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https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/parsing-math-in-python/ | Parsing Math In Python | Al Williams | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"math",
"parser",
"python"
] | Programming computers used to be harder. Don’t get us wrong — today, people tend to solve harder problems with computers, but the fundamental act of programming is easier. We have high-level languages, toolkits, and even help from our operating systems. Most people never have to figure out how to directly read from a disk drive, deblock the data into records, and perform multiplication using nothing but shifts and adds. While that’s a good thing, sometimes it is good to study the basics. That was [gnebehay’s] thought when his university studies were too high level, so he decided to write an
arithmetic expression parser in Python
. It came out in about 100 lines of code.
Interpreting math expressions is one of those things that seems simple until you get into it. The first problem is correctly lexing the input — a term that means splitting into tokens. For a human, it seems simple that 5-3 is three tokens, {5, -, and 3} and that’s easy to figure out. But what about 5+-3? That’s also three tokens: {5,+,-3}. Tricky.
Precedence is the other problem. If you look at 5+3*2, you should remember that the answer is 11 or 5+(3*2). However, other than by convention, it is equally valid to consider the answer is 16, or (5+3)*2. Another convention is left association so that 7-4+2 is 5 instead of 1. As it turns out, [gnebehay’s] parser currently spits out 1 for that expression, but he’s promised to fix it soon.
While it is interesting to read the code, the real value is the readme file which documents the creation of the parser and some of the theory behind it. This sort of thing used to be a staple of computer science classes, but today you are less likely to encounter it as classes focus on higher-level constructs.
You probably won’t use this code for anything. You rarely need to parse just a math expression and even if you did, there are many tools to help do that now. But you might just learn something about how interpreters and compilers digest text and garner meaning.
Today, you would probably build a parser with
ANTLR
or some similar tool. While 100 lines seems small, we’ve seen
tiny languages
that are smaller. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279491",
"author": "Rob Fielding",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T02:28:48",
"content": "It is so trivial to parse LISP syntax, that up until 2000 or so, every large program embedded an interpreter. You make trivial built-ins for logical and numeric operators, and you have a perfectly u... | 1,760,373,349.76056 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/wooden-disc-player-translates-binary-back-into-text/ | Wooden Disc Player Translates Binary Back Into Text | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"binary encoder",
"Compact Disc",
"dc motor",
"laser",
"magnets",
"photodiode"
] | [jbumstead] used MATLAB to convert the text messages into binary to be cut out of the disk.
[jbumstead] wanted to demonstrate the idea of information-storing devices such as LPs, CDs, and old hard drives. What he came up with lies directly at the intersection of art and technology:
an intricately-built machine that plays beautiful collaged wooden disks
. Much like the media that inspired the Wooden Disk Player, it uses a laser to read encoded data, which in this case is short bits of text like “Don’t Panic”.
These snippets are stored in binary and read by a laser and photodiode pair that looks for holes and not-holes in the disk. The message is then sent to an Arduino Nano, which translates it into English and scrolls the text on an LED matrix. For extra fun, the Nano plays a MIDI note every time it reads a 1, and you can see the laser reading the disk through a protective acrylic shield.
Though the end result is fantastic, [jbumstead] had plenty of issues along the way which are explored in the build video after the break. We love it when people show us their mistakes, because it happens to all of us and we shouldn’t ever let it tell us to stop hacking.
If anyone knows their way around lasers, it’s [jbumstead].
We loved playing their laser harp at Supercon
!
Via
adafruit | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279485",
"author": "nimitzbrood",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T01:13:01",
"content": "This reminds me of those audio players in Dishonored.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6279495",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2020-0... | 1,760,373,350.069892 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/falcon-9-lamp-is-touching-down-in-the-living-room/ | Falcon 9 Lamp Is Touching Down In The Living Room | Tom Nardi | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Falcon 9",
"lamp",
"model",
"RGB LED",
"scale model",
"SpaceX"
] | Many of us have been inspired by the videos of the Falcon 9 booster, tall as an office building, riding a pillar of flame down to a pinpoint landing at Kennedy Space Center or on one of SpaceX’s floating landing pads in the ocean. It’s not often that we get to see science fiction fantasy become reality on such a short timescale, and while they might not be sold on the practicality of reusable rockets, even the most skeptical of observers have to admit it’s an incredible feat of engineering.
Though it can’t
quite
compare to the real thing, this
1:60 scale Falcon 9 lamp by [Sir Michael II] promises to bring a little of that excitement home
every time you flick on the light. Combining a scratch built model of the reusable booster with some RGB LEDs, the hovering tableau recreates the tense final seconds before the towering rocket comes to a rest on its deployable landing legs. We imagine those last moments must seem like an eternity for the SpaceX engineers watching from home as well.
The LED “exhaust” without the fluff.
[Michael] walks readers through assembling the Falcon 9 model, which cleverly uses a 2 inch white PVC pipe as the fuselage. After all, why waste the time and material printing a long white cylinder when you can just buy one at the hardware store for a few bucks?
Dressed up with
3D printed details from Thingiverse user [twuelfing]
and splashed with a bit of paint, it makes for a very convincing model. While the diameter of the pipe isn’t
quite
right for the claimed 1:60 scale, unless Elon Musk is coming over your place to hang out, we don’t think anyone will notice.
The rocket is attached to the pad with a piece of threaded steel rod, around which [Michael] has wrapped one meter of RGB LEDs controlled by an Arduino Uno. With some polyester fiber filler as a diffuser and a bit of code to get the LEDs flickering, he’s able to produce a realistic “flame” that looks to be coming from the Falcon 9’s center engine. While we admit it may not make a very good lamp in the traditional sense, it certainly gets extra points for style.
We’ve actually seen a similar trick used before to
light up the engines of a LEGO Saturn V and Apollo Lunar Module
. It’s amazing how realistic the effect can be, and we’d love to see it used more often. We’d also like to see
more model rockets that actually levitate over their pads
, but one step at a time. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279496",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T03:36:46",
"content": "I thought I saw something similar here on HaD years ago…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6279505",
"author": "It’s Still Cool Though",
... | 1,760,373,350.014231 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/casio-computer-rebuild-puts-new-wine-in-an-old-bottle/ | Casio Computer Rebuild Puts New Wine In An Old Bottle | Mike Szczys | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"calculator",
"casio",
"computer",
"custom PCB",
"qt-1",
"rebuild"
] | With a glut of vintage consumer electronics available from eBay it should be easy to relive your glory days, right? Unfortunately the march of time means that finding gear is easy but finding gear that works is not. So was the case when [Amen] acquired not one, but two used calculator/computer units hoping to end up with one working device. Instead, he went down the rabbit hole of
redesigning his own electronics to drive the Casio QT-1 seen here
.
Especially interesting is the prototyping process for the replacement board. [Amen] used a “BluePill” STM32 microcontroller board at its heart, and used point-to-point soldering for the rest of the circuitry on a rectangle of protoyping board. That circuit is non-trivial, needing a 23 V source to drive the original VFD from the computer, a battery-backed real-time-clock (MCP7940), and a GPIO expander to scan the keys on the keypad.
It worked great, but couldn’t be cut down to fit in the case. The solution was a PCB designed to fit the footprint of the original. The modern guts still need more firmware work and a couple of tweaks like nudging that 23 V rail a bit higher to 26 V for better brightness, but the work already warrants a maniacal cry of “It’s Alive!”.
This isn’t [Amen’s] first rodeo. Back in March we looked in on
another vintage Casio refurb that sniffed out the display protocol
. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279424",
"author": "Sean",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T19:09:06",
"content": "Quite a rabbit hole, indeed",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6279435",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T19:48:48",
"content": ... | 1,760,373,349.89323 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/the-zx-microdrive-budget-data-storage-1980s-style/ | The ZX Microdrive: Budget Data Storage, 1980s Style | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrocomputing",
"Slider"
] | [
"microdrive",
"sinclair",
"Sinclair Zx Spectrum",
"tape drive",
"ZX microdrive",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | An enduring memory for most who used the 8-bit home computers of the early 1980s is the use of cassette tapes for program storage. Only the extremely well-heeled could afford a disk drive, so if you didn’t fancy the idea of waiting an eternity for your code to load then you were out of luck. If you had a Sinclair Spectrum though, by 1983 you had another option in the form of the unique Sinclair ZX Microdrive.
This was a format developed in-house by Sinclair Research that was essentially a miniaturized version of the endless-loop tape carts which had appeared as 8-track Hi-Fi cartridges in the previous decade, and promised lightning fast load times of within a few seconds along with a relatively huge storage capacity of over 80 kB. Sinclair owners could take their place alongside the Big Boys of the home computer world, and they could do so without breaking the bank too much.
When 80 kB Of Storage Was A Big Deal
The ZX Microdrive unit in all its glory
As a traveler returning from a continental hacker camp the UK government requires me to sit out two weeks quarantine due to the pandemic, which I’m doing as the guest of Claire, a friend of mine who also happens to be a fount of knowledge on and prolific collector of 8-bit Sinclair hardware and software. Idly chatting about the Microdrive, she bought out examples of not only some of the drives and software, but also the interface system and an original boxed Microdrive kit. This gives me the opportunity to examine and tear down the system, and provide a fascinating insight for readers into this most unusual of peripherals.
Picking up a Microdrive, it’s a unit about 80 mm by 90 mm by 50 mm weighing just under 200 g, and it follows the same Rich Dickinson styling cues as the original rubber-key Spectrum. On the front is an opening about 32 mm by 7 mm for the Microdrive cartridges, and on each side at the rear is a 14-way PCB edge connector for connecting to the Spectrum and daisy-chaining to another Microdrive via a custom serial bus over supplied ribbon cables and connectors. A maximum of eight drives could be connected in this way.
The ZX Interface 1 unit, which screwed to the bottom of the Spectrum and engaged with its expansion port.
The Spectrum was an amazing machine for its price in the early 1980s, but this was achieved at the expense of very little in the way of built-in hardware interfaces beyond its video and cassette ports. On its rear was an edge connector that essentially exposed the Z80’s various buses, , leaving any further interfaces to be connected via expansion modules. A typical Spectrum owner would probably own a Kempston joystick adapter in this manner, to name the most obvious example. A Spectrum certainly didn’t come with a Microdrive connector, so the Microdrive had its own interface. The Sinclair ZX Interface 1 was a wedge-shaped unit that engaged with the edge connector on the Spectrum and screwed to the bottom of the computer, providing the Microdrive interface, an RS-232 serial port, a simple LAN interface that used 3.5 mm jack connectors, and a replication of the Sinclair edge connector into which further interfaces could be plugged. This interface contained a ROM that mapped itself over the Spectrum’s internal ROM, which as we noted
when the prototype Spectrum emerged
at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, was famously shipped unfinished and with some of its intended capabilities unimplemented.
Let The Teardown Commence!
It’s interesting to talk about the hardware, but of course, this is
Hackaday
. You don’t just want to see it, you want to see how it
works
. It’s time for a teardown, which we’ll start by opening up the Microdrive unit itself. Just like the Spectrum, the top of the unit is covered by a stuck-on black aluminium sheet bearing the iconic Spectrum logo, this has to be carefully teased away against the remaining force of 1980s adhesive to reveal the two screws securing the top half of the case. As with the Spectrum it’s difficult to do this without bending the aluminium, so some finesse is required.
Lifting the top half clear and disengaging the drive LED, the mechanism and board come into view. Immediately the seasoned reader will notice that resemblance to the much larger
8-track audio cartridges
, and though this is not a derivative of that system it works in a very similar way. The mechanism itself is extremely simple, on the right is a microswitch to sense when a cartridge has its write-protect tab removed and on the left is the motor shaft with a capstan roller. At the business end of the cartridge is a tape head that looks very similar to that you might find in a cassette deck but with narrower tape guides.
There are two PCBs, on the back of the tape head is one holding a 24-pin custom ULA (Uncommitted Logic Array, in effect a 1970s precursor to CPLDs and thus FPGAs) that selects and operates the drive, and another attached to the bottom half of the case that holds the two interface connectors and motor switching electronics.
The mechanism up-close and personal.
And at the rear, the ULA that runs the show.
The cartridges are 43 mm by 7 mm by 30 mm, containing 5 metres of 1.9 mm self-lubricating magnetic tape in a continuous loop. I don’t blame Clare for not letting me lever open one of her vintage cartridges, but thankfully Wikipedia supplies us with a picture of a cartridge with the top off. Immediately the resemblance to the 8-track cartridges becomes apparent, the capstan roller may be to one side but the same loop of tape feeds back into the center of the single reel.
The ZX microdrive manual optimistically claims that each cartridge could hold 100 kB of data, but the reality was that they held about 85 kB rising to over 90 kB once they had stretched a little with some use. It’s fair to say that they weren’t the most reliable of media, with the tape eventually stretching to the point at which it could no longer be read and even the Sinclair manual advising backups of frequently used tapes.
A Microdrive cartridge, decapped. Mumiemonstret /
CC0
80 kB of storage in a very small form factor for its day.
The final component of the system to receive the teardown treatment is the Interface 1 itself. Unusually for a Sinclair product it doesn’t have any screws hidden under rubber feet, so aside from a delicate maneuver to detach the top of the case from the Spectrum edge connector it’s an easy teardown. Inside are three chips, a Texas Instruments ROM, a General Instrument ULA rather than the Ferranti item used in the Spectrum itself, and a bit of 74 logic. The ULA contains all the circuitry aside from discretes for driving the serial buses for RS-232, Microdrive, and Network. Sinclair ULAs are notorious for overheating and cooking themselves, and this is one of the most vulnerable. The interface here can’t have been used much because it hasn’t been fitted with a ULA heatsink and there are no heat marks in the case or around it.
A last word in this teardown should go to the manual, a characteristically well-written slim volume which gives an insight into the system and how it integrated into the BASIC interpreter. The networking ability is particularly fascinating as it was rare to see it in use, it relied on each Spectrum in the network issuing a command to assign itself a number upon start-up because there was no Flash or similar memory onboard. This would have been incorporated to target the schools market as a competitor to Acorn’s Econet, it’s not surprising to see why the BBC Micro won the Government supported schools contract instead of the Sinclair machine.
The Microdrive manual and sample software set.
For a 1980s home computer, it’s unusually well-written.
Why Are We Not All Using Little Tape Cartridges For Storage?
From 2020 it’s fascinating to go back and examine this forgotten piece of computing technology, and take a look at a world in which a 100 kB storage medium that loaded in about 8 seconds rather than the many minutes a cassette would have done was such a big deal. It’s baffling that Interface 1 doesn’t incorporate a parallel printer interface because looking at the complete Spectrum system, it’s not too difficult to see it becoming an adequate home office productivity computer for its day and certainly for its price. Sinclair did sell their own thermal printer, but even the most starry-eyed Sinclair enthusiast would find it difficult to claim
the ZX printer
as anything but a novelty.
The truth is that like everything Sinclair it was a victim of Sir Clive’s legendary cost-cutting and ingenious ability to create the impossible out of unexpected components. The Microdrive was completely developed in-house at Sinclair, but perhaps it was just too little, too unreliable, and too late. The first Apple Macintosh with its proper floppy drive arrived in early 1984 as a contemporary of the ZX Microdrive, and though the little cartridges found their way into Sinclair’s ill-fated 16-bit machine the QL, the result was a commercial flop. There would be a Spectrum with a 3-inch floppy from Amstrad once they had bought Sinclair’s assets, but by then the Sinclair micros were marketed purely as games machines. It’s been an interesting teardown, but perhaps it’s best to leave with happy memories of 1984.
I am heavily indebted to Claire for the use of the hardware featured here. In case you are wondering, the photographs above show a variety of different components both working and non-functional, in particular the Microdrive unit subjected to the full teardown is one that has failed. We prefer not to unnecessarily harm retrocomputing hardware here at Hackaday. | 53 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279393",
"author": "Sergio Costas",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T17:49:46",
"content": "I used a Sinclair QL for more than seven years, and I have to say that their microdrives weren’t as fragile as people say. I used them regularly for school work and more and never missed a file. But... | 1,760,373,350.218798 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/hackaday-podcast-085-cable-robots-two-ways-cubic-raspberry-pi-plastic-wrap-kayak-and-digging-inductors/ | Hackaday Podcast 085: Cable Robots Two-Ways, Cubic Raspberry Pi, Plastic Wrap Kayak, And Digging Inductors | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams take a look at all the hacks from the week that was. We think we’ve found the perfect tentacle robot, and its matching controller is also a tentacle. An unrelated project uses the same Bowden cable trick as the tentacle controller to measure deflection. If you’re more of a material-science geek, refining black sand to make your own inductors is a fascinating hack. And we wrap up the episode talking SSH keys and buses that go off road, but not in the way you might think.
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 085 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Mike and Elliot are both updating their clock projects
The Corona Clock
Improved Okay-to-Wake Clock
Hardwear.io
conference is taking place virtually, Oct 1 & 2
Remoticon workshops will begin to be announced next week. Keep your eye on Hackaday!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
It’s A Boat? It’s A Duck? It’s A DIY Plastic Wrap Kayak!
Budget-Friendly Bend Sensor Deforms With Precision
A Tentacle That’s A Work Of Art
The Bootup Guide To Homebrew Two-Stage Tentacle Mechanisms
Humanoid Robot Has Joints That Inspire
Putting The Firmware In Your Firmware
Digging In The Dirt Yields Homebrew Inductors
Cybercube Makes A Great Computing Companion
This Ruggedized Raspberry Pi Was Built To Be Copied
Just Cubes
Quick Hacks:
Mike’s Picks:
This LEGO Air Conditioner Is Cooler Than Yours
Friendly Fiberglassing: Can Hide Glue Replace Epoxy?
Game Boy Plays Forever
Elliot’s Picks:
Rapid Charging Supercapacitors
Digital Expression Via Harmonica
Toy O-Scope Is Dope
Can’t-Miss Articles:
The O-Bahn Busway – Obscure Transit For The Masses
GitHub’s Move Away From Passwords: A Sign Of Things To Come? | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279454",
"author": "GoldOwl",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T21:15:12",
"content": "You really should have covered and talked about how bad AutoCAD Fusion 360 stuff.Heck, Even Makers Muse and the rest of the community are upset about this nonsense.watch?v=SlnEThQ4HR8",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,373,350.111508 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/magnum-opus-keyboardus-or-build-ad-infinitum/ | Magnum Opus Keyboardus, Or Build Ad Infinitum? | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"Kailh chocs",
"keyboard",
"RGB underglow",
"rotary encoder",
"split keyboard",
"toggle switch"
] | It happens to pretty much everyone who gets into keyboards. No commercial keyboard can meet all your needs, so you start building them. Use them a while, find problems, build a new keyboard to address them. Pretty soon you think you have enough user experience to design the perfect keeb —
the be-all, end-all magnum opus clacker you can take to the grave
. This time, it happened to [aydenvis]. We must say, the result is quite nice. But will it still be perfect in six months?
As you might expect, this board uses an Arduino Pro Micro. We can’t say for sure, but it looks like [aydenvis] created a socket with a second Pro Micro board populated only with female header. That’s definitely a cool idea in case the board fails. It also has two rotary encoders and a pair of toggle switches to switch controller and secondary designations between the PCBs.
We like the philosophy at play in this 36-key ‘board that states that prime ergonomics come when each finger must only travel one key distance from the home row. This of course requires programming layers of functionality into the firmware, which is easy enough to set up, but can be tricky to memorize. One thing that will help is the color-coded RGB underglow, which we’re going to call sandwich glow because it is emanating from the middle of a stacked pair of PCBs floating on 7 mm standoffs. We only wish we could hear how loudly those jade Kailh choc switches can clack.
The board files are up on GitHub
, so we may just have to make our own.
Indeed, many keebs we see use a Pro Micro or two, but
here’s a tasty split that runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero W
.
Via
reddit | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279340",
"author": "Ragnarok700",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T15:50:42",
"content": "Impressive keyboard!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6279349",
"author": "tekkieneet",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T16:07:42",
"content":... | 1,760,373,350.26418 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/19/e-textile-tools-get-the-multimeter-hookup/ | E-Textile Tools Get The Multimeter Hookup | Kristina Panos | [
"how-to",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"banana jack",
"banana plug",
"crochet hook",
"multimeter",
"seam ripper"
] | [Irene Posch] has done some incredible work with knitted, crocheted, and fabric circuits — check out the
crocheted ALUs
and
embroidered computer
for starters. Now, it seems [Irene] is building up a how-to catalog of e-textile tools that can be easily connected to a multimeter.
So far, this toolbox includes
a seam ripper
and
a crochet hook
. The concept is similar for both — print out a handle and connect the tool to a banana jack that can then be connected to a multimeter. The crochet hook is simple: just print out the handle, jam the hook in one end, and stick a mini banana jack in the other end. They’re designed to butt up against each other and make a connection without wires.
Building the ripper takes a bit more effort. There’s another printed handle involved, but you must first free the seam ripper from its stock plastic handle and solder a wire to it. Then twist the other end of the wire around a banana jack and and put that in the other end of the handle.
It’s great to see a little bit insight into the troubleshooting tools of e-textiles, especially because they are all-around fiddly. It all starts with a circuit, so why not
do your prototyping with a thread-friendly breadboard? | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,349.711219 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/19/rolex-becomes-worlds-most-expensive-esd-strap/ | Rolex Becomes World’s Most Expensive ESD Strap | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"esd",
"esd strap",
"rolex",
"watch"
] | Anti-static ESD straps are de rigueur in lab settings for those working with sensitive electronics. They’re a simple protective device, and one that generally doesn’t warrant a second thought. However, [Daniel Bogdanoff] figured they could stand to be a little more fashionable,
and set to work on a fancier design.
The first step was to take a look at a regular ESD strap. Typically, they consist of a band that fastens around the wearer’s wrist, with a metal stud for connecting to the earthing lead. The earthing lead contains a high resistance to limit the discharge current to avoid ugly high-energy shorts when wearing the strap.
The metal stud is attached to a replacement link on the ROLEX’s strap, making the modification neat, tidy, and reversible.
With a good understanding of the basics, [Daniel] set about modifying a CASIO calculator watch for practice. After soldering a metal stud to the watch case failed, a second attempt with conductive epoxy worked great. The watch could be connected to the earthing strap, and an ESD tester confirmed the device was doing its job.
But unfortunately, permanently modifying the borrowed ROLEX wasn’t an option. Instead, [Daniel] limited his work to a single replacement link which could be inserted into the watch band. Hooked up to an earthing strap, the luxury watch also passed a basic ESD test successfully.
[Daniel] notes that while this is a fun experiment, using properly rated safety equipment is best. Additionally, he points out that the ROLEX is likely to do worse than the CASIO for the simple fact that a metal-banded watch is more likely to cause shorts when working on electronics. Of course, if a watch isn’t your thing,
consider a ring instead
. Video after the break. | 26 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279621",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T20:56:10",
"content": "I think a collar around your neck is the ideal solution. Who wants some metal thing that can short against whatever you are working on on your wrist, eh? A ring would be even worse in that re... | 1,760,373,349.968099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/19/patience-beats-rage-quit-in-shattered-xbox-controller-repair/ | Patience Beats Rage-Quit In Shattered Xbox Controller Repair | Brian McEvoy | [
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"controller",
"damage",
"pcb",
"PCB repair",
"rage quit",
"repair",
"xbox",
"xbox one"
] | There are negative-one hacks to this project. Someone lost at their game, lost their temper, then raged at their Xbox controller with some horsepower. The result is that [Taylor Burley] gets a free controller with a non-responsive joystick out of the deal, and since he had nothing to lose,
he decided to heat up the iron and bring the controller back to life
.
The majority of the project is told in pictures and through the narration in the video below. In removing the joystick, [Taylor] opts for the technique of doping the connections with fresh solder (we assume containing lead for easier melting) before reaching for the desoldering wick. The diagnosis stage is brief because when the joystick lifts away, the PCB falls apart into two separate pieces! The next step was to glue the two halves together with cyanoacrylate to get into the nooks and crannies, then epoxy to provide structure. Solder bridges were not going to jump that gap, so he used 30ga wire and attached it wherever he could scrape away some solder mask. Best of all, it worked when he reattached the joystick. Job well done.
Xbox controllers are not a scarce commodity, so people do not spend their idle hours fixing them, but not many people can claim experience. Maybe someday the stakes will be higher and he will have the courage to
repair vintage electronics
. We won’t rant on how things aren’t built to last, and how we don’t train people to fix things. Today, we want to focus on someone who used their time to repair and learn.
The next time you have some
“junked” hardware
, ask yourself, do I want the XP? | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279594",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T17:35:52",
"content": "The corded ones are pretty scarce, and they are better for a plethora of reasons in certain situations, like reduced lag, not needing a receiver dongle for your desktop/laptop, or needing batteries.Repairin... | 1,760,373,349.83033 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/19/code-for-hackers/ | Code For Hackers | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"coding",
"minimalism",
"mistakes were made",
"newsletter"
] | Mike and I were talking about two very similar clock projects we’d both built recently: they both use ESP8266 modules to get the time over WiFi and NTP, and they both failed. Mike’s failed because he was visiting relatives in a different timezone with different WiFi credentials, and mine failed because daylight savings time caught me off-guard. In both cases, we hard-coded stuff that could obviously change, but we drew vastly different conclusions.
Mike thought he’d solve his WiFi problem with a fallback to a captive portal, and maybe would have to figure out some web interface for configuring the timezone. A very clean, professional solution. Me? I’ve got good comments in the code, can find the UTC offset (or the WiFi creds) in a few minutes, and flash the new version up simply by fetching a USB cable, for something that happens twice a year. It’s hardly worth the trouble to cobble together a web interface.
There’s an XKCD for everything.
We’ve accidentally embodied a quandary that spans both the hardware and software worlds: should flexibility be exposed to the end-user or to the hacker who can peer under the hood or open up the source code? (And what if the end-user is the hacker?) What are the tradeoffs, in project complexity and in ease of use?
And in this, Mike is on the side of right and good, and I’m the heretic. I don’t always write my code to be extensible or re-usable. I sometimes write it to be quickly re-edited and patched whenever I need to. Is it full of magic numbers? Sure! But I know just where they are and how to change them. Heck, most are even well documented in their own header file. You could probably figure it out just about as fast. Would my father-in-law be able to tweak the timezone? Nope! But this ain’t his project anyway.
Dare to code for hackers! Don’t over-generalize or over-abstract. Less is more. Don’t be afraid to edit code. Tweak, compile, and re-flash when the situation changes. After all, that’s how you got the code there in the first place.
And although I’m on the wrong end of history, in this case I was right. You see, before daylight savings time could come around again, and I could have made use of that captive portal that I didn’t bother coding up anyway, my son entered first grade. Everything needs to be changed, from the hardware to the software. Will I code up the next version with flexible time regimes? As flexible as I need it to be, but not more.
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
! | 57 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279562",
"author": "Moryc",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T14:18:22",
"content": "There are four solutions to this problem in order of importance of implementation, a clock should include at least one of these:1. Have an interface for setting up time, preferably hardware one. It could be... | 1,760,373,350.465931 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/19/controlling-a-broken-super-nintendo-with-midi/ | Controlling A Broken Super Nintendo With MIDI | Tom Nardi | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Musical Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"circuit bending",
"midi",
"snes",
"transistor"
] | A Super Nintendo that has trouble showing sprites doesn’t make for a very good game system. As it turns out,
Super Mario World
is a lot less fun when the titular hero is invisible. So it’s no surprise that [jwotto] ended up tossing this partially functional SNES into the parts bin a few years back.
But he recently came up with a project that may actually benefit from its unusual graphical issues;
turning the glitched console into a circuit bent video synthesizer
. The system was already displaying corrupted visuals, so [jwotto] figured he’d just help things along by poking around inside and identifying pins that created interesting visual effects when shorted out.
Installing the new electronics into the SNES.
Once he mapped out the pins, he wired them all up to a transistor switching board that he’d come up with for a previous project. That would let an Arduino short out the pins on command while still keeping the microcontroller relatively isolated from the SNES. Then it was just a matter of writing some code that would fire off the transistors based on MIDI input.
The end result is a SNES that creates visual glitches along with the music, which [jwotto] can hook up to a projector when he does live shows. A particularly neat feature is that each game responds in its own way, so he can swap out the cartridge to show completely different visuals without having to change any of the MIDI sequencing.
A project like this serves as a nice introduction to both circuit bending and MIDI hacking for anyone looking to get their digital feet wet, and
should pair nicely with the MIDI Game Boy Advance
.
[Thanks to Irregular Shed for the tip.] | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6280034",
"author": "rjohnson",
"timestamp": "2020-09-21T19:24:34",
"content": "That’s some creativity there. Repurposing some damaged hardware into an art installation for his music. This guy’s got a new subscriber.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,373,350.514122 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/19/plastic-prosthetics-for-rubber-duckies/ | Plastic Prosthetics For Rubber Duckies | Elliot Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"3d print",
"3D printable",
"3d printed prosthetic",
"prosthetic",
"rubber duck",
"rubber duckies"
] | Will someone please think of the rubber duckies?!
For decades they’ve been reduced to a laughing stock: a caricature of waterfowl. Left without a leg to stand on, their only option is to float around in the tub. And they don’t even do
that
well, lacking the feet that Mother Nature gave them, they capsize when confronted with the slightest ripple. But no more!
Arise!
Due to the wonders of 3D printing, and painstaking design work by [Jan] from the Rubber Ducky Research Center, now you can
print your own rubber ducky feet
. We have the technology! Your ducks are no longer constrained to a life in the tub, but can roam free as nature intended.
The video
(embedded below) will certainly tug at your heartstrings.
OK, it’s a quick print and it made my son laugh.
The base and legs probably don’t fit your duck as-is, but it’s a simple matter to scale them up or down while slicing. (Picture me with calipers on the underside of a rubber ducky.) The legs were a tight press-fit into the body, so you might consider slimming them down a tiny bit when doing the scaling, but this probably depends on your printer tolerances.
It looks snazzy in gold-fleck PETG, and would probably work equally well for some
more elaborate rubber duckies
as well. | 14 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279559",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T13:45:40",
"content": "Prize Winner.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6279566",
"author": "socksbot",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T14:46:25",
"content": "So inspiring! N... | 1,760,373,350.831446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/greeking-out-with-arduinos/ | Greeking Out With Arduinos | Brian McEvoy | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"arduino",
"Arduino Mega 2560",
"Arduino Uno",
"greek",
"hardware",
"language",
"lcd",
"neopixel",
"screen",
"teaching",
"tft",
"ws2811"
] | Learning a new language is hard work, but they say that the best way to learn something is to teach it. [Angeliki Beyko] is learning Greek, and what better way to teach than to build a
vocabulary flash-card game
from Arduinos, color screens, 1602 text screens, and arcade buttons? After the break, we have a video from the creator talking about how to play, the hardware she chose, and what to expect in the next version.
Pegboard holds most of the hardware except the color screens, which are finicky when it comes to their power source. The project is like someone raided our collective junk drawers and picked out the coolest bits to make a game. Around the perimeter are over one hundred NeoPixels to display the game progress and draw people like a midway game. Once invested, you select a category on the four colored arcade buttons by looking at the adjacent LCD screens’ titles. An onboard MP3 shield reads a pseudo-random Greek word and displays it on the top-right 1602 screen in English phonetics. After that, it is multiple choice with your options displaying in full-color on four TFT monitors. A correct choice awards you a point and moves to the next word, but any excuse to mash on arcade buttons is good enough for us.
[Angeliki] does something we see more often than before, she’s covering what she learned, struggled with, would do differently, and how she wants to improve. We think this is a vital sign that the hacker community is showcasing what we already knew; hackers love to share their knowledge and improve themselves.
Typing Greek with a modern keyboard will have you reaching for an alt-code table unless you make a
shortcut keyboard
, and if you learn Greek, maybe you can figure out
what armor they wore to battle
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279554",
"author": "Ameyring",
"timestamp": "2020-09-19T13:01:01",
"content": "Cool! Would be fun to adapt it for what I’m working on (Spanish, Czech and ASL). Did write a Python program for ASL, but hardware is a better challenge.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,373,351.178899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/21/custom-keyboard-goes-split-gets-thin-acquires-stained-wood/ | Custom Keyboard Goes Split, Gets Thin, Acquires Stained Wood | Donald Papp | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"custom keyboard",
"diy",
"keyboard"
] | The hardware and software required to make DIY keyboards happen has gotten more and more accessible, and that means it’s easier than ever to make one’s ideal input device a reality from the ground up. For [Cameron Sun],
his Ellipsis Split mechanical keyboard buildlog
details his second effort, refining his original design from lessons learned the first time around. The new keyboard is slim, split into two, and has integrated wrist supports made from stained wood. The painting and wood treatment took a lot of work and patience, but it certainly paid off because the result looks amazing!
Small integrated OLED screen shows the current mode.
When we saw [Cameron]’s first custom keyboard
, we admired the unique aluminum case and some nice touches like the physical toggle switches. Those tactile switches allow changing the keyboard to different modes, while also serving as a visual indicator. [Cameron] liked those switches too, but alas they just didn’t fit into the slim new design. However, he’s very happy with swapping modes in software and using a small OLED display as an indicator. What kind of different modes does his keyboard have? There’s Windows mode and Mac mode (which changes some hotkeys) as well as modes that change which keys in the thumb clusters do what (moving the space key to the left for easier gaming, for example.) After all, it’s not just the physical layout that can be customized with a DIY keyboard.
Interested in making your own custom keyboard? Be sure to look into
this breakaway keyboard PCB concept
before you start, because it just might make your custom build a lot easier. | 23 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279976",
"author": "Arthur Wolf",
"timestamp": "2020-09-21T15:38:25",
"content": "The OLED screen gave me an idea: Next keyboard I’m making, I’m finding a 200x50mm screen, and adding it at the top of my keyboard, integrated into the wood, and connected to my PC so I have an additio... | 1,760,373,350.913004 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/21/exploring-the-clouds-of-venus-its-not-fantasy-but-it-will-take-specialized-spacecraft/ | Exploring The Clouds Of Venus; It’s Not Fantasy, But It Will Take Specialized Spacecraft | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"airship",
"apollo",
"atmosphere",
"life",
"nasa",
"venus"
] | By now, you’ve likely heard that scientists have found a potential sign of biological life on Venus. Through a series of radio telescope observations in 2017 and 2019, they were able to confirm the presence of phosphine gas high in the planet’s thick atmosphere. Here on Earth, the only way this gas is produced outside of the laboratory is through microbial processes. The fact that it’s detectable at such high concentrations in the Venusian atmosphere means we either don’t know as much as we thought we did about phosphine, or more tantalizingly, that the spark of life has been found on our nearest planetary neighbor.
Venus, as seen by Mariner 10 in 1974
To many, the idea that life could survive on Venus is difficult to imagine. While it’s technically the planet most like Earth in terms of size, mass, composition, and proximity to the Sun, the surface of this rocky world is absolutely hellish; with a runaway greenhouse effect producing temperatures in excess of 460 C (840 F). Life, at least as we currently know it, would find no safe haven on the surface of Venus. Even the Soviet Venera landers, sent to the planet in the 1980s, were unable to survive the intense heat and pressure for more than a few hours.
While the surface may largely be outside of our reach, the planet’s exceptionally dense atmosphere is another story entirely. At an altitude of approximately 50 kilometers, conditions inside the Venusian atmosphere are far more forgiving. The atmospheric pressure at this altitude is almost identical to surface-level pressures on Earth, and the average temperature is cool enough that liquid water can form. While the chemical composition of the atmosphere is not breathable by Earthly standards, and the clouds of sulfuric acid aren’t particularly welcoming, it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that simple organisms could thrive in this CO2-rich environment. If there really is life on Venus, many speculate it will be found hiding in this relatively benign microcosm high in the clouds.
In short, all the pieces seem to be falling into place. Observations confirm a telltale marker of biological life is in the upper levels of the Venusian atmosphere, and we know from previous studies that this region is arguably one of the most Earth-like environments in the solar system. It’s still far too early to claim we’ve discovered extraterrestrial life, but it’s not hard to see why people are getting so excited.
But this isn’t the first time scientists have turned their gaze towards Earth’s twin. In fact, had things gone differently, NASA might have sent a crew out to Venus after the Apollo program had completed its survey of the Moon. If that mission had launched back in the 1970s, it could have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the planet; and perhaps even our understanding of humanity’s place in the cosmos.
Just Passing Through
The Apollo program was fantastically expensive, and many believed it would be a waste to simply abandon all that equipment and collected knowledge once the primary mission had been completed. So even before the 1969 Moon landing, NASA had started studying potential future uses for the hardware as part of what they called the Apollo Applications Program.
The greatest success of this program was SkyLab
, but there were other fascinating ideas proposed that unfortunately never left the drawing board.
Certainly the most outlandish of which was the proposed 1973 Venus flyby mission. Using an Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) that had been specially modified for long duration spaceflight, and a
“wet workshop” crew compartment made out of a spent Saturn V upper stage
, three astronauts would have embarked on a year-long journey to our nearest planetary neighbor.
After the Saturn V upper stage had put the vehicle into orbit, the Apollo CSM would have detached and rotated 180 degrees to dock with a pressurized storage compartment that had been installed in place of the Lunar Module. The upper stage’s J-2 engine would then be used to perform the trans-Venus injection burn, and afterword, any remaining propellant would have been vented into space. On the journey away from Earth, astronauts would have moved the tightly packed equipment and supplies from the storage area into the now empty propellant tanks through a special hatch installed at the top. With the J-2 engine now inoperable, the redundant twin engines of the proposed Block IV CSM would be used to perform any course corrections as well as the braking burn when the vehicle returned to Earth.
There would have been no way to slow down at Venus after the four month interplanetary flight. Instead, the vehicle would have made a partial orbit of the planet at an altitude of approximately 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) before being slung back towards home. This would have only given the crew a few crucial hours to make their observations and deploy sensing equipment, but it was believed their close proximity to the planet would allow them to do more useful science in that short amount of time than could be accomplished remotely with the technology of the era.
Exploring the Clouds
While the human occupants of this makeshift interplanetary ship wouldn’t have stayed for long, it was expected they would drop off a few robotic probes that would descend into the planet’s atmosphere. These probes would have continued operating for a few days after the initial flyby and communicated directly with the retreating crewed spacecraft. This would have allowed them to pack smaller and less powerful radio transmitters than would otherwise have been required to send their findings directly back to Earth, increasing not only their useful payload capacity but the amount of time they could have operated before their batteries were depleted.
Vega spacecraft with spherical entry module.
While we can only speculate as to what form these probes would have taken, it’s a safe bet that at least some would have been similar to the balloons carried on the Soviet Vega missions in 1985. Filled with helium and treated with chemicals to help resist the corrosive properties of the Venusian clouds, these probes were designed to reach equilibrium and remain within the 50 km temperate zone to collect as much data as possible before their batteries ran down. The Vega balloons proved to be highly successful, though they only carried rudimentary instrumentation.
Had NASA gone ahead with regular Apollo-Venus missions, these floating probes would likely have become more advanced as technology improved and scientists learned more about the planet. We now know that the lower atmosphere is so thick that probes and spacecraft can easily be floated within this temperate zone. Robotic vehicles, and perhaps eventually even crewed ones, could be designed to “splashdown” in the atmosphere rather than pass through it.
Venusian Airships
Despite the inhospitable surface, there are several compelling reasons to mount crewed expeditions to Venus. For one, it’s the second closest destination in the solar system after the Moon. With transit times as short as four months, a round-trip mission is well within the established limits of human endurance in space. From orbit, humans can conduct more detailed and varied observations and experiments than what’s possible with remotely operated vehicles alone.
But humans are explorers by nature, and eventually astronauts will want to descend into the planet’s atmosphere themselves. In that case, they would experience gravity 90% of what they’re used to on Earth; close enough that muscular and skeletal degradation will no longer be a concern. It’s also notable that the breathable mixture of nitrogen and oxygen that human explorers would need to bring along with them would function as buoyant gas in the planet’s 96.5% CO2 atmosphere, allowing for the possibility of crewed Venusian dirigibles.
The idea of sending crewed inflatable vehicles, and even building a permanent outpost in the clouds, was explored by NASA as recently as 2015. Called the
High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC)
, this study proposed a spacecraft architecture that could safely insert human crews into the temperate layers of the Venusian atmosphere, allow them to work there for extended periods of time, and then return them to orbit with an air-launched rocket. Outwardly these craft, some as large as 129 meters in length, would closely resemble large rigid airships of the early 20th century such as the USS
Shenandoah
and the
Hindenburg.
The Next Steps
As exciting as the prospect of a human “Cloud City” on Venus might be, it’ll probably never happen. If recent history is any indication, securing the long-term political backing necessary to fund an undertaking of this magnitude would be all but impossible. It was hard enough
getting American astronauts back into orbit on domestic spacecraft
, and the agency’s
elaborate plans for a return to the Moon
seem perpetually years down the road.
An exciting, though improbable, vision of the future.
Sending a crewed mission into orbit around Venus would be considerably easier and cheaper than establishing an outpost, but it’s still far more likely that the most direct consequence to finding phosphine gas in the planet’s atmosphere is a push for a new generation of robotic missions. Technology has improved dramatically, and building a floating atmospheric probe designed to seek out signs of biological life is no longer the insurmountable challenge it was in the 1970s.
Indeed, the wheels are already in motion. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck has already announced
his company plans on launching a small probe towards Venus as soon as 2023
that will be designed to dive into the planet’s atmosphere and search for signs of microbial life. The probe will be tiny, owing to the
relatively meager payload capacity of the Electron rocket
, but it’s a start. Hopefully larger and more elaborate spacecraft won’t be far behind.
While we’ll never see an astronaut take their one small step on the rocky surface of Venus, it’s still a planet that clearly deserves a closer look. Confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life would be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time, doubly so if it ends up being on a world so much like our own. Studying the hearty lifeforms that make Venus their home would be as near as we’ll ever get to directly observing Earth’s distant past. Or, if we’re not careful, Earth’s distant future. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279998",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-09-21T16:46:20",
"content": "Dirigibles. Victorian steampunk comes to Venus.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6280056",
"author": "qwert",
"timestamp": "2020-09... | 1,760,373,350.994906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/21/historical-satellite-tracker-saved-from-scrap-heap/ | Historical Satellite Tracker Saved From Scrap Heap | Maya Posch | [
"News",
"Space"
] | [
"eldo",
"ESA",
"satellite tracker",
"woomera"
] | In a bit of rare Australian space news, the Arnhemland Historical Society has
managed to save
one of the satellite trackers used during the 1960s and 1970s from the scrap heap. As the Space Race intensified during the 1950s and 1960s, every nation wanted a piece of this new technology. A number of European nations banded together in the form of
ELDO
, the European Launcher Development Organisation.
Australia was a partner in this program, with launches of the
Europa-1
and Europa-2 rockets taking place from
Woomera
, South Australia. Initially the UK’s cancelled
Blue Streak
IRBM program provided the first stage for Europa-1, but this was later replaced with the French
Diamant
. France also provided the Coralie second stage in addition to the German-developed
Astris
third stage.
The satellite tracker being dismantled at the South Australian defence base before it was trucked north. (Photo: Arnhemland Historical Society)
The first launch of the Europa-1 took place in 1966, with the rocket performing well, but inaccurate readings from a radar station leading to the rocket to be wrongly instructed to self-destruct. Of nine launches, four were successful, with the satellite trackers at Arnhemland providing tracking support. Ultimately, the many technical setbacks led to the demise of ELDO, and it was merged by the 1970s into what is now the European Space Agency, with its main launch site in
Kourou
, French Guiana.
Despite the lack of success, these early days at Woomera were instrumental in getting Europe’s feet wet in the development of the
Ariane
rockets. Woomera’s rocketing days may also not be over yet, with NASA
having announced
in 2019 plans to use Woomera for launches.
Maybe one day Arnhemland will have its own space port, with the old satellite track on display to remind of those early days.
[Top photo: The ELDO satellite trackers were state-of-the-art when they stood in Gove in the 1960s.
(Supplied: Arnhemland Historical Society)
]
(Thanks, David) | 23 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279935",
"author": "John Spencer",
"timestamp": "2020-09-21T12:59:21",
"content": "Those satellite trackers may no longer be state of the art but they sure as anything look cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6279953",
... | 1,760,373,351.356148 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/21/whats-inside-an-fpga-ken-shirriff-has-again-the-answer/ | What’s Inside An FPGA? Ken Shirriff Has (Again) The Answer | Sven Gregori | [
"FPGA",
"hardware"
] | [
"bitstream",
"chip decapping",
"decapping",
"die",
"fpga",
"ken shirriff",
"reverse engineering",
"xilinx"
] | FPGAs are somewhat the IPv6 of integrated circuits — they’ve been around longer than you might think, they let you do awesome things that people are intrigued by initially, but they’ve never really broke out of their niches until rather recently. There’s still a bit of a myth and mystery surrounding them, and as with any technology that has grown vastly in complexity over the years, it’s sometimes best to go back to its very beginning in order to understand it. Well, who’d be better at taking an
extra close
look at a chip than [Ken Shirriff], so
in his latest endeavor, he reverse engineered the very first FPGA known to the world: the Xilinx XC2064
.
If you ever wished for a breadboard-friendly FPGA, the XC2064 can scratch that itch, although with its modest 64 configurable logic blocks, there isn’t all that much else it can do — certainly not compared to even the smallest and cheapest of its modern successors. And that’s the beauty of this chip as a reverse engineering target, there’s nothing else than the core essence of an FPGA. After introducing the general concepts of FPGAs, [Ken] (who
isn’t known
to be
too shy
to
decap a chip
in order
to look inside
) continued in known manner with die pictures in order to map the internal components’ schematics to the actual silicon and to make sense of it all. His ultimate goal: to fully understand and dissect the XC2064’s bitstream.
Of course,
reverse engineering FPGA bitstreams isn’t new
, and with little doubt,
building a toolchain based on its results
helped to put Lattice on the map in the maker community (
which they didn’t seem to value at first
, but
still soon enough
). We probably won’t see the same happening for Xilinx, but who knows what [Ken]’s up to next, and what others will make of this. | 13 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279907",
"author": "Robert",
"timestamp": "2020-09-21T09:13:43",
"content": "Wish the FPGA tools weren’t such utter crap. The joy of getting your first bitmap out of the DDR RAM to VGA monitor doesn’t even begin to compensate for the pain you suffer by eternal waiting for the tools... | 1,760,373,351.137573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/20/custom-strain-gauges-help-keep-paraglider-aloft/ | Custom Strain Gauges Help Keep Paraglider Aloft | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"flight",
"hx711",
"paraglider",
"paramotor",
"strain gauge",
"tension",
"wing"
] | No matter what they’re flying, good pilots have a “feel” for their aircraft. They know instantly when something is wrong, whether by hearing a strange sound or a feeling a telltale vibration. Developing this sixth sense is sometimes critical to the goal of keeping the number of takeoff equal to the number of landings.
The same thing goes for non-traditional aircraft, like paragliders, where the penalty for failure is just as high. Staying out of trouble aloft is the idea behind
this paraglider line tension monitor
designed by pilot [Andre Bandarra]. Paragliders, along with their powered cousins paramotors, look somewhat like parachutes but are actually best described as an inflatable wing. The wing maintains its shape by being pressurized by air coming through openings in the leading edge. If the pilot doesn’t maintain the correct angle of attack, the wing can depressurize and collapse, with sometimes dire results.
Luckily, most pilots eventually develop a feel for collapse, sensed through changes in the tension of the lines connecting the wing to his or her harness. [Andre]’s “Tensy” — with the obligatory “McTenseface” surname — that’s featured in the video below uses an array of strain gauges to watch to the telltale release of tension in the lines for the leading edge of the wing, sounding an audible alarm. As a bonus, Tensy captures line tension data from across the wing, which can be used to monitor the performance of both the aircraft and the pilot.
There are a lot of great design elements here, but for our money, we found the lightweight homebrew strain gauges to be the real gem of this design. This isn’t the first time [Andre] has flown onto these pages, either —
his giant RC paraglider
was a big hit back in January.
Thanks to [mip] for the tip. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279888",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2020-09-21T06:20:07",
"content": "The number of landings is ALWAYS the same as the number of takeoffs. The objective is to make the number of GOOD landings (i.e., landings you can walk away from) or even GREAT landings (landings yo... | 1,760,373,351.29386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/20/1-3-scale-hybrid-rc-car-with-a-scratch-built-125cc-v10-engine/ | 1/3 Scale Hybrid RC Car With A Scratch-Built 125cc V10 Engine | Danie Conradie | [
"car hacks",
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"automotive engineering",
"engine",
"manual machining",
"R/C car",
"V10"
] | Scale model engines are fascinating pieces of engineering, and RC cars are always awesome to play with, no matter your age. [Keith57000] has gone over the top on both, creating a seriously impressive
hybrid RC car built around a custom 125 cc V10 engine
.
[Keith57000] started building the V10 engine back in 2013, after
completing a 1/4 scale V8
. The build is documented in a
forum thread
with lots of pictures of his beautiful craftsmanship. Most of the mechanical components were machined on a manual lathe and milling machine. No CNC, just lots of drawings and measurements, clever use of dividing heads, and careful dial reading. The engine also features electronic fuel injection with a MegaSquirt controller.
The rest of the car is just as impressive as the power plant. The chassis is bent tube, with machined brackets and carbon fiber suspension components. Two electric skateboard motors are added to give it a bit more power. The
three speed gearbox
is also custom, built with gears scavenged from a pit bike and angle grinder. It uses two small pneumatic pistons to do the shifting, with a clever servo mechanism that mechanically switches the solenoid valves. Check out all fourteen build videos on
his channel
for more details.
An amateur project of this complexity is never without speed bumps, which [Keith57000] details in the videos and build thread. It has taken seven years so far, but it is without a doubt the most impressive RC car we’ve seen. His skill with manual machine tools is something we rarely get to see in the age of CNC. We’re looking forward to the finished product, hopefully screaming around a track with a
FPV cockpit
. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279882",
"author": "jrfl",
"timestamp": "2020-09-21T03:55:55",
"content": "The servo driven rotary microswitch thing has to be the most gloriously over-complicated way to convert a hobby pwm signal into a relay output.It is great to see the engine running again! And running great b... | 1,760,373,351.237916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/20/hackaday-links-september-20-2020/ | Hackaday Links: September 20, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"autodesk",
"castle",
"crimp",
"DIY Hub",
"export",
"Fusion 360",
"GNU Radio Conference",
"hackaday links",
"IGES",
"jumper",
"SAT",
"sdr",
"step",
"stl"
] | The announcement of Autodesk’s changes to the Fusion 360 personal use license terms this week caused quite a dustup.
Our article on the announcement
garnered a lot of discussion and not a few heated comments. At the end of the day, though, Autodesk is going to do what it’s going to do, and the Fusion 360 user community is just going to have to figure out how to deal with the changes. One person who decided to do something other than complain is Justin Nesselrotte, who came up with
a quick and easy bulk export tool for Fusion 360
. This gets to the heart of the issue since the removal of export to STEP, IGES, and SAT files is perhaps the most painful change for our community. Justin’s script automatically opens every design and exports it to the file type of your choice. Since the license changes go into effect on October 1, you’d better get cracking if you want to export your designs.
Over on Twitter, Hackaday superfriend Timon gives us
a valuable lesson in “you get what you pay for.”
He found that a bunch of his header pin jumper cables weren’t even remotely assembled properly. The conductors of the jumper wire were only loosely inserted into the terminal’s crimp, where apparently no crimping pressure had been applied. The wires were just rattling around inside the crimp, rather than making sold contact. We’ve covered
the art and science of crimping before
, and it’s pretty safe to say that these jumpers are garbage. So if you’re seeing weird results with a circuit, you might want to take a good, close look at your jumpers. And as always, caveat emptor.
The GNU Radio Conference wrapped up this week, in virtual format as so many other conferences have been this year, and it generated a load of interesting talks. They’ve got each day’s proceedings over on
their YouTube channel
, so the videos are pretty long; luckily, each day’s stream is indexed on the playbar, so along with
the full schedule
you can quickly find the talks you’re interested in. One that caught our eye was
a talk on the Radio Resilience Competition
, a hardware challenge where participants compete head-to-head using SDRs to get signals through in an adversarial environment. It sounds like a fascinating challenge for the RF inclined. More details about registering for the competition can be had on
the Radio Resilience website
.
You know those recipe sites that give you a few choices on what to make for dinner based on the ingredients you have on hand? We always thought that was a clever idea, and now something like it has come to our world. It’s called
DIY Hub
, and it aims to guide makers toward projects they can build based on the parts they have on hand. Users create projects on the site, either hosting the project directly on the site or providing a link to projects on another site. Either way, the project’s BOM is cataloged so that users can find something to build based on parts stored in their “Garage”. Granted, most of us suffer from the exact opposite problem of not knowing what to build next, but this could be an interesting tool for stimulating the creative process, especially for teachers and parents. It’s currently in beta, and we’d love to see a few Hackaday.io projects added to the site.
And finally, we got a tip to an oldie but a goodie: How to Build a Castle. No, we don’t expect to see a rash of 13th-century castle builds gracing our pages anytime soon — although we certainly wouldn’t be opposed to the idea. Rather, this is a little something for your binge-watching pleasure. The BBC series, which was actually called
Secrets of the Castle
, was a five-part 2014 offering that went into great detail on the construction of Guédelon Castle, an experimental archaeology project in France that seeks to build a castle using only the materials and methods available in the 1200s. The series is hosted by historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold, and it’s great fun for anyone interested in history and technology. | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279853",
"author": "Clara",
"timestamp": "2020-09-20T23:36:53",
"content": "Re: the jumper wire post. All I see there is another reason to just use solid wire, cut to the right length for the connection, on a breadboard.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,373,351.415065 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/this-week-in-security-ad-has-fallen-two-factor-flaws-and-hacking-politicians/ | This Week In Security: AD Has Fallen, Two Factor Flaws, And Hacking Politicians | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"2FA",
"Active Directory",
"This Week in Security",
"tor"
] | The big news this week is the huge flaw in Microsoft’s Active Directory,
CVE-2020-1472
(
whitepaper
). Netlogon is a part of the Windows domain scheme, and is used to authenticate users without actually sending passwords over the network. Modern versions of Windows use AES-CFB8 as the cryptographic engine that powers Netlogon authentication. This peculiar mode of AES takes an initialization vector (IV) along with the key and plaintext. The weakness here is that the Microsoft implementation sets the IV to all zeros.
XKCD.com CC BY-NC 2.5
It’s worth taking a moment to cover why IVs exist, and why they are important. The basic AES encryption process has two inputs: a 128 bit (16 byte) plaintext, and a 128, 192, or 256 bit key. The same plaintext and key will result in the same ciphertext output every time. Encrypting more that 128 bits of data with this naive approach will quickly reveal a problem — It’s possible to find patterns in the output. Even worse, a clever examination of the patterns could build a decoding book. Those 16 byte patterns that occur most often would be guessed first. It would be like a giant crossword puzzle, trying to fill in the gaps.
This problem predates AES by many years, and thankfully a good solution has been around for a long time, too. Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) takes the ciphertext output of each block and mixes it (XOR) with the plaintext input of the next block before encrypting. This technique ensures the output blocks don’t correlate even when the plaintext is the same. The downside is that if one block is lost,
the entire rest of the data cannot be decrypted
Update: [dondarioyucatade] pointed out in the comments that it’s just the next block that is lost, not the entire stream. You may ask, what is mixed with the plaintext for the first block? There is no previous block to pull from, so what data is used to initialize the process? Yes, the name gives it away. This is an initialization vector: data used to build the initial state of a crypto scheme. Generally speaking, an IV is not secret, but it should be randomized. In the case of CBC, a non-random IV value like all zeros doesn’t entirely break the encryption scheme, but could lead to weaknesses.
Netlogon, on the other hand, uses a Cipher FeedBack (CFB8) mode of AES. This mode takes a 16 byte IV, and prepends that value to the data to be encrypted. The basic AES operation is performed on the first 16 bytes of this message (just the IV). The first byte of the output is XOR’d with the 17th byte of the combined string, and then the 16 byte window slides one byte to the right. When the last byte of the plaintext message has been XOR’ed, the IV is dropped and the process is finished. The peculiar construction of AES-CFB8 means that a random IV is much more important to strong encryption.
Remember the actual flaw? Microsoft’s implementation sets that IV value as all zeros. The encryption key is generated from the password, but the plaintext to be encrypted can be specified by the attacker. It’s fairly simple to manipulate the situation such that the entire IV + Plaintext string consists of zeros. In this state, 1-in-256 keys will result in an all-zero ciphertext. Put another way, the 128-bit security of AES is reduced to 8-bit. Within just a handful of guesses, an attacker can use Netlogon to authenticate as any user.
Microsoft has patched the issue in their August security updates. While it’s true that exploiting this issue does require a toehold in a network, the exploitation is simple and proof of concept code is already available. This is definitely an issue to go patch right away.
Via Ars Technica
When 2FA Makes You Less Secure
Few security truisms are as universal as “Enable two factor authentication.” There is a slight gotcha there. 2FA adds an extra attack surface. Palo Alto found this out the hard way
with their PAN-OS systems
. With 2FA or the captive portal enabled, it’s possible to exploit a buffer overflow and execute code as root. Because the interface to be exploited is often exposed to the public, this vulnerability scored a 9.8 critical rating.
CardBleed Virtual Card Skimmer
Magento is an e-commerce platform, owned by Adobe since 2018. To put that more simply, it’s a shopping cart system for websites. In the last few days, it seems that
nearly 2,000 Magento v1 instances were compromised
, with a digital skimmer installed on those sites. The rapid exploitation would suggest that someone had a database of Magento powered sites, and acquired a zero-day exploit that could be automated.
Hacking Politicians for Fun and Profit
It’s been the fodder of pundits and politicians for years now, to talk about hacking elections, particularly by a particularly large country in northern Asia. Be it bravery or foolishness, we’re actually going to take a brief look at some real stories of political hacking.
First up, A trio of Dutch hackers managed to
break into Donald Trump’s twitter account back in 2016
, just before the election. How? The same story we’re all familiar with: password re-use and a LinkedIn database dump. Fun fact, Donald Trump’s favorite password was “yourefired”.
A successful break-in is often accompanied by a moment of terror. “Did I do everything right, or am I going to jail for this?”
It’s not an unfounded fear
. Breaking into a corporation is one thing, but what happens to the guys that hacked the president of the US? The moment their long-shot attempts paid off, they went into defensive mode, and documented everything. Once they had their documentation safely secured, an email was sent off to USCERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) informing them of what was found. Our Dutch friends haven’t been arrested or “disappeared”, so it seems their responsible disclosure was well received.
In a similar story,
a former Australian prime minister posted a picture online containing his boarding pass
, and a resourceful researcher managed to use that information to recover his passport and telephone number. Did you know that a boarding pass is considered sensitive information? To authenticate with an airline, all that is needed is a last name and matching booking reference number. This gets you access to a very uninteresting page, but when you have access to 1337 hackor tools (like Google Chrome’s page inspector), the sky is the limit. Apparently the Qantas website backend was sending everything in the database about the given customer, and only a few bits of that information was being shown to the user. Far more information was just waiting to be sniffed out.
The whole story is a trip, and ends with a phone call with the politician in question. Go read it, you won’t regret it.
Tor 0-Day?
[Dr. Neal Krawetz] runs a TOR hidden service, and found himself the victim of a DDoS attack over the TOR network. He called up a friend who did network security professionally, and asked for help. After reading out half of the public IP address where the hosting server lived,
his friend told him the rest of the address
. Let’s think through that process. Hidden TOR service under attack, someone with access to a big enough Network Operations Center (NOC) can tell what the Public IP address of that service is. This is a fundamental break in TOR’s purpose.
In retrospect, it’s pretty obvious that if you can watch traffic on a large chunk of the internet, or enough of the TOR nodes, you can figure out what service is running where. The surprise is how small the percentage needs to be, and that there are already companies (and certainly three-letter agencies) that casually have the capability to make those connections. [Krawetz] calls these flaws 0-days, which is technically correct, because there are no real mitigations in place to protect against them. Really, it should serve as a reminder of the limitations of the TOR model. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279309",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T14:50:05",
"content": "“The basic AES encryption process has two inputs: a 128 bit (16 byte) plaintext, and a 128,192, or 256 bit key.”It was a bit confusing, is there supposed to be a space between “128,” and “192”?",
"parent_... | 1,760,373,351.477292 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/listening-to-an-iphone-with-am-radio/ | Listening To An IPhone With AM Radio | Danie Conradie | [
"iphone hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"am radio",
"eavesdropping",
"fcc",
"iphone",
"tempest"
] | Electronic devices can be surprisingly leaky, often spraying out information for anyone close by to receive. [Docter Cube] has found another such leak, this time with the speakers in iPhones. While repairing an old AM radio and listening to a podcast on his iPhone, he discovered that the
radio was receiving audio the from his iPhone
when tuned to 950-970kHz.
[Docter Cube] states that he was able to receive the audio signal up to 20 feet away. A number of people responded to the tweet with video and test results from different phones. It appears that iPhones 7 to 10 are affected, and there is at least one report for a Motorola Android phone. The amplifier circuit of the speaker appears to be the most likely culprit, with some reports saying that the volume setting had a big impact. With the short range the security risk should be minor, although we would be interested to see the results of testing with higher gain antennas. It is also likely that the emission levels still fall within FCC Part 15 limits.
I've confirmed this on an 8 non-pro AND discovered that when you're around 960 KHz you ALSO can detect the haptic clicks! I am suspecting that they are running a class D amp with the PWM at 960 KHz, which would be 20x 48khz-right on the mark for a class D amp. Video demo of both.
pic.twitter.com/EbodZS11kB
— iCarly Shinji (@jonny290)
September 3, 2020
The phenomenon of electronics leaking unintended information in magnetic waves has been knows since WW2, and it even has a codename,
TEMPEST
. If you want to learn more about it and do some experimentation, there are a number of
open source software toolkits
you can play with. | 38 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279250",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T11:25:45",
"content": "Ehhhmmm… “With the short range the security risk should be minor, although we would be interested to see the results of testing with higher gain antennas.”What has security got to do with it? Why is security ... | 1,760,373,351.550256 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/18/radon-monitor-recreates-steam-gauge-with-e-ink/ | Radon Monitor Recreates Steam Gauge With E-Ink | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Parts"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"e-ink",
"electronic paper",
"Radon",
"uart",
"vintage",
"weathering"
] | While the full steampunk aesthetic might be a
bit
much for most people, those antique gauges do have a certain charm about them. Unfortunately, implementing them on a modern project can be somewhat tricky. Even if you’ve got a stock of old gauges laying around, you’ve still got to modify the scale markings and figure out how to drive them with digital electronics. While we’ve seen plenty of people do it over the years, there’s no debating it’s a lot harder than just wiring up an I2C display.
But maybe it doesn’t have to be. With his Rad-O-Matic, [Hans Jørgen Grimstad]
created a pretty convincing “analog” gauge using a small e-ink panel
. Of course it won’t fool anyone who gives it a close look, but at a glance, you could certainly be forgiven for thinking it was some kind of vintage indicator. Especially with the cracked and stained Fresnel lens he put in front of it.
For this project [Hans] used a LilyGo T5, which combines an ESP32 with a 2.13 inch electronic paper display. These are presumably meant to be development boards for digital signage applications, but
they occasionally show up in hacker projects
since they’re so easy to work with. The board pulls data from a RD200M radon sensor over a simple UART connection, and the current reading is indicated by a “needle” that moves across a horizontal scale on the display.
On its own, it wouldn’t look very vintage. In fact, quite the opposite. But [Hans] really helped sell the look on this project by designing and 3D printing a chunky enclosure and then weathering it to make it look like it’s been kicking around since the Cold War.
If you don’t feel like faking it, we’ve seen
some very impressive projects based on authentic vintage gauges
. As long as you don’t mind tearing up hardware that’s likely older than you are, putting in the
extra effort necessary for a convincing modification
can really pay off.
[Thanks to Tarjei for the tip.] | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279225",
"author": "Kaiser",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T08:54:49",
"content": "[Independent to the content of this blog entry]Do blog posts change their order now? I feel i have seen this a few days ago already and am confused. Also because i cannot find the old entry at the moment.T... | 1,760,373,352.103122 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/closely-examining-how-a-pge-transmission-line-claimed-85-lives-in-the-2018-camp-fire/ | Closely Examining How A PG&E Transmission Line Claimed 85 Lives In The 2018 Camp Fire | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"bushfire",
"california",
"Camp Fire",
"fire",
"pacific gas and electric",
"PG&E",
"wildfire"
] | In 2018, the Camp Fire devastated a huge swathe of California, claiming 85 lives and costing 16.65 billion dollars. Measured in terms of insured losses, it was the most expensive natural disaster of the year, and the 13th deadliest wildfire in recorded history.
The cause of the fire was determined to be a single failed component on an electrical transmission tower, causing a short circuit and throwing sparks into the dry brush below – with predictable results. The story behind the failure was the focus of a Twitter thread by [Tube Time] this week, who did an incredible job of illuminating the material evidence that shows
how the disaster came to be, and how it could have been avoided
.
Mismanagement and Money
The blame for the incident has been laid at the feet of Pacific Gas and Electric, or PG&E, who acquired the existing Caribou-Palermo transmission line when it purchased Great Western Power Company back in 1930. The line was originally built in 1921, making the transmission line 97 years old at the time of the disaster. Despite owning the line for almost a full century, much of the original hardware was not replaced in the entire period of PG&Es ownership. Virtually no records were created or kept, and hardware from the early 20th century was still in service on the line in 2018.
The failed C hook which caused the 2018 Camp Fire. Note the rust marks on the face of the broken hook, indicating slow, gradual wear prior to failure.
In the hours after the Camp Fire began, investigators working to establish the cause found a broken C hook beneath Tower #27/222 on the Caribou-Palermo line. The C hook is responsible for supporting an insulator, which holds the high-voltage jumper conductor in position. When the C hook broke, the jumper conductor fell, striking the tower, with the resulting short circuit throwing sparks into the vegetation below, starting the Camp Fire. With a PG&E helicopter spotted in the area, investigators worked fast to secure the area as a crime scene, with evidence collected and sent for further analysis.
The resulting grand jury report released in June of 2020 as PG&E entered their guilty plea is damning in its conclusions.
The failed left-side C hook, along with the insulator and jumper conductor that started the fire, were all determined to be original components in continuous service since 1921. Additionally, PG&E were found to have virtually no information or records of the equipment on Tower #27/222. Pictures taken of the hook showed significant wear over time, before finally failing on November 8, 2018.
The still-intact right hand side C hook recovered from Tower #27/222. Note the significant wear on the hook. PG&E did not enact a comprehensive inspection and maintenance plan for these components.
Further evidence suggested serious negligence on the part of Pacific Gas and Electric. Despite a lack of records, recovered components of Tower #27/222 indicated prior knowledge of a need for maintenance on the line. Both the left and right side C hooks were mounted on plates bolted to the tower, through holes that showed significant wear. These plates had been installed as the original holes for mounting C hooks on the tower were almost entirely worn through with similar keyhole wear. The wear was caused over many years, as the C hook moved back and forth in the slot due to wind. The fact that the plates had been installed indicated that PG&E knew the C hook attachments needed attention over time. Despite this, PG&E were unable to field any records of when, why, or by whom the plates had been fabricated and installed.
On Tower #27/222, new hanger plates for the C hooks had been bolted on due to wear on the original hanger holes, clearly visible here. Note that even the newer hanger plate shows significant keyhole wear. This indicated that PG&E were at some point aware that the hangers required maintenance, yet failed to take it seriously in the years hence.
The investigation also goes further, revealing a “Run To Failure” ethos within the company, with no regard for potential negative outcomes. It bears remembering that Pacific Gas and Electric were
found guilty of six felony charges
for
the 2010 San Bruno gas line explosion.
In both cases, investigators found a radically inadequate approach to safety and maintenance, with fatal results. In the case of the Caribou-Palermo line, largely untrained workers were used to perform trivial inspections
by helicopter
, that fundamentally consisted of a visual check as to whether or not the tower was still standing. Cost cutting was endemic as far as inspection and maintenance was concerned, aiming to increase the operation’s profitability, with little regard to the possible consequences of an equipment failure.
Overall, the failures of Pacific Gas and Electric in the running of the Caribou-Palermo line were multitude and varied. At the very first instance, with almost no records of the infrastructure’s hardware or condition, it was simply not possible for the company to have any idea if there was a problem in the first place. Additionally, with an approach of saving costs on inspections in order to avoid finding problems that need costly solutions, the company all but guaranteed an expensive and dangerous failure. The fact that it took a full 88 years to happen since the company purchased the line is perhaps more down to sheer luck than anything, and the foresight of whoever did an interim replacement of hanger plates at an unknown point in the past. Fundamentally, the company’s active efforts to cut costs and maximise profits, as well as a total disregard for proper engineering practice, resulted in the deaths of 85 innocent people. It’s a disaster we would do well to learn from. | 100 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279179",
"author": "IATF Pro",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T05:13:37",
"content": "They would fail an IATF audit in the first minute…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6279184",
"author": "Ale",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T06:20... | 1,760,373,352.437307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/figuro-draws-3d-in-browser/ | Figuro Draws 3D In Browser | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"cad",
"Figuro"
] | We would have never guessed there would be so many browser-based CAD packages. While TinkerCAD is great for simple things, there are also packages such as OnShape that rival commercial CAD programs. A site calle
Figuro
claims to occupy the space between TinkerCAD and Blender. We aren’t so sure, but it is an interesting entry into the field. Apparently, Figuro has been around for some time, but has recently had a major face lift. The new interface looks good, but it has invalidated a number of video tutorials on their YouTube channel.
One of the things we like about TinkerCAD is it is highly discoverable. That is, you can fire it up, play with it a bit, and probably do quite a few things. Maybe it is just us, but Figuro didn’t give us the same experience. It is easy enough to draw simple shapes. But trying to multiselect was unreliable. Panning and rotating the view was very sensitive too, so we found we were occasionally lost in the work view with no easy way to reset the view. Even something as simple as subtracting one shape from another was painful.
On the plus side, there were some interesting tools such as sculpting, and maybe if you were more accustomed to working in something like Blender, it might have been easier to use. It is also possible that some of the bad experience was due to browser compatibility issues. For example, the Alt key modifies mouse movement, but on Linux with KDE, moving the mouse with the Alt key pressed moves the entire browser.
Sure, you can turn that off, but we didn’t really want to disable that behavior for the browser. However, things like the lack of a clear select indication during multiselect didn’t seem to be browser or operating system related. It also seems like sometimes the program treats an object like a cube as an entity, but in other cases, you work with the faces of the cube.
Maybe it is us. It doesn’t cost anything to try and see if you have a better experience. Updated tutorials would probably help, too. But we’ll stick with TinkerCAD or some of our favorite desktop programs. If you must use the browser, there’s
3D Slash
(like designing in Mine Craft),
Vectary
(not free),
SketchUp
, or — if you have a few days for training —
OnShape
. If you don’t like anything on someone’s server,
try this one
all in JavaScript.
We think about the pros and cons of
different CAD packages
sometimes. We even
go into details
. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279210",
"author": "Daniel Dunn",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T07:43:16",
"content": "There’s only two that I know of that is actually suggest to a hobbyist: Blender, now that the awful UI is fixed post 2.8, and Realthunder’s fork of FreeCAD, until they merge the changes.",
"parent... | 1,760,373,351.905972 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/vacuum-dragster-uses-syringes-for-propulsion/ | Vacuum Dragster Uses Syringes For Propulsion | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"air pressure",
"dragster",
"vacuum"
] | Atmospheric pressure is all around us, and capable of providing a great deal of force when used properly. As Otto Von Guericke demonstrated with his Magdeburg hemispheres over 350 years ago, simply removing air from a chamber to create a vacuum can have astounding results. More recently,
[Tom Stanton] has used vacuum to power a small 3D-printed dragster.
In the dragster build, a typical plunger syringe is plugged at the end, and the plunger pulled back. Atmospheric pressure acts against the vacuum, wanting to push the plunger back towards its original position. To make use of this, a string is attached to the plunger, causing it to turn a gear as it moves forward, driving the rear wheels through a belt drive. With the correct gear ratio on the belt drive, the dragster is capable of spinning its tires and shooting forwards at a quick pace.
The work is a great follow on from [Tom]’s earlier vacuum experiments,
using syringes as small rockets.
It reminds us of the classic CO2 dragsters from high school competitions, and would be a great project for any science class. Video after the break. | 16 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279142",
"author": "ratStomper",
"timestamp": "2020-09-18T00:04:47",
"content": "That’s pretty cool…it’s a cross between a mousetrap car and a co2 car.My “Tech Ed” teacher and I had a yearly grudge match with both from 7th through 12th grade.By the final race in co2 cars, we both h... | 1,760,373,351.961137 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/mirror-turns-webcam-into-document-camera/ | Mirror Turns Webcam Into Document Camera | Elliot Williams | [
"Lifehacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"mirror",
"school",
"video conferencing"
] | This is one of those so-simple-I-wish-I-invented-it hacks. Professor [Michael Peshkin] is teaching his engineering students remotely. While he has a nice second camera that he can use to transmit whatever he doodles on paper, most of his students just have the single webcam built into their laptops.
The solution is to
put a mirror in front of the laptop cam, and flip the image left-to-right in software
. They use Zoom, which has a mirror mode. Done.
The trick is making a nice frame. [Michael] has bent one out of wire, but suggests that a mirror compact works about as well in a pinch. It’s super important that his students can ask him questions backed up by drawings, and this reduces the startup cost to nearly nothing, making it universally useful.
[Prof. Peshkin] is not a stranger to mirror-based pedagogical hacks. Seven years ago, he showed us
how to make a transparent whiteboard for video lectures
, and it blew up on Hackaday. Since then, there are
hundreds or thousands of Lightboards in the wild
. We hope this idea catches on as well! | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279055",
"author": "Beaker",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T20:18:58",
"content": "Saw the same approach on reddit the other day. The poster was taped a pencil vertically to the back of the laptop, then put a CD shiny-side down on the pencil. It leaned over the lid on a 45 degree angle... | 1,760,373,352.053395 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/into-the-belly-of-the-beast-with-placemon/ | Into The Belly Of The Beast With Placemon | Brian McEvoy | [
"home hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"barometric pressure",
"humidity",
"light",
"machine learning",
"pir",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspi",
"sensor suite",
"sensors",
"sound",
"temperature",
"tensor flow",
"tensorflow"
] | No, no, at first we thought it was a Pokemon too, but Placemon
mon
itors your
place
, your home, your domicile. Instead of a purpose-built device, like a CO detector or a burglar alarm, this is a
generalized monitor
that streams data to a central processor where machine learning algorithms notify you if something is awry. In a way, it is like a guard dog who texts you if your place is unusually cold, on fire, unlawfully occupied, or underwater.
[anfractuosity] is trying to make a hacker-friendly version based on inspiration from a scientific paper about general-purpose sensing, which will have less expensive components but will lose accuracy. For example, the article suggests thermopile arrays, like low-resolution heat-vision, but Placemon will have a thermometer, which seems like a prudent starting place.
The PCB is ready to start collecting sound, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, illumination, and passive IR then report that telemetry via an onboard ESP32 using Wifi. A box utilizing Tensorflow receives the data from any number of locations and is training to recognize a few everyday household events’ sensor signatures. Training starts with events that are easy to repeat, like kitchen sounds and appliance operations. From there, [anfractuosity] hopes that he will be versed enough to teach it new sounds, so if a pet gets added to the mix, it doesn’t assume there is an avalanche every time Fluffy needs to go to the bathroom.
We have another outstanding example of
sensing household events
without directly interfacing with an appliance, and
bringing a sensor suite to your car
might be up your alley.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6279018",
"author": "jckahk",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T19:01:29",
"content": "I need this to monitor my well pump water pressure & frequency of running the pump. The last time my foot valve rusted out my pump ran for a while until I noticed we had no water pressure. Pump was scorchi... | 1,760,373,352.010203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/underwater-datacenter-proves-to-be-a-success/ | Underwater Datacenter Proves To Be A Success | Lewin Day | [
"Engineering",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Network Hacks",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"data center",
"data centers",
"DataCenter"
] | Back in 2018, Microsoft began Project Natick, deploying a custom-designed data center to the sea floor off the coast of Scotland. Aiming to determine whether the underwater environment would bring benefits to energy efficiency, reliability, and performance, the project was spawned during ThinkWeek in 2014, an event designed to share and explore unconventional ideas.
This week,
Microsoft reported that the project had been a success.
The Northern Isles data center was recently lifted from the ocean floor in a day-long operation, and teams swooped in to analyse the hardware, and the results coming out of the project are surprisingly impressive.
Smooth Sailing
Deploying and retrieving the Northern Isles data center took about a day each, respectively.
Perhaps the most interesting statistic to come out of the project is the sheer reliability of the hardware. The underwater servers were eight times more reliable than a replica data center built on land. The leading hypothesis behind this astonishing number is the benefits of the dry nitrogen atmosphere within the underwater pod, reducing corrosion, as well as the absence of meddling humans who may accidentally bump or damage hardware in regular land-based operations.
The team also collected samples of the atmosphere within the tube, aiming to determine the effect of outgassing from cables and other equipment inside. With a better understanding of the factors that led to such a large improvement in reliability, the Project Natick team hopes to improve reliability in traditional data centers, too.
Servers in the data center are retrieved for further study to determine the beneficial effects of underwater operation.
But you can seal racks of servers in nitrogen anywhere, why sink them to the bottom of the ocean? Cooling costs can be much reduced, as the low temperatures of the sub-surface seawater provide ample cooling capacity, something simply not available on land.
Terrestrial data centers use large amounts of water
, both indirectly due to electricity generation and directly in cooling applications. The underwater concept promises to reduce this immensely, with less energy required to keep the servers cool. The concept also allows for servers to be located close to coastal cities for low-latency and high performance, without requiring expensive inner-city real estate, a trend we’ve seen in other utilities
like the floating power generation under way in Brooklyn
.
The Project Natick data center was power washed to remove the layer of algae, barnacles and other detritus that built up over its two year stint underwater.
The underwater concept does have drawbacks, too. Hands-on maintenance is simply not possible, meaning any failed servers must simply be left offline. Additionally, deploying an underwater data center can be more difficult than building out facility on land. Engineers also have to consider sea currents and potential damage from marine life or shipping, problems that simply don’t exist on land. It’s also possible that the build-up of barnacles or other marine detritus on an underwater pod could reduce cooling efficiency over time. While Microsoft’s 2-year experiment only had a thin layer of algae and barnacles, this will differ widely with deployment location and time.
Fundamentally, the huge improvement in reliability and reduced energy costs go a long way to justifying the underwater data center concept. Lessons learned will benefit data centers on land, too. Ultimately, whether we see more servers deployed below the waves is yet to be decided. Availability of land versus the availability of underwater locations and whether or not the reliability benefits can be applied to conventional data centers will be the deciding factors as to how this technology develops further. | 65 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278973",
"author": "hayslett",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T17:06:20",
"content": "I expect reliability is also somewhat improved by the big metal can and liquid shielding reducing single-event upsets.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,373,352.207409 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/were-hiring-come-join-us-4/ | We’re Hiring: Come Join Us! | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"contributor",
"hiring"
] | You wake up in the morning, and check Hackaday over breakfast. Then it’s off to work or school, where you’ve already had to explain the Jolly Wrencher to your shoulder-surfing colleagues. And then to a hackspace or back to your home lab, stopping by the skull-and-cross-wrenches while commuting, naturally. You don’t bleed red, but rather #F3BF10. It’s time we talked.
The Hackaday writing crew goes to great lengths to cover all that is interesting to engineers and enthusiasts. We find ourselves stretched a bit thin and it’s time to ask for help. Want to lend a hand while making some extra dough to plow back into your projects? We’re looking for contributors to write a few articles per week and keep the Hackaday flame burning.
Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each article. You should have the technical expertise to understand the projects you write about, and a passion for the wide range of topics we feature. You’ll have access to the Hackaday Tips Line, and we count on your judgement to help us find the juicy nuggets that you’d want to share with your hacker friends.
If you’re interested,
please email our jobs line (jobs at hackaday dot com)
and include:
One example article written in the voice of Hackaday. Include a banner image, at least 150 words, the link to the project, and any in-links to related and relevant Hackaday features. We need to know that you can write.
Details about your background (education, employment, interests) that make you a valuable addition to the team. What do you like, and what do you do?
Links to your blog/project posts/etc. that have been published on the Internet, if any.
What are you waiting for? Ladies and Gentlemen, start your applications! | 54 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278951",
"author": "Jack Black",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T16:24:39",
"content": "Maybe you shouldn’t spend time writing soooo complex text for each article. Seriously I would just click the link rather read your literature. K.I.S.S",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,373,352.618336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/commodore-64-mini-man-makes-matching-mini-monitor/ | Commodore 64 Mini Man Makes Matching Mini Monitor | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"1702",
"4:3",
"8 bit",
"80's",
"commodore",
"monitor",
"retro",
"retrocomputing",
"screen",
"video"
] | While putting together a retro computer is a great project and can teach a lot about the inner workings of electronics, hooking that 70s- or 80s-era machine up to a modern 144 Hz 1440p display tends to be a little bit anticlimactic. To really recreate the true 8-bit experience it’s important to get a CRT display of some sort, but those are in short supply now as most are in a landfill somewhere now. [Tony] decided to create a hybrid solution of sorts by
3D printing his own Commodore replica monitor
for that true nostalgia feel.
This build is a matching mini scale replica of the Commodore 1702 monitor, a color monitor produced by Commodore specifically for their machines. At the time it was top-of-the-line and even included an early predecessor of the S-Video method of video signalling. This monitor was modeled in Fusion 360 and then sent to the 3D printer for assembly, then populated with a screen with a period-correct 4:3 aspect ratio, required electronics for handling the Commodore’s video signal, and even includes an upgrade over the original monitor: stereo speakers instead of the single-channel speaker that was featured in the 80s.
While this monitor doesn’t use a CRT, it’s an impressive replica nonetheless, right down to the Commodore serial number sticker on the back. If you need a Commodore 64 to go along with it, there are plenty of possibilities available to consider like this
emulated C64 on a Raspberry Pi
or these
refurbished OEM Commodores
. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278936",
"author": "Bob Labla",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T15:44:32",
"content": "I love this!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278962",
"author": "Tony Landi",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T16:50:36",
"conte... | 1,760,373,352.660814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/targeting-rivers-to-keep-plastic-pollution-out-of-the-ocean/ | Targeting Rivers To Keep Plastic Pollution Out Of The Ocean | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"green hacks",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"ocean",
"ocean currents",
"ocean research",
"plastic",
"plastic pollution",
"river",
"rivers"
] | Since the widespread manufacture of plastics began in earnest in the early 1950s, plastic pollution in the environment has become a major global problem. Nowhere is this more evident than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A large ocean gyre that has become a swirling vortex full of slowly decaying plastic trash, it has become a primary target for ocean cleanup campaigns in recent years.
However, plastic just doesn’t magically appear in the middle of the ocean by magic. The vast majority of plastic in the ocean first passes through river systems around the globe. Thanks to new research, efforts are now beginning to turn to tackling the issue of plastic pollution before it gets out to the broader ocean, where it can be even harder to clean up.
Why Rivers?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the most well-known area of ocean pollution, though four other similar gyres exist worldwide where ocean currents cause plastic pollution to gather. Image credit: The Ocean Cleanup
Recent studies have shown that river outflows are primarily responsible for the huge amounts of plastic entering the ocean each year. This is largely due to plastic being discarded on land, which then finds its way into waterways via storm drains and other routes. Rivers and stormwater systems serve to collect huge swathes of litter in this way, and then deliver them directly to the ocean.
In comparison, the direct dumping of garbage into the ocean pales in comparison to these sources.
Estimates suggest that 1,000 rivers worldwide are collectively responsible for 80% of the plastic reaching the world’s oceans.
On top of this, there are efficiency gains to be had by carefully choosing the methods in which the problem is tackled.
A recent study explored the impact of several different potential projects on plastic pollution levels.
Existing ocean clean-up devices were shown to have an almost-negligible impact, whether deployed singularly or in numbers up to 200.
Graph showing the predicted effects of different mitigation strategies on plastic pollution. The greatest results are from a combination of river barriers and ocean collection devices. Image credit:
ScienceDirect
Worse, such a deployment would have huge budgetary and labor requirements to run and maintain, for little real-world benefit. With long term modelling, the deployment of 200 ocean cleanup devices would result in roughly 816,000,000 kg of floating plastic remaining in the ocean by 2150.
However, the comparatively tractable solution of installing river barrier systems to collect plastics would have a much larger impact. The team’s modelling showed that this would leave a much smaller amount of floating plastic in the ocean – just 398,000,000 kg – by the same milestone. Obviously, this does nothing about the plastic already in the ocean, but the research paper notes that a combined approach would net the greatest gains.
Putting Good Ideas Into Practice
Interceptor 002 in operation in the Klang river, Malaysia. The eventual goal of The Ocean Cleanup is to deploy similar systems in 1,000 rivers worldwide. Image credit: The Ocean Cleanup
With the numbers so decisively in favor of tackling the problem at the river level rather than out on the open seas, cleanup efforts have gotten down to work.
The Ocean Cleanup have begun deploying their autonomous Interceptor craft to oceans around the world
, and begun the long, ongoing task of reducing plastic outflows closer to the source. Built with a catamaran design, natural river currents guide waste plastic into the craft’s collection apparatus. There, the plastic is scraped from the surface of the water, and stored in dumpsters on board until ready for collection by local authorities. The entire craft is solar powered, and aims to collect waste with as minimal additional environmental impact as possible. Already, the team have delivered their fourth Interceptor,
now undertaking operations in the Rio Ozama in the Dominican Republic.
The benefit of tackling plastic pollution at this level is that it no longer becomes a problem to be solved far from land, well beyond national borders, over thousands of miles of ocean. Instead, it’s a problem that can treated as something to be solved by local governments, where what are essentially point-sources of ocean pollution can be dealt with individually. In this way, it can almost be considered that the river is aiding in the collection of waste plastic such that it can be more effectively captured and disposed of properly.
No Silver Bullets
This river in Bandung, Indonesia,
became clogged with plastic in 2018.
Trucks were unavailable to haul the plastic away, so construction equipment was used to push the mass downstream. Much of this plastic likely entered the ocean. Image credit: David Shukman/BBC
Despite the positives of finding a better, more effective way to tackle ocean pollution, the problem is still far from solved. There are many more rivers that still need to stem the flow of garbage, and the plastic already in the ocean isn’t going anywhere.
We also need better techniques for dealing with the plastic that is captured.
Recycling efforts are ongoing in a multitude of ways,
but fundamentally, mixed garbage that has been floating at sea generally doesn’t serve as a great feedstock for making raw quality materials for future use. While burning plastics may feel wrong,
it’s not actually as bad as it sounds
, and will serve as a better option than landfill in the medium-term until better solutions come along.
Ultimately, one of the best solutions to the problem is going all the way to the top, and stemming consumption in the first place. Initiatives to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in use are ongoing, and will have a significant role to play in solving the problem. Plastic that isn’t made can’t be thrown away, after all. Efforts in developing improved biodegradable plastics and less-wasteful packaging will continue to net gains, as well.
In the end, the solution to the plastic problem will require work in many diffuse areas. Only by reducing consumption and waste, stemming garbage outflows, and cleaning up what’s already out there, will we see a pristine ocean once again on Earth. | 49 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278900",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T14:12:28",
"content": "“The vast majority of plastic in the ocean first passes through river systems around the globe.”And here I thought it was all the garbage barges dumping their loads directly into the ocean.",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,373,352.528328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/cyberplotter-uses-multiple-tools-to-great-success/ | Cyberplotter Uses Multiple Tools To Great Success | Lewin Day | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"cnc plotter",
"plotter"
] | The CNC bug is a familiar ailment in these parts. Often, patients present with persistent obsession with computer controlled machinery, most commonly after initial contact with gateway hardware such as 3D printers or basic plotters. Once diagnosed, there is no cure – simply the desire to build, and build again. [Adam Haile] knows this all too well,
and built the Cyberplotter in service to the affliction.
The Cyberplotter is the culmination of [Adam]’s CNC wishlist – a two-axis build with a seriously large build area, and the capability to mount a whole bunch of different tools for different jobs. With a work area of up to 800mm x 750mm depending on what’s mounted, it can produce some seriously big output. With a Smoothieboard 5X running the show, [Adam] does all kinds of neat hacks to make the system play with different gadgets on the business end. There’s a laser for engraving, and a top-notch pen plotter featuring a high-quality linear rail for precise movement. But the fun doesn’t stop there – [Adam] goes so far as mounting a Z-axis, camera, and even a Sharpie-based airbrush which we’d never even contemplated before.
It’s not [Adam]’s first build, and past experience shines through here – armed with prior knowledge, the build does many things well without compromising on outright capability. You may find [Adam]’s name familiar – we’ve
featured his Engravinator on these pages before
. Video after the break. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278841",
"author": "Arthur Wolf",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T11:02:18",
"content": "Ooooh, Smoothieboard! That’s my thing :) Really really cool project! If project creator wants one for free, or any kind of help whatsoever, or code or anything: wolf.arthur@gmail.com Don’t hesitate!"... | 1,760,373,352.708609 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/17/roll-your-own-heelys/ | Roll Your Own Heelys | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"bearing",
"heelys",
"roller skates",
"shoes",
"threaded rod"
] | Remember Heelys, the shoes with wheels in the heels? Just lift up your toes, and away you go. We were at least ten or fifteen years older than the target demographic, but got a pair anyway just to please our inner child and have some fun. Young kids would wear them everywhere and zip around inside stores to the annoyance of everyone but other young kids. We imagine some shopkeepers got to the point where they could spot the things as they walked in the door and nipped the skating party in the bud.
[DevNerd] has conceived of the ultimate plan:
if you make your own Heelys, no one necessarily has to know unless you start rolling around
. [DevNerd] started by cutting some large, 20mm-deep holes in the bottoms of a pair of Air Jordans and printed a sturdy wheel and a box frame for support.
Each wheel has a bearing on both ends that spin on a threaded rod. We’re not sure why [DevNerd] went with threaded rod, because it seems like that would prematurely wear out the frame box.
Don’t want to cut up your shoes, but want some sweet roller kicks for the daily commute down the hall?
You could always make them out of pallet wood
. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278815",
"author": "VeyoExxon",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T08:42:52",
"content": "If the bearings work, the axis should remain stationary wrt mounting box. Yes, the movement from flexing may cause wearing, but it’s not like the threaded rod is spinning the whole time.",
"parent_i... | 1,760,373,352.804344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/tobot-is-your-tic-tac-toe-opponent-with-a-bad-attitude/ | TOBOT Is Your Tic Tac Toe Opponent With A Bad Attitude | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"computer vision",
"naughts and crosses",
"open cv",
"raspberry pi",
"robot",
"robotic joint",
"tic-tac-toe"
] | [3dprintedlife] is apparently a little bored. Instead of whiling away the time playing tic tac toe, he built an impressive tic tac toe robot named
TOBOT
. The robot uses a Rasberry Pi Zero and a Feather to control a two-axis robot arm that can draw the board and make moves using a pen. It also uses a simple computer vision system to look at the board to understand your move, and it has a voice too.
The other thing TOBOT has is a bad attitude. The robot wants to win. Badly. Check out the video below and you’ll see what we mean.
The code is on
GitHub
. We were impressed with the simple algorithm TOBOT uses to watch your move. The 3D printed robot arm looks and works great, too. The initial PC board didn’t work out very well, but the replacement did a great job.
We love projects that combine mechanics, electronics, and software. Bonus points for the element of whimsy, too. We wonder if TOBOT will learn to play some other games like dots.
You
don’t actually need a computer
to play tic tac toe, even though it helps. We’ve seen the software part reduced down to one
ridiculous call to printf
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278821",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T09:10:28",
"content": "The Talkie-Toaster of the Tic-Tac-Toe world.I wonder if he’ll add aa, number of players zero mode, if it’s left idle for too long. Then it comes to the conclusion, the winning move is not to play and shuts... | 1,760,373,352.748077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/distance-learning-land/ | Distance Learning Land | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"cad",
"coronavirus",
"COVID",
"Fusion 360",
"homeschool",
"online learning",
"tinkercad",
"virtual learning",
"WebEx",
"work from home",
"zoom"
] | [familylovermommy] has been homeschooling her kids even before the pandemic, so she’s pretty well-versed on being a learning coach and a teacher. One of the activities she designed for her boys has them
creating 3D models using Tinkercad
. In the spirit of openness and cultivating freethinking, she did not give them very many constraints. But rather, gave them the liberty to creatively design whatever scene they imagined.
In the Instructable, she shares her sons’ designs along with instructions to recreate the models. The designs as you’ll see are pretty extensive, so she embedded the Tinkercad designs directly into it. You can even see a number of video showcases as well.
This is a really cool showcase of some pretty stellar workmanship. Also, maybe a bit of inspiration for some of our readers who are creating work from home activities of their own.
While you’re at it,
check out some of these other work-from-home hacks
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278904",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T14:17:41",
"content": "That’s a short runway!B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278919",
"author": "Orlando Hoilett",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T15:10:04",
... | 1,760,373,352.844902 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/autodesk-announces-major-changes-to-fusion-360-personal-use-license-terms/ | Autodesk Announces Major Changes To Fusion 360 Personal Use License Terms | Dan Maloney | [
"News"
] | [
"autodesk",
"cad",
"cam",
"Fusion 360",
"license",
"personal use",
"software",
"STEP file"
] | Change is inevitable, and a part of life. But we’re told that nobody likes change. So logically, it seems we’ve proved nobody likes life. QED.
That may be a reach, but judging by the reaction of the Fusion 360 community to
the announced changes to the personal use license
, they’re pretty much hating life right now. The clear message from Autodesk is that Fusion 360 — the widely used suite of CAD and CAM software — will still offer a free-to-use non-commercial license for design and manufacturing work, with the inclusion of a few very big “buts” that may be deal-breakers for some people. The changes include:
Project storage is limited to 10 active and editable documents
Exports are now limited to a small number of file types. Thankfully this still includes STL files but alas, DXF, DWG, PDF exports are all gone
Perhaps most importantly to the makerverse,
STEP
, SAT, and IGES file types can no longer be exported, the most common files for those who want to edit a design using different software.
2D drawings can now only be single sheet, and can only be printed or plotted
Rendering can now only be done locally, so leveraging cloud-based rendering is no longer possible
CAM support has been drastically cut back: no more multi-axis milling, probing, automatic tool changes, or rapid feeds, but support for 2, 2.5, and 3 axis remains
All support for simulation, generative design, and custom extensions has been removed
Most of these changes go into effect October 1, with the exception of the limit on active project files which goes into effect in January of 2021. We’d say that users of Fusion 360’s free personal use license would best be advised to export everything they might ever think they need design files for immediately — if you discover you need to export them in the future, you’ll need one of the other licenses to do so.
To be fair, it was pretty clear that changes to the personal use license were coming a while ago with
the consolidation of paid-tier licenses almost a year ago
, and the cloud-credit system that monetized rendering/simulation/generative design services happening on the Autodesk servers. Features removed from the free license in this week’s announcement
remain in place for paid subscriptions as well as the educational and start-up license options
.
The problem with these personal use licenses is that it’s easy to get used to them and think of them as de facto open-source licenses; changing the terms then ends up leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. To their credit, Autodesk is offering a steep discount on the commercial license right now, which might take some of the sting out of the changes.
Update 09-25-2020:
Autodesk has announced
that STEP file export will remain in the free version of Fusion 360 | 315 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278665",
"author": "I would prefer not to say",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T23:11:05",
"content": "I am really unclear what license I am on. I think I am on the “startup” one, but then I seem to have 2.1 million cloud credits.Is that normal? I can imagine that perhaps all free license... | 1,760,373,353.187156 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/digital-cribbage-board-saves-scores-marriage/ | Digital Cribbage Board Saves Scores, Marriage | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Games",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Nano Every",
"buck converter",
"cribbage",
"cribbage boards",
"RGBW matrix"
] | When [ccooper] told his parents he was gonna start up his electronics habit again, the last thing he expected was to save his parents’ marriage in the process. But as soon as he dropped this news, they made a special request: build us something to replace the multi-purpose manual cribbage board. It’s too ambiguous and starts too many arguments.
Cribbage is a card game that involves scoring based on hands. Traditionally, the score is kept with pegs on a wooden board with two or three sets of 60 holes.
To build a digital cribbage board, [ccooper] decided to represent the positions on a field made from chained-together RGBW matrices
.
These four matrices are run by an Arduino Nano Every and will display one of three scoring schemes that the parents usually play. A set of eight AA batteries ensures that Mum and Dad can play out in bright daylight and still see the LEDs. You can see how the brightness rivals the sun in the demo after the break. The code and Gerber files for the custom board are there if you want to make one for yourself, or know of another marriage that needs saving.
Every game deserves tidy record-keeping.
If you’re more the RPG type, check out this amazing stat tracker made of stacked-up FR4 boards
.
Via
adafruit | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278798",
"author": "Duncan",
"timestamp": "2020-09-17T07:19:58",
"content": "Solid build! I appreciate the neat layout of the PCB and the overall finish, great stuff.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6278809",
"author": "Fa... | 1,760,373,353.394217 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/the-most-expensive-d20-youll-see-today/ | The Most Expensive D20 You’ll See Today | Brian McEvoy | [
"Games"
] | [
"array",
"blinkenlights",
"D20",
"dice",
"die",
"Dungeons and Dragons",
"gaming",
"led",
"rgb",
"Swords and Sorcery",
"Tabletop"
] | Roll your negotiation skill,
because this d20 is a hefty one
. The Tweet is also below. We are charmed by [Greg Davill]’s twenty-sided LED contraption, but what do we call it? Is it a device? A sculpture? A die? Even though “d20” is right on his custom controller PCB, we don’t think this will grace the table at the next elf campaign since it is rather like taking a Rolls Royce to the grocery store. Our builder estimates the price tag at $350 USD and that includes twenty custom PCB light panels with their components, a controller board, one battery pack, and the 3D printed chassis that has to friction-fit the light faces.
Power and communication for all the panels rely on twenty ribbon cables daisy-chained throughout the printed scaffolding, which you can see in the picture above. [Greg] made a
six-sided LED cube
last year, and there are more details for it, but we suspect he learned his lesson about soldering thousands of lights by hand. There are one-hundred-twenty LEDs per panel, times twenty, that is over two-thousand blinkenlights. We don’t yet have specs on the controller, but last time he used a SAMD51 processor to support over three-thousand lights. We don’t know where he’ll go next, but we’re game if he wants to
make a chandelier
for Hackaday’s
secret underground lair
.
(Editor’s Note: If you were at Supercon last year, and you got to play with this thing in the flesh, it’s worth it!)
Just for fun I went through and quoted this up, if I wanted to try to sell these as completed units or kits.
In reasonable qty these are the prices:
Panel: $5.20 each Assembled.
Controller: $100
3d print $150
Given you need 20 panels, that's $350 USD just in parts. 😬
https://t.co/eWlcdUzcwY
— Greg (@GregDavill)
September 14, 2020
Thank you for the tip, [cyberlass]. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278609",
"author": "Based_Detroiter",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T18:43:13",
"content": "$150 for what looks like an SLS printed part seems a bit steep. Of course, if you wanted to do a small run you could fill an SLS build and the piece price would go way down. Either way, very cle... | 1,760,373,353.234809 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/otis-boykins-precision-passives-propelled-the-pacemaker/ | Otis Boykin’s Precision Passives Propelled The Pacemaker | Kristina Panos | [
"Biography",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Interest",
"Original Art"
] | [
"inductance",
"missile guidance",
"pacemaker",
"precision resistor",
"Reactance",
"resistor",
"wirewound resistor"
] | The simplest ideas can be the ones that change the world. For Otis Boykin, it was a new way to make wirewound precision resistors. Just like that, he altered the course of electronics with his ideas about what a resistor could be. Now his inventions are in everything from household appliances and electronics to missile guidance computers.
While we like to geek out about developments in resistor tech, Otis’ most widely notable contribution to electronics is the control unit he designed for pacemakers, which regulate a person’s heartbeat. Pacemakers are a real-time clock for humans, and he made them more precise than ever.
Street Smarts and Book Smarts
Otis Frank Boykin was born August 29th, 1920 in Dallas, Texas to Sarah and Walter Boykin. Otis’ father was a carpenter who later became a preacher. His mother Sarah was a maid, and she died of heart failure when Otis was only a year old.
Otis in an undated photograph. Image via
Philadelphia Tribune
Not much is known about Otis’ childhood, but he must have had some foundational interest in electronics and the drive to go after a career in the field. We do know that Otis graduated as the valedictorian of Booker T. Washington high school in 1938. Then he moved to Nashville, Tennessee to attend Fisk University on a scholarship. As part of the deal, he worked as an assistant in the university’s aerospace lab, testing automatic controls for various aircraft.
Otis graduated from Fisk in 1941 and moved to Chicago to work as a lab assistant for Majestic Radio & TV. Before long, he was promoted to factory foreman. This position lasted a few years until he got hired as a research engineer at P.J. Nilson Labs in nearby Oak Park. During this time, he enrolled in the Illinois Institute of Technology. Otis only attended graduate school for two years — it’s unclear whether he dropped out because of financial problems, or he left because another job opportunity came along.
For the next fifteen years, Otis worked around Illinois and Indiana as a consultant in various radio and electronic positions. In 1946, Otis started a short-lived electronics research laboratory with one of his mentors, Hal Fruth, before the two were hired by the Monson Manufacturing Corporation.
Image via
US Patent #2634352
Resistance is Utile
In the early 1950s, Otis invented a new, more precise type of wirewound resistor and applied for a patent. Wirewound resistors rely on coils of wire, and the loops introduce unwanted inductance to the circuit. Before Otis came along, wirewound resistors were difficult to make and thus quite expensive.
Otis’ wirewound resistors were made up of wire drawn out and wound into a skein. By twisting the ends of the skein and inserting thin sheets of plastic between the loops, Otis was able to minimize the resistors’ inductance and reactance. In the patent, he describes several variations on this theme with different types of housing and connectors.
A few years later, Otis patented another, even better resistor that was both cheap and easy to manufacture. It was tough enough to withstand extreme temperature changes and physical shocks without breaking or losing precision. This resistor was ideal for an array of applications. The US military used it in missile guidance computers, and IBM put it in their mainframes.
Chest x-ray showing a pacemaker. Image
CC BY-SA 3.0
Setting the Pace for Life
He continued to pursue other inventions up until the end of his life. These included components like capacitors, a chemical air filter, and a burglar-proof cash register. But Otis Boykin’s most important invention was inspired by his mother’s death, and is currently keeping a large number of people’s hearts ticking accurately.
In 1964, he invented a control unit for pacemakers, which maintain a steady cadence for the human heart, regulating the heartbeat. Before this, pacemakers weren’t as reliable.
The sad irony is that Otis himself died of heart failure in 1982. His influence lives on in all the people who are alive because of his contributions to technology. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278600",
"author": "ID",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T18:15:21",
"content": "Today must be “Well written informative hackaday post day”. I hadn’t heard of Otis Boykin before. Thanks for bringing this unsung innovator to our attention. His inventions ended up in products that saved li... | 1,760,373,353.442337 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/a-walking-robot-with-a-single-servo/ | A Walking Robot With A Single Servo | Kristina Panos | [
"classic hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"9G servo",
"aluminium",
"banana jack",
"coat hanger",
"paper clip",
"robot"
] | We’ve all been there — you see somebody do something cool on YouTube and you just have to give it a go. For [lonesoulsurfer], the drop-everything-and-build happened to be
a little four-legged walker robot that runs on a single servo
. Though it may be simple, there really is nothing like seeing a robot you created take its first steps.
[lonesoulsurfer]’s walker is made mostly from scrap aluminium and other scavenged parts like coat hangers, paper clips and the metal bits and bobs from banana jacks. The Dremeled and bent body would likely be the hardest to imitate for a first-time builder, but any sturdy chassis that allows for things screwed and bolted to it should work. Also, don’t expect it to work right away. It will take a bit of tuning to get the gait right, but it’s all part of the fun. So is modifying a 180° servo for continuous rotation.
We really like the way this robot walks — it saunters around like a long bulldog and looks like it can handle almost any terrain. Watch it walk after the break, and stick around for the build video.
There’s just something about simple robots without microcontrollers. If you’ve never heard of BEAM robots,
cut your teeth on this ‘bot with circular legs
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278558",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T15:40:22",
"content": "(watching the video of it moving)It reminds me of the crawling zombie once featured on HackADay.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278594",
"aut... | 1,760,373,353.489486 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/decoding-the-netflix-announcement-explaining-optimized-shot-based-encoding-for-4k/ | Decoding The Netflix Announcement: Explaining Optimized Shot-Based Encoding For 4K | Pedro Umbelino | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Slider",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"4K",
"encoder",
"h.264",
"MPEG",
"netflix",
"shot-based"
] | Netflix has recently announced that they now
stream optimized shot-based encoding content for 4K.
When I read that news title I though to myself: “Well, that’s great! Sounds good but… what exactly does that mean? And what’s shot-based encoding anyway?”
These questions were basically how I ended up in the rabbit hole of the permanent encoding optimization history, in an effort to thoroughly dissect the above sentences and properly understand it, so I can share it with you. Before I get into it, lets take a trip down memory lane.
The 90’s
CSHOW on DOSBox
In the beginning of the nineties if you wanted to display an image file on your computer, like a GIF or the new JPG format, you would need to use a program for that. I think I used CSHOW back then. For ‘videos’ me and my friends exchanged FLIC files, which were a sequence of still frames which would be flipped through rapidly to achieve the illusion of movement in a software I can’t recall anymore. Despite some video compression standards were already developed in the early 90s, video files were not so common. Data storage was scarse and expensive and not even my 486 DX 33Mhz, 8 MB Ram and 120 MB HDD desktop could probably handle in any way (speed, ram or disk) the decoding of a modern video file.
I don’t even imagine how long it would take to transfer any meaningful video with my 28.8 kb/s modem.
JPEG compression was a game changer for images. We could now store huge images with pretty much the same quality in much less space. When it appeared, it was almost magical to me. We were constantly searching for the best compression algorithms and tricks we could use in order to spend less on floppy disks. There was ARC, ARJ, LHA, PAK, RAR, ZIP, just to name a few I used in MS-DOS. Those were all archivers with
lossless compression
and most would fall short on high definition images. But JPEG uses
lossy compression
and so it could get much smaller images at the cost of image quality.
For videos, being a sequence of images, the logical next step was Motion JPEG. M-JPEG is a video compression format in which each video frame is compressed separately as a JPEG image so that meant that you would get the benefits of JPEG compression to applied to each frame. Like FLIC, but for JPEGs.
Since the compression depends only on each individual frame, this is called intraframe compression. As a purely intraframe compression scheme, the image quality of M-JPEG is directly a function of each video frame’s static spatial complexity. But a video contains more information than the sum of each frames. The evolving, the transitioning from one frame to another is also information and the new algorithms soon took advantage of this.
From Stills to Motion
MPEG-1 was one of the encoders that explored new ways to compress video. Instead of a each individual frame being compressed, MPEG-1 split the video into different frame types. For simplicity, let’s say there are two major frame types in MPEG-1, the key frames (I-frames) and the prediction frames (P-frames, B-frames). MPEG-1 stores one key frame, which is a regular full frame in compressed format, and then a series of prediction frames, maybe ten or fifteen. The prediction frames are not images but rather the difference between the frame and the last key frame, hence saving a lot of space. As for storing audio, MPEG-1 Audio (MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3) uses psychoacoustics to significantly reduce the data rate required by an audio stream as it removes parts of the audio that the human ear would not hear. Most of us know this audio format simply by MP3.
As cool and inventive as it sounds, even before the first draft of the MPEG-1 standard had been finished, work on MPEG-2 was already under way. MPEG-2 came with interlaced video, a technique for doubling the perceived frame rate of a video display without consuming extra bandwidth, and sound improvements. The MPEG-2 standard could compress video streams to as much as 1/30th of the original video size while still maintain decent picture quality.
MPEG-3 was integrated into MPEG-2 when found to be redundant. But then came the more modern MPEG-4. MPEG-4 provides a framework for more advanced compression algorithms potentially resulting in higher compression ratios compared to MPEG-2 at the cost of higher computational requirements. After being released, there was a time when a lot of different codecs coexisted, and it was sometimes frustrating for the regular user to try to play a video file. I remember not having the DivX codec, or Xvid, or 3ivx, or having to install
libavcodec
and
ffmpeg
, or maybe trying to play it in Quicktime player, or just giving up in tears…
But one thing was certain, we now had very decent quality in our PCs, Playstations, and digital cameras.
Streaming
Practical video streaming was only made possible with these and other advances in data compression since it is still not practical to deliver the required amount of data in an uncompressed way. Streaming has it’s origins in streaming music, sharing music and ultimately developing P2P networks, and there are tons of interesting stories to be told. Nevertheless I’m going to focus on video streaming in the article since the whole goal was to understand what is “optimized shot-based encoding”.
We currently live in the middle of a Streaming War, with fierce competition between video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Hulu, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Youtube Premium, CBS All Access, etc.
All those services try to deliver new and exclusive content and deliver it well. Delivering well involves many aspects, from content freshness to user experience, but one thing I think we can agree upon: when the video quality sucks, no marketing or UX team can save the day. With this in mind, several modern algorithms for video encoding are used, including H.264 (a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 10), HEVC, VP8 or VP9. Besides those, each service try to enhance their own video quality as they can.
Nexflix Tech Blog
Netflix has a nice tech blog where you can read some serious geeky video content. They introduced many different optimizations into their network and their compression algorithms which sometimes they share how in the blog. In the end of 2015 they announced a technique called
Per-Title Encoding Optimization
.
When we first deployed our H.264/AVC encodes in late 2010, our video engineers developed encoding recipes that worked best across our video catalogue (at that time). They tested various codec configurations and performed side-by-side visual tests to settle on codec parameters that produced the best quality trade-offs across different types of content. A set of bitrate-resolution pairs (referred to as a
bitrate ladder
) … were selected such that the bitrates were sufficient to encode the stream at that resolution without significant encoding artifacts.
At that time, Netflix was using PSNR (Peak Signal-To-Noise Ratio) in dB as a measure of picture quality. They figured out that this fixed
bitrate ladder
is more an average or rule of thumb for most content, but there are several cases where is doesn’t apply. Scenes with high camera noise or film grain noise, a 5800 kbps stream would still exhibit blockiness in the noisy areas. On the other end, for simple content like cartoons, 5800 kbps is an overkill to produce 1080p video. So they tried different parameters for each title:
Each line here represents a title, a movie or an episode. Higher PSNR means better overall image quality: 45 dB is very good quality, 35 dB will show encoding artifacts. It’s clear that many titles don’t actually gain a lot from increasing the bitrate beyond a certain point. In general, per-title encoding will often give you better video quality, a either higher resolution for the same bitrate or same resolution for less bitrate.
Title contents can be very different in nature. But even within the same title, there can also be high action scenes and later a still landscape. That’s why that when Netflix
decided to chunk-encode their titles
to take advantage of the cloud, by splitting the movie into chucks so it could be encoded in parallel, they started to test and implement Per-Chunk Encoding Optimization in 2016. It’s the same logic as per title, but for each chunk in the title. It’s like adding one more level of optimization.
Finally, in 2018, Netflix started to implemented
Optimized shot-based encoding
, and its now available also in 4K titles since August. So back to the original question. What if, instead of somehow random chunks to encode our video, which result in random Key-frames being generated (of them some might be very similar which is not optimal since they take a lot of space), one could choose the right and optimal Key-frames for each title?
In an ideal world, one would like to chunk a video and impose different sets of parameters to each chunk, in a way to optimize the final assembled video. The first step in achieving this perfect bit allocation is to split video in its natural atoms, consisting of frames that are very similar to each other and thus behave similarly to changes to encoding parameters — these are the “shots” that make up a long video sequence. (…) The natural boundaries of shots are established by relatively simple algorithms, called shot-change detection algorithms, which check the amount of differences between pixels that belong to consecutive frames, as well as other statistics.
Besides optimizing the Key-frames for encoding, shot-based encoding has some other advantages, such as seeking in a video sequence leads to natural points of interest (signaled by shot boundaries) and encoding parameter change in different shots is unnoticeable for the user since the Key-frame is very different. All of these changes are tweaks for the encoders that can actually be H.264 or HEVC or VP8, it makes no difference.
Is it worth all the trouble? To answer let’s look at the most recent video quality rating that Nexflix uses: the
Video Multi-method Assessment Fusion
, or VMAF. Traditionally, codec comparisons share the same methodology: PSNR values are calculated for a number of video sequences, each encoded at predefined resolutions and fixed quantization settings according to a set of test conditions. This work well for small differences in codecs, or for evaluating tools within the same codec. For video streaming, according to Netflix, the use of PSNR is ill-suited, since it correlates poorly with perceptual quality. VMAF can capture larger differences between codecs, as well as scaling artifacts, in a way that’s better correlated with perceptual quality by humans. Other players in the industry recognize and are adopting VMAF as a quality rating tool.
Using VMAF Netflix started to run test on their 4K titles. The results were quite impressive.
Example of a thriller-drama episode showing new highest bitrate of 11.8 Mbps VS 16 Mbps
Example of a 4K animation episode showing new highest bitrate of
1.8 Mbps
VS 11.5 Mbps
Above are just two examples, but on average they
need a 50% lower bitrate
to achieve the same quality with the optimized ladder. The highest 4K bitrate title on average is 8 Mbps which is also a 50% reduction compared to 16 Mbps of the fixed-bitrate ladder. Overall users get more quality for lower bitrate, which is quite an achievement.
And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll finish with this (notice the difference and bitrate):
Disclaimer
The author is not trying to start a codec flame war, there are many codecs and standards, and MPEG seemed proper for demonstration purposes. The shear amount of encodings, specifications and their aliases pretty much guarantees mistakes somewhere in the text, feel free to correct in the comments.
The author also does not endorse any streaming services. We mentioned Netflix just because it shares its encoding tricks with the public. We’re sure the other services have clever stuff going on as well, they’re just not telling. | 33 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278537",
"author": "TerryMatthews",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T14:27:46",
"content": "Lol hopefully they will have it ironed out by the time I get around to watching things in 4k in a few years. I think I will be okay without seeing every bad strand of hair on Moira’s wigs.",
"p... | 1,760,373,353.786546 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/improving-more-leaf-design-flaws/ | Improving More Leaf Design Flaws | Bryan Cockfield | [
"News"
] | [
"battery",
"car",
"charging",
"dc",
"electric",
"ev",
"firmware",
"Leaf",
"nissan",
"patch",
"rapid",
"rapidgate",
"software",
"thermal management",
"vehicle"
] | [Daniel] was recently featured here for his work in improving the default charging mode for the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle when using the emergency/trickle charger included with the car. His work made it possible to reduce the amount of incoming power from the car, if the charging plug looked like it might not be able to handle the full 1.2 kW -3 kW that these cars draw when charging. Thanks to that work, he was able to
create another upgrade for these entry-level EVs
, this time addressing a major Leaf design flaw that is known as Rapidgate.
The problem that these cars have is that they still have passive thermal management for their batteries, unlike most of their competitors now. This was fine in the early ’10s when this car was one of the first all-electric cars to market, but now its design age is catching up with it. On long trips at highway speed with many rapid charges in a row the batteries can overheat easily. When this happens, the car’s charging controller will not allow the car to rapid charge any more and severely limits the charge rate even at the rapid charging stations. [Daniel] was able to tweak the charging software in order to limit the rapid charging by default, reducing it from 45 kW to 35 kW and saving a significant amount of heat during charging than is otherwise possible.
While we’d like to see Nissan actually address the design issues with their car designs while making these straighforward software changes (or at least giving Leaf owners the options that improve charging experiences) we are at least happy that there are now other electric vehicles in the market that have at least addressed the battery thermal management issues that are common with all EVs. If you do own a Leaf though,
be sure to check out [Daniel]’s original project related to charging these cars
. | 19 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278522",
"author": "PWalsh",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T13:19:33",
"content": "One thing that Tesla seems to have gotten right is OTA updates. It’s seamless, happens in the background, and can both fix problems *and* add features.Compare with Windows, which will have you wait for 30 ... | 1,760,373,353.545231 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/16/rapid-charging-supercapacitors/ | Rapid Charging Supercapacitors | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"attiny",
"capacitor",
"charging",
"circuit",
"energy",
"storage",
"supercapacitor",
"voltage"
] | Battery technology is the talk of the town right now, as it’s the main bottleneck holding up progress on many facets of renewable energy. There are other technologies available for energy storage, though, and while they might seem like drop-in replacements for batteries they can have some peculiar behaviors. Supercapacitors, for example, have a completely different set of requirements for charging compared to batteries, and behave in peculiar ways compared to batteries.
This project from [sciencedude1990] shows off some of the quirks of supercapacitors
by showing one method of rapidly charging one. One of the most critical differences between batteries and supercapacitors is that supercapacitors’ charge state can be easily related to voltage, and they will discharge effectively all the way to zero volts without damage. This behavior has to be accounted for in the charging circuit. The charging circuit here uses an ATtiny13A and a MP18021 half-bridge gate driver to charge the capacitor, and also is programmed in a way that allows for three steps for charging the capacitor. This helps mitigate the its peculiar behavior compared to a battery, and also allows the 450 farad capacitor to charge from 0.7V to 2.8V in about three minutes.
If you haven’t used a supercapacitor like this in place of a lithium battery, it’s definitely worth trying out in some situations. Capacitors tolerate temperature extremes better than batteries, and provided you have good DC regulation can often provide power more reliably than batteries in some situations. You can also combine
supercapacitors with batteries to get the benefits of both types of energy storage devices
. | 40 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278463",
"author": "mime",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T08:09:06",
"content": "I’ve read the article 3 times and looked at all the hackaday.io blog logs but it’s not entirely clear what this project is trying to do. Creating a 6A constant current source using a PWM like charge mode?",
... | 1,760,373,353.661465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/led-art-reveals-itself-in-very-slow-motion/ | LED Art Reveals Itself In Very Slow Motion | Dan Maloney | [
"Art",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"apa102",
"HUB75",
"interpolation",
"led",
"led art",
"matrix",
"slow motion",
"Teensy"
] | Every bit of film or video you’ve ever seen is a mind trick, an optical illusion of continuous movement based on flashing 24 to 30 slightly different images into your eyes every second. The wetware between your ears can’t deal with all that information individually, so it convinces itself that you’re seeing smooth motion.
But what if you slow down time: dial things back to one frame every 100 seconds, or every 1,000? That’s the idea behind
this slow-motion LED art display
called, appropriately enough, “Continuum.” It’s the work of [Louis Beaudoin] and it was inspired by
the original very-slow-motion movie player
and
the recent update we featured
. But while those players featured e-paper displays for photorealistic images, “Continuum” takes a lower-resolution approach. The display is comprised of
four
nine HUB75 32×32 RGB LED displays, each with a 5-mm pitch. The resulting 96×96 pixel display fits nicely within an Ikea RIBBA picture frame.
The display is driven by a Teensy 4 and [Louis]’ custom-designed
SmartLED Shield
that plugs directly into the HUB75s. The rear of the frame is rimmed with APA102 LED strips for an Ambilight-style effect, and the front of the display has a frosted acrylic diffuser. It’s configured to show animated GIFs at anything from
1 frame per second
its original framerate to 1,000
seconds per frame
times slower, the latter resulting in an image that looks static unless you revisit it sometime later. [Louis] takes full advantage of the Teensy’s processing power to smoothly transition between each pair of frames, and the whole effect is quite wonderful. The video below captures it as best it can, but we imagine this is something best seen in person. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278438",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T05:53:03",
"content": "I think I figured out why some people (including myself) feel like they’ve been seeing articles twice within short timespans. This article is based on the hackaday.io project that was recently on the front p... | 1,760,373,353.586129 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/whimsical-solder-stand-moonlights-as-toy-3d-printer/ | Whimsical Solder Stand Moonlights As Toy 3D Printer | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"helping hand",
"lego",
"miniature",
"solder stand",
"third hand"
] | A few Lego pieces provide key functionality, like an articulated dispenser head.
Most of us have bent a length of solder into a more convenient shape and angle when soldering, and just sort of pushed the soldering iron and work piece into the hanging solder instead of breaking out a third hand. Well, [yukseltemiz] seems to have decided that a solder dispenser and a miniature 3D printer model can have a lot in common, and created
a 1/5 scale Ender 3 printer model that acts as a solder stand and dispenser
. The solder spool hangs where the filament roll would go, and the solder itself is dispensed through the “print head”.
It’s cute, and we do like the way that [yukseltemiz] incorporated a few Lego pieces into the build. A swivel and eyelet guides the solder off the roll and a small Lego ball and socket gives the dispenser its articulation, an important feature for bending solder to a more convenient angle for working. It makes us think that using Lego pieces right alongside more traditional hardware like M3 nuts and bolts might be an under-explored technique. You can see the unit in action in the brief assembly video, embedded below.
It’s cute, but the real utility is supporting a segment of solder for handy use. If you’d prefer some helping hands instead,
we put this 3D-printed version through its paces
.
[via
Reddit
] | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278413",
"author": "qwert",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T03:33:04",
"content": "So cute :) you should consider adding one of those super-teeny pi-sized computer fans as a hot end fan for fume extraction!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,373,353.712511 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/open-source-robotic-arm-for-all-purposes/ | Open-Source Robotic Arm For All Purposes | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"arduino",
"arm",
"Mega 2560",
"open source",
"printed",
"robot",
"servo",
"stepper motor"
] | A set of helping hands is a nice tool to have around the shop, especially if soldering or gluing small components is a common task. What we all really want, though, is a robotic arm. Sure, it could help us set up glue or solder but it can do virtually any other task it is assigned as well. A general-purpose tool like this might be out of reach of most of us, unless we have a 3D printer to make
this open-source robotic arm at home
.
The KAUDA Robotic Arm from [Giovanni Lerda] is a five-axis arm with a gripping tool and has a completely open-source set of schematics so it can be printed on any 3D printer. The robot arm uses three stepper motors and two servo motors, and is based on the Arduino MEGA 2560 for control. The electrical schematics are also open-source, so getting this one up and running is just an issue of printing, wiring, and implementing some software. To that end there are software examples available, and they can easily be modified to fit one’s robotic needs.
A project like this could be helpful for any number of other projects, or also just as a lesson in robotics for yourself or even in a classroom, since many schools now have their own 3D printers. With everything being open-source, this is a much simpler endeavor now than
other projects we’ve seen that attempted to get robotic arms running again
. | 23 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278386",
"author": "Saabman",
"timestamp": "2020-09-16T00:27:22",
"content": "This video is a bit more worthwhile than the one in the articlehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrvtf4m6fgc&feature=youtu.be",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment... | 1,760,373,353.843514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/deep-sleep-problems-lead-to-forensic-investigation-of-troublesome-chip/ | Deep-Sleep Problems Lead To Forensic Investigation Of Troublesome Chip | Dan Maloney | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"atmega328",
"chip",
"counterfeit",
"decapping",
"die",
"forensic",
"lead frame",
"x-ray"
] | When you buy a chip, how can you be sure you’re getting what you paid for? After all, it’s just a black fleck of plastic with some leads sticking out of it, and a few laser-etched markings on it that attest to what lies within. All of that’s straightforward to fake, of course, and it’s pretty easy to tell if you’ve got a defective chip once you try it out in a circuit.
But what about off-brand chips? Those chips might be functionally similar, but still off-spec in some critical way. That was the case for [Kevin Darrah] which led to
his forensic analysis of potentially counterfeit MCU chips
. [Kevin] noticed that one of his ATMega328 projects was consuming way too much power in deep sleep mode — about two orders of magnitude too much. The first video below shows his initial investigation and characterization of the problem, including removal of the questionable chip from the dev board it was on and putting it onto a breakout board that should draw less than a microamp in deep sleep. Showing that it drew 100 μA instead sealed the deal — something was up with the chip.
[Kevin] then sent the potentially bogus chip off to a lab for a full forensic analysis, because of course there are companies that do this for a living. The second video below shows the external inspection, which revealed nothing conclusive, followed by an X-ray analysis. That revealed enough weirdness to warrant destructive testing, which showed the sorry truth — the die in the suspect unit was vastly different from the Atmel chip’s die.
It’s hard to say that this chip is a counterfeit; after all, Atmel may have some sort of contract with another foundry to produce MCUs. But it’s clearly an issue to keep in mind when buying bargain-basement chips, especially ones that test functionally almost-sorta in-spec. Caveat emptor.
Counterfeit parts are depressingly common, and are a subject we’ve touched on many times before. If you’d like to know more,
start with a guide
.
[MCUdude], thanks for the heads up. | 53 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278328",
"author": "Bill Gates",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T20:14:31",
"content": "It’s CCC “Cheap-Ch**a-Cr*p”. Using stolen IP, it’s a “mostly compatible” Atmel Clone, on an ancient process, using stolen tech, using stolen tools, using stolen processes, using stolen masks, blah blah... | 1,760,373,354.140355 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/digital-expression-via-harmonica/ | Digital Expression Via Harmonica | Brian McEvoy | [
"Musical Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"adaptive",
"assistive",
"cerebral palsy",
"game controller",
"hid",
"human interface device",
"keyboard",
"mouse MIDI"
] | There is a good chance you clicked on this article with a mouse, trackball, trackpad, or tapped with your finger. Our hands are how most of us interact with the digital world, but that isn’t an option for everyone, and [Shu Takahashi] wants to give them a new outlet to express themselves. Some folks who cannot use their hands will be able to use
the Magpie MIDI, which acts as a keyboard, mouse, MIDI device
, and eventually, a game controller. This universal Human Interface Device (HID) differs from a mouth-operated joystick because it has air pressure sensors instead of buttons. The sensors can recognize the difference between exhalation and inhalation, so the thirteen ports can be neutral, positive, or negative, which is like having twenty-six discrete buttons.
The harmonica mounts on an analog X-Y joystick to move a mouse pointer or manipulate MIDI sound like a whammy bar. [Shu] knows that a standard harmonica has ten ports, but he picked thirteen because all twenty-six letters are accessible by a puff or sip in keyboard mode. The inputs outnumber the Arduino Leonardo’s analog inputs, so there is a multiplexor to read all of them. There was not enough time to get an Arduino with enough native ports, like a Teensy, with HID support baked in. Most of the structure is 3D printed, so parts will be replaceable and maybe even customizable.
Even with two working hands, we like to
exercise different hardware
, but the
harmonica is a nifty tool
to have attached to your computer.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278347",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T21:24:47",
"content": "Pretty dang cool! Tho I would prefer the jaw harp as a method of input no matter how impractical.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278365",
"a... | 1,760,373,354.056459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/putting-the-firmware-in-your-firmware/ | Putting The Firmware In Your Firmware | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"how-to",
"Microcontrollers",
"Software Development"
] | [
"atmega",
"attiny",
"binary",
"firmware",
"firmware update",
"gcc",
"gimp",
"gnu",
"image",
"ld",
"linker",
"microcontroller",
"objdump",
"OTA",
"STM32F4",
"update",
"xxd"
] | Performing over-the-air updates of devices in the field can be a tricky business. Reliability and recovery is of course key, but even getting the right bits to the right storage sectors can be a challenge. Recently I’ve been working on a project which called for the design of a new pathway to update some small microcontrollers which were decidedly inconvenient.
There are many pieces to a project like this; a bootloader to perform the actual updating, a robust communication protocol, recovery pathways, a file transfer mechanism, and more. What made these micros particularly inconvenient was that they weren’t network-connected themselves, but required a hop through another intermediate controller, which itself was
also
not connected to the network. Predictably, the otherwise simple “file transfer” step quickly ballooned out into a complex onion of tasks to complete before the rest of the project could continue. As they say, it’s micros all the way down.
The system de jour
The system in question isn’t particularly exotic. The relevant portion is composed of a network connected Linux computer wired to a large microcontroller, wired to a variety of smaller controllers to manage various tasks. I needed to be able to update this fan-out of smaller controllers. To save complexity I decided I would have the intermediate microcontroller responsible for the update process of its children. But this presented a new problem; how do we get the firmware images into the intermediate controller?
The micro in questions is fairly powerful, with a hefty dollop of external flash (
formatted with littleFS, naturally
) but getting the files into that flash would force me to develop a filesystem interface for the Linux computer. Not an issue, but a large piece of work and a significant diversion from the task at hand: bootloading those darn controllers! Then someone suggested an excellent way to simplify the process down to nearly nothing; what if I bundled the target firmware images with the firmware for the intermediate controller itself? Then flashing the intermediate would also transfer the payload firmwares for free! Definitely an expeditious strategy, but how to do it? This turned out to be a more interesting problem what I had anticipated. Let’s see how to get the images into the firmware.
Options for Images
I explored four methods for performing the firmware image bundling: compiling the payload firmware as a header, linking it in as an object file or modifying the compiled output to inject it, and directly editing the final binary. Among other differences, each of these strategies lends itself to usage at different points in the development process. Linking makes sense only when compiling the firmware, linker tricks work just after compilation, and binary editing can happen at any point after the binary is completed.
As this was a component of a larger stability-focused project, tracking the exact version of each separate firmware image was extremely important for bug-hunting and traceability. Ideally, each image would be somewhat decoupled, so they can be individually changed without recompiling everything. Adding further complexity to the problem was a need for three images — each controller runs a separate application — and two toolchains, as the intermediate and target microcontrollers were of different architectures. Though one of the four options was the best fit for my needs, all four are worth discussing.
The Classic: A Header File
An example of GIMP C source export,
from Twitter user [@whisperity]
If you read the the title of this post and thought to yourself “that’s easy, just compile it into a header!” you’re not alone. It’s certainly a classic approach to the problem, and if the resources are all available at compile time may be the best option.
There’s no trick to this method, it’s exactly as simple as it seems. You use a tool to effectively “print” the payload binary as a series of individual byte constants, then dump them into a source file as an array and compile away. Access is a snap, it’s just an array of fixed size! You can even use a
sizeof()
to figure out how much data is available.
There are a bunch of tools which facilitate this workflow, the most surprising being that paragon of utilities GIMP, which can export to C source directly. A more CLI friendly option (and one which will come up again) is
xxd
.
xxd
is nominally used for converting between raw binary and a variety of hex file formats, but can also be configured to export a C source file directly with the
-i
flag. The output should look pretty familiar if you’ve seen a constant C array before:
borgel$ xxd -i somefile.bin
unsigned char somefile_bin[] = {
0x22, 0x22, 0x22, 0x47, 0x75, 0x69, 0x64, 0x65, 0x20, 0x74, 0x68, 0x65,
...
0x69, 0x6f, 0x6e, 0x22, 0x5d, 0x0a, 0x29, 0x0a
};
unsigned int somefile_bin_len = 10568;
Pretty handy, right? Direct that output to a source file and compile away. Unfortunately this wasn’t a good fit my my application. I couldn’t guarantee that the payload firmware would always be available at compile time, and even if it was it would be somewhat more difficult to trace the exact version it had been built from without reading it from the final binary itself or creating a separate version file. So a C header was out.
Slick Linker Magic
For a compiled programming language like C, the compiler probably produces intermediate
object files.
You’ve seen them as the
.o
‘s hanging around in your directory tree. These contain compiled segments of the program in question, as well as metadata about where that code will eventually land in the final executable along with other information used by a linker or debugger. Well, it turns out that anything can be turned into an object file by wrapping it in the right bytes, including another binary.
With
gcc
and
gcc
-compatible tools this object file wrapping can be done with
ld
(the linker) itself with the
-r
and
-b
flags.
-r
asks
ld
to produce an object file as its output, and
-b
lets us tell it the input format (in this case binary). Note on some platforms
-b
seems to be deprecated and may not be necessary. The full command looks something like this:
borgel$ ld -r -b binary somefile.bin -o somefile.o
That’s essentially it. This
somefile.o
can be linked in with the rest of the object files to comprise a complete program.
Using the embedded binary with the running executable is more complex than reading a constant array, but only just. The linker automatically adds some magic symbols to the object file describing the start address, end address, and size of the payload (in this case a binary). On the development machine these can be verified in a few ways, the most ergonomic being
nm
(for listing symbols in an object file) and
objdump
(the object file dumper) – both part of a normal
GNU binutils
install. Each is very powerful but let’s use
objdump
as our sample:
borgel$ objdump -x somefile.o
somefile.o: file format ELF32-arm-little
Sections:
Idx Name Size Address Type
0 00000000 0000000000000000
1 .data 00002948 0000000000000000 DATA
2 .symtab 00000050 0000000000000000
3 .strtab 0000004f 0000000000000000
4 .shstrtab 00000021 0000000000000000
SYMBOL TABLE:
00000000 *UND* 00000000
00000000 l d .data 00000000 .data
00000000 .data 00000000 _binary_somefile_bin_start
00002948 .data 00000000 _binary_somefile_bin_end
00002948 *ABS* 00000000 _binary_somefile_bin_size
We’re not really interested in most of this, though it’s interesting to poke around at compiled binaries to see what they contain (for that, also try the
strings
tool). For our purposes we want the three
__binary_somefile_bin_*
symbols. Note their absence in the
ld
one-liner above, they are automatically named and placed by the linker. The column of numbers on the left of the
SYMBOL TABLE
section are the offsets in the object file where each symbol is located, in hex. We can get the size of our binary (in this case with a simple
ls
)
borgel$ ls -l somefile.bin somefile.bin
-rw-r--r--@ 1 borgel staff 10568 Aug 15 14:22 somefile.bin
to see that the symbols
_binary_somefile_bin_size
and
_binary_somefile_bin_end
are correctly placed after a block the same size as our input file (10568 = 0x2948). To access these symbols in C, we add them as
extern
to any file that needs them, like so:
extern const char _binary_somefile_bin_start;
extern const char _binary_somefile_bin_end;
extern const int _binary_somefile_bin_size;
Then they can be referenced in code like any variable. Remember they’re intended as pointers to the data on disk. That is, their
address
is meaningful, and the data stored at that location is the data on disk at that address.
This method works great, and feels better encapsulated than directly converting everything to a source file. But it suffers from similar problems to the previous approach; that tracking the provenance of the resulting binary can be complex without embedding additional symbols.
In my case, the bigger problem was that in order to work with the object files you must have tooling that supports that particular processor architecture. Not a problem when bundling software for a desktop, but in my case it meant I needed a copy of the
arm-none-eabi-gcc
tooling on hand at a point in the build process where it wasn’t already present. This was possible to fix, but there were better options.
But Wait, There’s More?
Did we just cover all of the possible ways to build a binary? Hardly! But these two options are both best suited for compile time and cover the most common needs for embedding binaries. Where are you most likely to encounter them in these pages? Probably when embedding images in microcontroller firmware. Compiling a bitmap down to a header is perhaps the easiest way to go from an image on a desktop to a display attached to a micro.
If all this talk of object files is getting you thinking of more ways to explore the compiler’s leavings, check out [Sven Gregori]’s excellent post on
creating plugin systems with shared libraries
; a closely related topic. And if the thought of working with binaries is filling your mind with possibilities, [Al Williams] has your number as he works through the process of
creating binary files using xxd
and other common Linux tools. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278304",
"author": "Rud Merriam",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T18:39:01",
"content": "Had a similar problem in the late 80s. The need was to update software in remote units that weren’t always physically accessible, e.g. on a mountain in the winter or middle of a swamp. Communications ... | 1,760,373,355.840157 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/mirrored-music-machine-reflects-circadian-rhythms/ | Mirrored Music Machine Reflects Circadian Rhythms | Kristina Panos | [
"Art",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"Adafruit Feather",
"circadian rhythm",
"rtc",
"sculpture"
] | Interactive artist [Daric Gill] wrote in to share the incredible electronic sculpture he’s been working on for the past year. It’s called the Circadian Machine, and
it’s a sensor-enabled mindfulness music-and-lights affair that plays a variety of original compositions based on the time of day and the circle of fifths
. This machine performs some steady actions like playing chimes at the top of each hour, and a special sequence at solar noon.
This cyberpunk-esque truncated hexagonal bi-pyramid first geolocates itself, and then learns the times for local sunrise and sunset. A music module made of a Feather M4 Express and a Music Maker FeatherWing fetches astronomical data and controls the lights, speakers, and a couple of motion sensors that, when tripped, will change the lights and sounds on the fly. A separate Feather Huzzah and DS3231 RTC handle the WiFi negotiation and keep track of the time.
On top of the hourly lights and sound, the Circadian Machine does something pretty interesting: it performs another set of actions based on sunrise and sunset, basically cramming an entire day’s worth of actions between the two events, which seems like a salute to what humans do each day. Check out
the build notes
and walk-through video after the break, then stick around for the full build video.
The internet is rife with information just begging to be turned into art. For instance,
there are enough unsecured CCTV cameras around the world with primo vantage points that you can watch a different sunrise
and
sunset every hour of every day
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278250",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T15:57:50",
"content": "Learn me more about them Canadian Rhythms!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278587",
"author": "Kristina Panos",
"timestamp": "2020-09-... | 1,760,373,355.889997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/githubs-move-away-from-passwords-a-sign-of-things-to-come/ | GitHub’s Move Away From Passwords: A Sign Of Things To Come? | Maya Posch | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"biometrics",
"github",
"passwords",
"ssh"
] | Later this month, people who use GitHub may find themselves suddenly getting an error message while trying to authenticate against the GitHub API or perform actions on a GitHub repository with a username and password. The reason for this is the removal of this authentication option by GitHub, with a few ‘brown-out’ periods involving the rejection of passwords to give people warning of this fact.
This change was
originally announced
by GitHub in November of 2019, had a
deprecation timeline assigned
in February of 2020 and another
blog update
in July repeating the information. As noted there, only GitHub Enterprise Server remains unaffected for now. For everyone else, as of November 13th, 2020, in order to use GitHub services, the use of an OAuth token, personal token or SSH key is required.
While this is likely to affect a fair number of people who are using GitHub’s REST API and repositories, perhaps the more interesting question here is whether this is merely the beginning of a larger transformation away from username and password logins in services.
No Skies Are Falling… Yet
First of all, the good news is that dealing with this change isn’t super-complicated, and if reading GitHub’s blog posts has filled you with confusion and various levels of existential dread, here’s an easy way to fix it with minimal changes if you’re used to hammering in your credentials on the command line with the
git
client:
Switch to SSH.
That’s it. If you already have a SSH keys installed on your system, make sure to
copy the public key
into your GitHub profile. After this you can either clone your repositories anew with more SSH flavor, or change the git remote URL from HTTPS into its SSH equivalent.
Doing this requires opening the
.git/config
file in your local repository’s root folder in your favorite text editor (like Vim) and changing the remote’s URL. Simply change ‘https’ to ‘ssh’, and append ‘git@’ before the host name so that e.g.
https://github.com/Foo/Bar.git
becomes
ssh://git@github.com/Foo/Bar.git
.
Congratulations, you should now be able to use your SSH key to push, pull, fetch, rebase, squash and all those other naughty things with your remote repositories just like before. If you get weird SSH errors, it might be that you have the
wrong permissions
set on your ~/.ssh folder. Otherwise, enjoy not typing your username and password (or access token) any more every single time.
The Broader Picture
According to GitHub, the reason for this change is to increase security. Instead of passwords, they offer the use of personal access tokens (
PATs
) when using the REST API or accessing git repositories via HTTPS. The idea is that PATs can be created for specific services and individuals, to limit and grant certain rights. The resulting token is however a long string that you aren’t just going to remember and type in, which makes a password manager essential.
It is telling that none of this applies
to logging into the GitHub website
itself. There you can still use your username and password as before, possibly in addition to
two-factor authentication
(2FA) if you weren’t using it already. Here, the second factor in 2FA can be a code sent in a text message or mobile app, or something like WebAuthentication (FIDO2), with all the
potential gotchas when using biometrics
.
For those of us who were already using SSH with our GitHub repository queries, this means that essentially nothing changes. The use of access tokens should also come as no surprise to anyone who has integrated a CI system or similar with GitHub. It does however lead one to ask the question of what the point of GitHub’s change is if it only makes a few DevOps scurry around to update services (and fix the few that do fall over). Is anyone really trying to get rid of passwords?
As anyone who has ever managed a large, multi-user system at a university or large business knows, user account management is essential. Ideally you want to keep every user (whether a person, shell script or manager) in their own little permission zone. This is where GitHub’s announcement is perhaps the most puzzling. As noted by commenters over at
Hacker News
on the announcement, it would have made more sense to have expanded the access tokens to make more fine-grained and per-project roles.
The Power of Knowledge
Graphic courtesy of the EFF.
Whether or not passwords are actually problematic seems to mostly depend on who you ask. If it’s a study commissioned by
a company that sells alternatives
to password-based logins, or the company behind
Windows Hello
, it’s the most insecure thing ever. However, as mentioned earlier, there are
significant issues
with these alternatives, especially biometrics.
In user authentication, identification can take place using something you have, something you are, and something you know. Biometrics is the practice of scanning a part of a person’s body and comparing it with previously stored data. This is public data which is becoming increasingly easier to copy and reproduce to fool biometric sensors. And of course if your biometric data falls into the hands of bad actors you can never change it.
Something which one has (wallet, credit card, hardware token) is easily stolen or lost. This is why such tokens are inevitably unlocked with a password, in the form of a personal identification number (PIN), which is awkwardly danced around as being a password, even though as a thing that ‘someone knows’ it is totally a password.
Things that people know are pretty amazing, because the only ways that they can be compromised are by forgetting them or by having someone record them using keyloggers, compromised ATMs, etc. This is demonstrated by the inability of US federal departments to
force their way into
password-secured iPhones. With the use of facial recognition all it takes is holding the phone up to the person’s face in order to unlock it,
something which might even be legal
for fingerprints. In some cases a photograph of the person suffices.
All You Need Is SSH
The OpenSSH logo.
Realistically, the nice thing about GitHub’s change seems to be that it forces more people to finally toss out or rewrite those old scripts and forgotten-but-still-active Java back-end services that have username and password credentials hard-coded in them. Having them use SSH (conceivably using
ssh-agent
or
GPG agent
) eases maintenance and should improve security. Even if one just uses git repositories from the command line and doesn’t bother with a password manager, switching to SSH means less typing.
As an authentication mechanism, SSH provides two-factor authentication in the form of something you have (the secret key) and something you know (the key phrase). Its benefits are acknowledged by GitLab as well, who as of August 15th this year
are no longer offering multi-factor resets
for free user accounts. If one has an SSH key registered with the account, one can use SSH authentication to
recover the account
in cases where all of the other authentication methods have become unavailable.
It’s Passwords All the Way Down
Because of the power of keeping authentication information safely stored in our squishy, organic brains, all authentication methods seem to lead back to a form of passwords at some point. Even ‘password-less’ authentication tokens require a passcode (PIN), which one has to remember. The same is true for credit cards, debit cards, online banking accounts, SIM cards, password managers and so on.
On last count, I have to remember the PIN codes for multiple SIM cards, debit cards, credit cards, online banking apps, and one password manager for nearly a dozen total. Guess where these PIN codes end up? That’s correct, in the password manager, because remembering a random string of numbers is tricky, but remembering a dozen of them is a borderline nightmare scenario. Was it 7634 for that one debit card, or 7643? Or was that for the second credit card? Even Elliot Williams’
brain-based hashing system for PINs
lets him write the public key on the card but it still demands that he remember the private key (and how to hash them in his head).
Perhaps that’s the appeal of biometrics: to have something that just is, with nothing to remember or some physical item to keep track of. Yet biometrics is the cryptology equivalent of printing your SSH private key on your forehead (or fingertips).
At the end of the day, it seems that all authentication roads end up leading to password managers and SSH keys. | 69 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278233",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T15:07:08",
"content": "I can’t imagine the hassle of using github regularly with passwords. I have been using SSH keys as long as I can remember.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,356.543843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/a-tentacle-thats-a-work-of-art/ | A Tentacle That’s A Work Of Art | Jenny List | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed gripper",
"robot arm",
"tentacle"
] | We all bring our own areas of expertise to our work when we build the projects that find their way in front of Hackaday writers, for instance a software developer brings clever brains to their microcontroller, or an electronic engineer might bring a well-designed piece of circuitry. [Yvo de Haas] is a mechanical engineer, and it’s pretty clear from
his animatronic tentacle
that he has used his expertise in that field to great effect.
If you think it looks familiar then some readers may recall that
we saw a prototype model back in February at Hacker Hotel 2020
. In those last weeks before the pandemic hit us with lockdowns and cancellations he’d assembled a very worthy proof of concept, and from what we can see from his write-up and the video below he’s used all the COVID time to great effect in the finished product. Back in February the control came via a pair of joysticks, we’re particularly interested to see his current use of a mini tentacle as a controller.
At its heart is a linkage of 3D-printed anti-parallelograms linked by gears, with cables holding the tension and controlling the movement of the tentacle from a set of winches. The design process is detailed from the start and makes a fascinating read, and with its gripper on the end we can’t wait for an event that goes ahead without cancellation at which we can see the tentacle for real.
If you’d like to see more of [Yvo]’s work, maybe you remember
his wearable and functioning Pip-Boy
, and
his working
Portal
turret
. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278198",
"author": "N. Christopher Perry",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T12:33:54",
"content": "That’s beautiful! Nice work.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6278205",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T13:16:34",
... | 1,760,373,356.197056 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/15/let-this-crying-detecting-classifier-offer-some-much-needed-reprieve/ | Let This Crying Detecting Classifier Offer Some Much Needed Reprieve | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Machine Learning"
] | [
"artificial intelligence",
"artificial intelligence yourself",
"Edge Impulse",
"TinyML"
] | Baby monitors are cool, but [Ish Ot Jr.] wanted his to only transmit sounds that required immediate attention and filter any non-emergency background noise. Posed with this problem,
he made a baby monitor that would only send alerts when his baby was crying
.
For his project, [Ish] used an
Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense
due to its built-in microphone, sizeable RAM for storing large chunks of data, and it’s BLE capabilities for later connecting with an app. He began his project by collecting background noise using Edge Impulse Studio’s data acquisition functionality. [Ish] really emphasized that Edge Impulse was really doing all the work for him. He really just needed to collect some test data and that was mostly it on his part. The work needed to run and test the Neural Network was taken care of by Edge Impulse. Sounds handy, if you don’t mind offloading your data to the cloud.
[Ish] ended up with an 86.3% accurate classifier which he thought was good enough for a first pass at things. To make his prototype a bit more “finished”, he added some status LEDs, providing some immediate visual feedback of his classifier and to notify the caregiver. Eventually, he wants to add some BLE support and push notifications, alerting him whenever his baby needs attention.
We’ve seen a couple of
baby monitor projects on Hackaday over the years
.
[Ish’s] project will most certainly be a nice addition to the list
. | 45 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278165",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T08:07:18",
"content": "The question is can it tell a fake cry from actual crying.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278207",
"author": "alfcoder",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,356.154961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/juuke-an-rfid-music-player-for-elderly-and-kids/ | Juuke – An RFID Music Player For Elderly And Kids | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Portable Audio Hacks"
] | [
"DFPlayer",
"RC522",
"rfid"
] | [ananords] and his girlfriend wanted to make a
simple and easy to use music player
for her grandmother. Music players like CD players and MP3s have gotten just a bit too difficult to handle, so they wanted to find a much simpler solution.
They conceived the idea of creating a little jukebox called Juuk, with a simple and easy to use interface. They created individual RFID cards with the artist’s photo on the front face, making it easy to select different options from the music library. Juuk has a built-in RFID reader that will recognize each RFID card and play the appropriate musical number from an SD card.
This simple interface is much more user-friendly than those awful touchscreen devices that we’re all forced to fiddle with today and also has
a cool retro appeal
that many of our readers are sure to appreciate. Juuk also has a pretty ergonomic interface with a big, easy-to-use knob for controlling the volume and two appropriately illuminated buttons, one green and one red, for simple stop and play options.
We love when our hacks are able to blend form with function and emphasize high usability.
Check out some of our other assistive tech on the blog
. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278140",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T05:39:47",
"content": "Oh, it looks like this other Juuk over here:https://hackaday.com/2020/08/29/easy-to-use-music-player-relies-on-rfid/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,355.96972 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/nvidia-acquires-arm-for-40-billion/ | Nvidia Acquires ARM For $40 Billion | Mike Szczys | [
"Business",
"News"
] | [
"arm",
"Mergers & Acquisitions",
"mergers and acquisitions",
"NVIDIA",
"SoftBank"
] | Nvidia announced on Sunday evening that it has reached
an agreement to acquire Arm Limited from SoftBank for a cool $40 billion
.
In this age of headlines that use the b-word in place of nine zeros it’s easy to lose track, so you may be wondering, didn’t SoftBank just buy Arm? That was all the way back in July of 2016 to the tune of $32 billion. SoftBank is a holding company, so that deal didn’t ruffle any feathers, but this week’s move by Nvidia might.
Arm Limited is the company behind the ARM architecture, but they don’t actually produce the chips themselves, instead licensing them to other companies who pay a fee to use the core design and build their own chip around it. Nvidia licenses the ARM core for some of their chips, and with this deal they will be in a position to set terms for how their competitors may license the ARM core. The deal still needs regulatory approval so time will tell if this becomes a kink in the acquisition plan.
There’s a good chance that you’re reading this article on a device that contains an ARM processor because of its dominance in the smartphone and tablet market. Although less common in the laptop market, and nearly unheard of in the desktop market, the tide may be changing as
Apple announced early in the summer that their Mac line will be moving to ARM
.
Chances are you know the Nvidia name for their role as purveyors of fine graphics cards. They got a major boost as the world ramped up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining hardware which early on was mainly based on the heavy lifting of graphics processors. But the company also has their eye on the ongoing wave of hardware targeting AI applications like computer vision.
Nvidia’s line of Jetson boards
, marketed for “next-generation autonomous machines”, all feature ARM cores.
Assuming the deal goes through without a hitch, what will be the fallout? Your guess is as good ours. There is certainly a conflict of interest in a company who competes in the ARM market owning the Arm. But it’s impossible to say what efforts they will make to firewall those parts of the business. Some might predict a mass exodus from the ARM ecosystem in favor of an open standard like RISC-V, but that is unlikely in the near-term. Momentum is difficult to overcome — look at how long it took ARM to climb that mountain and it was primarily the advent of a new mobile ecosystem lacking an established dominant player that let ARM thrive. | 75 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277947",
"author": "Rog Fanther",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T15:30:47",
"content": "Well, but it is faster to fall down of a mountain than to climb it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277952",
"author": "Timothy Ward",... | 1,760,373,356.418277 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/floating-spaceports-for-future-rockets/ | Floating Spaceports For Future Rockets | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"Falcon 9",
"roscosmos",
"Soviet Union",
"SpaceX",
"starship"
] | While early prototypes for SpaceX’s Starship have been exploding fairly regularly at the company’s Texas test facility, the overall program has been moving forward at a terrific pace. The towering spacecraft, which CEO Elon Musk believes will be the key to building a sustainable human colony on Mars, has gone from CGI rendering to flight hardware in just a few short years. That’s fast even by conventional rocket terms, but then, there’s little about Starship that anyone would dare call conventional.
An early Starship prototype being assembled.
Nearly every component of the deep space vehicle is either a technological leap forward or a deviation from the norm. Its revolutionary full-flow staged combustion engines, the first of their kind to ever fly, are
so complex that the rest of the aerospace industry gave up
trying to build them decades ago. To support rapid reusability, Starship’s sleek fuselage abandons finicky carbon fiber for much hardier (and heavier) stainless steel; a material that hasn’t been used to build a rocket since the dawn of the Space Age.
Then there’s the sheer size of it: when Starship is mounted atop its matching Super Heavy booster, it will be taller and heavier than both the iconic Saturn V and NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System. At liftoff the booster’s 31 Raptor engines will produce an incredible 16,000,000 pounds of thrust, unleashing a fearsome pressure wave on the ground that would literally be fatal for anyone who got too close.
Which leads to an interesting question: where could you safely launch (and land) such a massive rocket? Even under ideal circumstances you would need to keep people several kilometers away from the pad, but what if the worst should happen? It’s one thing if a single-engine prototype goes up in flames, but should a fully fueled Starship stack explode on the pad, the resulting fireball would have the equivalent energy of several kilotons of TNT.
Thanks to the stream of consciousness that Elon often unloads on Twitter, we might have our answer. While responding to a comment about past efforts to launch orbital rockets from the ocean, he casually mentioned that Starship would likely operate from floating spaceports once it started flying regularly:
While history cautions us against
looking too deeply into Elon’s social media comments
, the potential advantages to launching Starship from the ocean are a bit too much to dismiss out of hand. Especially since it’s a proven technology: the Zenit rocket he references made more than 30 successful orbital launches from its unique floating pad.
Last of the Soviet Rockets
Developed in the 1980s, the Zenit rocket was intended to replace the aging Soyuz and Proton launchers that were the backbone of the Soviet space program. Similar in size and specifications to the early versions of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, the liquid oxygen and refined kerosene powered Zenit would be cheaper and safer to operate than its predecessors. Its ability to act as a strap-on booster for larger vehicles, another similarity shared with the Falcon 9, also promised to further streamline space logistics for the USSR.
Zenit-2
Falcon 9 v1
Of course, that never happened. Before all the bugs could be worked out of the new booster the Soviet Union collapsed, and the program became mired in politics. Not only did the Russian Federation lack the funds to simultaneously operate the Soyuz, Proton, and Zenit to their full potential, but there was concern about launching sensitive payloads on a rocket that was now being manufactured in the newly independent Ukraine. After several high profile failures in the 1990s, the Zenit program was very nearly cancelled entirely.
One if By Land, Two if By Sea
While the dissolution of the Soviet Union ultimately kept the Zenit from replacing the Soyuz and Proton, it also provided some tantalizing businesses possibilities. With the Cold War officially over, an international coalition of companies from the United States, Russia, Ukraine, and Norway was formed to offer Zenit to commercial customers. Rather than having to decide which nation would serve as the rocket’s permanent home base, a modified version of the vehicle would fly from a self-propelled oceangoing launch pad that started life as an offshore oil rig. This revolutionary new service was called, aptly enough, Sea Launch.
Zenit-3SL on Sea Launch’s
Ocean Odyssey
platform.
Beyond the political aspect of not being tied to any one nation, launching from the ocean offered a number of compelling advantages. For one, it was much safer should the rocket explode on the pad or fail shortly after liftoff. This was especially important given the somewhat spotty track record of the Zenit. It would also allow launches from near the Earth’s equator, which imparts greater tangential velocity on the vehicle during ascent and directly translates into increased payload capacity.
The initial boost provided by the Earth’s rotation can be approximated by taking the planet’s rotational speed at the equator and multiplying it by the cosine of the launch site’s latitude:
While the gains offered by equatorial sea launch might seem small compared to orbital velocity (roughly 28,000 km/h), the rocket equation is exceptionally unforgiving. Even a tiny reduction in the acceleration required to reach orbit allows more of the vehicle’s mass to be devoted to payload instead of propellant. Additionally, it means that payloads destined for equatorial orbits, such as geosynchronous communication satellites, don’t need to adjust their inclination after separation from the booster. This further reduces propellant requirements and gets the satellite into its final operational orbit faster, which results in a longer useful lifetime.
An Experiment Cut Short
In total 36 Zenit rockets were launched from Sea Launch’s floating pad between 1999 and 2014, 32 of which successfully delivered their payloads to orbit. The most serious failure was in January 2007, when the rocket carrying the NSS-8 satellite failed a few seconds after ignition and engulfed the launchpad in a fireball.
Due to the design of the floating launchpad, the faltering rocket fell through an opening in the platform and sunk; causing only superficial damage to the infrastructure aboard. As part of normal operating procedure, no personnel were aboard the
Ocean Odyssey
platform at the time of the launch, so no injuries were sustained. The platform was repaired and ready for its next launch just six months after the incident.
From a technical standpoint, Sea Launch showed there was definite promise for ocean-launched orbital rockets. The handful of failures experienced by the program were in no way related to the logistics of transporting the rocket to the equator or the unique nature of the floating launchpad. Nor was the single failure aboard
Ocean Odyssey
enough to delay the program for very long, much less stop it entirely. If anything, the NSS-8 explosion demonstrated the inherent safety of ocean launches in the event of a catastrophic failure.
Unfortunately, Sea Launch was eventually killed by the same thing that made it possible in the first place: political turmoil. The 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia strained the country’s relationship with Ukraine, and while publicly Sea Launch denied the situation had any impact on their operation, within a few months the staff were laid off and the
Ocean Odyssey
and its support ship were mothballed.
Rockets On the High Seas
SpaceX has already gained
considerable experience landing their rockets on floating platforms
, which arguably, is a harder feat than lifting off from one. The Sea Launch project proved beyond a shadow of a doubt the concept worked, it just needs to be scaled up. As Elon pointed out, Starship and the Super Heavy booster are a far larger vehicle than Zenit, but that doesn’t mean the core technology would need to be any different.
Each Starship will be refueled in orbit by multiple tankers.
The overall Starship architecture is built around the concept of orbital refueling, which means each mission will actually consist of multiple launches in quick succession. Up to five or six in the case of a trip to Mars, all launched within a few days of each other.
Equatorial sea launches would help streamline this process as much as possible, allowing the maximum amount of propellant to be delivered to the Starship waiting in orbit in the least amount of time. The per-flight gains won’t be much, but SpaceX is clearly playing the long game. At the very least, it would help keep the incredible amount of noise such an operation would produce as far away from civilization as possible.
Or, as we’ve learned with SpaceX in the past, it might never happen. Perhaps the cost of building a fleet of gargantuan floating spaceports will end up being so high as to negate any advantages gained from ocean launches. With all the changes the Starship design has undergone in just a few short years, very little about this futuristic craft can be said with absolute certainty. Many doubted it would ever even get this far.
But even if SpaceX doesn’t go forward with launching Starship from the ocean, there’s still hope for the concept of ocean-going rocketry. The Russian space agency
Roscosmos has announced they plan on getting the languishing
Ocean Odyssey
up and running again
, this time using only domestic technology. Just like stainless steel rockets, it seems that ocean launchpads are coming back in style for the New Space Race. | 36 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277939",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T15:03:06",
"content": "Where on the Equator was(is?) Sea Launch located?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6279030",
"author": "WonkoTheSaneUK",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,356.313143 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/budget-friendly-bend-sensor-deforms-with-precision/ | Budget-Friendly Bend Sensor Deforms With Precision | Sonya Vasquez | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"angle measurement",
"bend sensors",
"bowden cable",
"measurement",
"measurement devices"
] | We’re pretty familiar with budget resistor-based bend sensors at this point, but this sensor is in a totally different class. Instead of relying on resistive elements, [Useok Jeong] and [Kyu-Jin Cho] devised a
bend sensor that relies on geometric properties of the sensor itself
. The result is a higher-fidelity measuring device made from a pretty widely available collection of stock parts.
We’ll admit, calling this device a
bend
sensor might be a bit of a stretch, so let’s dig into some of the operating principles. What we’re actually measuring is the
accumulated angle
, the sum of all the curvature deformations along the length of the sensing element. The sensor is made of 3 main pieces: an outer extension spring-based wire sheath; a flexible, tensioned inner wire core that’s fixed at one end; and a small displacement sensor that measures the length changes in the wire’s free end. The secret ingredient to making this setup work is a special property of the outer wire sheath or
spring guide
. Here, the spring guide actually
resists
being compressed while being bent. Because the inner radius of the bend remains a constant length, the center wire core is forced to elongate. With the excess wire spooled up at the sensor base, we simply measure how much we collected, apply some math, and get a resulting angle! What’s more, the folks behind this trick also demonstrate that the length and angle relationship is linear with an R-square of 0.9969.
One of the best parts about this sensor is how reproducible it seems from from a modest collection of stock parts. Spring guide (aka:
extension spring
) is available from
McMaster-Carr
and
DR Templeman
, and that flexible core might be readily substituted with some wire rope.
It’s not everyday that new topologies for bend sensors pop into the world, let alone linear ones. To learn more, the folks behind the project have kindly made their research paper
open access
for your afternoon reading enjoyment. (Bring scratch paper!) Finally, if you’re looking for other bend-related sensors, have a look at this
multi-bend measurement setup
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277911",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T11:14:08",
"content": "This appears to be using a long-known issue with bicycle brake cables, and the one that the SIS cables were designed to eliminate.Traditional bicycle brakes (and all control cables of the Bowden type) u... | 1,760,373,356.23817 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/autonomous-multi-task-performing-robot/ | Autonomous Multi-Task Performing Robot | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"controls",
"Pi",
"pi zero",
"pid",
"Teensy"
] | [Ruchir] has been pretty into robotics for a while now and has always been amused by the ever-popular obstacle avoiding robot, but wanted something that could do more. So, like any good hacker,
he decided to build something himself
.
He wanted to incorporate all the popular beginner robot capabilities into a single invention. His robot can follow a line, detect an obstacle, and retrieve an object without switching between modes. It can even follow another robot, which is pretty neat.
His robot has a lot of the hardware you would expect. It uses a Raspberry Pi for all the heavy image processing, has optical sensors for line following and obstacle avoidance, and includes a speaker for audio feedback. What’s especially cool is the impressive interface, called the Regbot GUI, that [Ruchir] is using with his robot.
According to the Wiki page
, the Regbot GUI appears to accompany an educational robotics platform developed by Professor Jens Christian Andersen of the Technical University of Denmark for teaching controls to engineering students. [Ruchir] was able to adapt the GUI to his particular bot no problem.
Using the Regbot GUI, [Ruchir] can monitor all the robot’s sensor data in real-time (accelerometer, gyroscope, distance sensor, servo, encoder, etc.), dynamically adjust its calibration settings if needed, or even provide a universal killswitch
in case the unthinkable happens
. We’d say it’s definitely worth a look before you embark on your next robotics project. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,355.921483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/cybercube-makes-a-great-computing-companion/ | Cybercube Makes A Great Computing Companion | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"computer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"5\" LCD",
"arduino",
"arduino pro micro",
"cyberdeck",
"ortholinear",
"raspberry pi",
"split keyboard"
] | Oh, sure, there have been a few cube-shaped PCs over the years, like the G4 and the NeXT cube. But can they really be called cubes when the display and the inputs were all external? We think not.
[ikeji] doesn’t think so either, and has
created a cube PC that puts them all to shame
. Every input and output is within the cube, including our favorite part — the 48-key ortholinear keyboard, which covers two sides of the cube and must be typed on vertically. (If you’ve ever had wrist pain from typing, you’ll understand why anyone would want to do that.) You can see a gif of [ikeji] typing on it after the break.
Inside the 3D printed cube is a Raspberry Pi 4 and a 5″ LCD. There’s also an Arduino Pro Micro for the keyboard matrix, which is really two 4×6 matrices — one for each half. There’s a 6cm fan to keep things cool, and one panel is devoted to a grille for heat output. Another panel is devoted to vertically mounting the microcontrollers and extending the USB ports.
Don’t type on me or my son ever again.
When we first looked at this project, we thought the tiny cube was a companion macro pad that could be stored inside the main cube. It’s really a test cube for trying everything out, which we think is a great idea and does not preclude its use as a macro pad one of these days. [ikeji] already has plenty of plans for the future, like cassette support, an internal printer, and a battery, among other things. We can’t wait to see the next iteration.
We love a good cyberdeck around here, and it’s interesting to see all the things people are using them for.
Here’s a cyberduck that quacks in Python and CircuitPython
. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277879",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T05:35:47",
"content": "Thats really neat for a keyboard to be included onto the sides of the cube.Also, clever bean here for putting what looks to be a 2.7V 10F cap in place of the battery on the calipers and having a simple charg... | 1,760,373,356.59708 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/the-interactive-storytelling-radio/ | The Interactive Storytelling Radio | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Machine Learning",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"artifical intelligence",
"chat room",
"chatbox",
"Google AIY Voice Kit"
] | [8BitsAndAByte] are back and this time they’re
using AI to create an interactive storyteller
. With the help of a Raspberry Pi, they upcycled an old Cold War era radio they dug up and the results are pretty impressive.
The main controller board of the radio was intact, so it was easy to use all the preexisting hardware to control the speaker and to trigger a few of the Pi’s GPIO using the buttons and switches on the radio’s front panel. To add some artificial intelligence, they used
Google’s AIY Voice Kit
, allowing them to tap into Google’s
seemingly endless artificial intelligence platform
. This could be a “tables have turned moment,” but we’re probably being a bit too hopeful.
Anyway, they used a pretty interesting piece of software called Dialogflow that creates a somewhat natural conversational interaction akin to a chatbox. Dialogflow processes speech to text, as you would expect, but can also interpret contextual speech and provide contextual responses. Pretty neat…
but maybe also a little creepy
. Who knows?
The jury is still out
.
Anyway, if you’re like us and sometimes in need of a break from humans, then this project just might be for you.
https://youtu.be/smQBHZZrqBM | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277909",
"author": "MIKE",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T10:37:32",
"content": "That radio is a collectible that is valued between 100 and 150 euros in working condition. And could be used with external audio input. It’s not upcycling, but misusing old hardware. He could have made a doc... | 1,760,373,357.199249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/hackaday-links-september-13-2020/ | Hackaday Links: September 13, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"37C3",
"automotive",
"ccc",
"conference",
"decapping",
"die",
"etching",
"GoPro",
"hackaday links",
"Remoticon"
] | Like pretty much every other big conference, the Chaos Communication Conference is going virtual this year. What was supposed to be 37C3 has been rebranded as
rC3, the remote Chaos Experience
. It’s understandable, as a 17,000 person live event would have not only been illegal but a bit irresponsible in the current environment. The event appears to be a hybrid of small local events hosted in hackerspaces linked with streamed talks and a program of workshops and “online togetherness.” rC3 is slated to run in the week between Christmas and New Year, and it seems like a great way to wrap up 2020.
Speaking of remote conferences, don’t forget about our own
Remoticon
. While it won’t be quite the same as everyone getting together in sunny — historically, at least — Pasadena for a weekend of actual togetherness, it’s still going to be a great time. The event runs November 6 to 8; we’ve had a sneak peek at the list of proposed workshops and there’s some really cool stuff. Prepare to be dazzled, and make sure you keep up on the Remoticon announcements — you really don’t want to miss this.
There’s been a strange confluence of decapping news this week that we’re all too happy to share. First is
a collection of transistor die photos
that are simply fascinating. Most of them feature 2N3055 power transistors of various vintages and manufacturing methods. Liberated from their TO-3 cans and driven to breakdown at the base-emitter junction, the dies light up, sometimes frighteningly bright. The innards of a potted Darlington array and 2N1613 on the next page are interesting too.
Continuing the theme, if you haven’t been following Ken Shirriff’s series on reverse-engineering the Intel 8086 microprocessor, you’re missing out on a real treat. Working mostly from die photos, he’s delved into
how the Arithmetic-Logic Unit (ALU) of the chip worked
,
the hows and whys of the separate 16-bit adder
, and
how power and clocking were handled
. He even managed to find
a fake 8086 chip
during his explorations. We’re learning a ton from these teardowns, as is usual when Ken really dives into a subject.
Our final bit of decapping news comes to us via a fan of Zeptobars, a decapper of some renown whose work we’ve featured on our pages quite a few times. Thanks to COVID-19, he was
forced to decamp from Moscow back to Switzerland
on short notice back in May, leaving behind most of his elaborate setup for decapping and etching chips. While he’s rebuilding his lab, he’s asking for donations of any surplus metal-capped chips, presumably because they’re easier to pop open and photograph. Maybe we can all dig around in our junk bins and see if we have anything interesting to help him keep the blog going.
And finally, Warped Perception is at it again. We recently covered how
he put a GoPro inside a tire
and showed what it looks like in there while the car drives around a bit. Then he notched it up a bit and did
a burnout with a camera-fied tire
, which was interesting for those with a destructive bent. And now he’s gone and
stuck a GoPro inside the intake manifold of a turbocharged Toyota Supra
, just because. It’s actually pretty interesting — the camera can see not only the massive throttle plate at the front of the manifold but also the velocity stacks feeding into each cylinder. We’re also treated to a look straight into the intake vales of one cylinder, with the barest glimpse of its fuel injector. We were a little puzzled by the reddish fluid leaking into the manifold, as was Warped Perception — engine oil, perhaps? It’s a long way to go to get diagnostic information, but makes for some pretty cool footage. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277832",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T23:28:37",
"content": "“I’ll drive for a few minutes’(Leaves during daylight arrives when it is dark)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6277849",
"author": "steves",
"tim... | 1,760,373,357.302736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/digging-in-the-dirt-yields-homebrew-inductors/ | Digging In The Dirt Yields Homebrew Inductors | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ferrite",
"inductor",
"magnetic",
"magnetite",
"permeability",
"toroid"
] | Let’s say you’re stranded on a desert island and want to get the news from the outside world. You’ll have to build your own crystal radio, of course, but your parts bin is nowhere to be found and Digi-Key isn’t delivering. So you’ll need to MacGuyver some components. Capacitors are easy with a couple of pieces of tinfoil, and a rectifier can be made from a pencil and a razor blade. But what about an inductor? Sure, air-core inductors will work, but just because you’re marooned doesn’t mean you’ve abandoned your engineering principles. Luckily, you’ve read
[AC7ZL]’s treatise of making inductors from dirt
, and with sand in abundance, you’re able to harvest enough material to put together some passable ferrite-core inductors.
Obviously, making your own inductive elements isn’t practical even in fanciful and contrived situations, but that doesn’t make the doing of it any less cool. The story begins with a walk in the Arizona desert many years ago, where [AC7ZL], aka [H.P. Friedrichs], spied bands of dark sand shooting through the underlying lighter sediments. These bands turned out to be magnetite, one of many iron-bearing minerals found in the area. Using a powerful magnet from an old hard drive and a plastic food container, he was able to harvest magnetite sand in abundance and refine it with multiple washing steps.
After experimentally determining the material’s permeability — about 2.3 H/m — [AC7ZL] proceeded with some practical applications. He was able to make a bar antenna for an AM radio by packing the sand into a PVC pipe and rewinding the coils around it. More permanent cores were made by mixing the sand with polyester resin and casting it into bars. Toroids were machined from fat bars of the composite on a lathe, much to the detriment of the cutting tools used.
The full-length PDF account of [AC7ZL]’s experiments makes for fascinating reading — the inductive elements he was able to create all performed great in everything from a Joule Thief to a Hartley oscillator up to 27 MHz. We love these kinds of stories, which remind us of
some of the work being done by [Simplifier]
and others. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277814",
"author": "Daniel Matthews",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T21:47:10",
"content": "Oh neato, time to revisit Jeri Ellsworth’s magnetic logic work,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7SkE5pERtA",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "62... | 1,760,373,357.418904 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/this-lego-air-conditioner-is-cooler-than-yours/ | This LEGO Air Conditioner Is Cooler Than Yours | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"air conditioner",
"copper tubing",
"lego",
"pump",
"relay module",
"submersible pump",
"swamp cooler"
] | What’s the coolest thing a person can build with LEGO? Well it’s gotta be an air conditioner, right? Technically,
[Manoj Nathwani] built a LEGO-fied swamp cooler
, but it’s been too hot in London to argue the difference.
This thoroughly modular design uses an Arduino Uno and a relay module to drive four submersible pumps. The pumps are mounted on a LEGO base and sunk into a tub filled with water and ice packs. In the middle of the water lines are lengths of copper tubing that carry it past four 120mm PC case fans to spread the coolness. It works well, it’s quiet, and it was cheap to build. Doesn’t get much cooler than that.
[Manoj] had to do a bit of clever coupling to keep the tubing transitions from leaking. All it took was a bit of electrical tape to add girth to the copper tubes, and a zip tie used as a little hose clamp.
We think the LEGO part of this build looks great. [Manoj] says they did it by the seat of their pants, and lucked out because the copper and plastic tubing both route perfectly through the space of a 1x1x1 brick.
DIY cooling can take many forms. It really just depends what kind of building blocks you have at your disposal.
We’ve even seen an A/C built from a water heater
. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277764",
"author": "arifyn",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T17:06:57",
"content": "It’s not an A/C, but it’s not a swamp cooler either since it doesn’t use evaporative cooling! It’s just using ice water to cool down the air via the copper pipes.Maybe it could be called an “air-water heat... | 1,760,373,357.369961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/usb-bell-rings-in-custom-terminal/ | USB Bell Rings In Custom Terminal | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bel",
"bell",
"hid",
"MCP2221A",
"usb"
] | Old TeleTypes and even typewriters had bells. Real bells. So that ASCII BEL character is supposed to make an honest to goodness ringing sound. While some modern terminals make a beep from the computer speakers, it isn’t the same. [Tenderlove] must agree, because the turned a Microchip USB to I2C bridge chip into
a HID-controlled bell
.
The only problem we see is that you have to have a patch to your terminal to ring the bell. We’d love to see some filter for TCP or serial that would catch BEL characters, but on the plus side, it is easy to ring the bell from any sort of application since it responds to normal HID commands.
If a bell doesn’t strike your fancy, you could use the same technique to easily add a digital output for anything. Of course, you could also use the MCP2221A as intended and put an I2C bus out there with a digital I/O expander or any number of other I2C chips.
Despite the video’s infomercial attitude, you can’t actually buy the bell. You’ll have to make it. It wouldn’t be very hard to duplicate with an Arduino or anything else you can connect to a PC as long as you modify the driving software accordingly.
We know you can play a sound file of a bell, but
sometimes a real bell is just necessary
. If you want to ring big bells, turns out there is an entire
cult of wanna be Quasimodos
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277743",
"author": "UnderSampled",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T14:20:54",
"content": "Best video demonstration of how to plug in a USB type-A I have seen!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277757",
"author": "Gamma Raymon... | 1,760,373,357.160408 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/soldering-glass-and-titanium-with-ultrasonic-energy/ | Soldering Glass And Titanium With Ultrasonic Energy | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"active solder",
"Applied Science",
"ben krasnow",
"metallurgy",
"tool build",
"ultrasonic soldering"
] | Ultrasonic soldering is a little-known technology that allows soldering together a variety of metals and ceramics that would not normally be possible. It requires a special
ultrasonic soldering iron and solder
that is not cheap or easy to get hold of, so [Ben Krasnow] of [Applied Science] made his own.
Ultrasonic soldering irons heat up like standard irons, but also require an ultrasonic transducer to create bonds to certain surfaces. [Ben] built one by silver soldering a piece of stainless steel rod (as a heat break) between the element of a standard iron and a transducer from an ultrasonic cleaner. He made his special active solder by melting all the ingredients in his vacuum induction furnace. It is similar to lead-free solder, but also contains titanium and small amounts of cerium and gallium. In the video below [Ben] goes into the working details of the technology and does some practical experimentation with various materials.
Ultrasonic soldering is used mainly for electrically bonding metals where clamping is not possible or convenient. The results are also not as neat and clean as with standard solder. We covered
another DIY ultrasonic soldering iron
before, but it doesn’t look like that one ever did any soldering.
Ultrasonic energy has several interesting mechanical applications that we’ve covered in the past, including ultrasonic cutting and
ultrasonic welding
. | 28 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277727",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T11:53:13",
"content": "soLder has an L in it.Why do Americans pronounce it as sodder?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277792",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"... | 1,760,373,357.668201 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/13/open-source-vr-headset-for-200/ | Open Source VR Headset For $200 | Al Williams | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"Steam VR",
"virtual reality",
"vr"
] | We’ve seen homemade VR headsets before, but, often they are dependent on special software or are not really up to par with commercial products. Not so with
Relativity
, an open source project from [Max Coutte] and [Gabriel Combe]. [Max] says it best:
Relativty is not a consumer product. We made Relativty in my bedroom with a soldering iron and a 3D printer and we expect you to do the same: build it yourself.
Unlike some homebrew gear, Relativity has full Steam VR support. It also has experimental support for positional scaling that tracks your body based on video input.
Under the covers, a motherboard with an Atmel ARM Cortex M3 and an IMU do the heavy lifting and account for $25 of the $200 price tag. The firmware though can run on any suitable ArduinoCore processor. The displays, too, have options. You can go for price with 90 Hz 1080p screens or jump up to 4K. The prototypes use a 2K dual display at 120 frames per second.
If you want to build Relativity yourself, all the details are on
GitHub
and there is a
Discord
server for help. The 3D printed case looks great and overall it seems like an impressive design.
We’ve seen a
few similar projects
, some even cheaper. We actually covered an
earlier incarnation
of the headset from the same team. You can see they’ve come a long way. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277706",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T08:26:20",
"content": "*relativtyEither they misspelled it, or they chose it because it’s edgy. Either way they are consistent.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277712",
... | 1,760,373,357.115018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/world-radio-lets-your-fingers-do-the-walking/ | World Radio Lets Your Fingers Do The Walking | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"audio streaming",
"globe",
"internet radio",
"vintage",
"worldwide"
] | Listening to radio from distant countries used to take a shortwave rig, but thanks to the Internet we can now pull in streams from all over the globe from the comfort of our own desktop. With a few clicks you can switch between your local news station and the latest in pop trends from Casablanca. But as convenient as online streaming might be, some folks still yearn for the traditional radio experience.
For those people,
the Raspberry Pi World Radio by [Abraham Martinez Gracia]
might be the solution. Built into the body of a 1960s Invicta radio, this Internet radio uses a very unique interface. Rather than just picking from a list of channels, you use the knobs on the front to pan and zoom around a map of the world. Streaming channels are represented by bubbles located within their country of origin, so you’ll actually have to “travel” there to listen in. The video after the break gives a brief demonstration of how it works in practice.
We’ll admit it might become a bit tedious eventually, but from a visual standpoint, it’s absolutely fantastic. [Abraham] even gave the map an appropriately vintage look to better match the overall aesthetic. Normally we’d say using a Raspberry Pi 4 to drive a streaming radio player would be a bit overkill, but considering the GUI component used here, it’s probably the right choice.
Of course we’ve seen
Internet radios built into vintage enclosures
before, and we’ve even seen
one that used a globe to select the station
, but combining both of those concepts into one cohesive project is really quite an accomplishment. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277685",
"author": "hartl",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T06:52:20",
"content": "Nice build, a modern version of the Ingelen Geographic.https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ingelen_geographic_us837w.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6... | 1,760,373,357.049541 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/learn-about-historic-firearm-design-with-a-3d-printer/ | Learn About Historic Firearm Design With A 3D Printer | Danie Conradie | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"gun",
"model",
"pistol",
"rifle",
"weapon"
] | Over the last century, very little of the basic design of firearm cartridges has changed, but the mechanics of firearms themselves have undergone many upgrades. The evolution of triggers, safeties, magazines, and operating mechanisms is a fascinating field of study. Hands-on experience with these devices is rare for most people, but thanks to people like [zvc], you can
3D print accurate replicas
of historical firearms and see how all the parts fit together for yourself.
[zvc] is slowly building up a library of 3D models, with nine available so far, from the Mauser C96 “Broomhandle” pistol to the modern M4 rifle. Except for springs and some fasteners, almost every single part of [zvc]’s models are 3D printed, down to the takedown pins and extractors. With the obvious exception of being able to fire a live round, it looks like all the components fit and work together like on the real firearms. None were ever designed with 3D printing in mind, so a well-tuned printer, lots of support structure, and post-processing are required to make everything work. The surface finish will be a bit rough, and some smaller and thin-walled components might be susceptible to breaking after the repeated operation or excessive force. The models are not free, but all prices are below €10.
These models do demonstrate one of the real superpowers of 3D printing: functional mock-ups and prototypes. The ability to do rapid iterative design updates and to have the latest design in hand within a few hours is invaluable in product development. [Giaco] used this extensively during the development of his
kinetic driver
. When you
buy 3D printable models
online, always make sure what possible pitfalls exist. | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277675",
"author": "mrfrankieman",
"timestamp": "2020-09-13T05:11:18",
"content": "Hypothetically; if these files were used in a sufficiently capable 5 axis mill, could they be used to create a functioning firearm?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,357.260942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/a-graphene-mouth-screen/ | A Graphene Mouth Screen | Brian McEvoy | [
"Medical Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"antibacterial",
"breathing",
"face masks",
"filtration",
"graphene",
"mask"
] | We are all intimate with face coverings to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Some are reusable, and some become waste after one use. [Dr. Ye Ruquan] and a research team from City University of Hong Kong, CityU, are developing an
inexpensive reusable mask with outstanding antibacterial properties
, and, get this, the graphene it contains will generate a tiny current when moistened by human breath. There isn’t enough power to charge your phone or anything, but that voltage drops as the masks get dirty, so it can help determine when it needs cleaning. The video after the break shows the voltage test, and it reminds us of those batteries.
All the remarkable qualities of this mask come from laser-induced graphene. The lab is producing LIG by lasering polyimide film with a commercial CO2 infrared model. In a speed test, the process can convert 100cm² in ninety seconds, so the masks can be made more cheaply than an N95 version with that melt-blown layer that is none too good for the earth. Testing the antibacterial properties against activated carbon fiber and blown masks showed approximately 80% of the bacteria is inert after 8 hours compared to the others in the single digits. If you put them in the sun for 10 minutes, blown fabric goes to over 85%, but the graphene is 99.998%, which means that one bacteria in 50K survives. The exact mechanism isn’t known, but [Dr. Ye] thinks it may have something to do with graphene’s sharp edges and hydrophobic quality. A couple of coronavirus species were also affected, and the species that causes COVID-19 will be tested this year.
An
overly damp mask
is nothing to sneeze at, so keep yourself in check and
keep yourself fabulous
.
Thank you for the tip, [Qes]. | 32 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278107",
"author": "Daniel Matthews",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T02:21:13",
"content": "Bacteria huh? You breath in (and out) bacteria all of the time and most of them do nothing or actually do good, so unless there is an outbreak of phenomic plague I don’t see the point of that mask... | 1,760,373,357.600186 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/the-jolly-cart-pushing-robot/ | The Jolly Cart-Pushing Robot | Orlando Hoilett | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Glowforge",
"inkscape",
"kinematics",
"robotics"
] | [Lance]
loves making simple robots with his laser cutter
. He finds great satisfaction from watching his robots operate using fairly simple mechanisms and designs a whole slew of them inspired by different animals, including a
dinosaur
and a
dragon
. His latest build is a jolly cart-pushing robot.
He cut each piece of his robot on his laser cutter, and in order to get the pieces to fit snugly together he made each tab a little bigger than its corresponding slot, ensuring the piece wouldn’t fall out. This also helps account for the loss in the material due to kerf, which is the bit of each piece of material that gets lost in the cut end of the laser cutter.
Making his robot walk was mostly as easy as attaching each leg to a simple DC motor such that the motor would rotate each leg in succession, pushing the robot along. From time to time, [Lance] also had to grease the robot’s moving parts using a bit of wax to help reduce friction. He even used a little rubber band to give the robot some traction.
[Lance] did a pretty good job detailing the build in his video. He also linked to a few other fun little robot designs that could entertain you as well. Pretty easy hack, but we thought you might find the results as satisfying as we did.
Robot companions may be here to stay
.
Time will tell
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278086",
"author": "dendad",
"timestamp": "2020-09-15T00:02:13",
"content": "Very good instructions.I want a laser cutter!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278113",
"author": "Orlando Hoilett",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,357.710787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/this-ruggedized-raspberry-pi-was-built-to-be-copied/ | This Ruggedized Raspberry Pi Was Built To Be Copied | Tom Nardi | [
"hardware",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"mobile computer",
"pelican case",
"Recovery Kit",
"rugged raspberry pi"
] | Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a wave of impressive rugged mobile computing devices based on the ubiquitous Raspberry Pi. Sometimes they involve repurposing an existing heavy duty enclosure, and in others the Pi takes up residence in a 3D printed case which may or may not be as strong as it appears. In either event, they usually don’t lend themselves to duplication because of the time and expense involved in tracking down or printing all the parts required.
But the
Raspberry Pi Quick Kit by [Jay Doscher] may change that
. It represents what must surely be the simplest and fastest route to a building a rugged mobile ARM computer for your hacking adventures. Beyond the Pelican 1150 case that serves as the outer enclosure, you only need three printed parts and a handful of fasteners to complete the build. Of course you’ll need a Raspberry Pi and the official touch screen as well, but that’s sort of a given.
Electronics mounted to the 3D printed frame.
All of the electronics mount onto the three piece 3D printed frame, which is then press-fit into the opening of the Pelican case. Since you don’t need to pop any holes through the case itself, the assembled unit remains water and air tight. While
[Jay] has recently shown off a very impressive 3D printed Pi enclosure
, there’s really no beating a legitimate heavy duty storage case if you’re trying to protect the hardware.
When you want to use the Pi, just open the case and plug your power and accessories into the panel mount connectors under the display. There’s no integrated battery or keyboard on this build, but considering how small it is, that shouldn’t really come as a surprise.
[Jay] is targeting the Pi 4 for the Quick Kit, so that means WiFi and Bluetooth will come standard without the need for any external hardware. It looks like there might
just
be enough room to include an RTL-SDR receiver inside the case as well, but you’ll need to do a little redesigning of the 3D printed parts. If you do modify this design to pack in a few new tricks, we’d love to hear about it.
The Quick Kit is
a greatly simplified version of the Raspberry Pi Recovery Kit
that [Jay] unleashed on an unsuspecting world late last year. We’ve seen
numerous variations on that original design sprout up since then
, so we’re very interested to see what the response will be like to this much cheaper and easier to build version. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278057",
"author": "Pi Fan",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T21:08:03",
"content": "What about heat management for the Pi 4?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6278076",
"author": "Jay Doscher (Back7.co)",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,357.771037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/skywater-pdk-hack-chat/ | SkyWater PDK Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"130 nm",
"fab",
"foundry",
"Hack Chat",
"open source",
"pdk",
"process development kit",
"semiconductor"
] | Join us on Wednesday, September 16 at noon Pacific for the CNC on the
SkyWater PDK Hack Chat
with
Tim “mithro” Ansell
,
Mohamed Kassem
, and
Michael Gielda
!
We’ve seen incredible strides made in the last decade or so towards democratizing manufacturing. Things that it once took huge, vertically integrated industries with immense factories at their disposal are now commonly done on desktop CNC machines and 3D printers. Open-source software has harnessed the brainpower of millions of developers into tools that rival what industry uses, and oftentimes exceeds them. Using these tools and combining them with things like on-demand PCB production and contract assembly services, and you can easily turn yourself into a legit manufacturer.
This model of pushing manufacturing closer to the Regular Joe and Josephine only goes so far, though. Your designs have pretty much been restricted to chips made by one or the other big manufacturers, which means pretty much anyone else could come up with the same thing. That’s all changing now thanks to
SkyWater PDK
, the first manufacturable, open-source process-design kit. With the tools in the PDK, anyone can design a chip for the SkyWater foundry’s 130-nm process. And the best part? It’s free — as in beer. That’s right, you can get an open-source chip built for nothing during chip manufacturing runs that start as early as this November and go through 2021.
We’re sure this news will stir a bunch of questions, so Tim Ansell, a software engineer at Google who goes by the handle “mithro” will drop by the Hack Chat to discuss the particulars. He’ll be joined by Mohamed Kassem, CTO and co-founder of
efabless.com
, and Michael Gielda, VP of Business Development at
Antmicro
. Together they’ll field your questions about this exciting development, and they’ll walk us through just what it takes to turn your vision into silicon.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, September 16 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. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278042",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T20:00:33",
"content": "So, I had to get to the middle of the 3rd paragraph to find out what PDK meant!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6278089",
"author": "Bill Gates",
... | 1,760,373,357.822923 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/weather-warnings-and-dust-detection-from-this-meteorological-marvel/ | Weather Warnings And Dust Detection From This Meteorological Marvel | Brian McEvoy | [
"how-to",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"automatic weather station",
"ESP32",
"Long Range Radio",
"LoRa",
"particulate",
"particulate analysis",
"SDS011",
"weather",
"weather station"
] | We love getting our weather in a flurry of different methods, but have you tried building your own sensor suite to harvest the data for you? [Giovanni ‘CyB3rn0id’ Bernardo] needed to monitor isolated locations outside the reach of WiFi. His ray of hope is an ESP32 controller coupled with a LoRa module to beam data to a remote station that can access the cloud.
In addition to radios, he poured a deluge of sensors into the base station to
read the temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, and fine dust
. Why monitor dust as part of weather data collection? Particulate matter has a huge effect on air quality, something of great interest during a respiratory pandemic. For those readers near wildfires, quantifying your air quality (both indoors and out) is certainly of interest. [Giovanni] is
using an SDS011 air quality sensor and has a long writeup
just on this part. It uses a fan to move air past a laser-based sensing mechanism.
At the base station, live readings are shown on an OLED screen, but you can also connect to the ESP32 through your phone like a hotspot. If you keep a memory card installed, it will cache the readings in a perpetually-updated CSV file. In regular operation, the LoRa module overcasts the telemetry to its sister unit that acts as a Wifi/LoRa bridge so anyone can view gauges and graphs in real-time on
ThingSpeak
.
We want to shower [CyB3rn0id] with praise for seeing the
cirrus
serious impact of harmful dust and making something that can alert people. We don’t want to
rain on anyone’s parade
, but sometimes
it is better to stay inside
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278021",
"author": "hammarbytp",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T19:00:14",
"content": "Hmm, my SDS011 has just died for the 2nd time after 6 months, so I don’t think they are very robust.However if you are interested in such things and also want to do citizen science, look at the Luftdat... | 1,760,373,358.214999 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/finalists-announced-for-the-2020-hackaday-prize/ | Finalists Announced For The 2020 Hackaday Prize | Tom Nardi | [
"contests",
"Hackaday Columns",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"finalists",
"the hackaday prize"
] | In light of everything going on in 2020,
the 7th annual Hackaday Prize
is devoted to nurturing ideas that could literally help change the world. In a first, we partnered with several nonprofits to help identify some of today’s most difficult problems, ranging from conservation and disaster relief to the need for advanced assistive technology. With over $200,000 up for grabs, including microgrants to help teams work full-time on their projects, this year’s competition was designed to help bring critical solutions to fruition which otherwise might never see the light of day.
But it hasn’t been easy. The global pandemic has made it far more difficult to collaborate on projects in the way we’re all used to, parts have become harder to source, and many makers found themselves so engaged with grassroots efforts to combat COVID-19 that they found little time for anything else. But despite all of this uncertainty, we received hundreds of incredible entries from all over the globe.
It’s never easy to select who will move on to the next round of the competition. But with the help of our nonprofit partners, the panel of expert judges was able to whittle the list of entries down to the
34 finalists that produced some of the most impressive and impactful ideas
the Hackaday Prize has ever seen. Let’s take a look at just a few of the projects that will be vying for the top prizes in November.
Modern Housing Solutions
CalEarth is dedicated to “providing solutions to the human need for shelter through research, development, and education in earth architecture”, so they challenged designers to find new ways to tackle problems related to building sustainable homes. Projects competing in this category should be solutions aimed at improving the overall efficiency of dwellings as it pertains to energy harvesting, water collecting, lighting, heating, and cooling.
The mostly 3D printed WinDIY turbine.
The Libre Solar project looks to make using renewable energy sources
more affordable and reliable through open source hardware
. Their battery management system and charge controller allow for wind and solar power to be efficiently harvested, stored, and distributed in off-grid and grid-tied applications. In a similar vein, the WinDIY is a
mostly 3D-printed three-bladed horizontal wind turbine
with active pitch adjustment and braking systems to ensure it’s always generating as much power as possible under the current wind conditions.
To better combine natural and artificial light sources, the
Lighting Color Control with Commodity Lamps
project proposes using ambient light sensors and spectrophotometers in addition to more traditional occupancy sensors and dimmers. In another project, rays from the sun would be used to provide light and warmth inside of a home
through a series of articulated mirrors
. By tracking the sun as it moves across the sky and bouncing light through the building, this system should reduce the need for artificial lighting during the day.
Protecting the Planet
Earth is the only home we have, so it’s humanity’s responsibility to do whatever we can to take care of it. Which is why the challenges from Conservation X Labs focused on conservation efforts such as finding ways to combat invasive species and developing technology to help monitor and protect marine life.
Aquametric with a cellular antenna.
One way to accomplish these goals is by making the necessary equipment cheaper and more accessible.
The Aquametric project aims to produce a low-cost sensor platform
that can be used to monitor rivers and streams. Its sensors can detect variables such as water temperature, flow rate, and conductivity, and an onboard cellular modem means it can provide data continuously without having to be physically retrieved.
For research under the water’s surface, the
Aruna ROV promises to be cheaper and more modular than what’s currently on the commercial market
. This project includes the software and hardware necessary to drive a submersible vehicle, as well as a baseline design for the craft itself. Using 3D printed and off-the-shelf components, the cost of building one of these underwater research and exploration craft should be within the means of small communities and citizen scientists.
Hacking on the Front Lines
If there’s an ecological disaster that cuts a community off from the rest of the world, simply ordering the supplies you need and waiting for them to arrive isn’t an option. That’s why Field Ready is devoted to the use of rapid manufacturing in remote areas for humanitarian purposes. They challenged designers to come up with techniques and tools that can be used in the field, with a specific focus on devices which could cure UV adhesives.
Inside the OpenFluidWarmer
The
UVA is essentially a high-power UV flash light
, but it has a number of features which make it safer and easier to use for manufacturing. There’s a small display that shows a curing countdown timer and a distance sensor is used to indicate when the light is the optimal distance from the target. There’s also support for additional tool heads that use the same battery pack.
Approaching the problem from another angle, the
OpenFluidWarmer is an open source piece of medical equipment
designed to be cheap and easy to manufacture where it’s needed. By carefully controlling a heating element inside its insulated chamber, the OpenFluidWarmer ensures that refrigerated IV fluids are brought to the patient’s body temperature before they’re injected to reduce the risk of hypothermia.
High Tech Assistance
United Cerebral Palsy of Los Angeles tasked hackers with creating open source assistive devices usable by those with cerebral palsy and other physical challenges to help them live more full and independent lives.
The BYTE mouth controller.
Ideas like this
robotic arm designed to assist those who have difficulty feeding themselves
, can greatly improve the user’s self-esteem and reduce the daily burden on family members or other caregivers.
The BYTE is a hands-free mouth interface for the computer
usable even by those with profound mobility limitations that’s more responsive and extendable than what’s currently on the market.
The Hoverboards for Assistive Devices project seeks to
use commercial self-balancing scooters as a way to motorize wheeled assistive devices
. Electric wheelchairs for children are expensive and get outgrown quickly, but with a generic drive system based on a hoverboard and controlled with a simple joystick, custom powered mobility devices could be built quickly and cheaply.
Boundless Creativity
Not all of the Hackaday Prize entries fit into the predefined categories created by our nonprofit partners. The creative minds behind these entries used their unique talents to come up with devices that solve real-world problems of their own choosing.
The ARMACHAT LoRa communicator.
The
Sky Anchor was designed as a flying connectivity relay
that could be used to establish high-speed data links in areas that have been hit by a natural disaster or where no telecommunications infrastructure is in place. To help facilitate person-to-person communications in a disaster scenario, the
ARMACHAT and ARMAWATCH use LoRa mesh networking to transmit messages
between each other. With multiple physical form factors and full hardware QWERTY keyboards, these devices offer a flexible way to keep in touch at long distances.
In an effort to address ventilator shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the
DP Ventilator hopes to address some of the shortcomings of existing DIY designs
by motorizing a manual resuscitator. By using these relatively cheap and plentiful single-use breathing devices as the interface between the patient and the machine, this design never directly handles the air being pushed into the lungs.
It’s Not Over Yet
The finalists still have another month to put the finishing touches on their creations before the winners are selected in early November. It’s going to be extremely difficult to select the final ten winners this year, and the competition will likely come down to technical aspects such as the project’s overall documentation and suitability for production. To be considered in the final round, each project will also need to have a comprehensive video explaining the concept and detailing the progress made over the last several months.
This final stretch is where this community can really shine. Feel free to drop by the Hackaday.io pages for these projects and share your feedback, tips, or ideas. You might have the solution for a problem they’ve been struggling with, getting them that much closer to crossing the finish line.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6278058",
"author": "Danjovic",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T21:14:55",
"content": "+1 for ArmaChat! It is an inspiring project in the sense that it proves that we can do amazing things without spending a lot of cash or having access to complicated machinery.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,358.749812 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/its-a-boat-its-a-duck-its-a-diy-plastic-wrap-kayak/ | It’s A Boat? It’s A Duck? It’s A DIY Plastic Wrap Kayak! | Sven Gregori | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"boat",
"kayak",
"packing tape",
"plastic wrap"
] | Only few cinematic moments were as traumatically heartbreaking as [Mufasa]’s death in
The Lion King
and [Wilson]’s demise in
Cast Away
. To think, if only [Tom Hanks]’ character had found a
role
roll of stretch wrap in the washed up cargo content, he could have built a vessel with enough room to safely store his faithful companion. Sounds unlikely? Well,
[sg19point3] begs to differ, and has a kayak to prove it
.
It’s as brilliant as its construction materials are simple: tree branches, packing tape, and of course the stretch wrap. [sg19point3] used two different types of branches, one that bends just enough to shape the kayak in its length, and a more flexible variety to form the rings that hold it all together. After removing the bark, he shaped the branches as needed using some pegs in the ground, and let it dry for a few days. Once ready, he put them together and stabilized the construct with packing tape until it was ready for the grand finale of wrapping the entire thing in several layers of plastic wrap. To prove he trusts his own construct, he took it for a ride to the nearest water and lived to tell the tale — and to make a video about it, which is embedded after the break.
Admittedly, putting it together all by yourself on a remote island may be a bit laborious after all, so good thing [sg19point3] had some friends to help with the wrapping. Whether you’d want to take it beyond your local, shallow pond is maybe another story — you’d definitely want to steer clear of sharp rocks. For something more sturdy, check out
the 3D-printed kayak from a few years ago
. But in case you prefer wood,
here’s a beautiful canoe
. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277972",
"author": "Miroslav",
"timestamp": "2020-09-14T16:30:35",
"content": "Ahem:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MFN2tXnd0Y",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277999",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2020-09-... | 1,760,373,358.451871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/toy-o-scope-is-dope/ | Toy O-Scope Is Dope | Brian McEvoy | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"action figure",
"Engineer Barbie",
"miniature",
"o-scope",
"oscilloscope",
"scale model",
"toy"
] | Not many of our childhood doll and action figure’s accessories revolved around lab equipment except maybe an Erlenmeyer flask if they were a “scientist.” No, they tended to be toasters, vehicles, and guns. When we were young, our heroes made food, drove sexy automobiles, and fought bad guys. Now that we’re older, some of our heroes wield soldering irons, keyboards, and oscilloscopes. [Adrian Herbez] made a
scale model oscilloscope
that outshines the beakers and test tube racks of yesteryear. Video also shown below.
On the left side of this ‘scope is a twistable knob that actuates a couple of internal levers to bend a neon green rubber band. The levers and background are black, so it all blends to look like a screen while the band approximates a sine wave. [Adrian]’s scope will up the game of any bread toasting, Lambo driving, tacti-cool ninja hunter. The thin rubber band would look more like a sawtooth than a sine at larger scales, but maybe that’s perfect for your Viking-cyborg-DJ-hairdresser. What would a miniature version of you have in their lab?
We love seeing new toys with a modern appeal like this ‘scope, but we respect
vintage toys
. Hacker parents do a fine job keeping things
fresh and lively
for their wee ones. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277634",
"author": "Daniel Dunn",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T23:43:54",
"content": "Wow, that looks far more difficult to design and more impressive than actually building a real oscilloscope! Nicely done!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"com... | 1,760,373,358.316325 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/adding-luxury-charging-features-to-an-entry-level-ev/ | Adding Luxury Charging Features To An Entry-Level EV | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"can-bus",
"charge rate",
"charging",
"electric vehicle",
"electricity",
"Leaf",
"limit",
"nissan",
"power",
"vehcile"
] | The Nissan Leaf is the best-selling electric car of all time so far, thanks largely to it being one of the first mass produced all-electric EVs. While getting into the market early was great for Nissan, they haven’t made a lot of upgrades that other EV manufacturers have made and are starting to lose customers as a result. One of those upgrades is charge limiting, which allows different charging rates to be set from within the car. With some CAN bus tinkering, though,
this feature can be added to the Leaf
.
Limiting the charging rate is useful when charging at unfamiliar or old power outlets which might not handle the default charge rate. In Europe, which has a 240V electrical distribution system, Leafs will draw around 3 kW from a wall outlet which is quite a bit of power. If the outlet looks like it won’t support that much power flow, it’s handy (and more safe) to be able to reduce that charge rate even if it might take longer to fully charge the vehicle. [Daniel Öster]’s modification requires the user to set the charge rate by manipulating the climate control, since the Leaf doesn’t have a comprehensive user interface.
The core of this project is performed over the CAN bus, which is a common communications scheme that is often used in vehicles and
is well-documented and easy to take advantage of
. Luckily, [Daniel] has made the code available on his GitHub page, so if you’re thinking about trading in a Leaf for something else because of its lack of features it may be time to reconsider.
Photo:
Chuck Allen (chucka_nc) / CC BY-SA | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277611",
"author": "CRJEEA",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T20:26:37",
"content": "How long before someone changes a battery to a 10kw charging rate or makes it falsely report it’s charge level and cars start going up in flames like hover boards.When electric and self driving cars can ge... | 1,760,373,358.269531 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/a-bit-of-diy-helps-cut-straight-and-happy-threads/ | A Bit Of DIY Helps Cut Straight And Happy Threads | Donald Papp | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"diy",
"machining",
"mill",
"tap",
"threads"
] | A cheap and effective ratcheting tap.
Need to cut threads into a hole? A tool called a
tap
is what you need, and a hand-operated one like the one shown here to the side is both economical and effective. A tap’s cutting bit works by going into a pre-drilled hole, and it’s important to keep the tool straight as it does so. It’s one thing to tap a few holes with steady hands and a finely calibrated eyeball, but when a large number of holes need to be tapped it can be worth getting a little help.
The usual tool to help keep a tap straight and pressed gently downwards is called a
tap follower
, but [Tony] had a lot of M4 holes to tap and no time to order one and wait for it to arrive. Instead,
he converted a cheap tap into a tool that could be held in the chuck of his mill, with the freedom to slide up and down as needed
. The result? A tap that’s hand-operated but certain to be orthogonal to the work piece, making the job of cutting a lot of threads much more pleasant.
Tapping isn’t just for metal, either. Cutting threads into wood is also done, and be sure to
check out this simple method for making your own surprisingly effective wood taps in the shop
with a threaded rod, or a lag screw. Of course, the need to tap a hole can be sidestepped
by using threaded inserts
in the right material, instead. | 40 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277571",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T17:33:58",
"content": "Simpler yet is a ‘bench block’. Thick piece of wood or metal with a perpendicular hole the diameter of the tap. For not too many holes in a flat surface, the easiest cheapest way. You can buy them ready ma... | 1,760,373,358.393381 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/the-egg-laying-wool-milk-pig/ | The Egg-laying Wool-Milk Pig | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"design",
"newsletter",
"school of hard knocks",
"surfboard",
"tradeoffs"
] | Last week, I wrote about two recent projects of mine that serve as
cautionary tales in keeping projects simple
— you probably can’t simplify
everything
, so it’s worth the time to find out which simplifications have the most bang for the buck. This week, I’d like to share a tale of lack of design focus.
German has the
eierlegende Wollmilchsau
: a mystical animal that lays eggs, while producing wool, milk, and meat to boot. It’s a little bit like the English “jack of all trades, master of none” except that the eierlegende Wollmilchsau doesn’t do each job badly, it plainly can’t exist. This is obviously a bad way to start a design.
The first surfboard that I made by myself was supposed to be an eierlegende Wollmilchsau. It was going to be a longboard, because we had months with smaller waves that just weren’t all that suitable for shortboarding, but it was also going to turn sharply off the rails like a shortboard. To help it turn, it was going to have tons of camber (bend like a banana), and small fins. And along the way, I thought I’d make it thin to cut through the water.
Of course what I ended up with, not helped by my heavy fiberglassing hand, was a plow that dug into the water, would turn unexpectedly when you managed to get it onto the rails, and couldn’t pick up a small wave to save its life due to the camber and aforementioned plowing. I surfed it anyway, as a matter of pride, but I had no illusions of it being anything but the the worst board I owned. And that’s comparing it to the $30 used rasta-graphic plank that had been taking on water for at least five years, unrepaired, and was rotting out from the inside. At least it had design focus.
My surfboard didn’t suffer from feature creep, where you start piling on features until the project crumbles from overload, but rather from wanting to have my cake and eat it too. Or from failing to realize that certain design goals were necessarily tradeoffs. The “raily” behavior that I wanted when it was in bigger waves was necessarily “diggy” in small waves. Good boards trade off these features, and getting the balance between them
is
the art of shaping a board.
So when you start up a new project, think about which facets of your design are jointly achievable, and which are necessarily tradeoffs. Ignoring tradeoffs is a recipe for disaster, designing an eierlegende Wollmilchsau. But viewed constructively, it’s exactly these nuanced decisions that separates the simply possible from the truly marvelous. May you identify your trades, and make them well!
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
! | 32 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277543",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T15:07:57",
"content": "Where do you surf?I once mounted two 6 DoF sensors aft of the nose rocker section, and embedded a strain gauge in the forward fin. The more interesting data came from the trestles area, but most of the mund... | 1,760,373,358.530461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/pla-f-blends-pla-and-abs/ | PLA-F Blends PLA And ABS | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"abs",
"PLA",
"PLA-F"
] | In the early days of 3D printing, most people used ABS plastic. It is durable and sticks well to simple surfaces. However, it smells and emits fumes that may be dangerous. It also tends to warp as it cools which causes problems when printing. PLA smells nicer and since it is made from corn is supposed to be less noxious. However, PLA isn’t as temperature resistant and while it will stick better to beds without heat, it also requires more airflow to set the plastic as it prints. [Kerry Stevenson] recently reviewed
PLA-F which is a blend of the two plastics
. Is it the best of both worlds? Or the worst?
[Kerry] did several tests with interesting results. He did a temperature test tower and found the material printed well between 190 and 240 °C. He did note some stringing problems, though.
The material had no real issues printing gaps and did not readily warp. What was especially odd, though, was that [Kerry] noted no smell from the material at all. You’d think it would either smell like PLA or ABS or some blend of the two. Another surprise was that the PLA-F appeared to be even less heat tolerant than ordinary PLA.
Given the results, we aren’t sure why we’d pick this over regular PLA. The tests indicate it may be even less prone to warping than PLA, but that’s not usually a problem. On the other hand, we didn’t see any real reason not to use it as long as you don’t need high temperature resistance.
Honestly, we really like
PETG
these days. Naturally, there are plenty of
alternatives
.
Thanks [ptkwilliams] for the tip. | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277523",
"author": "Cyna",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T11:29:06",
"content": "Why no mention of PETG? That is supposed to be the best of PLA and ABS…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277524",
"author": "Cyna",
"t... | 1,760,373,358.699267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/12/3d-pov-display-has-the-shakes/ | 3D POV Display Has The Shakes | Danie Conradie | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"cam",
"hologram",
"leds",
"POV"
] | Persistence of vision projects are a dime a dozen, but by adding a third dimension [Madaeon] succesfully created one to stand out from the crowd. Instead of waving around a single line of LEDs, he is moving a 2D grid of them vertically to create a
volumetric POV display
.
The display consists of oscillating 3D printed piston, powered by a small geared motor, on top of which sits a 8 x 8 RGB LED grid and diffusing film. The motor drives a cylindrical cam, which moves a piston that sits over it, while an optical end stop detects the bottom of the piston’s travel to keep the timing correct. [Madaeon] has not added his code to the project page, but the 3D files for the mechanics are available. The current version creates a lot of vibration, but he plans to improve it by borrowing one of
[Karl Bugeja]’s ideas
, and using flexible PCBs and magnets.
He also links another very cool volumetric display that he constructed a few years ago. It works by projecting images from a small DLP projector onto an oscillating piece of fabric, to created some surprisingly high definition images.
POV displays are good projects for learning, so if you want to build your own, take a look a simple
POV business card
, or this well-documented
POV spinning top
. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277511",
"author": "Shrad",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T09:20:08",
"content": "In that case, for even less vibration, I would use bare fiber optics…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277544",
"author": "Davide",
"... | 1,760,373,358.582333 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/infinity-mirror-at-warp-speed/ | Infinity Mirror At Warp Speed | Brian McEvoy | [
"how-to",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"50% reflective",
"diy infinity mirror",
"funhouse",
"funhouse mirror",
"infinity mirror",
"mirror",
"one-way mirror",
"optics",
"reflection",
"warped mirror"
] | Inventing often combines more than one old ideas into a new one. Even when the fused things are similar, the result can be more valuable than the sum of its parts. Unlike those analog watches with a digital clock below the face, when [Mojoptix] combined the
re-reflecting properties of an infinity mirror with the image twisting qualities of a funhouse mirror
, we get more than just a pair of mirrors. The resulting images look like a lot of fun. Warping one surface of two parallel mirrors doesn’t just alter the result a bit, because the planes feed off each other’s view, the final product is an exponentially skewed show.
Our host mounts a 3D printed ring with an hubward-facing strip of LEDs to an ordinary glass mirror. Over that, he designs four mated plates that hold semi-reflective film sheets in different shapes. The first is a hyperbolic paraboloid, but it’s probably easier to think of it as shaped like a Pringles chip (crisp). Once the light is applied, it looks like a bowtie made by a deranged god or the start of an infinite rabbit hole of light and reflection. To further the madness, he hits us with four shapes at once, so we hope you’ll take a moment to enjoy the video below.
This guy is no stranger to optics, and we’ve reported on a couple of other cool inventions that teach a concept through demonstration. His
precision calipers
demonstrate the Moiré effect, and his
digital sundial
capitalizes on parallel light beams.
As the legend goes, if you look into this thing at midnight, you’ll see your own death. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277507",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T08:35:15",
"content": "“The first is a hyperbolic paraboloid, but it’s probably easier to think of it as shaped like a Pringles chip (crisp).”Nope, it’s a simple one direction curve, like a Lay’s Stax potato chip.",
... | 1,760,373,358.627883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/give-me-a-minute-my-eyes-are-busy/ | Give Me A Minute, My Eyes Are Busy | Brian McEvoy | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"assistive device",
"assistive technology",
"eye tracker",
"eye tracking",
"speech synthesis"
] | Social cues are tricky, but humans are very good at detecting where someone is looking; that goes a long way toward figuring out where someone is placing their attention. All of this goes right out the window though, when you’re talking with somebody who uses eye-tracking software to speak. [Matthew Oppenheim] with Lancaster University, UK wants to give listeners the message of
Give Me a Minute
with an
easy-to-recognize indicator
. His choice is a microBit, which displays a rotating arrow on the LED array while someone composes their speech. He chose the microBit because they are readily available, and you can get cases to fit people’s personalities. After the break, you can see a demonstration, but the graphic appears scrambled because of the screen flicker. The rotating arrow is a clear indicator that someone is writing, whereas a clock might suggest a frozen computer, and a progress bar could not be accurate.
[Matthew] wrote a program for the interpreting computer which recognizes when a message is forming by monitoring the number of black pixels in the composition field. If it changes, someone must be composing a sentence. Many people will try to peek over the speaker’s shoulder and see if they are working, but we’re sure that most readers would join the users of such tech in being unhappy if someone blatantly looks at theirr computer screen while they are typing.
Wheelchairs don’t always have to come from a hospital
or supply store, and they
don’t have to stay on the ground
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277475",
"author": "Saabman",
"timestamp": "2020-09-12T02:48:26",
"content": "That’s a real neat idea but I have visions of the Mac OS beach ball of death Or that freaky windows beads continuously rotating",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"c... | 1,760,373,358.867437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/making-baseballs-go-supersonic/ | Making Baseballs Go Supersonic | Danie Conradie | [
"Tech Hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"air cannon",
"baseballs",
"high speed video"
] | When professional engineers are giggling like kids, you know something interesting is about to happen. [Destin Sandlin] of [Smarter Every Day], [Jeremy Fielding], and a few other like-minded individuals have built a very impressive air cannon,
capable of launching baseballs at supersonic velocities
.
Baseball execution. Not for sensitive viewers.
The muzzleloading canon consists of a large pressure chamber and vacuum chamber stuck together, with a plug and baseball separating the two. The barrel forms part of the vacuum chamber, and is sealed off at the muzzle end with plastic tape that ruptures when fired. The firing mechanism runs the entire length of the pressure chamber, exiting out the back where it is held in place by a large pneumatic sear mechanism. When the sear is released, it “pops the cork” between the two chambers, sending high-pressure nitrogen into the vacuum chamber, forcing the ball forward. This causes the plug rod to shoot out the back of the pressure chamber, where it is stopped by a pneumatic piston. The entire thing is permanently mounted on a trailer. A professional-looking control box is used to operate the beast from behind the safety of a steel blast shield.
Be sure to watch the videos after the break with subtitles turned on. The first is the highlights reel, and the second is a very entertaining hour-long behind the scenes look. To the surprise of the builders, they were able to shoot a baseball at Mach 1.38 (1050 mph or 1690 km/h) on the very first try, with only a partially pressurized system and a leaking vacuum chamber. When impacting the thick steel target, the ball disintegrates completely, imprinting its stitches on the target. [Destin] and co recorded the results with his usual high-speed cameras, but also included a
Schlieren
rig that allowed them to photograph the shock waves and Mach cones generated by the speeding ball. After a few shots, the bolts were stripped out of the pneumatic piston that stops the plug rod, which is no surprise judging by how much the steel frame flexes in that area.
This is a very ambitious project, and we have to agree that it is giggle-worthy. After sorting out the teething issues, we expect to see many more spectacular experiments. [Destin] is well knows for his informative and entertaining videos on everything from
Fourier analysis
to
backwards bicycles
. [Jeremy Fielding] builds some impressive tools, and we’ve featured his
CNC table saw
and
DIY dynamometer
. | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277446",
"author": "Kent",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T23:42:41",
"content": "Just watched this video. I’m a multi-discipline engineer an this is an insanely magnificent engineering feat using advanced engineering, lots of thought and cool instruments built by a team that are also tot... | 1,760,373,359.179896 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/tv-output-from-arduino-1980s-style/ | TV Output From Arduino — 1980s Style! | Al Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"retrocomputer",
"retrocomputing",
"TMS9918A",
"video display"
] | We’ll admit it, we’re all spoiled. A few bucks can now buy a computer that would have been the envy of everyone back in the late 1970s or early 1980s. So it’s no surprise that [krallja]
was able to use an old-style video output chip to drive a TV with an Arduino
. The TMS9918A is a venerable output device, and if the old computers could drive it then it makes sense that a modern computer could too. You can see a video of the whole experiment, below.
The Internet has also spoiled us, in that it’s dead simple to find datasheets for nearly anything, even these old chips. The only real problem with such aged silicon is that they typically expect a processor with a data and address bus, but most microcontrollers now keep all of that internal. But with enough fast I/O you can simulate a bus just fine. For now, the experiment just cycles through the color output.
The circuit on a breadboard worked fine, even if it looked like it wouldn’t survive much transportation. The next step, which we expect will be in the next video is, of course, to write data to the video RAM so actual text will appear on the screen.
One of our favorite projects from the past did the opposite: it uses
an Arduino as many devices
on a Z80’s address and data bus. We’ve also seen this same TI chip used in a
graphics board for the RC2014 computers
. | 20 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277440",
"author": "rnjacobs",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T22:27:23",
"content": "It turns out therewasa console that used the TMS99x8 with a 6502 – the CreatiVision, completely absent in North America.It’d be interesting to directly inject video data to the TMS9918’s data bus. I wond... | 1,760,373,359.233298 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/peripheral-doesnt-need-deskspace/ | Peripheral Doesn’t Need Deskspace | Brian McEvoy | [
"Games",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"bluetooth",
"gyroscope",
"hid",
"IMU",
"inertial measurement unit",
"Joystick",
"keyboard",
"mobile",
"mouse",
"peripheral"
] | Some of us are suckers for new hardware. There’s absolutely nothing shameful about a drawer overflowing with gamepads, roll-up keyboards, and those funny-shaped ergonomic mice. MyTeleTouch won’t sate your itch for new hardware because [Dimitar Danailov] didn’t design hardware you hold, because it uses your phone as a
catch-all Human Interface Device
, HID. A dongle plugs into a standard USB port, and your Android phone can emulate a USB keyboard, mouse, or gamepad over Bluetooth.
Chances are high that you already set up your primary computer with your favorite hardware, but we think we’ve found a practical slant for a minimalist accessory. Remember the last time you booted an obsolete Windows desktop and dug out an old mouse with a questionable USB plug? How long have you poked around the bottom of a moving box trying to find a proprietary wireless keyboard dongle, when you just wanted to type a password on your smart TV? What about RetroPi and a game controller? MyTeleTouch isn’t going to transform your daily experience, but it’ll be there when you don’t want to carry a full-size keyboard down three flights of stairs to press {ENTER} on a machine that spontaneously forgot it has a touch screen. If you don’t have opportunities to play the hero very often, you can choose to play the villain. Hide this in a coworker’s USB port, and while they think you’re sending a text message, you could be fiddling with their cursor.
We enjoy
a good prank
that everyone can laugh off, and we love
little keyboards
and this one raises the (space) bar.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277399",
"author": "iwane",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T18:53:38",
"content": "Reminds me of the InputStick (http://inputstick.com/). Actually useful – it has a plug-in for Keepas2Android to automatically type passwords…Disclaimer: an user of the dongle.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,373,359.331878 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/linux-fu-literate-regular-expressions/ | Linux Fu: Literate Regular Expressions | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"bash",
"grep",
"linux",
"regular expressions"
] | Regular expressions — the things you feed to programs like
grep
— are a bit like riding a bike. It seems impossible until you learn to do it, and then it’s easy. Part of their bad reputation is because they use a very concise and abbreviated syntax that alarms people. To help people who don’t use regular expressions every day, I created
a tool that lets you write them in something a little closer to plain English
. Actually, I’ve written several versions of this over the years, but this incarnation that targets
grep
is the latest. Unlike some previous versions, this time I did it all using Bash.
Those who don’t know regular expressions might freak out when they see something like:
[0-9]{5}(-[0-9]{4})?
How long does it take to figure out what that does? What if you could write that in a more literate way? For example:
digit repeat 5 \
start_group \
- digit repeat 4 \
end_group optional
Not as fast to type, sure. But you can probably deduce what it does: it reads US Zipcodes.
I’ve found that some of the most popular tools I’ve created over the years are ones that I don’t need myself. I’m sure you’ve had that experience, too. You know how to operate a computer, but you create a menu system for people who don’t and they love it. That’s how it is with this tool. You might not need it, but there’s a good chance you know someone who does. Along the way, the code uses some interesting features of Bash, so even if you don’t want to be verbose with your regular expressions, you might pick up a trick or two.
Tower of Babel
One of the problems is that there isn’t a single form of regular expressions. Every tool has a slightly different flavor with different rules and extensions. For the purposes of this, I’m targeting
egrep
, although much of it will work in other systems, too. Once you have the idea, it would be easy to extend this for different flavors of regular expressions.
Even
grep
has some uncommon regular expression elements, so I’m only going to work with a subset of patterns, but they are the ones you tend to use the most. It’s easy to add more exotic ones or even macros that contain multiple regular expression patterns if you decide you want to extend the program.
Tool Chest
There are a few things that are important in our quest for literate regular expressions. The idea is to have a small program that converts our literate text into a regular expression. We can naturally combine this with grep or any tool that needs a regular expression:
egrep $(regx start space zero_or_more digit repeat 5)
The
$(...)
construct runs the command within and whatever it writes out is placed on the command line. So, for example:
for I in $( mount | cut -d ' ' -f 3 )
do
echo $I
if [ -f "$I/mountinfo.txt" ]
then
cat "$I/mountinfo.txt"
fi
done
This contrived example selects every mount point from the mount command and tries to locate and display the mountinfo.txt file.
So the key is to build a
regx
script that can convert our verbose syntax into regular expressions and then use
$()
to insert the patterns into the command line.
Another odd Bash tool used a bit in these scripts is the regular expression parameter expansion. For example, if
$1="Hackanight"
then
${1/night/day}
will give you Hackaday.
Quoting
Another tool isn’t really necessary for the
regx
command, but I wanted to build something you can use instead of employing the
$()
notation with
grep
. The problem is you have a script getting arguments and then passing them to another program. When you have spaces, potentially, you have a problem.
If script A has
$1="Hack A Day"
you can assume the command line used quotes or backslashes to keep that together as one string. But passing it to another program could strip the quotes resulting in the other program seeing three different arguments. In this case, you could pass
"$1
” and that would be fine. But it isn’t always that simple.
To make
litgrep
work, you need to know about the Bash shell expansion that quotes a value so the shell can read it again:
VAR="${1@Q}"
In our previous example,
VAR
would now equal ‘Hack a Day’ (including the single quotes).
Why?
Why is this important? Because
litgrep
will pick off command line arguments and send them to
regx
. If you have a space in the middle of an argument, it needs to pass as a whole to
regx
.
Here’s an example:
litgrep Hack space a space Day space optional -- *.txt
The regx Script
The
regx
script itself is pretty simple. There are two functions to escape characters because so many special characters are present in a regular expression. The
reesc
function escapes backslash characters along with other metacharacters. Inside a class (that is, square brackets) there isn’t much quoting. You generally have to arrange the expression correctly. For example, to build a character class that has a dash, it needs to come first or last. I didn’t attempt to rearrange your class, but you could do that in the placeholder
reescclass
function. You could also use it for some other regular expression variants that have more escaping options.
There are three broad groups of patterns. The majority take no arguments like
any_char
(.) or
end
($). The script uses
shift
to move these out of the way after processing.
The other groups take one or two arguments such as
repeat
or
range
. Those commands do extra shifts to dispose of their arguments Once you have the definitions, the script is almost anti-climatic.
The litgrep Script
The
litgrep
program is a bit more difficult to follow because it has to ensure that spaces are handled correctly. The script pulls arguments out until it reads — as an argument and the rest of the command line goes to
grep
. That is, you can include
grep
arguments and file names after the –. If you omit the –, then
grep
will read from standard input, the same as if you put the — with no file arguments after it.
The
${1@Q}
syntax, as described above, makes sure the arguments are quoted properly. Then using
eval
when setting RELIST puts it back together in the right format to send to egrep.
Motivation
I have had versions of this tool floating around for years. My
original version
was in C++ and there’s been at least
one version for Python
inspired by the C version.
A tool like this is certainly handy if you don’t know regular expressions. But, honestly, you should really learn regular expressions. If you want a quick start, there’s a
Linux Fu post
for that. Or, take your chances and let a program
infer your regular expression
from a data set. | 20 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277374",
"author": "beatjunkie",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T17:09:27",
"content": "It happens that I am reading this while taking a short smoke-break from developing some software which heavily uses regex. So I wanted to sharehttps://regex101.com/which I find very useful for fiddling... | 1,760,373,359.290538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/hackaday-podcast-084-awful-floppy-disk-music-watching-a-robot-climb-walls-a-futuristic-undersea-lab-and-inside-a-digital-pregnancy-test/ | Hackaday Podcast 084: Awful Floppy Disk Music, Watching A Robot Climb Walls, A Futuristic Undersea Lab, And Inside A Digital Pregnancy Test | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | With Editor in Chief Mike Szczys off this week, Managing Editor Elliot Williams is joined by Staff Writer Dan Maloney to look over the hacks from the last week. If you’ve ever wondered how the Beatles sound on a floppy disk, wonder no more. Do you fear the coming robopocalypse? This noisy wall-climbing robot will put those fears to rest. We’ll take a look at an undersea lab worthy of the Cousteau name, and finally we’ll look inside a digital pregnancy test and wonder at its unusual power switch.
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 084 Show Notes:
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Incredible Soldering In The Name Of Hardware Support
Get Down To The Die Level With This Internal Chip Repair
The Floppy Disk As A Portable Music Format
Opus Codec
Comparing Shortwave Antennas With RTL-SDR And Python
NanoVNA Is A $50 Vector Network Analyzer
Ultra-Mobile Little Robot Will Climb The Walls
A Faithful Replica Of An Early Computer Trainer
Reproduction 1960s Computer Trainer Really Pushes Our Buttons
Digital Pregnancy Tests Use LEDs To Read Between The Lines
Coronavirus Testing Follow-Up: Rapid Immunologic Testing
Quick Hacks:
Dan’s Picks:
YARH.IO Is The Hackable Pi Portable Of Our Dreams
Turning The Raspberry Pi Into A MCU Programmer
Easy Focus Stacking With Your CNC Machine
Elliot’s Picks:
Tesla Coil Electric Bike Is Wireless
Tutorial For Setting Up Raspberry Pi For Ham Radio Use
A Backlit Calendar For All Eternity
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Cousteau’s Proteus Will Be The ISS Of The Seas
Teardown: Mini GPS Jammer | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,359.108276 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/friendly-fiberglassing-can-hide-glue-replace-epoxy/ | Friendly Fiberglassing: Can Hide Glue Replace Epoxy? | Brian McEvoy | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"adhesive",
"car parts",
"epoxy",
"fiberglass",
"glue",
"resin",
"Saab"
] | Hide glue has been around for thousands of years, and some of it is holding wood pieces three thousand years after application. It is made from animal protein, so vegetarians may want to stick to the petroleum-based adhesives. [Surjan Singh] wanted to see if its longevity made it a
contender with modern epoxy
by casting a couple of fiberglass car parts with the competing glues.
In short
, it doesn’t hold up in this situation, but it is not without merit.
Musical instrument makers and antique restorers still buy and use hide glue, but you would never expose it to heat or moisture. To its credit, hide glue doesn’t require a ventilator. All you need is boiling water and a popsicle stick, and you are in business. [Surjan] writes his findings like a narrative rather than steps, so his adventures are a delight to read. He found that a car part made with fiberglass and epoxy will withstand the weather better than the alternative because heat and humidity will soften hide glue. His Saab 96 isn’t the right application, but since it is nearly as strong as epoxy once set, you could make other fabric shapes, like a flannel nightstand or a lace coffee table, and you could shape them in the living room without toxifying yourself
No matter how you want to work with glues and substrates,
Bil Herd has you covered
, and here is an excellent tip for a
cheap degassing setup
. | 40 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277362",
"author": "Cogidubnus Rex",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T16:06:53",
"content": "I can’t see why vegetarians would want to avoid this, unless they’re planning to make edible items from it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,373,359.546907 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/security-this-week-racoons-in-my-tls-bypassing-frontends-and-obscurity/ | Security This Week: Racoons In My TLS, Bypassing Frontends, And Obscurity | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"honeypot",
"raccoon",
"security through obscurity",
"This Week in Security"
] | Raccoon
is the next flashy security flaw with a name, cute logo, and a website (
and a PDF
). Raccoon is a flaw in TLS version prior to 1.3, and seems to be a clever bit of work, albeit one with limited real-world application. The central problem is that these older versions of TLS, when using Diffie Hellman (DH),
drop leading all-zero bytes in the resulting pre-master key
. As that key is part of the input for calculating the master session key, a shortened pre-master key results in a slightly faster calculation of the master key. If an attacker can make fine-grained timing measurements, he can determine when the pre-master key is trimmed.
Let’s review
Diffie Hellman
, briefly. The client and server agree on two numeric values, a base
g
and modulus
p
, and each party generates a secret key,
a
and
b
. Each party calculates a public key by raising the shared base to their own private key, mod the shared modulus:
A = g^a mod p
. These public keys are exchanged, and each party raises the received key to their own secret key:
A^b
. Exponents have a non-obvious quirk, the power rule. A value raised to a power raised to a power is the same as the value raised to the power of the exponents multiplied together.
g^a^b
is equal to
g^(a*b)
. By going through this mathematical dance, the server and client have arrived at a shared value that only they know, while preserving the secrecy of their private keys.
On to the attack, which is only exploitable when the server is reusing its DH key for multiple connections. The attack is to capture the target client’s public DH key, which is sent in the clear as part of the TLS handshake. The attacker now initiates a new TLS handshake, but chooses a special value for its own public key: The target’s public key, raised to a random-but-known exponent. Note that this means the attacker can’t actually calculate the new shared key, but can learn something about it. Through carefully measuring the server’s response time, it can be determined if this new DH shared key has a leading zero byte. This isn’t terribly useful on its own, but there is a mathematical trick that changes the game, the
Hidden Number Problem
.
The Hidden Number Problem (HNP) is an approach to breaking public key cryptography like DH. The math involved is above my pay grade, but we’ll try to get an overview, at least. In the DH exchange, the modulo operator is used to keep the magnitude of the numbers manageable. There is a side effect — the normally one-dimensional number line can be thought of as a two-dimensional number grid. There are
some clever algorithms that work on a 2D lattice
that don’t work on the normal number line. The result is that when you have enough clues about the hidden number you’re looking for, it can become much easier to find that number.
One of the unexpected conclusions of HNP is that not all bits are equally important. