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https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/thinking-about-creating-a-raspberry-pi-replacement/ | Thinking About Creating A Raspberry Pi Replacement? | Al Williams | [
"ARM",
"Linux Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"arm",
"ball grid array",
"bga",
"multilayer",
"raspberry pi",
"SoC"
] | If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at creating a Raspberry Pi-like board for yourself, you should check out [Jay Carlson’s]
review of 10 different Linux-capable SoCs
. Back in the 1960s, a computer was multiple refrigerator-sized boxes with thousands of interconnections and building one from scratch was only a dream for most people. Then ICs came and put all the most important parts in a little relatively inexpensive IC package and homebrew computing became much more accessible. Systems on Chip (SoC) has carried that even further, making it easier than ever to create entire systems, like the Pi and its many competitors.
Only a few years ago, making an SoC was still a big project because the vendors often didn’t want to release documentation to the public. In addition, most of the parts use ball grid array (BGA) packaging. BGA parts can be hard to work with, and require a multilayer PC board. Sure, you can’t plug these into a typical solderless breadboard. But working with these relatively large BGAs isn’t that hard and multilayer boards are now comparatively cheap. [Jay] reports that he got cheap PCBs and used a hot plate to build each board, and has some sage advice on how to do it.
Although he’s looking at 10 different chips, he wound up making about 25 boards and he deliberately avoided using example PCB layouts. This let him optimize for hand assembly and try a few different strategies for things like memory layout. [Jay] points out the boards are more for evaluation than use. He didn’t put any peripherals onboard that you would probably want in a working system. He only included what was necessary to boot the chip into Linux.
There’s a long part of the post where [Jay] talks about why you might want to use Linux, why you might not want to use Linux, and why the Raspberry Pi 4 might not be your best choice, depending on your design goals. He also gives a tutorial on simplified single-chip DDR memory layout.
This has a reputation of being difficult to do, and the post acknowledges that for multip-chip designs, it is harder. However, at the speeds involved and the proposed topology, [Jay] was able to build several working designs and was even able to overclock the memory. The takeaway is that for all the panic over DRAM signal timing on a board, some of it may be unnecessarily strict and buying modules with RAM already in place might be unnecessarily expensive. Of course, some of that is because none of these processors are running at very high-speeds or with overly complex and fast RAM.
The first half of the post is full of information like that, but devoid of any testing of the actual parts. When you get to the bottom half, you’ll see, though, that he uses ten different chips from vendors like Microchip, ST, NXP, Ti, Allwinner, and others. We were impressed with how much work was done, including benchmarks. The actual write up is impressive, too Each part has its own quirks, like the Allwinner part that can only address the first 16MB of flash. He even threw in a video, you can see below.
Truthfully, most of us won’t do this. We’ll just continue to buy boards. We have, however, seen people steal the SoC off a Pi and
put it on their own board
. If ARM SoC’s aren’t your thing, there have been
x86 boards
, too. | 66 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287712",
"author": "tomás zerolo",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T12:59:06",
"content": "The link leads to a Javascript-only black hole. Alas.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6288706",
"author": "sdfdsfdsf",
"timest... | 1,760,373,315.773778 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/upgrading-a-classic-function-generator/ | Upgrading A Classic Function Generator | Bryan Cockfield | [
"News"
] | [
"antique",
"equipment",
"function generator",
"high voltage",
"HP",
"oscilloscope",
"retro",
"test bench",
"upgrade"
] | If you need an oscilloscope, function generator, or other piece of kit for your electronics workbench, there are plenty of modern options. Dropping $4,000 for a modern oscilloscope is nice if you have the money, but if you’d rather put it to better use there are great options that don’t cost a fortune. There are some addons that can turn a smartphone into an oscilloscope but one of the best values out there are older pieces of equipment from the 80s that still work great. You can even upgrade them with some more modern features too, like [NFM]
did with this vintage function generator
.
This function generator is an HP3325A and it is several decades old, so some work was needed just to restore it to original working condition. The cooling fan and capacitors all needed to be replaced, as well as a few other odds and ends. From there [NFM] set about adding one of the two optional upgrades available for this device, the high voltage output. This allows the function generator to output 40 volts peak-to-peak at 40 milliamps. While he did have an original version from HP, he actually had a self-made design produced that matches the function of the original.
Even if you don’t have this specific function generator, this guide goes into great details about the functioning of older equipment like this. Most of the parts are replaceable and upgrades aren’t completely out of the question
like some modern equipment
, and with the right care and maintenance these pieces of equipment could last for decades longer. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287720",
"author": "PWalsh",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T13:26:37",
"content": "I have 2 old HP devices very much like what he is showing, one of which the fan sounds like an old vacuum cleaner.Question: Should I go through and replace all electrolytics on all boards?He shows the main... | 1,760,373,315.35871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/simplifying-the-ruggedized-raspberry-pi-portable/ | Simplifying The Ruggedized Raspberry Pi Portable | Tom Nardi | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"portable computer",
"rugged raspberry pi",
"ruggedized"
] | Over the last year we’ve seen a wave of portable computer builds that center around the Raspberry Pi taking up residence inside a commercial heavy-duty storage case. It’s not hard to see why; whether you spring for the Pelican case or get a cheaper alternative, these water-tight cases are far stronger than anything you’re going to 3D print or otherwise cobble together in the home shop. Especially if you can avoid popping any holes in the side.
Inspired by these builds but looking to make it even easier and cheaper to roll your own version,
[Dmitry] recently took the wraps off of what he calls the
Militarish Pi
. You don’t need a CNC to cut out any face plates or a 3D printer to create an internal framework for all your components. You could even do it without soldering anything, if you really wanted to. Short of just buying one of these rigs pre-built from somebody, it’s hard to imagine it could get much easier than this.
Most of the effort involves cutting the PVC foam sheet that holds the Raspberry Pi, battery pack, and the driver board for the LCD in the bottom of the
$15 USD case [Dmitry] managed to track down on AliExpress
. The “carbon fiber” sticker he put on the PVC sheet won’t do much for the structural integrity of the build, but it sure looks nice. Of course if you have access to the appropriate tools, you could certainly cut the plate out of something stouter. As for the display, the nine inch LCD is perfectly sized to press fit into the lid.
Rounding out the build, [Dmitry] found a cheap Android phone case that included a tiny USB keyboard which plugs right into the Pi and he’s looking to add a BlackBerry trackball to the setup down the line. We especially like the large open area that he’s kept around the Raspberry Pi’s ports that allow you to easily hook up to the network or plug in a flash drive. It could also be a nice compartment to
keep your RTL-SDR for some mobile radio work
.
For those that don’t mind spending name-brand money and have access to a 3D printer,
the Raspberry Pi Quick Kit by [Jay Doscher]
is another great way to get yourself a rough and tumble Pi without reinventing the wheel. | 37 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287654",
"author": "ayylmao",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T06:17:39",
"content": "It evolves again!also… FIRST!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6287664",
"author": "Electra",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T07:30:14",
"content... | 1,760,373,315.319718 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/let-kicad-and-python-make-your-coils/ | Let KiCad And Python Make Your Coils | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"coil",
"electromagnet",
"KiCAD",
"magnet",
"pcb",
"printed circuit"
] | We like to pretend that our circuits are as perfect as our schematics. But in truth, PCB traces have unwanted resistance, capacitance, and inductance. On the other hand, that means you can use those traces to build components. For example, it isn’t uncommon to see a very small value current sense resistor be nothing more than a long PC board trace. Using PC layers for decoupling capacitance and creating precise transmission lines are other examples. [IndoorGeek] takes us through his process of
creating coils on the PCB
using KiCad. To help, he used a Python script that works out the circles, something KiCAD has trouble with.
The idea is simple. A coil of wire has inductance even if it is a flat copper trace on a PCB. In this case, the coils are more for the electromagnetic properties, but the same idea applies if you wanted to build tuned circuits. The project took inspiration from
FlexAR
, an open-source flexible PCB magnet.
KiCAD doesn’t like curved traces, but since the file format is open and text-based, it is easy to write scripts that can create shapes for you. [Joan Spark] provided
the script
. By the way, the goal for these magnets is to improve the
mechanical 7-segment display
we’ve looked at earlier.
It is really great to be able to work with text files and modify your PCB layouts; it leads to
very handy tools
. Of course, you can do the
same kinds of tricks with gcode,
but by that time, you’ve lost a lot of information. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287628",
"author": "Daniel Dunn",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T02:27:23",
"content": "I hope LibrePCB gets this eventually!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287661",
"author": "moeb",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T07:0... | 1,760,373,315.244441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/stomp-button-receive-candy/ | Stomp Button, Receive Candy | Kristina Panos | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"5-gallon bucket",
"arcade button",
"halloween",
"Halloween candy",
"jack-o-lanterns",
"pandemic",
"social distanceing",
"sound effects"
] | If there’s any holiday that is worth adjusting for strange times, it’s gotta be Halloween. Are you inclined to leave a bowl of candy on the porch to avoid the doorbell? If so, this is the perfect year to finally figure out some sort of metering apparatus so that greedy preteens are less likely to steal your stash in one sweep. There’s still time to make something fun like
[Brankly]’s automatic candy dispenser
, which we think ought to stick around for many years to come. Video is posted after the break.
Underneath that skeleton’s jack-o-lantern head is the heart of this build — an orange 5-gallon bucket that matches it perfectly. Simply step on the giant lighted arcade button, and the equally giant NEMA-23 stepper motor moves a 3D-printed turntable inside the bucket with the help of an Arduino Nano. This moves the candy toward the 3D-printed ramp and out the mouth of the jack-o-lantern, where it lands in a bowl that lights up when it hits the bottom thanks to a relay and a second Nano.
[Brankly] made clever use of IR break-beam switches, which sit underneath the two square holes in the ramp. Once candy passes over one of them, the turntable stops and rotates backward to move the candy where it can’t be reached.
Frankly, we love that [Brankly] reused the sound effects module that came with the jack-o-lantern. This build is totally open, and [Brankly] is even giving away 40 PCBs if you want to make your own. For now, you can check out the code and start printing the STLs.
If time is tight,
build a spooky slide that puts six feet between you and the trick or treaters
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287591",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T23:18:00",
"content": "Stomp your feet and receive candy? Just like when I was 3!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6287593",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2020-1... | 1,760,373,315.821077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/pybot-is-a-3d-printed-scara-arm-for-the-masses/ | PyBot Is A 3D Printed SCARA Arm For The Masses | Tom Nardi | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"python",
"robot arm",
"robotics",
"scara",
"stepper motor"
] | We’ve all seen videos of blisteringly fast SCARA arms working on assembly lines, and more than a few of us have fantasied about having that same kind of technology for the home shop. Unfortunately, while the prices for things like 3D printers and oscilloscopes have dropped lower than what many would have believed possible a decade ago, high-performance robotics are still too pricey for the home player.
Unless of course, you’re willing to build it yourself. The
PyBot designed by [jjRobots] is an open source robotic arm
that should be well within the means of the average hardware hacker. One could argue that this is a project made entirely possible by desktop 3D printing; as not only are most of the structural components printed, but most of the mechanical elements are common 3D printer parts. Smooth rods, linear bearings, lead screws, and NEMA 17 motors are all exceptionally cheap these days thanks to the innumerable 3D printer kits that make use of them.
A custom control board keeps the wiring tight.
Those who’ve researched similar projects might notice that the design of this arm has clearly been influenced by the
Mostly Printed SCARA (MPSCARA)
. But while that robot was designed to carry an extruder and act as a 3D printer, [jjRobots] intends for the PyBot to be more of a general purpose platform. By default it features a simple gripper, but that can easily be changed out for whatever tool or gadget you have in mind.
In the base of the arm is a custom control board that combines an Arduino M0, an ESP8266, and a trio of stepper motor drivers. But if you wanted to build your own version from the parts bin, you could certainly wire up all the principle components manually. As the name implies, the PyBot is controlled by Python tools running on the computer, so it should be relatively easy to get this capable arm to do your bidding.
We’ve seen some
impressive 3D printed robotic arms over the years
, but the simplicity of the PyBot is particularly compelling. This looks like something that you could reasonably assemble and program over a weekend or two,
and then put to work in your ad-hoc PPE factory
. | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287563",
"author": "scott.tx",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T21:33:03",
"content": "disappointed it doesn’t use an ARM controller.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287575",
"author": "trichard3000",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,315.567902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/light-fields-missing-ingredient-for-immersive-3d-video-gets-improved/ | Light Fields: Missing Ingredient For Immersive 3D Video Gets Improved | Donald Papp | [
"Video Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"3d video",
"6-DOF",
"deepview",
"immersive",
"light field",
"volumetric video"
] | 46 time-synchronized action cameras make up the guts of the capture device.
3D video content has a significant limitation, one that is not trivial to solve. Video captured by a camera — even one with high resolution and a very wide field of view — still records a scene as a flat plane, from a fixed point of view. The limitation this brings will be familiar to anyone who has watched a 3D video (or “360 video”) in VR and moved their head the wrong way. In these videos one is free to look around, but may not change the position of their head in the process. Put another way, pivoting one’s head to look up, down, left, or right is fine. Moving one’s head higher, lower, closer, further, or to the side? None of that works. Natural movements like trying to peek over an object, or moving slightly to the side for a better view simply do not work.
Light field video changes that. It is captured using a device like the one in the image above, and
Google has a resource page giving an excellent overview of what light field video is, what it can look like, and how they are doing it
. That link covers recent improvements to their camera apparatus as well as to video encoding and rendering, but serves as a great show-and-tell of what light fields are and what they can do.
Light field image, with viewer’s point of view moving in a figure eight pattern. Colors show depth layers interpolated by software.
The meta-camera is a hemisphere just under one meter in diameter that contains an array of 46 time-synchronized action cameras pointed outwards. On the software end, camera input is used to reconstruct the scene and create a
6 DoF
volumetric video. In other words, the perspective of the video correctly changes depending on a user moving their point of view (within an area very roughly corresponding to the size of the camera device, anyway.)
The other significant improvement is in compression and rendering of the resulting video. By reducing the video down to a small, fixed number of depth layers to represent the light field content, conventional video encoding and compression can be leveraged to deliver lightweight representations that can render easily on just about any platform. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a short animation showing a light field image. The point of view moves in a figure eight, and the perspectives and sight lines all change exactly as one would expect them to. The animation also briefly peeks behind the curtain, showing the color-coded depth layers that the software uses to decide what belongs where.
You can
download the PDF
of the SIGGRAPH 2020 technical paper, or
browse the DeepView resource page hosted on GitHub
for plenty of in-browser demos and a downloadable VR headset demo. The team’s video presentation is also embedded below, and gives an excellent overview.
https://storage.googleapis.com/immersive-lf-video-siggraph2020/DV_SIGG20_2020061701.mp4
Light fields don’t have to be complex affairs, and there is plenty of room for curious hackers to explore. Interested?
[Alex Hornstein] shared a fascinating presentation on working with light fields
in his 2018 Hackaday Superconference talk, so check it out. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287991",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T05:57:27",
"content": "Naturally not something one’s going to be carry around in their phone anytime soon.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287996",
"author": "V... | 1,760,373,315.87408 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/raspberry-pi-and-raspberry-pi-spy-this-is-how-trademark-snafus-should-be-handled/ | Raspberry Pi And Raspberry Pi Spy: This Is How Trademark SNAFUs Should Be Handled | Jenny List | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"legal",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi Spy",
"trademark"
] | In the eight years or so since the Raspberry Pi first landed as tangible hardware, we’ve all dealt with the Pi folks whether as customers or through their many online support and outreach activities. They’ve provided our community with the seed that led to an explosion of inexpensive Linux-capable single board computers, while their own offerings have powered so many of the projects we have featured here. Their heart lies in their educational remit, but they have also become an indispensable part of our community.
The statement from the Pi Foundation’s Philip Colligan.
Thus it was a surprise when [Raspberry Pi Spy], a long-time commentator on all things Pi,
received a legal notice from the Raspberry Pi Foundation
that their use of the Raspberry Pi name contravened the acceptable use guidelines and demanding that all content be removed and the domains be handed over. Some consternation ensued, before Pi foundation boss [Philip Colligan]
released a statement retracting the original letter
and explaining that the incident was the result of an over-zealous legal adviser and that the Foundation has no wish to undermine the Pi community.
All’s well that ends well, but what just happened? In the first instance, it’s natural for any organisation to wish to protect their brand, and there would be plenty of unscrupulous entities ready to sell fake Pi products were the Foundation not active in asserting their rights. In this case it seems that it was the use of the full Raspberry Pi trademark in a domain name that triggered the letter and not the fair-use blogging about the Pi products. We can see that however much we might wish otherwise it was not without legal merit. There have been numerous cybersquatting cases heard since the creation of the Web, and even though some of them
have been on more dubious ground than others
it remains a well-trodden path.
Where this story differs
from so many others
though is that the Pi Foundation acted with common sense in withdrawing the notice issued against a member of its community. It is inevitable that sometimes even the best of us can take regrettable paths by whatever means, and respect is earned by how such situations are resolved. We applaud the Pi folks for their swift action in this matter, we’d suggest to anyone that they take care when registering domain names, and we suspect that somewhere a legal adviser will be in the doghouse. But that all such incidents in our community could be resolved with such ease. | 29 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287972",
"author": "Kris Jacobs",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T02:52:10",
"content": "Shit happens. It’s how you clean up the turds that matters. Well Done RPi Foundation!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6288302",
"auth... | 1,760,373,315.520422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/osiris-rex-reaches-out-and-touches-asteroid-bennu/ | OSIRIS-REx Reaches Out And Touches Asteroid Bennu | Tom Nardi | [
"Science",
"Space"
] | [
"asteroid",
"Bennu",
"nasa",
"sample collection"
] | After a four year trek through deep space,
OSIRIS-REx made history this evening as it became the first NASA spacecraft to try and collect a surface sample from an asteroid
(Editor’s note: servers may be down due to the breaking news). Once sensors verify the collected material is safely onboard, the vehicle will begin drifting away from the 490 meter wide Bennu in preparation of its eventual departure and return to Earth. If all goes according to plan, the craft’s conical Sample Return Capsule carrying its precious cargo will renter the atmosphere and land at the Utah Test and Training Range in September of 2023.
OSIRIS-REx with solar panels in “Y-Wing” configuration.
Due to its extremely low gravity and rocky surface, a traditional landing on Bennu was deemed impractical. Instead,
OSIRIS-REx
performed a daring touch and go maneuver that brought the spacecraft into contact with the surface for just a few seconds.
A camera on the bottom of the vehicle took images every few minutes during the descent and ran them through an onboard system called Natural Feature Tracking (NFT) that autonomously steered it away from dangerous surface features. As a precaution, the solar panels on the OSIRIS-REx were angled backwards in a “Y-Wing” configuration shortly before the descent to help protect them from striking the surface or being damaged by ejected material.
Once the colander-like Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) mounted to the end of the spacecraft’s 3.35 meter (11 foot) articulated robotic arm arm made contact with the regolith, pressurized nitrogen was used to kick up material and push it towards storage caches built into the mechanism. With so much riding on the successful collection of surface material, this largely passive system was selected to minimize the possible failures in the critical few seconds that OSIRIS-REx would be in contact with Bennu. Mission planners say it might take until Saturday to determine if a sample was successfully collected, and that the spacecraft has the ability to perform two more attempts if needed.
After its discovery in September 1999, both
the Arecibo Observatory and the Goldstone Deep Space Network were used to make radar observations
of Bennu to study its shape and size. Calculations have shown it has a cumulative 1 in 2,700 chance of striking the Earth by the year 2199. By mapping the asteroid, studying it at close range, and bringing a geological sample back home,
NASA hopes to gain valuable insight on how similar near-Earth objects can be detected
and ultimately diverted if needed. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287943",
"author": "Nrrdzilla",
"timestamp": "2020-10-21T00:03:30",
"content": "It seems like Andromeda Strain might be a good tag… LoL.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6288069",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,315.45244 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/this-mostly-transparent-tesla-coil-shows-it-all/ | This (mostly) Transparent Tesla Coil Shows It All | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"acrylic",
"capacitor bank",
"high voltage",
"spark gap",
"tesla coil"
] | You’d be forgiven for assuming that a Tesla coil is some absurdly complex piece of high-voltage trickery. Clarke’s third law states that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”, and lighting up a neon tube from across the room sure looks a lot like magic. But in his latest
Plasma Channel
video, [Jay Bowles] tries to set the record straight by
demonstrating a see-through Tesla coil that leaves nothing to the imagination
.
Of course, we haven’t yet mastered the technology required to produce transparent copper wire, so you can’t actually see through the primary and secondary coils themselves. But [Jay] did wind them on acrylic tubes to prove there aren’t any pixies hiding in there. The base of the coil is also made out of acrylic, which lets everyone see just how straightforward the whole thing is.
Beyond the coils, this build utilizes the
DIY high-voltage power supply that [Jay] detailed a few months back
. There’s also a bank of capacitors mounted to a small piece of acrylic, and a clever adjustable spark gap that’s made of little more than a few strategically placed pieces of copper pipe and an alligator clip. Beyond a few little details that might not be obvious at first glance, such as grounding the secondary coil to a layer of aluminum tape on the bottom of the base, it’s all right there in the open. No magic, just science.
[Jay] estimates this beauty can produce voltages in excess of 100,000 volts, and provides a demonstration of its capabilities in the video after the break. Unfortunately, before he could really put the new see-through coil through its paces, it took a tumble and was destroyed. A reminder that acrylic enclosures may be pretty, but they certainly aren’t invulnerable. With the value of hindsight, we’re sure the rebuilt version will be even better than the original.
If you’d rather not have your illusions shattered,
we’ve seen plenty of complex Tesla coils
to balance this one out.
With witchcraft like PCB coils
and SMD components,
some of them still seem pretty magical
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287918",
"author": "Garth Bock",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T23:05:59",
"content": "Fantastic build ! great video ! …no transparent copper ? It’s just a matter of time…..it wasn’t that long ago that Scotty showed up in San Francisco and left the formula for transparent aluminum 😁 (W... | 1,760,373,315.40681 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/untethered-fishing-without-lines/ | Untethered: Fishing Without Lines | Bryan Cockfield | [
"green hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"buoy",
"bycatch",
"cellular modem",
"Conservation X Labs",
"dream team",
"fishing",
"gps",
"location",
"ocean",
"pollution",
"smart",
"tracking",
"traps"
] | There’s a laundry list of ways that humans are polluting the earth, and even though it might not look like it from the surface, the oceans seem to bear the brunt of our waste. Some research suggests that plastic doesn’t fully degrade as it ages, but instead breaks down into smaller and smaller bits that will be somewhere the in environment for such a long time it could be characterized in layman’s terms as forever.
Not only does waste of all kinds make its way to the oceans by rivers or simply by outright dumping, but commercial fishing gear is estimated to comprise around 10% of the waste in the great blue seas, and one of the four nonprofits help guide this year’s Hackaday Prize is looking to eliminate some of that waste and ensure it doesn’t cause other problems for marine life. This was the challenge for the
Conservation X Labs dream team
, three people who were each awarded a $6,000 micro-grant to work full time for two months on the problem.
It isn’t about simply collecting waste in the ocean, but rather about limiting the time that potentially harmful but necessary fishing equipment is in the water in the first place. For this two-month challenge, this team focused on long lines used by professional fishing operations to attach buoys to gear like lobster pots or crab traps. These ropes are a danger to large ocean animals such as whales when they get tangled in them and, if the lines detach from the traps, the traps themselves continue to trap and kill marine life for as long as they are lost underwater. This “ghost gear” is harmful in many different ways, and
reducing its time in the water or “soak time” was the goal for the project
.
Let’s take a closer look at their work after the break, and we can also see the video report they filed as the project wrapped up.
Preventing Ghost Gear From Haunting the Seas
The first solution to this issue is a method by which fishermen can accurately locate their equipment. The team designed a ropeless trap marking system that attaches to a trap underwater, which would eliminate the need for a permanent fixed rope attached to a traditional buoy. The design includes a smart buoy that stays attached to the trap until its ready to be released, and then at the right moment, presumably when the trap is full, the buoy is released and is able to float up to the surface. While not truly “ropeless” since the buoy spools out a line as it makes its way to the surface, it does dramatically reduce the amount of time that the rope is actively dangling in the water where any passing animal can get snagged on it, and therefore also reduces the chances that the trap is lost as a result of a broken line.
The current prototype for the smart buoy is housed in a Nalgene bottle, which is made out of strong plastic capable of withstanding pressures to around 160 meters of depth. Inside the bottle is a set of electronics that make locating the buoy much easier. Each version contains a GPS module, a
LoRa radio
module, and an ESP32 to tie it all together, plus a battery and charging circuitry. One of the prototype boards additionally contains a cellular modem for additional tracking abilities.
Retrieving the Equipment in One Piece
Of course the buoy is not going to be able to communicate with much of anything while it’s sleeping with the fishes, so it also houses a set of magnetic wipers within its protective Nalgene case that keep it secured to the submerged trap. When it senses that it is time to deploy, a small motor moves the magnets which release it from its external housing mechanism. From there it can simply float to the surface while it deploys a small rope from a spool that’s also housed on the device. The device can communicate easily with its various included hardware to an on-boat gateway or to a properly-equipped cell phone.
Currently the prototype smart buoy deploys itself after a set amount of time has elapsed; in the video demonstration it is set to deploy every two minutes so that it can be tested quickly. In a real-world scenario though it could keep the timer feature and simply deploy at the end of the day, but the amount of electronics in the buoy allows for a number of other options for deploying itself that the team hopes to expand upon in the future. Other planned upgrades include using LEDs in the buoy to aid in location, and using cameras in the bottle to make determinations about the state of the trap. Some cameras were used in testing in Lake Ontario and the results showed that this will likely be a difficult problem to solve.
Development Requires Cooperation
Perhaps the most important part of this project isn’t technology-based at all, but focuses on ensuring adoption of this technology by fishermen. These intelligent buoys have to be cost effective and simple to use. Since ghost gear costs them money as well, in terms of lost equipment, lost catch, and the long-term damage to the environment that is caused as a result, the team plans to work closely with the fishermen to make sure that all of their concerns about the equipment are addressed and their needs are met, both from a technology point-of-view but also from one of usability and economics.
There are certainly more questions to answer and more problems to solve, but this project has a promising start and will certainly help the declining situations in the oceans when it can be fully developed and implemented. We look forward to seeing Conservation X Labs’ future designs and solutions.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287854",
"author": "𐂀 𐂅",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T19:09:04",
"content": "Marine microbes digest plastic.https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110328/full/news.2011.191.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287855",
"aut... | 1,760,373,315.942928 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/lewis-latimer-drafted-the-future-of-electric-light/ | Lewis Latimer Drafted The Future Of Electric Light | Kristina Panos | [
"Biography",
"Hackaday Columns",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"drafting",
"draftsman",
"Edison's Pioneers",
"Incandescent light bulb",
"light bulb",
"patent",
"technical drawing",
"thomas edison",
"westinghouse"
] | These days, we have LED light bulbs that will last a decade. But it wasn’t so long ago that incandescent lamps were all we had, and they burned out after several months. Thomas Edison’s early light bulbs used bamboo filaments that burned out very quickly. An inventor and draftsman named Lewis Latimer improved Edison’s filament by encasing it in cardboard, earning himself a patent the process.
Lewis had a hard early life, but he succeeded in spite of the odds and his lack of formal education. He was a respected draftsman who earned several patents and worked directly with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. Although Lewis didn’t invent the light bulb, he definitely made it better and longer-lasting.
Lewis in 1882, the year after he improved Edison’s light bulb. Image via
Wikipedia
Born Free
Lewis Howard Latimer was born September 4th, 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, near Boston. He was the youngest of four children. Lewis’ parents, George and Rebecca, had been slaves in Virginia, but Lewis was born in free territory.
Eight years before Lewis was born, his parents escaped to the north on a steamer, but George was captured in 1842 when someone who knew his former owner spotted him on the street. His plight caught the attention of abolitionist leaders who raised money from the citizens of Boston to purchase George’s freedom. By this time, Rebecca was pregnant with George junior.
In Chelsea, George worked as a wallpaper-hanger and also owned a barbershop. Lewis helped his father with both until George disappeared when Lewis was 10 years old. The Emancipation Proclamation was still a few years away, and it is thought that he was tired of worrying about being recaptured and went underground.
At 13, Lewis got a job as an office boy in an attorney’s office. He lied about his age and joined the Union Navy at age 15, but was honorably discharged about a year later. He helped his mother clean houses for a while, and then found out that the patent office of Crosby & Gregory was looking for a boy with a taste for drawing. Lewis had always liked drawing and jumped at the opportunity.
Bell’s original telephone patent. Image via
US Patent #174465
Drafting the Future
At Crosby & Gregory, Lewis provided a constant shadow for the company’s draftsman whenever he could spare a second between office duties. He soon bought a set of secondhand tools and books, and practiced technical drawing in his spare time. Eventually, the draftsman let him do some sample drafting. They were impressed with Lewis’ skills, and when the draftsman resigned, Lewis got the job.
Drafting patents requires that the artist and the inventor work closely together. Because of this, Lewis learned about a lot of things and was well-versed in the the technical and legal aspects of patents by the 1870s. Lewis applied for his own patent for the first time in 1874 — an improvement for water closets in railroad cars. It was deemed too insignificant for a patent.
In the mid-1870s, his firm was working on patents for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and Lewis Latimer was drafting all the technical drawings. In keeping with the lore about Bell’s work and sleep habits, legend has it that Lewis had to wait until after 9PM each night for Bell to be available to give him his instructions.
Lewis left Crosby & Gregory in 1878 because of management changes. During this time he worked a few jobs slinging wallpaper paste like his father before him and relocated with his wife Mary Wilson (whom he wed in 1873) and two daughters to Bridgeport, Connecticut where his sister lived. There he would eventually land a drafting job at Fallandsbee Machine Shop.
The Draw of Electric Light
After Thomas Edison received a patent for the light bulb in 1879, electric lighting began to quickly taking over gas lighting. Historians suggest that Lewis had become enamored by electric light and believed it was the future. It was certainly in his future.
One day, Hiram Maxim, owner of the United States Electric Lighting Company strolled into the machine shop. He saw Lewis sitting there drafting and was intrigued. Maxim asked him a bunch of questions and by the end of the conversation, he’d hired Lewis as his draftsman and general assistant.
Lewis’ patent for the manufacture of improved carbon filaments. Image via
US Patent #252386
Lewis started at the two-year-old company in 1880. Maxim was trying to make light bulbs, the hot new gadget of the times. He and his partner William Sawyer had incandescent lamp patents, and theirs was only the second to market after Edison’s.
Maxim’s process for treating filaments included a hydrocarbon vapor that equalized and standardized resistance. It also made them burn longer than the Edison filaments, which were made of bamboo. Lewis perfected a way to produce these filaments without breaking, as they were prone to do. He suggested using a material with the same rates of expansion and contraction as the filament blanks. Lewis received a patent for this method in 1882.
Although U.S. Electric’s lamps had a longer-lasting filament, they didn’t beat Edison because they didn’t have the scientific method down, doing mostly guesswork instead. While US Electrical focused on a quality lamp, Edison wanted complete vertical integration of the electrical world from the filament to the dynamo.
Like many 1880s startups, U.S.Electric was one among many small companies vying for light bulb market share. Lewis was terribly important to the operation and likely the only draftsman that Maxim had and his value extended far beyond the drawing table. He had the great responsibility of overseeing lighting installations, which requires a lot of knowledge. In 1881, Lewis became superintendent of the incandescent lamp department, overseeing 40 workers.
