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https://hackaday.com/2020/10/31/using-open-source-to-train-your-dog/ | Using Open Source To Train Your Dog | Chris Lott | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Science"
] | [
"canine",
"operant conditioning",
"Raspberry Pi 4",
"University of Nebraska"
] | An
open-source canine training research tool
was just been released by [Walker Arce] and [Jeffrey Stevens] at the University of Nebraska — Lincoln’s
Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Lab
(C-CHIL).
We didn’t realize that dog training research techniques were so high-tech. Operant conditioning, as opposed to Pavlovian, gives a positive reward, in this case dog treats, to reinforce a desired behavior. Traditionally operant conditioning involved dispensing the treat manually and some devices do exist using wireless remote controls, but they are still manually operated and can give inconsistent results (too many or too few treats). There weren’t any existing methods available to automate this process, so this team decided to rectify the situation.
They took a commercial treat dispenser and retro-fitted it with an interface board that taps into the dispenser’s IR sensors to detect that the hopper is moving and treats were actually dispensed. The interface board connects to a Raspberry Pi which serves as a full-featured platform to run the tests. In this demonstration it connects to an HDMI monitor, detecting touches from the dog’s nose to correlate with events onscreen. Future researchers won’t have to reinvent the wheel, just redesign the test itself, because [Walker] and [Jeffrey] have released all the firmware and hardware as open-source on the lab’s
GitHub repository
.
In the short video clip below, watch the dog as he gets a treat when he taps the white dot with his snout. If you look closely, at one point the dog briefly moves the mouse pointer as well. We predict by next year the C-CHIL researchers will have this fellow drawing pictures and playing checkers.
This isn’t the first animal behavior hack we’ve seen this month. Check out [Hans’]
feeder that trains birds to clean up bottlecaps
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290850",
"author": "sexton16",
"timestamp": "2020-10-31T20:34:01",
"content": "https://www.instagram.com/hunger4words/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6290862",
"author": "Mike Litscher",
"timestamp": "2020-10-31T21:51:... | 1,760,373,304.155356 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/crowd-funded-jumping-cubes/ | Crowd Funded Jumping Cubes | Chris Lott | [
"News",
"Space"
] | [
"cubli",
"JAXA",
"kickstarter",
"robotic cube"
] | The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (
JAXA
) recently contributed their
Int-Ball
technology to a
Kickstarter campaign
operated by the Japanese electronics manufacturer / distributor
Bit Trade One
(Japanese site). This technology is based on the
Cubli project
out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), which
we covered back in 2013
. The Cubli-based technology has been appearing in various projects since then, including the
Nonlinear Mechatronic Cube
in 2016. Alas, the current JAXA-based “3-Axis Attitude Control Module” project doesn’t have a catchy name — yet.
One interesting application of these jumping cubes, presumably how JAXA got involved with these devices, is a
floating video camera
that was put to use on board the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. The version being offered by the Kickstarter campaign doesn’t include the cameras, and you will need to provide your own a gravity-free environment to duplicate that application. Instead, they seem to be marketing this for educational uses. You’d better dig deep in your wallet if you want one — a fully assembled unit requires a pledge of over $5000 ( there is a “some assembly required” kit that can save you about $1000 ). Most of us won’t be backing this project for that reason alone, but it is nice to see the march of progress of such a cool technology: from inception to space applications to becoming available to the general public. Thanks to [Lincoln Uehara] for sending in this tip. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290547",
"author": "johnny programmer",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T10:30:47",
"content": "one word: – terrahawks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6290557",
"author": "garlicbready",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T12:01... | 1,760,373,304.336041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/n64-power-adapter-works-around-the-world/ | N64 Power Adapter Works Around The World | Lewin Day | [
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"nintendo 64",
"power adaptor",
"universal supply"
] | Modern electronics such as phone and laptop chargers are pretty versatile no matter where you find yourself in the world. Capable of running off anything from 100-250V, all you need is a socket adaptor and you’re good to go. Video game consoles of the 1990s weren’t so flexible however. [MattKC] was tired of messing around with step down transformers to run his US market N64, and decided to rectify this,
building a universal adapter to run the console instead.
It’s a proper hacked build, assembled out of a jumble of old parts. An broken N64 power adapter was harvested for its case and unique DC plug, which carries 12V and 3.3V to the console. Few compact power supplies exist delivering this pair of voltages, so [MattKC] got creative. An old router was sourced for its 12V 2A supply, and was combined with a 3.3V buck converter to supply both rails. With some creative bodging and plenty of mounting tape, the supplies were crammed inside the original case and wired up to the original jack and a figure 8 cable, allowing easy socket changes in different countries without the use of ugly adapters.
While few of us routinely travel with 25 year old Nintendo consoles, for those that do, the convenience of a single universal supply can’t be overstated. Fitting a step-down transformer into carry-on luggage simply isn’t practical, after all. We’ve featured similar hacks
as far back as 2006
, or more recently,
a project seeking to rebuild a new PSU for the venerable Amiga 500
. Video after the break. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290511",
"author": "Raniz",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T05:48:54",
"content": "I had to buy a new powerbrick for my Wii U when I moved from Sweden to Japan and that was five years ago.. .",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6290532"... | 1,760,373,304.016465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/a-look-behind-the-big-boards-at-mission-control-in-the-golden-age-of-nasa/ | A Look Behind The “Big Boards” At Mission Control In The Golden Age Of NASA | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Space"
] | [
"console",
"data",
"eidophor",
"Mission control",
"nasa",
"projection",
"slides",
"telemetry"
] | Certified space-nerd and all-around retro-tech guru [Fran Blanche] has just outdone herself with a comprehensive look at
how NASA ran the Mission Control “Big Boards”
that provided flight data for controllers for Apollo and for the next 20 years of manned spaceflight.
We’ve got to admit, [Fran] surprised us with this one. We had always assumed that the graphs and plots displayed in front of the rows of mint-green consoles and their skinny-tie wearing engineers were video projections using eidophor projectors. And to be sure, an eidophor,
the tech of which [Jenny] profiled
a while back, was used on one of the screens to feed video into Mission Control, either live from the Moon or from coverage of the launch and recovery operations. But even a cursory glance at the other screens in front of “The Pit” shows projections of a crispness and clarity that was far beyond what 1960s video could achieve.
Instead, plots and diagrams were projected into the rear of the massive screens using a completely electromechanical system. Glass and metal stencils were used to project the icons, maps, and grids, building up images layer by layer. Colors for each layer were obtained by the use of dichroic filters, and icons were physically moved to achieve animations. Graphs and plots were created Etch-a-Sketch style, with a servo-controlled stylus cutting through slides made opaque with a thin layer of metal. The whole thing is wonderfully complex, completely hacky, and a great example of engineering around the limits of technology.
Hats off to [Fran] for digging into this forgotten bit of Space Race tech. Seeing something like this makes the Mission Control centers of today look downright boring by comparison. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290498",
"author": "gregg4",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T02:53:55",
"content": "And it was all run on IBM S/370 computers. The documentation, all of it, is available on Bitsavers. Even the ones for the Saturn launchers themselves.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,373,304.258456 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/nightmare-robot-only-moves-when-you-look-away/ | Nightmare Robot Only Moves When You Look Away | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"Arduino Uno",
"light dependent resistor",
"photocell",
"robot",
"stepper motor"
] | What could be more terrifying than ghosts, goblins, or clowns? How about a shapeless pile of fright on your bedroom floor that only moves when you’re not looking at it? That’s the idea behind
[Sciencish]’s nightmare robot
, which is lurking after the break. The Minecraft spider outfit is just a Halloween costume.
In this case, “looking at it” equates to you shining a flashlight on it, trying to figure out what’s under the pile of clothes. But here’s the thing — it never moves when light is shining on it. It quickly figures out the direction of the light source and lies in wait. After you give up and turn out the flashlight, it spins around to where the light was and starts moving in that direction.
The brains of this operation is an Arduino Uno, four light-dependent resistors, and a little bit of trigonometry to find the direction of the light source. The robot itself uses two steppers and printed herringbone gears for locomotion. Its chassis has holes in it that accept filament or wire to make a cage that serves two purposes — it makes the robot into more of an amorphous blob under the clothes, and it helps keep clothes from getting twisted up in the wheels. Check out the demo and build video after the break, because this thing is freaky fast and completely creepy.
While we usually see a candy-dispensing machine or two every Halloween, this year has been more about remote delivery systems. Don’t just leave sandwich bags full of fun size candy bars all over your porch,
build a candy cannon
or
a spooky slide
instead.
Via
r/duino | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290481",
"author": "Red Five",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T23:04:51",
"content": "So you’ve built a Minecraft spider with the spirit of a Weeping Angel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6290496",
"author": "Sciencish",
... | 1,760,373,304.37697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/a-clock-from-an-electricity-meter/ | A Clock From An Electricity Meter | Bryan Cockfield | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"antique",
"arduino",
"clock",
"electricity",
"energy",
"ge",
"induction",
"meter",
"power",
"stepper"
] | Electric utilities across the world have been transitioning their meters from the induction analog style with a distinctive spinning disc to digital “smart” meters which aren’t as aesthetically pleasing but do have a lot of benefits for utilities and customers alike. For one, meter readers don’t need to visit each meter every month because they are all networked together and can download usage data remotely. For another, it means a lot of analog meters are now available for projects such as
this clock from [Monta]
.
The analog meters worked by passing any electricity used through a small induction motor which spun at a rate proportional to the amount of energy passing through it. This small motor spun a set of dials via gearing in order to keep track of the energy usage in the home or business. To run the clock, [Monta] connected a stepper motor with a custom transmission to those dials for the clock face because it wasn’t possible to spin the induction motor fast enough to drive the dials. An Arduino controls that stepper motor, but can’t simply drive the system in a linear fashion because it needs to skip a large portion of the “minutes” dials every hour. A similar problem arises for the “hours” dials, but a little bit of extra code solves this problem as well.
Once the actual clock is finished, [Monta] put some finishing touches on it such as backlighting in the glass cover and a second motor to spin the induction motor wheel to make the meter look like it’s running. It’s a well-polished build that makes excellent use of some antique hardware, much like one of his other builds we’ve seen which
draws its power from a Stirling engine
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290471",
"author": "Eric R Mockler",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T22:01:35",
"content": "I use mine as a fan",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6290502",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T03:06:06",
"content"... | 1,760,373,304.294094 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/five-axis-pumpkin-carving/ | Five-Axis Pumpkin Carving | Danie Conradie | [
"cnc hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"CNC machine",
"halloween",
"pumpkin",
"shane wighton",
"stuff made here"
] | The day of carved pumpkins is near, and instead of doing manually like a mere mortal, [Shane] of [Stuff Made Here] built a
five-axis CNC machine to take over carving duties
. (Video, embedded below.)
[Shane] initially intended to modify his
barber robot
, but ended up with a complete redesign, reusing only the electronics and the large ring bearing in the base. The swiveling spindle is a rotating gantry with two sets of aluminum extrusions for vertical and horizontal motion. The gantry isn’t very rigid, but it’s good enough for pumpkin carving. Software is the most challenging part of the endeavor due to the complexity of five-axis motion and mapping 2D images onto a roughly spherical surface. Cartographers have dealt with this for a long time, so [Shane] turned to
Mercator projection
to solve the problem. We’re also relieved to hear that we aren’t the only ones who sometimes struggle with equation-heavy Wikipedia pages.
Since there are no perfectly spherical pumpkins, [Shane] wrote a script to probe the surface of the pumpkin with a microswitch before cutting, appropriately named “TSA.exe”. The machine is capable of carving both profiles and variable depth
lithophanes
, mostly of [Shane]’s long-suffering wife. She seriously deserves an award for holding onto her sense of humor.
With projects like
explosive baseball bats
and
CNC basketball hoop
, the [Stuff Made Here] YouTube Channel is worth keeping an eye on. | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290426",
"author": "Cyna",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T19:12:40",
"content": "But why make the whole machine rotate instead of just the pumpkin? Fitting the fifth axis to the tool itself is also not ideal unless it is made extra rigid. That is why you often see 2+3 axes with machines ... | 1,760,373,304.206516 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/tracking-satellites-with-a-commodore-pet/ | Tracking Satellites With A Commodore PET | Chris Lott | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Radio Hacks",
"Space"
] | [
"amateur satellite",
"Commodore PET",
"history",
"rotor",
"satellite",
"satellite tracking",
"yagi"
] | A recent writeup by Tom Nardi about using the
6502-based NES to track satellites
brought back memories of my senior project at Georgia Tech back in the early 80s. At our club station
W4AQL
, I had become interested in Amateur Radio satellites. It was quite a thrill to hear your signal returning from space, adjusting for Doppler as it speeds overhead, keeping the antennas pointed, all while carrying on a brief conversation with other Earth stations or copying spacecraft telemetry, usually in Morse code.
The Manual Way
Example of NASA Prediction Bulletin, courtesy of Dr. T.S. Kelso
Pulling this off was quite a production in the pre-Internet days. To begin with, you needed data about each satellite’s orbit. This was obtained by signing up to a real-paper mailing list from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. An envelope arrived about twice a week by mail containing a stack of NASA Prediction Bulletins for the satellites you had requested. These contained the orbital parameters in what’s known as
two-line element (TLE) set format
, which you had to then type into your computer for processing. When we communicated with Space Shuttles, we would get the preliminary and later actual TLE data from someone within NASA by phone or FAX.
Unlike geostationary communications satellites, Amateur radio satellites are typically launched in polar orbits which take between 90 to 120 minutes to complete one revolution of the Earth. To communicate through one of these satellite, first we needed to know when a particular satellite would pass over Atlanta.
To solve this problem, I wrote a Fortran program on the campus mainframe computer, a CDC Cyber 74, a real computational beast of the day. This program propagated the state vector given by the TLE data, and generated a list of orbits which passed over Atlanta. These passes were characterized by the maximum elevation, the duration of the pass, the AOS and LOS (Acquisition / Loss of Signal) times, and the distance at closest approach. We humans would filter this list even further, ignoring passes that were very short or that occurred when we would be asleep or attending class — after all, the reason we were at GA Tech was to study hard, learn a lot, and graduate with a degree.
Object Orbital altitude Inclination Orbital period
====================== ================ =========== ==============
Oscar 8 900 km circular 99 degrees 103 minutes
Radio Sputnik 5,6,7,8 1600 km circular 83 degrees 120 minutes
Space Shuttle STS-9 250 km circular 57 degrees 90 minutes
Space Shuttle STS-51F 315 km circular 50 degrees 91 minutes
The satellites of the day had two popular modes. Mode A was easiest to use for most Hams, the uplink was in the 2 m band, and the downlink was on 10 m. Mode J also used a 2 m uplink, but the downlink was in the 70 cm band. A typical Ham satellite station would use a stationary horizontal loop antenna for 10 m reception. The 2 m and 70 cm antennas were usually Yagis, mounted on common rotatable elevation boom which was itself mounted on a vertical mast that could be rotated in azimuth. Ten meter reception was simple, no antenna movement required. Steering the Yagi antennas, however, was quite a task.
Typical steerable Yagi Antenna Array, courtesy of Gloucester County ARC, W2MMD
Having selected a suitable orbit, next we had to make those Yagis follow the path of the satellite. In Amateur satellite stations, this is a completely open-loop process. You calculate where the satellite will be at a certain time, and drive the antennas to that point in space. If you remember the old home steerable TV antennas, before cable TV and streaming, the arrangement in a Ham shack is very similar. There is a rotator control box for each rotor, with an analog meter indicating direction, modern ones being digital, of course. These control boxes usually had three buttons for steering: Left, Right, and Brake release.
To follow the satellite, we had a couple of techniques available. One method used a graphical overlay of the satellite’s ground track and footprint on top of a polar projection map of the Earth. By rotating the ground track overlay to match the orbit’s position as given by the orbital parameter with the coolest name,
Right Ascension of the Ascending Node
, we could visually see the satellite’s path over our station. The ground path overlay has time tick marks, and the footprint overlay has azimuth lines and elevation rings. This crude graphical technique provides the basic information needed to track the satellite, within the broad beamwidth of our antennas. We also had to keep our clocks synchonized to WWV or WWVH — no Network Time Protocol back then.
Oscarlocator from the author’s personal collection.
A second technique was more precise, but required a trip across campus. Using another Fortran program, I could print a table of time, azimuth and elevation angles for a desired orbit. The operator wouldn’t have to interpolate angles from the graphical overlays: the numbers are clearly shown on the computer printout paper. Getting this data from the campus computer wasn’t trivial, however. Usually I would visit the computer center building across campus, login to my account at a terminal, and type in the data by hand. Upon execution, the program would generate a printout.
Then I had to wait at the output counter for the operator to separate and distribute the printouts to all of us impatient users. We felt so lucky when the club obtained a portable printing terminal with a built-in acoustic modem. This meant we could dial into the mainframe and run the programs remotely, and get our orbit schedules and tracking tables immediately without crossing campus — at the blazingly fast speed of 300 baud!
While all these machinactions were certainly within our grasp, it took quite a bit of effort and advance planning. And while a lone operator could communicate with a satellite, two people were better — one to operate the radios, the other to steer the antennas. I recall two events from this period which led me to consider a computer controlled project. First of all, we inherited two Commodore PET computers from one of the EE professors. Secondly, we had an ongoing issue controlling equipment up on the roof of the 5th floor from our shack located at basement level. There just weren’t enough wires to do all the things we wanted even for normal HF operations, much less satellite tracking.
Commodore PET to the Rescue
The
Commodore PET computers
we had were modified from their standard factory condition. They had full-size external keyboards, so you didn’t have to use the Chiclet keys. The internal memory had been upgraded to 32K RAM. My report from 1983 says this expansion memory card also had two general purpose 8-bit TTL output registers, which were used to talk to the outside world.
As shown in this diagram, the PET computer talks to two devices — the Rotor Control Interface selects and operates the rotor boxes, and the Digital Serial Transmitter, essentially just a UART that sent data serially to the roof to remotely control a variety of equipment. Rotor control was fun, because we only had one rotor control cable between the shack the the roof. I had to implement 8P3T switches out of relays and multiplexed the cable between rotors. This means that only one rotor could rotate at a time, but this wasn’t a severe constraint for our purpose.
Besides the rotator control signal multiplexing, there was quite a bit of auxilliary equipment on the roof which had to be remotely controlled. As shown in the diagram, we had RF coaxial relays to switch VHF/UHF antenna polarization, and to switch between 10 m and 70 cm downlink signal paths. In addition, there were preamps, down-converters, and power amplifiers which had to be turned on and off. Except for rotor multiplexing, most of these were static setups for the duration of a satellite pass, although the PET had full control of everything over this interface.
We made a UART interface connected to one of the PET’s TTL output registers to send this control data serially to the roof for control. I hand-drew all the schematics and hand-taped the PCB artwork – no KiCad back then.
I very quickly identified a problem having the PET control of all this rooftop gear, which was not related to satellite operations at all. The PET wasn’t running 24/7, and it was slow to boot and load up from cassette tape. Operators who just needed to control relays on the roof for HF operations didn’t want to wait 10+ minutes to boot the PET. In fact they were quite vocal about it. So I added a manual control panel to bypass the PET. This philosophy has served me well over the years —
computer control is great, but there are times when you need manual control, if only for testing.
We Don’t Need Closed Loops
There was still one problem with this setup — you might have noticed there is no feedback. There was a method for the PET to read signals, but despite trying a variety of methods we couldn’t get a stable enough feedback within our limited budget and limited mechanical skills. The azimuth rotor, which had an integrated feedback signal, would have been the easiest to monitor. But the elevation rotor we used didn’t have any such feedback.
We tried a long rod with a lead weight at the bottom, attached to a potentiometer. When the boom rotated up and down in elevation, the rod always pointed down. Good idea on paper, didn’t work so well in practice. We briefly played with synchromotors, which were really cool. Turn the shaft of one motor and the other motor across the room also turned the same amount, connected only by a few wires. But even these few wires were too many for our peculiar installation.
In the end, I concluded that for the satellites of interest and the antenna beamwidths involved, running the antenna rotation controls open loop was workable. To be sure, it caused a lot of headaches to procedurally check alignment before a pass, but once the pass began it worked as desired. I was continually tweaking the computer model of the antenna rotation, both the mathematical model and the constants such as dead-time, rotation speed, acceleration, etc. It was a crude solution, but it got the job done within our limited budget.
Aside: Zenith crossing and three axis mounts
You might think that a satellite passing directly overhead would be perfect — it is as close as possible to your station. Well, that’s not necessarily good. The problem is that when the satellite passes overhead, and the elevation angle approaches 90 degrees, the azimuth rotor will suddenly have to spin at an incredibly fast rate to keep pointed. There are ways to mitigate this — one method is to accept some pointing error and steer the antenna in a small circle around zenith — a circle whose diameter is determined by the speed of the satellite and the maximum speed of your rotor.
A more elegant solution, but mechanically complex, is to add a third axis of rotation. Two of the rotors are positioned before the satellite pass so that the antenna boom connected to the third rotor is perpendicular to the orbital plane. This way, only the third rotor is used during the satellite pass, and the other two rotors remain fixed.
Where is OSCAR?
Providing the PET with interfaces to the real world was only half the battle. I still needed a way to calculate the satellite’s position. And while it was great to have a computer in the shack, the PET computer was thousands of times less powerful than the campus mainframe. There was no GUI, no tracking map of the Earth, just updating data fields on a text-based status screen.
Satellite Tracking Screen, courtesy of Sherman Banks.
I remember one major issue in the software development, however. There were several programs floating around the community those days for tracking satellites, and I hand typed one of the popular ones into the PET. I contacted the author of this program to let him know about my school project and get his permission.
But to my surprise, he replied “No, you can’t use my software”. Just a minor setback for a young college student who doesn’t know his limitations — I went to the GA Tech library, checked out a couple of books on orbital mechanics, and wrote my own algorithms. Surprisingly, the fundamental Keplerian laws and equations for orbital bodies aren’t that difficult to understand and calculate. Alas, when you solve for the antenna pointing angles to the satellite, it results in a transcendental equation. Solving that on the mainframe took milliseconds, but it was painfully slow on the PET. Over a month or so that followed, I confined myself to programming at home all weekend, developed an life-long addiction to caffeine-laden diet colas, and emerged with a working program.
Upgrades
The manual controls for rooftop equipment were non-intuitive. You were literally toggling address and data bits into a UART. This could have been improved, of course, but a few of us began to question the original “no more wires can be routed to the roof” constraint. It turns out that it was indeed possible, with a bit of effort. A larger cable for signaling was pulled to the roof, and an improved interface panel was made. Furthermore, the PET was showing its age, too, so we upgraded to the Commodore C64 — with floppy disk storage. I made a new, smaller rotor control interface that connected to the C64’s user port and controlled the rotors by relays.
Successful Ops
The system, while a bit finicky, did serve us well for a few years. Not only were we able to communicate over Amateur Radio satellites, but quite proudly we contacted the first two astronauts allowed to operate from the Space Shuttle under a new program called
SAREX
. In Nov 1983 Dr. Owen Garriott (W5LFL) heard us on Columbia’s STS-9 mission, which was piloted by our own GA Tech alumni Dr John Young. We were also proud of our own recent club alumni, Jim Worsham, W4KXY, who was on the team at Motorola that designed and built the custom radio used by Dr. Garriott.
QSL Card from Owen Garriott W5LFL, courtesy of Sherman Banks.
Again in Aug 1985, we contacted Dr Tony England (W0ORE) on Challenger’s STS-51F Spacelab mission. Videos were made of these efforts, which you can see in the links below.
YouTube: Receiving SSTV from STS-51F
YouTube: Attempted Contact with STS-51F
YouTube: Successful Two-way Contact with STS-51F
Future?
I challenged myself last year to build a miniature version of this project that fits in an Altoids can. It’s on the back burner for now, until I can track down a copy of the original software. Stay tuned…
Wrapping Up
A couple of years after I graduated, the company I worked with generously let me manufacture and market this C64-based tracking system under the unimaginative name Satellite AutoTracker. That’s a story for another day.
I can’t overemphasize the impact this project had on me. The act of conversing with another radio station via a satellite pulls together so many engineering and science disciplines, from the physics of orbits and Doppler shifts to the minute details of learning to build PCBs to the overall system engineering efforts to make it all play together. Each one of these were interesting in and of themselves, but it was just plain awesome when it all successfully meshed together and worked.
I learned a lot building this project, but it didn’t seem like learning because it was so fun. That, folks, is the best way to learn. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290399",
"author": "Miroslav",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T18:24:49",
"content": "Wow. Great work and very detailed description. You did more with PET than most did with Pentiums. Persistence is key.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,373,304.43534 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/adding-remote-control-to-the-elegoo-mars-pro/ | Adding Remote Control To The Elegoo Mars Pro | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"MSLA",
"network control",
"Octoprint",
"Raspberry Pi Zero",
"resin 3d printer"
] | Recent price drops put entry level masked stereolithography (MSLA) resin 3D printers at around $200 USD, making them a very compelling tool for makers and hackers. But as you might expect, getting the price this low often involves cutting several corners. One of the ways manufacturers have made their machines so cheap is by simplifying the electronics and paring down the feature set to the absolute minimum.
So it was hardly a surprise for [Luiz Ribeiro] to find that
his new Elegoo Mars Pro didn’t offer WiFi connectivity or a remote control interface
. You’re supposed to just stick a USB flash drive into the printer and select the object you want to print from its menu system. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t hack the capability in himself.
Monitoring a print with Mariner.
If this were a traditional 3D printer, he might have installed OctoPrint and been done with it. But resin printers are a very different beast. In the end, [Luiz] had to develop his own remote control software that worked around the unique limitations of the printer’s electronics. His software runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero and uses Linux’s “USB Gadget” system to make it appear as a flash drive when plugged into the USB port on the Elegoo Mars Pro.
This allows sending object files to the printer over the network, but there was a missing piece to the puzzle. [Luiz] still needed to manually go over to the printer and select which file he wanted to load from the menu. Until he realized there was an exposed serial port on control board that allowed him to pass commands to the printer. Between the serial connection and faux USB Mass Storage device, his
mariner
software has full control over the Mars Pro and is able to trigger and monitor print jobs remotely.
It might not offer quite the flexibility of
adding OctoPrint to your FDM 3D printer
, but it’s certainly a start. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290690",
"author": "Erwin",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T23:23:49",
"content": "Strange that the board does not has the Wifi pinout for the ESP01",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6290764",
"author": "pelrun",
"time... | 1,760,373,304.112136 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/animated-pumpkins-sing-and-scare-on-halloween/ | Animated Pumpkins Sing And Scare On Halloween | Lewin Day | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"halloween"
] | The animated video combined with the 3D-printed prop makes for an excellent effect.
Carving Jack O’ Lanterns out of pumpkins is a favorite Hallowe’en tradition for many, but relying on candles and knives is decidedly low-tech. [Lewis] of [DIY Machines] decided to whip up
something a little more animated to scare the local trick-or-treaters instead.
The build consists of 3D printed pumpkins, lit from behind with a low-cost projector. Driven by a Raspberry Pi, the projector plays video files that project animated faces onto the pumpkins. The effect is great, giving the illusion of a real anthropomorphic Jack O’ Lantern sitting on your very porch. To control the system, a series of arcade buttons are hooked up to the Raspberry Pi allowing visitors to activate a song, a scare, or a story.
It’s a fun build that is a great way to add some interactivity to your Hallowe’en decorations. If you want to take your work up a notch,
consider projecting on to your whole house
. Video after the break. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290651",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T19:24:48",
"content": "best pumpkins this year! love the songs any chance for more clips?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6290665",
"author": "Todd",
"times... | 1,760,373,304.061627 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/the-theremin-is-100-years-old-celebrating-the-spookiest-of-instruments/ | The Theremin Is 100 Years Old; Celebrating The Spookiest Of Instruments | Kristina Panos | [
"History",
"News",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"electromagnetic field",
"heterodyne",
"leon theremin",
"oscillator",
"theremin"
] | It wouldn’t be October without Halloween, and it wouldn’t be Halloween without some spooky music. There’s no instrument spookier than a Theremin, which also happens to be one of the world’s first electronic instruments.
Leon Theremin plays his namesake instrument. Image via
Linda Hall Library
You’ve no doubt heard the eerie,
otherworldly tones
of the Theremin in various 1950s sci-fi films, or heard the instrument’s one-of-a-kind cousin, the Electro-Theremin in “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys. The Theremin turns 100 years old this month, so we thought we’d take a look at this strange instrument.
One hundred years ago, a young Russian physicist named Lev Sergeyevich Termen, better known as Leon Theremin, was trying to invent a device to measure the density of various gases. In addition to the standard analog needle readout, he wanted another way to indicate the density, so he devised an oscillator whistle that would change pitch based on the density.
He discovered by accident that having his hand in the field of the antenna changed the pitch of the whistle, too. Then he did what any of us would do — played around until he made a melody, then called everyone else in the lab over to check it out.
Theremin soon showed his device to Lenin, who loved it so much that he sent Lev on a world tour to show it off. While in New York, he played it for Rachmaninoff and Toscanini. In fact you can see
a video recording of Leon playing the instrument,
a performance that’s more hauntingly beautiful than spooky. In 1928, he patented the Theremin in the United States and worked with RCA to produce them.
Inside a Theremin. Image via
Wikpedia
How it Works
Sales never really took off, partially because of the Great Depression, but largely because it’s so hard to get a nice sound from it. The instrument was touted as being easy to play, because you really do just wave your hands in the air to play it. But the truth is that your hands must be placed precisely to avoid terrible squawking sounds. The Theremin is quite difficult to master, and few have done it.
Inside the Theremin are a pair of circuits — one to control pitch, and the other to control volume. The pitch circuit uses two tuned oscillators to produce sound. One is fixed, and the other is variable and connected to a vertical antenna. Sound is produced when the player’s hand enters the electromagnetic field around the antenna. The frequency produced by the players hand is subtracted from the reference frequency of the fixed oscillator in a process called heterodyning. The difference between the two frequencies is then amplified and sent through a speaker. The volume circuit is a single oscillator connected to a horizontal loop antenna. As the player’s hand gets closer to the antenna, the volume goes down, which makes it easy to chop the sound into individual notes.
The Moog Claravox Centennial. Image via
Moog
Theremins are still being made today by Moog, and many of them have more bells and whistles that make them sound more complex compared to the first Theremin, which had a sine wave sound to it. One of the best and most expressive Theremin players was Clara Rockmore, and
Moog is honoring her by releasing a limited edition Theremin this month
. That’s Clara in the header image.
Things didn’t work out so well for Leon Theremin. In 1938, he was kidnapped and taken back to Russia by the KGB. He spent time in a prison camp
and was later forced by the government to create a bug to spy on the United States
. Theremin returned to the US in 1991 at the age of 95 and gave several concerts. He died in Moscow two years later.
Leon Theremin would likely be pleased to see how many spinoffs his invention has spurred. Here’s to 100 more years of spooky, ethereal music. Take a deep dive into how the instrument works and where the art is today with this interview with Carolin Eyck.
Thanks for the tip, [Qes]!
[Main image Clara Rockmore taken in 1932. Photo by Renato Toppo, ©
The Nadia Reisenberg / Clara Rockmore Foundation
] | 16 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290617",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T17:17:12",
"content": "She is REALLY good. I love the story of the man. From artist to Q branch. One thing about the Soviets…they are good designers…when it matters.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,373,304.621013 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/hackaday-podcast-091-louisville-exploder-generating-japanese-joinery-relay-retrocomputer-rally-and-chop-the-robopup/ | Hackaday Podcast 091: Louisville Exploder, Generating Japanese Joinery, Relay Retrocomputer Rally, And Chop The Robopup | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams dig through the greatest hacks that ought not be missed this week. There’s a wild one that flexes engineering skills instead of muscles to beat the homerun distance record with an explosively charged bat. A more elegant use of those engineering chops is shown in a CNC software tool that produces intricate wood joinery without needing an overly fancy machine to fabricate it. If your flesh and blood pets aren’t keeping up with your interests, there’s a new robot dog on the scene that far outperforms its constituent parts which are 3D-printed and of the Pi and Arduino varieties. And just when you thought you’d seen all the craziest retrocomputers, here’s an electromechanical relay based machine that took six years to build (although there’s so much going on here that it should have taken sixteen).
