to an Arduino. It’s pretty complex mechanically, so in addition to CAD models there are several PDF guides and a ton of pictures showing how it all goes together.
According to the documentation, the extrusion screw can provide 51 Nm of torque with a 48V supply using a NEMA34 stepper and a 6:1 gearbox. The machine can make an iPhone 8 cover in about 4 minutes and costs about 1000 Euro to build.
Of course, melting and extruding plastic isn’t the big trick. That lies in clamping the mold. That step is done with a threaded rod and a NEMA17 stepper. Then again, the other trick is developing your molds which need to have an ejection mechanism specific to the molded part.
While some people might be put off by the statement that the machine still needs some manual intervention due to unresolved clogging and clamping problems. We’ll bet that will be a challenge to Hackaday readers who will be happy to help resolve those issues.
If you build it, we’d love to
hear about it
. The project reminded us a lot of
another iPhone case maker
we saw a few years back, although some of the links there are
dead
. If you want to practice with something cheaper, try
hot glue and some ingenuity
. | 34 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296520",
"author": "F",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T12:31:10",
"content": "Having such a massive plastic problem, economic viability seems to be getting a bit less important to me personally.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "629652... | 1,760,373,279.689888 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/21/reverse-engineering-a-pokewalker/ | Reverse Engineering A PokeWalker | Matthew Carlson | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"exploits",
"ir",
"nintendo",
"pokemon",
"pokewalker",
"reverse engineer"
] | The PokeWalker is part of Nintendo’s long quest to get children (and likely some adults) walking and exercising. There’s the PokeWalker, Pokemon Pikachu, PokeBall Plus, Pokemon Pikachu 2, Pokemon mini, and of course Pokemon Go. Despite being out a decade, there wasn’t a ROM dump for the device and there was minimal documentation on the communication protocol. [Dmitry Grinberg] took it upon himself to
change all that and crack the PokeWalker open
.
At its heart, the PokeWalker is just a pedometer with an IR port and a 96×64 grayscale screen. It came out in 2009 to accompany the new Pokemon release for the Nintendo DS. Cracking open the device revealed a 64KB EEPROM, a Renesas H8/38606R CPU, a Bosch BMA150 accelerometer, and a generic IR transceiver. The CPU is particularly interesting as in addition to being quite rare, it has a mix of 8, 16, and 32 bits with 24-bit pointers. This gives it a 64K address space. While the CPU is programmable, any attempt to do so erases the onboard flash. The communication protocol packets have an 8-bit header that precedes each packet. The header has a checksum, a command byte, and four bytes of session id, and an unused byte. Curiously enough, every byte is XOR’d with 0xAA before being broadcast.
One command is an EEPROM write, which uses back-referencing compression. Each chunk of data to be written is packaged into 128-byte chunks, though 128 bytes likely won’t be sent thanks to the compression. The command can theoretically reference 4k bytes back, but in practice, it can only reference 256 bytes back. It was this command that laid the foundation for the exploit. By carefully crafting the command to send, the command can overflow the decompression buffer and into executable code. Only a few bytes can be overflowed so the payload needs to be carefully crafted. This allowed for an exploit that reads the system ROM and broadcasts it out the IR port. Only 22k bytes can be dumped before the watchdog reboots the device. By changing the starting address, it was easy to do multiple passes.
After the ROM was stitched together from the different passes, the different IR commands were analyzed. In particular, a command was found that allows direct writes into RAM. This makes for a much easier exploit as you can write your exploit, then override a pointer in the event table, then have the exploit revert the event table once the system naturally jumps to your exploit.
[Dmitry] finishes off this amazing exploit by writing a PalmOS app to dump the ROM from a PokeWalker as well as modify the system state. PalmOS was chosen as it is an easy and cheap way to have a programmable IR transciever. All in all, a gorgeous hack with a meticulous writeup. This isn’t the first
video game accessory that’s been reverse engineered with a scrupulous writeup
, and we’re sure it won’t be the last.
Thanks to [schme16] for sending this one in!
[Featured Image:
legandarypkmn.net
and
Arty2
] | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296487",
"author": "dmitry Grinberg",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T09:29:01",
"content": "I sent this one in when I published it. No reply yay or nay. Am I blacklisted or something? 🙂",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6296518",
... | 1,760,373,279.570333 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/big-nerf-bazooka-packs-a-wallop/ | Big Nerf Bazooka Packs A Wallop | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"bazooka",
"nerf",
"nerf blaster"
] | Nerf blasters are a fun toy, often confiscated from children once they hit one too many precious ornaments around the home in the midst of battle. [Ivan Miranda] is bigger than most children however,
and set about building a much larger blaster.
The bazooka-like design uses a several meters of 160mm PVC pipe, firing “darts” constructed out of foam yoga rollers and buffing pads. The build uses a littany of 3D printed components in its construction, both as part of the firing mechanism and as jigs to help machine the pipe. A large plunger is used to propel the darts, which is pulled back against the tension of thick rubber tubes before being released by the trigger mechanism.
It’s an intimidating device, to be sure. However, we suspect its short range, huge size, and slow reload time should stop it from breaking the meta-game at your local Nerf battles. That said, we still wouldn’t want to take a shot from this bad boy to the head. Hackers do love a good Nerf build,
and they’re particularly popular in sentry applications
. Video after the break.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihTW3_n5VuU | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296471",
"author": "heatgap",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T07:00:02",
"content": "Anyone else getting a Dread Pirate Roberts vibe from home skillet here?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6296630",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"tim... | 1,760,373,279.516455 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/procedurally-generated-trees/ | Procedurally Generated Trees | Matthew Carlson | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"procedural",
"procedurally generated",
"trees"
] | As the leaves fall from the trees here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are greeted with a clear view of the branches and limbs that make up the skeleton of the tree. [Nicolas McDonald] made a simple observation while looking at trees, that the sum of the cross-sectional area is conserved when a branch splits. This observation was also made by Leonardo Da Vinci (according to Pamela Taylor’s Da Vinci’s Notebooks). Inspired by the observation, [Nicolas] decided to
model a tree growing for his own curiosity
.
The simulation tries to approximate how trees spread nutrients. The nutrients travel from the roots to the limbs, splitting proportionally to the area. [Nicolas’] model only allows for binary splits but some plants split three ways rather than just two ways. The decision on where to split is somewhat arbitrary as [Nicolas] hasn’t found any sort of rule or method that nature uses. It ended up just being a hardcoded value that’s multiplied by an exponential decay based on the depth of the branch. The direction of the split is determined by the density of the leaves, the size of the branch, and the direction of the parent branch. To top it off, a particle cloud was attached at the end of each branch past a certain depth.
By tweaking different parameters, the model can generate different species like evergreens and bonsai-like trees. The
code is hosted on GitHub
and we’re impressed by how small the actual tree model code is (about 250 lines of C++). The power of making an observation and incorporating it into a project is clear here and the results are just beautiful. If you’re looking for a bit more procedurally generation in your life, check out
this medieval city generator
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296468",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T06:15:55",
"content": "https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/young-naturalist-awards/winning-essays/2011/the-secret-of-the-fibonacci-sequence-in-treesMaybe help concerning branch pattern.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,373,279.738249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/a-motorized-rotary-shop-table-from-scratch/ | A Motorized Rotary Shop Table From Scratch | Tom Nardi | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"metalworking",
"shop tools",
"welding",
"workshop from scratch"
] | As we’ve seen over the years, it’s possible to bootstrap your own metalworking shop using little more than a pile of scrap steel, a welder, and an angle grinder. With time and dedication, you can build increasingly complex shop tools until you’ve got yourself a nice little post-apocalyptic workshop. It’s the whole idea behind the [Workshop From Scratch] channel, and we never get bored of seeing his incredible backyard engineering.
But eventually, you’ll have built all the basic stuff. What then? Well,
as [Workshop From Scratch] shows in a recent video
, you can start working on the luxuries. Do you
need
a motorized table that will let you spin the workpiece and position it an at arbitrary angle? No, probably not. But as the video after the break shows, it’s certainly a handy thing to have around the shop. We especially like how he uses it to quickly and easily produce nearly perfect circular welds.
Note the welded standoffs used to hold on the lid.
From a technical standpoint, this is perhaps one of his more straightforward builds. But at the same time, the attention to detail that he puts into even this “simple” design is phenomenal. Nothing is wasted, and cutoff pieces from one section are often used in imaginative ways elsewhere.
[Workshop From Scratch] is truly a master of working with what you have, and this project is a perfect example. We especially like the tilt mechanism, which uses a massive leadscrew spun by a wiper motor salvaged from an Audi A8 B4. It looks like a fair amount of new hardware went into the control electronics, but even still, we have no doubt that the cost of this build is well below the purchase price of a commercial alternative.
Much like his hydraulic lifting table
or
motorized plasma cutter
, not everyone is going to need something this elaborate in their home shop.
But his magnetic vise
and
mobile drill press cart
are far more approachable for the home gamer. Of course even if you don’t follow along and build your own versions of his tools, it’s always worth tuning in just to see him work. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296416",
"author": "BobH",
"timestamp": "2020-11-21T00:09:07",
"content": "If you weld tubing or other round stuff, the improvement in weld quality and appearance is very noticable with a rotary table.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comme... | 1,760,373,279.877481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/no-wonder-these-projects-won-the-circuit-sculpture-contest/ | No Wonder These Projects Won The Circuit Sculpture Contest | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"circuit sculputure",
"winners"
] | There are five winners of the Hackaday Circuit Sculpture contest, and every one of them comes as no surprise, even in
a tightly packed race to the top
.
Beginning with the gorgeous photo above,
we have [
Eirik Brandal’s] waldian
being named the most beautiful. Imagine this hanging on your living room wall, then head over and listen to the video demo as it’s light-actuated synthesizer chimes like distant (or maybe not so distant) church bells. This isn’t a one-off dip into circuit sculpture for [Eirik],
we featured his broader body of work
back in 2018, all of it worth checking out in more depth.
The glowing mask
is actually made of PCB. The seams are secured with super glue bolstered with baking soda. The labor behind this one is intense. As we mention
back in September
, the project took place over about two years, mostly due to the sheer volume of cutting and sanding [Stephen Hawes] needed to do to bring together so many pieces. This one grabbed him the most artistic award.
[Jiří Praus] takes the top spot for best video with
his luminescent RGB LED sphere
. We swooned over this one when it first dropped
back in December
. [Jiří] shows off a combination of patience and ingenuity by using a 3D-printed mold to hold each LED while he soldered brass rod in place to serve as both electrical and mechanical support.
Speaking of molds, one of the challenges was to show off the best jig for creating a circuit sculpture. [Inne’s]
Soft Soldering Jig
provides the channels needed to keep crisp right angles on the brass rod as you work, with voids to position components at intersections for soldering. Drawing on the advice of numerous circuit sculpture success from people like [Mohit Bohite] and [
Jiří Praus
], he was looking for a way to easily position everything on a surface that would not be burnt by the soldering iron. The answer comes in the form of Silicone jigs made with 3D-printed molds.
Finally we have
the Binary Calculator project
which won the most functional award. While it does operate as a binary calculator, the beauty of it is not to be overlooked. Among its many attributes are a set of cherry-wood keycaps that were milled for the project and a bell-jar display stand where the calculator rests and serves as a binary clock when not in use. You may remember seeing
our feature of this project last week
.
As prizes, the binary calculator, orb, and wall sculpture creators will each be receiving $200 in goodies from Digi-Key who
sponsored the contest
and will be featuring entries in a 2021 wall calendar. Creators of the soldering jig and the PCB mask will receive a $100 Tindie gift card. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296363",
"author": "Pixelbrick",
"timestamp": "2020-11-20T21:12:28",
"content": "Beautiful!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6296381",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-11-20T21:50:04",
"content": "Note to self:Obt... | 1,760,373,280.050827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/desktop-wind-tunnel-brings-aerospace-engineering-to-the-home-gamer/ | Desktop Wind Tunnel Brings Aerospace Engineering To The Home Gamer | Mike Szczys | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"desktop",
"fluid dynamics",
"laminar flow",
"vape pen",
"wind tunnel"
] | Computer simulation is indispensable in validating design and used in every aspect of engineering from finite element analysis to traffic simulation to fluid dynamics. Simulations do an amazing job and at a fraction of the time and expense of building and testing a scale model. But those visceral ah-ha moments, and some real-world gremlins, can be easier to uncover by the real thing. Now you don’t need a university research or megacorp lab to run aerodynamic study IRL, you can just
build a functional desktop wind tunnel for a pittance
.
[Mark Waller] shows off this tidy little design that takes up only about two feet of desk space, and includes the core features that make a wind tunnel useful. Air is pulled through the tunnel using a fan mounted at the exhaust side of the tunnel. The intake is the horn-like scoop, and he’s stacked up a matrix of drinking straws there to help ensure laminar flow of the air as it enters the tunnel. (The straw trick is
frequently used with laminar flow water fountains
). It also passes through a matrix of tubes about the diameter of a finger at the exhaust to prevent the spin of the fan from introducing a vortex into the flow.
For analysis, five tubes pipe in smoke from an vape pen, driven into the chamber by an aquarium pump. There’s a strip of LEDs along the roof of the tunnel, with a baffle to prevent the light shining on the black rear wall of the chamber for the best possible contrast. The slow-motion video after the break shows the effectiveness of the setup.
Whether you’re a Hackaday Editor
cutting their own glider wing profiles
using foam and hot wire, or just want to wrap your head around
how different profiles perform
, this will get you there. And it’ll do it
at a fraction of the size
that we’ve seen in previous
wind tunnel builds
.
[via
r/engineering
] | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296351",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2020-11-20T20:39:35",
"content": "Looks great. Pretty good laminar flow for such a small scale. Drink straws are definitely the way to go for these. A little cotton wool filter between the fan and straws can work well to eliminate most of ... | 1,760,373,279.923461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/ask-hackaday-what-tools-do-you-really-need-for-a-life-on-the-road/ | Ask Hackaday: What Tools Do You Really Need For A Life On The Road? | Jenny List | [
"Ask Hackaday"
] | [
"digital nomad",
"tools",
"travel"
] | How do you dispose of an old hard drive? Inventive stories about heat and flame or industrial shredders will no doubt appear in the comments, but for me I just dismantle them and throw the various parts into the relevant scrap bins at my hackerspace. The magnets end up stuck to a metal door frame, and I’m good to go. So a week or so ago when I had a few ancient drives from the 1990s to deal with, I sat down only to find my set of Torx and Allen drivers was missing. I was back to square one.
What A Missing Tool Tells You About Necessities
Clint Eastwood always seemed to have just what he needed, why can I never manage it! Produzioni Europee Associati,
Public domain
.
Life deals an odd hand, sometimes. One never expects to find oneself homeless and sofa-surfing, nearly all possessions in a container on a farm somewhere. But here I am, and somewhere in one of those huge blue plastic removal crates is my driver set, alongside the other detritus of an engineer scribe’s existence. It’s all very well to become a digital nomad with laptop and hotspot when it comes to writing, but what has the experience taught me about doing the same as a solderer of fortune when it comes to hardware? My bench takes up several large removal crates and there is little chance of my carrying that much stuff around with me, so what makes the cut? Evidently not the tools for hard drive evisceration, so I had to borrow the set of a hackerspace friend to get the job done.
The practicality of life on the move comes down to how much stuff you can carry with you. Even with friends second to none and the immense privilege that comes with having the resources to get through the experience without destitution, there is a limit to what it is possible for a person to have in their immediate possession. Lonesome drifters in the movies seem to have an astounding variety of just the stuff they need for each escapade lashed to their saddles, but for me there’s no script-writer. So my daypack becomes the focus of my life, and what goes in to it has to be chosen with care. In the chill and damp of a British October and November it’s easy to fill it entirely with just a waterproof jacket and a fuzzy jumper so my first task is to secure the former on the outside of the pack with a cargo net, instantly making the visible jump for observers from one who’s just walked out of an office to one who’s on the move and spends time outdoors. Bad move if you need to blend in, but my choices are few.
Your Life In A Day Pack
Nota Bene
: Dont’t forget this set in the future! Junkyardsparkle,
CC0
.
Into the pack goes an all-important packet of ginger biscuits, two laptops and their associated wiring, a hefty battery booster pack, and my folding headphones. I’m set for writing, but why two laptops? For years I’ve worked with a powerful semi-paving-slab of a laptop in the office and a super-light Chromebook on the road, and when fate puts me in this position I find myself lumbered with both of them. Lesson learned: should you do this by choice rather than necessity make sure to pick a single laptop with both portability and power.
At the start of my nomadic existence I carried a soldering iron and a multimeter, screwdrivers and tweezers. I was set for whatever hardware the world would bring me, but somehow what I imagined never came. Another lesson learned: common tools are likely to already be wherever you might need them, in a hackerspace or at the bench of your technically inclined friends. Why carry what you can easily borrow, instead the art lies in selecting the uncommon tools that may not be to hand. And there’s the rub, for you only discover what those are when you don’t have them to hand. So far aside from the driver set I’ve found myself wanting a tape measure when I couldn’t borrow one and missing my Vernier caliper, and while there’s no way I’ll subject my Mitutoyo to my pack there’s definitely a cheap instrument on my shopping list. Meanwhile I’ve hung on to the screwdriver set and left the soldering iron in my storage unit.
Before too long I’ll no doubt be settled again somewhere, but along the way I have parked up in a lot of field entrances on country roads, seen more motorway service stations and fast food drive-thru lanes than I’d care to, learned a few things about life, about other people, about myself, and about which tools are indispensable but surprisingly uncommon. Which of you have had a similar experience, and what were the tools you found yourself needing on the road? Can we arrive at the
truly
indispensable kit of tools for the wandering hardware hacker, rather than the stuff we
think
we’ll need? Our comments section is as always open.
Meanwhile may you never find yourself in this position, and if you do may you be fortunate enough to have the peer group and resources to make your way through it. Consider donating to your local food bank and homeless charities, and be sure to lend a hand to friends in need. Some of those who helped me will be reading this, and I thank them.
Header image: Karsten Würth,
CC0
. | 45 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296303",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2020-11-20T18:11:45",
"content": "https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teng-T1420-4-inch-Socket-Pieces/dp/B004OTMBB4",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6296307",
"author": "BT",
... | 1,760,373,280.006461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/hackaday-podcast-094-fake-sun-hacked-super-mario-minimum-viable-smart-glasses-and-3d-printers-cant-do-that/ | Hackaday Podcast 094: Fake Sun, Hacked Super Mario, Minimum Viable Smart Glasses, And 3D Printers Can’t Do That | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys traverse the hackerscape looking for the best the internet had to offer last week. Nintendo has released the new
Game & Watch
handheld and it’s already been hacked to run custom code. Heading into the darkness of winter, this artificial sun build is one not to miss… and a great way to reuse a junk satellite dish. We’ve found a pair of smartglasses that are just our level of dumb. And Tom Nardi cracks open some consumer electronics to find a familiar single-board computer doing “network security”.
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 094 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Youtube-dl Makes Their Case, Returns To GitHub
Mike wrote an assembler and thinks he’s finally solved the tokenizer
The holy tokenizer · GitHub
Now You Have Two Problems
Easy Carrier Board For The Compute Module 4 Shows You Can Do It, Too
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
“Artificial Sun” Lighting Via Old Satellite Dishes
Blue Sky + Corrected spectrum White LED fixture
A Microwave Repair Even Mechanical Keyboard Fans Will Love
Exploring The New Super Mario Game & Watch
The group has achieved custom code with all hardware peripherals working
Remoticon Video: Firmware Reverse Engineering Workshop With Asmita Jha
Turn-by-turn Smart Glasses Give You Direction
Sorting Thousands Of Drill Bits
Another Kind Of “Bare Metal”: 6502 Computer Powers RPN Calculator
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
FreeCAD Debugging
Gorgeous Mini-Lathe Makes The Most Out Of Wood And Metal
Automatic Winder Takes The Drudgery Out Of Tesla Coil Builds
Mike’s Picks:
Three-Wheeled Turret Car Looks Like It Should Be Orbiting Thunderdome
Halloween Pumpkin Scares With An Evil Eye
3D Print Your Way To A Modular MIDI Playset
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Teardown: Recon Sentinel
3D Printering: The Things Printers Don’t Do | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296347",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2020-11-20T20:36:13",
"content": "The current podcast embed doesn’t show how long the podcast it, so I can’t plan when I have the time to listen to it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,373,280.10925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/new-part-day-bouffalo-labs-bl602-risc-v-wi-fi-bluetooth-soc/ | New Part Day: Bouffalo Labs BL602 RISC-V Wi-Fi/Bluetooth SoC | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"bl602",
"Pine64",
"RISC-V"
] | We should all by now be used to microcontrollers with wireless hardware on board, with Espressif or Nordic Labs dominating the hacker scene. There have been several other contenders in this arena over the years that haven’t really caught the attention of our community, usually because of the opacity of their available information.
A new contender should be worth a second look though.
The BL602 from Bouffalo Labs
is a Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth LE-capable microcontroller with
a 32-bit RISC-V derived core
. If that doesn’t interest you much, perhaps news that the PINE64 folks are spearheading an effort to reverse engineer it for a fully open-source blob-free wireless implementation might sharpen your attention.
So where can you get your hands on one? Hold your horses, this chip is at an early stage in its gestation. We can see that there are some exciting possibilities in store, but we’re still figuring out the hardware interfaces and other software required to make it work. A community is hard at work reverse engineering it, which leads us back to the PINE64 story we mentioned earlier.
You can find BL602 modules from AliExpress vendors, but the PINE64 folks
will offer you a free one if you join their blob reverse engineering effort
. Take note though, this offer is for those prepared to show commitment to the project, so don’t spam them in the hope of free stuff if you won’t be helping deliver the goods.
We might see the BL602 gaining an open-source toolchain and internal blobs over the coming months thanks to the efforts of those working on it. Just
as the ESP8266 did back in 2014,
it’s starting as a black box with a relative scarcity of information. But if this hacking effort pays off, we’ll have a cheap RISC-V Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module with entirely open-source software from the silicon upwards. What a time to be alive!
Thanks [Renze] for the tip. | 20 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6296271",
"author": "Sykobee",
"timestamp": "2020-11-20T16:46:01",
"content": "Did you previously mention SiFive and the BBC bringing RISC-V to mass market children’s IoT hardware?https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/bbc_doctor_who_sifive/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,280.164718 |
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