Around this time, U.S. Electric merged with Weston Electric. Lewis was sent to England to oversee a large lighting installation. Although the workers didn’t care to take orders from a black man at first, he eventually won them over. When his contract was up in England, he and Mary moved back to the States, but there was no job to come back to. He moved from company to company for a while and wound up at Olmstead Electrical in Brooklyn as draftsman and manager of lamp fabrication. Lewis convinced them to manufacture his lamp, but it never received a patent and wasn’t commercially successful.
The founding members of the Edison Pioneers. Image via
Wikipedia
Edison’s Pioneers
In 1884, Lewis was hired by the Edison company to be their chief draftsman and expert witness as to the facts as they related to the early stages of the electric light business. In other words, he helped Edison prosecute patent infringers. The only suit that went anywhere was the one against Lewis’ old company, U.S. Electrical, which Edison won. In 1889, Lewis joined the Edison legal department, though he still had drafting duties.
General Electric was created when Thomson-Houston and Edison Electrical merged on April 15, 1892. Westinghouse remained heir biggest competitor. By 1896, there were 300+ lawsuits pending between the GE and Westinghouse. They finally reached an agreement in 1896 and pooled the bulk of their patents, with GE retaining their own incandescent lamp patents.
Lewis was asked to join the Edison Pioneers, a group of twenty-eight men who had been integral to the development of the light bulb up to and including 1885. He was bestowed this honor despite never working in Edison’s laboratory itself, and was the only African-American member. In 1890, Lewis published
Incandescent Electric Lighting
, a practical description of the Edison system.
Lewis died December 11, 1928 after a lengthy illness. He was 80 years old. | 40 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287829",
"author": "Will",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T17:55:25",
"content": "“But it wasn’t so long ago that incandescent lamps were all we had, and they burned out after several months. ”No mention of the fixing and gouging the light bulb companies all did because their bulbs were l... | 1,760,373,316.84464 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/20/arduino-bobbin-winding-machine-is-freaky-fast/ | Arduino Bobbin Winding Machine Is Freaky Fast | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"775 DC motor",
"arduino",
"arduino nano",
"bobbin",
"bobbin winding",
"machine",
"micro servo",
"NEMA-17",
"sewing"
] | One of the worst things about sewing is finding out that your bobbin — that’s the smaller spool that works together with the needle and the larger spool to make a complete stitch — ran out of thread several stitches ago. If you’re lucky, the machine has a viewing window on the bobbin so you can easily tell when it’s getting dangerously close to running out, but many machines (ours included) must be taken halfway apart and the bobbin removed before it can be checked.
Having spare bobbins ready to go is definitely the answer. We would venture to guess that most (if not all) machines have a built-in bobbin winder, but using them involves de-threading the machine and setting it up to wind bobbins instead of sew. If you have a whole lot of sewing to do and can afford it, an automatic bobbin winder is a godsend.
If you’re [Mr. Innovative], you build one yourself out of acrylic, aluminium, and Arduinos
.
Here’s how it works: load up the clever little acrylic slide with up to twelve empty bobbins, then dial in the speed percentage and press the start button. The bobbins load one at a time onto a drill chuck that’s on the output shaft of a beefy 775 DC motor. The motor spins ridiculously fast, loading up the bobbin in a few seconds. Then the bobbin falls down a ramp and into a rack, and the thread is severed by a piece of nichrome wire.
An important part of winding bobbins is making sure the thread stays in place at the start of the wind. We love the way [Mr. Innovative] handled this part of the problem — a little foam doughnut around a bearing holds the thread in place just long enough to get the winding started. The schematic, BOM, and CAD files are available if you’d like to make one of these amazing machines for yourself. In the meantime, check out the demo/build video after the break.
Still not convinced that sewing is cool enough to learn?
Our own [Jenny List] may be able to convert you
. If that doesn’t get you, you might like to know that some sewing machines are hackable —
this old girl has a second life as a computerized embroidery machine
. If those don’t do it, consider that
sewing machines can give you a second life, too
.
Thanks for the tip, [Baldpower]! | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287773",
"author": "Gianluca Sini",
"timestamp": "2020-10-20T15:43:58",
"content": "Small mistake there, the wire is getting a torsion each turn, the big bobbin has to rotate to avoid it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287... | 1,760,373,316.45461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/escape-to-an-alternate-reality-anywhere-with-port-a-vid/ | Escape To An Alternate Reality Anywhere With Port-A-Vid | Roger Cheng | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"composite video",
"lcd screen",
"lens",
"portable video",
"video player"
] | There was a time when only the most expensive televisions could boast crystal clear pixels on a wall-mountable thin screen. What used to be novelty from “High Definition Flat Screen Televisions
“
are now just “TV” available everywhere. So as a change of pace from our modern pixel perfection, [Emily Velasco]
built the Port-A-Vid
as a relic from another timeline.
The centerpiece of any aesthetically focused video project is obviously the screen, and a CRT would be the first choice for a retro theme. Unfortunately, small CRTs
have recently become scarce
, and a real glass picture tube would not fit within the available space anyhow. Instead, we’re actually looking at a modern LCD sitting behind a big lens to give it an old school appearance.
The lens, harvested from a rear-projection TV, was chosen because it was a good size to replace the dial of a vacuum gauge. This project enclosure started life as a Snap-On Tools MT425 but had become just another piece of broken equipment at a salvage yard. The bottom section, formerly a storage bin for hoses and adapters, is now home to the battery and electronics. All original markings on the hinged storage lid were removed and
converted to the Port-A-Vid control panel
.
Before: broken Snap-On MT425
After: An escape portal. Please stand by…
A single press of the big green button triggers a video to play, randomly chosen from a collection of content [Emily] curated to fit with the aesthetic. We may get a clip from an old educational film, or something shot with a composite video camera. If any computer graphics pop up, they will be primitive vector graphics. This is not the place to seek ultra high definition content.
As a final nod to common artifacts of electronics history, [Emily] wrote an user’s manual for the Port-A-Vid. Naturally it’s not a downloadable PDF, but a stack of paper stapled together. Each page written in the style of electronics manuals of yore, treated with the rough look of multiple generation photocopy rumpled with use.
If you have to ask “Why?” it is doubtful any explanation would suffice. This is a trait shared with many other eclectic projects from [Emily]. But if you are delighted by fantastical projects hailing from an imaginary past, [Emily] has also
built an ASCII art cartridge
for old parallel port printers. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287493",
"author": "Vladimir",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T18:48:36",
"content": "Wonderfully poetic time capsule, that does not succumb to the pseudo-steampunk trend. Useless, in a brilliant way!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,373,316.634837 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/does-your-phone-need-a-ram-drive/ | Does Your Phone Need A RAM Drive? | Al Williams | [
"Android Hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Phone Hacks",
"Rants"
] | [
"ram drive",
"xiaomi"
] | Phones used to be phones. Then we got cordless phones which were part phone and part radio. Then we got cell phones. But with smartphones, we have a phone that is both a radio and a computer. Tiny battery operated computers are typically a bit anemic, but as technology marches forward, those tiny computers grew to the point that they outpace desktop machines from a few years ago. That means more and more phones are incorporating technology we used to reserve for desktop computers and servers. Case in point: Xiaomi now has
a smartphone that sports a RAM drive
. Is this really necessary?
While people like to say you can never be too rich or too thin, memory can never be too big or too fast. Unfortunately, that’s always been a zero-sum game. Fast memory tends to be lower-density while large capacity memory tends to be slower. The fastest common memory is static RAM, but that requires a lot of area on a chip per bit and also consumes a lot of power. That’s why most computers and devices use dynamic RAM for main storage. Since each bit is little more than a capacitor, the density is good and power requirements are reasonable. The downside? Internally, the memory needs a rewrite when read or periodically before the tiny capacitors discharge.
Although dynamic RAM density is high, flash memory still serves as the “disk drive” for most phones. It is dense, cheap, and — unlike RAM — holds data with no power. The downside is the interface to it is cumbersome and relatively slow despite new standards to improve throughput. There’s virtually no way the type of flash memory used in a typical phone will ever match the access speeds you can get with RAM.
So, are our phones held back by the speed of the flash? Are they calling out for a new paradigm that taps the speed of RAM whenever possible? Let’s unpack this issue.
Yes, But…
If your goal is speed then, one answer has always been to make a RAM disk. These were staples in the old days when you had very slow disk drives. Linux often mounts transient data using tmpfs which is effectively a RAM drive. A disk that refers to RAM instead of flash memory (or anything slower) is going to be super fast by comparison to a normal drive.
But does that really matter on these phones? I’m not saying you don’t want your phone to run fast, especially if you are trying to do something like gaming or augmented reality rendering. What I’m saying is this: modern operating systems don’t make such a major distinction between disk and memory. They can load frequently used data from disk in RAM caches or buffers and manage that quite well. So what advantage is there in storing stuff in RAM all the time? If you just copy a flash drive to RAM and then write it back before you shut down, that will certainly improve speed, but you will also waste a lot of time grabbing stuff you never need.
Implementation
According to reports, the DRAM in Xiaomi’s phone can reach up to 44GB/s compared to the flash memory’s 1.7GB/s reads and .75GB/s writes. Those are all theoretical maximums, of course, so take that with a grain of salt, but the ratio should be similar even with real-world measurements.
The argument is that (according to Xiaomi) games could install and load 40% to 60% faster. But this begs the question: How did the game get into RAM to start with? At first we thought the idea was to copy the entire flash to RAM, but that appears to not be the case. Instead, the concept is to load games directly into the RAM drive from the network and then mark them so the user can see that they will disappear on a reboot. The launcher will show a special icon on the home screen to warn you that the game is only temporary.
So it seems like unless your phone is never turned off, you are trading a few seconds of load time for repeatedly installing the game over the network. I don’t think that’s much of a use case. I’d rather have the device intelligently pin data in a cache. In other words, allow a bit on game files that tell them to stay in cache until there is simply no choice but to evict them and you’d have a better system. A comparatively fast load from flash memory once, followed by very fast startups on subsequent executions until the phone powers down. The difference is you won’t have to reinstall every time you reset the phone.
This is Not a Hardware RAM Drive
There have been hardware RAM drives, but that’s really a different animal. Software RAM drives that take part of main memory and make it look like a disk appears to have originated in the UK around 1980 in the form of Silicon Disk System for CP/M and, later MSDOS. Other computers of that era were known to support the technique including Apple, Commodore, and Atari, among others.
In 1984, IBM differentiated PCDOS from MSDOS by adding a RAM disk driver, something Microsoft would duplicate in 1986. However, all of these machines had relatively low amounts of memory and couldn’t spare much for general-purpose buffering. Allowing a human to determine that it made sense to keep a specific set of files in RAM was a better solution back then.
On the other hand, what the Xiaomi design does have one important feature. It is good press. We wouldn’t be talking about this phone if they hadn’t incorporated a RAM drive. I’m just not sure it matters much in real-life use.
We’ve seen RAM disks
cache browser files
that are not important to store across reboots and that usually works well. It is also a pretty
common trick in Linux
. Even then, the real advantage isn’t the faster memory as much as removing the need to write cached data to slow disks when it doesn’t need to persist anyway. | 73 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287449",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T17:12:59",
"content": "Sounds like just good marketing to me. Android phones have linux inside. Linux has always used available RAM as a disk cache, so you already have that benefit on a dynamic basis, which seems ... | 1,760,373,316.758579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/exploring-animal-intelligence-hack-chat/ | Exploring Animal Intelligence Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"animal",
"cognition",
"Hack Chat",
"Intelligence",
"machine learning",
"neural net",
"tool use"
] | Join us on Wednesday, October 21st at noon Pacific for the
Exploring Animal Intelligence Hack Chat
with
Hans Forsberg
!
From our lofty perch atop the food chain it’s easy to make the assumption that we humans are the last word in intelligence. A quick glance at social media or a chat with a random stranger at the store should be enough to convince you that human intelligence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, or at least that it’s not evenly distributed. But regardless, we are pretty smart, thanks to those big, powerful brains stuffed into our skulls.
We’re far from the only smart species on the planet, though. Fellow primates and other mammals clearly have intelligence, and we’ve seen amazingly complex behaviors from animals in just about every taxonomic rank. But it’s the birds who probably stuff the most functionality into their limited neural hardware, with tool use, including the ability to make new tools, being common, along with long-distance navigation, superb binocular vision, and of course the ability to rapidly maneuver in three-dimensions while flying.
Hans Forsberg has taken an interest in avian intelligence lately, and to explore just what’s possible he devised a fiendishly clever system to train his local magpie flock to clean up his yard, which he calls
“BirdBox”.
We recently wrote up
his initial training attempts
, which honestly bear a strong resemblance to training a machine learning algorithm, which is probably no small coincidence since his professional background is with neural networks. He has several years of work into his birds, and he’ll stop by the Hack Chat to talk about what goes into leveraging animal intelligence, what we can learn about our systems from it, and where BirdBox goes next.
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 21 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 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287433",
"author": "Moryc",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T16:19:38",
"content": "I’d suggest two interesting subjects of research, when it comes to animals:1. The research on despair:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shIazq_66Aw2. The mouse utopia:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgGLFozNM... | 1,760,373,316.337367 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/motorized-magic-over-hdmi/ | Motorized Magic Over HDMI | Matthew Carlson | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny",
"cec",
"hdmi",
"Motorized Potentiometer",
"stereo"
] | There is a certain warmth that seems to emanate from stereo receivers of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Despite their large footprint and considerable heft, the soft glow of the indicator lights and solid kerthunk of switches provide a sense of coziness. When [Tom] recently swapped his receiver for a 1970s Pioneer SX-950, he found himself getting up from the couch to adjust the volume when watching TV far too often for his liking. Resolving to do something about it, he
added some magic in the form of a motorized volume knob
. One of the coolest tricks for stereos was to have a small motor attached to the volume knob so that it could turn the volume up or down via a remote.
The first obstacle came when [Tom] had to forgo the center tap on the potentiometer to get a motorized one. This meant the volume compensation feature would be disabled, which is but a small price to pay for convenience. After scouring the internet, he finally had the part in hand only to discover some troublesome capacitors in the way. The new pot had a rather large motor hanging off the back that the previous one didn’t have. Fortunately, there was a good bit of space between the PCB and the bottom of the chassis, so Tom was able to just flip the capacitors to the underside of the board and bend them on their sides.
The next problem to solve was how to change the volume remotely. IR was considered as well as optical cable control signals. What [Tom] did instead was to implement HDMI CEC (consumer electronics control). CEC was well documented and seemed simple to implement on an ATTINY4313 with the help of a half-H driver. The CEC protocol implemented by [Tom’s] TV seemed to be very sensitive to timing, so an external crystal was used to get more precise timing and additional handshaking was implemented to get the TV to accept the microcontroller as valid. A few fail-safes were added to make sure the motor didn’t burn out if something went wrong with the CEC protocol and a nice enclosure wrapped up the build quite nicely.
We’ve seen
CEC implemented before on a PIC 18F87J50
, but as a sender of CEC commands not a receiver. [Tom’s]
code is available on GitHub
and might prove useful if you’re looking to implement CEC on an AVR.
Thanks [Tom] for sending this one in! | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287451",
"author": "Matthew Smith",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T17:27:46",
"content": "this is awesome. Bummer motorized pots are so expensive– they are pretty much my favorite electronic component ever since i was a kid and saw a super high-end mixer with motorized slide pots adjust... | 1,760,373,316.888633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/ttgo-esp32-module-with-multiple-personalities/ | TTGO ESP32 Module With Multiple Personalities | Chris Lott | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP32",
"TFT display",
"TTGO",
"weather"
] | Volos Projects educator [Danko Bertović] had a TTGO ESP32 board looking for a project, so he implemented a surprisingly functional weather station for such a small screen. Presumably that was too boring for him, so he decided to write a version of the
classic Atari game Breakout
instead. [Danko] prefers using the Arduino IDE for ESP32 projects, and has made
the Breakout software available
as an Arduino sketch. We hope the weather station sketch will be released soon, too. The TTGO is a small ESP32 board with an ST7789V 1.14 in (29 mm) TFT color display, available from your favorite Shenzhen market supplier. This platform is perfect for all kinds of niche applications. We’d love to hear how you are using, or plan to use, these modules in your projects.
We wrote about
one such project last summer
, where a similar TTGO module was used to display 50-year broadcast delayed transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission. [Danko] is no stranger to Hackaday — he has made several Arduino-based calculator projects. Perhaps the most remarkable being the
circuit sculpture binary number
calculator from last year, another project that morphed into a computer game (Pong). | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287443",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T17:02:25",
"content": "Thanks for sharing!I use this board as display for mqtt values from home assistant, combined with músic info each tme a new song is playera from mpd Internet radioI think I Will learn a los from tour code"... | 1,760,373,316.391083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/ethernet-at-40-from-a-napkin-sketch-to-multi-gigabit-links/ | Ethernet At 40: From A Napkin Sketch To Multi-Gigabit Links | Maya Posch | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"hardware",
"Interest",
"Network Hacks",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"computer history",
"ethernet"
] | September 30th, 1980 is the day when Ethernet was first commercially introduced, making it exactly forty years ago this year. It was first defined in
a patent filed by Xerox
as a 10 Mb/s networking protocol in 1975, introduced to the market in 1980 and subsequently standardized in 1983 by the IEEE as
IEEE 802.3
. Over the next thirty-seven years, this standard would see numerous updates and revisions.
Included in the present Ethernet standard are not just the different speed grades from the original 10 Mbit/s to today’s maximum 400 Gb/s speeds, but also the countless changes to the core protocol to enable these ever higher data rates, not to mention new applications of Ethernet such as power delivery and backplane routing. The reliability and cost-effectiveness of Ethernet would result in the 1990 10BASE-T Ethernet standard (802.3i-1990) that gradually found itself implemented on desktop PCs.
With Ethernet these days being as present as the presumed
luminiferous aether
that it was named after, this seems like a good point to look at what made Ethernet so different from other solutions, and what changes it had to undergo to keep up with the demands of an ever-more interconnected world.
The novelty of connecting computers
IBM PCs, connected.
These days, most computers and computerized gadgets are little more than expensive paper weights whenever they find themselves disconnected from the global Internet. Back in the 1980s, people were just beginning to catch up on the things one could do with a so-called ‘local area network’, or LAN. Unlike the 1960s and 1970s era of mainframes and terminal systems, a LAN entailed connecting microcomputers (IBM PCs, workstations, etc.) at for example an office or laboratory.
During this transition from
sneakernet
to Ethernet, office networks would soon involve thousands of nodes, leading to the wonderful centrally managed office network world. With any document available via the network, the world seemed ready for the
paperless office
. Although that never happened, the ability to communicate and share files via networks (LAN and WAN) has now become a staple of every day life.
Passing the token
The circuitous world of Token Ring configurations.
What did change was the rapidly changing landscape of commodity network technology. Ethernet’s early competition was a loose collection of smaller network protocols. This includes IBM’s
Token Ring
. Although many myths formed about the presumed weaknesses of Ethernet in the 1980s, summarized by
this document
(PDF) from the 1988 SIGCOMM Symposium, ultimately Ethernet turned out to be more than sufficient.
Token Ring’s primary points of presumed superiority were determinism instead of Ethernet’s multiple access with collision detection approach (
CSMA/CD
). This led to the most persistent myth, that Ethernet couldn’t sustain saturation beyond 37% of its bandwidth.
For cost reasons, the early years of Ethernet was dominated by dumb hubs instead of smarter switches. This meant that the Ethernet adapters had to sort out the collisions. And as anyone who has used
Ethernet hubs
probably knows, the surest sign of a busy Ethernet network was to glance over at the ‘collision’ LED on the hub(s). As Ethernet switches became more affordable, hubs quickly vanished. Because switches establish routes between two distinct nodes instead of relying on CSMA/CD to sort things out, this prevented the whole collision issue that made hubs (and Ethernet along with it) the target of many jokes, and the myth was busted.
Once Ethernet began to allow for the use of cheaper Cat. 3 (UTP) for 10BASE-T and Cat. 5(e) UTP cables for 100BASE-TX (and related) standards, Ethernet emerged as the dominant networking technology for everything from homes and offices to industrial and automotive applications.
A tree of choices
The increased spectral bandwidth use of copper wiring by subsequent Ethernet standards.
While the list of standards listed under
IEEE 802.3
may seem rather intimidating, a
more abbreviated list
for the average person can be found on Wikipedia as well. Of these, the ones one most likely has encountered at some point are:
10BASE-T (10 Mb, Cat. 3).
100BASE-TX (100 Mb, Cat. 5).
1000BASE-T (1 Gb, Cat. 5).
2.5GBASE-T (2.5 Gb, Cat. 5e).
While the 5GBASE-T and 10GBASE-T standards also have been in use for a few years now, the 25 Gb and 40 Gb versions are definitely reserved for data centers at this point, with the requirement for
Cat. 8 cables
, and only allowing for runs of up to 36 meters. The remaining standards in the list are primarily aimed at automotive and industrial applications, some of which are fine with 100 Mbit connections.
Still, the time is now slowly arriving where a whole gigabit is no longer enough, as some parts of the world actually have Internet connections that match or exceed this rate. Who knew that at some point a gigabit LAN could become the bottleneck for one’s Internet connection?
ALOHA
The Xerox 9700, the world’s first Ethernet-connected laser printer.
Back in 1972, a handful of engineers over at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (
PARC
) including Robert “Bob”
Metcalfe
and David Boggs were assigned the task of creating a LAN technology to provide a way for the
Xerox Alto
workstation to hook up to the laser printer, which had also been developed at Xerox.
This new network technology would have to allow for hundreds of individual computers to connect simultaneously and feed data to the printer quickly enough. During the design process, Metcalfe used his experience with
ALOHAnet
, a wireless packet data network developed at the University of Hawaii.
Metcalfe’s first Ethernet sketch.
The primary concept behind ALOHAnet was the use of a shared medium for client transmissions. In order to accomplish this, a protocol was implemented that could be summed up as ‘listen before send’, which would become known as ‘carrier sense multiple access’ (
CSMA
). This would not only go on to inspire Ethernet, but also WiFi and many other technologies. In the case of Ethernet the aforementioned CSMA/CD formed an integral part of early Ethernet standards.
Coaxial cabling was used for the common medium, which required the use of the cherished terminators at the end of every cable. Adding additional nodes required the use of taps, allowing for the BNC connector on the Ethernet Network Interface Card to be attached to the bus. This first version of Ethernet is also called ‘thicknet’ (
10BASE5
) due to the rather unwieldy 9.5 mm thick coax cables used. A second version (
10BASE2
) used much thinner coax cables (RG-58A/U) and was therefore affectionately called ‘thinnet’.
The best plot twist
Don’t forget to terminate your bus.
In the end, it was the use of unshielded, twisted-pair cabling that made Ethernet more attractive than Token Ring. Along with cheaper interface cards, it turned into a no-brainer for people who wanted a LAN at home or the office.
As anyone who has ever installed or managed a 10BASE5 or 10BASE2 network probably knows, interference on the bus, or issues with a tap or AWOL terminator can really ruin a day. Not that figuring out where the token dropped off the Token Ring network is a happy occasion, mind you. Although the common-medium, ‘aether’ part of Ethernet has long been replaced by networks of switches, I’m sure many IT professionals are much happier with the star architecture.
Thus it is that we come from the sunny islands of Hawaii to the technology that powers our home LANs and data centers. Maybe something else would have come along to do what Ethernet does today, but personally I’m quite happy with how things worked out. I remember the first LAN that got put in place at my house during the late 90s as a kid, first to allow my younger brother and I to share files (i.e. LAN gaming), then later to share the cable internet connection. It allowed me to get up to speed with this world of
IPX/SPX
, TCP/IP and much more network-related stuff, in addition to the joys of LAN parties and being the system administrator for the entire family.
Happy birthday, Ethernet. Here is to another forty innovative, revolutionary years. | 50 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287403",
"author": "Milo",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T15:03:23",
"content": "Lovely article",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6287406",
"author": "abjq",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T15:11:22",
"content": "I remember the sp... | 1,760,373,316.552411 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/bench-supplies-get-smaller-thanks-to-usb-c/ | Bench Supplies Get Smaller Thanks To USB-C | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"banana plug",
"buck-boost",
"converter",
"dc-dc",
"power supply",
"USB C",
"workbench",
"zk-4kx"
] | Bench power supplies are an indispensable tool when prototyping electronics. Being able to set custom voltages and having some sort of current limiting feature are key to making sure that the smoke stays inside all of the parts. Buying a modern bench supply might be a little too expensive though, and converting an ATX power supply can be janky and unreliable. Thanks to the miracle of USB-C, though,
you can build your own fully-featured benchtop power supply
like [Brian] did without taking up hardly any space, and for only around $12.
USB-C can be used to deliver up to 100W but is limited to a few set voltage levels. For voltages that USB-C doesn’t support, [Brian] turns to an inexpensive ZK-4KX buck-boost DC-DC converter that allows for millivolt-level precision for his supply’s output. Another key aspect of using USB-C is making sure that your power supply can correctly negotiate for the amount of power that it needs. There’s an electronic handshake that goes on over the USB connection, and without it there’s not a useful amount of power that can be delivered. This build includes a small chip for performing this negotiation as well.
With all the electronics taken care of, [Brian] houses all of this in a 3D-printed enclosure complete with a set of banana plugs. While it may not be able to provide the wattage of a modern production unit, for most smaller use cases this would work perfectly. If you
already have an ATX supply around
, though, you can modify [Brian]’s build using that as the supply and case too. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287346",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T11:21:38",
"content": "There’s even easier than that – entire self contained models are available now (I guess they source from China)https://lab401.com/products/pocket-usb-power-supply",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,316.939301 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/duality-of-light-explored-by-revisiting-the-double-slit-experiment/ | Duality Of Light Explored By Revisiting The Double-Slit Experiment | Dan Maloney | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"doule-slit",
"Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle",
"interference",
"particle",
"photon",
"physics",
"quantum",
"wave"
] | We’ve all seen recreations of the famous double-slit experiment, which showed that light can behave both as a wave and as a particle. Or rather, it’s likely that what we’ve seen is the
results
of the double-slit experiment, that barcode-looking pattern of light and dark stripes, accompanied by some handwaving about classical versus quantum mechanics. But if you’ve got 20 minutes to invest,
this video of the whole double-slit experiment
cuts through the handwaving and opens your eyes to the quantum world.
For anyone unfamiliar with the double-slit experiment, [Huygens Optics] actually doesn’t spend that much time explaining the background.
Our explainer
does a great job on the topic, but suffice it to say that when coherent light passes through two closely spaced, extremely fine openings, a characteristic pattern of alternating light and dark bands can be observed. On the one hand, this demonstrates the wave nature of light, just as waves on the ocean or sound waves interfere constructively and destructively. On the other hand, the varying intensity across the interference pattern suggests a particle nature to light.
To resolve this conundrum, [Huygens] jumps right into the experiment, which he claims can be done with simple, easily sourced equipment. This is belied a little by the fact that he used photolithography to create his slits, but it should still be possible to reproduce with slits made in more traditional ways. The most fascinating bit of this for us was the demonstration of single-photon self-interference using nothing but neutral density filters and a CCD camera. The explanation that follows of how it can be that a single photon can pass through both slits at the same time is one of the most approachable expositions on quantum mechanics we’ve ever heard.
[Huygens Optics] has done some really fascinating stuff lately, from
variable profile mirrors
to
precision spirit levels
. This one, though, really helped scratch our quantum itch. | 41 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287145",
"author": "Alphatek",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T12:22:05",
"content": "It is easy to reproduce – must be, we did it in a physics lesson at a mundane UK secondary school in the 1980s.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "62... | 1,760,373,317.111098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/where-were-calculating-we-dont-need-no-seven-segments/ | Where We’re Calculating, We Don’t Need No Seven Segments! | Jenny List | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"6-segment",
"display",
"led"
] | There have been many attempts at electronic numerical display technology over the decades since the first incandescent bulb or neon tube flickered into life at the command of a primordial computer, but the lowest common denominator has remained the humble seven segments. Here it might end, but for [
Ken Yap
] who has taken inspiration from a 1960s Sharp calculator
to re-create a numerical display with only six segments
.
This seemingly impossible feat is achieved by having six curved segments arranged as a figure-eight, which can render all the digits after a fashion, but which soon reveals why the extra segment made an appearance. The numbers that are made up of curves look good enough, but the straight lines in the 1, 4, and 7, are compromised by the diagonal, and the zero is curiously small at half the height. You
can
read the digits, but it takes getting used to.
What made sense to reduce the complexity of 1960s electronics is only a fascinating curiosity in 2020, but we maybe won’t see these displays appearing too often. You can take a look at it in the video below the break, and if you’re curious about the Sharp calculator which inspired it then you can take a look at
its page in the Vintage Calculator Museum
. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287144",
"author": "Mike Shawaluk",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T12:21:38",
"content": "If you look at the article about the Sharp calculator, you will notice that its display is not 6 segments. It actually appears to be 9 distinct segments! There is a vertical full-height segment in t... | 1,760,373,317.174657 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/climbing-everest-one-hill-at-a-time-and-keeping-track-of-it/ | Climbing Everest One Hill At A Time – And Keeping Track Of It | Sven Gregori | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bicycle computer",
"challenge",
"competition",
"fitness tracker",
"sports"
] | The internet is full of self-proclaimed challenges, ranging from some absolutely pointless fads to well-intended tasks with an actual purpose. In times of TikTok, the latter is of course becoming rarer, as a quick, effortless jump on the bandwagon is just easier for raising your internet points. Cyclists on the other hand love a good challenge where they compete with one another online, testing their skills and gamifying their favorite activity along the way. One option for that is
Everesting
, where you pick a hill of your choice, and within a single session you ride it up and down as many times as it takes until you accumulated the height of Mount Everest on it. Intrigued by the idea, but not so much its competitive aspect, [rabbitcreek] became curious how long it would take him to reach that goal with his own casual bicycle usage,
so he built a bicycle computer to measure and keep track of it
.
While the total distance and time factors into
the actual challenge
, [rabbitcreek]’s primary interest was the accumulated height, so the device’s main component is a
BMP388
barometric pressure sensor attached to a battery-powered ESP32. An e-paper display shows the total height and completed percentage, along with some random Everest-related pictures. Everything is neatly packed together in a 3D-printed case that can be mounted on the bicycle’s handlebar, and the STL files are available along with the source code in his write-up.
Of course, if you’re actually interested in the challenge itself, you probably have an assortment of sports tracking equipment anyway, but this is a nice addition to keep track as you go, and has
a lower risk of ransomware attacks
. And in case [rabbitcreek] sounds like a familiar name to you, he’s indeed become a Hackaday regular with his environmental hacks like
the tide clock
,
a handheld particle sniffer
, or
logging temperatures in the Alaskan wilderness
. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287119",
"author": "Vinalon",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T05:17:14",
"content": "Cool project and nice packaging, although I’m reminded of an old joke I heard from someone who worked with avionics:What’s the best way to accurately determine altitude using a barometric pressure sensor?... | 1,760,373,317.275021 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/polymer-networks-make-better-3d-prints/ | Polymer Networks Make Better 3D Prints | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"polymer",
"self-healing",
"shape memory"
] | Biological machines such as human and animal bodies are quite incredible. Your body seamlessly incorporates materials as different as muscle, bone, and tendons into an integrated whole. Now Texas A&M researchers think they can imitate nature using
polymer networks
that have a tunable stiffness. As a bonus, similar to biological devices, the material spontaneously self-heals.
The trick relies on the Diels-Alder reaction which is a cycloaddition reaction of a conjugated diene to an alkene. Diels-Alder-based polymers or DAPs will bond together even when they have different physical characteristics and they undergo a reversible reaction to heat which offers shape-memory and healing capability.
The polymer takes the form of a liquid, and a Makerbot Replicator 2X fitted with a custom syringe system did the printing. Different syringes with different materials were put in during layer changes. Different polymer crosslinkers produce different physical properties in the cured polymer.
From what we can tell, this is probably not ready for prime time yet. But it does show that we still have a lot to learn on the best materials to use for creating 3D objects via additive manufacturing. We spend a lot of time thinking about
3D printing materials
. While we used to do a lot of ABS,
PLA
is more in vogue, today. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287107",
"author": "Christian C Knopp",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T03:58:48",
"content": "Enter : Westworld",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287112",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T04:26:39",
... | 1,760,373,317.328476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/attemping-to-generate-photorealistic-video-with-neural-networks/ | Attempting To Generate Photorealistic Video With Neural Networks | Lewin Day | [
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"GANs",
"neural network",
"NVIDIA"
] | Over the past decade, we’ve seen great strides made in the area of AI and neural networks. When trained appropriately, they can be coaxed into generating impressive output, whether it be in text, images, or simply in classifying objects. There’s also much fun to be had in pushing them outside their prescribed operating region,
as [Jon Warlick] attempted recently.
[Jon]’s work began using
NVIDIA’s GauGAN tool
. It’s capable of generating pseudo-photorealistic images of landscapes from segmentation maps, where different colors of a 2D image represent things such as trees, dirt, or mountains, or water. After spending much time toying with the software, [Jon] decided to see if it could be pressed into service to generate video instead.
The GauGAN tool is only capable of taking in a single segmentation map, and outputting a single image, so [Jon] had to get creative. Experiments were undertaken wherein a video was generated and exported as individual frames, with these frames fed to GauGAN as individual segmentation maps. The output frames from GauGAN were then reassembled into a video again.
The results are somewhat psychedelic, as one would expect. GauGAN’s single image workflow means there is only coincidental relevance between consecutive frames, creating a wild, shifting visage. While it’s not a technique we expect to see used for serious purposes anytime soon, it’s a great experiment at seeing how far the technology can be pushed.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen such technology used to create full motion video, either
. Video after the break. | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287075",
"author": "Somun",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T23:48:16",
"content": "I have a different interpretation of photo realistic. Very interesting nonetheless.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287099",
"author": "Osge... | 1,760,373,317.225167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/robot-travels-the-world/ | Robot Travels The World | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"around the world",
"maker faire",
"raspberry pi",
"robot",
"rover",
"travel",
"virtual"
] | Around the World in 80 Days
may have been an impressive feat of international travel in a world before widespread air transit. In modern times though, it’s not even necessary to leave your home in order to travel around the world. To that end, [Norbert] is attempting to
accomplish this journey using a robot that will do the traveling for him
as part of this year’s
Virtual Maker Faire
.
The robot is called the World Tour Robot, and the idea for it is to be small enough to ship to each new location around the world and be simple enough to be repaired easily. It is driven by two servo motors and controlled by a Raspberry Pi which also handles a small camera. Once at its location, it can connect to the internet and then be able to be controlled through a web interface. Locations are selected by application, and the robot is either handed off to the next person in the chain or put back in a box to be shipped.
The robot hasn’t left for its maiden voyage just yet but [Norbert] plans to get it started soon. Hopefully there are enough interesting places for this robot to explore on its trip around the world, although it’s
probably best to avoid Philadelphia as it is known to be unfriendly to robots
. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287043",
"author": "Helder Ferreira",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T20:30:29",
"content": "No need for high tech to travel around the world. A Geocaching Travel Bug can easily do it ;)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6287047",
"... | 1,760,373,317.780334 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/smd-breadboard-adaptors-skip-schematic-goes-straight-to-pcb/ | SMD Breadboard Adaptors Skip Schematic, Goes Straight To PCB | Chris Lott | [
"hardware"
] | [
"breadboard",
"breakout board",
"smd"
] | If you need to add one or two SMT chips to your breadboarded prototype, [Travis Hein] has you covered. He designed a
set of small SMD adaptor boards
for various SOIC, SOT23, and DPAC patterns using KiCad. He has released them as open source, so you can feel free to use them or modify them as needed.
Normally we don’t see people bypassing the schematics when designing a PCB. But we can agree that [Travis] has found a situation where going direct to PCB makes more sense. He just plops down the package in Pcbnew, adds some pin headers and wires everything up directly on the PCB. (But don’t worry, some of you may remember [Travis] from his earlier
SSR mains switching project
, which demonstrates that he can indeed draw proper schematics.) We know there are more people out there who prefer to go straight to PCB layout… [mikeselectricstuff] comes to mind. If you could yourself among this tribe, let use know your reasoning in the comments below.
We wrote about a similar
universal breakout boards for SMD parts
back in 2016, which is a single breakout board for two- and three-pin jelly-bean components. If you paired some of those boards with [Travis]’s breakout boards, it would make a great combination to keep in your prototyping gadgets bin. Consider this project the next time your favorite PCB shop has a sale. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287010",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T17:19:15",
"content": "I used machine socket and solder SOIC parts on top with individual strands of wire. SOIC is 0.05″ pitch, so it is very easy.If you don’t have machine sockets, then just mask the hole for a protoboard ... | 1,760,373,317.733373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/spare-parts-express/ | Spare Parts Express | Elliot Williams | [
"Parts",
"Rants"
] | [
"junk",
"newsletter",
"parts"
] | I’ve
got spare parts, and I cannot lie
.
This week I’m sending out two care packages to friends and coworkers because I’ve got too many hackables on hand, and not enough time to hack them all. One is a funky keyboard, and the other is an FPGA dev board, but that’s not the point. The point is that the world is too interesting, and many of us have more projects piled up in the to-do box, with associated gear, than we’ll ever have time to complete.
Back in the before-times, we would meet up, talk about our ongoing hacks, and invariably someone would say “oh you need an X, I’ve got half a box of them” and send you one. Or maybe you’d be the one with the extra widgets on hand. I know I’ve happily been in both positions.
Either way, it’s a win for the giver, who gets to take a widget off the widget pile, for the receiver, who doesn’t have to go to the widget store, and for the environment, which has to produce fewer widgets. (My apologies to the widget manufacturers and middlemen.)
This reminded me of Lenore Edman and Windell Oskay’s
Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk
back in the late aughts. Trolling through the
wiki
was like a trip down memory lane.
This box
visited my old hackerspace, and then ended up with Bunnie Huang. Good times, good people, good hacker junk! And then there’s our own Brian Benchoff’s
Travelling Hacker Box
and
spinoffs
.
These are great and fun projects, but they all end up foundering in one respect: to make sense, the value of goods taken and received has to exceed the cost of the postage, and if you’re only interested in a few things in any given box, that’s a lot of dead weight adding to the shipping cost.
So I was trying to brainstorm a better solution. Some kind of centralized pinboard, where the “have too many h-bridge drivers” folks can hook up with the “need an h-bridge” people? Or is this ad-hoc social network that we already have working out well enough?
What do you think? How can we get the goods to those who want to work on them?
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
! | 33 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286976",
"author": "DougM",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T14:36:07",
"content": "I thought about this a long time ago, but concluded that it was just too time consuming to automate it. Ideally you’d want to catalog all your parts and make them available in searchable form online, then ... | 1,760,373,317.673789 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/turning-a-desk-drawer-into-a-flight-yoke/ | Turning A Desk Drawer Into A Flight Yoke | Danie Conradie | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"atmega32u4",
"hid",
"Joystick",
"microsoft flight simulator",
"yoke"
] | [Christofer Hiitti] found himself with the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator on his PC, but the joystick he ordered was still a few weeks out. So he grabbed an Arduino, potentiometers and a button and
hacked together what a joke-yoke
.
The genius part of this hack is the way [Christopher] used his desk drawer for pitch control. One side of a plastic hinge is attached to a potentiometer inside a drawer, while the other side is taped to the top of the desk. The second pot is taped to the front of the drawer for pitch control and the third pot is the throttle. It works remarkably well, as shown in the demo video below.
The linearity of the drawer mechanism probably isn’t great, but it was good enough for a temporary solution. The Arduino Leonardo he used is based on the ATmega32u4 which has a built-in USB, and with libraries like
ArduinoJoystickLibrary
the computer interface very simple. When [Christopher]’s real joystick finally arrived he augmented it with a
button box
built using the joke-yoke components.
There’s no doubt that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 will spawn a lot of great controller and cockpit builds over the next few years. We’ve already covered a
new joystick build,
and a
3D printed frame to turn an Xbox controller into a joystick
.
Was told you’d appreciate my sweet rig!
from
flightsim | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286959",
"author": "Danjovic",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T11:43:22",
"content": "The build is fun, but the pitch mechanism is ingenious!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287122",
"author": "Christofer Hiitti",
"... | 1,760,373,317.89711 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/17/it-came-from-outer-space-listening-to-the-deep-space-network/ | It Came From Outer Space: Listening To The Deep Space Network | Adam Zeloof | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Space"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"deep space",
"Deep Space Network",
"ham radio"
] | Ham radio operators love to push the boundaries of their equipment. A new ham may start out by making a local contact three miles away on the 2m band, then talk to somebody a few hundred miles away on 20m. Before long, they may find themselves chatting to fellow operators 12,000 miles away on 160m. Some of the adventurous return to 2m and try to carry out long-distance conversations by bouncing signals off of the Moon, waiting for the signal to travel 480,000 miles before returning to Earth. And then some take it several steps further when they listen to signals from spacecraft
9.4 million miles
away.
That’s exactly what [David Prutchi] set out to do when he started
building a system to listen to the Deep Space Network
(DSN) last year. The
DSN is NASA’s worldwide antenna system
, designed to relay signals to and from spacecraft that have strayed far from home. The system communicates with tons of inanimate explorers Earth has sent out over the years, including Voyager 1 & 2, Juno, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Because the craft are transmitting weak signals over a great distance (Voyager 1 is
14 billion miles
away!), the earth-based antennas need to be big. Real big. Each of the DSN’s three international facilities houses several massive dishes designed to capture these whispers from beyond the atmosphere — and yet, [David] was able to receive signals in his back yard.
Sporting a stunning X-band antenna array, a whole bunch of feedlines, and some tracking software, he’s managed to eavesdrop on a handful of spacecraft phoning home via the DSN. He heard the first, Bepi-Colombo, in May 2020, and has only improved his system since then. Next up, he hopes to find Juno, and decode the signals he receives to actually look at the data that’s being sent back from space.
We’ve seen a small group of enthusiasts listen in on the DSN before, but [David]’s
excellent documentation
should provide a fantastic starting point for anybody else interested in doing some interstellar snooping. | 26 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286948",
"author": "Bonzadog",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T08:24:27",
"content": "The Linkhttps://www.prutchi.com/2020/10/15/recap-of-x-band-dsn-activities-and-plans-for-the-future/gets the ole 404!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,373,317.957331 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/isastm-runs-vintage-cards-over-usb/ | ISASTM Runs Vintage Cards Over USB | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"isa",
"ISA cards",
"usb"
] | The ISA bus is a relic of the distant past, and no longer supported by the PC mainstream. Outside of retro fanatics and likely some long-term industrial users, it’s all but forgotten. That hasn’t stopped [Manawyrm] from hacking away, however,
and she’s developed a nifty adapter for the modern era.
Still in its early stages of development, the ISASTM is a ISA-over-USB adapter that allows a modern computer to work with older expansion cards.
Running on an STM32H743,
and using the microcontroller’s native USB1 interface, the ISASTM card is able to be slotted into a backplane in order to address multiple cards with one adapter. [Manawyrm] demonstrates the hardware by running Monkey Island 1 in the PCem emulator,
with sound provided by an AdLib ISA soundcard
.
There are some throughput issues, which [Manawyrm] aims to solve by switching to USB2 and making some tweaks and improvements to the code. Regardless, it’s an impressive tool that we imagine could have some use in keeping some legacy hardware alive, too. Incidentally,
it’s been a long while since we’ve seen a solid ISA hack around these parts.
Video after the break.
[Thanks to tsys for the tip!] | 28 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286925",
"author": "macona",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T05:13:54",
"content": "There are actually commercial USB to ISA adapters out there. My Agilent interferometer uses a 2 port one. Simila to these guys:http://arstech.com/install/ecom-prodshow/usb2isar.html$150 which is really not... | 1,760,373,317.847682 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/low-level-academy-gets-into-details/ | Low-Level Academy Gets Into Details | Al Williams | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"low level",
"networking",
"rust",
"tcp/ip"
] | We often say that you don’t have to know how an engine works to drive a car, but you can bet that every driver at the Indy 500 knows exactly how it works. You could say the same for computers. You don’t need to understand the details, but it really helps, especially if something goes wrong. [Low-Level Academy] has
an online class
where you can program in Rust inside your browser to learn about low-level TCP and UDP networking details.
Just how low it goes, we aren’t exactly sure, yet. There are three of eight modules ready to go. The first three cover number encoding, exchanging messages with UDP, and fragmentation. Reliability, routing, server programming, TCP, and HTTP are not out yet, but the ultimate project is a web server. In addition, new modules are released to sponsors first, so the fragmentation module for example won’t be available for a few more days. While that seems unorthodox, it is no different than having to wait for an HBO show to show up on basic cable in reruns.
The number encoding won’t be anything new for Hackaday readers. It covers things like UTF-8, octal, and hex. However, you should look at it to see how interactive it is. For instance, instead of just showing an example of how to decode a hex number, the text lets you change the input number and the work changes on the fly to show the value.
This same technique populates your input into live Rust code that you can run or edit. For example, here’s a DNS lookup of one of our favorite sites.
If you know Rust or if you want to learn Rust, this might be a good way to do it, even if you do understand networking at this level. If you want to understand more about how networking works, we aren’t sure this is exactly low-level, but it is lower than many people go. Maybe they’ll have future series about MAC addresses, ARP, and routing protocols. But even if they don’t, this is worth a look.
If you know enough about how the network works at the lowest levels, you can probe and figure out what
operating system a computer is probably using
based on quirks in their network stacks. Understanding network fundamentals is a key part of
defending against cyberattack or, we suppose, mounting one
. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286916",
"author": "Jon",
"timestamp": "2020-10-17T03:46:20",
"content": "I’m sorry, did you say “so the fragmentation module for example won’t be available for a few more days.”That seems very apropos",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comm... | 1,760,373,318.044176 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/saving-floor-space-with-a-scratch-built-bike-hoist/ | Saving Floor Space With A Scratch Built Bike Hoist | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"garage",
"organization",
"storage",
"winch"
] | Vertical storage is often underused in the garage or workshop as it can be tricky to get bulky objects off the floor safely. So we stick a few shelves on the wall, put boxes of screws and components on them, and call it a day. Meanwhile, you end up playing a game of horizontal
Tetris
with all the big stuff on the ground.
Looking to free up some floor space in his garage,
[Chris Chimienti] recently decided to design and build his own hoist to lift his bicycles off the floor
. While his design is obviously purpose built for bikes, the core concept could potentially be adapted to lift whatever it is you’ve been kicking across the garage floor as of late; assuming it doesn’t have any strong feelings on suddenly being tipped over on its side, anyway.
A simple modification allows for operation with a drill.
Before he started the actual build, [Chris] knocked together a rough facsimile of his garage in SolidWorks and started experimenting with the layout and mechanism that the hoist would ultimately use. While we’ve all felt the desire to run into a project full-speed, this more methodical approach can definitely save you time and money when working on a complex project. Redesigning a component in CAD to try it a different way will always be faster and easier than having to do it for real.
We’ve become accustomed to seeing projects include sensors, microcontrollers, and 3D printed components as a matter of course, but [Chris] kept this build relatively low-tech. Not that we blame him when heavy overhead loads are involved. Even still, he did have to make a few tweaks in the name of safety: his original ratcheting winch could freewheel under load, so he swapped it out for a worm gear version that he operates with an electric drill.
If you like the idea of having an overhead storage area but don’t necessarily want to look at it,
you could always cover it up with a rock climbing wall
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286892",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T23:36:32",
"content": "Wonder if you could replace the drill with a garage door opener? They come with a remote and are meant to be installed in garages.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,318.144144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/gas-powered-blender-packs-real-grunt/ | Gas Powered Blender Packs Real Grunt | Lewin Day | [
"cooking hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"blender",
"engine",
"internal combustion engine"
] | Whether you’re into fruit smoothies or icy blended cocktails, a blender comes in handy when preparing these beverages in the kitchen. But, if a small electric motor can do the job well, a noisy combustion engine can certainly do it louder.
This is demonstrated ably by this project from [JT Makes It].
The build is a steel-framed contraption, mounting a small gas engine of the type you’d typically find in a weed trimmer or other garden tool. It’s attached to a shaft allowing it to spin a blender blade at up to 41,000 rpm when unloaded. A stout metal container is mounted on top, along with a plexiglass lid to ensure the contents of the bowl don’t escape when the blender is in action.
It’s a fun build, and one that has no trouble turning a bucket of apples into mush in under 60 seconds. More realistically, [JT] is able to whip up several litres of blended cocktail without major effort, which would be great for parties. Though, we do imagine the burning oil and gas fumes does somewhat spoil the taste sensation. We’ve seen similar hacks before,
like this nitro-fuelled pencil sharpener
. Video after the break. | 17 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286839",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T20:07:06",
"content": "The second post in 2 days with the phrase “plenty of grunt”. I like that choice of words!And this is a very impressive project, albeit noisy perhaps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,318.093553 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/page-turning-pedal-is-pretty-boss/ | Page-Turning Pedal Is Pretty Boss | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ble",
"BOSS pedal",
"foot pedal",
"ItsyBitsy",
"light guide",
"pedal"
] | Buying things to make your life easier certainly has its therapeutic joys, but if you really wanna feel good, you gotta make the thing yourself whenever possible. [Bjørn Brandal] happened to have a two-switch BOSS pedal just lying around,
so it made sense to turn it into a wireless page turner for reading sheet music
.
As [Bjørn] says, the circuit is simple — just two 1/4″ TRS jacks and an ItsyBitsy
nRF52840 Express.
The jacks are used to connect to the pedal outputs to the ItsyBitsy, which sends keystrokes over BLE.
The cool thing about this pedal is that it can work with a bunch of programs, like forScore, Abelton Live, Garage Band, and more. The different modes are accessed by holding down both pedals, and there’s confirmation via blinking LED and buzzing buzzer.
Our favorite part has to be the DIY light guide [Bjørn] that bends the ItsyBitsy’s RGB LED 90° and points it out the front of the enclosure. Nicely done!
Don’t play anything but the computer keyboard?
Put those feet to work with shortcuts behind giant arcade buttons
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286842",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T20:13:19",
"content": "That reminds me,It is National Bosses Day!http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7b/84/f2/7b84f2cfa1e05e8b7b88aa20d2234499.jpg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_... | 1,760,373,318.000744 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/mutant-corn-could-be-the-future-of-agriculture/ | Mutant Corn Could Be The Future Of Agriculture | Kristina Panos | [
"Featured",
"green hacks",
"Interest",
"News"
] | [
"agriculture",
"ammonia",
"bosch-haber process",
"Haber process",
"nitrogen fixation",
"Oaxaca",
"Sierra Mixe",
"sierra mixe corn",
"symbiosis"
] | In America, corn syrup is king, and real sugar hovers somewhere around prince status. We’re addicted to corn, and corn, in turn, is addicted to nitrogen. A long time ago, people figured out that by rotating crops, the soil will stay nutrient-rich, which helps to an extent by retaining nitrogen. Then we figured out how to make nitrogen fertilizer, and through its use we essentially doubled the average crop yield over the last hundred years or so.
The aerial roots of the Sierra Mixe corn stalk help the plant produce its own nitrogen. Image via
Wikimedia Commons
Not all plants need extra nitrogen. Legumes like beans and soybeans are able to make their own. But corn definitely needs nitrogen. In the 1980s, the now-chief of agriculture for Mars, Inc. Howard-Yana Shapiro went to Mexico, corn capital of the world, looking for new kinds of corn. He found one in southern Mexico, in the Mixes District of Oaxaca. Not only was this corn taller than American corn by several feet, it somehow grew to these dizzying heights in terrible soil.
Shapiro thought the corn’s success might have something to do with the aerial, finger-like roots protruding from the cornstalk. Decades later, it turns out he was right.
Researchers at UC Davis have proven that those aerial roots allow the plant to grab nitrogen out of the air
through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in that clear, syrupy mucus. The process is called nitrogen fixation.
Nitrogen Fixing is a Bit Broken
So if we already have nitrogen fertilizer, why even look for plants that do it themselves?
The Haber-Bosch fertilizer-making process,
which is an artificial form of nitrogen fixation, does make barren soil less of a factor. But that extra nitrogen in ammonia-based fertilizer tends to run off into nearby streams and lakes, making its use an environmental hazard. And the process of creating ammonia for fertilizer involves fossil fuels, uses a lot of energy, and produces greenhouse gases to boot. All in all, it’s a horrible thing to do to the environment for the sake of agriculture. But with so many people to feed, what else is there to do?
The Haber-Bosch process illustrated. Image via
Wikimedia Commons
Over the last decade, the UC Davis researchers use DNA sequencing to determine that the mucus on the Sierra Mixe variety of the plant provides microbes to the corn, which give it both sugars to eat and a layer of protection from oxygen. They believe that the plants get 30-80% of their nitrogen this way. The researchers also proved that the microbes do in fact belong to nitrogen-fixing families and are similar to those found in legumes. Most impressively, they were able to transplant Sierra Mixe corn to both Davis, California and Madison, Wisconsin, and have it grow successfully, proving that the nitrogen-fixing trick isn’t limited to the corn’s home turf. Now they are working to identify the genes that produce the aerial roots.
One Step in a Longer Journey of Progress
We probably won’t be switching over to Sierra Mixe corn anytime soon, however. It takes eight months to mature, which is much too slow for American appetites used to a three-month maturation period. If we can figure out how to make other plants do their own nitrogen fixation, who knows how far we could go? It seems likely that more people would accept a superpower grafted from a corn cousin instead of trying to use
CRISPR
to grant self-nitrogen fixation, as
studies have shown a distrust of genetically modified foods
.
The issue of intellectual property rights could be a problem, but the researchers started on the right foot with the Mexican government by putting legal agreements in place that ensure the Sierra Mixe community benefits from research and possible commercialization. We can’t wait to see what they’re able to do. If they’re unable to transplant the power of self-fixation to other plants, then
perhaps there’s hope for improving the Haber-Bosch process
. | 103 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286794",
"author": "Philip S. Crosby",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T17:13:49",
"content": "I think that more consideration should be paid to sorghum cane. I think it is easier on the soil, makes a great-tasting syrup, and its strong fibers can be used as a filler for biodegradable lami... | 1,760,373,318.703084 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/hackaday-podcast-089-770-potato-battery-printing-resin-resist-and-no-internet-video-chat/ | Hackaday Podcast 089: 770 Potato Battery, Printing Resin Resist, And No-Internet Video Chat | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams weigh the hacking gold found across the internet this week. We can’t get over the epic adventure that went into making a battery from 100 pounds of potatoes. It turns out you don’t need Internet for video conferencing as long as you’re within a coupe of kilometers of everyone else. And move over toner transfer method, resin printers want a shot at at-home PCB etching. We’ll take a look at what the Tesla selfie cam is doing under the hood, and lose our marbles over a ball-bearing segment clock that’s defying gravity.
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!
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 089 Show Notes:
New This Week:
New BBC Micro:bit Adds Microphone And Speaker
awesome-microbit code repository
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
The Potatoes Of DOOM
Long Range WiFi Broadcasts Open-Source Video Conferencing
trango-self-hosted: Host trango and communicate with those around you without the internet!
Running Way More LED Strips On A Raspberry Pi With DMA
Raspberry Pi Secondary Memory Interface (SMI) – Lean2
Put That New Resin Printer To Work Making PCBs
Take Your PCBs From Good To Great: Toner Transfer
The Cable Modem To SDR Transformation
Building This Mechanical Digital Clock Took Balls
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks:
Throwing Down The FPGA Gauntlet
Modular Rover Platform Rolls On 3D Printed Flexible Tank Tracks
Access An 8-bit Atari Through Twitter
Elliot’s Picks:
Improved Part Searches For JLCPCB Parts
Lo-Fi Art On A 32×32 Matrix
Tube Amp Is Modeled With The Power Of AI
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Andrea Ghez Gazes Into Our Galaxy’s Black Hole
Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 – NobelPrize.org
Firmware Hints That Tesla’s Driver Camera Is Watching | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,318.291641 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/benchtop-injection-molding-for-the-home-gamer/ | Benchtop Injection Molding For The Home Gamer | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"injection molding",
"plastic"
] | When we think injection molding, the first thing that comes to mind is highly automated production lines pumping out thousands of parts an hour. However, the very same techniques are able to be scaled down to a level accessible by the DIYer,
as [The CrafsMan] demonstrates.
Using a compact, hand-actuated injection moulder, [The Crafsman] demonstrates the basic techniques behind small-scale injection molding. The PIM-Shooter Model 150A in question is designed to work with low melting point plastics like polypropylene and low density polyethylene, and can use aluminium molds which are much cheaper to make than the typical steel molds used in industry.
However, the real game changer is when [The Crafsman] busts out his silicone mold making techniques,
and applies them to injection molding
. By making molds out of silicone, they can be created far more cheaply and easily without the requirement of heavy CNC machinery to produce the required geometry. With the right attention to detail, it’s possible to get good results without having to invest in a custom aluminium mold at all.
Injection molding is a process that can achieve things 3D printing and other techniques simply can’t;
it can even be used to produce viable lenses
. Video after the break. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286773",
"author": "Eric Cherry",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T15:58:51",
"content": "I absolutely love and support The Crafsman. My favorite youtube personality.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6286779",
"author": "BT",
"t... | 1,760,373,318.827234 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/this-week-in-security-bleedingtooth-bad-neighbors-and-unpickable-locks/ | This Week In Security: BleedingTooth, Bad Neighbors, And Unpickable Locks | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"BleedingTooth",
"lockpicking",
"This Week in Security",
"Trickbot"
] | This week, the first details of BleedingTooth
leaked onto Twitter
, setting off
a bit of a frenzy
. The full details have yet to be released, but what we know is concerning enough. First off, BleedingTooth isn’t a single vulnerability, but is a set of at least 3 different CVEs (Shouldn’t that make it BleedingTeeth?). The worst vulnerability so far is CVE-2020-12351, which appears to be shown off in the video embedded after the break.
We do have some insight into this, in the form of
a Google Security Advisory
. A Proof of Concept is included, which triggers a kernel panic on a target machine. It’s unclear whether the target machine needs to be paired first, or if it is enough to have Bluetooth powered on. The core problem is that a malicious Bluetooth packet can follow an unintended code path, resulting in data type confusion. Until it’s resolved, it might be wise to keep Bluetooth turned off on your laptop.
RFC6106 and Bad Neighbors
Patch Tuesday was this week, and there was
one bug in particular that caught my eye
. CVE-2020-16898 is a problem in
how RFC6106 IPv6 route advertisements are handled
. A properly formatted packet contains a length field, and that field is defined as always having an odd value. When the packet is malformed as having an even value, a buffer overflow is triggered.
Proof of Concept code is available
. Running the PoC results in a BSoD on an unpatched machine. Microsoft has concluded that it will be very difficult to turn this flaw into a true code execution vulnerability, due to existing hardening in the Windows kernel. Additionally, RFC6106 packets are only for local networks, and are blocked by gateways and ISP equipment. It’s very unlikely that this vulnerability could be used for attacks across the internet.
An Unpickable Padlock?
Lock picking is a fascinating practice. By applying tension to the core of a lock, the individual pins can be lifted to the sheer line, and once they’re all in place, the lock is picked. Manufacturers have been trying to make locks more resilient to picking and other bypass methods, but this lock really takes that effort to the next level. The video below is
BosnianBill
‘s teardown and analysis of this unpickable lock.
There are several weird elements to this. First, rather than being a major security or lockmaker brand, this is a “Gangsheng” lock. It’s likely that this is a knockoff of a series of locks designed by Yuema. That aside, the design is very clever, with a series of “airgaps” built into the locking mechanism. There is no way to tension the lock directly, and the only tension force is provided by internal springs. It remains to be seen if this lock design will truly be unpickable, or if a weakness will eventually be found. Regardless, the design is impressive, and the future of high security locks appears to be interesting.
Spying on Smartwatches
If you have an Xplora 4 children’s smartwatch, you might want to retire it, as researchers from Mnemonic Labs have discovered what appears to be
an intentional backdoor in the device
. Upon receiving a cryptographically signed text message, this Android-based device can record audio, take a picture, and report back its position. When a piece of tech hardware ships with odd functions like this, it’s usually debugging functions that were never removed. This case is slightly different, as the smartwatch was developed by Qihoo 360, who has already been placed on the US list of
national security threats
. Not to mention, when the function to collect audio is literally labeled
wiretap
, it becomes hard to assume no ill intent.
Via The Register
.
Playing Tricks on Trickbot
[Brian Krebs] first noticed
something unusual going one with the Trickbot botnet
at the beginning of the month. He reported on a new set of instructions being sent to some Trickbot instances, setting the command and control server to localhost. While this doesn’t remove the infection, it does prevent the infected machine from taking further directed actions. A few other tricks were in play at the time, like sending fake infection data to the controlling servers. It looked like a complex attack on the malware network.
A few days later, Microsoft released
a statement detailing their actions to cripple the Trickbot network
. The timing immediately suggests that [Krebs] was reporting on Microsoft’s actions. While this is possible, the specifics in Microsoft’s report don’t quite line up. Microsoft claims to have taken the actions on October 12, while [Krebs] had been observing odd behavior for several days, as of October 2nd. The mitigation steps sound quite different as well. It’s unclear whether these were two separate actions against Trickbot. Either way, it’s always good to see concrete actions taken against botnets.
Hacking Apple
We’ve covered lots of news about vulnerabilities in Apple devices, but this story is about
the guys who hacked Apple’s infrastructure
. The whole story is detailed, and a useful guide to doing a security audit like this. They identified infrastructure, and started with looking for known vulnerabilities that hadn’t been updated yet. All told, they found 54 separate vulnerabilities in Apple’s infrastructure. They ranged from a fun email worm in iCloud, powered by a cross-site scripting attack, to a clever security bypass allowing them admin access to one of Apple’s official forums. It’s not light reading, but if you really want the details on how a red-team goes about a test against public infrastructure, this is a good place to start. | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286757",
"author": "billygat",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T14:51:06",
"content": "Anyone know where I can get the actual Yeuma locks?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286791",
"author": "zedron",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,373,318.775587 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/shocking-tinnitus-therapy-is-music-to-sufferers-ears/ | Shocking Tinnitus Therapy Is Music To Sufferers’ Ears | Kristina Panos | [
"Lifehacks",
"Science"
] | [
"bi-modal stimulation",
"deep brain stimulation",
"electrode",
"tinnitus",
"tongue",
"vaporwave"
] | Do you suffer from tinnitus? We were surprised to learn that 15-20% of people have this condition that amounts to constant ringing in the ears. Science doesn’t fully understand the ringing part, but one possible explanation is that the brain is compensating for the frequencies it can’t hear any more.
Causes of tinnitus. Image via
Drugs.com
[Hubert Lim], a biomedical engineer at the University of Minnesota
discovered that the brain can be stimulated to the point of suppressing tinnitus for as long as one year
. [Lim] discovered this by accident while doing deep brain stimulation on a patient with tinnitus. The electrode strayed a bit, touching other areas of the brain and the patient suddenly exclaimed that they couldn’t hear their tinnitus anymore.
Then [Lim] and his team tested guinea pigs, searching here, there, and under the armpits for the best place to suppress tinnitus. As it turns out, the tongue is one of the best places when used along with a specific soundscape. So then they did a human trial with 326 people. Each person had a small paddle electrode on their tongue and headphones on their ears.
As the electrodes sparkled like Pop Rocks against their tongues, the trial participants listened to pure frequencies played over
a background of sound resembling vaporwave music
. The combination of the two overstimulates the brain, forcing it to suppress the tinnitus reaction. This discovery certainly seems like a game changer for tinnitus sufferers. If we had tinnitus, we would be first in line to try this out given the chance. Armed with the soundscape, we’re left to wonder how many 9V batteries we’d have to lick to approximate the paddle.
Speaking of taste, have you ever experienced all five at once?
Here’s a device that simulates them all
. | 67 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286706",
"author": "Karsten",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T11:46:39",
"content": "That sounds really cool (bad pun). As I started to have some ringing this year, I am really curious to see how this develops and hope that it might help me.But I would clearly prefer Snake Jazz over Vapor... | 1,760,373,318.987824 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/16/jetson-nano-robot/ | Jetson Nano Robot | Chris Lott | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"Jetson Nano",
"Joystick",
"lidar",
"Modbus",
"python",
"robots",
"ros"
] | [Stevej52] likes to build things you can’t buy, and
this Jetson Nano robot
falls well within that category. Reading the project details, you might think [Stevej52] drinks too much coffee. But we think he is just excited to have successfully pulled off the Herculean task of integrating over a dozen hardware and software modules. Very briefly, he is running Ubuntu and ROS on the PC and Nano. It is all tied together with Python code, and is using Modbus over IP to solve a problem getting joystick data to the Nano. We like it when existing, standard protocols can be used because it frees the designer to focus more on the application. Modbus has been around for 40 years, has widespread support in many languages and platforms.
This is an ongoing project, and we look forward to seeing more updates and especially more video of it in action like the one found below. With the recent release of a price-reduced Jetson Nano, which we
covered last week
, this might be an excellent project to take on. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286720",
"author": "Kaliin",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T12:48:36",
"content": "Speaking of Modbus, and standard protocols, do you guys recommand a protocol for serial communication? Modbus? LIN?In your experience what worked really well and what was a PITA?I’m in the process of stand... | 1,760,373,318.869936 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/19/new-raspberry-pi-4-compute-module-so-long-so-dimm-hello-pcie/ | New Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module: So Long SO-DIMM, Hello PCIe! | Elliot Williams | [
"Featured",
"News",
"Parts",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Slider"
] | [
"cm4",
"compute module",
"new",
"New Part Day",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi 4"
] | The brand new
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4
(CM4) was just released! Surprised? Nope, and we’re not either — the Raspberry Pi Foundation
had hinted that it was going to release a compute module
for the 4-series for a long while.
The form factor got a total overhaul, but there’s bigger changes in this little beastie than are visible at first glance, and we’re going to walk you through most of them. The foremost bonuses are the easy implementation of PCIe and NVMe, making it possible to get data in and out of SSDs ridiculously fast. Combined with optional WiFi/Bluetooth and easily designed Gigabit Ethernet, the CM4 is a connectivity monster.
One of the classic want-to-build-it-with-a-Pi projects is the ultra-fast home NAS. The CM4 makes this finally possible.
If you don’t know the compute modules, they are stripped-down versions of what you probably think of as a Raspberry Pi, which is officially known as the “Model B” form-factor. Aimed at commercial applications, the compute modules lack many of the creature comforts of their bigger siblings, but they trade those for flexibility in design and allow for some extra functionality.
The compute modules aren’t exactly beginner friendly, but we’re positively impressed by how far Team Raspberry has been able to make this module accessible to the intermediate hacker. Most of this is down to the open design of the IO Breakout board that also got released today. With completely open KiCAD design files, if you can edit and order a PCB, and then reflow-solder what arrives in the mail, you can design for the CM4. The benefit is a lighter, cheaper, and yet significantly more customizable platform that packs the power of the Raspberry Pi 4 into a low-profile 40 mm x 55 mm package.
So let’s see what’s new, and then look a little bit into what is necessary to incorporate a compute module into your own design.
So Long, SO-DIMM
The biggest shocker with the CM4 is the new connector. Ever since the
first Raspberry Pi got its compute module
, they have come with 200-pin SO-DIMM connectors, just like DDR2 memory boards for a laptop. The CM4 changes that, opting for two high-speed, high-density 100-pin mezzanine connectors. Breaking with tradition is traumatic, and we know that some of you will be left with a closet-full of SO-DIMM sockets, but they did it for a good reason.
The system-on-a-chip (SOC) that the Pi 4 family uses, the Broadcom BCM2711,
brought a lot more peripheral capability to the party
(PDF). As a result of this, the Pi 4 Model B picked up a second HDMI connector, USB 3.0, and Gigabit Ethernet. But it was capable of even more! For instance, it wasn’t long before enterprising hackers realized that the USB 3.0 was on a PCIe bus and
swapped out the USB 3.0 for PCIe
. This was doable, but difficult, with some intricate on-board rework.
The compute modules exist to make all of the SOC’s capabilities easily available to the designer. Packing PCIe alongside twin HDMI and other high-speed peripherals into the old SO-DIMM connector was just not possible, and this was
hinted at by the Raspberry engineers in the summer
. Hence the new connectors:
Hirose DF40C-100DS-0.4V
if you’re already getting itchy board-design fingers.
With two mezzanine connectors in place of a single SO-DIMM, the CM4 design implements a nice split between the low-speed and high-speed peripherals. One side has the traditional Raspberry Pi GPIOs, power, SD card interface, and Ethernet. The other side takes care of PCIe, USB, HDMI, and the MIPI CSI camera and DSI display lines, two of each. On one hand, that means you have a lot more high speed IO to play with, and on the other, you could get by with a simple one-connector design if you didn’t need any of the high-speed stuff.
The new connectors also allow a smaller footprint for the module, and lower board height and weight when it’s installed in your device. They implement a better separation of the high-speed and low-speed domains, so they’ll be easier to lay out. Heck, they even cost less for the pair than the old SO-DIMM socket did. And given that this is the tradeoff for PCIe, we’re not lamenting the change in the slightest.
32 Flavors: Buy Just the Pi You Need
Click to read the fine print.
The CM3 had more ordering options than the CM2, and the Pi 4 Model B had more memory configuration options than the Pi 3 Model B. But the CM4 takes the cake. There are 32 different varieties, at correspondingly different prices. Why? There are four tiers of RAM, four tiers of on-board eMMC storage, and the optional wireless module. (4 x 4 x 2 = 32.) Let’s start off with the base model: a CM4 with no wireless, 1 GB of RAM, and no eMMC. That’ll cost you $25.
For the rest of the options, it’s like pizza toppings. An extra $5 gets you wireless. For $5 per tier, you can add 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB of eMMC. To get a board with 2 GB of RAM costs $5, 4 GB costs $20, and 8 GB costs $45.
A quick quiz: how much is a CM4 Lite (no eMMC) with WiFi and 4 GB of RAM? We get $50. CM4 with wireless, a beefy 32 GB eMMC, and 2 GB RAM? Also $50. A Pi with everything (wireless / 32 GB eMMC / 8 GB RAM)? $90.
Some possible configurations are listed in the datasheet as being “Bulk” while others as “1+/Bulk”, so it might be that they’re not all equally easily available to the smaller user. For instance, if you want wireless in quantity 1, you may be limited to 2 GB or 4 GB RAM configurations. All tiers of eMMC are equally available, however. Since this can all change depending on customer demand in the long run, you might want to check out the Raspberry Pi website for the latest.
Plus PCIe, Minus USB 3.0
Compared with the Pi 4 Model B, the CM4 is drastically more flexible. The headline difference is that the CM4 no longer dedicates the PCIe bus to USB 3.0. This choice made sense for a consumer-oriented board, but the CM4 is for designers. PCIe can be added very simply to a CM4 design: all you need is the right socket and 3.3 V and 12 V power rails. And this has even been tested with the newer
NVMe
solid-state drives. Raspberry engineer Dominic Plunkett told us that they were getting 390 MBytes/s write speed in the lab, which is pretty close to the theoretical maximum speed. You’re trading this for the USB 3.0 port of the Model B, but if what you’re after is fast SSD I/O, PCIe with NVMe is the cutting edge. Not bad for a single-board computer!
The Model B only has one two-lane MIPI CSI camera connector and one two-lane MIPI DSI display connector broken out. The CM4 allows two of each, enabling stereoscopic 3D imaging, for instance. (You could also
do this with the the CM3+
, but that’s old and busted as of right now.) Moreover, the Model B exposes only the two-lane versions of CSI and DSI, while the CM4 additionally gives you four-lane variants for higher bandwidth. Using these, you can get even higher performance out of the camera without
resorting to external hardware
. Want ultra-high frame rate or resolution video on DSI screens? CM4.
Even the optional WiFi/Bluetooth module is more flexible. In addition to the onboard PCB antenna, they’ve added a UFL connector for an external antenna, and both the internal and external antennas can be enabled or disabled from software as needed. This makes the CM4 the right choice for demanding WiFi applications, or simply for building inside a metal box. The Raspberry Pi Foundation will sell an antenna that’s FCC certified for use with the CM4, or you can bring your own but then it’s on you.
Last, the Ethernet chip got a tiny upgrade, to the
BCM54210PE
on the CM4. It’s still a Gigabit Ethernet PHY chip, but this one also supports
IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol
. If you need better-than-NTP time sync, you know what all of this means.
Open Questions
We noticed two things that made us curious while working over
the CM4 datasheet
with our fine-toothed comb.
First, it says that the CM4 is more efficient than the Model B, so it uses less power. But because it’s on a smaller board, it’s not passively heatsinked as well as the Model B, and it may still be more prone to throttling down the CPU speed to keep from overheating. There are no numbers available yet, but we’re going to get our hands on a Model B and put the two to a stress-test comparison soon. Stay tuned.
Second, there’s a tantalizing sentence about two analog inputs that were left over on the
MXL7704 power-management IC
, and you’re referred to the
datasheet
(PDF) for further study. They seem to be broken out in pins labelled
AIN0
and
AIN1
on the official IO board. Looks to us like the gauntlet has been thrown.
Finally, sometimes flexibility conflicts with ease-of-use. The Model B comes with a total of four USB ports: two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0. USB 3.0 got axed, and the CM4 only has connections for one USB 2.0 port, because that’s what the Broadcom SOC supports natively. If you want more USB ports, you’ve got to build your own hub. That’s what they did on the Model B, and it’s also what they did on the CM4 IO demonstration board. And speaking of the IO board…
Getting Started: The IO Demo Board
90% of the circuitry is a USB hub and power regulation. The backside is just traces.
We got an IO board delivered along with our sample CM4. With
solid documentation
as well as
KiCAD design files
available, it’s basically a template for making your own CM4-based design. Have a look!
We’re impressed by how little is needed to get all of the functionality of the CM4 out into the real world. The HDMI ports are simply wired straight from connector to connector, as are the MIPI camera and display lines. Ethernet is implemented with power-over-Ethernet protection, but if you didn’t need that, you could just wire straight from the CM4 to the magnetics. (Or to an optical transceiver?) PCIe is similarly simple: outside of 3.3 V and 12 V power rails, everything is straight from the CM4 into the socket.
Found this gem of a pullup resistor on the SD card power switch.
Indeed, the only parts of the IO board that look like they took any design work (no offense, RPi engineers!) are the USB 2.0 hub that allows up to four connections, which you can copy straight-up if you want a tested design, and the power supply that converts down from a 12 V barrel jack to 5 V for the CM4 and to 3.3 V for the PCIe connector. The SD card, to accomodate the no-eMMC “Lite” version of the CM4, has a high-side switch so that it can be turned off by the CM4 to save power when not in use. Everything else is simply wires.
But they’re not necessarily simple wires, and this is the one gotcha for people who haven’t designed high-speed boards. There are basically two classes of traces with which you need to be careful: 90 Ω differential pairs and 100 Ω differential pairs. The first group includes PCIe and USB, and within pair they need to be matched down to 0.15 mm, with 0.1 mm recommended for PCIe. 100 Ω pairs are specified for Ethernet, HDMI, and the MIPI CSI and DSI connections.
According to the datasheet, across-pair lengths are significantly less critical, but between two lines in a differential pair, it pays to match lengths. KiCAD does differential pairs since CERN added it in 2015, and
Saturn PCB toolkit
comes highly recommended for calculating impedance-controlled trace widths, but it’s Windows only. (You might be able to just crib the trace widths and separations off the IO board design and ignore this whole issue.)
Of course, you don’t need all of these high-speed peripherals unless you need them. You could run a CM4 server with eMMC and wireless using just the 5 V and GND pins, assuming you had a way to get the software into the eMMC in the first place. For the classic headless-Pi experience, you could wire up the GPIO and SD card lines as well, all without worrying about impedances. (Note that you could do this using only the low-speed mezzanine connector. Nice.)
But that’s not why you’re here. You want to turn the IO board reference design into that high-speed custom PCIe NAS, remember? Off you go! Just remember to design in plenty of status LEDs.
Wrapup
In conclusion, the CM4 is everything the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is, except in a more flexible, less consumer-friendly package. It comes in 32 different varieties, and exposes some seriously high-end peripherals, which is all the more impressive for the low price tag. The real cost of admission is designing your own board to go along with it, but even that doesn’t look to be too bad with some help. We’re looking forward to see what you all do with it. | 151 | 41 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287303",
"author": "Thomas Anderson",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T07:59:38",
"content": "Cool stuff, maybe now I can finally get my old PineBook to actually run a desktop environment :D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6287362",
... | 1,760,373,319.343128 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/retro-calculator-design-has-creative-tactile-touchscreen/ | Retro Calculator Design Has Creative Tactile Touchscreen | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"calculator",
"hewlett packard",
"hp calculator",
"hp-25",
"hp-29"
] | We’ve all heard it a thousand times –
they don’t make ’em like they used to.
Sometimes, that’s for good reason, but there is a certain build quality to electronics of the mid-20th century that is hard to find in hardware today. This inspires great nostalgia and dedication in some, like [Michael Park],
who set out to build a calculator reminiscent of the best HP designs from yesteryear.
The scissor mechanism allows the touch screen to move linearly and activate the tactile switch without twisting, no matter where along its surface it is pressed.
One of the major factors for [Michael] was the great feel of the keys on these classic units. Wanting to experiment with different layouts without a lot of rewiring, the idea of keys with individual displays became attractive. Existing parts on the market were prohibitively expensive, however. Instead, [Michael] used a single touchscreen with a switch mounted underneath to provide tactile feedback with a nifty scissor-arm guide mechanism. Combined with individual see-through plastic overlays, the MP-29 has a fully reconfigurable pad of 30 keys with dynamically updatable labels.
It’s a creative choice, and one that looks highly satisfying to use. It has all the tactile benefits of individual keys, both in the keypresses and being able to navigate the keypad without looking. Combined with the benefit of reconfigurable keys thanks to the touch screen underneath, it’s a great way to build a user-interface.
The rest of the calculator design closely mimics the HP-29, though [Michael] is also experimenting with alternative layouts too. There are plenty of religious wars in the calculator community over usability, after all – mostly over which side of the pad has the arithmetic functions.
We’ve lamented the demise of the standalone calculator recently
; with so many smart devices around, it’s hard to see it making a major comeback anytime soon. Of course, if you’re opinionated on the topic, sound off in the comments below. Video after the break. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287279",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T05:39:53",
"content": "Cool idea! I think one might also be able to build some kind of tactile mechanism to the transparent buttons directly, which would make this much easier to install on top of an existing touchscreen. Add some ... | 1,760,373,319.089289 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/free-p2p-vpn/ | Free P2P VPN | Al Williams | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"freepn",
"OpenSource",
"tor",
"vpn"
] | People use a VPN — virtual private network — for a lot of reasons. However, for many people it is synonymous with hiding your network traffic, one thing that VPN can do.
FreePN
is a relatively new open source project that aims to build a free peer-to-peer VPN network. Like TOR, it is decentralized.
Right now, you can download for Ubuntu and Gentoo. There is a way to ask for early access for Debian, Fedora, and Arch. Windows, iOS, MacOS, and Android versions are promised for the future.
The code is on
GitHub
, so all questions are in theory answerable. Digging into the fpnd README told us most of the features we hoped to find on the main page (but didn’t):
The FreePN network daemon (fpnd) is a P2P implementation of a distributed virtual private network (dVPN) that creates an anonymous “cloud” of peers where each peer is both a client node and an exit node. Peers are randomly connected on startup and reconnected to new (random) peers as needed.
The FreePN network daemon (fpnd) is a P2P implementation of a distributed virtual private network (dVPN) that creates an anonymous “cloud” of peers where each peer is both a client node and an exit node. Peers are randomly connected on startup and reconnected to new (random) peers as needed.
In addition, the page notes that they only route http(s) traffic and, optionally, DNS traffic. IPv6 packets are dropped, unless you configure it to pass without VPN.
Is this a better answer than TOR? We don’t know. We weren’t clear on how you could set this up for some possible use cases, but there appears to be a fledgling support group on
Reddit
. If this works well and can support more platforms, it could be a good thing for online privacy and protection.
We’ve noted before that truly secure networking can be
hard to accomplish
. For many of us, a VPN is just an extra layer of security, or a way to watch TV that is only available in another country. But for some people, a VPN is a
political necessity
. | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287247",
"author": "Pablo",
"timestamp": "2020-10-19T02:07:52",
"content": "Sadly the times when we may need it in Argentina to be able to speak free are coming back…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6287252",
"author": "Ian... | 1,760,373,319.155484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/hackaday-links-october-18-2020/ | Hackaday Links: October 18, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"assistive driving",
"exploit",
"hackaday links",
"HP3",
"hydrogen line",
"InSight",
"mars",
"mole",
"Mycroft",
"Nobel prize",
"patent troll",
"Radio Astronomy",
"sdr",
"subliminal advertising",
"supermassive black hole",
"tesla"
] | Remember subliminal advertising? The idea was that a movie theater operator would splice a single frame showing a bucket of hot buttered popcorn into a movie, which moviegoers would see and process on a subconcious level and rush to the concession stand to buy the tub o’ petrochemical-glazed starch they suddenly craved. It may or may not work on humans, but it appears to work on
cars with advanced driver assistance, which can be spoofed by “phantom street signs”
flashed on electronic billboards. Security researchers at Ben Gurion University stuck an image of a stop sign into a McDonald’s ad displayed on a large LCD screen by the side of the road. That was enough to convince a Tesla Model X to put on the brakes as it passed by the sign. The phantom images were on the screen anywhere from an eighth of a second to a quarter second, so these aren’t exactly subliminal messages, but it’s still an interesting attack that bears looking into. And while we’re skeptical about the whole subliminal advertising thing in the first place, for some reason we really want a bacon cheeseburger right now.
Score one for the good guys in the battle against patent trolls. Mycroft AI, makers of open-source voice assistants,
proudly announced their latest victory against what they claim are patent trolls
. This appears to be one of those deals where a bunch of investors get together and buy random patents, and then claim that a company that actually built something infringes on their intellectual property. Mycroft got a letter from one such entity and decided to fight it; they’ve won two battles so far against the alleged trolls and it looks pretty good going forward. They’re not pulling their punches, either, since Mycroft is planning to go after the other parties for legal expenses and punitive damages under the State of Missouri’s patent troll legislation. Here’s hoping this sends a message to IP squatters that it may not be worth the effort and that their time and money are better spent actually creating useful things.
Good news from Mars —
The Mole is finally completely buried!
We’ve been following the saga of the HP³, or “Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package” aboard NASA’s Mars InSight lander for quite a while. The self-drilling “Mole”, which is essentially
the guts of an impact screwdriver
inside a streamlined case, has been having trouble dealing with the Martian regolith, which is simultaneously too soft to offer the friction needed to keep the penetrator in its hole, but also too hard to pierce in places where there is a “duricrust” of chemically amalgamated material below the surface. It took a lot of
delicate maneuvers with the lander’s robotic arm
to get the Mole back on track, and it’s clearly not out of the woods yet — it needs to get down to three meters depth or so to do the full program of science it was designed for.
If watching Martian soil experiments proceed doesn’t scratch your itch for space science, why not try running your own radio astronomy experiments? Sure, you could build your own radio telescope to do that, but you don’t even have to go that far — just log into
PICTOR, the free-to-use radio telescope
. It’s a 3.2-m parabolic dish antenna located near Athens, Greece that’s geared toward hydrogen line measurements of the galaxy. You can set up an observation run and have the results mailed back to you for later analysis.
Here’s a fun, quick hack for anyone who hates the constant drone of white noise coming from fans. Build Comics apparently numbers themselves among that crowd, and decided to
rig up a switch to turn on their fume extractor only when the soldering iron is removed from its holder
. This hack was executed on a classic old Weller soldering station, but could easily be adapted to Hakko or other irons
And finally, if you’ve never listened to a Nobel laureate give a lecture, here’s your chance.
Andrea Ghez
, co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics for her work on supermassive black holes, will be giving
the annual Maria Goeppert Mayer lecture at the University of Chicago
. She’ll be talking about exactly what she won the Nobel for: “The Monster at the Heart of Our Galaxy”, the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. We suspect the talk was booked before the Nobel announcement, so in normal times the room would likely be packed. But one advantage to the age of social distancing is that everything is online, so you can tune into
a livestream of the lecture
on October 22. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287238",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T23:32:44",
"content": "” The Mole is finally completely buried!” OK, now that just sounds dirty.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6287607",
"author": "spambake",
"... | 1,760,373,319.024459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/custom-electronic-load-makes-use-of-gaming-pc-tech/ | Custom Electronic Load Makes Use Of Gaming PC Tech | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"electronic load",
"gaming pc",
"test equipment",
"water cooling"
] | At first glance, you might think the piece of hardware pictured here is a modern gaming computer. It’s got water cooling, RGB LED lighting, and an ATX power supply, all of which happen to be mounted inside a flashy computer case complete with a clear window. In truth, it’s hard to see it as anything
but
a gaming PC.
In actuality, it’s an incredible
custom electronic load that [EE for Everyone] has been developing
over the last four months that’s been specifically designed to take advantage of all the cheap hardware out there intended for high-performance computers. After all, why scratch build a water cooling system or enclosure when there’s such a wide array of ready-made ones available online?
The “motherboard” with single load module installed.
Inside that fancy case is a large PCB taking the place of the original motherboard, to which four electronic load modules slot into. Each of these loads is designed to accept a standard Intel CPU cooler, be it the traditional heatsink and fan, or a water block for liquid cooling. With the current system installed [EE for Everyone] can push the individual modules up to 275 watts before the temperatures rise to unacceptable levels, though he’s hoping to push that a little higher with some future tweaks.
So what’s the end game here? Are we all expected to have a massive RGB-lit electronic load hidden under the bench? Not exactly. All of this has been part of an effort to design a highly accurate electronic load for the hobbyist which [EE for Everyone] refers to as the “Community Edition” of the project. Those smaller loads will be derived from the individual modules being used in this larger testing rig.
We’ve actually seen
DIY liquid cooled electronic loads in the past
, though this one certainly sets the bar quite a bit higher. For those with more meager requirements, you might consider
flashing a cheap imported electronic load with an open source firmware
to wring out some extra functionality.
[Thanks to Zane for the tip.] | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287223",
"author": "diego",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T20:43:03",
"content": "First time I read this term “electronic load”. After googling what that is I still don’t understand what this project wants to accomplish.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,319.391895 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/precision-metal-detector-finds-needles-in-haystacks/ | Precision Metal Detector Finds Needles In Haystacks | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"arduino",
"arduino nano",
"metal detector"
] | Full-size metal detectors are great for narrowing down a region to start digging through.
But what if you had a smaller metal detector that could pinpoint the location?
Then you could spend far less time digging and way more time sweeping for metal.
Metal detectors work because of the way metal behaves around electromagnetic fields. [mircemk] reused the ferrite core from an old MW radio to build the antenna coils. When metal objects are close enough, the induced electromagnetism changes the frequency, and the Arduino blinks an LED and beeps a buzzer in time with the new frequency.
[mircemk]’s handheld metal detector is quite sensitive, especially to smaller objects. As you can see in the demo video after the break, it can sense coins from about 4cm away, larger objects like lids from about 7 cm, and tiny things like needles from a few millimeters away. There’s also an LED for treasure hunting in low light.
Don’t want to pinpoint a bunch of useless junk?
Build in some phase detection to help you discriminate
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6287186",
"author": "Doobie",
"timestamp": "2020-10-18T17:06:40",
"content": "I need something like this. I have an old house (~300 years) and always find stuff with a cheapo metal detector I bought years ago. Time for an upgrade.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,373,319.435893 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/18/worm-bot-inches-along-as-youd-expect/ | Worm Bot Inches Along As You’d Expect | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"inch worm",
"inchworm",
"robot",
"worm"
] | Robot locomotion is a broad topic, and there are a multitude of choices for the budding designer. Often, nature is an inspiration, and many ‘bots have been built to explore the motion regimes of various insects and animals. Inspired himself by the common inch worm,
[jegatheesan.soundarapandian] decided to build a robot that moved in a similar way.
The build consists of a series of 3D printed linkages, with servos fitted in between. This allows the robot’s body to articulate and flex in much the same way as a real inch worm. By flexing the body up, shifting along, and flexing back down, the robot can slowly make its way along a surface. An Arduino Pro Mini is the brains of the operation, being compact enough to fit on the small robot while still having enough outputs to command the multiple servos required. Control is via a smartphone app, using MIT’s AppInventor platform and the venerable HC-05 Bluetooth module.
It’s a fun build, and we’d love to see it go further with batteries replacing the tether and perhaps some sensors to enable it to further interact with its environment. We’ve seen other creative 3D-printed designs before, too –
like this spherical quadruped ‘bot.
Video after the break. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,319.808865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/clear-ps2-is-the-crystal-edition-we-deserved/ | Clear PS2 Is The Crystal Edition We Deserved | Lewin Day | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"Case mod",
"casemod",
"playstation 2"
] | Every so often, console manufacturers release a crystal edition of their hardware that never really lives up to the hype. The manufacturing realities of producing optically clear plastic mean the expense is rarely justified, even for a special edition. Instead, we get hazy, smoky translucent cases that are comparatively underwhelming. Here to rectify that,
[BitHead1000] delivers on a properly transparent PlayStation2.
While the title calls it a Glass PS2, the cutting tools used and the labels on the material make it pretty clear (pun intended) that this build uses acrylic. Regardless, it’s an attractive material all on its own, and much more suited for such a build. To get the best possible visual effect, the internal shielding is removed and tossed in the bin, with plastic standoffs used to hold things in place instead. The case is then assembled around the components, giving an unparalleled view of the hardware inside.
It’s undeniably cool to watch the optical drive doing its thing inside the case when it’s switched on, and a few internal LEDs only add to the spectacle. We’ve seen [BitHead1000] pull off other casemodding feats, too,
such as the fire breathing N64
. Video after the break. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286658",
"author": "Vladimir",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T06:39:18",
"content": "CLEARLY boring.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286699",
"author": "Robert Jackson",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T10:56:15",
... | 1,760,373,319.671371 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/room-temperature-superconductor-yes-but-not-so-fast/ | Room Temperature Superconductor? Yes, But Not So Fast… | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"superconductivity",
"superconductor",
"superconductors"
] | There’s good news and there’s bad news in what we’re about to tell you. The good news is that a team of physicists has found a blend of hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur that exhibit
superconductivity at 59F
. Exciting, right? The bad news is that it only works when being crushed between two diamonds at pressures approaching that of the Earth’s core. For perspective, the bottom of the Marianas trench is about 1,000 atmospheres, while the superconductor needs 2.6 million atmospheres of pressure.
Granted, 59F is a bit chilly, but it is easy to imagine cooling something down that much if you could harness superconductivity. We cool off CPUs all the time. However, unless there’s a breakthrough that allows the material to operate under at least reasonable pressures, this isn’t going to change much outside of a laboratory.
The top temperature for superconductors has been rising for a few years now. New theories about the role hydrogen can play and computer models could pick out promising compounds both are contributing to these new advances. For example, scientists found that lanthanum hydride could superconduct at between -13F and 8F, but at a pressure of 1.8 million atmospheres.
You can read more technical information on the
Dias Group’s website
. There’s a picture of the kind of diamond anvil used in these experiments on that site, too, and you can see it above.
Scientists still don’t totally understand why this compound is superconducting at the right temperature and pressure. Work is ongoing to identify the material’s structure and exact chemical formula.
It wasn’t long ago that even liquid nitrogen temperature superconductors were unheard of, but now you can
make them yourself
if you have some lab proficiency. You’ve been able to do that
since at least 2018
.
Photo credit: J. Adam Fenster, University of Rochester | 24 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286630",
"author": "Anton Fosselius",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T02:06:45",
"content": "where did the SI units go?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286631",
"author": "Anton Fosselius",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T... | 1,760,373,319.870143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/adding-crush-ribs-to-3d-printed-parts-for-a-better-press-fit/ | Adding Crush Ribs To 3D Printed Parts For A Better Press Fit | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"crush ribs",
"design for manufacture",
"dfm",
"injection molding",
"interference fit",
"press fit"
] | [Dan Royer] shared a tip about how to get a reliably tight fit between 3D printed parts and other hardware (like bearings, for example.)
He suggests using crush ribs
, a tried-and-true solution borrowed from the world of injection molding and repurposed with 3D printing in mind. Before we explain the solution, let’s first look at the problem a little more closely.
Imagine one wishes to press-fit a bearing into a hole. If that hole isn’t just the right size, the bearing won’t be held snugly. If the hole is a little too big, the bearing is loose. Too small, and the bearing won’t fit at all. Since a 0.1 mm difference can have a noticeable effect on how loose or snug a fit is, it’s important to get it right.
Crush rib locations highlighted with blue arrows.
For a 3D printed object, a hole designed with a diameter of 20 mm (for example) will come out slightly different when printed. The usual way around this is to adjust printer settings or modify the object until the magic combination that yields exactly the right outcome is found, also known as
the Goldilocks approach
. However, this means the 3D model only comes out right on a specific printer, which is a problem for a design that is meant to be shared. Since [Dan] works on robots with 3D printed elements, finding a solution to this problem was particularly important.
The solution he borrowed from the world of injection molding is to use
crush ribs
, which can be thought of as a set of very small standoffs that deform as a part is press-fit into them. Instead of a piece of hardware making contact with the entire inside surface of a hole, it makes contact only with the crush ribs. Press fitting a part into crush ribs is far easier (and more forgiving) than trying to get the entire mating surface exactly right.
Using crush ribs in this way is a bit of a hack since their original purpose in injection molding is somewhat different. Walls in injection-molded parts are rarely truly flat, because that makes them harder to eject from a mold. Surfaces therefore have a slight cant to them, which is called a draft. This slight angle means that press fitting parts becomes a problem, because any injection-molded hole will have slanted sides. The solution is crush ribs, which — unlike the walls — are modeled straight. The ribs are small enough that they don’t have an issue with sticking in the mold, and provide the mating surface that a press-fit piece of hardware requires. [Dan] has
a short video about applying this technique to 3D printed objects
, embedded below.
Designing around a manufacturing method’s limitations is key to getting good results, and techniques from one area can cross-pollinate with another, as they did here. Whether you’re just curious, or
experimenting with something like hot-glue injection molding
, it’s worth spending a little time to
learn more about injection molding and its design considerations
because it’s one of those technologies that makes the world go round. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286616",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T00:01:48",
"content": "I always thought that the point of these crush ribs was to use impart a certain springiness into the fit. For example, if a pen cap has three crush ribs, then the round cap will deform to become slightly tria... | 1,760,373,321.938189 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/building-an-internet-radio-is-quick-and-easy-with-the-esp32/ | Building An Internet Radio Is Quick And Easy With The ESP32 | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"internet radio",
"Roberts"
] | Terrestrial radio is all well and good, but it limits you to listening to local stations. [Nick Koumaris] lives in a small town in Southern Greece, and his favorite stations sadly don’t transmit in his area.
Thus, an internet radio was the natural solution.
[David Watts] did a similar build, throwing the hardware inside a stunning Roberts RM20 radio from the 1970s.
While a Raspberry Pi is a common way to go in these situations, an ESP32 has enough grunt to do the job without the long boot times that come with running a full Linux distribution. Combined with a VS1503 MP3 decoder board and a PAM8403 amplifier, it’s more than capable of tuning in streams online. [Nick] went with a retro-look interface on an LCD, using a Nextion part for its onboard controller and in-built GUI tools. Taking inspiration from the project,
[David Watts] executed a similar build
, but instead used an Arduino Nano to interface the controls on a vintage Roberts RM20 radio instead.
While we’ve all got smartphones we can use to listen to content online, it can be nice to use a device that allows us to put on some music without constant notifications and chimes every time an email comes in or a government scandal erupts in a nearby country. When building your own radio, you can tailor the interface to suit your tastes –
like this build that lets users scan the globe for a station to listen to
. Video after the break. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286588",
"author": "MIKE",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T20:40:48",
"content": "I have an ATS-909 from Sangean and an FT-817 from Yaesu and I coluld liste to worldwide broadcast. And wit the latter i can talk worldwide!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,321.472633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/handheld-pong-on-a-6502/ | HandheldPongOn A 6502 | Tom Nardi | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"7400-series",
"handheld",
"pong",
"spi"
] | Recreating the arcade smash hit
Pong
in a device small enough to plug into a home television was a considerable technical challenge back in 1975. Of course, a big part of that was the fact that it needed to be cheap enough that consumers would actually buy it. But had money been no object, the
Vectron Handheld by [Nick Bild] shows what a dedicated
Pong
board based on the 6502 CPU
and 7400-series logic could have looked like.
Prototyping the Vectron Handheld
Well, aside from the display anyway. While [Nick] made sure to use components that were contemporaries of the 6502 wherever possible, he did drop in a modern SPI LCD panel. After all, it’s supposed to be a portable game system.
Though as you can see in the video after the break, the massive 273 mm x 221 mm PCB only
just
meets that description. Incidentally, there’s no technical reason for the board to be this big; [Nick] was just playing it safe as he’s still learning KiCad.
Those with a keen eye towards 6502 projects likely saw the
breadboard version of the Vectron that [Nick] put together last year
. Compared to the original, the circuit for the handheld has been considerably simplified as it wasn’t designed to be a general purpose 6502 computer. Whether or not you think being able to play
Pong
on it makes up for those shortcomings is a matter of personal preference. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286568",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T19:32:42",
"content": "So, on the left side of the display, he needs to press the “down” button to move the paddle up, and on the right side vice versa…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,373,321.538411 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/axe-hacks-spinning-knobs-and-flipping-switches/ | Axe Hacks: Spinning Knobs And Flipping Switches | Sven Gregori | [
"Engineering",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Musical Hacks",
"Original Art",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [
"electric guitar",
"guitar",
"music",
"musical instrument",
"potentiometer",
"toggle switch",
"tone"
] | From a guitar hacking point of view, the two major parts that are interesting to us are the pickups and the volume/tone control circuit that lets you adjust the sound while playing. Today, I’ll get into the latter part and take a close look at the components involved — potentiometers, switches, and a few other passive components — and show how they function, what alternative options we have, and how we can re-purpose them altogether.
In that sense, it’s time to heat up the soldering iron, get out the screwdriver, and take off that pick guard / open up that back cover and continue our quest for new electric guitar sounds. And if the thought of that sounds uncomfortable, skip the soldering iron and grab some alligator clips and a breadboard. It may not be the ideal environment, but it’ll work.
When Music Meets Electronics
If you missed my last article,
we covered the basics of electric guitars and the origin of their tone
. To recap: steel strings vibrate over the magnetic field of a pickup, creating an electric signal that is shaped by all the pickup’s internal characteristics. From here, the signal is then routed through a volume and tone control circuit to the output jack, from where we can amplify and alter the sound however we want.
Before I start, I’d like to say a few words about guitar wiring diagrams you’ll come across on the internet, and the general state of electronics terminology within the guitar world. Since the average musician isn’t necessarily versed in electronics, actual schematics are rarely used to describe wiring, and the visual representation with life-like pictures, similar to a Fritzing breadboard view, are most common. This makes reconstructing and implementing the wiring itself a lot more straightforward in practice, but actually understanding the electronics behind it not so much.
Also, for some reason “nano” appears to be a taboo word, as capacitor values are usually stated in microfarad, and a 22 nF capacitor will commonly be referred to as a 0.022 uF, or simply “a point-oh-twenty-two” capacitor, and in worst case be written as “.022 mfd”. Although picofarad seems okay as well, so a 2.2 nF capacitor becomes 2200pF.
As a rule of thumb, capacitor values in guitar wiring are rarely above 100 nF or below 100 pF, so that should help decipher some more exotic nomenclature. With that out of the way, let’s get started.
Tone And Volume Control – Take Two
A typical volume control circuit is made up of a potentiometer with the pickup’s signal on one terminal, ground on the other terminal, and the output signal on its wiper. When it’s set to 10, the wiper has the least resistance and loudest volume, and at 0 the whole signal is discarded.
A typical tone control on the other hand is a low-pass filter made from another potentiometer and a capacitor. When set to 10, the pot is at maximum resistance and pretty much ignoring any impact from the capacitor. As the resistance is lowered, the capacitor starts affecting the tone by suppressing the highs, until it’s fully engaged at position 0. The higher the capacitor value, the more the high frequencies will be suppressed in total (or rather the resonant peak is shifted lower).
So much in theory, but in practice there’s a thing or two to consider here. For one, potentiometers won’t get fully down to 0 Ohm, but always have a little rest resistance, so the mere presence of a volume control is going to impact the output signal, albeit minuscule.
Modern Wiring Versus 50’s Setup
Gibson Les Paul Modern Wiring
Also, the volume and tone control aren’t two isolated systems, but are interacting with each other. One result of that is a possible slight loss of highs when lowering the volume, depending how the wiring is actually set up.
The Gibson Les Paul for example (and by extension other guitars with an individual tone and volume control for each pickup) can have a “modern wiring” or a “50s wiring” setup, where the tone control is connected to the volume control’s input and its wiper respectively.
Gibson Les Paul 50s wiring
With the modern wiring, you will experience that slight loss of highs, while with the 50s wiring, the tone remains mostly unaffected when lowering the volume. However, as everything is connected, it’s not without consequences either. The tables have turned, and now the volume control will add some of the highs back when the tone control is engaged. If you rarely ever use the tone control, this probably won’t be an issue and the 50s wiring could be a perfect choice for you, but if you rely on that dark muddiness of a low tone control, you probably won’t be all too happy with it.
Treble Bleed
An alternative to countering the loss of highs without affecting the tone control behavior too much is the so-called
treble bleed
circuit that essentially adds a high-pass filter to the volume pot. In its simplest form, it’s just a capacitor parallel to the input terminal and wiper, which some manufacturers even use in some of their model’s stock wiring. Ibanez for example uses here 330 pF, G&L 200 pF, and PRS goes down to 180 pF. Going above 1 nF might however run the risk of getting a quite harsh, overly bright tone without much lows left at all. For some more options, alternate versions exist that use a resistor either in parallel or series.
A variety of treble bleed circuits
The values in the schematic above are more a starting point and might require some experimentation to find a perfect match. The actual behavior of the controls, including the treble bleed behavior, also depends on what potentiometer is used, or rather what kind of taper.
Taper? I Hardly Even Know ‘er
Potentiometers that are commonly found in the guitar’s controls come with different types of tapers, i.e. the part that actually causes the resistance in them. The two most common types are linear and logarithmic (or audio) tapers, followed by an occasional occurrence of a reverse logarithmic taper. As the name suggests, their difference is how the resistance value changes based on the wiper position, so either linear or in an exponentially increasing (or decreasing if reverse logarithmic) way.
In terms of volume control, a linear potentiometer set to 5 will (ideally) have half the output signal level, but considering the human ear’s non-linear volume perception, it won’t equal half the volume. For that reason, it’s often recommended to use logarithmic tapers for the volume control to match up that behavior (hence their alternative “audio taper” name), but it also begs the question: does a guitar volume really
have to be
at half its volume when set to 5?
Well, to answer that question, it mainly depends on how you’re using your volume pot and how you want it to behave. Some might stay within the 10-6 range and prefer distinct changes with little movement, others idle on 6 and turn it up for a casual boost here and there. Some crank up the amp to max and use the volume knob like on an old TV or radio, and others just marvel at the perfect dust gradient forming on it. So to no surprise, opinions on whether a linear or logarithmic tapers are the right choice for volume controls are divided, and manufacturers haven’t always made up their mind either, although that might very well have economic reasons.
It’s similar with the tone control’s taper choice, though the majority seems to be on the logarithmic side with that one, as it actually results in a more consistent overall sweep. But tone controls are also a bit of a different story, as their lower settings are still practical, and even all the way down at 0 is a valid option and used regularly in some styles, unlike the volume control, which is simply silent at that point, and anything below 3 might be of limited use, too. Still, that doesn’t mean a linear taper couldn’t be the right choice for you. Its abrupt descent into darkness compared to a logarithmic taper might give you just what you want for some tone pot based effects.
After all, the point of all this is to modify the guitar’s tonal behavior, so let’s not limit ourselves to whatever seems to be the normal way of doing things with the controls. And while the taper behavior is a fixed character of the potentiometer itself, it’s still only a resistor. Does your tone pot set to 0 just end up dull and muddy? Maybe try an additional resistor in series to keep it from going all the way down to zero Ohm. The sound of a 500 kOhm pot is too bright for your taste, but 250 kOhm is just missing something clarity? Maybe a 2.2 MOhm in parallel to that 500 kOhm can sweeten it up. Well, try and see what happens.
Doubling Down On Potentiometers: Blend, Stacked, Dual Gang
Okay, so potentiometers have different tapers and of course come in different values. Some might have a unique, customized taper behavior or are
no-load pots
that circumvent the problem of “even at zero there’s still a slight leftover resistance” by completely disengaging the taper in that position. Opinions are again divided on those though, as getting a raw unadulterated signal from the pickups is a nice thing to have, but also adds a tad of unnatural response once the taper gets back into the system.
But apart from physical characteristics like their overall size and shaft construction, there’s not much else to a potentiometer. So how about putting two of them together into a single housing? Well, then we can either end up with a
blend pot
or a
stacked
(or
dual gang
) potentiometer. Both are essentially two pots stacked on top of each other, with one single shaft turning two independent tapers. The individual potentiometers are usually accessible on their own, and therefore have separate connectors for each of them.
Stacked potentiometer with tone control only for one pickup, and treble pickup for the other
Let’s take a simple single-volume, single-tone control wiring on a guitar with two pickups as an example. Maybe the bright bridge pickup could use an occasional spin on the tone pot, while the neck pickup is just perfect as-is, and you don’t like the muddy sound of a low-pass filter on a neck anyway. Using a dual-gang potentiometer with two identical potentiometers (e.g. linear 500 kOhm) could let you connect each pickup to its own individual volume pot, and the tone control is only connected to the bridge’s. Maybe add a treble bleed circuit that only affects the neck pickup while you’re at it.
Or maybe one of those pickups is a single coil while the other is a humbucker, a dual gang potentiometer with 250 kOhm and 500 kOhm respectively could handle their differences in a single control.
Fender for example has some HSS Stratocasters (i.e. a Stratocaster with a humbucker in the bridge and the usual two single coils in the middle and neck) with the latter arrangement, which additionally separates the Strat’s two tone controls for single coils and humbuckers. Since the potentiometers use a single shaft, it won’t make any difference in actually controlling it.
Unless that’s something you’d want, in which case, you can have that as well with a
concentric
potentiometer. It’s still two individual, stacked-together to fit in the space of a single potentiometer, but this time the shaft has an inner and outer log for turning each one separately.
Say you want that Gibsonesque way of separate tone and volume control for each pickup in a guitar that wasn’t built for that. Sure, you could get out the power tools, but that’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea — and maybe a bit more difficult if we think of a Telecaster with its metal plate and quite limited control cavity space. Concentric potentiometers to the rescue! Okay, you’ll need a special knob to handle the two separate shafts, but you can fit both in the space of a single potentiometer without any other drastic modifications. The original Fender Jazz Bass actually had such a configuration before they switched to the nowadays common bass wiring of two individual volume controls and single main tone control. Which kinda brings us to blend pots.
Blend pots are a special kind of “two pots in one housing”, and are the ones you find as balance control in an audio amplifier, usually with that little notch in the center position. In theory, you could use them to blend two pickups together instead of having two separate volume controls for them. However, at least for passive controls, that’s more a nice sounding idea than anything of much practical value. In reality, you might neither get a pure bridge nor neck pickup sound as the other one is always slightly bleeding into the signal, and worse, you might end up with a significant volume drop in the center position. (Though there is also the chance I simply botched my own wiring, or should have used a different blend pot.)
Note that there’s another “blend control potentiometer” wiring in existence, which is also about blending pickups together, but stems from the very early days of the Telecaster and has nothing to do with the blend potentiometers just mentioned. This one’s actually cool though, so I’ll come back to it in a bit.
Switching It Up
Push-pull pot in action
An interesting variation of a regular potentiometer is the
push-pull pot
that has an additional DPDT switch mounted to it. The switch itself is completely separated from the potentiometer, but the switching mechanism is activated by pulling out and pushing in the potentiometer’s shaft. A similar variety is a kill switch pot that has a momentary SPST push switch integrated that is meant to temporarily kill the signal by shorting it to ground to generate a unique effect (which is excessively used for example by Buckethead).
Switches are an incredibly valuable asset when hacking a guitar, as they allow us to enable and disable individual modifications on demand — increasing the guitar’s total tonal variety compared to a fixed wiring — and open up even more options where a potentiometer alone wouldn’t get us far. Like, why choose whether to use a 22 nF or 47 nF capacitor for that tone control if you could just have both and toggle between either one of them as you feel like. Or let’s say you found this one amazing sweet spot on the tone pot, instead of tediously trying to find it again every time, use a switch to bypass the tone pot with a fixed resistor of the exact value you’re looking for. Why not bypass the controls altogether and get that raw pickup signal? Not to mention what we can do with the pickups themselves here, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The great thing about using push-pull pots here is that you don’t need to drill any extra holes into the guitar body to add a switch, but can just replace one of the existing potentiometers with it and keep all the original controls as-is. And if you’re willing to sacrifice the tone pot completely, you could take this even further with a rotary switch of matching dimensions and instead of toggling between two options, select one from as many options as the biggest switch that fits in the control cavity offers. B.B. King for example had five separate filters (along with a sixth bypass option) selectable on his Gibson ES-355, which Gibson is nowadays marketing as
Varitone
circuit.
Of course, if you don’t mind doing some heavier modifications to the guitar body, standard mini toggle switches are always a solution if you’re otherwise running out of switching alternatives. On the other hand, there’s one other switch that you might not think of as option here: the pickup selector switch. Now, yes, removing the option to activate different pickup combinations might seem a bit counter-intuitive on the subject of expanding a guitar’s tone, but let me get back to that Telecaster blend control I mentioned a bit earlier for that.
Pots Beyond Tone And Volume Control
Back in 1950, Fender released their very first electric guitar, the
Esquire
, featuring a single bridge pickup. Despite having just that one pickup, it was still equipped with a 3-way selector switch. So what did that switch do then, as it’s clearly not toggling between pickups? Well, it essentially selected the tone control behavior.
While the volume control was always active, the tone control was either active, completely bypassed, or replaced by a fixed low-pass filter that produced a muffled bassy sound. Note that the double bass was pretty much the only string instrument available for playing bass lines at that time, which is a big, chunky piece of furniture that can’t be just plugged into an amplifier. So darkening the tone on the guitar to its extreme was a good alternative until the electric bass became a thing a year later.
Soon after the Esquire was introduced, the initial Telecaster was released (titled
Broadcaster
at the time), looking just like the Esquire, except it had a neck pickup added. At that point, the 3-way switch could have been changed to be a pickup selector as we know it today, but Leo Fender wanted to keep that muffled bass option around, so that switch position remained as-is (except it used the warmer, darker-by-nature neck pickup now). However, the other two positions now selected between either the neck pickup with the tone control being a regular tone control, or the bridge pickup with — here we go — the tone control turned into the aforementioned blend control. What it did was gradually blend the neck pickup signal into the bridge pickup signal, transitioning from bridge-only at 0 to “middle position” at 10, as well as anything in between, creating some unique combinations.
Telecasters today rarely look back at that blend control — most players never cared much for that muffled bass tone anyway, so with the 3-way switch eventually turned into a regular pickup selector, there was no practical need for the blend control anymore. However, Stratocasters may occasionally use it, which makes sense. If we recall, a Stratocaster has three single coils, a 5-way switch that won’t allow all possible combinations, and a somewhat weird tone control setup with separate tone pots for two pickups, and none for the third. Changing one tone knob to control the overall tone, and turning the other into a blend control will get you that otherwise impossible bridge-neck or all-three-of-them combination (well, unless you use a switch, of course) along with a nice blend of partially engaged pickups.
Still not rocket science, even with push-pull pots all the way down (more on that next time)
Again, I’ll go deeper into pickup wiring next time, but as a sneak peek in the meantime, an interesting take on the same concept is having a humbucker that exposes both coils’ wires (which allows you to use it as two separate single coil pickups) and apply the blend control on those two coils. So instead of blending two separate pickups together, you can blend a single pickup from being a single coil to becoming a full humbucker. In fact, the Fender Jaguar HH (i.e. double humbucker) model is stock-equipped with such a wiring, and is anyway an interesting instrument when it comes to wiring.
We’ve Only Just Begun
So as this shows, potentiometers can be used for more than just controlling volume and tone, pickup selector switches can be used for more than selecting pickups, and consequently, there are alternative options to select a pickup. To add to this, how about using some mini toggle switches to enable and disable pickups individually (like
Brian May’s
Red Special
for example
) and turn that pickup selector switch into a Varitone-style filter selector?
While we’re at it, why not ditch low-pass filters altogether and replace them with high-pass filters? I already mentioned the treble bleed circuit as one option for that, but the regular tone control itself could just have the capacitor in parallel instead of the usual series wiring. So instead of suppressing the highs when turning that tone knob, it’s the lows that will be cut off now. If you have two tone control potentiometers (or one you can otherwise spare), why not have both options at once? Or how about throwing in an inductor and cut out the middles with some band-stop filter? As I mentioned last time, math formulas won’t get you far here, so you might just run some experiments with throwing things (to an extend) randomly together and see what happens.
Schottky diodes for some crunch
And to expand on that even further: diodes! Wiring two of them in opposite direction between the signal and ground can add some nice little crunch to your sound by capping off the signal beyond their forward voltage. Of course, this won’t replace actual effect pedals, it’s still only passive electronics and modifications like this will make you lose some signal, but it’s still a fun thing one can do. Keep in mind though that the average pickup produces only a few hundred millivolts of signal, so a regular silicon diode’s forward voltage drop is usually too high, and you’ll have more success with either a Germanium or Schottky diode. For more information, and how to to go full rectifier mode with it (and not spend $30+ for the commercial version),
check out Joe Beau’s guide on the subject
.
Well, that covers the potentiometers we find in guitars in all their glory and variety, and how we can use them along with switches to modify the volume and tone controls. This topic is certainly not completely exhausted, but I hope this gave you some new ideas on experimenting with the wiring of an electric guitar, and most of all, gets you thinking outside the box entirely when it comes to that. As long as you keep external power supplies out of this, and maybe stay away from directly soldering on the pickup coils, you and your guitar will probably be fine.
Next time we’ll take that same spirit back to the pickups and forget everything I said about “humbuckers are two single coils connected in series” and “the middle switch position puts two pickups together in parallel”. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286533",
"author": "pt",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T17:35:54",
"content": "the hackaday logo guitar is excellent :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286821",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-10-16T18:40:06",
... | 1,760,373,321.71957 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/a-lawnmower-that-looks-where-youre-going/ | A Lawnmower That Looks Where You’re Going | Matthew Carlson | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"lawnmower",
"Metal Detecting",
"metal detector",
"safety"
] | As a kid, one of the stories my dad told me was about mowing a fairly large field of grass on the farm with a gas-powered push mower. One day, some sort of farm tool was left in the field and the old industrial mower shredded it, sending a large piece of sharp metal hurtling toward his leg. Luckily for my dad, the large plastic wheel managed to stop the piece of metal, destroying the wheel. My grandfather was frustrated that he needed to repair the lawnmower but was grateful that my dad still had both feet attached.
Of course, this story was used as a lesson for me not to gripe about having to mow the lawn when it was my turn, but there was also the lesson that lawnmowers can be dangerous. [DuctTape Mechanic] took it upon himself to see if he could prevent that sort of accident altogether and has created an
automatic safety shutdown mechanism for his family lawnmower
. (Video embedded below.)
This uses an inductive sensor that can detect metal before it gets sucked into the mower itself. The sensor trips a relay which forcibly shuts the mower down by grounding the ignition coil. While it doesn’t physically stop the blade like
other safety mechanisms
, it does prevent a situation from escalating by turning off power to the blade as soon as possible. Getting to the ignition coil wasn’t easy as it required getting deep into the engine itself, but now [DuctTape Mechanic] has a mower that could be expanded further with things such as with a capacitive sensor or more smarts to determine if it is detecting underground or above ground metal.
Someday
we’ll have robotic mowers
, but until then, we laud the efforts of hackers out there trying to make the world a little safer.
Thanks [wahmad530] for sending this one in! | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286490",
"author": "Saftey",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T15:43:03",
"content": "I am not sure that you will have much time between it detecting something and it getting sucked in. It also needs to hit the middle of the sensor fairly close to even trigger it to begin with. Interesting ... | 1,760,373,321.994587 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/cheap-all-sky-camera-is-easy-as-pi/ | Cheap All-Sky Camera Is Easy As Pi | Kristina Panos | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"all-sky camera",
"astronomy",
"aurora borealis",
"camera",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry pi camera"
] | Combining a Raspberry Pi HQ camera and a waterproof housing, [jippo12] made an
all-sky, all-Pi meteorite tracking camera on the cheap
, and it takes fantastic photos of the heavens. It’s even got its own
YouTube channel
. Inside there’s a Raspberry Pi 4 plus an HQ camera to take the pictures. But there’s also a system in place to keep everything warm and working properly. It uses a Raspberry Pi 3+, a temperature sensor, and a relay control HAT to pump pixies through a couple of 10 W resistors, making just enough heat to warm up the dome to keep it from fogging.
A few years ago,
we reported that NASA was tracking meteorites
(or fireballs, if you prefer) with a distributed network of all-sky cameras — cameras with 360° views of the night sky. Soon after, we found out that
the French were doing something quite similar with their FRIPON network
. We pondered how cool it would be to have a hacker network of these things, but
zut alors!
Have you seen the prices of these things? Nice hack, [jippo12]!
Rather do things the old fashioned way?
Dust off that DSLR, fire up that printer, and check out OpenAstroTracker
. | 28 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286291",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T20:08:16",
"content": "Worth pointing out the pi 3 is also a camera controller so its not as wasted as the article make it seems, it is more than just a thermostat.Nice to see the HQ camera getting some use, and looks like a ... | 1,760,373,321.656314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/linux-fu-global-search-and-replace-with-ripgrep/ | Linux Fu: Global Search And Replace With Ripgrep | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"grep",
"linux",
"regular expression",
"ripgrep",
"rust"
] | If you are even a casual Linux user, you probably know how to use
grep
. Even if you aren’t a regular expression guru, it is easy to use grep to search for lines in a file that match anything from simple strings to complex patterns. Of course, grep is fine for looking, but what if you want to find things and change them. Maybe you want to change each instance of “HackADay” to “Hackaday,” for example. You might use
sed
, but it is somewhat hard to use. You could use
awk
, but as a general-purpose language, it seems a bit of overkill for such a simple and common task. That’s the idea behind
ripgrep
which actually has the command name
rg
. Using rg, you can do things that grep can do using more modern regular expressions and also do replacements.
A Note on Installing Ripgrep
Your best bet is to get ripgrep from your repositories. When I tried running KDE Neon, it helpfully told me that I could install a version using apt or take a Snap version that was newer. I usually hate installing a snap, but I did anyway. It informed me that I had to add –classic to the install line because ripgrep could affect files outside the Snap sandbox. Since the whole purpose of the program is to change files, I didn’t think that was too surprising, so I did the install.
Simple Usage
If you want to use
rg
as a grep, go ahead. One refreshing upgrade is that it does output line numbers when printing to stdout:
If you don’t want the line numbers, use the -N option. You can also specify a replacement with -r:
Suppose you wanted to create a new file with the replacement, though. In that case, send the
--passthru
option so that all lines are sent through even if they don’t match.
Conversely, you might want to only print out the parts that match and not the entire line. The
-o
option will do that. You can also use many grep-like options. For example,
-v
will invert the match so that only lines that don’t match print.
Overwriting
One of the classic problems with Linux multitasking is trying to overwrite a file. For example, try this:
cd /tmp
cp /etc/fstab test.txt
cat test.txt # plenty of stuff there
cat test.txt > test.txt
cat test.txt # oops, the file is now empty
This is a common use case for
rg
, though. Of course, you can send the output to a temporary file and then replace the original file with the temporary one. But that seems inelegant. A utility called
sponge
is a neater way to do it. Sponge copies its standard input to a file, but it waits until there is no more input before it does so. Replace the second line above with:
cat test.txt | sponge test.txt
So to make a replacement in a file you could use something like:
rg --passthrough 'Jen' -r 'Jennifer' invite.txt | sponge invite.txt
Flavors
By default,
rg
uses regular expressions from Rust. These are known to be fast, but have some limitations in the name of performance. You can use the
-P
option to select PCRE2 regular expressions which have more features but might be slower. Another option is to use
--engine=auto
. This will cause rg to use Rust expressions unless you appear to use features that require PCRE2. If you provide multiple expressions, they will all use the same expression engine, so any PCRE2 expression will force the use of that engine.
With the PCRE2 engine you can do look-around, backreferences, and more. If you have trouble quoting regular expressions when you just want to find some text, you’ll appreciate the
-F
option. This causes the search expression to be an ordinary string:
There are many other options. Try the
--help
option to see them all. You can match across lines, match binary files, use CRLF as a line terminator, show context lines, or filter each file through an external program.
Toolbox
This is one of those simple tools that you can certainly live without, but it is much nicer to do many common tasks with it than without it. Of course, to get the most out of any grep-like tool, you really need to know
regular expressions
. If you want a fun way to learn regular expressions, try a
crossword puzzle
. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286262",
"author": "socksbot",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T17:56:26",
"content": "sed is definitely abstruse. It’s much easier to use awk or Perl. The first examples in awk becomeawk ‘/alw/ {gsub(“alw”,”hackaday”); print FNR “:” $0}’",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,373,321.770742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/homebrew-pulsejet-uses-carbon-fiber-to-great-effect/ | Homebrew Pulsejet Uses Carbon Fiber To Great Effect | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"jet engine",
"pulse jet"
] | Jet engines are undeniably awesome, but their inherent complexity prevents many from experimenting with the technology at home. Perhaps the most accessible design is the pulsejet; in valveless form, it can be built relatively easily without needing a lot of precision spinning parts. [Integza] decided to try building his own,
facing many hurdles along the way.
(Video, embedded below.)
Despite eschewing turbines and compressors, and consisting of just an intake, exhaust and a combustion chamber, the pulsejet still presents many challenges to the home gamer. Primary concerns are sustaining combustion without the jet flaming out, and building the jet out of suitable materials that won’t simply melt into a gooey puddle on the floor.
[Integza]’s design process began with many 3D-printed attempts. While the geometry was on point, none of these designs could run for more than a few seconds without melting and falling apart. Determined to avoid the typical welded-steel approach, [Integza] instead resolved to go left-of-field with carbon fibre mat combined with high-temperature sealant. With the help of a 3D-printed mold, he was able to produce a working engine that could stand up to the high temperatures and produce that glorious pulsejet sound.
It’s come a long way from [Integza]’s earlier experiments
, and we look forward to seeing where it goes next – whether that be on a plane or
perhaps even a go-kart
. Video after the break. | 21 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286244",
"author": "Paul Cohen",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T15:57:59",
"content": "I think that this type of engine wants to go at high speed.And with some cooling fins it probably will perform better.Maybe adding a blower and making a “wind tunnel” can make it run closer to it’s rea... | 1,760,373,321.594174 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/lowering-the-bar-for-exam-software-security/ | Lowering The Bar For Exam Software Security | Adam Zeloof | [
"Featured",
"Rants",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"cybersecurity",
"exam",
"plain text",
"security",
"weak passwords"
] | Most standardized tests have a fee: the SAT costs $50, the GRE costs $200, and the NY Bar Exam costs $250. This year, the bar exam came at a much larger cost for recent law school graduates — their privacy.
Many in-person events have had to find ways to move to the internet this year, and exams are no exception. We’d like to think that online exams shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s 2020. We have a pretty good grasp on how security and privacy should work, and it shouldn’t be too hard to implement sensible anti-cheating features.
It shouldn’t be a big deal, but for one software firm, it really is.
The NY State Board of Law Examiners (NY BOLE), along with several other state exam boards, chose to administer this year’s bar exam via ExamSoft’s Examplify. If you’ve missed out on the Examplify Saga, following the
Diploma Privilege for New York
account on Twitter will get you caught up pretty quickly. Essentially, according to its users, Examplify is an unmitigated disaster. Let’s start with something that should have been settled twenty years ago.
Did They Just Email Me My Password?
Passwords are stored in plaintext. Seriously- how is this still a thing?
Users report being able to call customer support and retrieve not only their usernames but their passwords as well.
Others had their passwords emailed to them. If a customer support rep can read your password to you over the phone, you’ve got a real problem. It would only take a bit of social engineering for somebody to get into your account, and if you reuse passwords, then your unrelated accounts can be easily compromised. (Please, use a password manager!)
It turns out that you don’t even need to log into somebody’s account to scope out their personal info. Users uploaded government IDs to their accounts, which were promptly sent to a server and stored accessible
publicly
via a
random URL
. It’s worth noting that it seems like more of a shortcoming on the part of the NY BOLE and not ExamSoft. Thankfully, once users reported the problem, the BOLE fixed it — though the fact that it was a issue in the first place is ridiculous. More astonishingly, the NY BOLE isn’t the only exam board that had this sort of problem.
The DC Bar published users’ background check documents, containing SSNs and employment histories, in addition to their IDs.
12345? Amazing, I have the same combination on my luggage!
Courtesy of
@milkbar$100
There is a set of config files that comes bundled with each downloaded exam
, and those files are, well, just plaintext. Puzzlingly, the parameters in these files, such as “isTimed” and “allowSpellChecking,” seem to have little effect in the software.
Examsoft claims that modifying them will corrupt and invalidate the exam
, but that doesn’t appear to be the case either.
The software also downloads the exam days before the test starts, leaving the files vulnerable to being poked and prodded by the curious-minded. These files are at least
encrypted with an 18-character key, according to ExamSoft
. On the exam day, the key is made public and test-takers can use it to decrypt the exam files. This isn’t the best strategy, especially when the Michigan bar exam, rather than employing an 18-character key as ExamSoft promised, used the passwords
green56, purple34, and blue78 for their exam files
. These horribly weak passwords are probably vulnerable to a brute-force attack.
One of Examplify’s main selling points is its
ability to lock down a computer
. You wouldn’t want a test-taker googling anything, or glancing at a PDF of the textbook on a second monitor. While some of the more obvious ways to cheat are blocked here, users have found a loophole that ExamSoft unsurprisingly overlooked. Mac users may be familiar with the Universal Clipboard, a feature which, when enabled, allows a user to copy something on one device and paste it on another linked to the same account. Guess what —
Examplify doesn’t disable it
. This is a fun loophole, since a test-taker could copy the question text, and a friend could paste it onto an iPad and copy the relevant section in the textbook for the test-taker to read. It’s unclear as to whether or not this has been fixed yet, but as of September 28th the workaround was still usable.
Users found other creative ways to get around the software lockout as well. It’s been reported that
if the computer gets rebooted mid-exam, the user gets ~30s of unrestricted access to their files, as well as the internet
. One user was even able to
reset the timer and start the exam over by rebooting their computer
.
As you can imagine, it’s not just the security that’s awful. Users report a slew of interface problems, from
software freezing mid-exam
to the facial tracking software (which determines whether you’ve cheated by looking away from your screen)
not being able to recognize dark-skinned people
.
Now What?
It’s tough to dive into this sea of shortcomings without registering for the bar exam, however we were able to find a link to the Examplify installer (
Windows
,
macOS
) hosted on ExamSoft’s servers and, of course, unprotected. Go nuts.
It’s impressive that with modern advances in technology, we’ve found ways to make exams more stressful than ever before. It may be worth considering
doing away with the bar exam
and other standardized tests entirely. For the time being these tests are still a reality and it goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: even though ExamSoft and the NY BOLE seem to have made it easy to cheat, please don’t do that. Amid all of this failure, they’ve at least succeeded in one way. They’ve given us excellent examples of how not to do, well, pretty much everything.
Thanks to [Jonathan Merrin] for the tip! | 24 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286224",
"author": "Chad Steele",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T14:31:15",
"content": "When such systematic failure is encountered at some point the question has to be ask…is this deliberate?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "628627... | 1,760,373,321.837114 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/tiny-mario-clone-on-a-tiny-processor/ | Tiny Mario Clone On A Tiny Processor | Jenny List | [
"Games"
] | [
"attiny",
"diy handheld",
"nintendo"
] | We’ve become used to seeing retro games running on commodity microcontrollers where once they would have required the bleeding-edge console hardware of their day.
[Duncan]’s Mario clone
takes the genre a little further, using not a processor with plenty of pins for peripherals, but instead the humble ATtiny85. Its eight pins drive two OLED displays, and accept input from the buttons of a cheap Nintendo-like controller.
The write-up is split between software and
hardware
sections, with all the software itself
available from a GitHub repository
. He’s bit-banging the i2C for the displays for an impressive turn of speed, and the ATtiny’s lack of pins is addressed by clever use of resistive dividers to present a different voltage for each button pressed. With a truth table of voltages he’s even able to detect multiple simultaneous button presses. Music is achieved with the chip’s limited resources by storing the sounds in EEPROM, and clocked it at 16 MHz for smooth gameplay.
The whole is mounted inside the shell of the controller, with its USB guts removed and replaced by a smart custom PCB. An unexpected problem with ground plane fill caused a temporary roadblock reading the buttons, but the finished product is a very Nintendo-like experience. We like it. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286151",
"author": "Cyna",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T11:16:01",
"content": "There is clever resource optimization and then there is just wrong/stupid component selection.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286234",
"auth... | 1,760,373,321.882788 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/an-open-source-ir-gateway-based-on-the-esp8266/ | An Open Source IR Gateway Based On The ESP8266 | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"home automation",
"ir",
"IR gateway",
"mqtt"
] | The market is absolutely inundated with smart gadgets, with everything from coffee makers to TVs advertising that they support the latest and greatest in home automation platforms. Don’t worry about how many of those platforms and services will still up up and running in the next few years, the thing will probably stop working before then anyway. No sense worrying about the details in a disposable world.
Of course, not all of us are so quick to dump working hardware in the name of the latest consumer trend.
Which is why [Viktor] has developed an open source infrared gateway
that can connect your “dumb” devices to the latest flash in the pan backend service with nothing more than a software update. Though even modern smart TVs still include IR remotes, so there’s nothing stopping you from using it with newer gear if you don’t
trust
like the built-in implementation.
The hardware here is really quite simple, essentially boiling down to a few IR LEDs and an IR receiver hanging off the GPIO ports of an ESP8266. While the receiver isn’t strictly necessary, it does allow [Viktor] to rapidly implement new IR codes. He just points the existing remote at the board, hits a button, and the decoded command gets sent out over MQTT where he can easily snap it up.
[Viktor] has done the hard work of creating the PCB design and
testing out different IR LEDs to find the ones with the best performance
. But if you wanted to just throw something together in a weekend, you should be able to get his firmware running with little more than a bare ESP and a random IR LED salvaged from an old remote. But don’t be surprised if you get hooked on the concept and
end up rolling your own home automation system
. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286119",
"author": "Chris Snyder",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T09:25:57",
"content": "Geez just what I need my coffee maker talking to my toaster about me behind my back…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286135",
"author... | 1,760,373,322.068995 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/making-a-servo-tester-just-a-bit-better/ | Making A Servo Tester Just A Bit Better | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Nuvoton N75E003",
"servo",
"servo tester"
] | Servo testers are useful devices to have on hand, allowing one to quickly check a given part for proper operation. However, cheaper models can be quite limited, and may not output signals suitable for testing the full range of servos out there. [Buttim] had a few testers laying around,
and wanted to see if they could be modified to do more.
Initial experiments with the cheapest model on hand came to naught, revealing nothing but a small IC with its markings scrubbed off. However, going a few more dollars upmarket, [buttim] found a servo tester packing a Nuvoton N75E003. An unfamiliar name to the hobbyist, Nuvoton microcontrollers are often found in mass-production designs due to their low cost.
The N75E003 is a 8051-based device, and [buttim] was able to source a programmer and tutorial resources on how to work with the chip. Armed with the right hardware and knowledge, the servo tester was first programmed with a basic blink sketch. With everything confirmed to be working as expected, [buttim] set about programming a custom firmware for the servo tester that would output a broader range of PWM signals to suit their needs.
It’s a great example of the learning possibilities available by simply cracking open the case of commodity hardware and diving in. Of course, if you need something even more capable,
you can always build your own from scratch! | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286068",
"author": "FinniusDeLaTerrace",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T06:10:40",
"content": "Cool project. I’ve been using this 555 timer circuit to test servos (http://www.555-timer-circuits.com/servo-controller.html) never thought to look for a off-the-shelf tool.",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,373,322.216344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/getting-rid-of-all-the-space-junk-in-earths-backyard/ | Getting Rid Of All The Space Junk In Earth’s Backyard | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"geosynchronous orbit",
"laser ranging",
"low earth orbit",
"space debris",
"space junk"
] | Space, as the name suggests, is mostly empty. However, since the first satellite launch in 1957, mankind began to populate the Earth orbit with all kinds of spacecraft. On the downside, space also became more and more cluttered with trash from defunct or broken up rocket stages and satellites. Moving at speeds of nearly 30,000 km/h, even the tiniest object can pierce a hole through your spacecraft. Therefore, space junk poses a real threat for both manned and unmanned spacecraft and that is why space agencies are increasing their efforts into tracking, avoiding, and getting rid of it.
Earth Orbit is Getting Crowded
A computer-generated image of the space debris around Earth. The two main debris fields are the ring of objects in geosynchronous Earth orbit and the cloud of objects in low Earth orbit.
Credit:
NASA image
, Public Domain
According to NASA’s
Orbital Debris Program Office
(ODPO) Earth orbit currently hosts an estimated number of 500,000 marble-sized debris objects and a whopping 100,000,000 objects of 1 mm or smaller. As shown in the picture there are two main debris fields. While most of the debris is located in low-Earth orbit (LEO) at altitudes of <2000 km, there is also a ring of space junk in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) at an altitude of ~36,000 km.
Space trash includes derelict spacecraft like the Vanguard I satellite which has been in orbit for over 60 years and thus holds the record for the oldest man-made object in space. Other culprits are upper stages of rockets that broke up or exploded, which is why nowadays they are usually “passivated” by venting their unburned fuel.
In 2007, China earned a lot of criticism for blowing up their Fengyun-1C weather satellite as part of a missile test. Together with the accidental collision of the US communications satellite Iridium-33 and the defunct Russian Kosmos 2251 satellite in 2009, these events are responsible for much of the large debris currently located in orbit.
To protect themselves from micrometeorites and orbital debris (MMOD), spacecraft use so-called Whipple shields consisting of several thin layers that are spaced apart. Upon impact, the outermost layer shatters the projectile thereby spreading its kinetic energy upon a large area as it passes through. To avoid collisions with known larger objects, spacecraft sometimes have to perform evasive maneuvers.
For the ISS, such a maneuver is ordered if the chance of impact is greater than 1/10,000 which happens on average once per year. In 2012, a record number of four of such moves had to be performed which are always costly because of the large amount of fuel that needs to be spent. NASA’s space shuttles have frequently been pierced by MMODs, but luckily all of the catastrophic collisions so far have been limited to unmanned spacecraft. One example is that of the French satellite Cerise which was hit in 1996 by part of an Ariane rocket booster. And we’ve already mentioned the Iridum-Kosmos crash.
Keeping Track of All the Junk
It is vital to catalog and track all the junk floating around in orbit to prevent future crashes, and to prevent future crashes from further contributing to the space junk problem. The most comprehensive catalog of space is junk is held by the US Space Surveillance Network (SSN). Currently, they keep track of more than 22,000 man-made objects orbiting Earth that are 10 centimeters or larger.
Depending on their altitude, objects with sufficient size can be detected by ground-based radar and optical telescopes. Optical telescopes measure the sunlight reflected by debris, while the distance can be accurately determined by laser ranging. The method is based on measuring the round trip time of a short laser pulse shot from the ground and reflected by the object. The technique has long been used to track satellites that are equipped with a retroreflector. Since the diffuse reflection from space debris is much fainter, the measurement is significantly harder. So far the technique could only be used during twilight when the laser ranging station on Earth is in darkness but debris objects are still lit up by the Sun. With improved imaging techniques,
Austrian scientists just recently succeeded
to use space debris laser ranging during the daytime, doubling the viewing window.
A panel from the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) spacecraft showing numerous holes from orbital debris.
Credit:
NASA JSC
NASA’s Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) taught us a lot about space debris. It was essentially a target that was left in space for about six years before it was retrieved by the Columbia Space Shuttle in 1990. The LDEF hosted 57 individual scientific experiments designed to study the long-term effects of outer space environment on different materials, electronics and biological samples. Because of its large surface area and long exposure, much statistical information was gained from studying the Swiss cheese pattern that had formed on its surface as shown in the picture.
Cleaning up the Orbit
Since 2002, all major space agencies are following some
common guidelines
to reduce the growth of space debris. Spacecraft in GEO are required to move to a graveyard orbit at a higher altitude after they finished their mission. Objects passing through the LEO region should be de-orbited or at least put into an orbit with a reduced lifetime.
Due to atmospheric drag, all orbital debris will
eventually
fall back to Earth. However, at altitudes of 800 km, this may take decades, while above 1,000 km orbital debris normally will continue circling Earth for a century or more. We’re adding space junk faster than it’s raining down. Therefore, in the long run, we not only need to stop the ongoing pollution of space but also actively get rid of some of the space trash already in orbit. Otherwise, the density of debris may become large enough to create a cascading effect where the fragments created in a collision trigger new collisions. This scenario is known as the Kessler syndrome and nicely explained by Donald Kessler himself in
this video
.
Space Lasers
Concept for the de-orbiting of space junk using a high-power laser.
Credit:
C. R. Phipps et al.
Plans for the active removal of space debris include the ClearSpace-1 mission of the Swiss startup
ClearSpace
which was funded by ESA and is planned to launch in 2025. ClearSpace-1 will use robotic arms to capture part of a Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) upper stage left in orbit from a previous ESA mission. Both spacecraft will then be deorbited to burn up in the atmosphere. Eventually, the goal is to have a
“tow truck” in space
that can capture and remove multiple objects with a single mission.
The same lasers that are used to track space junk might also be used to remove it. There are several concepts, to use high-power
ground-
or
space-based laser systems
to remove debris of 1 – 10 cm size from LEO space. The laser evaporates material from the object which forms a jet that slows down the target so that it will re-enter the atmosphere faster.
After we have already polluted Earth to a devastating degree it would be nice to not see the same thing happening in space. It would be a shame if the scientific progress and communication technologies enabled by space missions were put to a halt by the Kessler syndrome. With future new mega-constellations of satellites like the Starlink project, this risk is quite imminent. | 85 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286461",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T14:17:21",
"content": "So, you’re saying we need something to clean up space… Let’s call it avacuum cleaner! (ok, ok, i’ll see myself out)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,373,322.527917 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/air-cannon-serves-up-a-blast-of-ferrocerium-sparks/ | Air Cannon Serves Up A Blast Of Ferrocerium Sparks | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"air cannon",
"ferrocerium",
"fire lighter",
"flint",
"propane",
"PVC",
"pyrophoric",
"spark"
] | OK, looks like we have a new way to entertain the kids and wreak havoc in the neighborhood, if
this spark-shooting ferrocerium cannon
is as easy to build as it looks.
This one comes to us by well-known purveyor of eyebrow-singing projects [NightHawkInLight], whose propane torch never seems to get a break. The idea here is a large scale version of an apparently popular trick where the “flints” from lighters, which are actually rods of
ferrocerium
, an aptly named alloy of iron and cerium, are heated to a nearly molten state and dropped onto a hard surface. The molten alloy thence explodes in a shower of sparks, to the mirth and merriment of those in attendance.
[NightHawkInLight]’s version of the trick scales everything up. Rather than lighter flints, he uses ferrocerium rods from firestarters of the type used for camping. The rod is stuffed into a barrel formed from steel brake line which is connected to the output of a PVC air chamber. His ominpresent propane torch is attached in such a way as the flame plays upon the loaded pyrophoric plug, heating it to a molten state before the air is released from the chamber. The massive display of sparks seen in the video below is pretty impressive, but we’re getting tired of gender reveal parties and forest fires. We just hope he had fire extinguishers on hand.
Seriously, be careful with stuff like this. [NightHawkInLight] has a lot of experience working with these kinds of projects, from
his plasma-propelled soda bottles
to
making synthetic rubies with an arc welder
. We’re sure he wouldn’t want to see anyone get hurt. | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286427",
"author": "yetihehe",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T11:07:25",
"content": "Stop using pvc for air chambers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286451",
"author": "CR",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T13:28:52",
... | 1,760,373,322.296845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/15/a-smart-speaker-that-reminds-you-its-listening/ | A Smart Speaker That Reminds You It’s Listening | Matthew Carlson | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"alexa",
"eyes",
"Teensy"
] | [markw2k9] has an Alexa device that sits in his kitchen and decided it was time to
spruce it up with some rather uncanny eyes
. With some inspiration from the
Adafruit Uncanny Eyes project
, which displays similar animated eyes, [markw2k9] designed a 3d printed shell that goes on top of a 2nd generation Amazon Echo. A teensy 3.2 powers two OLED displays and monitors the light ring to know when to turn the lights on and show that your smart speaker is listening. The eyes look around in a shifty sort of manner. Light from the echo’s LED ring is diffused through a piece of plexiglass that was lightly sanded on the outside ring and the eye lenses are 30mm cabochons (a glass lens often used for jewelry).
One hiccup is that the ring on the Echo will glow in a steady pattern when there’s a notification. As this would cause the OLEDs to be on almost continuously and concerned for the lifetime of the OLED panels, the decision was made to detect this condition in the state machine and go into a timeout state. With that issue solved, the whole thing came together nicely. Where this project really shines is the design and execution. The case is sleek PLA and the whole thing looks professional.
We’ve seen a few other projects inspired by the animated eyes project such as
this Halloween themed robot
that is honestly quite terrifying. The software and STL files for the smart speaker’s eyes
are on Github
and Thingiverse.
Thanks [markw2k9] for sending this one in! | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286408",
"author": "Aqib Idrees",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T08:18:06",
"content": "Slight design flaw, a single notification nullifies the entire functionality",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286424",
"author": "kaaaa... | 1,760,373,322.58298 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/modern-network-adapter-for-retro/ | Modern Network Adapter For Retro Computers | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"atari",
"bluetooth",
"ESP32",
"interface",
"modem",
"network",
"printer",
"retro",
"sd card",
"SIO",
"wifi"
] | Universal Serial Bus, or USB, is so ingrained in modern computing that it’s hard to imagine a time without it. That time did exist, though, and it was a wild west of connector types, standards, and interfacing methods. One of the more interesting interfaces of the time was the SIO system found in 8-bit Atari computers which ended up sharing a lot of the features of modern USB, and its adaptability is displayed in
this modern project which brings WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, and SD card slots to any old Atari with an SIO port
.
The project is called
FujiNet
and it uses the lightweight protocol of SIO to add a number of modern features to the 8-bit machine. It’s based on an ESP32, and the chip performs the functions of a network adapter by bridging WiFi and Bluetooth to the Atari. It does this by simulating drives that would have potentially been used on the Atari in its time, such as a floppy disk drive, an RS232 interface, or a modem, and translating them to the modern wireless communication protocols. It even has the ability to emulate a printer by taking the output of the print job from the Atari and converting it to PDF within the device itself.
Not only does this bring a lot of functionality to the Atari, which you may be able to use to view sites like
retro.hackaday.com
, but the FujiNet is housed in a period-appropriate 3D-printed case that matches the look and feel of the original Atari. If you need a more generic solution for your retrocomputing networking adventures that isn’t limited to SIO, we
recommend grabbing a Raspberry Pi to handle that
.
Thanks to [Gavin] for the tip! | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286377",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T05:13:28",
"content": "Joe Decuir invented SIO and also worked on the development of USB 1.0 and 1.1.https://computingpioneers.com/index.php/Joe_Decuir",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,322.795966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/grab-a-stanford-computer-science-education/ | Grab A Stanford Computer Science Education | Al Williams | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"computer science",
"degree",
"self study",
"stanford",
"university"
] | There are two reasons to go to school: learn about something and to get a coveted piece of paper that helps you get jobs, or at least, job interviews. With so many schools putting material online, you can do the first part without spending much money as long as you don’t expect the school to help you or grant you that piece of paper. Stanford has a huge computer science department and [Rui Ma] cataloged over
150 computer science classes
available online in some form from the University. Just the thing to while away time during the quarantine.
Apparently, [Rui] grabbed the 2020 course catalog to find on-campus classes and found the companion website for each class, organizing them for our benefit. The list doesn’t include the actual online class offerings, which you can find directly from Stanford, although there is
another list
for that.
There are basic classes like CS103, Mathematical Foundations of Computing, that are important to know before attempting some of the upper-level classes. Systems classes range from CS1U on Practical Unix to CS149 and CS315B which cover parallel computing.
If you want to learn more about the theory behind why your LED blink algorithm scales poorly, there’s CS254, Computational Complexity. Machine learning is in vogue right now, and there are plenty of options including CS20, Tensorflow for Deep Learning Research.
There’s more, but we’ll let you read the list. Phone programming, robots, video games, and biocomputing are all on the menu. There are even a few classes on things like personal finance for engineers, ethics, and computer music.
To be fair, not all of these classes are easy to digest on their own. Some of them are supporting material and you really need the professor’s lectures. However, for some classes like
CS106L (Standard C++ Programming)
you’ll find complete sets of lecture notes and some classes even have video lectures, like the one below from CS224N, Natural Language Processing with Deep Learning.
We were glad [Rui] put together this list. Of course, if you are grabbing university content for self-study, you
don’t have to get everything from one place
. If you want a very practical education, the
Navy’s materials
are another source. | 18 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286354",
"author": "tonyvr",
"timestamp": "2020-10-15T02:18:37",
"content": "Virtually all of MIT’s undergraduate and graduate courseware is on the web for free at:https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,322.694789 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/rolling-your-own-tivo-wifi-adapter/ | Rolling Your Own TiVo WiFi Adapter | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"fcc",
"proprietary",
"reverse engineering",
"TiVo",
"wifi"
] | The only thing more surprising than finding out TiVo actually put out a new 4K set-top box recently is learning that somehow they didn’t bother to build WiFi into the thing. You’re forced to buy a special wireless adapter to the tune of $60 USD to add the feature. We’d make a joke about the company living in the past, but frankly, it would be too easy.
Having to buy just one of these expensive dongles in 2020 would be insulting enough, but TiVo superfan [xxbiohazrdxx] needed four of them. Rather than hand nearly $250 to the antennae-headed overlords,
they decided to reverse engineer the adapter and produce their own low-cost version
. While the final result might not be as slim and svelte as the original, it does come in at less than 1/4 the price.
Operating under the assumption that the TiVo would only talk to a WiFi adapter based on the same Broadcom BCM43569 chipset used in the official one, [xxbiohazrdxx] started by trying to find a standard USB dongle that might be a drop-in replacement. Unfortunately, it looks like this particular chip was almost exclusively used in proprietary applications, most commonly as a WiFi board inside of smart TVs. But as it turns out, that wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker.
After some searching, [xxbiohazrdxx] eventually found the promising CyberTAN NU361-HS board. Not only was it based on the right chipset and ran from 5 volts, but its FCC ID entry had a complete pinout for the connector. This particular WiFi module is used in a number of budget TVs and is widely available as a spare part for less than $10. By combing the board and a USB breakout PCB inside of a 3D printed case, you’ve got a plug-and-play WiFi adapter that the TiVo thinks is the real deal.
There was a time when Hackaday was flooded with TiVo hacks, but it’s now been
more than a decade since cheap carrier-provided DVRs ate the company’s lunch
. Realistically, there’s an excellent chance that this post will be the only time a mention of the once-mighty DVR graces the front page in 2020. While the reign of the TiVo might be at its end, the
impact it had as one of the first Linux-powered consumer devices
will be etched in hacker history forever. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286338",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T23:35:07",
"content": "Thank you for the article, Tom!! We are loyal Tivo users. As we don’t have cable, we don’t have a cheap carrier provided DVR so will likely be Tivo user for a while longer. The lack of WiFi in the Tivo m... | 1,760,373,322.945373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/14/designing-and-building-a-custom-optical-fuel-sensor/ | Designing And Building A Custom Optical Fuel Sensor | Tom Nardi | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers",
"Parts"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"optical sensor",
"potting",
"sensor"
] | At some time or another, we’ve all had an idea we thought was so clever that we jumped on the Internet to see if somebody else had already come up with it. Most of the time, they have. But on the off chance that you can’t find any signs of it online, you’re left with basically two possible conclusions. Either you’re about to enter uncharted territory, or your idea is so bad that everyone has collectively dismissed it already.
Which is precisely where [James Stanley] recently found himself. He had an idea for an non-contact optical sensor which would detect when his racing mower was about to run out of gas
by analyzing light passed through a clear section of fuel hose
. He couldn’t find any previous DIY examples of such a device, nor did there appear to be a commercial version. But did that mean it wouldn’t work, or that nobody had ever tried before?
Sensor proof of concept
Before he fully committed to designing the sensor, [James] started out by doing some proof of concept experiments. The first step was 3D printing a ring that had openings to slot in a LED and photoresistor at different angles to each other. Putting the LED and sensor on opposite sides of the fuel line makes the most logical sense, but he wanted to test if it really returned the strongest signal. Surprisingly this little test indicated that the best alignment was actually 60°, as it produced the largest gap between the “fuel” and “no fuel” readings.
Confident that the idea had merit, [James] pushed ahead and designed the 3D printed enclosure for what he’d ultimately dub the
FuelSafe
. He also came up with a relatively simple circuit using the ATtiny85 that he put together on a piece of perfboard. The MCU reads the value from the photoresistor, compares it to predetermined threshold values, and produces a digital signal to indicate whether or not there’s any fuel visible in the line. This signal is ultimately used to light a LED on the dashboard to indicate when it’s time to pull over and refuel.
To make sure his newly crafted sensor would survive, he even went as far as potting the whole thing with a two-part silicone resin. Unfortunately, while it might look impressive, [James] notes it was the wrong material to use as its far too soft and doesn’t really stick very well. Still, with the sensor housing all buttoned up, it should at least provide some cushioning to help with the sort of wild vibrations that we assume must go hand in hand with racing lawn mowers.
We’ve seen hackers put together fuel monitoring systems before, though out of an abundance of caution
they’ve always used off-the-shelf sensors
. But we think [James] has shown that if you do the research and put in the design effort, it’s possible to build your own fuel sensor that’s as safe as anything on the commercial market. Now we just have to wait for COVID-19 to blow over so he can get out to the track and see how well it works. | 36 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286292",
"author": "Doug",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T20:16:55",
"content": "What is the likelihood of the plastic tube aging and changing color or even getting fuel deposits on it? If there’s enough of a threshold to deal with that over a few years then no harm, no foul. Otherwise ... | 1,760,373,322.875613 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/browser-makes-tiny-office-suite/ | Browser Makes Tiny Office Suite | Al Williams | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"browser",
"html",
"html5",
"javascript",
"office",
"text editing",
"text editor"
] | There’s a recent craze of people living in tiny houses of 400 square feet down to as little as 80 square feet. Maybe [zserge] was thinking about that and created a
very tiny office suite
in which each tool weighs in at less than 1K. If you are guessing you couldn’t squeeze much functionality in C or C++ code or even assembly, you’d be right. The language of choice? HTML and JavaScript. So while the code is small, it relies on a pretty big piece of software. On the other hand, you have a browser open right now, so the incremental cost of using these tools is very small.
We get the idea that there’s not much chance this is going to sweep the shelves of Microsoft Office, Libre Office, and all the many competitors. However, it is a pretty stunning example of what you can do with modern HTML. There’s even a
GitHub repo
and a
subreddit
.
The text editor is only 63 bytes and can live inside a bookmark in the browser. While it doesn’t actually have the real features of a word processor, you can use Control+B and Control+I to set up bold and italic text. The spreadsheet is a marvel at 741 bytes and really does formulas using the somewhat unsafe eval() function. The functions don’t evaluate until you leave the cell, even if you press enter, so if it seems like it isn’t working, just try clicking in another cell.
For a paltry 410 bytes, there’s a drawing app and presentation module that weighs in at 668 bytes. This last is really just the text editor with some hotkeys to make bullets and headers and the like. There’s a hardcoded limit of 50 slides, but you could change that if you are more verbose.
Saving things can be a bit tricky. You can save as HTML or print using the browser’s native functions. You might have to take a screenshot of the drawing app. Overall, these little apps are a bit tongue-in-cheek, but we have to applaud their function to size ratio.
This project made us think of the
JavaScript art
project we covered before. We saw a similar technique used to provide
serverless websites
. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286057",
"author": "k-ww",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T04:03:33",
"content": "20*33^2=??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286058",
"author": "k-ww",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T04:07:15",
"content": "opps, ... | 1,760,373,322.640036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/new-bbc-microbit-adds-microphone-and-speaker/ | New BBC Micro:bit Adds Microphone And Speaker | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"education",
"Micro:bit",
"single board computer"
] | There’s an old tale that TV companies only need to make a few years of kids’ TV shows, because their audience constantly grows out of their offerings and is replaced by a new set with no prior knowledge of the old shows. Whether it’s true or not is up for debate, but does the same apply to single board computers aimed at kids? The original BBC micro:bit was first announced back in 2015 and must be interesting its second generation of kids by now, but
that hasn’t stopped them bringing out a second version of the little educational computer
. How do you update such a simple device? Time to take a look.
Edge connector shown on the original micro:bit design
The form factor of the new board is substantially the same as its predecessor, with the same edge connector and large connection pads, and the familiar LED matrix display. The most obvious additions are a small speaker and MEMS microphone allowing kids to interact with audio in their code, but less obvious is a new touch button in the micro:bit logo. The original had it in the silk screen layer, while the new one has it as copper for a capacitive sensor.
The silicon has an upgrade too, now sporting a Nordic Semiconductor nRF52833 running at 64 MHz and sporting 512k of ROM and 128k of RAM with built-in Bluetooth Low Energy. Binaries are incompatible with the original, however all the development environments can recompile code for a new universal binary format capable of running the appropriate software for either version.
The micro:bit has been more of a hit in schools than it has in our community, perhaps because it has the misfortune to have arrived alongside so many strong competitors. However it remains a powerful contender whose easy programming alongside the power of more traditional toolchains make it a good choice for kids and grown-ups alike.
We took a look at the original back in 2016
, if you are interested. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286034",
"author": "jonmayo",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T00:57:32",
"content": "correction, it’s 512kiB Flash and 128kiB RAM.It’s a pretty big jump though the old Micro:Bit was a Cortex-M0 with 16kiB RAM, this new version is a Cortex-M4 (w/ FPU) and 128KiB RAM. You can do a whole lot... | 1,760,373,322.752669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/building-this-mechanical-digital-clock-took-balls/ | Building This Mechanical Digital Clock Took Balls | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"digital",
"electromechanical",
"magnet",
"PCA9685",
"rtc",
"servo",
"seven segment"
] | In the neverending quest for unique ways to display the time, hackers will try just about anything. We’ve seen it all, or at least we thought we had, and then up popped
this purely mechanical digital clock that uses nothing but steel balls
to display the time. And we absolutely love it!
Click to embiggen (you’ll be glad you did)
One glimpse at the still images or the brief video below shows you exactly how [Eric Nguyen] managed to pull this off. Each segment of the display is made up of four 0.25″ (6.35 mm) steel balls, picked up and held in place by magnets behind the plain wood face of the clock. But the electromechanical complexity needed to accomplish that is the impressive part of the build. Each segment requires two servos, for a whopping 28 units plus one for the colon. Add to that the two heavy-duty servos needed to tilt the head and the four needed to lift the tray holding the steel balls, and the level of complexity is way up there. And yet, [Eric] still managed to make the interior, which is packed with a laser-cut acrylic skeleton, neat and presentable, as well he might since watching the insides work is pretty satisfying.
We love the level of craftsmanship and creativity on this build, congratulations to [Eric] on making his first Arduino build so hard to top. We’ve seen other
mechanical digital displays
before, but this one is really a work of art.
Thanks to [
Ruhan van der Berg
] for the tip. | 26 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285959",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T20:06:58",
"content": "its 4:20. quick, get the bong!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286147",
"author": "Martin",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T11:11:15"... | 1,760,373,323.017254 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/quality-control-done-anywhere/ | Quality Control, Done Anywhere | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"3d printer",
"airtable",
"disaster",
"dream team",
"Field Ready",
"manufacturing",
"nonprofit",
"QC",
"qr code",
"quality control",
"small scale",
"supply chain",
"tracking"
] | Modern society has brought us all kinds of wonders, including rapid intercontinental travel, easy information access, and decreased costs for most consumer goods thanks to numerous supply chains. When those supply chains break down as a result of a natural disaster or other emergency, however, the disaster’s effects can be compounded without access to necessary supplies. That’s the focus of
Field Ready
, a nonprofit that sets up small-scale manufacturing in places without access to supply chains, or whose access has been recently disrupted.
As part of this year’s Hackaday Prize, a each of our four nonprofit partners outline specific needs that became the targets of a design and build challenge. Field Ready was one of those nonprofits, and for the challenge
they focused on quality control for their distributed manufacturing system
. We took a look at Field Ready back in June
to explore some of the unique challenges associated with their work
, which included customers potentially not knowing that a product they procured came from Field Ready in the first place, leading to very little feedback on the performance of the products and nowhere to turn when replacements are needed.
The challenge was met by a dream team whose members each received a $6,000 microgrant to work full time on the project. The’ve just made their report on an easier way of tracking all of the products produced, and identifying them even for those not in the organization. As a result, Field Ready has a much improved manufacturing and supply process which allows them to gather more data and get better feedback from users of their equipment. Join us after the break for a closer look at the system and to watch the team’s presentation video.
Put Your Name On It
The basis of the new system
started simply enough as a label with the Field Ready name printed on it along with a serial number. This allowed end users to know that the product was made by Field Ready and also provided them with contact information. Selecting an effective labeling method presented its own challenges though, and the team ended up trying out a number of different methods based on the type of product, its size, and its intended use location.
For example, if a product was single-use, the group realized they could simply use the shipping label only as their means of tracking the product. If not, paper labels on the products themselves could be used instead if the product was being used indoors.
Testing a label embosser on aluminum from a soda can
For exposure to the elements, an embossed label or an engraved label might be used, and for very large objects they could also spray paint the label onto the product. Each of these methods would need to be either included in the standard set of equipment that Field Ready would ship to an area in need, or be otherwise easily accessible to the local area, which poses its own set of challenges.
QR Codes Embed Great Detail
With the labeling issue sorted out, the focus could shift to documenting various aspects of the products involved. Making sure documentation gets completed is challenging in any environment, let alone those that Field Ready works in, so they set about trying to make the documentation process engaging, quick, and as easy as possible while relying on as little infrastructure as they could. The solution here was to create an app that allows for rapid creation of QR code labels for any of the products, without relying on internet access for links like QR codes are sometimes used for. The code directly contains all of the information in the product and can be produced and read without network access. If Internet access is available, however, the labels can be easily uploaded or shared using a variety of messaging systems.
The key to the QR code use is the JSON tags that are created for them with a hash value. Each time a QR code is scanned, a record is created about who scanned it and at what time, allowing for a paper trail of each product that the group creates. This is extremely effective at tracking products and their uses, and maintaining a high standard of quality control. The information can be used in a blockchain, which ensures the fidelity of the information gathered. Data produced with the app by scanning the QR codes is also fully integrated with
Airtable
, which simplifies the process of gathering and maintaining the data. Everything runs on iOS and care was taken to make sure that older Apple phones with smaller screens would be just as capable of running this software as more modern devices. Presumably the iOS limitation was because of the two-month window of delivering a product like this and the team does have some beginnings of an Android port.
Democratize Quality Control
One of the most important notes that Field Ready had after developing this quality control solution for their distributed manufacturing is to not get caught up in all of the techonology. Quality control is about humans and human processes, and keeping that in mind can result in a much more user-friendly experience. They also focus on making an organization that revolves around the humans using the products and those involved in the creation of the products as a foundation for good quality control as well.
While the team has a great start on this quality control system, they hope to develop their prototypes out further to make them more robust to varying use cases. With that in mind, they are going to roll out their solutions slowly, to one region at a time, so that they can more accurately track the deployment and make changes to a smaller set of systems as needed. Of course, the work that they have done isn’t just limited to their organization either. They’ve released the iOS code for the app on
GitHub
and have released their Android code as well, and have make access to their reports and to their Airtable databases available to those who want them, whether you are a small business needing a way to track small-batch orders or another nonprofit in a disaster-ridden area.
We certainly can’t wait to see some of the ways that this gets put to use and are excited to see Field Ready push this system out to wider and wider audiences too.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6286037",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2020-10-14T01:31:57",
"content": "Methinks that there are some people do not understand the meaning of quality control and quality assurance.I do not understand the ‘democratization’ of QC. Earnest query -> please explain.",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,373,323.064447 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/andrea-ghez-gazes-into-our-galaxys-black-hole/ | Andrea Ghez Gazes Into Our Galaxy’s Black Hole | Kristina Panos | [
"Biography",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"adaptive optics",
"black hole",
"black holes",
"einstein",
"Galaxy",
"Keck telescope",
"milky way",
"Nobel",
"nobel prize winners",
"physics",
"relativity",
"Sagittarius A*",
"supermassive black hole"
] | Decades ago, Einstein predicted the existence of something he didn’t believe in —
black holes
. Ever since then, people have been trying to get a glimpse of these collapsed stars that represent the limits of our understanding of physics.
For the last 25 years, Andrea Ghez has had her sights set on the black hole at the center of our galaxy known as
Sagittarius A*
, trying to conclusively prove it exists. In the early days, her proposal was dismissed entirely. Then she started getting lauded for it. Andrea earned a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008. In 2012, she was the first woman to receive the Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Image via
SciTech Daily
Now Andrea has become the fourth woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics for her discovery. She shares the prize with Roger Penrose and Reinhard Genzel for discoveries relating to black holes.
UCLA posted her gracious reaction to becoming a Nobel Laureate
.
A Star is Born
Andrea Mia Ghez was born June 16th, 1965 in New York City, but grew up in the Hyde Park area of Chicago. Her love of astronomy was launched right along with Apollo program. Once she saw the moon landing, she told her parents that she wanted to be the first female astronaut. They bought her a telescope, and she’s had her eye on the stars ever since. Now Andrea visits
the Keck telescopes
— the world’s largest — six times a year.
Andrea was always interested in math and science growing up, and could usually be found asking big questions about the universe. She earned a BS from MIT in 1987 and a PhD from Caltech in 1992. While she was still in graduate school, she made a major discovery concerning star formation — that most stars are born with companion star. After graduating from Caltech, Andrea became a
professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA
so she could get access to the Keck telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
The Keck telescopes and the Milky Way. Image via
Flickr
The Center of the Galaxy
Since 1995, Andrea has pointed the Keck telescopes toward the center of our galaxy, some 25,000 light years away. There’s a lot of gas and dust clouding the view, so she and her team had to get creative with something called
adaptive optics
. This method works by deforming the telescope’s mirror in real time in order to overcome fluctuations in the atmosphere.
Thanks to adaptive optics, Andrea and her team were able to capture images that were 10-30 times clearer than what was previously possible. By studying the orbits of stars that hang out near the center, she was able to determine that a supermassive black hole with four millions times the mass of the sun must lie there. Thanks to this telescope hack, Andrea and other scientists will be able to study the effects of black holes on gravity and galaxies right here at home. You can watch her explain her work briefly in the video after the break. Congratulations, Dr. Ghez, and here’s to another 25 years of fruitful research. | 21 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285940",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T19:00:56",
"content": "Kristina, I noticed that there is under representation of left-handed persons in your biography article series. Can it be corrected in future? Thanks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,... | 1,760,373,323.171721 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/robot-gets-around-on-all-fours-thanks-to-many-many-servos/ | Robot Gets Around On All Fours, Thanks To Many, Many Servos | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot",
"walking robot"
] | As far as robots are concerned, wheels and tracks are great ways to get around when you’ve got serious work to do. However, if you want to build something that feels more animal than machine, building a walking ‘bot is the way to go.
[Technovation] delivers a great example in the form of this quadruped design.
It’s a build executed in the modern style, taking full advantage of contemporary design tools and processes. The entire robot is built around twelve servo motors that provide rotation and translation to the robot’s joints. After importing the servo models into Fusion 360, [Technovation] set about building the rest of the body around them. An Arduino Uno runs the show, which addresses the many servos thanks to a Sensor Shield that has a multitude of useful outputs.
[Technovation] put a specific focus on durability and robustness during the design phase. The platform is intended as a test bed for various walking styles and gaits, and thus any hardware failures would be an unnecessary distraction from the project’s goals. The chassis is a great platform to learn on, and we expect to see further developments in future.
The eerily lifelike robots from Boston Dynamics may have set a high bar,
but DIYers are still out there having a crack at building capable walking robots
. Video after the break. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285978",
"author": "Cuthbert",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T20:59:07",
"content": "Fun! Reminds me of the I-Cybie robot dog from back in 2000.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6286067",
"author": "Unochepassa",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,323.10618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/firmware-hints-that-teslas-driver-camera-is-watching/ | Firmware Hints That Tesla’s Driver Camera Is Watching | Tom Nardi | [
"car hacks",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"Autopilot",
"image recognition",
"self-driving car",
"tesla"
] | Currently, if you want to use the Autopilot or Self-Driving modes on a Tesla vehicle you need to keep your hands on the wheel at all times. That’s because, ultimately, the human driver is still the responsible party. Tesla is adamant about the fact that functions which allow the car to steer itself within a lane, avoid obstacles, and intelligently adjust its speed to match traffic
all constitute a driver
assistance
system
. If somebody figures out how to fool the wheel sensor and take a nap while their shiny new electric car is hurtling down the freeway, they want no part of it.
So it makes sense that the company’s official line regarding the driver-facing camera in the Model 3 and Model Y is that it’s there to record what the driver was doing in the seconds leading up to an impact. As explained in the
release notes of the June 2020 firmware update
, Tesla owners can opt-in to providing this data:
Help Tesla continue to develop safer vehicles by sharing camera data from your vehicle. This update will allow you to enable the built-in cabin camera above the rearview mirror. If enabled, Tesla will automatically capture images and a short video clip just prior to a collision or safety event to help engineers develop safety features and enhancements in the future.
But [green], who’s spent the last several years poking and prodding at the Tesla’s firmware and self-driving capabilities, recently found some compelling hints that there’s more to the story. As part of the vehicle’s image recognition system, which usually is tasked with picking up other vehicles or pedestrians, they found several interesting classes that don’t seem necessary given the official explanation of what the cabin camera is doing.
If all Tesla wanted was a few seconds of video uploaded to their offices each time one of their vehicles got into an accident, they wouldn’t need to be running image recognition configured to detect distracted drivers against it in real-time. While you could make the argument that this data would be useful to them, there would still be no reason to do it in the vehicle when it could be analyzed as part of the crash investigation. It seems far more likely that Tesla is laying the groundwork for a system that could give the vehicle another way of determining if the driver is paying attention.
Cadillac Competition
While Tesla certainly has the public’s eye and the Internet’s attention, they aren’t the only automaker experimenting with self-driving technology. General Motors offers a feature called Super Cruise on their high-end Cadillac luxury cars and SUVs that offers a number of very similar features. While Tesla’s vehicles undoubtedly know a few tricks that no Cadillac is capable of, Super Cruise does have a pretty clear advantage over the competition: hands-free driving.
To pull it off, Super Cruise uses a driver-facing camera that’s there specifically to determine where the driver is looking. If the aptly named “Driver Attention Camera” notices the operator doesn’t have their eyes on the road, it will flash a green and then red light embedded in the top of the steering wheel in the hopes of getting their attention.
If that doesn’t work, the car will then play a voice prompt telling the driver Super Cruise is going to disengage. Finally, if none of that got their attention, the car will come to a stop and contact an OnStar representative; at that point it’s assumed the driver is asleep, inebriated, or suffering some kind of medical episode.
With Super Cruise, GM has shown that a driver-facing camera is socially acceptable among customers interested in self-driving technology. More importantly, it demonstrates considerable real-world benefits. Physical steering wheel sensors offer a valuable data point, but by looking at the driver and studying their behavior, the system becomes far more reliable.
Falling Behind
Given the number of high profile cases in which users have fooled Tesla’s wheel sensors, it’s clear the company needs to step up their efforts.
When police are pulling over speeding vehicles only to discover their “drivers” are sound asleep
, something has obviously gone very wrong. Even if these situations are statistical anomalies in the grand scheme of things, there’s no denying the system is exploitable. For self-driving vehicles to become mainstream, automakers will need to demonstrate that they are nigh infallible; embarrassing missteps like this only serve to hold the entire industry back.
Tesla’s failure to keep their drivers engaged certainly isn’t going unnoticed. In the
European New Car Assessment Programme’s recently released ratings
for several vehicles equipped with driver assistance systems, the Tesla Model 3 was given just a 36% on Assistance Competence. The report explained that while the Model 3 offered an impressive array of functions, it did a poor job of working collaboratively with the human driver. It goes on to say that the situation is made worse by Tesla’s Autopilot marketing, as it fosters a belief that the vehicle can drive itself without user intervention. The fact that the Model 3 has an internal camera but isn’t currently using it to monitor the driver was also specifically mentioned as a shortcoming of the system.
While Tesla was an early pioneer in the field, traditional automakers are now stepping up their efforts to develop their own driver assistance systems. With this new competition comes increased regulatory oversight, greater media attention, and of course, ever higher customer expectations. While it seems Tesla has been reluctant to turn a camera on their own users thus far, the time will soon come where pressure from the rest of the industry means they no longer have a choice. | 163 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285838",
"author": "bm",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T14:13:08",
"content": "Information that I’m sure will find it’s way to insurance companies..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285857",
"author": "my2c",
"times... | 1,760,373,323.777067 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/the-potatoes-of-doom/ | The Potatoes Of DOOM | Matthew Carlson | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"doom",
"potato"
] | Over the years, the 1993 classic Doom has gained an almost meme-like status where it can seemingly run on anything. Everything from printers to smartwatches has been shown off running the now-iconic first level of Doom. Looking to up the bar, [Equalo] set out to run Doom on potatoes. However until we develop full biological computers, he had to settle for
running Doom on a device powered by potatoes
. (Video, embedded below.)
As we’ve seen with other hacks before, potatoes are a decent power source that just requires potato, zinc, and copper. Some have attempted to
make it easier to scale potato power
and others have focused on
making the individual potatoes more powerful
. The biggest obstacle when working with potatoes as a battery is that even though each potato can put out almost a volt, the current is laughably small.
The lack of current is what drove [Equalo] to dramatically scale up the typical potato battery. With a target device of a Raspberry Pi Zero requiring around 100 mA at 4.5V, this means he needed over 700 potato slices. After boiling hundreds of potatoes and with a bit of help from friends and family, the giant potato battery was constructed, and we can’t help but marvel at the sheer scale and audacity. The challenge of scaling up a potato battery is that by the time you’re wiring up the 400th potato, your first potato has already started to corrode.
Next time you’re looking for some inspiration for a monumental task, perhaps watch the tale of [Equalo’s] giant potato battery and remember what can be accomplished with some determination and a hundred pounds of spuds.
Thanks [Mike] for sending this one in! | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285798",
"author": "Ben",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T11:29:42",
"content": "I should have thought that the “almost a volt” was provided by the zing/copper couple, not the potato.And I should have thought that Hackaday knew its bit of chemistry better !",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,373,323.297901 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/13/usb-adaptor-isolates-multiple-serial-interfaces/ | USB Adaptor Isolates Multiple Serial Interfaces | Chris Lott | [
"Crowd Funding",
"hardware"
] | [
"CAN",
"Isolation",
"rs-232",
"rs-485",
"serial communications",
"usb"
] | You need a Swiss Army knife of serial communications? Ollie is a
compact isolated USB adaptor
that provides USB, CAN bus, and two UARTs at logic, RS-232, and RS-485 signaling levels, as well as an isolated power supply. [Slimelec] has managed to squeeze all this into a package the size of a harmonica. We like the technique of making the enclosure from PCB material, complete with clearly labeled switch, LED and connector pinout names.
So far, only the compiled
firmware is available
for this project, but hardware files, and presumably the source code and documentation, are coming soon.
The central themes here are isolation and flexibility. We can’t find the isolation voltage in the project specifications, but the
CANable project
on which this adaptor is based provides 2.5 kV galvanic isolation. A single isolated USB interface is also provided over a standard Type A connector. The four-wire logic-level UART signals are available on a 2 x 7 box header, and are voltage selectable. The RS-232, RS-485, and CAN signals are on an 8-pin pluggable screw terminal block, or you can use a DB9 connector with a pluggable adaptor board.
Whether you need a troubleshooting aid for field testing, are using CAN bus on your projects, or just want to isolate your expensive computer from sketchy prototype hardware, have a look at this project. | 34 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285764",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T08:05:33",
"content": "Just looking at the picture, it’s nice that the second layer of PCB is added to provide info on the pins. I bet that underneath he has removed all reference designators to cram more components in a smaller a... | 1,760,373,323.848689 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/retro-computer-trainer-gets-a-raspberry-pi-refit/ | Retro Computer Trainer Gets A Raspberry Pi Refit | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6800",
"cassette",
"ET-3400",
"expansion",
"heathkit",
"motorola",
"PIA",
"ram",
"retrocomputer",
"rom",
"trainer"
] | We know what you’re thinking: this is yet another one of those “Gut the retro gear for its cool old case and then fill it up with IoT junk” projects. Well, rest assured that
extending and enhancing this 1970s computer trainer
is very much an exercise in respecting the original design, and while there’s a Pi inside, it doesn’t come close to spoiling the retro goodness.
Like many of a similar vintage as [Scott M. Baker], the Heathkit catalog was perhaps only leafed through marginally less than the annual Radio Shack catalog. One particularly desirable Heathkit item was the ET-3400 microcomputer learning system, which was basically a 6800-based computer surrounded by a breadboarding area for experimentation. [Scott] got a hold of one of these, but without the optional expansion accessory that would allow it to do interesting things such as running BASIC or even supporting a serial port. So [Scott] decided to roll his own expansion board.
The expansion card that [Scott] designed is not strictly a faithful reproduction, at least in terms of the original BOM. He turned to more modern — and more readily available — components, but still managed to provide the serial port, cassette interface, and RAM/ROM expansion of the original unit. The Raspberry Pi is an optional add-on, which just allows him to connect wirelessly if he wants. The card fits into a 3D-printed case that sits below the ET-3400 and maintains the original trainer’s look and feel. The longish video below shows the build and gives a tour of the ET-3400, both before and after the mods.
It looks as though
trainers like these
and
other artifacts
from the early days of the PC revolution are getting quite collectible. Makes us wish we hadn’t thrown some things out. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285743",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T05:47:29",
"content": "I’m tired of hearing about all these projects where somebody guts a retro case and crams a RasPi inside!It is like a Hollywood movie, where each movie is the same as the last, just rearranged s... | 1,760,373,324.017669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/retro-datasette-for-commodore-ted-series/ | An Up-To-Date Datasette For Commodore TED Series | Chris Lott | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"commodore plus/4",
"Commodore TED",
"sd card"
] | Retro computer enthusiast [Steven Combs] documents his
adventure building the TEDuino
, a modern replacement for the Commodore Datasette which uses an SD card instead of audio tape. He based the design on [Peter Edwards]’s
Tapuino project
, which was featured by
Hackaday back in 2014
. [Steven] took the aesthetic design to a new level, and also modified it to work with his Plus/4 and other TED series Commodores. We are amazed that he was able to design this enclosure in SketchUp, and impressed with the results from his Creality Ender 3. He went to great lengths to match the color and style of the Plus/4, and pulled it off quite well. [Steven] also applied some interesting design features in this enclosure. The PCB modules are snap-fit, the buttons are made as a single piece – not unlike a living hinge. The 3D-printed strain relief for the cable is a nice finishing touch, and we cannot disagree with [Steven]’s sage advice – “Gorilla anything is just cool”.
This is only part 1 of the project. Stay tuned for future improvements, tweaks and embellishments. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285765",
"author": "Sweetlilmre",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T08:06:12",
"content": "Fantastic work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6286022",
"author": "Steven Combs",
"timestamp": "2020-10-13T22:55:38",
... | 1,760,373,323.45745 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/worlds-smallest-version-of-worlds-fastest-bumper-car/ | World’s Smallest Version Of World’s Fastest Bumper Car | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"bumper car",
"motor",
"PS2 controller",
"R/C",
"R/C car",
"servo",
"Wii Balance Board"
] | A few years ago, YouTubing madman [Colin Furze] took an old bumper car and made a 600-horsepower beast of a go-kart that managed to clock 100MPH with a headwind. This isn’t that.
It’s a miniaturized, remote-control homage to [Colin]’s go-kart that is equally awesome
.
[Forsyth Creations] started by CAD-modeling the chassis right on top of a still from the video. The entire body is 3D-printed in four large pieces, which took several days because each piece took around 24 hours. Inside the car there’s an Arduino brain driving a motor in the back and a servo in the front. This bad boy runs on a couple of rechargeable battery packs and can be controlled with either a Wii balance board or a PS2 controller. This thing really moves, although it doesn’t quite reach 100MPH. Watch it zoom around in the video after the break.
Got a Segway lying around that just doesn’t do it for you anymore?
You could always turn it into a go-kart
. Never had a Segway to begin with?
Just roll your own
. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285679",
"author": "JJ",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T23:30:21",
"content": "600cc, not 600hp…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285680",
"author": "Sunoo",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T23:34:11",
"content": "Y... | 1,760,373,323.894274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/fail-of-the-week-putting-guitar-strings-on-a-piano/ | Fail Of The Week: Putting Guitar Strings On A Piano | Sven Gregori | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"fail",
"guitar string",
"musical instrument",
"piano"
] | The piano is a bit of an oddball within the string instrument family. Apart from rarely seeing people carry one around on the bus or use its case to discretely conceal a Tommy Gun, the way the strings are engaged in the first place — by having little hammers attached to each key knock the sound of of them — is rather unique compared to the usual finger or bow movement. Still, it
is
a string instrument, so it’s only natural to wonder what a piano would sound like if it was equipped with guitar strings instead of piano wire. Well,
[Mattias Krantz] went on to actually find out the hard way, and shows the results in this video
.
After a brief encounter with a bolt cutter, the point of no return was reached soon on. Now, the average piano has 88 keys, and depending on the note, a single key might have up to three strings involved at once. In case of [Mattias]’ piano — which, in his defense, has certainly seen better days — a total of 210 strings had to be replaced for the experiment. Guitars on the other hand have only six, so not only did he need 35 packs of guitar strings, the gauge and length variety is quite limited on top. What may sound like a futile endeavor from the beginning didn’t get much better over time, and at some point, the strings weren’t long enough anymore and he had to tie them together. Along with some inevitable breakage, he unfortunately ran out of strings and couldn’t finish the entire piano, though it seems he still managed to roughly cover a guitar’s frequency range, so that’s an appropriate result.
We’re not sure if [Mattias] ever expected this to actually work, but it kinda does — there is at least some real sound. Are the results more than questionable though? Oh absolutely, but we have to admire the audacity and perseverance he showed to actually pull through with this. It took him 28 hours just to get the guitar strings on, and another good amount of time to actually get them all in tune. Did it pay off? Well, that depends how you look at it. It definitely satisfied his and other’s curiosity, and the piano produces some really unique and interesting sounds now — but check for yourself in the video after the break. But that might not be for everyone, so luckily
there are less final ways to change a piano’s sound
. And worst case,
you can always just turn it into a workbench
.
(Thanks for the tip, [Keith]) | 35 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285636",
"author": "nah!",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T20:23:09",
"content": "bass strings would have counted too",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285642",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T20:26:50",
... | 1,760,373,323.968616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/a-breadboard-block-for-8-bit-cpus/ | A Breadboard Block For 8-Bit CPUs | Matthew Carlson | [
"hardware"
] | [
"8bit",
"breadboard",
"cpu",
"custom PCB",
"homebrew cpu"
] | Breadboard CPUs are a fantastic learning experience and require serious dedication and patience. Occasionally, CPU builders eschew their breadboards and fab their design onto a PCB. But this takes away the flexibility and some of the opportunity for learning that breadboard CPUs offer. [c0pperdragon] was doing the same sort of repetitive wiring from project to project as most 8-bit breadboard CPUs use memory, a bus, an IO controller, ROM, and a few other passive components.
Taking a compromise approach, [c0pperdragon] built a
PCB that can be used as a building block in his custom CPUs
which they have titled “ByteMachine”. A single row of 34 pins offer power, clock, reset, 19 address bus lines, 8 data bus lines, and a ROM selector. This means that the CPUs can fit on a single breadboard and can run faster as the impedance of the breadboard has less effect on the circuit. With 512 KB of RAM and 512 KB of ROM, in a ZIF socket for easy reprogramming, ByteMachine has plenty of space.
One drawback is the lack of IO. There is no dedicated address space as this would require decoding logic between the RAM and the CPU. [C0pperdragon] added a simple 8-bit output register provided by a 74-series logic IC. The data is displayed on 8 red LEDs and can be accessed via pins. Input is accomplished in a similar way with just 8 bits of digital input provided.
[C0pperdragon] has built the
65C02
,
65C816
,
Z84C00
, and the
i8088
with the ByteMachine. Each was documented with incredible schematics, pictures, and test programs on GitHub. Next time you’re looking to build a CPU on a breadboard, maybe start with a ByteMachine. In some ways, it might improve your learning experience as it makes the
incredible mass of wires we’ve seen on other projects
a tad more manageable.
Thanks [Reinhard Grafl] for sending this one in! | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285611",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T18:47:04",
"content": "https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/abbreviations_forming_plurals.htm",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285626",
"author": "Ren",
"... | 1,760,373,324.081515 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/improved-part-searches-for-jlcpcb-parts/ | Improved Part Searches For JLCPCB Parts | Chris Lott | [
"hardware"
] | [
"Bill of materials",
"choosing parts",
"JLCPCB",
"parts database"
] | Finding the JLCPCB component parts library frustrating to navigate, [Jan Mrázek] took matters into his own hands and made an open-source
parametric search utility
. We’ve all probably wasted time before trying to track down a particular flavor of a part, and this tool promises to make the process easier. It downloads data from the
JLCPCB parts site
upon initialization and presents the user with typical selection filters for categories and parameter values. You can install it yourself on GitHub Pages, or [Jan] provides
a link to his site
.
For the curious, the details of how to pull parts information from the JLBPCB site can be found in the project’s source code. We like it when a distributor provides this level of access to their part details and parameters, allowing others to sort and filter the parts in ways not originally envisioned by the site design team. We think this is a win-win situation — distributors can’t sell parts that designers can’t find.
If [Jan]’s name sounds familiar, it should be. We have written about several of his projects before, two of them are also PCB designer tools (
KiCad Board Renderings
and
KiCad Panelization
). | 29 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285478",
"author": "Vinalon",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T04:19:59",
"content": "Access to cheap PCA services like JLCPCB is a game-changer, so projects like this are very welcome.Sure, OSHPark can do me a board and stencils for a board with a QFP-100 part. But it’s a pain to assemble... | 1,760,373,324.14985 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/hackaday-links-october-11-2020/ | Hackaday Links: October 11, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"Big Iron",
"clock",
"cnc",
"coil",
"dsp",
"earthquake",
"gps",
"hackaday links",
"ibm",
"PySDR",
"sdr",
"server",
"simulation",
"System/390"
] | If you’re interested in SDR and digital signal processing but don’t know where to start, you’re in luck. Ben Hillburn, president of the GNU Radio Project,
recently tweeted
about
an online curriculum for learning SDR and DSP using Python
. The course was developed by Dr. Mark Lichtman, who was a lead on GNU Radio, and from the look of it, this is the place to go to learn about putting SDRs to use doing cool things. The course is chock full of animations that make the concepts clear, and explain what all the equations mean in a way that’s sure to appeal to practical learners.
It’s not much of a secret that the Hackaday community loves clocks. We build clocks out of everything and anything, and any unique way of telling time is rightly applauded and celebrated on our pages. But does the clock motif make a good basis for a video game? Perhaps not, but that didn’t stop
Clock Simulator
from becoming a thing. To “play” Clock Simulator, you advance the hands of an on-screen clock by pressing a button once per second. Now, thanks to Michael Dwyer, you don’t even have to do that one simple thing. He developed
a hardware cheat for Clock Simulator
that takes the 1PPS output from a GPS module and wires it into a mouse. The pulse stream clicks the mouse once per second with atomic precision, rendering the player irrelevant and making the whole thing even more pointless. Or perhaps that
is
the point.
Maybe we were a little hard on Clock Simulator, though — we can see how it would help achieve a Zen-like state with its requirement for steady rhythm, at least when not cheating. Another source of Zen for some is watching precision machining, and more precise, the better. We ran into
this mesmerizing video of a CNC micro-coil winder
and found it fascinating to watch, despite the vertical format. The winder is built from a CNC lathe, to the carriage of which a wire dispenser and tensioning attachment have been added. The wire is hair-fine and passes through a ruby nozzle with a 0.6 mm bore, and LinuxCNC controls the tiny back and forth motion of the wire as it winds onto the form. We don’t know what the coil will be used for, but we respect the precision of winding something smaller than a matchhead.
Dave Jones over at EEVblog posted a teardown video this week that goes to a place few of us have ever seen:
inside a processor module for an IBM System/390 server
. These servers earned the name “Big Iron” for a reason, as everything about them was engineered to perform. The processor module Dave found in his mailbag was worth $250,000 in 1991, and from the look of it was worth every penny. From the 64-layer ceramic substrate supporting up to 121 individual dies to the stout oil-filled aluminum enclosure, everything about this module is impressive. We were particularly intrigued by the spring-loaded copper pistons used to transfer heat away from each die; the 2,772 pins on the other side were pretty neat too.
Here’s an interesting question: what happens if an earthquake occurs in the middle of a 3D printing run? It’s probably not something you’ve given much thought, but it’s something that regular reader Marius Taciuc experienced recently.
As he relates
, the magnitude 6.7 quake that struck near Kainatu in Papua New Guinea (
later adjusted to a 6.3 magnitude
) resulted in a solid 15 seconds of shaking at his location, where he was printing a part on his modified Mendel/Prusa i2. The shaking showed up clearly in the part as the machine started swaying with the room. It’s probably not a practical way to make a seismograph, but it’s still an interesting artifact. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285454",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T23:13:53",
"content": "Well at least Marius wasn’t baking a soufflé. (Of course if he was making a protein shake…)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6285490",
"author":... | 1,760,373,324.1878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/lo-fi-art-on-a-32x32-matrix/ | Lo-Fi Art On A 32×32 Matrix | Tom Nardi | [
"LED Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"HUB75",
"led matrix",
"Music Player Daemon"
] | Display technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years, thanks in no small part to the smartphone revolution. High-resolution LCD panels are dirt cheap and easy to interface with. There’s absolutely no logical reason to try and show images on a 32×32 array of RGB LEDs. But that
didn’t stop [Felix Spöttel] from doing it anyway
.
The project, which he calls
thirtytwopixels
, was designed to work in conjunction with MPD (Music Player Daemon) to show the album art for whatever is currently playing. The ultra-low resolution display added a certain element of abstractness to the artwork, which [Felix] said made it an interesting conversation starter. Guests would try and guess what the album art was depicting given the sparse rendition shown on the matrix.
[Felix] gives an excellent explanation of how to get the server and client-side software up and running should you want to recreate his setup, but his Python scripts also have a function where you can push an arbitrary image to the display if you don’t want to connect everything up to the MPD backend.
On the hardware side,
thirtytwopixels
uses the Raspberry Pi Zero W, a Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet, and a 32×32 LED matrix that
uses the HUB75 interface
. Even a relatively small LED matrix like this can get pretty thirsty, so [Felix] is using a 5 volt power supply that can deliver 4 amps to keep the electronics happy.
If you wanted to keep the low resolution aesthetic but make the display larger, we’ve seen
WS2812B LED strips and 3D printed frames used to make a custom jumbo matrix
which could surely be adapted for this concept. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285430",
"author": "That guy",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T20:20:36",
"content": "Shouldn’t it be called “onethousandtwentyfour pixels?”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285441",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,373,324.247065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/tube-amp-is-modeled-with-the-power-of-ai/ | Tube Amp Is Modeled With The Power Of AI | Matthew Carlson | [
"Machine Learning",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"guitar amp",
"machine learning",
"wavenet"
] | There is a certain magic and uniqueness to hardware, particularly when it comes to audio. Tube amplifiers are well-known and well-loved by audio enthusiasts and musicians alike. However, that uniqueness also comes with the price of the fact that gear takes up space and cannot be configured outside the bounds of what it was designed to do. [keyth72] has decided to take it upon themselves to
recreate the smooth sound of the Fenders Blues Jr. small tube guitar amp
. But rather than using hardware or standard audio software, the magic of AI was thrown at it.
In some ways, recreating a transformation is exactly what AI is designed for. There’s a clear and recordable input with a similar output. In this case, [keyth72] recorded several guitar sessions with the guitar audio sent through the device they wanted to recreate. Using WaveNet, they created a model that applies the transform to input audio in real-time. The Gain and EQ knobs were handled outside the model itself to keep things simple. Instructions on how to train your own model
are included on the GitHub page
.
While the model is simply approximating the real hardware, it still sounds quite impressive, and perhaps the next time you need a particular sound of your
home-built amp
or
guitar pedal
, you might reach for your computer instead. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285477",
"author": "beatjunkie",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T04:09:52",
"content": "This is sold by Kemper as an (expensive) product. Great to see that the tech will become eventually open source and free.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"commen... | 1,760,373,324.290358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/access-an-8-bit-atari-through-twitter/ | Access An 8-bit Atari Through Twitter | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"apple II",
"assembly",
"atari",
"atari 800",
"basic",
"Computing",
"emulator",
"pilot",
"raspberry pi",
"retro",
"turbo-basic xl",
"tweet",
"twitter"
] | Building a retro computer, or even restoring one, is a great way to understand a lot of the fundamentals of computing. That can take a long time and a lot of energy, though. Luckily, there is
a Twitter bot out there
that can let you experience an old 8-bit Atari without even needing to spin up an emulator.
Just tweet your program to the bot
, and it outputs the result.
The bot was built by [Kay Savetz] and accepts programs in five programming languages: Atari BASIC, Turbo-Basic XL, Atari Logo, Atari PILOT, and Atari Assembler/Editor, which was a low-level assembly-type language available on these machines. The bot itself runs on a Raspberry Pi with the Atari 800 emulator, rather than original hardware, presumably because it’s much simpler to get a working network connection on a Pi than on a computer from the 80s. The Pi runs a python script that polls Twitter every two minutes and then hands the code off to the emulator.
[Kay]’s work isn’t limited to just Ataris, though. There’s also an Apple II BASIC bot for all the Apple fans out there that responds to programs written in AppleSoft BASIC. While
building your own retro system
or
emulating one
on other hardware is a great exercise, it’s also great that there are tools like these that allow manipulation of retro computers without having to do any of the dirty work ourselves. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285444",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T21:42:10",
"content": "Finally a good use for Twitter!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6285446",
"author": "Żyła Grzegorz",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T21:48:38",
... | 1,760,373,324.331701 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/arduino-gets-old-pc-booted-and-back-into-action/ | Arduino Gets Old PC Booted And Back Into Action | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"arduino nano",
"bios",
"custom keyboard",
"input device"
] | How many people still have a PS/2 keyboard kicking around in 2020? Admittedly asking such a question of the Hackaday audience is probably cheating (there’s a decent chance one of you will type a comment on one just to prove a point), but even the most pedantic reader has to admit that it’s a long dead standard. So we’re hardly surprised to hear that [Turbaned Engineer] didn’t have one handy when he tried to boot a motherboard so old that he couldn’t access the BIOS with a USB keyboard.
But rather than waiting for an adapter to show up in the mail, he decided to
rig up an Arduino Nano to mimic a PS/2 keyboard
just long enough for him to navigate the system configuration. Since that basically meant he only needed the arrow keys and Enter, he was able to rig up a handful of momentary buttons to serve as input. We wouldn’t recommend typing out your memoirs with such a spartan board, but it’s certainly good enough to juggle around the order of boot devices.
The fun didn’t stop there, though. [Turbaned Engineer] also had to clean some corrosion and fix a blown resistor on a bank of RAM to drag this old soldier over the finish line. He didn’t have a case handy, so he made a free-form one using the polycarbonate packaging that ICs ship in. The final machine isn’t exactly a sleeper, but it’s good enough to play
Super Mario Bros. 3
on the TV.
At the end of the day, the minimal input device [Turbaned Engineer] put together
isn’t so far removed from other homebrew keyboards we’ve seen
recently. It seems that QMK even has some basic support for the PS/2 interface. Not that it would come up very often, but a “retro” mode might be an interesting addition to your next custom keyboard build. | 47 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285362",
"author": "Pierce Mundy",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T11:27:10",
"content": "DIN keyboard here, PS/2 is too modern for me.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285451",
"author": "D J Richert",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,325.220962 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/modular-rover-platform-rolls-on-3d-printed-flexible-tank-tracks/ | Modular Rover Platform Rolls On 3D Printed Flexible Tank Tracks | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"flexible filament",
"james bruton",
"Ninjaflex",
"rover",
"tank track",
"tracked robot"
] | Master of 3D printed robots, [James Bruton], plans to do some autonomous rover projects in the future, but first,
he needed a modular rover platform
. Everything is cooler with tank tracks, so he built a rover with flexible interlocking track sections.
The track sections are printed with flexible Ninjaflex filament. Each section has a tab designed to slot through two neighboring pieces. The ends of the tabs stick through on the inside of the track fit into slots on the drive wheel like gear teeth. This prevents the track from slipping under load. The Ninjaflex is almost too flexible, allowing the tracks to stretch and almost climb off the wheels, so [James] plans to experiment with some other materials in the future. The chassis consists of two 2020 T-slot extrusions, which allows convenient mounting of the wheel bogies and other components.
The interlocking track pieces
For initial driving tests [James] fitted two completely overpowered 1500 W brushless motors that he had on hand, which he plans to replace with smaller geared DC motors at a later stage.
A standard RC system is used for control, but it does not offer a simple way to control a skid steer vehicle. To solve this, [James] added an Arduino between the RC receiver and the motor ESC. It converts the PWM throttle and turn signal from the transmitter, and combines is into differential PWM outputs for the two ESCs.
We look forward to seeing what [James] does with the rover. It seems like the perfect platform for the new
Nvidia Jetson Nano 2GB
. A while back [rctestflight] built also built an interesting
tracker 3D printed rover
, which can run autonomously with Ardurover, and sometimes lives out at his flying field. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285347",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T08:17:27",
"content": "James reinvented the link belt. Can pick those up at Harbor Freight. Item 43771. Also look up Accu-Link, Fenner Power Twist, BDH DuroDrive, Jason Industrial and others.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,325.131919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/inputs-of-interest-the-orbitouch-keyless-keyboard-and-mouse/ | Inputs Of Interest: The OrbiTouch Keyless Keyboard And Mouse | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"hardware",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Reviews",
"Slider"
] | [
"assistive technology",
"color code",
"Joystick",
"keyboard",
"keyboard and mouse combined"
] | I can’t remember how exactly I came across the OrbiTouch keyboard, but it’s been on my list to clack about for a long time. Launched in 2003, the OrbiTouch is a keyboard and mouse in one. It’s designed for people who can’t keyboard regularly, or simply want a different kind of experience.
The OrbiTouch was conceived of by a PhD student who started to experience carpal tunnel while writing papers. He spent fifteen years developing the OrbiTouch and found that it could assist many people who have various upper body deficiencies. So, how does it work?
It’s Like Playing Air Hockey with Both Hands
To use this keyboard, you put both hands on the sliders and move them around. They are identical eight-way joysticks or D-pads, essentially. The grips sort of resemble a mouse and have what looks like a special resting place for your pinky.
One slider points to groups of letters, numbers, and special characters, and the other chooses a color from a special OrbiTouch rainbow. Pink includes things like parentheses and their cousins along with tilde, colon and semi-colon. Black is for the modifiers like Tab, Alt, Ctrl, Shift, and Backspace. These special characters and modifiers aren’t shown on the hieroglyphs slider, you just have to keep the guide handy until you memorize the placement of everything around the circle.
You’re gonna need a decent amount of desk space for this. Image via
OrbiTouch
The alphabet is divided up into groups of five letters which are color-coded in rainbow order that starts with orange, because red is reserved for the F keys. So for instance, A is orange, B is yellow, C is green, D is blue, E is purple, then it starts back over with F at orange. If you wanted to type
cab
, for instance, you would start by moving the hieroglyph slider to the first alphabet group and the color slider to green.
Slide Along the Rainbow
The interesting thing about this keyboard and this particular word is that all the letters for
cab
are in the first group. The keyboard will let you keep one of the sliders in place if you have repeated colors or letter groups, so you can keep the alpha slider in place and just move the rainbow slider around from green to orange to yellow to spell
cab
. Let’s watch it type ‘Hackaday’ over and over:
A selection from the slide guide. Image via
OrbiTouch
Every letter, number, and special character has an equivalent directional pair that may or may not be easy to memorize. According to the FAQ, the maximum output you can expect from this thing is 30-40WPM. Although it is a combination keyboard and mouse, if you play any games that are more serious than say, Minesweeper,
forget about it. You’ll have to keep switching between keyboard and mouse mode, and it’s a whole thing, and you’re gonna die really quickly.
I think the color code is a great idea, but if you’re colorblind, it’s likely not going to be the keyboard for you. Also, you would have to have the use of both hands and a pretty good amount of coordination to be able to drive this keyboard/mouse hybrid creature. On the plus side, every gesture requires equal force, which is fairly low.
conclusion
Apparently this keyboard rates highly with autistic people because of the alphabetically rainbow-tastic way that the inputs are laid out. Those aesthetic choices are definitely a high point in my book. I think it’s neat that it’s so totally different from any other keyboard. It looks fun to try, at least for little while. Though I can’t imagine typing an entire Hackaday article on one, it looks way more fun to learn than Dvorak. I might buy one someday, but the OrbiTouch is a touch on the expensive side at $399, or you can pick them up used for around $200. They were actually sold out of both the black-and-white versions on the OrbiTouch website at the time of this writing, but there are a few out there on the electronic bay.
So is this keyboard really assistive technology? It kind of depends on your level of functioning. If typing hurts, but you still need to do it, this could be your saving grace. All things considered, I would think that all the joystick motion would aggravate wrist issues or even cause them, but since I haven’t tried actually tried one out, I can’t say for sure. Have any of you tried one? | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285603",
"author": "carcanhol",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T18:15:36",
"content": "Can we customize the top parts with 3d printed ones? I was thinking of something round…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285674",
"author... | 1,760,373,324.91527 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/add-creativity-to-your-bom-hack-chat/ | Add Creativity To Your BOM: Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"creativity",
"Hack Chat",
"innovation",
"inspiration",
"invention",
"organization"
] | Join us on Wednesday, October 14th at noon Pacific for the
Harnessing Your Creativity Hack Chat
with Leo Fernekes!
You’re sitting at your bench, surrounded by the tools of the trade — meters and scopes, power supplies and hand tools, and a well-stocked parts bin. Your breadboard is ready, your fingers are itching to build, and you’ve got everything you need to get started, but — nothing happens. Something is missing, and if you’re like many of us, it’s the one thing you can’t get from eBay or Amazon: the creative spark that makes innovation happen.
Creativity is one of those things that’s difficult to describe, and is often noticed most when it’s absent. Hardware hacking requires great buckets of creativity, and it’s not always possible to count on it being there exactly when it’s called for. It would be great if you could somehow reduce creativity to practice and making it something as easy to source for every project as any other commodity.
While Leo Fernekes hasn’t exactly commoditized creativity, judging from the breadth of projects on
his YouTube channel
, he’s got a pretty good system for turning ideas into creations. We’ve featured a few of his builds on our pages, like
a discrete transistor digital clock
,
the last continuity tester you’ll ever need
, and his
somewhat unconventional breadboarding techniques
. Leo’s not afraid to
fail and share the lessons learned
, either.
His projects, though, aren’t the whole story here: it’s his process that we’re going to discuss. Leo joins us for this Hack Chat to poke at the creative process and see what can be done to remain rigorous and systematic in your approach but still make the process creative and flexible. Join us with your questions about finding the inspiration you need to turn parts and skills into finished projects that really innovate.
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 14 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. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285581",
"author": "anthonyportell",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T16:03:32",
"content": "Thank you sharing……",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6673138",
"author": "Bomhack",
"timestamp": "2023-08-15T17:08:37",
... | 1,760,373,325.262563 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/running-way-more-led-strips-on-a-raspberry-pi-with-dma/ | Running Way More LED Strips On A Raspberry Pi With DMA | Lewin Day | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"rgb",
"ws2812b"
] | The Raspberry Pi is a powerful computer in a compact form factor, making it highly useful for all manner of projects. However, it lacks some of the IO capabilities you might find on a common microcontroller. This is most apparent when it comes to running addressable LED strings. Normally, this is done using the Pi’s PWM or audio output, and is limited to just a couple of short strings. However,
[Jeremy P Bentham] has found a way to leverage the Pi’s hardware to overcome these limitations.
The trick is using the Raspberry Pi’s little-documented
Secondary Memory Interface
. The SMI hardware allows the Pi to shift out data to 8 or 16 I/O pins in parallel using direct memory access (DMA), with fast and accurate timing. This makes it perfect for generating signals such as those used by WS2812B LEDs, also known as NeoPixels.
With [Jeremy]’s code and the right supporting hardware, it’s possible to run up to 16 LED strips of arbitrary length from the Raspberry Pi. [Jeremy] does a great job outlining how it all works, covering everything from the data format used by WS2812B LEDs to the way cache needs to be handled to avoid garbled data. The hack works on all Pis, from the humble Pi Zero to the powerful Pi 4. Thanks to using DMA, the technique doesn’t overload the CPU, so performance should be good across the board.
Of course, there are other ways to drive a ton of LEDs;
we’ve seen 20,000 running on an ESP32, for example.
[Thanks to Petiepooo for the tip!] | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285566",
"author": "Uriel Guy",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T15:16:57",
"content": "In case someone wants to run 27 parallel strips, I have a kernel module for Raspberry Pi Zero to do that. Although this is a much cleaner, less violent solution.https://github.com/UrielGuy/raspi_ws2812"... | 1,760,373,324.971325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/ask-hackaday-with-landline-use-in-decline-whats-to-be-done-with-the-local-loop/ | Ask Hackaday: With Landline Use In Decline, What’s To Be Done With The Local Loop? | Dan Maloney | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Interest",
"Network Hacks",
"Original Art"
] | [
"copper",
"copper wire",
"infrastructure",
"landline",
"local loop",
"plain old telephone system",
"pots",
"telco"
] | Walking is great exercise, but it’s good for the mind too: it gives one time to observe and to think. At least that’s what I do on my daily walks, and being me, what I usually observe and think about is the local infrastructure along my route. Recently, I was surprised to see a number of telephone company cabinets lying open next to the sidewalk. Usually when you see an open box, there’s a telephone tech right there, working on the system. But these were wide open and unattended, which I thought was unusual.
I, of course, took the opportunity to check out the contents of these pedestals in detail. Looking at the hundreds of pairs of brightly colored wire all neatly terminated and obviously installed and maintained at great expense, I was left wondering why someone would leave such a valuable asset exposed to the elements. With traditional POTS, or plain old telephone service, on the decline, the world may no longer have much use for the millions of miles of copper cable feeding back to telco central offices (COs) anymore. But there’s got to be something this once-vital infrastructure is still good for, leading me to ask: what’s to be done with the local loop?
Inside Plant, with a Side of BORSCHT
Like any industry that’s been around since before the previous turn of the century, the telephone industry is rife with jargon. Telcos refer to all the things they use to run their systems as their physical plant. If this brings to mind the image of a factory, that’s not far off: the switchgear, cables, and supporting equipment really are a huge machine, and initially, telcos are really just factories built to move sound from one place to another.
Telco physical plant equipment can be divided into two broad categories: the inside plant and the outside plant. The inside plant is, as the name implies, everything that resides under a roof. This includes the switchgear itself, the main distribution frames where the incoming local loop wires are connected, plus all the support gear for so-called BORSCHT functions, an acronym for:
B
attery (nominal 48 VDC to power the local loop);
O
vervoltage protection from surges on the local loop;
R
inging voltage (about 89 V RMS);
S
ignaling or
S
upervision, which detects on- or off-hook conditions at the subscriber end and decodes
DTMF
tones;
C
oding, which provides support for digital encoding and decoding algorithms;
H
ybrid, which transforms the two-wire local loop into a four-wire connection;
and
T
esting, which allows field techs to connect a subscriber directly to testing gear in the central office.
Things tend to change within the inside plant fairly rapidly as technology advances. For example, many COs started out filled with either step-by-step (SxS) or crossbar switches, with rack after rack filled with sparking, clacking relays and solenoids that connected one subscriber line to another within the exchange, or shipped it off to another exchange for connection to one of its subscribers. Later, electronic switches came in and replaced all that old gear, and change that was often
performed so quickly
that subscribers barely noticed the changeover.
Outside Plant
Outside plant refers to everything the telephone company installs outside the central office. If it’s strung up on poles, buried in the ground, or sitting on a tower on a mountaintop somewhere, it counts as outside plant.
The most obvious bit of outside plant is the miles and miles of wire that form the local loop. In the early days of telephone service, and probably clear up to at least the 1980s or early 1990s in North America, the local loop was exactly that — a single pair of copper conductors stretching from the main distribution frames in the central office to the demarcation point at the subscriber’s premises. When a phone was taken off the hook, the loop was completed and the process of making or taking a call began.
A telco pedestal for a condo in my area. This example of telco outside plant has been open to the elements for weeks.
Like the inside plant, the local loop and the other components of the outside plant changed over the years, with additional equipment added to handle newer digital technologies, like integrated services digital network (ISDN) and digital subscriber line (DSL). But despite the changing technology, a lot of what the telephone companies did to upgrade their services was predicated on leveraging their most valuable asset — all those miles and miles of precious copper, carefully crafted into a massive network reaching nearly every address on the map.
Sadly, though, there’s only so far you can push 19th-century technology, and telephone companies, already with their backs against the walls, faced a double challenge starting in the early 2000s: the rise of the cell phone and the emergence of widespread broadband. No longer were people tied to a landline, when a cell phone could do the same job and more. And in those cases where cell coverage was poor, chances were good that a broadband connection could be leveraged with one of the new VOIP telephone services, piped into the subscriber’s premises either via a cable internet provider or, ironically, over a DSL connection.
Sign of the times: Ziply fiber is coming to town. Source:
Ziply Fiber
But the surge in DSL connections was really a last hurrah for the copper local loop. Fixed landline subscriptions have fallen in the US since 2000 from nearly 200 million (about 70% of the population at the time) to only 116 million lines in 2018. People just don’t have a valid use case for a landline phone anymore. This explains the specifics of my observations during my morning walk: a few days ago, a cable construction crew showed up near one of the pedestals I found open and set up a signboard announcing the arrival of a new fiber-optic network by
Ziply
. It turns out that
Ziply bought the operations and assets of Frontier Communications
in my area back in May, and are investing $500 million to upgrade the network.
Your Turn
From what I’ve seen, Ziply is primarily interested in leveraging the rights-of-way of the outside plant they inherited from Frontier. Those few remaining landlines seem to be little more than a source of cash to finance the build-out of their new network. My question is: what’s to become of all those copper lines?
It seems a shame to just abandon such a valuable asset in place, but maybe it only seems valuable to someone who isn’t running a fiber-optic company. Perhaps all the copper will one day prove to be just a nuisance, something to suck up maintenance budget while returning little value. Maybe at that point it would make sense to scrap it — pull all those carefully installed and slavishly maintained cables off the poles and out of the conduits and sell it off for its scrap copper value.
Or is there perhaps another plan for such a seemingly valuable asset? Could copper networks still have a place in the communications ecosystem, one that takes advantage of their unique position of connecting virtually every home and business? We’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s to be done with the local loop, and we’d especially love to hear from any of the telco engineers who devoted their careers to building these amazing networks and keeping them alive. There have to be a ton of inside stories about the outside plant, and we’d appreciate you sharing them in the comments below. | 100 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285550",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T14:16:12",
"content": "They should sell the copper lines to Muzak who would install an interstate speaker systems for the background soundtrack we all need in these uncertain times.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,373,325.518904 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/halwop-recreates-retro-style-with-the-raspberry-pi/ | HALWOP Recreates Retro Style With The Raspberry Pi | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"luggable",
"mechanical keyboard",
"Raspberry Pi 4",
"retro computer"
] | Modern computers are incredible feats of engineering, but there are many that still yearn for the simpler times. When keyboards clacked and a desktop computer quite literally dominated the top of your desk. There’s a whole community of folks who scratch that itch by restoring vintage computers, but not everyone has the time, money, or skill for such pursuits. Plus, even the most lovingly cared for Apple II isn’t going to help you watch YouTube.
Those who wish to recreate the look and feel of a vintage computer with modern internals
will certainly be interested in the HALWOP by [Maz_Baz]
. While its 3D printed case isn’t a replica of any one computer, it does draw inspiration from iconic machines like the Apple Lisa and IBM XT. It’s an amalgamation of design ideas that seemed like a good idea circa 1982 or so, with plenty of 90° angles and air vents to go around.
Considering the size of the Raspberry Pi 4 that powers the HALWOP, most of the case is just hollow plastic. But of course, the whole idea depends on it being almost comically large. On the plus side, [Maz_Baz] says you can use one of those empty compartments to hold a Anker PowerCore 26800 battery pack.
At least in theory that makes it a “luggable” computer
, though good luck trying to move it around.
In addition to the Pi 4 and battery pack, the HALWOP also uses a seven-inch touch LCD and Keychron K2 Bluetooth mechanical keyboard. Since everything is so modular, assembly is about as simple as it gets. Outside of the USB cables that power everything, you just need a long enough ribbon cable to connect the LCD to the Pi.
We know the purists don’t like
the idea of a “retro” computer based on the Raspberry Pi
, but of course, such projects aren’t about maintaining historical accuracy. They are a way to bridge the gap between modern technology and the unique aesthetics of a bygone era. Designs like the HALWOP allow
a new generation to experience a taste of what computing was like
in the early days, without giving up the ground that’s been gained in the intervening years. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285543",
"author": "rthty",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T13:20:46",
"content": "Macintosh mini but with fpga and working on OS7 (and 4 AA BATTERY) this will be great",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6285558",
"author": "Foldi-O... | 1,760,373,324.836306 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/12/spin-the-video-track-with-a-mechanical-flair/ | Spin The Video Track With A Mechanical Flair | Matthew Carlson | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"3D printed mechanical keyboard",
"keyboard",
"microcontroller",
"Teensy",
"video editing"
] | One of the most difficult user interfaces to get right is video editing. It is complex and fiddly with large amounts of precision required even after four or five hours of straight editing. Seeking to bring some of that interface out into the real world, [Zack Freedman] built a
mechanical video editing keyboard
.
The keyboard in question features popular shortcuts and keys to breeze through different parts of editing. The biggest feature is, of course, the large scrubbing knob, allowing [Zack] to fly through long video with precision. We’ve seen our fair share of mechanical keyboards that
aren’t traditional keyboards
on Hackaday before, such as
this number pad
or
this macro pad
.
One of the unique constraints of this project was the fact that Zack had a deadline of two days. This self-imposed deadline was to help focus the work and drive it towards completion. This meant that it had to be designed in such a way that roadblocks or troublesome features could be designed around or cut out altogether. At its heart, this project is just 14 mechanical switches, 4 potentiometers, and a Teensy to drive it all. It is the design, prototyping, and thought that went into this project that makes it noteworthy. There are plenty of lessons here about how to manage a project’s timeline and advice about how to actually finish it.
Code, STL’s, diagrams, and instructions are all
on his GitHub
.
Thanks [Zack] for sending this one in! | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285506",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T08:21:11",
"content": "There was a popular video editing suit that had a similar hardware solution a few years back. It later went open source. I think it was named “light” something. Interesting.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,373,325.317715 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/throwing-down-the-fpga-gauntlet/ | Throwing Down The FPGA Gauntlet | Matthew Carlson | [
"FPGA",
"Games"
] | [
"arcade",
"fpga",
"gauntlet",
"mame",
"vhdl"
] | Gauntlet is a well-known arcade game from 1985 with many sequels and ports to more modern architectures such as Xbox and GameCube. Thanks to its popularity and relative age, the original arcade cabinet is well documented with the schematics available online. It was regarded as the most complex and ambitious hardware Atari had ever developed at the time it was released. In what can only be described as an absolute labor of love, [Alex] has
recreated the arcade hardware on the Pipistrello FPGA board
.
The project can actually play Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, and Vindicators II as they all ran on the same hardware. Four joysticks are supported so up to four players can play, though the EEPROM is emulated in RAM so high scores are reset when the device is powered down. The FPGA is almost out of space and can’t quite squeeze in the SRAM needed. So an SRAM expansion daughterboard is required; nothing a quick board run from our favorite purple PCB manufacturer can’t solve.
In the repo is an
incredible write-up
detailing the system, how it works, and the process of debugging it. This project also includes a complete simulation of the TMS5220 Voice Synthesis Processor, as Gauntlet was the first coin-operated arcade machine with a voice synthesizer. Getting the video correct was particularly tricky and it took several tries to get the color palette and motion looking right. Since [Alex] didn’t have access to an original Gauntlet arcade cabinet, they had to make do with MAME. After writing a test to make sure the FPGA was working correctly, there were differences between the MAME emulation and the FPGA output. To help out, [Colin Davies] came to the rescue. After [Colin] hooked up an original Gauntlet Arcade PCB with the motion test loaded up, the test showed that the FPGA had the correct behavior.
During development [Alex] actually simulated several frames of the game in ISIM (at a whopping 90 seconds per frame or 90 minutes per in-game second). Using ISIM allowed them to compare system state to MAME and validate the design much faster as they could better inspect the interworkings of the different modules. Using a clever trick of grabbing state from MAME after a few seconds, they primed the FPGA state and saved themselves a few hours of simulation.
If you’re looking to get into old hardware style arcade game development, give the
browser-based 8bitworkshop IDE a spin
. Or start with something a little smaller in scope and size with this
adorable mini CRT arcade cabinet.
Thanks [Alex] for sending this one in! | 29 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285484",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T05:35:26",
"content": "Gauntlet wasn’t the first game to speak. Berzerk was speaking in November 1980. Stratovox is billed as the first video game with voice synthesis, released in May 1980. Wizard of Wor also spoke, coming o... | 1,760,373,325.588184 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/10/the-cable-modem-to-sdr-transformation/ | The Cable Modem To SDR Transformation | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"cable modem",
"reverse engineering",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | What do you do with an old cable modem in a closet? If you are [stdw] you reverse engineer it and turn it into a
software-defined radio
. The modem in question was a Motorola MB7220. After looking at a similar project using a different modem, it seemed like it should be doable.
Cracking open the case revealed two likely UART ports, one of which was active. The output from that UART provided a lot of info. The chip was a Broadcom BCM3383 which is a MIPS processor. It had eCos as an operating system. However, the bootloader eventually disables the UART, so there wasn’t much more investigation possible via the serial terminal.
The next step was to dump the flash memory. That required a little solder surgery to prevent the board from starting while the flash chip had power. It appeared that some key credentials and configuration data were present, but they were really backups. After doing a factory reset to remove the backups, the right data was apparent.
After some lengthy exploration, the diagnostic that builds a spectrum display gave up its data. At first, the data was just a small sample of what was really required, but it did show a local FM station as a spectrum. Eventually, the data loss rate was down to about 12% when streaming which is not great, but good enough. You can hear an
audio clip
of the reception. Not exactly crystal-clear quality, but not bad.
Of course, no one will use this for an FM radio. But it is a fascinating view into how far you can hack into a device like this if you have some skills and patience. There must be something about quarantine that is making people hack old gear, as we just recently saw a similar
Netgear hack
. Even
cheap games
aren’t safe. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285549",
"author": "Person",
"timestamp": "2020-10-12T14:09:03",
"content": "What is the name of the song that was playing in the sample? (Not long enough to shazam)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6285660",
"author":... | 1,760,373,325.360878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/10/diy-braille-embosser-is-really-impressive/ | DIY Braille Embosser Is Really Impressive | Kristina Panos | [
"how-to",
"Lifehacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"braille",
"Braille maker",
"embosser"
] | We weren’t surprised to learn that Braille tools are quite expensive. But it’s interesting to hear that there’s another class of tools altogether, and they are very cheap and imprecise.
In devising the Braille Embossing Experience, aka BEE, [alatorre] sought to find an open-source middle ground
. We think they succeeded marvelously.
Another surprising thing — while handheld embossers do exist, there is no system for filling out an A4 sheet of paper, say, to write a letter.
For Braille to be readable, the characters and lines must be properly spaced, and this requires some kind of moveable type-like device to correctly register the characters onto paper. BEE fills this void as well. The amazing thing is, there’s not much more to it than a marked-up piece of aluminum and some clever 3D printing.
There are two parts to this system — the positioning rail, which includes a landing box for the embosser with six holes in the bottom. The other part is a pair of embossers, one for letters A-M, and another for letters N-Z. To use BEE, just slide the rail to the right and start embossing letters right to left, then flip the paper over when finished.
Need to create something more permanent?
Make a Braille PCB
. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285322",
"author": "Diogenes",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T02:36:07",
"content": "Is this meant to be used by blind people? If so, how are they going to index the tool properly, if it’s just done through markings and not physical bumps?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,373,325.652547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/10/heavy-metal-power-bank-uses-tool-batteries/ | Heavy Metal Power Bank Uses Tool Batteries | Tom Nardi | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"12 volt",
"battery power",
"cnc",
"cordless tool",
"inverter",
"metal working",
"power bank"
] | At one time or another, most of us have seen a gadget for sale and thought we could build something similar for cheaper. Of course, we’re almost always wrong. Not about being able to build it, mind you. But when you add up the cost of the materials, the tool or two you almost inevitably end up buying, and the time spent chasing perfection, you’re lucky if you haven’t doubled the original price.
We’re not sure how much money
[Taylor Hay] ended up saving by building his own portable power bank
. But we do know it’s a gorgeous piece of hardware that’s certainly built far better than the average consumer gadget. The CNC-cut aluminum side panels look like something pulled out of a tank, and while we know some might balk at the 3D printed internal frame, we’re confident you could use this thing as an impromptu step stool without a problem.
Inside there’s 150 watt 240 VAC inverter, complete with a temperature-controlled fan to keep it cool under load. There are also four USB ports providing 2.1 A each, a standard 12 VDC accessory port, and a LED display that shows battery voltage and current being drawn. Rather than come up with his own battery pack, [Taylor] used a 3D printed interface that accepts an 18 V Milwaukee cordless tool battery. Naturally, the design could be adapted to take another brand’s cells if you were so inclined.
Around these parts, we know that
a good project doesn’t have to be cheaper
or even
more practical than what’s already on the market
. There’s an inherent value in building something
exactly
the way you want it that you simply can’t put a monetary price on. | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6285306",
"author": "Thomas",
"timestamp": "2020-10-11T00:30:07",
"content": "Utilizing powertool battery packs in the DIY sector is not really a new thing, and for DIY projects it’s actually quite fun to use those bricks. After all, if you have them, why not use them? The one conce... | 1,760,373,325.908242 |
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