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 091 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Community Rallies Behind Youtube-dl After DMCA Takedown
What’s on our workbench:
Elliot’s been rehabbing broken quadcopters
GitHub – pascallanger/DIY-Multiprotocol-TX-Module: DIY Multiprotocol TX Module
Mike jumped on the ePaper movie playback fad:
Slowmovie: Cinema on a 2.7″ Epaper Display
Keynote speakers for next week’s Remoticon!
Alfred Jones And Kipp Bradford To Deliver Keynotes At Remoticon Next Week
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Going For The Home Run Record With Explosive Help
The Adorable Robot Spot, Now In Affordable Form
Already building up a small community around this bot
Leg simulator
Super-Simple VGA Adapter Sports Low-Res Output With Only Four TTL Chips
Low Res Video Card Is Still Amazing Since It’s Made Out Of Logic Chips
Complex Wood Joints, Thanks To New Software’s Interactive Features
Tsugite
C-Lab
Relay Computer Consumes Six Years And 4.5 Suitcases
Complete Flight Sim Controller Set With 3D Printing And Hall-Effect Sensors.
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks:
STM32 Gets Up Close And Personal With Mandelbrot
Iconic Yugoslavian Galaksija Computer Reborn, With A Documentary Too
Smoothing Big Fonts On Graphic LCDs
When Only The Tiniest Of Violins Will Do
Elliot’s Picks:
Pulse Oximetry Sensor Judges Your Coffee Roast
Simple Induction Heater Helps With Homebrew Shrink-Fitting
What If You Could Design Your Own Aluminum Hand?
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Engine Trouble Delays SpaceX’s Return To The ISS
The “Impossible” Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine
Clacker Hacker: Popping A Cap In A Brother EP43 Thermal Typewriter | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290599",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T16:05:39",
"content": "Hiya everyone! We changed podcast hosting services beginning with this episode. Please let us know if anything seemed different about how this episode was delivered to your podcasting app, etc.I notic... | 1,760,373,304.663891 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/esp8266-does-rc-without-the-transmitter/ | ESP8266 Does RC Without The Transmitter | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"ESP-12E",
"ESP8266",
"rc",
"remote control",
"servo"
] | While the cost of a hobby-grade remote control transmitter has dropped significantly over the last decade or so, even the basic models are still relatively expensive. It’s not such a big deal if you only need to get one for personal use, but for a school to outfit a classroom’s worth of students their own radios, they’d need to have a serious STEM budget.
Which is why [Miharix], himself an educator with a decade of experience, developed a project that
leverages the ESP8266 to create affordable RC vehicles
that can be controlled with a smartphone’s web browser. There’s a bit of irony at play since the smartphones are more expensive than the RC transmitters would have been; but with more and more school-age kids having their own mobile devices, it takes the cost burden off of the educators. Depending on the age of the students, the teacher would only need to keep a couple of burner phones on hand for student that doesn’t have a device of their own.
A custom PCB makes connections easier for students.
In its fully realized form, the project uses an open hardware board that allows standard RC hobby servos to be connected to the GPIO pins of a ESP-12E module. But if you don’t want to go through the trouble of building the custom hardware, you could put something similar together with an ESP development board. From there it’s just a matter of installing the firmware, which starts up a server providing a touch-based controller interface that’s perfect for a smartphone’s screen.
Since the ESP8266 pops up as an Access Point that client devices can connect to, you don’t even need to have an existing network in place. Or Internet access, for that matter. [Miharix] says that in tests, the range between a common smartphone and the ESP8266 is approximately 85 meters (260 feet), which should be more than enough to get the job done.
In the videos after the break you can see this system being used with an RC car and boat, though the
only limit to what you could control with this project is your own imagination
. | 27 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290602",
"author": "RetepV",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T16:22:16",
"content": "“There’s a bit of irony at play since the smartphones are more expensive than the RC transmitters would have been; ”I seriously doubt that you can buy a half-decent RC transmitter for the price of a cheap-... | 1,760,373,304.988547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/this-week-in-security-discord-chromium-and-wordpress-forced-updates/ | This Week In Security: Discord, Chromium, And WordPress Forced Updates | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"chrome",
"CVE-2020-15999",
"This Week in Security",
"wordpress"
] | [Masato Kinugawa] found a series of bugs that, when strung together,
allowed remote code execution in the Discord desktop app
. Discord’s desktop application is an Electron powered app, meaning it’s a web page rendered on a bundled light-weight browser. Building your desktop apps on JavaScript certainly makes life easier for developers, but it also means that you inherit all the problems from running a browser and JS. There’s a joke in there about finally achieving full-stack JavaScript.
The big security problem with Electron is that a simple Cross Site Scripting (XSS) bug is suddenly running in the context of the desktop, instead of the browser. Yes, there is a sandboxing option, but that has to be manually enabled.
And that brings us to the first bug. Neither the
sandbox
nor the
contextIsolation
options were set, and so both defaulted to false. What does this setting allow an attacker to do? Because the front-end and back-end JavaScript runs in the same context, it’s possible for an XSS attack to override JS functions. If those functions are then called by the back-end, they have full access to Node.js functions, including exec(), at which point the escape is complete.
Now that we know how to escape Electron’s web browser, what can we use for an XSS attack? The answer is automatic iframe embeds. For an example, just take a look at the exploit demo below. On the back-end, all I have to do is paste in the YouTube link, and the WordPress editor does its magic, automatically embedding the video in an iframe. Discord does the same thing for a handful of different services, one being Sketchfab.
This brings us to vulnerability #2. Sketchfab embeds have an XSS vulnerability. A specially crafted sketchfab file can run some JS whenever a user interacts with the embedded player, which can be shoehorned into discord. We’re almost there, but there is still a problem remaining. This code is running in the context of an iframe, not the primary thread, so we still can’t override functions for a full escape. To actually get a full RCE, we need to trigger a navigation to a malicious URL in the primary pageview, and not just the iframe. There’s already code to prevent an iframe from redirecting the top page, so this RCE is a bust, right?
Enter bug #3. If the top page and the iframe are on different domains, the code preventing navigation never fires. In this case, JavaScript running in an iframe can redirect the top page to a malicious site, which can then override core JS functions, leading to a full escape to RCE.
It’s a very clever chaining of vulnerabilities, from the Discord app, to an XSS in Sketchfab, to a bug within Electron itself. While this particular example required interacting with the embedded iframe, it’s quite possible that another vulnerable service has an XSS bug that doesn’t require interaction. In any case, if you use Discord on the desktop, make sure the app is up to date. And then, enjoy the demo of the attack, embedded below.
Chromium Freetype Overflow
Chromium 86 has
a fix for a particularly nasty bug
. Tracked as CVE-2020-15999, this is a bug in how FreeType fonts are rendered. Now that Microsoft has switched to Edgium (Chromium powered Edge),
we get two-for-one deals on Chromium vulnerabilities
. This bug is interesting because it’s reportedly being actively exploited already. Google has
marked the bug public
, so we can take a closer look at exactly what happened.
The problem is in the FreeType library, regarding how fonts are handled when they contain embedded PNGs. To put it simply, the PNG width and height are stored in the font as 32-bit values, but those values are truncated to 16-bit before the buffer is allocated. After this, the PNG is copied to the buffer, but using the non-truncated values. A check is then performed to make sure the copy didn’t overflow, but unhelpfully,
this was checked *after* the copy had taken place
. The bug includes a test case, so feel free to go check your devices using that code. It’s not clear how long this bug has existed, but it’s possible it also affects Android’s System WebView, which is much slower to update.
Step-by-step of Chrome Exploit
[Man Yue Mo] recently published
a detailed report on a Use-After-Free Chrome bug he discovered back in March
, tracked as CVE-2020-6449. What makes this one worth looking at is the detailed account he gives us of the process of developing a working exploit from the bug. The whole account is a masterclass in abusing JavaScript to manipulate the state of the underlying engine. As a bonus, he gives us a link to
the PoC exploit code
to look at, too.
FBI Warning
The FBI, along with CISA and HHS, has issued
a warning (PDF)
about an ongoing redoubling of ransomware attacks against US hospitals and other healthcare providers. This attack is using the
Trickbot
malware and the
Ryuk
ransomware. They also note the use of DNS tunneling for data exfiltration, and specifically mention Point of Sale systems as a target.
The mitigation steps are particularly interesting in trying to read between the lines here. Before we look too deeply, I have to call out an outdated piece of advice: “Regularly change passwords”. This has been the bane of many users and administrators, and leads to weaker security, not stronger. With that out of the way, let’s look at the other recommendations.
A few recommendations are boiler-plate, like two-factor authentication, install security updates, have backups, etc. I was surprised to see the recommendation to allow local administration, in order to get things working again. What might be the most interesting is the recommendation to take a hard look at any RDP services that are running. Does this mean that some healthcare PoS system is running an out-of-date Windows, with a vulnerable RDP service open to the network by default, and it’s suddenly being targeted? Maybe. I’ve learned not to put too much stock in these advisories, unless actual details are given, and this particular example is quite light on details.
Loginizer’s SQL Injection
The popular Loginizer WordPress plugin is intended to protect your site’s login page from attack. It can add two-factor authentication, CAPTCHAs for repeated login attempts, and even detect brute-force attempts and blacklist the offending IP. That last one is where the problem lies. Incoming login attempts are logged to a SQL database, and that logging wasn’t properly sanitized, nor were prepared statements used. Because of this, the login page was subject to a very simple SQL injection attack. The Lesson? Sanitize your inputs, and use prepared statements!
The latest update
fixes this, as well as a separate but similar security issue.
What makes this bug novel is that WordPress found it a big enough problem to break the glass and push the big red button labeled “Force Update”. I didn’t know the folks at WordPress had a button that did that, but for particularly bad bugs like this one, it’s a useful capability. A few users complained that this update was installed even though they had auto-updates disabled. It’s a fine line to walk here, but it seems like WordPress should make it clear in the settings that this feature exists, and include a way to opt-out of forced updates like this one. | 42 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290589",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T14:56:02",
"content": "Damn nice collection this time.For once a forced update doesn’t seem so bad – infact i would almost call it entirely good. A cripplingly bad bug that should never ever be allowed to exist (and should ne... | 1,760,373,305.279153 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/30/color-e-ink-display-photo-frame-pranks-mom/ | Color E-Ink Display Photo Frame Pranks [Mom] | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Atmega 128PB",
"color",
"dithering",
"e-ink",
"e-paper",
"Floyd-Steinberg",
"low power",
"waveshare"
] | As a general rule, it’s not nice to prank your mother. Moms have a way of exacting subtle revenge, generally in the form of guilt. That’s not to say it might not be worth the effort, especially when the prank is actually wrapped in a nice gesture, like
this ever-changing e-paper family photo frame
.
The idea the [CNLohr] had was made possible by a new generation of multicolor e-paper displays by
Waveshare
. The display [Charles] chose was a generous 5.65″ unit with a total of seven colors. A little hacking revealed an eighth color was possible, adding a little more depth to the images. The pictures need a little pre-processing first, of course — dithering to accommodate the limited palette — but look surprisingly good on the display. They have a sort of stylized look, as if they were printed on a textured paper with muted inks.
The prank idea was simple — present [Mrs. Lohr] with a cherished family photo to display, only to find out that it had changed to another photo overnight. The gaslighting attempt required a bit more hacking, including some neat tricks to keep the power consumption very low. It was also a bit of a squeeze to get it into a frame that was slim enough not to arouse suspicion. The video below details some of the challenges involved in this build.
In the end, [Mom] wasn’t tricked, but she still seemed pleased with the final product. These displays seem like they could be a lot of fun — perhaps a version of the
very-slow-motion player
but for color movies would be doable. | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290574",
"author": "bbp",
"timestamp": "2020-10-30T13:41:17",
"content": "With a full refresh of 15 seconds, I don’t think anyone has time or attention span for video. Cool nonetheless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6290580... | 1,760,373,305.204833 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/alfred-jones-and-kipp-bradford-to-deliver-keynotes-at-remoticon-next-week/ | Alfred Jones And Kipp Bradford To Deliver Keynotes At Remoticon Next Week | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Remoticon",
"Alfred Jones",
"automation",
"hvac",
"keynote",
"Kipp Bradford",
"Lyft",
"self-driving"
] | There’s just one week left until
Hackaday Remoticon
, our online gathering in place of our traditional in-person conference during this time of social distancing. Joining the more than 20 hands-on workshops that make up the bulk of Remoticon, we’re excited to announce the two keynote speakers who will be taking the virtual stage: Alfred Jones and Kipp Bradford.
Tickets to see these keynote talks, to watch the SMD Challenge, to see hardware demos, and to take part in the show and tell are free, so
get yours today
!
Alfred Jones
Head of Mechanical Engineering at Lyft’s Self-Driving Division
Alfred Jones
is the Head of Mechanical Engineering at Lyft’s level 5 self-driving division. Level 5 means there are no humans involved in operating the vehicle and it is still capable of driving anywhere a human could have. What goes into modifying a vehicle for this level of self-driving? What processes does his team use to deliver safe automation? And will cars in the near future completely get rid of the driver’s seat? Alfred knows and we’ll be hanging on his every word!
Kipp Bradford
CTO fo Treau
Kipp Bradford
is the CTO of Treau, a company bringing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) into the information age. These systems contribute as much as 20% of global emissions each year, so even small efficiency gains stand to have a huge impact. The industry has remained nearly unchanged for decades, and Kipp is at the forefront of evolving the hidden systems found in nearly every building. Will the air conditioner of tomorrow make the one we have today look like a rotary telephone? We look forward to hearing what Kipp has to say about it.
We’re so excited to have these two phenomenal speakers who have also both been involved as expert judges in the Hackaday Prize (Alfred in 2020, Kipp in 2017 and 2018). Help us show our appreciation by packing the virtual lecture halls for their talks on Saturday, November 7th!
Get your free ticket now
. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,304.917721 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/rockin-out-in-ltspice-simulating-classic-guitar-pedals/ | Rockin’ Out In LTSpice: Simulating Classic Guitar Pedals | Adam Zeloof | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"circuit simulation",
"guitar effects",
"guitar pedals",
"LTSpice",
"simulation",
"spice simulation"
] | Musicians have a fantastic language to describe signals. A sound can be fat, dark, crunchy, punchy — the list goes on. These aren’t very technical terms, but they get the job done. After all, it’s much easier to ask to guitarist for a crisper sound than to ask them to sharpen the edges of the waveform, while amplifying the high-frequency
components and attenuating the low-frequency components. Of course, it’s fun to look at signals this way as well, especially when you can correlate shifts in sound quality to changes in the waveform and, ideally, the circuit that produces it.
To undergo such an investigation,
[Nash Reilly] has been simulating guitar effects pedals in LTSpice
. Able to find
most of the schematics he needs
online, [Nash] breaks down the function of each part of the circuit and builds a simulation of the entire system. His write-up clearly explains, and often demonstrates, what’s going on inside the box. On the surface, it’s an interesting tour of the inner workings of your favorite effects pedals. Beyond that, it’s an excellent survey of analog design that is well-worth the read for anybody interested in audio, electronics, or audio electronics.
For those interested in taking the physical route rather than the simulated one, we’ve
taken a look at pedal design before
. Anybody who wants to try their hand at creating simulations can
grab a copy of LTSpice
, or check out a
package called LiveSpice
, which lets you simulate circuits in realtime and use them to process live audio — pretty useful for prototyping guitar effects. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290352",
"author": "NLCAT",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T16:28:26",
"content": "Why would PSpice be better over LTSpice? I’m interested in any application PSpice is superior. I don’t know of any application and LTSpice is substantially faster to simulate. The only thing LTspice doesn’t... | 1,760,373,305.137726 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/dsl-is-barely-hanging-on-the-line-as-telcos-stop-selling-new-service/ | DSL Is Barely Hanging On The Line As Telcos Stop Selling New Service | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Interest",
"Network Hacks",
"News",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"asy",
"asymmetric digital subscriber line",
"dark copper",
"Digital Subscriber Line",
"dsl",
"DSLAM"
] | Are you reading this over AT&T DSL right now? If so, you might have to upgrade or go shopping for a new ISP soon.
AT&T quietly stopped selling new traditional DSLs on October 1st
, though they will continue to sell their upgraded fiber-to-the-node version. This leaves a gigantic digital divide, as only 28% of AT&T’s 21-state territory has been built out with full fiber to the home, and the company says they have done almost all of the fiber expansion that they intend to do. AT&T’s upgraded DSL offering is a fiber and copper hybrid, where fiber ends at the network node closest to the subscriber’s home, and the local loop is still over copper or coax.
At about the same time,
a report
came out written jointly by members of the Communications Workers of America union and a digital inclusion advocacy group. The report alleges that AT&T targets wealthy and non-rural areas for full fiber upgrades, leaving the rest of the country in the dark.
As the internet has been the glue holding these unprecedented times together, this news comes as a slap in the face to many rural customers who are trying to work, attend school, and see doctors over various videoconferencing services.
If you live in a big enough city, chances are you haven’t thought of DSL for about twenty years, if ever. It may surprise you to learn of the popularity of ADSL in the United Kindom. ADSL the main source of broadband in the UK until 2017, having been offset by the rise of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) connections. However,
this Ofcom report
shows that in 2018 ADSL still made up more than a third of all UK broadband connections.
Why do people still have it, and what are they supposed to do in the States when it dries up?
What is DSL, Anyway?
Regular and splitterless ADSL. Image via
The Free Dictionary
DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line, and it’s essentially internet over copper. Up until the mid-1990s, many people accessed the internet by using modems of various baud rates, myself included. To use the modem, one had to tie up the phone line for the duration.
When DSL came out, it was not only faster than the fastest modem you could get at the big box store, you could use the DSL and talk on the phone at the same time. I personally never had a DSL. They were expensive, and by the time I was paying for my own internet, cable modems were gaining favor in the United States. They cost about as much per month, but were touted as being faster than DSLs. I wanted cable TV anyway, so it made sense.
DSL works by using frequencies above the voice frequencies, so it can coexist on the copper with the voice line
. In order to keep DSL frequencies from bleeding over and echoing into voice calls, there are analog low-pass DSL filters, splitters, and combination filter-splitters that separate the lines. Before they reach the wider Internet, DSLs are aggregated at the central office into a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer, or DSLAM, and then fed into the switch.
DSL flavors
When people speak of modern DSLs, they are usually talking about Asynchronous DSL, or ADSL. The download speeds range from about 5-35 Mbps and uploads average 1-10 Mbps. The asymmetry is in the data throughput: upload speeds are slower than download speeds, because people usually do more downloading than uploading.
In Synchronous DSL (SDSL), the throughput is symmetrical. There is also VDSL and VDSL2 — two tiers of Very high-speed DSL. VDSL speeds can reach 52Mbps downstream and 16Mbps upstream, and VDSL2 maxes out around 100Mbps both ways.
This DSL filter-splitter will keep high frequencies out of your phone calls. Image via
Wikimedia Commons
DSL also comes as “wet” or “dry”. If you have a wet DSL, the copper pairs also carry voice. A dry DSL has DSL only. This nomenclature comes from early voice circuitry, which needed batteries to detect whenever you picked up the phone to dial. Dry loop lines weren’t connected to batteries, and got all the power they needed from the central office.
Leaving People in the Dark
The report by CWA and NDIA also accuses AT&T of “digital red-lining” in urban centers, which essentially favors the rich in cities like Cleveland and Detroit where fiber build-outs are concerned. AT&T naturally denies any so-called red-lining activity.
Some urban customers are lucky enough to have other options, like cable, fiber, or satellite access. But many people in rural areas don’t have the luxury of shopping around. Where AT&T is leaving or has already left, subscribers are forced to buy from the incumbent cable company or whatever else is available. They don’t have the luxury of shopping around for the best deal or even the fastest connection.
Dark Copper
AT&T aren’t the only ones abandoning DSL.
Verizon is killing it off everywhere they have fiber service
, and no new customers can buy DSL in FiOS territory. Plenty of people still rely on plain old DSL, and this is a terrible time to leave those customers in the lurch. It’s also a shame that
so much copper is being left to rot in the elements
when it could be taken over by municipalities that could use the lines to ensure that every home that still has copper can have some kind of internet access.
So, Hackaday, are we reaching you on old-fashioned AT&T DSL? What are your plans? If you have DSL and aren’t affected by this, what do you think of it? If nothing else, DSL is robust:
it will even run over wet string
. | 170 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290305",
"author": "Bruce Ferrell",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T14:22:38",
"content": "300bps modems will run over wet string too… And DSL is just about like that. In the 2000s DSL was a big deal, and VERY quickly passed by.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,373,305.55526 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/massive-battle-bot-needs-equally-chunky-custom-molded-wheels/ | Massive Battle Bot Needs Equally Chunky Custom-Molded Wheels | Dan Maloney | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [] | We’ve all run into situations where the right part for the job isn’t something that you can just buy off the shelf. In a lot of cases, 3D-printing is the cure for that problem, but sometimes you need to go big with tough parts for a tough job.
These custom molded urethane battlebot wheels
are a great example of that. (Video, embedded below.)
The robotic warrior in question is “Copperhead”, a heavyweight death-dealer that has competed on the “BattleBots” show on TV. It’s an incredibly stout machine with a ridiculous 50 pound (23 kg) drum of spinning tool-steel on the front to disassemble competitors. Add to that the sheer mass of the bot’s armor plating and running gear, throw in the need to withstand the punishment meted out by equally diabolical weapons, and standard wheels are not going to fly.
As [Robert Cowan] details in the video below, nothing but the sturdiest wheels will do, so the bot builders mold custom wheels with integrated hubs. The four-piece mold was machined out of aluminum to hold the plastic hubs, which were also machined but could easily have been 3D-printed. Polyurethane resin is poured in and adheres to the plastic hub better than we’d have thought it would: enough so to avoid coming apart despite some pretty severe blows. The whole casting process is a good watch, as is
the overview of Copperhead’s design
. And
watching it tear apart “War Hawk”
was a treat too.
You may not be building battle bots, but
a scaled-down version of this process
could be a handy trick to have stored away for someday.
Thanks for the tip, [Zane Atkins]. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290358",
"author": "jwrm22",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T16:44:17",
"content": "Very cool :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6290372",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T17:22:20",
"content": "I especially like... | 1,760,373,304.87061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/diy-regular-expressions/ | DIY Regular Expressions | Al Williams | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"javascript",
"parser",
"regex",
"regular expression",
"regular expressions"
] | In the Star Wars universe, not everyone uses a lightsaber, and those who do wield them had to build them themselves. There’s something to be said about that strategy. Building a car or a radio is a great way to learn how those things work. That’s what [Low Level JavaScript] points out about regular expressions. Sure, a lot of people think they are scary. So why not write
your own regular expression parser and engine
? Get that under your belt and you’ll probably never fear another regular expression.
Of course, most of us probably won’t do it ourselves, but you can still watch the process in the video below. The code is surprisingly short, but don’t expect all the bells and whistles you might find in Python or even Perl.
In the hands of the skilled, regular expressions are very powerful and offer a quick way to split apart text data. Like a lot of powerful ideas, the basic concept — that of a finite state machine — is really simple. It is the application to real problems that becomes difficult.
If you want a primer on regular expressions that doesn’t require you to write your own tools, we have had
a few posts
that can help. If you just want some practice, try
a crossword puzzle
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290257",
"author": "MrP",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T08:44:22",
"content": "Typo: lightsabe",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6290271",
"author": "Rpol",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T10:43:59",
"content": "Whom ever invente... | 1,760,373,305.328273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/this-z80-computer-bootstraps-itself/ | This Z80 Computer Bootstraps Itself | Al Williams | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"CP/M",
"z280",
"z80",
"zilog"
] | [Plasmode] has created several Z80-compatible board designs, at least four of them
using the oddball Z280
. The Z280 was a special variant of a Z80 that could bootstrap itself with no external PROM, making it ideal for anyone trying to build a system on a breadboard. According to his post, the cost to build the board is about $35.
Although the 8080 CPU got a lot of glory, it was much harder to use than the Zilog Z80. The Z80 only required a single clock and power supply, so it was much easier to build a system, even on a breadboard. On top of that, the bus wasn’t multiplexed and it could refresh DRAM memory by itself. Maybe that’s why you can still get Z80-derived chips readily. There was one thing, though, you needed an EPROM or some other way to run some initial code to bootstrap your system. Zilog knew this was a problem. In those days, you had to use a special tool to burn a PROM and, unless it was erasable and you had the special UV light to erase it, any mistakes cost you a chip.
With the Z280, it was possible to load files via the bootloader to make the device program its own EPROM, as this board does. The bootloader is simple. It loads 256 bytes of memory from the serial port and runs it. The chip has two modes with a 16-bit data bus and 24 address bits. However, it can also operate in a Z80-compatible mode. The chip had many innovative features like a memory management unit and cache, but failed to become a success.
As a CP/M board, though, this should be an easy build. The CPU runs with a 12 MHz bus and has a cool megabyte of memory split between RAM and EPROM. There’s a 44-pin IDE interface and two RC2014 expansion connectors.
While $35 doesn’t seem like much, you can
get by with a lot less
using a classic Z80. If you don’t mind using an Arduino for support, you can spend
as little as $4
. | 32 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290245",
"author": "BillSF9c",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T07:07:46",
"content": "Al, neat trailer! Finish the pilot! Had me on the edge of my seat! Left me hanging! I WILL be chasing these links!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,373,305.619206 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/projecting-halloween-peril/ | Projecting Halloween Peril | Matthew Carlson | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"blender",
"halloween",
"projector",
"projector mapping"
] | Every holiday has a few, dedicated individuals committed to “going all out.” Whether they’re trying to show up the neighbors, love the look, or just want to put a smile on the faces of those passing by; the results are often spectacular. A recent trend in decorations has been away from analog lights and ornaments and towards digital light shows via a projector. [Georgia Clegg] and [Luma Bakery] have
written up a fantastic guide detailing the involved process of house projection
for those feeling the holiday spirit.
There is more to the effect than simply pointing a projector at a home and running a video clip. The good displays make use of the geometry of the home and the various depths of the walls don’t distort the picture. The house itself is mapped into the image being displayed.
There are generally two approaches to mapping: point of view mapping and neutral/orthographic mapping. The first is just setting the projector in a fixed position and designing the graphics in such a way that they will look correct. The downside is that if there are multiple projectors, each projector will need to be separately designed for and they cannot be moved or adjusted. The second maps the house in an actual 3d sense and figures out how to display the content according to the viewpoint that the projector is currently at. This means you can create one source content and simply export it for the various projectors.
As you can imagine, the second is much more involved and this is where [Georgia Clegg] has stepped in. There’s a whole series that covers creating your house in MeshRoom, cleaning it up in Blender, creating the videos in After Effects, and setting up your projector to keep it running through the season.
We’ve seen
other amazing projector mapping displays with lasers
here at Hackaday. Now you can make one yourself. Just don’t get bogged down
refurbishing your vector projector
along the way.
Check out the results they’ve achieved in this highlight reel: | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290295",
"author": "mdshaub",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T13:08:16",
"content": "This is great, thanks for sharing the how-to! The media player is much better than leaving a laptop outside for sure. I have also used Raspberry Pi’s, running PocketVJ softwarehttps://www.pocketvj.com/(av... | 1,760,373,305.655697 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/pygame-celebrates-20-years-by-releasing-pygame-2-0/ | PyGame Celebrates 20 Years By Releasing PyGame 2.0 | Tom Nardi | [
"Games",
"News",
"Software Development"
] | [
"games",
"library",
"open source software",
"pygame",
"python",
"SDL",
"software"
] | Python is an absolutely fantastic language for tossing bits of data around and gluing different software components together. But eventually you may find yourself looking to make a program with an output a bit more advanced than the
print()
statement. Once you’ve crossed into the land of graphical Python programming, you’ll quickly find that the
PyGame library is often recommended as a great way to start pushing pixels
even if you’re not strictly making a game.
Today, the project is celebrating an incredible milestone: 20 years of helping Python developers turn their ideas into reality. Started by [Pete Shinners] in 2000 as a way to interface with Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL), the project was quickly picked up by the community and morphed into a portable 2D/3D graphics library that lets developers deploy their code on everything from Android phones to desktop computers.
Things haven’t always gone smoothly for the open source library, and for awhile development had stalled out. But the current team has been making great progress, and decided today’s anniversary was the
perfect time to officially roll out PyGame 2.0
. With more than 3,300 changes committed since the team started working on their 2.0 branch in July of 2018, it’s a bit tough to summarize what’s new. Suffice to say, the library is more capable than ever and is ready to tackle everything from simple 2D art up to 4K GPU-accelerated applications.
Rip and tear in
PyGame 2.0
If you haven’t given PyGame a try in awhile, don’t worry. The team has put special effort into making the library as backwards compatible as possible, so if you’ve got an old project kicking around that you haven’t touched in a decade, it should still run against the latest and greatest version. If you’ve never used it before, the team says they’ll soon be releasing new tutorials that show you how to get the most out of this new release.
Whether you’re
putting together your own implementation of Conway’s “Game of Life”
or creating the
graphical front-end for your own Linux distribution
, PyGame is a powerful tool to have in your collection. Our sincere congratulations to all PyGame developers, past and present, for making it to this auspicious occasion. We can’t wait to see what the next decade will bring.
[Thanks to deshipu for the tip.] | 7 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290277",
"author": "RoGeorge",
"timestamp": "2020-10-29T11:40:35",
"content": "Used PyGame once to illustrate how one can observe the outside of our visible Universe (with the help of an Intergalactic Outpost Relay).How to look over the edge of our visible Universe – Outpost simula... | 1,760,373,305.701823 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/making-a-3d-printed-dslr-camera-mount-even-better/ | Making A 3D Printed DSLR Camera Mount Even Better | Tom Nardi | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"camera mount",
"dslr",
"stepper motor",
"TMC2208"
] | We’d love to say that all of our projects worked perfectly on the first try, but the average Hackaday reader is a bit too experienced to buy a fib like that. The reality is, DIY projects rarely get everything right out of the gate. It takes some time to identify issues and work out all the kinks. But of course, that’s half the fun.
For a perfect example of this process, check out the latest update on the
3D printed DSLR camera mount that [isaac879] has been working on
. When we last checked in with this project over the summer the mount was already impressive, but with the latest improvements and the addition of a whole new axis of movement, this homebrew camera motion system is an extremely compelling project for anyone who wants to take their project videos to the next level.
The new Hall effect sensor mounts are a very nice touch.
Back in June,
the mount [isaac879] showed off was only capable of pan and tilt
. But as you can see in the video after the break, he’s since mounted that to a track made of 20×40 aluminum extrusion and added another stepper motor. This allows the pan/tilt mount to move itself back and forth on the track to get those slick panning shots that all the cool kids use in their videos nowadays.
But even if you’re not interested in the slider aspect, the core pan/tilt mount has also received a number of refinements over the last few months. Perhaps the most obvious is the switch over to thinner and lighter stepper motors. Reducing mass is always an improvement with a moving system like this, and in the case of the pan motor, the shorter can prevents a potential collision with the camera itself. Obviously the smaller motors are weaker, but [isaac879] considers that a feature; the mini motors will just start skipping steps if things get bound up instead of potentially damaging your expensive camera.
He’s switched to flange bearings to help hold the frame together, improved wire routing, added a mounting point for the electronics, reprinted the pinion gears in a flexible filament to help absorb some vibrations, and switched over to TMC2208 stepper drivers. The new drivers may actually be one of the biggest usability upgrades, as they allow the entire mount to move faster and more accurately. Critically, [isaac879] also reports the new drivers have solved a troublesome vibration issue he was seeing when the camera was moving slowly.
Obviously you can throw together a
simple pan and tilt mount with a couple of servos and some zip ties
if you only need to use it once or twice, but a project of this caliber would rightfully become a permanent fixture in your workspace. Perfect if you’re looking to
up your project photography game
.
[Thanks to Steven for the tip.] | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290161",
"author": "Wallace Owen",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T21:44:32",
"content": "The AccelStepper library includes MultiStepper.cpp, .h for the purpose of driving multiple axes synchronously. Wouldn’t this work for you?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,373,305.744525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/an-automatic-label-dispenser-for-quicker-stickers/ | An Automatic Label Dispenser For Quicker Stickers | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"A4988",
"arduino",
"dispenser",
"ir sensor",
"label",
"NEMA-17",
"stepper motor",
"sticker"
] | If you have any kind of business, chances are it involves stickers at some point in the process. More accurately it involves you peeling the backs off of sticker after sticker, slowly wasting time and working your way toward a repetitive stress injury.
Why do that to yourself when you could have a machine do it for you?
That’s exactly the thinking behind [Mr Innovative]’s automatic label dispensing machine. All he has to do is load up the roll of labels, dial in the length of each label, and away the machine goes, advancing and dispensing and taking up the empty paper all at once. In fact, that’s how it works: the take-up reel is on the shaft of a NEMA-17 stepper motor, which gets its instructions from an Arduino Nano and an A4988 motor driver. Our favorite part is the IR sensor located underneath the sticker that’s ready to take — the machine doesn’t feed another until it senses that you’ve taken the previous sticker. We stuck the demo and build video after the break.
Our other favorite thing about this build is that [Mr Innovative] seems to have used the same PCB as his
freaky fast bobbin winder
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290112",
"author": "AMS",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T18:49:21",
"content": "If you don’t mind it losing the first sticker you could have it automatically determine the sticker length by rolling off the sticker until it sees it go away.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,373,305.890525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/linux-fu-troubleshooting-incron/ | Linux Fu: Troubleshooting Incron | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"incron",
"linux",
"Linux Fu"
] | You probably know about
cron
, a program that lets you schedule programs to run at various times. We’ve also talked about
incron
, which is very similar but instead of time, it reacts to changes in the file system. If you ever wanted to write a program that, say, detects a change in a file and automatically uploads it to a programmer, backs it up, e-mails it somewhere, or anything else, then incron might be for you. Although we’ve talked about it before, incron has some peculiarities that make it very difficult to debug problems, so I thought I’d share some of the tricks I use when working with incron.
I was thinking about this because I wanted to set up a simple system where I have a single document directory under git control. Changing a markdown file in that folder would generate Word document and PDF equivalents. Conversely, changing a Word document would produce a markdown version.
This is easy to do with pandoc — it speaks many different formats. The trick is running it only on changed files and as soon as they change. The task isn’t that hard, but it does take a bit to debug since it’s a bit nontrivial.
Incron Review
Setting up incron can be a bit of a pain. I’m going to assume you have a way to install it using a package manager like
apt
and that your system uses systemd to start and stop the service.
There’s more to it than that, though. You’ll need to be named in the
/etc/incron.allow
file (and not named in
/etc/incron.deny
). Once you are set up, it is pretty easy to use. Until it isn’t.
Each user has an
incrontab
. Use:
man 5 incrontab
to find out about it. To edit it, use this command:
incrontab -e
Each line has three fields and you must use a single tab between each field. The first field is the directory or file to watch, the second field has comma-separated entries to tell incron what kind of changes you are looking for and some other options. The final field is the command to run.
There are some special characters you can use in the command line.
$@
gives you the directory name, for example. The
$#
macro is the file name while
$%
gives you the event type as a string (
$&
is a numeric code for the same). If you need a real dollar sign, just double it.
The events are things like
IN_CREATE
,
IN_DELETE
,
IN_MODIFY
, and many others. You can use any number of them together, just use commas between them. I’ll have more to say about that later. There are also some options like
IN_DONT_FOLLOW
which stops symbolic link dereferencing. You can also set
recursive=false
to stop monitoring subdirectories and
loopable=true
which is supposed to stop a common problem but doesn’t always.
You’ll see documentation on the internet that is sometimes out of date.
The current development is on GitHub
, but the main developer stopped back in 2012 and there was a two-year gap before someone picked it up for bug fixes. Sometimes it pays to read the source code of the version you have to understand exactly what’s going on.
What’s Wrong With It?
The incron service suffers from an identity crisis. Both by function and name, it must be similar to cron, right? Superficially, that’s true, but the details are quite a bit different. For one thing, older versions of incron don’t allow comments in the table. So you might think you’ve commented something out, but you haven’t really. On top of that, it is very difficult to get the output from your commands or even decent status. Not impossible, though, just difficult. Recent versions do allow comments, but it was a long time coming, and your version may or may not be up to date.
The other thing that is frequently a problem is that any action you take in your program that triggers a file system change might put you in an endless loop. You would think incron would figure this out and do something. Instead, your one line in your private incrontab can crash the entire daemon.
To further compound things, many programs do things you don’t expect that break some of the events. You might think, for example, that if you want to know when a file changes you should monitor IN_MODIFY. Makes sense. But most editors don’t work that way. If you edit the file, it will sometimes work on a copy of the file in /tmp and then the save operation is really a move. Sometimes programs with similar functions will have different event flows. For example,
scp
and
rsync
handle files differently and catching when a new file appears will require different handling depending on which program put it there.
The First Tip: Log as You Work on Commands
So that leads to the first tip. Write a temporary rule using the IN_ALL_EVENTS keyword and use a little shell script to just log what happens when you do things you think will happen to the file. You might find the results surprising and it is better to understand the event flow for your use case before you start writing real scripts.
Suppose you have a script called echoarg.sh:
#!/bin/bash
fn="$1"
shift
echo "$@" >>"$fn"
Just a quick and dirty script, but you can use it with incron:
/home/user/tmp/itest IN_ALL_EVENTS /bin/bash echoarg.sh /home/user/tmp/echoarg.log $% - $@/$#
The file names ought to have quotes, of course, but since we are just printing them out, it doesn’t matter here. One thing to note: some installations will not allow incron to write to places like /tmp or even monitor files there. You are better off sticking to a directory you know you own (in this case /home/user/tmp). Here’s the result of running
touch foo
in the
~/tmp/itest
directory:
IN_ATTRIB - /home/user/tmp/itest/foo
IN_CREATE - /home/user/tmp/itest/foo
IN_OPEN - /home/user/tmp/itest/foo
IN_CLOSE_WRITE - /home/user/tmp/itest/foo
More Things to Worry About
Each distribution packages things a bit differently, so you may have to read some documentation. For example, on Debian-based systems, what little it does get logged by incron is written to the system log. But on some other common distributions, it reuses the cron log file.
The program is very finicky about spaces and tabs, too. So a stray space between the second and third fields will mess things up. So will a tab after the program name, the shell will take the tab and the next token as part of the program name.
Speaking of the shell, incron is very peculiar about finding shells and setting environments. Your version may vary, but the safest thing to do is assume you will need a path to everything and an explicit shell in the incrontab. If you need special things in the
PATH
or other environment configuration, do it in the script. Even if you are running a binary, it pays to write a little wrapper so you can set everything up the way you want. At the very least, when you run your test, dump the runtime environment out to a temporary log file so you don’t find out the hard way that you are missing a lot of your expected environment.
Using a command like $(date) is doomed because incron will eat the dollar sign. If you feel lucky, try using $$(date).
The Big Event
After you understand the events you want to process, you need to write your script and test it as much as you can without using incron. In my case, I wrote autopandoc with the idea that I’d add the PDF functions later:
#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" ]
then
exit 1
fi
if [ ! -f "$1" ]
then
exit 2
fi
dir=$(dirname "$1")
ffilename=$(basename -- "$1")
ext="${ffilename##*.}"
filename="${ffilename%.*}"
case "$ext" in
doc*) newext="md"
;;
md) newext="docx"
;;
*) exit 3
esac
if [ ! -f "$dir/generated" ]
then
mkdir "$dir/generated"
fi
exec pandoc "$1" -o "$dir/generated/$filename.$newext"
This is simple to run from a command line with fake directory, file, and event arguments and make sure the logic does what you want. Trust me, that will be much easier than debugging during incron events.
My first attempt didn’t work well at all and there was very little explanation. By watching the logs, I could see that the file events were happening, but there was no evidence that my scripts — no matter how simple — were running. Turns out, adding an explicit /bin/bash to the table made everything work.
However, getting incron to stop retriggering if I wrote back to the same directory proved to be challenging. I wound up making a subdirectory which would trigger a change that would then make another subdirectory, triggering another change. Eventually, incron would die. Not just a worker thread for my user. Incron would die for all users. I suppose you could change systemd to relaunch it, but that isn’t really a solution.
There are a few options to inhibit incron from reacting multiple times to the same file, but making a new file still causes events and, honestly, if it didn’t that would be another problem if you were trying to handle multiple users. I wound up punting, but first, let’s see how you can peek inside of what’s happening during an incron run.
It’s Log!
As I mentioned, the log file can show up in a few different places. KSystemLog is handy if you use KDE since it can filter and show you events as they happen. You can also use tail -f, of course, but you might need a grep to cut down on the noise.
If you use systemd, you can try something like this:
journalctl -f -u incron.service
This acts like a
tail -f
for the incron log file. Watching incron repeatedly trigger events on /my_dir/subdir/subdir/subdir…. will tell you a lot about what’s going on in your script.
Other Tips: Run the Daemon Yourself, Use strace, and Max Your Watches
You can stop the incron daemon using your choice of methods (e.g.,
systemctl stop incron
) and then run
incrond
yourself with the
-n
option. That shows you what the program is doing. Be sure to run it as root.
Another thing that makes possible is using
strace
to run the program. This will reveal all the system calls the program makes, so if you are wondering what files it opens and the results of those opens, that’s the way to do it:
sudo strace incrond -n
The
-n
option makes the program stay in the foreground. Just remember to kill it when you are done and start the service again. Of course, if you are on a machine you share with other people, this is probably a pretty rude idea.
If you do start making use of incron, you may find you run out of file system watches. If you do, try:
sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches
You can temporarily change the number allowed by using
sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1000000
Make it permanent by editing /etc/sysctl.conf or add a file to /etc/sysctl.d.
Does it Work?
Once you do get things working, it works well. For production, though, it worries me that one errant script can crash the whole service. There are alternatives. If you don’t mind systemd, there are
path units
. There are several possible alternatives on GitHub, although none seem recently maintained.
Like most Linux tools, sometimes this is the right choice, and sometimes you’ll want to use something else. But it still pays to understand all the tools you can have in your box. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290091",
"author": "Protolamer",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T17:25:19",
"content": "I’ve always just used inotifywait and inotifywatch in scripts and oneliners directly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6290094",
"author"... | 1,760,373,305.843772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/replace-your-ir-remote-with-a-web-browser/ | Replace Your IR Remote With A Web Browser | Tom Nardi | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP32",
"infrared",
"IR gateway",
"IR remote",
"smart home"
] | While more and more consumer products are rushing to include WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, the simplicity and reliability of infrared has kept it in the game in the game far longer than many might have thought. Despite being thinner and sleeker, the IR remote control that comes with your brand new smart TV isn’t fundamentally different than what we were using in the 1980s.
But that doesn’t mean IR devices can’t enjoy some modern conveniences. Sick of misplacing his remote,
[Sasa Karanovic] decided to come up with a way he could emulate it
to control his TV over the network. Now with nothing more exotic than a web browser on his phone or computer, he can tap away at a visual representation of a remote to control the TV from anywhere in the house. As you might expect, this project could readily be adapted to control whatever IR gadget you might have in mind.
Assembling a simple IR transmitter dongle.
Admittedly, this isn’t exactly breaking any new ground. We’ve seen plenty of people come up with similar IR gateways in the past with varying levels of complexity. But what we really like about this project is that not only has [Sasa] shared the source code that turns an ESP32 into a network-controlled IR transmitter, but he’s put together a concise video that demonstrates how easy it is so spin up your own version. The 3D printed enclosure that looks like a traditional IR remote was a nice touch too.
The hardware for this project is little more than an ESP32 development board and an LED, but if you’re looking for something a bit more built for purpose, we recently saw a
very slick open hardware IR gateway
that might fit your needs. | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290078",
"author": "Rafel",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T16:40:39",
"content": "I have since a few years similar solution, works great. Before you go for this, have a look on feature list here.It is amazing, all my needs covered… And using cheaper hardware. I know difference is neglib... | 1,760,373,305.96117 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/bringing-high-temperature-3d-printing-to-the-masses/ | Bringing High Temperature 3D Printing To The Masses | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Parts",
"Slider"
] | [
"3d printing",
"heated build chamber",
"high temperature",
"nasa",
"peek",
"PEI"
] | Despite the impressive variety of thermoplastics that can be printed on consumer-level desktop 3D printers, the most commonly used filament is polylactic acid (PLA). That’s because it’s not only the cheapest material available, but also the easiest to work with. PLA can be extruded at temperatures as low as 180 °C, and it’s possible to get good results even without a heated bed. The downside is that objects printed in PLA tend to be somewhat brittle and have a low heat tolerance. It’s a fine plastic for prototyping and light duty projects, but it won’t take long for many users to outgrow its capabilities.
The next step up is usually polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG). This material isn’t much more difficult to work with than PLA, but is more durable, can handle higher temperatures, and in general is better suited for mechanical parts. If you need greater durability or higher heat tolerance than PETG offers, you could move on to something like acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), or nylon. But this is where things start to get tricky. Not only are the extrusion temperatures of these materials greater than 250 °C, but an enclosed print chamber is generally recommended for best results. That puts them on the upper end of what the hobbyist community is generally capable of working with.
Industrial 3D printers like the Apium P220 start at $30,000.
But high-end industrial 3D printers can use even stronger plastics such as polyetherimide (PEI) or members of the polyaryletherketone family (PAEK, PEEK, PEKK). Parts made from these materials are especially desirable for aerospace applications, as they can replace metal components while being substantially lighter.
These plastics must be extruded at temperatures approaching 400 °C, and a sealed build chamber kept at >100 °C for the duration of the print is an absolute necessity. The purchase price for a commercial printer with these capabilities is in the tens of thousands even on the low end, with some models priced well into the six figure range.
Of course there was a time, not quite so long ago, where the same could have been said of 3D printers in general. Machines that were once the sole domain of exceptionally well funded R&D labs now sit on the workbenches of hackers and makers all over the world. While it’s hard to say if we’ll see the same race to the bottom for high temperature 3D printers, the first steps towards democratizing the technology are already being made.
Engineering Challenges
Put simply, a machine that supports these so-called engineering plastics needs to be an amalgamation of a traditional 3D printer and an oven. But of course, therein lies the problem. The printer itself, especially of the type and quality that we’ve become accustomed to at the desktop level, wouldn’t survive in such an environment. For a consumer 3D printer to successfully produce parts in PEI and PEEK, it would need to be extensively modified;
which is exactly what NASA did with a LulzBot TAZ 4 back in 2016
.
LulzBot TAZ 4 modified for high temperature printing.
The first step was building an insulated enclosure that could fit around the TAZ 4, and installing an array of 35 watt infrared heating lamps inside of it. Naturally the machine’s exposed electronics would overheat in such an environment, so they had to be relocated to the outside of the box.
The stepper motors would overheat as well, but rather than trying to move them, the team at Langley Research Center opted to design cooling jackets to fit over each motor through which pressurized air could be circulated.
Like
other desktop 3D printers
, the TAZ 4 also utilized a number of printed parts in its construction. Printed in ABS , these parts would have quickly failed inside the heated chamber meant to support PEEK. The parts were reprinted in PC, but even this material wasn’t resilient enough for permanent use. So in classic RepRap tradition, the team printed the third and final set of parts on the modified printer itself in a form of PEI known commercially as Ultem.
Somewhat surprisingly, the team had little trouble upgrading the TAZ 4 with a hotend and nozzle that could extrude plastics at up to 400 °C. The popular E3D-v6 hotend costs less than $100 USD and was found to be capable of reaching these temperatures, though the team did need to replace its thermistor with a higher-rated model and make some adjustments to the printer’s Marlin firmware to allow it to reach temperatures that under normal circumstances would trigger a thermal shutdown.
Objects printed in Ultem 1010 on NASA’s modified LulzBot TAZ 4.
Ultimately, the NASA report concluded that the modifications to the LulzBot TAZ 4 were a complete success. They noted that attempting to print PEI with the IR heating lamps off lead to serious print issues such as warping and delamination, though this was to be expected. No final dollar figure is given for the cost of the modifications, but considering the base price of a TAZ 4 was approximately $2,200 USD at the time, the entire project was likely 1/10th the cost of comparable commercial offerings.
Starting from Scratch
NASA’s experiment showed that it was possible to modify an existing open source desktop 3D printer to print high temperature engineering plastics, and they even showed it could be done relatively economically. But nobody would say that bootstrapping this way was an ideal solution. There was too much duplicated effort involved in the conversion, as the engineers had to specifically undo design choices originally made by LulzBot. Even so, the experiment did create a valuable baseline for other projects that want to start from scratch.
Just last month,
a team from the Michigan Technological University unveiled Cerberus
, an open source high temperature 3D printer capable of producing parts in PEI and PEKK that can be built for just $1,000 USD. Rather than attempting to adapt an existing design, the team started from the ground up with high temperature printing in mind. All of the sensitive electronic components are mounted well away from the sealed build chamber, which uses a mains-powered 1 kW space heater core to rapidly bring it up to operating temperature.
Crucially, all of the stepper motors have also been moved outside of the build chamber. While this does make the kinematics somewhat more complex than what you’d see in a traditional desktop 3D printer, it means the Cerberus doesn’t need a dedicated motor cooling system like NASA’s modified TAZ did.
A simplified design combined with the use of off-the-shelf control electronics including the Arduino Mega 2560 and RAMPS 1.4 board, and the same E3D-v6 hotend used on the modified TAZ 4, puts the Cerberus well within the means of the motivated hobbyist. Especially since the team has provided clear and detailed assembly instructions for their printer, something notably missing from NASA’s report.
Expanding Possibilities
Between NASA’s TAZ 4 retrofit and all-new designs such as the Cerberus, it’s clear that the technical capability to print PEI and PEEK objects in the home workshop is there for anyone who wants it badly enough. It’s not quite as easy as buying a $200 3D printer on Amazon yet, but if the demand is there, more low-cost machines based on these core principles will certainly start hitting the market. It’s really not much different than the current wave of affordable laser cutters that have been taking over makerspaces these last few years.
Makers all over the globe have been printing PPE
So, is there a demand for them? This time last year, the answer might have been different. But with the world still combating the COVID-19 pandemic,
there’s a new demand for rapidly produced personal protective equipment (PPE)
that nobody could have anticipated.
As explained in the documentation for Cerberus, the team at Michigan Technological University was inspired to look into developing an affordable high temperature 3D printer specifically because it could be used to create PPE that would survive heat sterilization.
Rather than being disposable
, the team believes items such as face masks printed in PEKK could be used over the long term.
Printed parts that can be repeatedly sterilized would obviously have other potential medical applications. A portable low-cost machine that can produce these components could potentially save lives in remote areas of the world were rapid access to traditional supplies and equipment may be unavailable.
Critics of 3D printing have often said that the core failing of the machines is that the parts they print are rarely robust enough to be used as anything more than a rough prototype. But when a $1,000 printer can produce parts in aerospace-grade materials, it seems like we’re closer to a manufacturing revolution than ever before. | 77 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6290043",
"author": "Cyna",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T14:19:51",
"content": "Thank you for the first somewhat interesting 3DP article on HaD for a long time (not that most of it is common knowledge in the 3DP community, but there are probably a few newcomers in here).",
"parent_i... | 1,760,373,306.217193 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/the-10000-pixel-per-inch-display-is-now-possible/ | The 10,000 Pixel Per Inch Display Is Now Possible | Al Williams | [
"LED Hacks",
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"led",
"oled",
"Pixel per inch",
"PPI"
] | A good smartphone now will have about 500 pixels per inch (PPI) on its screen. Even the best phones we could find clock in at just over 800 PPI. But Stanford researchers have a way to
make displays with more than 10,000 pixels per inch
using technology borrowed from solar panel research.
Of course, that might be overkill on a six-inch phone screen, but for larger displays and close up displays like those used for virtual reality, it could be a game-changer. Your brain is good at editing it out, but in a typical VR headset, you can easily see the pixels from the display even at the highest PPI resolutions available. Worse, you can see the gaps between pixels which give a screen door-like effect. But with a density of 10,000 PPI it would be very difficult to see individual pixels, assuming you can drive that many dots.
Working with Samsung, the team added an extra layer to the bottom of a conventional OLED screen. The new layer — an optical metasurface — has very tiny corrugated mirrors that reflect white light into red, green, and blue components allowing the high density of pixels. A normal OLED panel uses white OLEDs also, but uses a filter to create the different pixel colors.
If you read the Standford paper, you’ll learn about
Fabry-Pérot cavities
and the
Purcell
effect. We are sure if you spend all day thinking about OLED displays, this is stuff that makes sense to you, but we had to look up quite a few things on Wikipedia.
While this is not in production, the team did create a proof-of-concept device not only had dense pixel packing, but also high color purity and twice the efficiency of a conventional display. Samsung is investigating scaling the technique to production.
We know you can make
OLEDs at home
, but probably not at that density. Of course, for serious organic lighting, why not consider
a pickle
? | 54 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289987",
"author": "visionrouge.net",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T11:42:20",
"content": "The Sony A7S3 camera have an EVF of 9,437,184 dots for a size of 0.6″ So it’s already there, or I’m missing something?(3,145,728 pixels OLED to be precise)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,373,306.447527 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/28/a-vga-retro-console-with-everything-generated-from-a-single-arm-cortex-m0/ | A VGA Retro Console With Everything Generated From A Single ARM Cortex M0 | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"arm cortex m0",
"console",
"vga"
] | The later game consoles of the 8-bit era such as Nintendo’s NES or Sega’s Master System produced graphics that went beyond what owners of early 1980s home computers had come to expect from machines with the same processors, but they did so only with the help of powerful custom chipsets for their day that took care of the repetitive hard work of assembling frames and feeding them to the display device. Reproducing their equivalent with more modern hardware requires either some means of creating similar custom silicon, or a processor significantly more powerful such that it can do the work of those extra chips itself. But even with a modern microcontroller it’s still a significant challenge, so [Nicola Wrachien]’s uChip,
a VGA console that does the whole job in software on a humble ARM Cortex M0
is a significant achievement.
If you are familiar with the home computers that used the processor to generate the display output, you’ll know that they spent most of their time working on the lines of the display and only had a few milliseconds of the frame blanking period for the device to perform any computing tasks before returning to the next frame. The 320×240 at 57 frames per second gives a line sync frequency of 30 kHz, and the computing happens while the display is sent the black space at the top and bottom of the screen. This is reckoned to be equivalent of the ATSAMD21E18 microcontroller on the uChip module the system uses running at only 10MHz rather than the 48MHz it is running at in reality, and with these resources it also runs the game logic, USB controller interfacing, reading games from the SD card, and game sound.
The result is a complete game console on a small PCB little longer on its longest side than its connectors. We may have largely seen the demise of VGA on the desktop
several years after we called it
, but it seems there is plenty of life in the interface yet for hardware hackers. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289959",
"author": "Danjovic",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T08:21:38",
"content": "Awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289968",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T09:00:16",
"content": "It’s a bit of a c... | 1,760,373,306.354042 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/circuit-sculpture-breathes-life-into-discrete-components/ | Circuit Sculpture Breathes Life Into Discrete Components | Kristina Panos | [
"LED Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"2020",
"aerosol",
"astable multivibrator",
"breathing",
"Circuit Sculpture",
"leds",
"pandemic",
"transistor"
] | We’ve probably all given a lot of thought to breathing this year in various contexts. Though breathing is something we all must do, this simple act has become quite the troublemaker in 2020. They say the best art imitates life, and [bornach]’s Astable Exhalation certainly does that, right down to the part about astability. It’s especially interesting that
the end result — breathing, visualized — is so calming, it could almost be a meditative device
.
There is nary a microcontroller to be found on this circuit sculpture, which uses a pair of astable multivibrator(s) to light two sets of LEDs that represent air being inhaled and exhaled. We like that [bornach] used two sized of exhale LEDs to represent droplets and aerosols in this beautiful circuit sculpture, and we love that most of the components were scavenged from old electronics and older projects.
Our
Circuit Sculpture Challenge
runs until November 10th, so even if you’re waiting to take the Remoticon workshop before entering, there’s still a little bit of time to whip something up afterward in the post-con adrenaline rush phase. If you need inspiration,
check out some of the other contest entries
or
just surf through all things circuit sculpture
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289978",
"author": "tTh",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T10:50:02",
"content": "https://thomasbigot.net/audioneuralnetwork.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6290033",
"author": "jacques1956",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T13:44... | 1,760,373,306.262324 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/quantum-inspired-algorithm-going-back-to-the-source/ | Quantum Inspired Algorithm Going Back To The Source | Matthew Carlson | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"algorithm",
"quantum",
"wavefunction collapse"
] | Recently, [Jabrils] set out to accomplish a difficult task:
porting a quantum-inspired algorithm to run on a (simulated) quantum computer
. Algorithms are often inspired by all sorts of natural phenomena. For example, a solution to the traveling salesman problem
models ants and their pheromone trails
. Another famous example is neural nets, which are inspired by the neurons in your brain. However, attempting to run a machine learning algorithm on your neurons, even with the assistance of pen and paper would be a nearly impossible exercise.
The quantum-inspired algorithm in question is known as
the wavefunction collapse function
. In a nutshell, you have a cube of voxels, a graph of nodes, or simply a grid of tiles as well as a list of detailed rules to determine the state of a node or tile. At the start of the algorithm, each node or point is considered in a state of superposition, which means it is considered to be in every possible state. Looking at the list of rules, the algorithm then begins to collapse the states. Unlike a quantum computer, states of superposition is not an intrinsic part of a classic computer, so this solving must be done iteratively. In order to reduce possible conflicts and contradictions later down the line, the nodes with the least entropy (the smallest number of possible states) are solved first. At first, random states are assigned, with the changes propagating through the system. This process is continued until the waveform is ultimately collapsed to a stable state or a contradiction is reached.
What’s interesting is that the ruleset doesn’t need to be coded, it can be inferred from an example. A classic use case of this algorithm is 2D pixel-art level design. By providing a small sample level, the algorithm churns and produces similar but wholly unique output. This makes it easy to provide thousands of unique and beautiful levels from an easy source image, however it comes at a price. Even a small level can take hours to fully collapse. In theory, a quantum computer should be able to do this much faster, since after all, it was the inspiration for this algorithm in the first place.
[Jabrils] spent weeks trying to get things running but ultimately didn’t succeed. However, his efforts give us a peek into the world of quantum computing and this amazing algorithm. We look forward to hearing more about this project from [Jabrils] who is continuing to work on it in his spare time. Maybe give it a shot yourself by learning
the basics of quantum computing for yourself
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289918",
"author": "rnjacobs",
"timestamp": "2020-10-28T02:18:20",
"content": "How does this compare to [wikipedia:Constrained optimization] in general?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289947",
"author": "salec",
"time... | 1,760,373,306.303036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/community-rallies-behind-youtube-dl-after-dmca-takedown/ | Community Rallies Behind Youtube-dl After DMCA Takedown | Tom Nardi | [
"News",
"Software Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"dmca",
"github",
"riaa",
"takedown",
"youtube"
] | At this point, you’ve likely heard that the GitHub repository for
youtube-dl
was recently removed in response to a
DMCA takedown notice filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
. As the name implies, this popular Python program allowed users to produce local copies of audio and video that had been uploaded to YouTube and other content hosting sites. It’s a critical tool for digital archivists, people with slow or unreliable Internet connections, and more than a few Hackaday writers.
It will probably come as no surprise to hear that the DMCA takedown and subsequent removal of
the
youtube-dl
repository
has utterly failed to contain the spread of the program. In fact, you could easily argue that it’s done the opposite. The developers could never have afforded the amount of publicity the project is currently enjoying, and as the code is licensed as public domain, users are free to share it however they see fit. This is one genie that absolutely won’t be going back into its bottle.
In true hacker spirit, we’ve started to see some rather inventive ways of spreading the outlawed tool. A Twitter user by the name of [GalacticFurball] came up with a way to
convert the program into a pair of densely packed rainbow images
that can be shared online. After downloading the PNG files, a command-line ImageMagick incantation turns the images into a compressed tarball of the source code. A similar trick was one of the ways used to
distribute the DeCSS DVD decryption code back in 2000
; though unfortunately, we doubt anyone is going to get the ~14,000 lines of Python code that makes up
youtube-dl
printed up on any t-shirts.
Screenshot of
the Tweet sharing YouTube-dl repository
as two images
It’s worth noting that GitHub has officially distanced themselves from the RIAA’s position. The company was forced to remove the repo when they received the DMCA takedown notice, but CEO Nat Friedman dropped into the project’s IRC channel with a promise that efforts were being made to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.
In a recent interview with TorrentFreak
, Friedman said the removal of
youtube-dl
from GitHub
was at odds with the company’s own internal archival efforts
and financial support for the Internet Archive.
But as it turns out, some changes will be necessary before the repository can be brought back online. While there’s certainly some debate to be had about the overall validity of the RIAA’s claim, it isn’t completely without merit. As pointed out in the DMCA notice, the project made use of several automated tests that ran the code against copyrighted works from artists such as Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake. While these were admittedly very poor choices to use as official test cases, the RIAA’s assertion that the entire project exists solely to download copyrighted music has no basis in reality.
[Ed Note: This is only about GitHub. You can still
get the code directly from the source
.] | 63 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289874",
"author": "Arthur Wolf",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T23:11:02",
"content": "Remove test cases, re-upload under new name, done instantly. Then work on replacing the media in the test cases with CC-BY-SA work, which really shouldn’t be hard…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,373,306.63345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/whats-in-a-usb-c-connector/ | What’s In A USB-C Connector? | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"connector design",
"connectors",
"USB C"
] | Anyone who’s ever put together a bill-of-materials for an electronic device will be familiar with the process of scouring supplier catalogs and data sheets for the best choice of components. The trick is to score the best combination of price and performance for the final product, and for those unused to the process, there are always seemingly identical products with an astonishingly wide variety of prices.
It’s a topic [Timon] explores in a Twitter thread
, examining a 20-cent in quantity of 100 USB-C socket alongside one that costs only 5 cents, and his teardown provides a fascinating insight into their manufacture.
The parts look so nearly identical that while it’s possible to differentiate between them visually, it’s near impossible to work out which was the cheaper. Some tiny features such as a crack in a metal fold or a bit less plating on the contacts emerge, but even then it’s no guide to the quality as they don’t appear on the same part. It’s only when the metal shell is removed to expose the underlying plastic moulding that more clues emerge, as one moulding is more complex than the other. The more complex moulding provides a better and more reliable fit at the expense of a much more costly moulding process, so at last we can not only identify the more expensive part but also see where the extra cash has gone. It’s a subtle thing, but one that could make a huge difference to the performance of the final assembly and which makes for a fascinating expose for electronic design engineers.
If connectors are your thing,
there’s a wealth of fascinating information in their history
. | 30 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289825",
"author": "Wallace Owen",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T20:09:36",
"content": "Article completely glosses over the pin spread on the cheap connector, where multiple pins are assigned to the same pad. The cheap part has gaps, the more expensive unit gets the bends just perfect.... | 1,760,373,306.516598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/the-ground-beneath-your-feet-superadobe-construction/ | The Ground Beneath Your Feet: SuperAdobe Construction | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"home hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 H",
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"adobe",
"Affordable",
"CalEarth",
"compass",
"construction",
"dome",
"dwelling",
"earth",
"home",
"House",
"laser",
"lidar",
"pipe",
"SuperAdobe"
] | Homes in different parts of the world used to look different from each other out of necessity, built to optimize for the challenges and benefits of local climate. When residential climate control systems became commonplace that changed. Where a home in tropical south Florida once required very different building methods (and materials) compared to a home in the cold mountains of New England, essentially identical construction methods are now used for single-family homes in any climate. The result is inefficient and virtually indistinguishable housing from coast to coast, regardless of climate. As regions throughout the world are facing increasingly dire housing shortages, the race is on to find solutions that are economical and available to us right now.
The mission of CalEarth, one of the non-profits that Hackaday has teamed up with for this year’s Hackaday Prize, is to address that housing shortage by building energy-efficient homes out of materials already available in the areas that they will be built.
CalEarth specializes in building adobe
, or earth, homes that have a large thermal mass and an inexpensive bill of materials. Not only does this save on heating and cooling costs, but transportation costs for materials can be reduced as well. Some downside to this method of construction are increased labor costs and the necessity of geometric precision of the construction method, both of which are tackled in this two-month design challenge.
Low-Tech Solutions to Complex Problems
One of the biggest time sinks when building this type of adobe house is that the construction requires long bags to be filled with earth, traditionally done with two or more people in order to keep the bag open and allow it to fill properly.
The CalEarth Dream Team tackled this issue
by creating an “earth funnel” which allows someone to hold it open with one hand while shoveling earth into the bag with the other. A rubber band around the bag allows the long bag to unravel itself as its filled, which saves the labor of one person. The funnel is made from laser cut material — although it could be hand cut with a simple pattern — and assembled using only a rivet gun.
While the design of the funnel works and shows tremendous promise for this type of building method, there are some design improvements to work out in the future. Figuring out a more ideal size is at the top of the list, as some users found it to be slightly too large, along with adding more handles to the funnel itself. Another problem is that the rubber band has a tendency to slide off, so that system needs to be fine tuned as well. Finally, the team hopes to ship these out with detailed instructions on their use so that their future users know both how to assemble the funnel and how to use it properly for maximum effect.
Geometry is Important
While the funnel saves a tremendous amount of time, the other major source of lost labor is making sure that the walls have the correct shape. The SuperAdobe building method involves taking the long bags of earth and laying them on top of each other, building up to create the walls. Once the walls are in place, narrower and narrower rings are laid in order to create a domed roof. In between each ring a strip of barbed wire is laid which prevents the bags from slipping. However, the rings need to be precisely positioned to maintain the integrity of the structure, so typically a compass (the kind used for transferring measurements, not the kind for path finding) is used made out of two poles. The traditional tool is cumbersome to use, however, so the CalEarth team designed an attachment which solves a number of these problems.
The new compass, called a “pipe sail”, has more degrees of freedom than otherwise available, allowing the measuring pole to rotate around the base pole more easily and also fold flat when not in use, which allows much more freedom of movement inside the structure during construction. It is also much easier to raise and lower as the bags are laid down, saving the team time when measuring the new walls. Finally, it has some dust resistance as well, allowing it to last longer with less maintenance.
High Tech Solutions Work, Too
Of course, the pipe compass still involves a lot of tedious and non-automated work. This is where the high-tech compass comes in. The team built a LIDAR-based compass in addition to the pipe compass to similarly measure the distance from the center of the structure to the wall or dome under construction. When the earth tube is in the correct position, the compass measures the distance from the center of the structure and shines a green laser on it when it is placed at the correct distance. This allows the builders to get an automated, visual cue that they have placed them properly without using a physical tool. The builders can use their hand to get an indication of where the bag should be placed before actually laying it down, and then get it as precise as possible once it has been laid down.
During the two-month challenge window, the team only had enough time to get a proof-of-concept for the LIDAR-based compass to work. Some planned improvements to it relate to making it tolerate the environment better by improving the housing, rotating platform, and mounts. Some other improvements focus on the reliability and performance of the device itself, and the team plans to improve laser stability and accuracy and their algorithm’s accuracy in future versions as well. Of course, all of the designs and code for everything has been made open source and can be found at the project’s page.
The Future of SuperAdobe
As housing costs rise and city centers grow this important work gives a larger number of people more access to housing that might not otherwise have it. Using the ground beneath our feet, wherever we happen to be, is a viable solution for sustainable housing that suits the climate and environment that home happens to be in, without needing to truck as many supplies from distant areas. The icing on the cake is that the future home dwellers can even have a hand in the building of their own homes, and they might just last longer than any modern stick frame house to boot.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289875",
"author": "Stewart",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T23:12:47",
"content": "Were the houses in the background made from superadobe?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289876",
"author": "Dave from Oz",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,373,307.392457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/amd-acquires-xilinx-for-35-billion/ | AMD Acquires Xilinx For $35 Billion | Mike Szczys | [
"News"
] | [
"amd",
"fpga",
"Mergers & Acquisitions",
"mergers and acquisitions",
"xilinx"
] | News this morning that
AMD has reached an agreement to acquire Xilinx
for $35 Billion in stock. The move to gobble up the leading company in the FPGA industry should come as no surprise for many reasons. First, the silicon business is thick in the age of mergers and acquisitions, but more importantly because AMD’s main competitor,
Intel, purchased the other FPGA giant Altera back in 2015
.
Primarily a maker of computer processors, AMD expands into the reconfigurable computing market as Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) can be adapted to different tasks based on what bitstream (programming information written to the chips) has been sent to them. This allows the gates inside the chip to be reorganized to perform different functions at the hardware level even after being put into products already in the hands of customers.
Xilinx invented the FPGA back in the mid-1980s, and since then the falling costs of silicon fabrication and the acceleration of technological advancement have made them evermore highly desirable solutions. Depending on volume, they can be a more economical alternative to ASICs. They also help with future-proofing as technology not in existence at time of manufacture — such as compression algorithms and communications protocols — may be added to hardware in the field by reflashing the bitstream. Xilinx also makes the Zynq line of hybrid chips that contain both ARM and FPGA cores in the same device.
The deal awaits approval from both shareholders and regulators but is expected to be complete by the end of 2021. | 45 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289790",
"author": "Steven Gann",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T18:44:22",
"content": "In my ideal world, every desktop CPU would have a small FPGA section and drivers that allow applications to configure the logic cells. I’d hoped Intel would go that route with Altera, but they only ad... | 1,760,373,306.715577 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/ode-to-an-avo-8-multimeter/ | Ode To An AVO 8 Multimeter | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"analog multimeter",
"AVO",
"AVO 8",
"multimeter",
"teardown"
] | I’m moving, and in the process of packing all of my belongings into storage boxes to disappear into a darkened room for the next year. Perhaps I could become one of those digital nomads I hear so much about and post my Hackaday stories from a sun-kissed beach while goldfish shoals nibble at my toes. But here in a slightly damp British autumn, box after box of a lifetime’s immersion in tech needs sorting and directing. Why on earth did I hang on to three Philips N1500 VCR system video cassette recorders from the early 1970s! (Don’t worry, those have found a good home.)
Say Hello To An Old Friend Of Mine
Instantly recognisable, the AVO 8
As I was packing up my bench, I happened upon a multimeter. I have quite a few multimeters and
this isn’t the first time I’ve written
about these indispensable instruments, but this one’s a little special.
It’s a treasure from my youth, that most venerable of British test equipment: the AVO 8. This was the ubiquitous multimeter to be found in all manner of electrical and electronic workshops across most of the 20th century, and remains to this day one of the highest quality examples of its type.
It’s a relatively huge Bakelite box about 190mm x 170mm x 100mm in size, and it is instantly recognisable by its dual rotary selector switches and the window for viewing the needle, which forms a characteristic circular arc kidney shape.
The earliest ancestors of my meter appeared in the 1920s, and the first model 8 in the early 1950s. Mine is a Mk III that a penciled date on the inside of its meter movement tells me was made in November 1965 and which I bought reconditioned from
Stewart of Reading
in about 1991, but manufacture continued until the last Mk VIII rolled off the production line in 2008. It’s to my shame that my AVO is a bit dusty and that maybe I haven’t used it much of late, but as I picked it up all the memories of using it to fix dead TV sets and set up optimistic experiments in radio came flooding back. If there’s one instrument that connects me to the youthful would-be electronic engineer that I once was, then here it is.
A Very Different Approach To A Meter
To fully appreciate the AVO 8, it’s time for a teardown, for a glimpse both at how a very high quality analogue multimeter is built as well as how such things were designed at the dawn of the Jet Age. Dismantling it is very easy, a couple of screws allow removal of the battery compartment cover on the side above the meter, and six screws in the sides of the meter undo to allow the Bakelite tub to be eased away from the front face.
They don’t make ’em this way any more: inside the Avo.
It’s first worth a quick peek in the battery compartment, where there would be two batteries for the various resistance ranges. One is the familiar D cell while the other is a BLR121, a curious 15 V pile of cells of the type once used in devices such as hearing aids and camera flashes. This cell
is still available from specialist suppliers
for AVO owners, but another option has been to incorporate a little switching regulator to generate the required potential. The battery compartment as well as the high-voltage terminals make contact with the rest of the meter via a series of brass stand-offs that engage with springy metal fingers as the case is closed, and on the back of the battery case are mounted the high-voltage dropper resistors.
Turning attention to the meter itself, and immediately we are in a world of electronics from another era. The meter movement has a full-scale deflection of 50 μA and us a significantly substantial affair whose magnet alone is larger than many modern panel meters in their entirety. The parallax mirror is a substantial piece of glass mirror fixed to the back of the scale — a nice touch.
Now
that’s
a meter movement!
The rotaty switches don’t use the tag-and-wiper method you might expect, instead relying on a set of springy copper finger contacts of the type you might see in older relays, that are pushed down by cams on the rear of the knob mechanism. At the bottom is a substantial cut-out mechanism, and as a demonstration of the engineering quality its latch has a ruby bearing you might otherwise expect to see in a wristwatch.
Above the switches and cut-out are a pair of insulator bars that serve as both an array of solder tags for wiring as well as support for wire-wound resistors and discrete components. There is also a transformer for the AC ranges, and a high-current shunt resistor made from a coil of brass strip. Having the meter open on the bench surrounds it with that wonderful old-electronics smell of phenolic resin, and suddenly I have the urge to work on a vacuum tube TV from the 1950s again.
It’s clear then that the AVO remains an extremely high quality instrument, and is still a useful and accurate multimeter well into its sixth decade. I feel guilty then that I’ve neglected it in favour of a digital meter that cost an order of magnitude less. So why has it remained on the shelf then? An obvious answer might be that as an analogue meter its 20 kΩ/V sensitivity can’t match the high impedance of its digital rival, but that’s probably not the real reason. It’s seductive to carry a feather-light handheld unit rather than one the size of a medium-sized building block. That’s the real benefit of modernity: miniaturisation. I’ll try to use the AVO more on the bench because it’s a fantastic instrument. But will it regain its place as my main meter? Probably not. After all sometimes it’s better to stay in 2020 rather than 1950. | 42 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289776",
"author": "ScubaBearLA",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T17:48:05",
"content": "Gorgeous meter there, Jenny! It’s in a class all alone, more or less. Fun, fun fun!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289777",
"author": "Ano... | 1,760,373,306.795673 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/take-this-3d-print-post-processing-method-with-a-grain-of-salt/ | Take This 3D-Print Post-Processing Method With A Grain Of Salt | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"annealing",
"infill",
"post-processing",
"remelting",
"salt",
"sodium chloride"
] | There’s a lot of folklore around post-processing of prints from FDM printers. Proponents swear by their methods, which are generally intended to either strengthen the part or to improve its appearance, or both. But do they actually work?
Knowing that a collection of anecdotes is no substitute for actual data, [Stefan] from CNC Kitchen has again performed some valuable experiments, this time
testing the strength of parts that have been annealed in salt
. This was a follow-up to his recent experiments with
baking prints after entombing them in plaster
, which yielded mixed results in terms of strength gains. Viewers commented that common salt makes a good medium for annealing prints, so he set about finding the right kind of salt. It turns out that the finer the grain, the better — powdery salt packs tighter and leaves little space for the softened plastic to flow — but that powdery salt is not easier to find. He ended up making his own by pulverizing table salt in a blender. He also had to play around with temperatures and times until coming up with a good process.
The results are impressive. PETG, ABS, and two varieties of PLA prints tested with force applied perpendicular to the print layers all showed marked increase in strength after breaking, to the point of nearly matching the strength of parts printed with the layers parallel to the stress. As with the plaster, parts were printed at 100% infill; a Benchy printed at 20% was notably unseaworthy after annealing. Surface finish on the annealed parts is an interesting combination of pitting with white residue — not unattractive but still a bit weird.
Salt annealing might be a bit cumbersome, but it’s a neat method to add to
all the other post-processing tricks
that people have come up with for their 3D prints. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289739",
"author": "kc8rwr",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T15:43:42",
"content": "I’ve been watching these stories. I liked his idea when he tried this with plaster but digging the part out, especially without breaking it looked like too much work. The salt idea sounded good but seeing... | 1,760,373,306.848937 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/engine-trouble-delays-spacexs-return-to-the-iss/ | Engine Trouble Delays SpaceX’s Return To The ISS | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"Crew Dragon",
"Falcon 9",
"Merlin",
"nasa",
"reliability",
"reuse",
"rocket engine",
"spaceflight",
"SpaceX"
] | A crewed mission to the International Space Station that was set to depart from Kennedy Space Center on Halloween has been
pushed back at least several weeks as NASA and SpaceX investigate an issue
with the company’s Merlin rocket engine. But the problem in question wasn’t actually discovered on the booster that’s slated to carry the four new crew members up to the orbiting outpost. This story starts back on October 2nd, when the computer aboard a Falcon 9 set to carry a next-generation GPS III satellite into orbit for the US Space Force shut down the engines with just two seconds to go before liftoff.
The fact that SpaceX and NASA have decided to push back the launch of a different Falcon 9 is a clear indication that the issue isn’t limited to just one specific booster, and must be a problem with the design or construction of the Merlin engine itself. While both entities have been relatively tight lipped about the current situation, a Tweet from CEO Elon Musk made just hours after the GPS III abort hinted the problem was with the engine’s gas generator:
As we’ve discussed previously,
the Merlin is what’s known as an “open cycle” rocket engine
. In this classical design, which dates back to the German V-2 of WWII, the exhaust from what’s essentially a smaller and less efficient rocket engine is used to spin a turbine and generate the power required to pump the propellants into the main combustion chamber. Higher than expected pressure in the gas generator could lead to a catastrophic failure of the turbine it drives, so it’s no surprise that the Falcon 9’s onboard systems determined an abort was in order.
Grounding an entire fleet of rockets because a potentially serious fault has been discovered in one of them is a rational precaution, and has been done many times before. Engineers need time to investigate the issue and determine if changes must be made on the rest of the vehicles before they can safely return to flight. But that’s where things get interesting in this case.
SpaceX hasn’t grounded their entire fleet of Falcon 9 rockets. In fact, the company has flown several of them since the October 2nd launch abort. So why are only some of these boosters stuck in their hangers, while others are continuing to fly their scheduled missions?
Certified Pre-Flown Boosters
Since 2018, an increasing number of SpaceX missions have utilized previously flown boosters. This is thanks to the introduction of the newest, and final, revision of the rocket known as Block 5. After gaining valuable flight experience with earlier versions of the booster, SpaceX engineers were able to identify the components that were the most heavily damaged during flight, reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and landing.
Falcon 9 Block 5
With these weak points addressed in Block 5, SpaceX believes the Falcon 9 should be able to fly at least 10 missions with only minor refurbishment. With occasional overhauls, each fuselage could potentially make as many as 100 flights, though it will be years or even decades before that theory can be put to the test. To date, no individual Falcon 9 has made more than six flights.
Out of the 18 successful launches that SpaceX has conducted so far in 2020, all but two of them have been on reused Block 5 boosters. Most of these rockets, and their engines, were originally constructed in 2018 or 2019. Newly manufactured boosters are generally only used at the customer’s specific request at this point, and the two entities that have consistently asked to fly on fresh rockets just so happen to be NASA and the Space Force.
Consequently, the rockets that were scheduled to launch the Crew Dragon
Resilience
on October 31st and the GPS III satellite
Sacagawea
on October 2nd were both built around the same time earlier this year. In fact they even have sequential serial numbers, referred to by SpaceX as B1061 and B1062, respectively.
In light of this, it becomes clear why SpaceX hasn’t grounded the entire fleet. We aren’t looking at an issue that impacts the Falcon 9 itself, merely the ones that have been manufactured in 2020.
Age Versus Experience
As the design of the Falcon 9 Block 5 and Merlin engine have been frozen since 2018 to facilitate human-rating the vehicle by NASA, we know no new or redesigned components have been introduced. But that doesn’t mean SpaceX couldn’t have received a bad batch of components from a supplier which found their way into B1061 and B1062. Such a scenario wouldn’t be without precedent.
In 2015, the CRS-7 mission ended with a complete loss of the vehicle just over two minutes after liftoff when a high-pressure helium bottle inside the Falcon 9’s second stage broke loose. An examination of the stainless steel eye bolts used to hold the bottles in place found that, despite being rated by the manufacturer for a load of 10,000 pounds, some failed at just 2,000 pounds. A later
investigation by NASA determined that the onus for the mishap was ultimately on SpaceX
as they failed to independently verify the manufacturers claims before flight.
CRS-7 disintegrating over the Atlantic Ocean
While pre-flight testing is of course important, there’s no substitute for the real thing. SpaceX has always maintained that a rocket designed for reusability will be just as reliable, if not more so, than one designed for a single flight. With each subsequent flight and inspection, the company believes the overall reliability of the vehicle is improved.
Ancillary parts that appear to be wearing down are replaced, while core vehicle systems that have proven their reliability remain in place. SpaceX’s stated goal is to implement a maintenance schedule for their rockets not unlike what’s used with commercial aircraft, and eventually, be able to
return an individual booster to flight within a few days or even hours
.
In requesting a fresh rocket for their missions NASA and the Space Force believe they’re getting a more reliable vehicle, but this would appear to be at odds with the facts. To date, new and reused Falcon 9 Block 5 rockets have a cumulative 100% success rate. There’s no evidence to support the assertion that one is inherently more reliable than the other, whereas the current situation seems to indicate that the use of flight-proven boosters would have prevented delaying the
Resilience
and
Sacagawea
missions.
Test Like You Fly
Of course, a delay is preferable to a failure. When human lives are at stake, it’s always better to take the extra time to make sure everything is working perfectly. According to Kathy Lueders, Associate Administrator of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate,
SpaceX is currently replacing one of the engines
in the ISS-bound Falcon 9 that exhibited gas generator behavior similar to the October 2nd anomaly. They will also replace an engine in the next rocket that came off of the assembly line, serial number B1063, which is currently scheduled to launch a joint NASA/ESA Earth observation satellite before the end of the year.
Endeavour
will fly on a reused booster in March of 2021
Which brings up an interesting point. Using a standardized booster for all payloads, whether it’s cargo for the Space Station, communication satellites, or human occupants, allows for more opportunities to catch potential flaws than NASA ever had during the Space Shuttle era.
If the crewed mission wasn’t set to fly on a rocket that was virtually identical to the one carrying the
Sacagawea
GPS III satellite, the gas generator issue may not have been detected in time.
While the Crew Dragon is ready and able to pull its human occupants to safety
should the booster rocket fail, it’s not a contingency anyone is particularly eager to utilize.
Between post-flight examinations and maintaining the same vehicle configuration regardless of payload, the Falcon 9 is quickly working its way towards becoming one of history’s most reliable orbital boosters. Which is likely why NASA has decided
to allow crew flights on flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters next year
. The agreement specifies the agency will only allow astronauts to fly on
lightly
used rockets, but at least it’s a start. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289736",
"author": "Duality",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T15:37:05",
"content": "Sounds like a gas problem",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289855",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T21:38:56",
... | 1,760,373,307.035015 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/going-for-the-home-run-record-with-explosive-help/ | Going For The Home Run Record With Explosive Help | Danie Conradie | [
"News"
] | [
"baseball",
"blank cartridges",
"High speed camera",
"shane wighton",
"SmarterEveryDay",
"stuff made here"
] | The baseball home run distance challenge for crazy engineers is really heating up, with the two main (only?) competitors joining forces. [Shane] of [Stuff Made Here] and [Destin] of [Smarter Every Day] did a deep dive into [Shane]’s
latest powder charged baseball bat
, designed to hit a ball 600+ feet.
[Shane] built two new versions of his bat this time, using the lessons he learned from his
previous V1 and V2 explosive bats
. It still uses blank cartridges, but this time the max capacity was increased from three to four cartridges. For V3 a section of the bat was removed, and replaced with a four-bar linkage, which allowed the entire front of the bat to move. The linkage integrated a chamber for four blank cartridges that could be loaded almost like a double barrel shotgun and closed with a satisfying snap. Unfortunately the mass of the moving section was too much for the welds, and the entire front broke off on the first test, so the design was scrapped.
V4 returned to the piston concept of the initial version, except V4 contains two parallel pistons, in a metal bat, with a larger hitting surface. With two cartridges it worked well, but parts started breaking with three and four, and required multiple design updates to fix.
[Destin] covered the physics of the project
and took some really cool high speed video. He and [Jeremy Fielding] hold the current distance record of 617 ft with their crazy Mad Batter. Unfortunately on [Shane]’s final distance attempt the bat broke again, and the ball was lost in a field with tall grass beyond the 600-foot mark, so they could not confirm if the record was actually broken.
[Destin] and his team still remain the undisputed baseball velocity record holders, with their
supersonic baseball canon
. It sounds like there might be another collaboration between [Destin] and [Shane] in the future, and we’re definitely looking forward to the results of that crazy venture. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289693",
"author": "Old Guy",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T12:04:35",
"content": "I wonder if this qualifies as a Destructive Device under BATFE regs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289696",
"author": "Duality",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,306.889406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/low-tech-fix-saves-expensive-high-tech-tv-from-junk-pile/ | Low-Tech Fix Saves Expensive, High-Tech TV From Junk Pile | Donald Papp | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"arcing",
"backlight",
"dfm",
"failure",
"led",
"oxidation",
"planned obsolescence",
"tv"
] | Wiggling this connector caused the backlight to turn off and on.
[Tweepy]’s TV stopped working, and the experience is a brief reminder that if a modern appliance fails, it is worth taking a look inside because the failure might be something simple. In this case,
the dead TV was actually a dead LED backlight, and the fix was so embarrassingly simple
that [Tweepy] is tempted to chalk it up to negligently poor DFM (design for manufacture) at best, or even some kind of effort at planned obsolescence at worst.
What happened is this: the TV appeared to stop working, but one could still make out screen content while shining a bright light on the screen. Seeing this, [Tweepy] deduced that the backlight had failed, and opened up the device to see if it could be repaired. However, the reason for the backlight failure was a surprise. It was not the power supply, nor even any of the LEDs themselves; the whole backlight wouldn’t turn on because of a cheap little PCB-to-PCB connector, and the two small spring contacts inside that had failed.
The failed connector, once cut open, showed contacts in poor condition (click to enlarge). It was ditched for a soldered connection, and the TV lived again.
From the outside things looked okay, but wiggling the connector made the backlight turn on and off, so the connection was clearly bad. Investigating further, [Tweepy] saw that the contact points of the PCBs and the two little conductors inside the connector showed clear signs of arcing and oxidation, leading to a poor connection that eventually failed, resulting in a useless TV. The fix wasn’t to clean the contacts; the correct fix was to replace the connector with a soldered connection.
Using that cheap little connector doubtlessly saved some assembly time at the factory, but it also led to failure within a fairly short amount of time. Had [Tweepy] not been handy with a screwdriver (or not bothered to investigate) the otherwise working TV would doubtlessly have ended up in a landfill.
It serves as a good reminder to make some time to investigate failures of appliances, even if one’s repair skills are limited, because the problem might be a simple one. Planned obsolescence is a tempting doorstep upon which to dump failures like this, but a good case can be made that
planned obsolescence isn’t really a thing
, even if manufacturers compromising products in one way or another certainly is. | 67 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289661",
"author": "eldphm",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T08:56:16",
"content": "Ooh, a rare occation where the apperent dying of a flat screen haven’t been fixed by changing the capacitors on the power board.Seriously, if your screen goes dark, google “[insert product code] power capa... | 1,760,373,307.319717 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/inside-the-top-secret-doughnut-a-visit-to-gchq/ | Inside The Top Secret Doughnut: A Visit To GCHQ | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cryptography",
"GCHQ",
"spies",
"spy"
] | There’s an old joke that the world’s greatest secret agent was Beethoven. Didn’t know Beethoven was a secret agent? That’s why he was the greatest one! While most people have some idea about the CIA, MI6, and the GRU, agencies like the NRO and GCHQ keep a much lower profile. GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) is the United Kingdom’s electronic listening center housed in a 180 meter round doughnut. From there they listen to… well… everything. They are also responsible for codebreaking and can trace their origin back to Bletchley Park as well as back to the Great War. So what’s inside the Doughnut? National Geographic managed to get
a tour of GCHQ
and if you have any interest in spies, radios, cybersecurity, or codebreaking, it is worth having a look at it.
Of course, only about half of the GCHQ’s employees work in the Doughnut. Others are scattered about the UK and — probably — some in other parts of the world, too. According to the article, GCHQ had a hand in foiling 19 terrorist attacks, arresting at least two sex offenders, and prevented about £1.5 billion of tax evasion.
The agency wasn’t even mentioned in public until 1982. Before that, an American journalist wrote an article about the operation and was promptly deported. The article, of course, shows the agency in a favorable light, but it does mention that Edward Snowden revealed the agency’s controversial Tempora program to collect all online and telephone data within the UK. However, as one employee put it, “We save people’s lives, we stop bombs going off, we stop army units being killed in Afghanistan.”
As an aside, they also release a
puzzle
to the public once a year. We virtually went to a
museum exhibit in London
about GCHQ, and that post is also worth a look if you want to read more about the historical technology in the Doughnut. | 31 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289632",
"author": "Julianne",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T05:24:34",
"content": "Agencies that operate in secrecy beyond any meaningful checks and balances should have no place in a democratic society. It has been proven time and time again that these entities hold immense power agai... | 1,760,373,307.461504 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/jetson-emulator-gives-students-a-free-ai-lesson/ | Jetson Emulator Gives Students A Free AI Lesson | Tom Nardi | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"computer vision",
"Jetson",
"machine learning",
"NVIDIA"
] | With the Jetson Nano, NVIDIA has done a fantastic job of bringing GPU-accelerated machine learning to the masses. For less than the cost of a used graphics card, you get a turn-key Linux computer that’s ready and able to handle whatever AI code you throw at it. But if you’re trying to set up a lab for 30 students, the cost of even relatively affordable development boards can really add up.
Spoiler: These things don’t exist.
Which is why
[Tea Vui Huang] has developed jetson-emulator
. This Python library provides a work-alike environment to NVIDIA’s own “Hello AI World” tutorials designed for the Jetson family of devices, with one big difference: you don’t need the actual hardware. In fact, it doesn’t matter what kind of computer you’ve got; with this library, anything that can run Python 3.7.9 or better can take you through NVIDIA’s getting started tutorial.
So what’s the trick? Well, if you haven’t guessed already, it’s all fake. Obviously it can’t
actually
run GPU-accelerated code without a GPU, so the library [Tea] has developed simply pretends. It provides virtual images and even “live” camera feeds to which randomly generated objects have been assigned.
The original NVIDIA functions have been rewritten to work with these feeds, so when you call something like
net.Classify(img)
against one of them you’ll get a report of what faux objects were detected. The output will look
just like it would if you were running on a real Jetson
, down to providing fictitious dimensions and positions for the bounding boxes.
If you’re a hacker looking to dive into machine learning and computer vision,
you’d be better off getting a $59 Jetson Nano
and a webcam. But if you’re putting together a workshop that shows a dozen people the basics of NVIDIA’s AI workflow, jetson-emulator will allow everyone in attendance to run code and get results back regardless of what they’ve got under the hood. | 4 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289723",
"author": "ghuu",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T14:23:22",
"content": "jestson can learn? or only show output?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289733",
"author": "SkyHorseTech",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T1... | 1,760,373,307.090541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/worlds-smallest-benchy-shows-off-what-3d-printing-can-do-for-microswimmers/ | World’s Smallest Benchy Shows Off What 3D-Printing Can Do For “Microswimmers” | Dan Maloney | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"2PP",
"Benchy",
"laser",
"microswimmer",
"nanorobotics",
"nanotechnology",
"polymer",
"soft robots",
"two-photon printing"
] | We’ve said it before, but we cast a wary eye at any superlative claims that come our way. “World’s fastest” or “world’s first” claims always seem to be quickly debunked, but when the claim of
“World’s Smallest Benchy”
is backed up by a tugboat that two dozen
E. coli
would have a hard time finding space on, we’re pretty comfortable with it.
Of course the diminutive benchmark was not printed just for the sake of it, but rather as part of a demonstration of what’s possible with “microswimmers”, synthetic particles which are designed to move about freely in microscopic regimes. As described in
a paper by [Rachel P. Doherty]
et al
from the Soft Matter Physics lab at Leiden University, microswimmers with sizes on the order of 10 to 20 μm can be constructed repeatably, and can include a small area of platinum catalyst. The catalyst is the engine of the microswimmer; hydrogen peroxide in the environment decomposes on the catalyst surface and provides a propulsive force.
Artificial microswimmers have been around for a while, but most are made with chemical or evaporative methods which result in simple shapes like rods and spheres. The current work describes much more complex shapes — the Benchy was a bit of a flex, since the more useful microswimmers were simple helices, which essentially screw themselves into the surrounding fluid. The printing method was based on two-photon polymerization (2PP), a non-linear optical process that polymerizes a resin when two photons are simultaneously absorbed.
The idea that a powered machine so small could be designed and manufactured is pretty cool. We’d love to see how control mechanisms could be added to the prints —
microfluidics
, perhaps? | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289609",
"author": "Comedicles",
"timestamp": "2020-10-27T00:09:52",
"content": "Neato! This reminded me of a lecture and paper from 1976 and looking at it, it is very conversational and fits the topic. ‘Life at Low Reynolds Number’ and it is about the movement and behavior of thin... | 1,760,373,307.565349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/simple-induction-heater-helps-with-homebrew-shrink-fitting/ | Simple Induction Heater Helps With Homebrew Shrink-Fitting | Dan Maloney | [
"cnc hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"heating",
"induction",
"interference fit",
"mchine tool",
"shrink fit",
"zero voltage switching",
"ZVS"
] | Machinists have a lot of neat shop tricks, but one especially interesting one is shrink-fitting tools. Shrink-fitting achieves an interference fit between tool and holder by creating a temperature difference between the two before assembly. Once everything returns to temperature, the two parts may as well be welded together.
The easiest way to shrink-fit machine tooling is with induction heating, and commercial rigs exist for doing the job. But [Roetz 4.0] decided to
build his own shrink-fitting heater
, and the results are pretty impressive. The induction heater itself is very simple — a 48 volt, 20 amp power supply, an off-the-shelf zero-voltage switching (ZVS) driver, and a heavy copper coil. When the coil is powered up, any metal within is quickly and evenly heated by virtue of the strong magnetic flux in the coil.
To use the shrinker, [Roetz 4.0] starts with a scrupulously clean tool holder, bored slightly undersized for the desired tool. Inside the coil, the steel tool holder quickly heats to a lovely deep brown color, meaning it has gotten up to the requisite 250-300°C. The tool is quickly dropped into the now-expanded bore, which quickly shrinks back around it. The advantage of this method over a collet or a chuck is clear in the video below: practically zero runout, and the tool is easily released after another run through the heater.
You say you’ve got no need for shrink-fitting tools? How about
stuck bolts
? Induction heaters work great there too. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289573",
"author": "colin",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T20:37:57",
"content": "DIY induction heater. Step 1) Buy an induction heater…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289576",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,373,307.514821 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/plastic-strips-protect-ball-screws-on-this-homebrew-cnc-router/ | Plastic Strips Protect Ball Screws On This Homebrew CNC Router | Dan Maloney | [
"cnc hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"ball screw",
"chips",
"cnc",
"dust",
"router",
"swarf",
"way cover"
] | It’s a fact of life for CNC router owners — swarf. Whether it’s the fine dust from a sheet of MDF or nice fat chips from a piece of aluminum, the debris your tool creates gets everywhere. You can try to control it at its source, but swarf always finds a way to escape and cause problems.
Unwilling to deal with the accumulation of chips in the expensive ball screws of his homemade CNC router, [Nikodem Bartnik] took matters into his own hands and created
these DIY telescopic ball screw covers
. Yes, commercial ball screw covers are available, but they are targeted at professional machines, and so are not only too large for a homebrew machine like his but also priced for pro budgets. So [Nikodem] recreated their basic design: strips of thin material wound into a tight spring that forms a tube that can extend and retract. The first prototypes were from paper, which worked but proved to have too much friction. Version 2 was made from sheets of polyester film, slippery enough to get the job done and as a bonus, transparent. They look pretty sharp, and as you can see in the video below, seem to perform well.
It’s nice to see a build progress to the point where details like this can be addressed. We’ve been following
[Nikodem]’s CNC build for years now
, and it really has come a long way. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289543",
"author": "Steven Gann",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T18:30:13",
"content": "Cool project and fun video.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289551",
"author": "Murray",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T19:02:13",
"conten... | 1,760,373,307.617487 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/the-game-boy-camera-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-pixels/ | The Game Boy Camera, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Pixels | Erin Pinheiro | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Featured",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"canvas",
"game boy",
"game boy camera",
"gameboy",
"gameboy camera",
"html5",
"javascript",
"pixel art",
"selfie"
] | Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. In an age when there are more megapixels stuffed in the sensor of a smartphone camera than the average computer display can even represent, why would jagged images from a 20-year-old grayscale camera with pixels numbering in the thousands still grab attention? Maybe what’s old is new again, and the coolness factor of novelty is something that can’t be quantified.
The surprise I had last Monday when I saw
my Twitter notifications
is maybe only second to the feeling I had when I was invited to become a Hackaday contributor. I’d made a very simple
web app which mimics a Game Boy Camera
using the camera from your phone or desktop, and it got picked up by people so much that I’m amazed my web host is still holding. Let’s look at why something seemingly so simple gained so much traction.
What Is The Game Boy Camera?
The Game Boy Camera was a 1998 Nintendo peripheral for their popular Game Boy handheld, first released in 1989. Looking like a slightly odd cartridge with a bulbous addition at the top, it was designed to turn a relatively inexpensive video game system into a digital camera at a time when such devices could come at a significant premium. Internally however, the project wasn’t as popular with Nintendo executives during development as it is today. To make it more appealing, the team led by Hirokazu Tanaka also included minigames and different camera functions, adding value to a project that would be otherwise seen as uncharacteristic for the company.
The Game Boy Camera, inserted into a Game Boy Color with the lens turned back
The CMOS sensor embedded into the cartridge was limited to a maximum resolution of 128×128 — though it was cropped to 128×112 by the software that ran it. This was a combination of a limitation on the Game Boy’s screen resolution, and the fact that a lower resolution sensor would be inexpensive enough to keep it in toy territory for Nintendo instead of competing with consumer-grade cameras. But the low fidelity of such a limited technology was arguably its biggest selling point: Through the use of ordered dithering, otherwise ordinary pictures can easily be turned into beautiful 2-bit pixel art.
If you still have the original Game Boy Camera lying around, it’s popular in the hacker world too: The protocol used by the memory banks in the cartridge have been
reverse-engineered in order to pull the original pictures into a computer
, and with some 3D printing you can
attach professional-grade camera lenses to the sensor
.
But Why Is It So Popular?
Pets and scenery as seen with the webgbcam app, submitted by various users
This is a tough question to answer given that taste and preferences are highly subjective, but I can give my own personal experience with it in order to attempt an educated guess. Putting aside vaporwave aesthetics and 90s retro nostalgia, effectively what you have is the equivalent of a modern day camera filter.
When you scale a comparatively huge picture down to the original Game Boy Camera’s resolution and apply a Bayer dithering algorithm to reduce it to 4 colors, what you get on the other end is a highly stylized view of your subject. This contrast with the hyper-realistic view we’re so used to phone cameras having, with their increasing number of megapixels, can have a pleasing artistic effect.
The original trailer for the Interstellar Selfie Station as presented at the Indie Megabooth in 2014
It’s like taking a few steps back, or looking at something without your glasses. Once you take away all the little details and what you’re left with is only an approximate representation, the imperfections of a picture vanish away and our brains are left to fill in the missing information.
The Game Boy Camera has been used repeatedly to that effect by many
artists
and
photographers
to this day, but perhaps most notably by [Neil Young], who used a picture straight from it as the cover for his album
Silver & Gold
in 2000. This sort of artistic quality in a more modern application such as selfies wasn’t something I discovered by myself, in fact someone else had already done this before me, and it’s why I made my app today.
Six years ago in 2014, I had come across a Flash-based app almost exactly like mine created by [Christine Love] called Interstellar Selfie Station (ISS). It mimicked the look and feel of the Game Boy Camera, and it presented itself as an irreverent new tool, coated with an inviting queer attitude. The author herself said in
an interview to the Daily Dot
:
What I like about the Interstellar Selfie Station is that it gives you just a little bit more control over how you look, and I’ve noticed this blowing up on my Twitter feed: Suddenly that makes people who are otherwise terrified to post pictures of themselves seem a lot more confident.
So Why Did I Make This?
Also six years ago, I was starting my gender transition and having really bad dysphoria and self-esteem issues. Interstellar Selfie Station, at the time, offered a refreshing look at my own self that I felt comfortable with and in sharing with others, enabling me to take back control of how I viewed myself. I was one of the people [Love] was talking about, the perfect target audience for her app. Some time after the final mobile version of ISS launched, it was suddenly pulled from app stores without an explanation and never mentioned again. It’s unclear why, but it definitely left a gap in the niche it had found itself. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to recreate it so I could capture that feeling again and share it with others.
Fast-forward to today, it’s possible to make camera apps like these without plugins or external downloads, thanks to recent additions to HTML5 and JavaScript. In a couple of days, I had a working web app that mirrored most of the functionality of the original one that had amazed me. Behind the scenes, which
you can check on GitHub
, the app is nothing but a couple of canvas elements rendering and filtering a live feed from a user camera through a bit of hand-assembled JS. Perhaps as proof to the saying that less is more, it really goes to show that for something to have such a big impact it does not need to be complicated.
At first I’d only made it to fulfill my own nostalgic need for the Interstellar Selfie Station, and I had no idea it would’ve resonated with so many people the same way it did to me. And what I like the most is that this time around people aren’t only sharing selfies, but also pictures of pets, nature and landscapes, all seen through artistic, retro lo-fi spectacles. My Twitter notifications for the past week have been flooded with thankful people and their lovely pictures, including heartwarming messages about how the app helped their own self-image issues. It serves to me as a reminder of how tech can be used for good, and why we should keep striving to do just that. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289562",
"author": "Evane",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T19:29:27",
"content": "💜💜💜💜 congrats",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289567",
"author": "Lons",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T19:49:33",
"content": "I didn’t grow... | 1,760,373,307.721481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/the-art-of-nixies-hack-chat/ | The Art Of Nixies Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"art",
"business",
"cold cathode",
"display",
"glassblowing",
"Hack Chat",
"neon",
"nixie"
] | Join us on Wednesday, October 28th at noon Pacific for
The Art of Nixies Hack Chat
with Dalibor Farný!
When they were invented in the 1950s, Nixie tubes were a huge leap forward in display technology. In the days before affordable LEDs made seven-segment displays a commodity, there were few alternatives to the charming glow of the clear and legible characters inside Nixies. Sturdy and reliable, the cold-cathode displays found their way into everything from scientific instruments to test equipment, and even some of the earliest computers and the equipment that formed the foundation of the Space Race sported the venerable tubes.
But time marches on, and a display that requires high voltage and special driver circuits isn’t long for a world where LEDs are cheap and easy to design with. Nixies fell from favor through the late 1960s and 1970s, to the point where new tubes were only being made by the Russians, until that supply dried up as well. Rediscovered by hobbyists for use in quirky clocks and other displays, any stock left over from the Nixie’s heyday are quickly being snapped up, putting the tubes on the fast track to unobtainium status.
That’s not to say that you can’t get brand new Nixie tubes, of course. Artisanal manufacturers like
Dalibor Farný
have taken the Nixie to a whole new level, with big, beautiful tubes that are handcrafted from the best materials. Reviving the somewhat lost art of Nixie manufacturing wasn’t easy, but the tubes that Dalibor makes in a castle in the Czech Republic now find their way into cool clocks and other builds around the world. He’ll join us on the Hack Chat to dive into the art and science of Nixies, and what’s going on with his mysterious
“Project H”
.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, October 28 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 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289520",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T17:34:36",
"content": "Looking forward to this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289602",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T22:46:49",
"content": "Dalibo... | 1,760,373,307.664546 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/improved-flexible-build-plate-for-sla-is-ready-to-rock/ | Improved Flexible Build Plate For SLA Is Ready To Rock | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"3d printing",
"diy",
"elegoo mars",
"flexible build platform",
"resin",
"sla"
] | The Elegoo Mars is an affordable SLA (resin-based) 3D printer, and there are probably few that have seen more mods and experimentation than [Jan Mrázek]’s machine.
The final design of his DIY flexible build plate
is a refinement of his original proof of concept, which proved a flexible build platform can be every bit as useful on an SLA printer as it is for FDM; instead of chiseling parts off a rigid build platform, simply pop the flexible steel sheet off the magnetic base and flex it slightly for a much easier part removal process.
His original design
worked, but had a few rough edges that have since been ironed out.
[Jan]’s magnetic build platform.
We love how [Jan] walks through all of the design elements and explains what worked and what didn’t. For example, originally he used a galvanized steel sheet which was easy enough to work with, but ended up not being a viable choice because once it’s bent, it stays bent. Spring steel is a much better material for a flexible build platform, but is harder for a hobbyist to cut.
Fortunately, it’s a simple job for any metal fabrication shop and [Jan] got a variety of thicknesses cut very cheaply. It turns out that the sweet spot is 0.3 mm (although 0.2 mm is a better choice for particularly fragile parts.) [Jan] also suggests cutting the sheet a few millimeters larger than the build platform; it’s much easier to peel the sheet off the magnetic base when one can get a fingertip under an edge, after all.
The magnetic base that the steel sheet sticks to is very simple: [Jan] converted a stock build platform by mounting an array of 20 x 20 x 1 mm magnets with 3M adhesive mounting tape. He was worried that resin might seep in between the magnets and cause a problem, perhaps even interfering with the adhesive; but so far it seems to be working very well. Resin is viscous enough that it never penetrates far into the gaps, and no effect on the adhesive has been observed so far.
Watch how easily parts are removed in the short video embedded below, in which [Jan] demonstrates his latest platform design.
https://blog.honzamrazek.cz/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/VID_20200420_205234.mp4
It looks like only fine tuning is left from here on out. [Jan] suspects the new sheet is responsible for a slight apparent increase in elephant foot distortion (where an object widens out slightly right at the base) but that’s a minor issue at worst. Flexible build platforms for SLA are recently starting to show up for sale as aftermarket parts, but [Jan]’s work shows that an effective DIY solution is perfectly accessible to a hobbyist.
If you’re curious about adding an SLA 3D printer to your workshop,
here’s an article that explains what you’d be getting into
in terms of moving from FDM to SLA. | 25 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289490",
"author": "Joey",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T15:31:11",
"content": "Dude handling the pieces in the video without gloves…that UV resin isn’t something you want to play with.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289495",
... | 1,760,373,307.789445 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/console-identity-in-the-age-of-playstation-5-and-xbox-series/ | Console Identity In The Age Of PlayStation 5 And Xbox Series | Drew Littrell | [
"Featured",
"Games",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"console",
"playstation",
"PlayStation 5",
"video game console",
"xbox"
] | Consoles are obsolete the minute they are released. The onward march of silicon innovation ensures that consoles never are able to keep up with the times, but technical superiority rarely results in being remembered. That kind of legacy is defined by the experiences a device provides. A genre defining game, a revolutionary approach to media, or a beloved controller can be enough to sway popular opinion. But really…it all boils down to a box. All the spurious promises of world-class hardware specs, all the overly ambitious software ship dates, and even the questionable fast-food crossover promotions exist in service to the box. The boxes vying for attention in 2020 A.D. are the PlayStation 5 (PS5) and Xbox Series X/S/Seriessss (XSX or whatever the common nomenclature eventually shakes out to be). These boxes likely represent the minimum spec for the next decade in big-budget video games, however, it is the core identity of those consoles that will define the era.
” Xbox is everything The Rock is. Cutting-edge, powerful, exhilarating, and like The Rock it will be the most electrifying thing coming out this year.”
–
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, CES 2001 Presenter
It Looks Like You’re Trying to Make A Console
It should come as no surprise that a console made by the folks that put out Windows would be PC-like in its presentation. The original Xbox was PC through-and-through. Equipped with an Intel CPU, NVIDIA GPU, its internals were laced with IDE and Molex cables tucked into the drive bays.
Even the controller interfaces were merely USB with a new pinout
. With all the PC derivative components it would be logical to assume that the Xbox became known for ports of games best played with mouse. But MMOs, CRPGs, and RTSs never proliferated on the Xbox platform. Rather it was multiplayer shooters drenched in early 2000s “tude” that consumed the Xbox.
The PC roots of the original Xbox (left) and Xbox One X (right) on display.
Halo, Brute Force, MechAssault, and Splinter Cell were the titles that made the biggest impact in Xbox cultivating an identity the machine’s brief four(ish) year existence, and it was predicated upon two buttons. Official Xbox documentation referred to the rear-mounted analog inputs on their controller as “triggers”. This decision, along with the inclusion of an ethernet port, saw online deathmatch sessions dominate the Xbox brand into the original console’s successor, the Xbox 360. It would lead to game franchises like Call of Duty being an annual institution, a tradition that continues today.
If the PC was Xbox’s past, the forthcoming XSX represents Microsoft’s greatest departure from that formula.
Official exploded view images of Series X have been published
, and internet hot takes have been liberally dispensed. Consensus has settled around describing the Series X as a monolithic slab of brutalist design as if it came straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Though the most interesting piece of design for the console is the split motherboard and southbridge PCBs (a feat not seen since the Sega 32X). Affixing the two to a wind tunnel-like support beneath the giant fan exhibits the literal embodiment of lateral thinking, and the future XSX experience will be sure to follow. Maybe heating won’t cause the
Red Ring of Death
.
“The PS3 isn’t designed to lean towards games. It’s not a computer for children. In the sense that our goal has been to create a computer that’s meant for entertainment.”
–
Ken Kutaragi, PlayStation System Architect
It Only Does Everything (The Sony Way)
The well-documented, tumultuous transition years between PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 proved to be a crisis moment for Sony. The Cell processor in every PS3 was not just too expensive, but more importantly too big. A breakthrough in shrinking the die for the Cell precipitated a complete redesign of the console at the time.
One of the main design goals of the PS3 was to become the networking hub of every user’s home, multiplexing the collective raw throughput of every other Cell processor in the home over ethernet. The Beowulf cluster of blenders with Cell processors never materialized, but the internet as software delivery vehicle definitely came of age.
During the latter portion of the PS3’s lifespan, Sony became known for courting indie game developers with artistic ambitions through their hardware design. Tucked away in every PS3 slim was an overly designed housing for its power supply. The scalloped plastic barrier, emblazoned with Sony PlayStation iconography resembled the engine cover of a sports car rather than what it actually was. Sony engineers had to know that less than one percent of users would ever see the power supply inside their console, but the artistic statement was made anyway. In the same vein, many of those artsy indie titles never sold in the millions on PS3, but rather it was the collective uniqueness of the software and hardware that Sony became known for.
The PlayStation 3 slim model power supply design resembled a sports car engine cover.
Nowadays Sony has found themselves as the market leader once more. PlayStation 4 initially established its popularity due to its lower price and higher average resolution: more P’s is more gooder. With PS5, price and performance are no longer advantages. Sony’s strength lies with their exclusive games, and the design of the PS5 suggests that will continue unabated. The physical size and shape of the device, with those asymmetrical undulating waves, ensures that no other console will ever share a shelf with it. Internally the
PS5 employs the use of a proprietary liquid metal thermal interface
that they make a big deal about. Clearly PS5 will define itself by being exceptional.
Console launches are a unique time. Players, developers, and even multinational corporations all get to hit reset and cultivate a new identity going forward. The choice this year for console buyers between a beefy American slab of XSX, an anime parade float in the PS5, or merely sticking with a Nintendo Switch will further the narrative of videogame history. Years beyond when these devices serve any practical computing use, their software will draw players back to a time when games and game consoles were simpler. Because the PC may exist to be modified, but a console is forever. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289471",
"author": "Canuckfire",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T14:13:28",
"content": "I will admit that the ps5 is an interesting combination of design choices, but the onboard SSD is a really tough sell for me.New generation games cannot run from external storage (yet) so the first gen... | 1,760,373,307.856323 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/pov-led-staff-takes-art-for-a-spin/ | POV LED Staff Takes Art For A Spin | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"DotStar",
"ItsyBitsy",
"ItsyBitsy M4 Express",
"leds",
"persistence of vision",
"POV",
"POV staff"
] | The human body does plenty of cool tricks, but one of the easiest to take advantage of is persistence of vision (POV). Our eyes continue to see light for a fraction of a second after the light goes off, and we can leverage this into fun blinkenlight toys like POV staffs. Sure, you can buy POV staffs and other devices, but they’re pretty expensive and you won’t learn anything that way. Building something yourself is often the more expensive route, but that’s not the case with
[shurik179]’s excellent open-source POV staff
.
There’s a lot to like about this project, starting with the detailed instructions. It’s based on the ItsyBitsyM4 Express and Adafruit’s Dotstar LED strips. You could use the Bluetooth version, but it’s already quite easy to load images to the staff because it shows up as a USB mass storage device. We like that [shurik179] added an IMU and coded the staff so that the images look consistent no matter how fast the staff is spinning. In the future, [shurik179] might make a Bluetooth version that’s collapsible. That sounds like quite the feat, and we can’t wait to see it in action.
As cool as it is to wave a POV staff around, there’s no real practical application.
What’s more practical than a clock? | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289252",
"author": "Shirley Dulcey",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T14:57:14",
"content": "Persistence of vision displays have a long history. I first saw one using LEDs and a computer in the late 1970s at a meeting of the New England Computer Society, a long-gone group that used to meet... | 1,760,373,309.521456 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/the-clock-under-the-dome/ | The Clock Under The Dome | Matthew Carlson | [
"Art",
"clock hacks"
] | [
"Circuit Sculpture",
"clock",
"DIY nixie tube",
"ds3232",
"nixie"
] | In what can only be described as a work of art,
[suedbunker] has created a clock under a glass dome
. Sporting Nixie tubes, a DS3223, BCD encoders, and MPSA43 transistors driven by an MCP23008 I/O expander it is truly a sight to behold. [suedbunker] has previously created
the Circus Clock
, a similar clock that celebrated a diversity of ways of displaying the time.
The dome clock represents a continuation of that idea. Reading the clock requires looking at the horizontal and vertical numbers separately. The hours are on the horizontal and minutes are on the vertical. Monday to Sunday is represented in the neon bulbs on the back. The power supply at the bottom provides a wide range of voltages including 5 V, 12 V, 24 V, 45 V, 90 V, 150 V, and -270 V for all the various types of lights. For safety, an optocoupler is used on the -270 volts to drive the clear seven-segment display.
An Arduino Nano controls the whole clock by communicating with the DS3232 real-time clock module and the port expanders via I2C. The soldering and wiring work, in particular, is tidy and beautiful. We look forward to future clocks by [suedbunker] and his wife. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289240",
"author": "Somun",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T13:22:41",
"content": "Very I interesting clock. The video seems to suffer from VVS. Looking forward to the subsequent moviefilm.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289524",
... | 1,760,373,309.412349 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/when-only-the-tiniest-of-violins-will-do/ | When Only The Tiniest Of Violins Will Do | Jenny List | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"badgelife",
"pcb art",
"violin"
] | Playing the tiniest of violins may be a phrase to encapsulate the complete lack of sympathy as someone unpleasant receives their just deserts, but have any of you ever considered how such a feat might be achieved? Unless you’re an unusually talented virtuoso with the bow, it’s difficult to believe that such a small instrument could be played with ease, even if it were to be available in the first place.
Happily a solution is at hand to all those minuscule stringed instrument woes, courtesy of
[Alexandra Covor], who has created a miniature PCB violin
that is after a fashion playable. It may not be a conventional instrument with a horsehair bow and traditional sounding mechanism, but its electronic voice should still deliver enough to delight.
At the heart of the violin-shaped PCB is an ATtiny85 and a piezoelectric buzzer, and just where you might expect them are a set of strings made from wire attached to the PCB. The instrument can play stored tunes, but since the strings are hooked up to an analogue input on the microcontroller, it can be played as a touch instrument. Finally a pair of LEDs behind the translucent FR4-only F-holes complete the look. It’s fair to say that Itzhak Perlman and his ilk are safe from challengers bearing this instrument, but it’s still an eye-catching piece of PCB art.
This isn’t the first tiny violin that’s been featured here,
some others are much smaller
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289218",
"author": "Howard",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T10:36:48",
"content": "It’s nice work. These can be a lot of fun to pull out of a cup on your desk. I have one of the TinyCircuits PCB violins from a while back. These tiny violins do make people smile so much more than other ti... | 1,760,373,309.798792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/flash-is-dead-but-its-culture-should-live-on/ | Flash Is Dead, But Its Culture Should Live On | Erin Pinheiro | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"adobe",
"flash",
"history",
"history of the internet",
"Macromedia",
"web"
] | Flash is all but gone already, but as we approach the official Adobe end-of-life date on December 31st, it’s picking up traction one last time as people reminisce about the days of Internet past. Back in July,
[Jonas Richner] created an impressive website
that catalogs not only almost 20 years of Flash games, but also testimonials for the software from dozens of developers who began their careers with it.
Flash started in 1996 with the intention of being a standard for animations and vector graphics on the early Web. With the release of Flash Player 5 in August of 2000, Macromedia (later acquired by Adobe) presented the first version of ActionScript, an object-oriented scripting language meant to bring interactivity to animated Flash movies. Since then, thousands of games made with the platform were released online through websites like Newgrounds and shared all over the world, with the most popular games easily reaching tens of millions of plays.
These games became popular in part thanks to how quickly they could be created with the Flash authoring tools, but also because it was so easy for players to run them. With a single plugin for your web browser of choice, the barrier of entry was extremely low. Most home computers from the mid-2000s were able to run Flash software without needing dedicated graphics hardware. This prompted a “creative chaos” as [Richner] puts it, spawning millions of games and animations which started genres and careers lasting to this day.
Unfortunately, browsers have been dropping support for the plugin due to vulnerabilities in the most recent iterations of its scripting engine and
Google no longer indexes Flash files
. It would seem this particularly creative era of the Internet is coming to an end. However, you can still relive old games and animations made with plugins such as Flash and Shockwave with
[BlueMaxima]’s Flashpoint
, and like [Richner], we also hope that the people building today’s platforms and technologies keep the lessons from Flash in mind. | 46 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289183",
"author": "MishterKirby",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T05:14:54",
"content": "‘Tis sad that Flash is being discontinued, some of the best games I played in my childhood were made in Flash.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,309.878122 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/radio-remote-control-via-html5/ | Radio Remote Control Via HTML5 | Adam Zeloof | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"html5",
"raspberry pi"
] | It’s a common scene: a dedicated radio amateur wakes up early in the morning, ambles over to their shack, and sits in the glow of vacuum tubes as they call CQ DX, trying to contact hams in time zones across the world. It’s also a common scene for the same ham to sit in the comfort of their living room, sipping hot chocolate and
remote-controlling their rig from a laptop. As you can imagine, this essentially involves a server running on a computer hooked up to the radio, which is connected via the internet to a client running on the laptop. [Olivier/ F4HTB] saw a way to improve the process by eliminating the client software and controlling the rig from a web browser.
[Oliver]’s software, aptly named Universal HamRadio Remote
, runs a web server that hosts an HTML5 dashboard for controlling the radio. It also pipes audio back and forth (radio control wouldn’t be very useful if you couldn’t talk!), and can be run on a Raspberry Pi. Not only does this make setup easier, as there is no need to configure the client machine, but it also makes the radio accessible from nearly any modern device.
We’ve seen a similar (albeit expensive and closed-source) solution, the
MFJ-1234
, before, but it’s always refreshing to see the open-source community tackle a problem and make it their own. We can’t wait to see where the project goes next! | 36 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289156",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T02:30:01",
"content": "“[Olivier/ F4HTB] saw a way to improve the process by eliminating the client software and controlling the rig from a web browser.”The next step is to automate the process completely and have the computer call... | 1,760,373,309.760454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/a-transistor-less-sound-synthesizer/ | A Transistor-less Sound Synthesizer | Jenny List | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"ldr",
"led",
"oscillator",
"synthesiser"
] | A synthesizer without transistors could almost be the basis of a trick question, surely without transistors it must be using a vacuum tube or similar.
Not [Dr. Cockroach]’s synth though
, instead of transistors it uses coupled pairs of LEDs and light-dependent resistors as its active components. Its oscillator circuit comes courtesy of [Patrick Flett], and uses a pair of LED/LDR combinations to alternately charge and discharge a capacitor. This feeds another LDR/LED pair that appears to act as a buffer to drive a bridge rectifier, with a final amplifier following it.
The result oscillates, though at frequencies in the low audio range with a cluster of harmonics thrown in. Its sound is best described as something akin to a small single-cylinder motorcycle engine at the lower frequencies, and is something we see could have all sorts of interesting possibilities.
This approach of using LDR-based active devices may be something of a dead end that could have had its day back in the 1930s, but it’s nevertheless an entertaining field to explore. It’s not the first time we’ve followed [Dr. Cockroach] at it, in the past
we’ve seen the same technique applied to logic gates
.
Have a listen to the synth in the video below the break. | 34 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289119",
"author": "Piecutter",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T23:11:20",
"content": "Nah, definitely a four cylinder.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289127",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T23:53:... | 1,760,373,309.944286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/let-the-solar-free/ | Let The Solar Free | Matthew Carlson | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Solar Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"canbus",
"charge controller",
"raspberry pi",
"solar"
] | Anyone tackling solar power for the first time will quickly find there’s a truly dizzying amount of information to understand and digest. You might think you just need to buy some solar panels, wire them together, and just sort of plug them in. But there are a hundred and one different questions about how they’ll be connected, the voltage of the panels, and the hardware for driving a load. [Michel], [case06], and [Martin Jäger] have set out to create
a simpler and easier to understand charge controller
named LibreSolar.
A charge controller is fundamentally a simple idea. The goal is to charge a battery with solar panels, which means it’s essentially just a heavy-duty DC/DC buck converter. What makes this project different is that it is an open platform built for extensibility.
There are UEXT connectors included for adding extra peripherals, and with some tweaks to the STM32 firmware, it would be easy to handle small wind turbines (with some rectification to convert to DC, of course). LibreSolar seems to be designed with an eye towards creating a nano-scale localized networked grid. For example, they’ve developed a Raspberry Pi Zero module that uses WiFi to create a CAN bus allowing the boxes to communicate their maximum voltage to each other. This makes the system as plug-and-play as possible, as the bus doesn’t require a master controller to communicate.
With features such as MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking), 20 amp peak charging, a USB interface for updating, and several built-in protection mechanisms, it’s clearly a well thought through project. We look forward to seeing it deployed in the real world!
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 15 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289118",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T23:11:01",
"content": "What is the design rationale for high current/low voltage designs? Would not lower current and higher voltage would be more efficient?Not suitable for grid-connected stuff; q.v., standards such as UL1741, U... | 1,760,373,309.585469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/a-teleprompter-for-the-rest-of-us/ | A Teleprompter For The Rest Of Us | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"teleprompter",
"video conference",
"webcam"
] | Sometimes it’s so easy to become tied up in a world of microcontrollers and complex mechanical linkages that we forget the simplest of hacks can be the most elegant.
[Lex Kravitz]’s teleprompter
is a good example, delivering the measured style of a professional addressing the studio camera to the laptop owner with a built-in camera nestled above their screen.
Just because this teleprompter is simply a mirror and a piece of clear plastic doesn’t mean that it’s a poor quality implementation though. It’s housed in a smart two-piece 3D-printed frame that hooks over the top of the monitor and locates with an area of screen into which you can place your teleprompter software. This is a world into which we haven’t previously delved, so aside from the array of Windows freeware that pops up in a Google search we found there are a few opensource offerings. There is
TeleKast
which appears to be no longer updated, and
Imaginary Teleprompter
, which even has
an online version
you can try in a web browser.
[Lex] is no stranger to these pages, having most recently appeared as part of our
PPE testing Hack Chat
. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289444",
"author": "Garth Bock",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T11:35:37",
"content": "Teleprompter……just a spoken form of Karaoke….😁",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289460",
"author": "Daniel Dunn",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,309.983858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/26/complete-flight-sim-controller-set-with-3d-printing-and-hall-effect-sensors/ | Complete Flight Sim Controller Set With 3D Printing And Hall-Effect Sensors. | Danie Conradie | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"aluminum extrusion",
"flight simulator",
"Joystick",
"rudder pedals",
"tom stanton"
] | [Tom Stanton] has been playing Microsoft Flight Simulator a lot recently, and decided his old desktop joystick needed an upgrade. Instead of just replacing it with a newer commercial model, he built a
complete controller system
with a long joystick that pivots at floor level, integrated rudder pedals and a throttle box. You can see it in action after the break.
The throw of the joystick is limited by [Tom]’s legs and chair, with only 12° of travel in either axis, which is too small to allow for high resolution with a potentiometer. Instead, he used hall effect sensors and a square magnet for each axis, which gives good resolution over a small throw angle. The pivot that couples the two rudder pedals also makes use of a hall effect sensor, but needs more travel. To increase the size of the magnetic field, [Tom] mounted two magnets on either side of the sensor with their poles aligned. To center the rudder pedals and joystick, a couple of long tension springs were added.
The joystick (left) and rudder pedals (right) magnet configurations with a hall effect sensor.
A normal potentiometer was used in the throttle lever, and [Tom] also added a number of additional toggle switches and buttons for custom functions. The frame of the system is built with T-slot extrusions, so components can quickly moved to fit a specific user, and adjust the preload on the centering springs. All the electronic components are wired to an Arduino Micro, and thanks to a
joystick library
, the code is very simple.
At a total build cost of £212/$275 it’s certainly not what anyone would call cheap, but it’s less than what you’d pay for a commercial offering. All the design files and build details are linked in the
second video
if you want to build your own.
The flight sim controller builds are coming in thick and fast with the release of the latest MS Flight Simulator. With 3D printing you can
augment an Xbox controller with a joystick and throttle
, or just use tape and a few electronic components
turn a desk drawer into a flight yoke
. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289423",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T09:36:58",
"content": "total build cost £212, not £121",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289432",
"author": "Danie Conradie",
"timestamp": "2020-10-2... | 1,760,373,310.037171 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/a-unique-display-makes-an-unusual-clock/ | A Unique Display Makes An Unusual Clock | Jenny List | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"custom display",
"led",
"seven segment",
"stm8"
] | Do you know the clock speed of the computer you’re reading this article on? Maybe Hackaday readers are more likely to reply “Yes!” to that question than the general public, but if there’s a takeaway it’s that for most computer users their clock speed is now an irrelevance. It’s quick enough for the job in hand and that’s all that matters. This was not always the case though, and a few decades ago the clock speed of a PC was its major selling point. Beige boxes would have seven-segment displays lit up with the figure, and it was an unusual example of one that
[Ken Yap] used to produce a clock that he believes is one-of-a-kind
; unless by some slim chance somebody else has rescued the same part.
The displays were hard wired without any signals from the processor, and what makes this one unusual is that as well as having a couple of digits in yellow it also sports a segmented “MHz” in red. This would have been quite a big deal on your 486 back in about 1994. To make a clock from this unpromising start required a little creative thinking, and he manages it by using the “M” and the “H” digits to represent minutes and hours, and displaying each figure in turn. The display is wired on a piece of protoboard with an STM8 dev board, and yes, as you can see in the very short video below the break, it does tell the time.
Custom displays are more usually seen in the world of LCDs than LEDs, so this one remains a rarity on these pages. Happily there are projects out there
in which people spin their own takes on the idea
. | 28 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289383",
"author": "ColT",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T05:27:29",
"content": "“This was not always the case though, and a few decades ago the clock speed of a PC was its major selling point.”Now also it’s. Only for those isn’t, who lived in a box until now. Like cars horsepower or so.... | 1,760,373,309.477751 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/stm32-gets-up-close-and-personal-with-mandelbrot/ | STM32 Gets Up Close And Personal With Mandelbrot | Bryan Cockfield | [
"News"
] | [
"blue pill",
"color",
"display",
"fractal",
"IPS",
"mandelbrot",
"microcontroller",
"small",
"stm32",
"zoom"
] | The Mandelbrot set is a curious mathematical oddity that, while interesting in its own right, is also a useful tool for benchmarking various types of computers. Its constant computing requirement when zooming in and out on the function, combined with the fact that it can be zoomed indefinitely, means that it takes some quality hardware and software to display it properly. [
Thanassis
] has made this a pet project of his, running Mandelbrot set visualizations
in different ways on many different hardware platforms
.
This particular one is based on an STM32 board called the Blue Pill, which [Thanassis] chose because he hadn’t yet done a continuous Mandelbrot zoom on a microcontroller yet. The display is handled by a tiny 16K IPS color screen, and some clever memory tricks had to come into play in order to get smooth video output since the STM has only 20 kB available. The integer multiplication is also tricky on a platform this small while keeping the continuous zoom function, so it’s limited to fixed point multiplication.
Even with the limitations of the platform, he is still able to achieve nearly double-digit FPS rates with this one. If you want to play around with graphics like this on an STM platform, [Thanassis] has released all of the source code on his GitHub page, but if you’d like to see more Mandelbrot manipulation you can check out one of his older projects
where he built a similar project on an FPGA
. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289368",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T02:32:41",
"content": "Brings back not so fond memories of playing with the Mandelbrot set on a 16MHz (?) 486 with 640k (or maybe it was 1MB?) of memory back in the day. I’m sure he has a faster frame rate on the refreshes with ... | 1,760,373,310.101058 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/hackaday-links-october-25-2020/ | Hackaday Links: October 25, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"astronauts",
"chatter",
"database",
"Embedded Linux",
"endmill",
"hackaday links",
"IBM 1401",
"Machine tool",
"microprocessors",
"model making",
"power supply",
"python",
"siglent",
"slow motion"
] | Siglent has been making pretty big inroads into the mid-range test equipment market, with the manufacturers instruments popping up on benches all over the place. Saulius Lukse, of
Kurokesu
fame, found himself in possession of a Siglent SPD3303X programmable power supply, which looks like a really nice unit, at least from the hardware side. The software it came with didn’t exactly light his fire, though, so Saulius came up with
a Python library to control the power supply
. The library lets him control pretty much every aspect of the power supply over its Ethernet port. There are still a few functions that don’t quite work, and he’s only tested it with his specific power supply so far, but chances are pretty good that there’s at least some crossover in the command sets for other Siglent instruments. We’re keen to see others pick this up and run with it.
From the “everyone needs a hobby” department, we found
this ultra-detailed miniature of an IBM 1401 mainframe system
to be completely enthralling. We may have written this up at an earlier point in its development, but it now appears that the model maker, 6502b, is done with the whole set, so it bears another look. The level of detail is eye-popping — the smallest features of every piece of equipment, from the operator’s console to the line printer, is reproduced . Even the three-ring binders with system documentation are there. And don’t get us started about those tape drives, or the wee chair in period-correct Harvest Gold.
Speaking of diversions, have you ever wondered how many people are in space right now? Or how many humans have had the privilege to hitch a ride upstairs? There’s a database for that:
the Astronauts Database over on Supercluster
. It lists pretty much everything — human and non-human — that has been intentionally launched into space, starting with Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and up to the newest member of the club,
Sergey Kud-Sverchkov
, who took off got the ISS just last week from his hometown of Baikonur. Everyone and everything is there, including
“some tardigrades”
that crashed into the Moon. They even included
this guy
, which makes us wonder why they didn’t include
the infamous manhole cover
.
And finally, for the machinists out there, if you’ve ever wondered what chatter looks like, wonder no more. Breaking Taps has done
an interesting slow-motion analysis of endmill chatter
, and the results are a bit unexpected. The footage is really cool — watching the four-flute endmill peel mild steel off and fling the tiny curlicues aside is very satisfying. The value of the high-speed shots is evident when he induces chatter; the spindle, workpiece, vise, and just about everything starts oscillating, resulting in a poor-quality cut and eventually, when pushed beyond its limits, the dramatic end of the endmill’s life. Interesting stuff — reminds us a bit of
Ben Krasnow’s up close and personal look at chip formation in his electron microscope
. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289548",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T18:45:51",
"content": "Nice video on the end mill!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6289601",
"author": "AKA the A",
"timestamp": "2020-10-26T22:42:36",
"content": "... | 1,760,373,310.140028 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/iconic-yugoslavian-galaksija-computer-reborn-with-a-documentary-too/ | Iconic Yugoslavian Galaksija Computer Reborn, With A Documentary Too | Jenny List | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"galaksija",
"retrocomputing",
"z80"
] | One of the humbling things about writing for Hackaday is the breadth of experience among our colleagues, despite one’s own skills or achievements there is probably for all of us a level of impostor syndrome when we look at their work. This week provided a reminder of this, while taking a closer look at
the crowdfunder for a documentary about the Galaksija
, the Yugoslavian 8-bit computer from the 1980s designed by our colleague [Voja Antonić]. Not only will the documentary be produced, but also they are recreating the Galaksija as a kit, so you can experiment with this historic computer for yourself. The campaign has reached passed its goal a couple times over but still has a few days left, so jump in if you are interested.
Freshly made original Galaksija (top), and new double-sided Galaksija (bottom).
With the advantage of being able to reach out to [Voja] as a colleague, it was time to secure the straight dope on the project. Though he’s not spearheading it, aside from appearing in the documentary he’s also produced the new Galaksija PCB to take advantage of double-sided manufacture and remove the wire links that were a feature of the original.
In that sense this isn’t so much a clone of the original as an updated version from the same designer, with only a few other updates such as key switches and connectors where the exact original component could no longer be sourced. A particularly fascinating side-tale comes from a reprint of the first Galaksija magazine. Photo-reproductions of the original printed pictures did not yield good results, so [Voja] built from scratch an entirely original Galaksija, carefully recreating the framing of each step shown in those original photos.
This project has faced its fair share of obstacles before launching on Crowd Supply, so it’s very good indeed to see it receive its funding with time to spare. We look forward to seeing the results, meanwhile you can see a promo video in Serbian with Youtube’s English subtitling below the break. You can read
[Voja]’s writing on the machine
in Hackaday articles past, but don’t miss the opportunity to meet him at a live event — he’s
the mastermind behind
a number of
hardware badges at Hackaday events
. | 21 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289314",
"author": "Milan",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T21:20:41",
"content": "Any chance the authors would share the gerbers from the original Galaksija?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289333",
"author": "William Stee... | 1,760,373,310.196398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/25/smoothing-big-fonts-on-graphic-lcds/ | Smoothing Big Fonts On Graphic LCDs | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"font",
"graphic lcd",
"oled",
"scaling",
"smoothing"
] | Here’s a neat little trick:
take the jaggies out of scaled fonts on the fly
! This technique is for use on graphic displays where you might want to scale your fonts up. Normally you’d just write a 2×2 block of pixels for every area where there would have been one pixel and boom, larger font. Problem is, that also multiplies each empty area and you end up with jagged edges in the transitions that really catch your eye.
[David Johnson-Davies] entered big-brain mode and did something much cleverer than the obvious solution of using multiple font files. Turns out if you analyze the smoothing problem you’ll realize that it’s only the angled areas that are to blame, horizontal and vertical scaling are nice and smooth. [David’s] fix looks for checker patterns in what’s being drawn, adding a single pixel in the blank spots to smooth out the edge incredibly well!
The technique has been packaged up in a simple function that [David] wrote to play nicely in the Arduino ecosystem. However, the routine is straightforward and would be quick to implement no matter the language or controller. Keep this one in your back pocket!
Now if all you have on hand is an HD44780 character LCD, that one’s arguably even more fun to hack around on just because you’re so limited on going beyond the hard-coded font set. We’ve seen amazing things like
using the custom character slots to play Tetris
. | 36 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289270",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T17:32:54",
"content": "Neat. It could be improved by dealing with three-pixel stairstep configurations too though, to fix the glitches in the current implementation (see: the notches in the 3 and 4 at the bottom).",
"pare... | 1,760,373,310.833717 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/optical-centrepunch-is-an-easy-build-if-you-need-one/ | Optical Centrepunch Is An Easy Build If You Need One | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"centerpunch"
] | Tired of getting his centerpunches thereabouts but not quite
there
, [Uri] decided something had to be done. A common tool to solve this problem is the optical centerpunch, but models on sale were just a little too pricy for something so basic. Instead,
[Uri] elected to build his own.
An optical centerpunch is a simple tool that helps machinists hit a centerpunch dead on target, time after time. A guide is used that holds a clear plastic rod with a dot in the center. This dot is lined up over the spot to be centerpunched. The plastic rod is then removed and replaced with the actual punch that does the work. Not content to build something utilitarian, [Uri] instead sculpted the tool into a likeness of Sgt Pepper (of Yellow Submarine fame). Seeing the hunk of bare brass quickly become a recognisable figure on camera is a testament to [Uri’s] skill as a sculptor.
It’s a tool that can be readily built by anyone with a lathe, or, at the very least, a decent drill press. We imagine it would be particularly useful for those without perfect vision, making it easier to get punches on the mark on a regular basis. [Uri] has graced these pages before, too —
he previously built an ornate tool to make all the other hammers jealous
. Video after the break. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289062",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T17:51:56",
"content": "I’ve made lots of things in my life, how is it I’ve never seen nor heard of an optical punch? Interesting tool and excellent execution. I’m envious of folks who can draw, paint, sculpt.I’ve always used ... | 1,760,373,311.08834 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/get-over-your-fears/ | Get Over Your Fears | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"#courage",
"community",
"design",
"examples",
"fears",
"inspiration",
"newsletter",
"pcb",
"routing"
] | Some projects are just too complex, that’s for sure. But I’d be willing to bet that some things you think are too difficult actually
aren’t
, and it may be that all you need to get over your personal hurdle is a good demonstration. Here come three cases in point.
I was looking at the
new Raspberry Pi Compute Module
last weekend. They have a whole bunch of high-speed traces: things like Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and those crazy-fast SDI serial camera interfaces. I have no experience in high-speed design and layout at all, and frankly it gives me the willies. But the Raspberries also shipped me an IO demo board, and concomitant KiCAD design files, with the review board. Looking at it, they were just wires — maybe pairwise length-matched and impedance controlled — but also just wires. Opening up the KiCAD board file and clicking on the traces just like I do with my own designs, I’m a lot less scared. That was a revelation for me.
In a great writeup of his experience
building ten different Linux single-board-computers
from scratch
, Jay Carlson had a similar effect on me. I would never have considered breaking out the hotplate for some CPU-and-DRAM action, and I’ve never had to lay out a PCB with a high density BGA chip before either. I’m not quite into
Dunning-Kruger
territory yet; I still have a healthy respect for the layout intricacies in fanning out a tight BGA CPU into a DRAM. But Jay’s frank assessments of what is easy and what is hard make it all seem within the realm of the doable.
As Mike and I were talking on
the podcast
about Jay’s work, Mike came clean about his fear of BGAs. I’ve done enough reflow-plate soldering, with parts that have a lead pitch that’s a factor of two finer than the 0.8 mm pitch BGAs in question, so it doesn’t seem implausible to me. And I’m 100% sure Mike could pull it off too, but he is in need of a BGA guru. Any good hobbyist videos out there?
Being a nerdy type, I’m much more focused on the
knowledge
and the
inspiration
, but maybe the
courage
is equally important — at least I think I undervalue it. I don’t need to lay out HDMI lines, or build a from-scratch Linux box, but I am no longer afraid that I couldn’t, and that’s because I’ve seen detailed examples of fellow hackers who’ve done the same. I might not get it right on the first shot, but I’m not afraid to try, and I wouldn’t have said the same before looking over other folks’ shoulders. Forza e corragio!
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
! | 23 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289035",
"author": "PWalsh",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T15:15:18",
"content": "Shameless plug here: I’m just now finishing a project (freely available) that allows the end user of a RasPi project to easily configure the system.If you have a product that includes a Raspberry Pi, you c... | 1,760,373,310.899435 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/super-simple-vga-adapter-sports-low-res-output-with-only-four-ttl-chips/ | Super-Simple VGA Adapter Sports Low-Res Output With Only Four TTL Chips | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"breadboard",
"eeprom",
"minimalist",
"sync",
"ttl",
"vga",
"video"
] | Here at Hackaday we cast a wary eye at tips that come in with superlative claims. Generally, if we post something that claims to be the fastest or the smallest of all time, we immediately get slapped down in the comments by someone who has done it faster or smaller. So we present
the simplest TTL video card ever
knowing the same thing will happen, but eager to see how anyone might scale things down.
To be fair, [George Foot] does qualify his claim to the simplest usable VGA adapter, and he does note that it descends from
[Ben Eater]’s “world’s worst video card”
, which he uses for his 6502 breadboard computer. But where [Ben]’s VGA adapter uses about 20 TTL chips and an EEPROM, [George] has managed to decrease the BOM to just four TTL chips along with the memory and a crystal oscillator. This required a fair number of compromises, of course; the color depth is fairly low, as is the resolution. Each pixel appears as a thin horizontal bar rather than a small square, leading the images to be smeared out across the screen. They’re still surprisingly viewable, though, which probably says more about the quality of the pattern-recognition wetware between our ears than anything about the quality of the adapter. [George] gives a tour of the circuit in the brief video below.
It looks like [George] has posted a few improvements to the project since we first spotted it, so we’re looking forward to seeing how much the parts count went up. We’re also keen to see if anyone can outdo the simplicity of this effort — be sure to let us know if you give it a shot. | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289002",
"author": "problemchild68",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T11:59:02",
"content": "Not really a video card more of a testcard generator.Fun non the less",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289057",
"author": "JockM",
... | 1,760,373,310.756041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/24/proprietary-lenses-are-no-problem-with-this-usb-adaptor/ | Proprietary Lenses Are No Problem With This USB Adaptor | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"canon",
"lens",
"usb"
] | There was a time when a camera lens was simply a set of shaped pieces of glass in a tube, with a mount and an aperture. But as cameras have embraced electronics ever more, technology has found its way past the lens mount to the extent that all features of a modern lens are electronically controllable. Can they be used outside the confines of the camera they were designed for? If the user is [Jana Marie] then certainly, because she’s created
a nifty USB adapter and mount for Canon lenses
for use with her custom streaming camera.
The hardware is a 3D printed lens mount with a PCB that mates with the pins on the lens. An STM32 does the hard work and talks to the outside world through a USB interface, however it’s in the software that the real effort lies. The Canon lens protocol has been extended since the 1980s, and the commands for different generations of lenses can be convoluted. All the information is
in a GitHub repository
, so the curious hacker can roll their own.
There are a wealth of camera projects to be found for those that don’t mind tearing apart some of their more valuable possessions, and this isn’t the first we’ve seen
involving the hacking of the Canon protocol
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288972",
"author": "Moryc",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T08:37:12",
"content": "I wish this was for Sony E-mount lenses, not for Canon. Or for both Sony, Canon and Nikon, so we could make an open source cross-platform lens adapter…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies"... | 1,760,373,310.620834 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/relay-computer-consumes-six-years-and-4-5-suitcases/ | Relay Computer Consumes Six Years And 4.5 Suitcases | Chris Lott | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"education",
"relay computer",
"relays"
] | If you thought your home-brew project was taking a long time, [Jeroen Brinkman]’s
MERCIA Relay Computer project
probably has you beat. He began working on this impressive computer back in 2014, and has been at it ever since. In fact, the ongoing nature of the project is embedded into the name itself — the English translation of the acronym MERCIA is “
My Simple Relay Computer Under Construction”
. Being interested in old analog and relay computers from an early age, [Jeroen] took on this project to educate students about how computers work. The entire computer is build only using relays, diodes, and capacitors, not to mention color-coded wire based on signal functions. Using relays as the primary switching elements is at the core of his educational goal — anyone can understand how a relay works.
Understandably, this thing is big. But he has cleverly packaged it to visually show the major building blocks of a computer. While the exact size isn’t stated, we can estimate based on the photo of [Jeroen] standing next to the modules that these panels are about 1.5 m tall and perhaps 60 cm wide. The whole computer is nine panels wide, making it about 5 meters long. Except for the ROM assembly, pairs of panels are hinged together and they fold like a book and carried like a suitcases when being moved. If you enjoy the clickety-clack sound of relays, be sure to watch the relay longevity test in the video below and check out our article on
the 1958 FACOM
from last year.
This is a fascinating project, but unless you have a couple thousand relays laying around and a decade of free time, it’s probably better to just enjoy [Jeroen]’s work rather than build your own. We hope he releases schematics and other documentation once the project is finished. You can follow his
Facebook build log
if you want to keep track of the progress. Thanks to [David Gustafik] for the tip. | 38 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288940",
"author": "jrfl",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T06:07:43",
"content": "Good lord, it is programed by a bank of 500 dipswitches",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6288942",
"author": "Vinalon",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,310.697218 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/short-video-recaps-a-long-tradition-of-space-hacks/ | Short Video Recaps A Long Tradition Of Space Hacks | Roger Cheng | [
"Space"
] | [
"apollo",
"Apollo 13",
"apollo 14",
"international space station",
"lunar rover",
"Space Shuttle"
] | Human spaceflight has always been, and still remains, a risky endeavor. We mitigate risk by being as prepared as we can. Every activity is planned, reviewed, and practiced long before any rocket engines are ignited. But space has a history of not cooperating with plans, and thus there is a corresponding history of hacks to get missions back on track. YouTube space fan [Scott Manley] recaps some of his favorites in
How a $2 Toothbrush Saved the ISS and Other Unbelievable Space Hacks
.
The introduction explained this compilation was motivated by the latest International Space Station drama, where an elusive air leak has finally been tracked down. Air leaks are obviously much more worrying in a space station than in, say, a bicycle tire. Thus there exists a wide array of tools to track down leaks but they couldn’t find this one. Reportedly the breakthrough came from an improvised airflow visualization tool:
leaves from a cut-open tea bag
. Normally small floating particles are forbidden in space because they might end up in troublesome places. (Eyes, noses, onboard equipment…) Apparently the necessity of the hack outweighed the rules here.
Tea leaves are but the latest in a long line of hacks devised in the course of space missions, because things don’t always go according to the original plan. Or even any of the large volume of contingency plans. Solutions have to be cobbled together from resources on hand, because when we’re in space, what we brought is all we have. From
directly editing production code
during Apollo 14, to a field-built replacement fender for the Apollo 17 Lunar Rover Vehicle (
top picture
), to the $2 toothbrush
pressed into service as metal debris cleaner
. The mission must go on! | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289005",
"author": "steves",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T12:05:21",
"content": "Can’t help but be feeling that the fender repair was more for publicity that for functionality.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6289030",
"a... | 1,760,373,310.569719 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/a-plethora-of-power-delivery-potential/ | A Plethora Of Power Delivery Potential | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"hardware"
] | [
"camera trigger",
"power delivery",
"ts100",
"USB C",
"usb c power delivery",
"usb c trigger board"
] | Here at the Hackaday we’ve been enjoying a peculiar side effect of the single-port USB-C world; the increasing availability of programmable DC power supplies in the form of ubiquitous laptop charging bricks. Once the sole domain of barrel jacks or strange rectangular plugs (we’re looking at you Lenovo) it’s become quite common to provide charging via the lingua franca of USB-C Power Delivery. But harnessing those delectable 100W power supplies is all to often the domain of the custom PCBA and firmware hack. What of the power-hungry hacker who wants to integrate Power Delivery in her project? For that we turn to
an excellent video by [Brian Lough]
describing four common controller ICs and why you might choose one for your next project.
A superb illustration from the TS100 Flex-C-Friend documentation
[Brian] starts off with a sorely-needed explainer of what the heck Power Delivery
is
; a topic with an unfortunate amount of depth. But the main goal of the video is to dive into the inscrutable hoard of “USB C trigger boards.” Typically these take USB on one side and provide a terminal block on the other, possibly with a button or LED as user interface to select voltage and current. We’ve seen these before as
laptop barrel jack replacements
and
TS100 power supplies
but it’s hard to tell which of the seemingly-identical selection is most suitable for a project.
The main body of the video is [Brian’s] detailed walkthrough of four types of trigger boards, based on the IP2721, FUSB302, STUSB4500, and Cypress EZ-PD BCR. For each he describes the behaviors of it’s particular IC and how to configure it. His focus is on building a board to power a TS100 (which parallels his
TS100 Flex-C-Friend
) but the content is generally applicable. Of course we also appreciate his overview of the products on Tindie for each described module.
For another angle on Power Delivery, check out
this series of posts by [jason cerudolo]
, a perennial favorite. And don’t miss his classic project, the
USB Easy Bake Oven
. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288903",
"author": "Mike Massen, Perth Western Australia",
"timestamp": "2020-10-24T01:40:20",
"content": "Helpful post summary, thanks for posting :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288904",
"author": "WF",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,311.0314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/dont-guess-listen-to-your-plants-pleas-for-water/ | Don’t Guess, Listen To Your Plants’ Pleas For Water | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"arduino nano",
"soil moisture sensor",
"VU meter"
] | Plants are great to have around, but they all have different watering needs. If only they could cry out when they’re thirsty, right? Well, now they can. All you need to hear them suffer is your very own Klausner Machine. [RoniBandini] based the Klausner machine on one of Roald Dahl’s short stories, which features an inventor who builds a machine that can make audible the sound of plants shrieking whenever they’re cut.
In [RoniBandini]’s version of the Klausner Machine, the point is to judge the plant’s feelings based on its soil moisture content
. An Arduino Nano reads in from the soil moisture sensor, and if the soil is dry, the plant screams. If the soil is moist, the plant emits happy sounds from DF Player Mini and SD card. We think the analog meters are a great touch, and the jumping needles really anthropomorphize the plant.
Go forth and gain a better appreciation for your plants’ feelings, because this project is wide open. Maybe it will help you water them more often. Some plants need to be cut back, so we think it would be cool if you could make it scream when you take a cutting. Check out the demo after the break.
This is isn’t the first time we’ve seen an analog meter used in conjunction with soil moisture
. What is a VU meter, anyway?
Our own [Dan Maloney] really moved the needle on the subject a while back
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288825",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T21:34:58",
"content": "It shouldn’t scream, is should play “How dry I am”. Oh and it should also have a setting for too wet, plants don’t like that either.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,373,311.12908 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/the-adorable-robot-spot-now-in-affordable-form/ | The Adorable Robot Spot, Now In Affordable Form | Erin Pinheiro | [
"Robots Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"boston dynamics",
"hobby servo",
"quadruped",
"robots",
"servos",
"spot"
] | If you’ve been following the Boston Dynamics project Spot, you’ve seen its capabilities and how we’re starting to see it being used in public more since its official release last year. But in a true display of how hobbyist electronics have been evolving and catching up with the big companies over the past few years, [Miguel Ayuso Parrilla] shows us his own take on the walking robot with
CHOP, one of the finalists in this year’s Hackaday Prize
.
CHOP is a DIY quadruped robot that works much in the same way as Spot, although in a smaller form-factor and, perhaps most impressive of all, a bill of materials that can be all acquired for under $500. The entire project is open source, meaning that
anyone can built their own version of it
with off-the-shelf parts and some 3D printing. If you can’t get the hardware however,
you can still play with the PyBullet simulation of the mechanics that were used during the debugging process
.
Running the show are two main components, a Raspberry Pi 4B and an Arduino Mega. While the Mega interfaces with the servo controllers and provides filtering for sensors like the inertial measurement unit, the Pi takes all that data in and uses a series of Python scripts in order to determine the gait of the robot and which way the servos should move through an inverse kinematics model. To control the direction in which the body of the robot should accelerate, a Bluetooth remote controller sends commands to the Raspberry Pi.
We’re excited to see home-grown projects rise to this level of complexity, which would be mostly unheard of a few years ago in the maker scene, and only presented by large tech companies with tons of money to spend on research and development. There are other quadruped robots to inspire yourself on than Spot though, like
this one with a spherical design and fold-out legs
. Check this one in action after the break.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288760",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T18:40:36",
"content": "Interesting. Ethernet that follows you around. :-p",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288861",
"author": "Inhibit",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T2... | 1,760,373,311.171511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/tesla-begins-full-self-driving-public-beta-as-waymo-and-cruise-go-unattended/ | Tesla Begins “Full Self Driving” Public Beta As Waymo And Cruise Go Unattended | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"Current Events",
"Featured"
] | [
"autonomous car",
"autonomous cars",
"Autopilot",
"full self driving",
"tesla"
] | Self-driving technology is a holy grail that promises to forever change the way we interact with cars. Thus far, there’s been plenty of hype and excitement, but full vehicles that remove the driver from the equation have remained far off. Tesla have long posited themselves as a market leader in this area, with their Autopilot technology allowing some limited autonomy on select highways. However, in a recent announcement,
they have heralded the arrival of a new “Full Self Driving” ability for select beta testers in their early access program.
Taking Things Up A Notch
Telsa’s update notes highlight the new “Full Self-Driving” capabilities. Drivers are expected to pay continuous attention and be prepared to take over at any time, as the system “may do the wrong thing at the worst time.”
The new software update further extends the capabilities of Tesla vehicles to drive semi-autonomously. Despite the boastful “Full Self Driving” moniker, or FSD for short, it’s still classified as
a Level 2 driving automation system,
which relies on human intervention as a backup. This means that the driver must be paying attention and ready to take over in an instant, at all times. Users are instructed to keep their hands on the wheel at all times, but predictably,
videos have already surfaced of users ignoring this measure.
The major difference between FSD and the previous Autopilot software is the ability to navigate city streets. Formerly, Tesla vehicles were only able to self-drive on highways, where the more regular flow of traffic is easier to handle. City streets introduce far greater complexity, with hazards like parked cars, pedestrians, bicycles, and complicated intersections. Unlike others in the field,
who are investing heavily in LIDAR technology
, Tesla’s system relies entirely on cameras and radar to navigate the world around it.
A Very Public Beta Test
Regulations are in place in many jurisdictions to manage the risks of testing autonomous vehicles. Particularly after
a pedestrian was killed by an Uber autonomous car in 2018,
many have been wary of the risks of letting this technology loose on public roads.
Tesla appear capable of shortcutting this requirement, by simply stating that the driver is responsible for the vehicle and must remain alert at all times. The problem is that this option ignores the effect that autonomous driving has on a human driver. Traditional aids like cruise control still require the driver to steer, ensuring their attention is fully trained on the driving task. However, when the vehicle takes over all driving duties, the human in the loop is left with the role of staying vigilant for danger. Trying to continuously concentrate on such a task, while not being actually required to do anything most of the time, is acutely difficult for most people.
Ford’s own engineers routinely fell asleep
during testing of the company’s autonomous vehicles. It goes to show that any system that expects a human to be constantly ready to take over doesn’t work without keeping them involved.
Cruise and Waymo Going Driverless at the Same Time
Tesla’s decision to open the beta test to the public has proved controversial. Allowing the public to use the technology puts not just Tesla owners, but other road users at risk too.
The NHTSA have delivered a stern warning,
stating it “will not hesitate to take action to protect the public against unreasonable risks to safety.” Of course, Tesla are not the only company forging ahead in the field of autonomous driving.
GM’s Cruise will be trialing their robotic vehicles
without human oversight before the year is out, and Alphabet’s Waymo has already been running an entirely driverless rideshare service for some time,
with riders held to a strict non-disclosure agreement.
GM Cruise test vehicle shows sensor roof rack with LiDAR that Tesla vehicles do not have.
The difference in these cases is that neither Cruise or Waymo are relying on a human to remain continually watchful for danger. Their systems have been developed to a point where regulators are comfortable allowing the companies run the vehicles without direct intervention. This contrast can be perceived in two ways, which each have some validity. Tesla’s technology could be seen as taking the easy way out, holding a human responsible to make up for shortcomings in the autonomous system and protect the company from litigation.
Given their recent updates to their in-car camera firmware
, this seems plausible. Alternatively, Tesla’s approach could be seen as the more cautious choice, keeping a human in the loop in the event something does go wrong. However, given that evidence is already prevalent that this doesn’t work well in practice, one would need to be charitable to hold the latter opinion.
A conservative view suggests that as the technology rolls out, we’ll see more egregious slip ups that a human driver wouldn’t have made —
just like previous iterations of Tesla’s self driving technology
. Where things get hairy is determining if those slip-ups deliver a better safety record than leaving humans behind the wheel. Thus far,
even multiple fatalities haven’t slowed the automaker’s push,
so expect to see development continue on public roads near you. | 131 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288739",
"author": "Vinalon",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T17:26:18",
"content": "Maddeningly irresponsible. Roads are a shared resource, and I didn’t sign up to have people texting while their car uses a camera to decide what color a light is, or whether a stop sign exists.It’s also n... | 1,760,373,311.578741 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/hackaday-podcast-090-diy-linux-sbc-hdmi-cec-fake-bluepills-and-scara-arms/ | Hackaday Podcast 090: DIY Linux SBC, HDMI CEC, Fake Bluepills, And SCARA Arms | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys chat about our favourite hacks from the past week. We start off with a bit of news of the Bennu asteroid and the new Raspberry Pi Compute Module. We drive ourselves crazy trying to understand how bobbin holders on sewing machines work, all while drooling over the mechanical brilliance of a bobbin-winding build. SCARA is the belt and pulley champion of robot arms and this week’s example cleverly uses redundant bearings for better precision. And we wrap up the show looking in on longform articles about the peppering of microcontrollers found on the Bluepill and wondering what breakthroughs are left to be found for internal combustion.
Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Direct download
(60 MB or so.)
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 090 Show Notes:
New This Week:
OSIRIS-REx Reaches Out And Touches Asteroid Bennu
New Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module: So Long SO-DIMM, Hello PCIe!
Parallel Pis For Production Programming; Cutting Minutes And Dollars Off Of Assembly
@arturo182
image compares size of Pi to CM4 and Feather
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Thinking About Creating A Raspberry Pi Replacement?
The Amazing $1 Microcontroller – Jay Carlson
Motorized Magic Over HDMI
PyBot Is A 3D Printed SCARA Arm For The Masses
Wood SCARA Arm Gets A Grip
Finally – Automatic Artisan
3D Printed SCARA Arm With 3D Printer Components
Climbing Everest One Hill At A Time – And Keeping Track Of It
Arduino Bobbin Winding Machine Is Freaky Fast
How a sewing machine works – Animagraffs – YouTube
Das Geheimnis der Nähmaschine – YouTube
Bonsai LED Matrix Has Chaotic Roots
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Retro Calculator Design Has Creative Tactile Touchscreen
It Came From Outer Space: Listening To The Deep Space Network
Let KiCad And Python Make Your Coils
Escape To An Alternate Reality Anywhere With Port-A-Vid
Mike’s Picks:
Bench Supplies Get Smaller Thanks To USB-C
Turning A Desk Drawer Into A Flight Yoke
Duality Of Light Explored By Revisiting The Double-Slit Experiment
Can’t-Miss Articles:
STM32 Clones: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Mazda Investing Big In Advanced Gasoline Tech With Skyactiv-X | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6289313",
"author": "Mr. Required",
"timestamp": "2020-10-25T21:17:54",
"content": "“It’s the acroynm episode… DIY(nope) linux SBC(Not this one) , HTMI(you don’t fit either) CEC(denied), SCARA(apt usage! yay wootwoot) arms”ak-ruh-nim : a word formed from the initial letters or grou... | 1,760,373,311.20948 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/complex-wood-joints-thanks-to-new-softwares-interactive-features/ | Complex Wood Joints, Thanks To New Software’s Interactive Features | Donald Papp | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"joinery",
"research",
"tsugite",
"woodworking"
] | Artfully-crafted wooden joints that fit together like puzzle pieces and need neither glue nor nails is fascinating stuff, but to call the process of designing and manufacturing them by hand “time-consuming” would be an understatement. To change that, a research team from the University of Tokyo presented
Tsugite
, a software system for interactively designing and fabricating complex wooden joints
. It’s named after the Japanese word for joinery, and aims to make the design and manufacture of glue and fastener-free joints much easier than it otherwise would be.
Three-way joint that requires no glue or fasteners.
It looks like the software is so far only a research project and not something that can be downloaded
The software is available on GitHub
and the approach it takes is interesting.
This downloadable PDF
explains how the software deals with the problem of how to make such a task interactive and practical.
The clever bit is that the software not only provides design assistance for the joints themselves in a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface, but also generates real-time feedback based on using a three-axis CNC tool as the manufacturing method. This means that the system understands the constraints that come from the fabrication method, and incorporates that into design feedback.
The two main limitations of using a three-axis CNC are that the cutting tool can only approach the material from above, and that standard milling bits cannot create sharp inner corners; they will have a rounded fillet the same radius as the cutting bit. Design can be done manually, or by selecting joints from a pre-defined gallery. Once the design is complete, the system generates the toolpaths for manufacture.
Currently, Tsugite is limited to single joints meant for frame structures, but there’s no reason it couldn’t expand beyond that scope. A video to accompany the paper is embedded below, it’s short and concise and shows the software in action, so be sure to give it a look.
We love the idea, and
it reminds of the Matchsticks project
, which also used CNC specifically to ease the fabrication of joints.
[via
SciTechDaily
] | 23 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288703",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T15:41:41",
"content": "I am a little surprised that the CNC-machined version is so untidy compared to hand-cut similar things.See, for example, Dorian Bracht’s YouTube channel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,373,311.686271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/this-week-in-security-too-little-too-late-and-other-stories/ | This Week In Security: Too Little Too Late, And Other Stories | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"Open Redirects",
"visual studio code",
"Zerologon"
] | Microsoft has
just announced a way to disable JScript in Internet Explorer
. This would have been very useful a few years ago, to proactively prevent problems found in the now-ancient JScript engine, which ran their own slightly different version of standard JavaScript. Even though IE is no longer under active development, it still receives security updates. JScript, on the other hand, is basically done. If you’re one of the 1.06% that still use IE, then go flip the switch to protect yourself from additional JScript vulnerabilities.
Zerologon and Samba?
Samba is an open source re-implemenation of Microsoft’s SMB protocol. There’s a clever term that describes the reality of this situation: “Bug for bug compatibility”. Remember Zerologon, the flaw where a security token’s generation could be manipulated to vastly reduce the key space? Samba follows the specification, and therefore
suffers from the same issue
, though it seems to be unusual to actually run Samba in a vulnerable configuration.
Other implementations cannot say the same.
QNAP in particular has been bitten by Zerologon
when configured as a domain controller. What’s not clear is whether QNAP is running Samba on the NAS products, or if this is yet another vulnerable implementation. Either way, go update your devices.
CVE-2020-17023
Some times, a bug has a story to tell, and
CVE-2020-17023 is one of those bugs
. With a score of 7.8, it’s not the most critical vulnerability of all time, but it could be of specific interest to the HaD audience, as it was in Visual Studio Code. This open source editor is widely considered to be quite good, and is gaining a following. Microsoft has a habit of being less than forthcoming with their security bulletins, but perhaps the open source nature of this project will be helpful. Running to their GitHub and searching for the CVE leads to
this issue
.
Let’s break down what we have here. First, [Justin Steven] is explaining details about a previous flaw, CVE-2020-16881. That flaw was a result of using a
.exec()
function, which has all the same problems as a
system()
call. It acts like it’s executing something on the command line, so all sorts of command injection trickery is possible. The worst part is that hovering over a malicious package is enough to trigger the exploit. Microsoft fixed this earlier problem, and all was well, right? Well, no. Their fix was to add a filter to catch invalid package names, rather than remove the unsafe system call. As you can guess, there is a loophole — not all failures are treated equally. The filter function can fall through, and return True, even when the name is invalid. MS eventually implemented the right fix, using a safer exec function, and even credited [Justin] with a CVE of his own.
What Harm is an Open Redirect?
There’s a class of website vulnerability that seems very innocuous at first glance — open redirects, and similar problems like subdomain hijacking. What harm could these possibly cause? Both of these can lead to subtle vulnerabilities in web applications, and today we have
a good example of how an open redirect can be used
as part of an account takeover attack.
First, what exactly is an open redirect? It’s a page on someone’s website that will automatically redirect the visitor to a different page. Redirection is only half the definition, though. An open redirect takes the redirect target as one of its parameters, and can send the user anywhere that parameter points. Not every example is straightforward. Requesting a URL like
http://local.dev?source=message&script_name=ggg
might redirect you to
http://local.devggg/welcome/index
. If instead of “ggg”, we inject “mybaddomain.com”, we can suddenly redirect a user to a domain we control. This is the exact pattern that William Bowling, AKA [vakzz], discovered in GitHub Enterprise.
The attack goes like this, then. Send someone a GitHub Gist link, but add a “script_name” parameter, that points to a domain that you own. They click on the link, go through GitHub’s authentication process, but get redirected to your domain. Since their session information is in the URL, configure your server to log that information, and then redirect them to the proper next URL in GitHub’s authentication flow. It happens quickly enough that no-one knows the difference. However, take the logged information, and you can recreate the session and act as that user.
You may notice that we’re a little short on stories this week. I’m sure our collective hair will be on fire next week to make up for it. If you see something you think we should cover,
drop it in the tips line
, or
tag me directly on Twitter
. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288743",
"author": "ChipMaster",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T17:33:44",
"content": "I’d like to point out the real flaw in the “Open Redirect” story is:> …Since their session information is in the URL…Bad M$! But I expect no less from them. Still there are these corner cases where Ope... | 1,760,373,311.619605 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/battery-swap-gives-nissan-leaf-new-lease-on-life/ | Battery Swap Gives Nissan LEAF New Lease On Life | Tom Nardi | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"battery pack",
"electric car",
"electric car battery",
"nissan",
"Nissan Leaf"
] | It’s often said that one of the advantages of owning an electric vehicle is reduced maintenance costs, and for the most part, that’s true. That is, until the vehicle’s battery pack starts to show its age. Then you might be on the hook for a repair bill comparable to swapping out the engine on your old gas-burner. Depending on the age of the vehicle at that point, you might find yourself in the market for a new ride.
But in his latest video, [Daniel Öster] demonstrates that
you can replace the battery in a modern electric vehicle without breaking the bank
. While it’s not exactly an easy job, he manages to swap the pack in his 2012 Nissan LEAF from the comfort of his own garage using common tools and with the vehicle up on jack stands. The old battery wasn’t completely shot, so he was even able to recoup some of his costs by selling it; bringing the total price of the operation to approximately €2,122 ($2,500 USD).
Splicing on a new diagnostic connector.
While that wouldn’t be a bad deal even for a simple swap, the operation was actually an upgrade. The car was originally sold with a 24 kWh battery, but [Daniel] has replaced it with a 30 kWh pack intended for the 2017 LEAF. His car now has a greater range than it did the day it rolled off the assembly line, though as you might expect, the installation was more complex than it would have been with a contemporary battery.
[Daniel] has produced a kit that has all the adapters required
to perform your own battery upgrade, including a module that translates the diagnostic signals from the newer battery into something the older vehicle can understand. With all the electrical bits simplified, all you’ve got to worry about is drilling the new battery mounting holes in the frame.
The battery pack is truly the heart and soul of an electric car
, so its no surprise that mechanics and hackers alike are
eager to learn as much about them as possible
. They’ll have their work cut out for them, as
the technology is only going to get more advanced with time
. | 131 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288624",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T11:20:37",
"content": "that’s one of the big problems with electrical cars, they just have that large cost built into them (battery replacement). His car was only a 2012 one, and it already needed replacing.I drive a 2010 car th... | 1,760,373,311.917434 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/23/trick-or-yeet-cannon-will-give-them-candy-shell-shock/ | Trick Or Yeet Cannon Will Give Them Candy Shell Shock | Kristina Panos | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"9V battery",
"air compressor",
"candy cannon",
"candy dispenser",
"cannon",
"halloween",
"Halloween candy",
"sprinkler valve"
] | One of our favorite things about Halloween is the sheer number of hacks that come out of it each year. This year, hacking is almost a requirement to keep things physically distanced, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. You want fun?
How about a candy cannon that launches sweet projectiles at trick-or-treaters from fifty feet?
[Paul McCabe]’s cannon uses a sprinkler valve and an air compressor to launch a pair of fun size candy bars, each encased in a film canister shell. Each trick-or-treater stomps a foot switch fifty feet away at the end of the driveway, and as long as someone is there holding down the primary ignition, the cannon will fire with a nice retort that sounds like a large wind instrument playing a D note.
We were sad to learn that the parachute idea didn’t shake out, but the glow sticks are a great addition for night time. Check out the demo after the break, which is followed by a build video and then some more launches for the fun of it. Don’t have enough time to build a cannon of this caliber?
You could put a spooky six-foot slide together pretty quickly
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288599",
"author": "dr. Memals",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T08:58:23",
"content": "No one will be injured. Someone will sue. Welcome to America.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288603",
"author": "yetihehe",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,373,312.226543 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/cardboard-models-trace-design-process-of-vintage-tektronix-miniscopes/ | Cardboard Models Trace Design Process Of Vintage Tektronix Miniscopes | Dan Maloney | [
"classic hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"engineering",
"industrial design",
"model",
"oscilloscope",
"product development",
"prototype",
"tektronix"
] | There aren’t many brands that inspire the kind of passion and fervency among its customers as Tektronix does. The venerable Oregon-based manufacturer of top-end test equipment has produced more collectible gear over the last 75 years than just about anyone else.
Over that time they have had plenty of innovations, and in the 1970s they started looking into miniaturizing their flagship oscilloscopes. The vintageTEK museum, run by current and former employees, has
a review of the design process of the 200 series of portable oscilloscopes
that’s really interesting. At a time when scopes were portable in the way a packed suitcase is portable, making a useful instrument in a pocketable form factor was quite a challenge — even for big pockets.
The article goes into great detail on the back-and-forth between the industrial designers, with their endless stream of models, and the engineers who would actually have to stuff a working scope into whatever case they came up with. The models from the museum’s collection are wonderful bits of history and show where the industrial designers really pushed for some innovative designs.
Some of the models are clearly derived from the design of the big bench scopes, but some have innovative flip-down covers and other interesting elements that never made it to production. Most of the models are cardboard, but some were made of aluminum in the machine shop and sport the familiar “Tek blue” livery. But the
pièce de résistance
of the collection is a working engineering model of what would become the 200-series of miniscopes, a handmade prototype with a tiny round CRT and crudely labeled controls.
The vintageTEK museum sounds like another bucket-list stop for computer and technology history buffs. Tek has been
doing things their own way
for a long time, and stopping by the museum is sure to be a treat.
Thanks to [Tanner Bass] for the tip. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288565",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T05:23:38",
"content": "Living in Portland, I’ve been to the Vintage Tek museum a few times. It’s right next door to the Tek Company Store, which has lots of surplus Tek gear, and is definitely a good hunting ground. Any... | 1,760,373,311.736242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/tracking-boats-and-ships-in-real-time-at-the-same-time/ | Tracking Boats And Ships In Real Time At The Same Time | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"ads-b",
"airplane",
"ais",
"boat",
"interface",
"plane",
"raspberry pi",
"RTL-SDR",
"trackers",
"traffic"
] | Software-defined radio came on the hacker scene in a big way less than a decade ago thanks to the discovery that a small USB-based TV tuner dongle could be used for receiving all kinds of radio transmissions. Two popular projects from that era are tracking nearby airplanes and boats in real time. Of course, these projects rely on different frequencies and protocols, but if you live in a major port city like [Ian] then his project
that combines both into a single user interface might be of interest
.
This project uses an RTL-SDR dongle for the marine traffic portion of the project, but steps up to a FlightAware Pro dongle for receiving telemetry from airplanes. Two separate antennas are needed for this, and all of the information is gathered and handled by a pair of Raspberry Pis. The Pis communicate with various marine and air traffic databases as well as handles the custom user interface that knits both sets of information together.
This interface
was custom-built from a previous project of his and was repurposed slightly to fit the needs of this one.
This is a great project that goes into a lot of interesting detail about how the web traffic moves and how the UI works, so even if you’re not into software-defined radio it might be worth a look. However, it’s also worth noting that it hasn’t been easier to set up a system like this thanks to the
abundance and low price of RTL-SDR dongles
and the
software tools
that make setting them up a breeze. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288538",
"author": "AndrewMohawk",
"timestamp": "2020-10-23T02:18:55",
"content": "Think that title should probably include planes, “boats and ships” are pretty similar ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6288602",
"au... | 1,760,373,311.970569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/digital-preservation-for-old-batteries/ | Digital Preservation For Old Batteries | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"3d model",
"battery",
"cad",
"digital preservation",
"obsolete hardware",
"preservation",
"recreation",
"thingiverse",
"vintage hardware"
] | The times they are a-changin’. It used to be that no household was complete without a drawer filled with an assortment of different sizes and types of batteries, but today more and more of our gadgets are using integrated rechargeable cells. Whether or not that’s necessarily an improvement is probably up for debate, but the fact of the matter is that some of these old batteries are becoming harder to find as time goes on.
Which is why
[Stephen Arsenault] wants to preserve as many of them as possible
. Not in some kind of physical battery museum (though that does sound like the sort of place we’d like to visit), but digitally in the form of 3D models and spec sheets. The idea being that if you find yourself in need of an oddball, say the PRAM battery for a Macintosh SE/30, you could devise your own stand-in with a printed shell.
The rather brilliantly named
Battery Backups
project currently takes the form of a Thingiverse Group, which allows other alkaline aficionados to submit their own digitized cells. The cells that [Stephen] has modeled so far include not only the STL files for 3D printing, but the CAD source files in several different flavors so you can import them into your tool of choice.
Like the efforts to digitally preserve vintage input devices
, it’s not immediately clear how many others out there are willing to spend their afternoons modeling up antiquated batteries. But then again, we’ve long since learned
not to underestimate the obscure interests of the hacker community
. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288523",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T23:24:41",
"content": "Good idea, this could be useful for people into old radios as well, like where the hell do I get a B battery? (I know there out there but what about in 20 years?(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,373,312.182431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/a-linear-stencil-clock-built-for-quiet-operation/ | A Linear Stencil Clock Built For Quiet Operation | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"arduino",
"arduni",
"clock",
"linear",
"rack and pinion",
"rtc",
"stencil",
"stepper"
] | We around the Hackaday shop never get tired of seeing new ways to mark the passage of time. Hackers come up with all manner of interesting timekeeping modalities using every imaginable material and method of moving the mechanism once per whatever minimum time unit the hacker chooses to mark.
But honestly, there are only so many ways to make a clock, and while we’re bound to see some repeats, it’s still nice to go over old ground with a fresh approach. Take
this linear sliding stencil clock
for instance. [Luuk Esselbrugge] has included some cool design elements that bear a closer look. The video below shows that the display is made up of four separate stepper motors, each driving a vertical stencil via a rack-and-pinion mechanism. There a simple microswitch for homing the display, and a Neopixel for lighting things up.
The video below shows that the stencils move very, very slowly; [Luuk] says that this is to keep the steppers as quiet as possible. Still, this means that some time changes take more than a minute to accomplish, which is a minor problem. The Neopixel also doesn’t quite light up just one digit, which should be a pretty easy fix for version 2. Still, even with these issues, we like the stately movements of this clock, and appreciate [Luuk]’s attempts to make it easier to live with.
Don’t let the number of clocks you see on these pages dissuade you from trying something new, or from putting your twist on an old design. Start with
fridge magnets
,
an old oscilloscope
, or even
a bevy of steel balls
, and let your imagination run wild. Just make sure to tell us all about it when you’re done.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DASH_1080.mp4
[via
r/Arduino
] | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288495",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T20:45:11",
"content": "Cool, I’d like to see it done as a word clock.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288509",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T22:32:0... | 1,760,373,312.027406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/pulse-oximetry-sensor-judges-your-coffee-roast/ | Pulse Oximetry Sensor Judges Your Coffee Roast | Donald Papp | [
"cooking hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"coffee",
"MAX30101",
"product development",
"roast measurement",
"roast vision",
"roasting",
"sensor"
] | Breakout board for the MAX30101, which [Zach] used as the basis of his roast gauge. The sensor is at the top edge of the board.
Parts designed and marketed for a specific application can nevertheless still be useful in other ways, and whenever that happens, it’s probably the start of a pretty good hack. Using a sensor for something other than its intended purpose is exactly what [Zach Halvorson] did to make the
Roast Vision
device, which uses the
MAX30101
, a sealed optical sensor intended mainly for pulse oximetry and heart-rate monitoring.
[Zach] is instead using that sensor to measure the roast level of coffee beans, and assign a consistent number from 0 to 35 to represent everything from Very Dark to Very Light. Measuring a bean’s roast level is important to any roaster seeking accuracy and consistency, but when [Zach] found that commercial roast gauges could easily cost over a thousand dollars, he was sure he could do better.
[Zach] settled on using a Sparkfun MAX30101 breakout board to develop his device, and
Sparkfun shared an informative blog post
that demonstrates how making hardware and tools more accessible can help innovative ideas flourish. The Roast Vision device has a 3D printed enclosure, and a simple top-loading design with an integrated sample cup makes it easy to use. One simply puts about a teaspoon of finely-ground coffee into the sample cup, and the unit provides a measurement in a couple of seconds. Fortunately the sensor works just fine though an acrylic window which means the device can be sealed; a handy feature for a tool that will spend a lot of time around ground coffee.
The joys of fresh roasted coffee is something that is perfectly accessible to those making small batches at home. There are commercial options for small roasters of course, but should you wish to go the DIY route,
check out our own Elliot Williams’ guide on making a low-cost DIY roaster
. | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288451",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T18:35:09",
"content": "Nice work! Clever, simple. Looks good too.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288456",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-10... | 1,760,373,312.287112 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/clacker-hacker-popping-a-cap-in-a-brother-ep43-thermal-typewriter/ | Clacker Hacker: Popping A Cap In A Brother EP43 Thermal Typewriter | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Repair Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"baby wedge",
"Brother EP43",
"capacitor",
"electrolytic capacitor",
"recapping",
"repair",
"thermal typewriter",
"typewriter"
] | A few months ago, I fell down the internet rabbit hole known as
Ted Munk’s typewriter site
. I don’t remember if I just saw this Brother EP43 typewriter for sale and searched for information about them, or went looking for one after reading about them. Either way, the result is the same — I gained a typewriter.
Now I’m not really a typewriter collector or anything, and this is my first word processor typewriter. When it arrived from Goodwill, I anxiously popped four ‘C’ cells in and hoped for the best. It made a print head noise, so that was a good sign. But almost immediately after that, there was a BANG! and then a puff of smoke wafted out from the innards. My tiny typewriter was toast.
21st Century Typewriter
Speaking of toast, this typewriter is thermal, which is why it takes such awesome battery power. Thermal is probably the absolute best feature it could possibly have, because as long as there is electricity and thermal fax paper to be had on Earth, this typewriter can be used endlessly, no ribbon necessary. And that’s a good thing, considering that replacement ribbon cassettes are about $95 each.
There are a ton of other reasons that this typewriter is still awesome today. First off, the obvious: distraction-free typing. Like all word processors, you get a buffer of characters that can be corrected before they’re committed to paper.
It’s very small and lightweight compared to most typewriters and word processors. Really, it’s the pinnacle of print on demand. Seriously, the only thing smaller that qualifies is an embossing label maker or Braille writer.
As you can see by the demo sheet, there are a ton of word processing features that take the guesswork out of making documents look pretty. It does bold, underline, and right margin flush with just a few extra keystrokes. There’s even a four-banger calculator if your adding machine is too far out of reach!
Physically speaking, the whole thing is adorable, especially the little print head. And it has ISO enter, which is labeled RETURN. I keep meaning to cut some of my fax roll down into sheets, but once I made a paper dispenser with two 3D printed triangles and a dowel rod, I was far less motivated. Also, it’s really easy to tear the paper off by just tearing it against the clear plastic ruler guide.
The only real cons of this machine are that I can’t connect it to a computer, and I can’t connect a more ergonomic keyboard to her. I’m good for about a page, single-spaced, and then my wrists start complaining.
Back to the Smoke Monster
Note the ribbon cassette. Now it’s a souvenir on my bulletin board.
It just had to be the one cemented to the inductor that blew.
After I opened it up and surveyed the damage, I found that one of the big capacitors had been what blew. I decided to just order all new electrolytics for it to get ahead of future problems. This was especially wise considering how difficult this thing is to put it back together. The plastic ribbon cables are quite fiddly.
In the end, I replaced all but two of the electrolytics. One of them I just couldn’t find a replacement for. The other I couldn’t replace because the one I ordered ended up having too big of a footprint. I was so focused on getting short-enough replacements for the big boys, that I screwed that one up completely.
After replacing the caps I got my
Hello, World
on. Now I type on it whenever I can, usually about once a day. Naturally, I think more fondly of it because I nursed it back to health. Here’s to another thirty or forty years of distraction-free clacking, thermal-paper supply willing! | 27 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288433",
"author": "jonmayo",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T17:11:51",
"content": "I spy with my little eye … an HD6301. (Hitachi’s variant of Motorola’s 6800 series microcontroller)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288437",
"au... | 1,760,373,312.356915 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/what-if-you-could-design-your-own-aluminum-hand/ | What If You Could Design Your Own Aluminum Hand? | Matthew Carlson | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"aluminum",
"machining",
"prosthetic hand",
"prosthetics"
] | [Ian Davis] has
decided to start over on his hand.
[Ian] is missing four fingers on his left hand and has for a year now been
showcasing DIY prosthetics on his YouTube channel
. Back in July, we covered [Ian]’s
aluminum hand
.
Why aluminum? [Ian] found himself reprinting previous versions’ 3D printed plastic parts multiple times due to damage in the hinged joints, or UV damage rendering them brittle. With an ingenious splaying mechanism and some sensors powered by an Arduino, [Ian] has been wearing the custom machined aluminum hand on a daily basis.
However, as with many makers, he had that itch to revisit and refine the project. Even though the last version was a big jump in quality of life, he still found room for improvement. One particular problem was that the sensors tended to shift around and made it hard to get an accurate reading. To overcome this, [Ian] turned to a molding process. However, adding a stabilizing silicon layer meant that the design of the prosthetic needed to change. With several improvements in mind, [Ian] started the process of creating the plaster positive of his palm, working to create a silicon negative. The next step from here was to create a fiberglass shell that can go over the silicone with sensor wires embedded into the fiberglass shell.
It has been amazing to see
the explosion in 3D printed prosthetics
over the past few years and hope the trend continues. We look forward to seeing the next steps in [Ian’s] journey towards their ideal prosthetic!
Thanks [morgan] for sending this one in! | 21 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288415",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T16:07:01",
"content": "Amazing work. After all, necessity is the mother of invention.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288427",
"author": "Drew",
"timestamp": "2020-... | 1,760,373,312.41215 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/stm32-clones-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ | STM32 Clones: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly | Maya Posch | [
"ARM",
"Featured",
"Microcontrollers",
"Slider"
] | [
"black pill",
"blue pill",
"clones",
"counterfeit",
"counterfeit parts",
"stm32"
] | Whenever a product becomes popular, it’s only a matter of time before other companies start feeling the urge to hitch a ride on this popularity. This phenomenon is the primary reason why so many terrible toys and video games have been produced over the years. Yet it also drives the world of electronics. Hence it should come as no surprise that ST’s highly successful ARM-based series of microcontrollers (MCUs) has seen its share of imitations, clones and outright fakes.
The fakes are probably the most problematic, as those chips pretend to be genuine STM32 parts down to the markings on the IC package, while compatibility with the part they are pretending to be can differ wildly. For the imitations and clones that carry their own markings, things are a bit more fuzzy, as one could reasonably pretend that those companies just so happened to have designed MCUs that purely by coincidence happen to be fully pin- and register compatible with those highly popular competing MCU designs. That would be the sincerest form of flattery.
Let’s take a look at which fakes and imitations are around, and what it means if you end up with one.
Anatomy of a forgery
Good STM32 IC on the left, clone on the right, with extra dimples.
Earlier this year, Keir Fraser posted
an informative summary
of some fake STM32F103 ICs as found on so-called ‘Blue Pill’ and similar boards on their Github. The forgeries carry the same marks on the packaging as the genuine STM32 parts, but can often be identified by the pattern of dimples on the packaging, or by the quality of the silkscreen.
These forgeries aren’t always fully functional. As noted by Fraser, many of these parts cannot even be programmed properly, or even run code as simple as the universal ‘blinky’ example. It’s possible that these forgeries are in fact defective STM32F103 dies or similar that are being sold via less-than-legal channels.
The STM32FEB. STM32 it is not.
More insidious perhaps are the near-forgeries that at first glance may look like the real part, but are betrayed by the identification on them: ‘STM32FEBKC6’. That’s not a legitimate ST parts code, and that should be the first tip. This is another clone that’s likely to bring you nothing but grief, as even when it does work, it is a cut-down version of the STM32F103 design, with missing features. Finding detailed information on it is hard as well.
Good artists copy
CS32F103. A more honest clone.
This leaves the trickiest of the clones, in the form of the aforementioned CS32F103. This clone essentially works like the real deal, and can run Blinky compiled for the STM32F103 just fine. Some of these MCUs may even be marked as the ST part, making them hard to identify conclusively.
Some of these are manufactured by CKS (中科芯微), a Chinese company who have apparently made a feature-complete version of the STM32F103, to the point where they have fixed some of the errata listed in the ST datasheet. An
article over at CNXSoft
provides some more details on this MCU.
A major difference one will quickly encounter with this chip is when programming it and getting the message
"UNEXPECTED idcode: 0x2ba01477"
. The reason for this is that the STM32F103 MCU reports the ID
0x1ba01477
, confusing the programmer. This can be fixed for example in OpenOCD by using a configuration script that specifies either no CPUTAPID (0), or this ID reported by the CS32 MCU.
Giga clones
Probably one of the more famous STM32 clone makers is GigaDevice with their
GD32
MCUs. As noted over at
SMD Prutser
in an article series, the GD32F103 appears to be a faster, more capable version of the STM32F103. It has a higher maximum clock speed and faster Flash storage, with
a decapped unit
showing
that they used two dies inside the package. One for the MCU, and one for the Flash storage, allowing for a rather flexible way to change Flash sizes across their product range.
Decapped GD32F103 MCU. The separate Flash die is visible on top.
At first glance the GD32 MCUs look more attractive than the STM32F1 series, with significant increases in clock speed (72 versus 108 MHz) and Flash storage. While the Flash storage on the GD32 should be very slow, being a serial SPI ROM, its use of SRAM on the MCU die to ‘cache’ the Flash storage means that it ends up being much faster than on-die Flash storage, with zero wait states required even at full MCU clock speed.
A disadvantage of more SRAM instead of pure Flash is that it increases power usage, especially in sleep mode. It also causes a (small) boot-up delay when the SPI ROM’s contents are copied into SRAM before the firmware can run. Depending on the application this may be an advantage or disadvantage. This is of course the same approach as the ESP8266 MCU, which also uses an external SPI ROM for firmware.
When it comes to other GD32 devices, however, they seem to be less eager to make direct clones. Their GDF303 MCU kept the same peripherals as the GDF103, even though those of the STM32F3 are arguably better. This also prohibits their use as a drop-in solution for STM32F3xx boards. Depending on one’s opinion of the STM32F1 peripherals, this may also affect one’s decision to use those GD32 MCUs.
They’re everywhere
Genuine CH32F103 MCU on Blue Pill board.
Although I was aware of the aforementioned fakes and clones, I nevertheless came across a new one recently. This involved the purchase of some ‘Blue Pill’ STM32F103 boards from a big German importer and reseller of all kinds of Maker tat. I wasn’t proud of this, but I needed some cheap boards to use for BlackMagic probes, and they had a good deal. In the comments for the Amazon listing some people mentioned they got a genuine boards, while others mentioned that it was a ‘fake’.
In the spirit of morbid curiosity, I got a couple of these boards and was both horrified and pleased to see that I had in fact received Blue Pill boards that did not carry the promised STM32F103C8T6 MCU, but instead one marked CH32F103C8T6. On the bright side it did not claim to be an ‘ST’ part.
Genuine STM32F103 MCU on Blue Pill board.
This CH32F103 MCU is produced by a Chinese company called WCH, with the (Chinese-only)
datasheets and reference manual
both provided for download. At a cursory glance, both the datasheet and manaul show a chip that’s practically identical to the STM32F103, with identical memory mapping and peripheral registers.
Hooking it up to an ST-Link/V2 dongle and connecting to it with OpenOCD results in the same CPUTAPID error as with the CS32F103 MCU when using the STM32F1xx profile file. After making the same change to the
stm32f1xx.cfg
file as suggested by others, I was able to flash the ‘Blinky’ example from my
Nodate
STM32 project onto the board without further issues.
This suggests that at least the basic RCC (reset & clock control), GPIO and SysTick functionality is similar enough for such a basic test to work. Next, I’ll have to explore whether it also handles the USART, DMA, SPI, I2C and I2S functionality the same way as the STM32F103 MCU that I have on a few other boards. If this MCU is anything like the CS32F103 part, the answer is probably ‘yes’.
As for the seller’s response when I contacted them about these Blue Pill boards not featuring the advertised STM32 part, they admitted that they were aware of this and claimed that ‘in two months’ they’d have boards with genuine STM32 parts again. Admittedly that raises a lot more questions than it answers, least of all why they’d knowingly sell boards that do not feature the advertised MCU.
Time to panic?
The eagle-eyed among us may have noticed that virtually all of these clones involve ST’s first-generation Cortex-M MCUs (STM32F1 series). Unless you need to buy Blue Pill boards for commercial projects, this is unlikely to do more than seriously annoy hobbyists and others who like to have a stack of $3 Cortex-M3 boards around for random projects. If one orders MCUs and development boards from reputable sellers such as Digikey and Mouser, it’s also unlikely to be much of a concern.
The Blue Pill and Black Pill boards are also seeing a bit of an overhaul recently with
updated versions
featuring STM32F4-based MCUs. Although a bit more expensive than the STM32F103-based counterparts, they do bring considerably more resources to the table and the much more pleasant (in my opinion) peripherals of the STM32F4 line. These may just make the market for the STM32F103 and with it these countless clones, counterfeits, and copies dry up.
Until the first batches of counterfeit, cloned and copied STM32F401 and STM32F411 MCUs hit the market, naturally. Because that’s apparently the name of the game. | 90 | 35 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288375",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T14:24:29",
"content": "What’s the legal status of the clones? Are they ARM licensees? Does ST have any rights to their peripheral architecture?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,373,312.592304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/cluster-deck-packs-four-pis-into-one-portable-package/ | Cluster Deck Packs Four Pis Into One Portable Package | Tom Nardi | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"cryptocurrency",
"Raspberry Pi 4",
"raspberry pi cluster",
"self-contained"
] | Parallel computing is a fair complex subject, and something many of us only have limited hands-on experience with. But breaking up tasks into smaller chunks and shuffling them around between different processors, or even entirely different computers, is arguably the future of software development. Looking to get ahead of the game, many people put together their own affordable home clusters to help them learn the ropes.
As part of his work with decentralized cryptocurrency,
[Jay Doscher] recently found himself in need of a small research cluster
. He determined that the Raspberry Pi 4 would give him the best bang for his buck, so he started work on a small self-contained cluster that could handle four of the single board computers. As we’ve come to expect given his existing body of work, the final result is compact, elegant, and well documented for anyone wishing to follow in his footsteps.
The core unit would make a great desktop cluster.
Outwardly the cluster
looks quite a bit like the
Mil-Plastic
that he developed a few months back
, complete with the same ten inch Pimoroni IPS LCD. But the internal design of the 3D printed case has been adjusted to fit four Pis with a unique staggered mounting arrangement that makes a unit considerably more compact than others we’ve seen in the past. In fact, even if you didn’t want to build the whole
Cluster Deck
as [Jay] calls it, just printing out the “core” itself would be a great way to put together a tidy Pi cluster for your own experimentation.
Thanks to the Power over Ethernet HAT, [Jay] only needed to run a short Ethernet cable between each Pi and the TP-Link five port switch. This largely eliminates the tangle of wires we usually associate with these little Pi clusters, which not only looks a lot cleaner, but makes it easier for the dual Noctua 80 mm to get cool air circulated inside the enclosure. Ultimately, the final product doesn’t really look like a cluster of Raspberry Pis at all. But then, we imagine that was sort of the point.
Of course,
a couple of Pis and a network switch is all you really need
to play around with parallel computing on everyone’s favorite Linux board.
How far you take the concept after that
is entirely up to you. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288407",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T15:34:30",
"content": "Got to wonder how annoying the fans on those PoE HATs are going to be.I’ve got three of them and when they’re all on it’s really irritating – the board should have been designed with a larger fan, there’s pl... | 1,760,373,312.45608 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/22/affordable-ground-penetrating-radar/ | Affordable Ground-Penetrating Radar | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"antipodal vivaldi",
"arduino",
"GPR",
"ground penetrating",
"Mega 2560",
"radar"
] | While you might think of radar pointing toward the skies, applications for radar have found their way underground as well. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a tool that sends signals into the earth and measures their return to make determinations about what’s buried underground in much the same way that distant aircraft can be located or identified by looking for radar reflections. This technology
can also be built with a few common items now
for a relatively small cost.
This is a project from [Mirel] who built the system around a Arduino Mega 2560 and antipodal Vivaldi antennas, a type of directional antenna. Everything is mounted into a small cart that can be rolled along the ground. A switch attached to the wheels triggers the radar at regular intervals as it rolls, and the radar emits a signal and listens to reflections at each point. It operates at a frequency range from 323 MHz to 910 MHz, and a small graph of what it “sees” is displayed on an LCD screen that is paired to the Arduino.
Using this tool allows you to see different densities of materials located underground, as well as their depths. This can be very handy when starting a large excavation project, detecting rock layers or underground utilities before digging. [Mirel] made all of the hardware and software open-source for this project, and if you’d like to see another take on GPR then head over to
this project which involves a lot of technical discussion
on how it works. | 31 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288319",
"author": "Alexander Grau",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T09:16:57",
"content": "Great project! And nice work! I’m considering if this technique also could be used for localization (yes, you heard correctly – you could localize a robot with a GPR realtime scan like you can with... | 1,760,373,312.854332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/do-your-part-to-stop-the-robot-uprising/ | Do Your Part To Stop The Robot Uprising | Al Williams | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"cybersecurity",
"robot",
"ros",
"vxworks"
] | One of the pleasures of consuming old science fiction movies and novels is that they capture the mood of the time in which they are written. Captain Kirk was a 1960s guy and Picard was a 1990s guy, after all. Cold war science fiction often dealt with invasion. In the 1960s and 70s, you were afraid of losing your job to a computer, so science fiction often had morality tales of robots running amok, reminding us what a bad idea it was to give robots too much power. As it turns out, robots might be dangerous, but not for the reasons we thought. The robots won’t turn on us by themselves. But they could be hacked. To that end, there’s a growing interest in robot cybersecurity and Alias Robotics is releasing
Alurity
, a toolbox for robot cybersecurity.
Currently, the toolbox is available for Linux and MacOS with some support for Windows. It targets 25 base robots including the usual suspects. There’s
a white paper
from when the product entered testing available if you want more technical details.
We aren’t clear about the licensing details of Alurity. There is a
GitHub
repo that has some components, and there is mention of an individual license and an educational one, but no real details about pricing. However, the repo has some interesting items including the
RVD
or Robot Vulnerability Database, that is worth reading (the issues, not the code) if you are working with industrial robots.
If you are satisfied that your robot is off the grid and physically secure, maybe you don’t care. However, the cybersecurity world is full of stories of bad actors
breaking into something
as innocuous as a thermostat or camera and then pivoting into business and industrial control networks that were considered highly secure. No one wants to be that story in tomorrow’s newspaper. Of course, you can get cybersecurity insurance, but good luck
getting it to pay out
. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288283",
"author": "jonmayo",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T05:37:26",
"content": "Robot uprising? Look, now is not the best time to ask me to choose a side.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6288337",
"author": "Will",
... | 1,760,373,312.790152 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/correlated-electron-memory-coming-soon/ | Correlated Electron Memory… Coming Soon? | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"ceram",
"correlated electron RAM",
"memory",
"mott transistion",
"nonvolatile memory",
"ram"
] | We often see press releases and announcements about the next big technology in batteries, memory, displays, capacitors, or any of a number of other things. Usually we are suspicious since we typically don’t see any of this new technology in the marketplace over any reasonable timescale. So when we read about
correlated-electron memory
Cerfe Labs
, we had to wonder if it would be more of the same. IOur suspicions may be justified of course, but it is telling that the company is a spin-off from ARM, so that gives them some real-world credibility.
Correlated-electron RAM or CeRAM is the usual press release material. Nonvolatile, smaller than SRAM, and fast. It sounds as though it could replace the SRAM in PC caches, for example, and take up less die space on the CPU chip. The principle is a bit odd. When electrons are forced together in certain materials, the properties of the material can change. This Mott transition (named after the inventor [Neville Mott]) can take carbon-doped nickel oxide and switch it from its natural electrical insulating state to a conducting state and back again.
Whereas a traditional static RAM cell requires up to six transistors, a Mott cell is just a bit of material and one transistor. Speedwise it seems devices exist with 2ns write cycle, something they expect to get better with more work. We’ve read that the material changes state within 100 femtoseconds. There are some other tantalizing features. The memory appears to work at very cold temperatures (like, cryogenic temperatures) and very hot temperatures, as well. It also may be radiation resistance and can be made to operate on very low voltages.
The new company doesn’t plan to actually build devices but wants to develop the technology to the point that a major manufacturer will take over the technology and bring it to market. There are doubtlessly many hurdles to putting something like this in real production and it is yet unknown if the devices can be written to repeatedly without degradation. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288253",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T02:11:47",
"content": "“Correlated Electron (Ce) switches operate via strong electron orbital interactions, with a key example being the predictions of metal-insulator transitions by Nobel Laureate Neville Mott over 70 years a... | 1,760,373,312.921121 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/exoskeleton-muscles-powered-by-hydrogen/ | Exoskeleton Muscles Powered By Hydrogen | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"artificial muscle",
"exoskeleton",
"iron man",
"muscle"
] | The idea of building a suit that increases the wearer’s strength is a compelling one, often featured in science fiction. There are a handful of real world examples, and [Alex] can now add his to the list. The build comes with a twist however,
relying on hydrogen to do the work.
At its heart, the build is not dissimilar to other artificial muscle projects. The muscles in [Alex’s] build consist of a rubber tube inside a nylon braid. When the rubber tube is inflated, it expands, causing the nylon braid to shorten as it grows wider. Commonly, such builds rely on compressed air to power the muscles, however [Alex] took a different path. Instead, water is electrolysed in a chamber designed to look like Iron Man’s arc reactor, with the resulting gases produced being used to drive the muscles. With five muscles ganged up to pull together, the wearable arm support is capable of generating up to 15 kg of pull force.
It’s a design that has a few benefits; the electrolyser has no moving parts, and is much simpler and quieter than a typical air compressor. Obviously, there is a risk of fire thanks to the flammable gases used, but [Alex] explains the precautions taken to minimise this risk in the video.
Exosuits may not be mainstream just yet, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t working to make them a reality. We’ve featured a few before,
like this open-source design
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Keith Olson for the tip!] | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288241",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2020-10-22T00:44:51",
"content": "Interesting notion. How efficient is it? E.g. how much power must my battery deliver to yield (say) 100W of motive power (about what one bicep does during a curl)?A SWAG, using an Elon Musk style first-pri... | 1,760,373,312.747018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/small-spotify-remote-broadens-musical-horizons/ | Small Spotify Remote Broadens Musical Horizons | Kristina Panos | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"Lilygo",
"LilyGo TTGO",
"lipo battery",
"music discovery",
"remote",
"rotary encoder",
"spotify"
] | When was the last time you tried listening to a new genre of music, or even explored a sub-genre of something you already like? That’s what we thought. It’s good to listen to other stuff once in a while and remind ourselves that there’s a whole lot of music out there, and our tastes are probably not all that diverse. As a reminder,
[sorghum] made a spiffy little Spotify remote
that can cruise through the musical taxonomy that is
Every Noise at Once
and control any Spotify-enabled device.
There’s a lot to like about this little remote, which is based upon a LilyGo TTGO ESP32 board with on-board display. The circuitry is basically that and a rotary encoder plus a tiny LiPo battery. Can we talk about the finish on those prints? Yes, those are both printed enclosures. Getting that buttery smooth finish took two grits of wet/dry sandpaper plus nine grits of polishing cloths.
As you can see in the brief demo after the break, there are several ways to discover new music. [sorghum] can surf through all kinds of Japanese music for example, or surf by the genre’s ending word and listen to metalcore, deathcore, and grindcore from all over the globe. For extra fun, there’s a genre-ending randomizer so you can discover just how many forms of *core there are.
Want everyone in the room to know what you’re listening to?
Behold the Spotify split-flap display
.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/spotify-remote-video.mp4
Via
reddit | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288195",
"author": "Drew Dominguez",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T20:08:34",
"content": "gosh dang, the final finish on the print is spectacular.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288208",
"author": "Kevin Smith",
"timestamp... | 1,760,373,312.969788 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/how-an-engineer-designs-a-diy-energy-recovery-ventilator/ | How An Engineer Designs A DIY Energy Recovery Ventilator | Dan Maloney | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"Coroplast",
"energy recovery ventilator",
"ERV",
"heat exchanger",
"Hubitat",
"hvac",
"mqtt"
] | We have no idea whether [Nick Goodey] is a trained engineer or not. But given the detailed design of
this DIY energy recovery ventilator
for his home HVAC system, we’re going to go out on a limb and say he probably knows what he’s doing.
For those not in the know, an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) is an increasingly common piece of equipment in modern residential and commercial construction. As buildings have become progressively “tighter” to decrease heating and cooling energy losses to the environment, the air inside them has gotten increasingly stale. ERVs solve the problem by bringing fresh, unconditioned air in from the outside while venting stale but conditioned air to the outside. The two streams pass each other in a heat exchanger so that much of the energy put into the conditioned air is transferred to the incoming unconditioned air.
While ERV systems are readily available commercially, [Nick] decided to roll his own after a few experiments with Coroplast and some extensive calculations convinced him it would be a viable idea. One may scoff at the idea of corrugated plastic for the heat exchanger, but the smooth channels through the material make it a great choice. He built up a block of Coroplast squares with the channels in alternate layers oriented orthogonally, letting stale inside air pass very close to fresh outside air to exchange heat without ever mixing directly. The entire system, including fans, an Arduino for control, sensors galore, and the Hubitat home automation hub, is powered by DC, so no electrician was needed. [Nick] has a ton of detail in
his build log
, including all the tools and calculators he used to design the system.
Given the expense of ERV systems, we’re surprised we haven’t seen more stories about DIY versions. We have talked about HVAC systems a lot, though — after all,
HVAC techs are hackers who make housecalls
. | 81 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288150",
"author": "Jason Doege",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T18:37:14",
"content": "And the link is slashdotted before the first comment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288151",
"author": "scott.tx",
"timestamp": "2020-... | 1,760,373,313.083507 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/google-meddling-with-urls-in-emails-causing-security-concerns/ | Google Meddling With URLs In Emails, Causing Security Concerns | Lewin Day | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"internet hacks",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"email",
"g suite",
"Gmail",
"google",
"imap"
] | Despite the popularity of social media, for communication that actually matters, e-mail reigns supreme. Crucial to the smooth operation of businesses worldwide, it’s prized for its reliability. Google is one of the world’s largest e-mail providers, both with its consumer-targeted Gmail product as well as G Suite for business customers [Jeffrey Paul] is a user of the latter,
and was surprised to find that URLs in incoming emails were being modified by the service
when fetched via the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) used by external email readers.
This change appears to make it impossible for IMAP users to see the original email without logging into the web interface, it breaks verification of the cryptographic signatures, and it came as a surprise.
Security Matters
A test email sent to verify the edits made by Google’s servers. Top, the original email, bottom, what was received.
For a subset of users, it appears Google is modifying URLs in the body of emails to instead go through their own link-checking and redirect service. This involves actually editing the body of the email before it reaches the user. This means that even those using external clients to fetch email over IMAP are affected, with no way to access the original raw email they were sent.
The security implications are serious enough that many doubted the initial story, suspecting that the editing was only happening within the Gmail app or through the web client. However, a source claiming to work for Google confirmed that the new feature is being rolled out to G Suite customers,
and can be switched off if so desired.
Reaching out to Google for comment, we were directed to their
help page on the topic.
The stated aim is to prevent phishing, with Google’s redirect service including a link checker to warn users who are traveling to potentially dangerous sites. For many though, this explanation doesn’t pass muster. Forcing users to head to a Google server to view the original URL they were sent is to many an egregious breach of privacy, and a security concern to boot. It allows the search giant to further extend its tendrils of click tracking into even private email conversations. For some, the implications are worse. Cryptographically signed messages, such as those using PGP or GPG, are broken by the tool; as the content of the email body is modified in the process, the message no longer checks out with respect to the original signature. Of course, this is the value of signing your messages — it becomes much easier to detect such alterations between what was sent and what was received.
Inadequate Disclosure
Understandably, many were up in arms that the company would implement such a measure with no consultation or warning ahead of time. The content of an email is sacrosanct, in many respects, and tampering with it in any form will always be condemned by the security conscious. If the feature is a choice for the user, and can be turned off at will, then it’s a useful tool for those that want it. But this discovery was a surprise to many, making it hard to believe it was adequately disclosed before roll-out. The question unfolded in the FAQ screenshot above hints at this being part of Google’s A/B test and not applied to all accounts. Features being tested on your email account should be disclosed yet they are not.
Protecting innocent users against phishing attacks is a laudable aim, and we can imagine many business owners enabling such a feature to avoid phishing attacks. It’s another case where privacy is willingly traded for the idea of security. While the uproar is limited due to the specific nature of the implementation thus far, we would expect further desertion of Google’s email services by the tech savvy if such practices were to spread to the mainstream Gmail product. Regardless of what happens next, it’s important to remember that the email you read may not be the one you were sent, and act accordingly.
Update 30/10/2020: It has since come to light that for G Suite users with Advanced Protection enabled, it may not be possible to disable this feature at all. | 58 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288119",
"author": "TehWan",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T17:12:10",
"content": "Given emails have legal tender, I wonder how this will affect legal cases. The email was tampered with, and if they start modifying the links, there’s no guarantee other words won’t be modified (e.g. to co... | 1,760,373,313.301378 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/bonsai-led-matrix-has-chaotic-roots/ | Bonsai LED Matrix Has Chaotic Roots | Mike Szczys | [
"Art",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"circuit sculputure"
] | Most people don’t hand solder their surface mount LED matrices these days, and they certainly don’t do it with RGB LEDs. [
fruchti
] isn’t most people,
has managed to grow his electronic hobby into the art form know as Bonsai
.
The organic shapes of miniature trees grown over the course of decades is the ultimate indicator of patience and persistence. For those who prefer bending copper to their will rather than saplings, producing an LED tree that looks and functions this well is an accomplishment that signals clever planning and patient fabrication. The animated result is a masterpiece that took about eighteen months to complete.
There are 128 enamel-coated wires that twist into branches holding 32 RGB light-emitting diodes. Tapping into each at the base of the tree is a chaotic mess made a bit easier by a cleverly designed circuit board.
A circular petal pattern was laid out in Inkscape that includes a hole at the center for the “trunk” to pass through. The LED matrix is designed with 8 rows and 12 columns, but 24 pads were laid out so that only four wires would need to be soldered to each copper petal. Even so, look at the alligator clip holding up this PCB to get an idea of the scale of this job!
The angular base is itself made of copper clad board soldered on the inside of the seams and painted black on the outside. This hides the “petal” PCB, as well as a breakout board for an STM32 microcontroller and a power management circuit that lets you use your choice of USB or a lithium battery.
We wonder if [
fruchti
] has thought about adding some interactivity to his sapling. While we haven’t seen such a beautiful, tiny, creation as this, we have seen
an LED tree whose lights can be blown
out like birthday candles. Wouldn’t this be an excellent entry in our
Circuit Sculpture challenge
? There’s still a few weeks left! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288130",
"author": "Albert Phan",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T17:42:16",
"content": "Impressive build and great write up Jonas. It was way more work than I thought at first glance. I was a still little confused on the wiring on the pcb.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,373,313.415395 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/taking-a-crack-at-the-traveling-salesman-problem/ | Taking A Crack At The Traveling Salesman Problem | Matthew Carlson | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"algorithms",
"computer science",
"traveling salesman",
"traveling salesman problem"
] | The human mind is a path-planning wizard. Think back to pre-lockdown days when we all ran multiple errands back to back across town. There was always a mental dance in the back of your head to make sense of how you planned the day. It might go something like “first to the bank, then to drop off the dry-cleaning. Since the post office is on the way to the grocery store, I’ll pop by and send that box that’s been sitting in the trunk for a week.”
This sort of mental gymnastics doesn’t come naturally to machines — it’s actually a famous problem in computer science known as
the traveling salesman
problem. While it is classified in the industry as an NP-hard problem in combinatorial optimization, a more succinct and understandable definition would be: given a list of destinations, what’s the best round-trip route that visits every location?
This summer brought news that the 44-year old record for solving the problem has been broken. Let’s take a look at why this is a hard problem, and
how the research team from the University of Washington took a different approach
to achieve the speed up.
The Science of Getting From Here to There
The traveling salesman problem (or TSP for short) has been one of the most studied problems in computer science. It was first considered all the way back in the 1800s by mathematicians W.R Hamilton and Thomas Kirkman. Despite what you might think, it actually has applications outside the GPS navigation system on your smartphone. What can be modeled as a TSP includes everything from the layout of ASICs, the school bus route plans, the order of drilling holes for PCBs, to DNA sequencing. The “distance” between points could mean physical distance or similarity between genes.
In the 1930s, Karl Menger an Austrian-born mathematician who was a visting professor at Harvard and Rice at about the same time, considered the brute force solution that simply considers every possible route. That’s approach becomes dauntingly difficult quickly as just 15 different locations yield 1,307,674,368,000 different routes to compute (that’s 15 factorial). As you can imagine, scaling to hundreds or thousands of different destinations quickly becomes uncomputable. Right around 60 different destinations yields around the same number of possible routes as the number of estimated particles in the universe. And so a classic computing challenge was born.
There are several different versions of the TSP such as metric, euclidean, asymmetric, and more domain-specific constraints such as adding a cost to traveling different routes in addition to the distances themselves. This leads to a distinction between the generic and non-generic TSP.
Our Unique Talents
Strangely enough, humans are actually quite good at solving the euclidean version of the problem. Humans can arrive at a near-perfect solution in close to linear time even in cases with more than 120 destinations. The ease at which we can accomplish this feat has fascinated several cognitive psychologists and prompted dozens of studies and papers on the subject. In fact, this same ability has been shown in pigeons and
shape-shifting bacteria
.
The current hypothesis is that humans have several heuristics or shortcuts that make them very good at satisficing — a term coined by
Herbert A. Simon
that simply means arriving at a decision that is “good enough”. Most of what computers do is calculating a specific and verifiable answer. It is correct or incorrect with no room in between. It is much easier to arrive at the perfection solution than it is to define what is good enough given the current context.
The Approximate Solutions
In this vein, computer scientists over the past half-century have been refining and applying new techniques and approximations that computers can use to sort of guess their way to a better solution. Techniques such as dynamic programming were able to get the number of routes to calculate down to n
2
2
n
or 7,372,800 possible routes for 15 destinations, a far cry less than one trillion.
Branch and bound algorithms
are able to get that even lower but so far, it hasn’t been proven that there exists a perfect algorithm that evaluates less than 2
n
routes.
Modeling ant colonies, which use pheromone trails to build consensus for shortest path, was
proposed in this paper published in 1997
.
This is still largely unreasonable for larger data sets and so approximate solutions needed to be solved for rather than perfect ones. Heuristics such as Nearest Neighbor, which simply goes to the nearest destination that hasn’t been visited, randomized searching using Markov chains, and even
simulating ant colonies
are all solutions that are used to produce approximate solutions. However, even the best of these algorithms are only able to guarantee that their solution will be at most 50% longer than the perfect solution.
A Razor Thin Improvement is Worth More than Face Value
While we’ve seen hardware being thrown at the TSP in both
custom accelerators
as well as the
sheer number of cores
working on the problem, there haven’t been any algorithms able to break that 50% number. Until
the recent preprint paper
published by Anna Karlin, Nathan Klein, and Shayan Gharan about a new technique that offers a slight improvement for the metric version of the TSP. The improvement just shaves 10
-34
off that 50% number. That may not seem very much and you can argue that it is so tiny that it doesn’t matter on all but the largest data sets.
However, the key is that it was mathematically demonstrated that improvement was and is possible. The record of the past 44 years has been broken and the authors of the paper hope that it will inspire others. A similar breakthrough happened in 2011 when the graphical case of the TSP saw a small improvement. That small refinement inspired other researchers who developed redesigned algorithms. What started as a simple augmentation eventually lead to breaking the barrier of 50% all the way down to 40% for the graphical case.
The takeaway here is that problems can be solved. Even problems that seem like you’ve hit a limit that can’t be solved. It’s nice to find that 44-year-old problems still get some attention, pulling the state of the art along with them as new eyes find unexpected approaches. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288116",
"author": "Douglas Coulter",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T16:58:40",
"content": "Heck, I’m still waiting for the general feedforward solution to the 3-body problem. In my case, I don’t care where Jupiter will be in 100 years to within a foot.But I care greatly about being abl... | 1,760,373,313.365379 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/arduino-and-wire-detects-metal/ | Arduino And Wire Detects Metal | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"coil",
"metal detector"
] | Our old math teacher famously said, “You have to take what you know and use it find what you don’t know.” The same holds true for a lot of microcontroller designs including [rgco’s] clever
metal detector
that uses very little other than an Arduino. The principle of operation is simple. An Arduino can measure time, a coil and a resistor will create a delay proportional to the circuit values, and metal around the coil will change the coil’s inductance. As the inductance changes, so does the delay and, thus, the Arduino can sense metal, as you can see in the video below.
The simple principle is also simple in practice. Besides the Arduino and the coil, there’s a single resistor. You want a small coil since larger coils won’t detect smaller objects. If you don’t want to wind your own coil, [rgco] suggests using a roll of hookup wire as long as the resistance is under 10 ohms.
You could omit it, but the original design has a buzzer and an electrolytic capacitor connected to generate a buzz in addition to the built-in LED indicator when metal is near. The LED also shows a blink pattern if the coil is open, too short, too long, or has too much resistance.
The biggest problem is that the poor Arduino needs to measure delays down in the nanosecond range. It can’t actually do this directly, so the code takes a ranging measurement to get in the ballpark and then produces appropriately-sized pulses and adds them up to get a better idea of the total delay. There are several videos in the post of a prototype and the final device built in a Tic Tac container, which you can see below.
If you want something a bit fancier, here’s
another simple design
that has a few more parts. Or you can go for one that is
ultrasensitive
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288039",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T11:18:32",
"content": "Better to use a LC lowpass filter.Then it won’t be nano sec delays.https://electronicbase.net/low-pass-filter-calculator/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,313.460376 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/21/learn-ic-decapping/ | Learn IC Decapping | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"acid",
"decapping",
"decapsulation",
"fuming nitric acid",
"nitric acid"
] | Decapsulating ICs used to be an exotic technique. (I should know, I did that professionally for one of the big IC vendors back in the 1980s.) These days, more and more people are learning to take apart ICs for a variety of reasons. If you are interested in doing it yourself, [Juan Carlos Jimenez] has a post you should read about
using acid to remove epoxy from ICs
.
[Juan Carlos] used several different techniques with varying degrees of success. Keep in mind, that using nitric acid is generally pretty nasty. You need safety equipment and be sure to plan for bad things to happen. Have eyewash ready because once you splash acid in your eye, it is too late to get that together.
We never took apart MEMS devices, so that was especially interesting. A little metal lid keeps the epoxy out of the moving parts and that turns out to be hard to remove.
We were surprised he used 69% nitric. We used to use white fuming nitric, but that may be a bit harder to get now since it is associated with explosives. Then again, you can
make it yourself
. We used to also use copper bars to sit between the hot plate and the device to get better heat transfer. The acid reaction is much stronger when you heat it.
By the way, if you ever wanted to actually probe the device, you’d have to remove the passivation layer which is SiO
2
glass. That takes hydrofluoric acid which is very nasty stuff, indeed. You can see the edge of the passivation around the bond pads under a microscope. You’ll notice the surface of the pad focuses differently than the edge where the thin passivation layer starts. When you can’t see that edge anymore, you’ve removed the glass.
Of course, you might not need to
probe the actual circuit
to get results. If you don’t care about the circuit’s survival, you can try
more mechanical means
. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6288007",
"author": "DillonMCU",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T08:28:58",
"content": "Sometimes you can scratch through the passivation with a microprobing needle",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6288014",
"author": "Mr. Host",
... | 1,760,373,313.509705 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/mazda-investing-big-in-advanced-gasoline-tech-with-skyactiv-x/ | Mazda Investing Big In Advanced Gasoline Tech With Skyactiv-X | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"Engine Hacks",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"gasoline engine",
"internal combustion engine",
"mazda",
"skyactiv",
"skyactiv-x"
] | Electric cars, as a concept, were once not dissimilar from the flying car. Promised to be a big thing in the future, but hopelessly impractical in the here and now. However, in the last ten years, they’ve become a very real thing, with market share growing year on year as new models bring greater range and faster charging times.
With their lower emissions output and ever-improving performance, one could be forgiven for thinking that traditional combustion engines are all but dead. Mazda would beg to differ – investing heavily in new technology to take the gasoline engine into the next decade and beyond.
The Best Of Both Worlds
Mazda have offered diesel engines across their range in recent years. Image credit: Mazda
The holy grail of efficient combustion engines lies not with petrol, but with diesel engines. They routinely hit thermal efficiencies of over 40%, compared to the typical automotive gasoline engine which comes in closer to just 20%. This all comes down to the low volatility of diesel fuel. This enables diesel engines to run at very lean air/fuel ratios and incredibly high compression ratios, without the mixture prematurely detonating and damaging the engine or wasting power. It also enables the use of compression ignition, where the rising pressures inside the cylinder ignite the air/fuel mixture almost instantaneously, all at once.
Petrol engines, in comparison, have to carefully keep their air/fuel ratio much richer, from the stoichiometric level of 14:1, up to 9:1 under some conditions. This is to ensure the fuel doesn’t detonate instead of burning smoothly in a controlled manner. A sparkplug must be used to initiate ignition, with the flame front slowly moving through the mixture versus the instantaneous nature of compression ignition. Gas engines also run at much lower compression ratios – with a maximum of 14:1 seen in practice. Other factors also play a role, but mixture and compression ratio are the primary reasons diesel has such an advantage over gasoline in the efficiency stakes.
Over the years, many manufacturers have attempted to get gasoline engines to operate under compression ignition conditions. While several manufacturers have been able to make this work at low-RPM, low-load conditions. Under harder driving, the higher compression ratios required simply cause the air/fuel mixture to detonate, damaging the engine.
An Incredibly Complex Solution
SPCCI combustion uses a spark plug to ignite a small region of rich fuel/air mix to raise the cylinder pressure high enough to push the rest of the mixture into compression ignition. Illustration:
Alex On Autos
Despite the difficulties, Mazda managed to build a production-ready compression-ignition gasoline engine, by the name of Skyactiv-X. Unlike previous attempts, it includes a spark plug in a creative hack that they call Spark Controlled Compression Ignition, or SPCCI,
as explained in this excellent video by Alex On Autos
.
When running in this mode, the engine runs an incredibly lean air fuel mixture, on the order of 29:1 – so lean, even the engine’s high compression ratio of 16:1 won’t cause the mixture to combust. When the piston is reaching the top of the compression stroke, a small amount of extra fuel is injected, next to the spark plug. This localized richer mixture is ignited by the spark plug, with the combustion causing an increase of pressure in the cylinder. This added pressure then causes the rest of the mixture to undergo compression ignition. The result is a gasoline engine that can run at a higher compression ratio with a leaner air-fuel mixture than is traditionally possible. The target ratio is so lean that a low-pressure supercharger is used as a pump to supply more air to the combustion chamber.
The SPCCI regime is incredibly efficient, but when high power is required, it makes more sense to run the engine in a typical spark-ignition mode. With a compression ratio of 16:1, however, this would normally be difficult to achieve without detonation. However, modern variable valve timing enables the engine to leave the intake valve open during part of the compression stroke when operating in spark ignition mode. This reduces the engine’s effective compression ratio, allowing it to drop to a point suitable for traditional spark-ignition operation. This allows the engine to smoothly transition between SPCCI and conventional operation, something other manufacturers have thus far failed to achieve.
All this should add up to an engine that makes gains in efficiency, as well as power and torque. Mazda claims a fuel economy improvement of anywhere from 20 to 30% over their previous engines, and 30% more torque. Sadly, the data we’ve seen doesn’t entirely bear this out.
Looking at actual peak figures, the real numbers seem a touch underwhelming.
Comparing the 2.0L Skyactiv-X to the previous 2.0L Skyactiv-G
, we see a gain of just 12% in peak torque and 14% in peak power. However, this doesn’t take into account performance across the RPM band, and it’s possible that torque gains are much larger in the lower RPM range. As far as fuel economy is concerned,
a 3-hour real world test
didn’t show a whole lot of difference between the Skyactiv-X and the previous Skyactiv-G. Take into account that the Skyactiv-X also packs a mild hybrid system, and this is fairly disappointing. We’d like to look at this comparison again when the technology is a little more mature, but it’s a concerning result to say the least.
Of course, The sheer complexity of what Mazda has achieved should not be understated. Producing a production-ready, mass produced engine that can smoothly transition between compression ignition modes and regular spark ignition requires the combination of a swathe of technologies, from advanced computer engine controls, to direct injection and variable valve timing. The investment required in research and development to complete such a project is immense; the fact that no other automaker has achieved the feat should indicate the level of difficulty in mastering gasoline compression ignition.
It’s All About Return on Investment
In a direct comparison, the new engine adds significant power and torque, but fuel economy gains haven’t been borne out in real world testing. Image:
Whichcar
Despite strong holds on some unique markets like Australia, Mazda remains one of the smaller automakers on the world stage. In vehicles produced, they ranked just 17th in the world,
delivering 1.6 million vehicles in 2017.
Unlike many other manufacturers, they are not part of a larger consortium, standing largely alone in a field dominated by heavy hitters like Toyota, Fiat-Chrysler, and Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi. This makes their achievement all the more surprising, given the investment required and the resources available to this David amongst Goliaths.
It raises some eyebrows that Mazda has dedicated so many resources to the ongoing development of the gasoline engine, with many betting on an unstoppable wave of electric vehicles taking over market share in years to come. Other major players like Mercedes have already
made moves to end development of gasoline engines
. On top of this,
with some cities looking to ban fossil fuel vehicles entirely in years to come
, one wonders how much Mazda will be able to recoup the development cost over the next decade.
Mazda’s own projections state that gasoline engines will still power 85% of all cars in 2035
, but the more important figure is the proportion of new sales held by gasoline powered vehicles.
BloombergNEF’s modelling expects to see electric cars take a 28% share of new car sales by 2030
, so it seems there will still be plenty of time left for Mazda to cash in. It also serves as a useful gap-filler while the company begins a transition towards electric technology.
However, if SPCCI technology is to do well in the marketplace, it will have to make good on its lofty claims. While the new engine certainly packs better power and torque, it hasn’t yet shown a meaningful increase in fuel economy which is supposed to be one of its major benefits. And no matter how new and fancy it is, it can’t compete in the shiny, futuristic stakes with all-electric vehicles.
Similar to Mazda’s prior experiments with Miller cycle engines in the 1990s
, we suspect this may be more of an interesting blip than a game-changer for the gasoline engine. As always, time will tell. | 124 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287732",
"author": "ChrisM",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T14:08:42",
"content": "pretty sure stoichiometric ratio of petrol is 14.7:1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287816",
"author": "cb88",
"timestamp": "2020-... | 1,760,373,313.672144 |
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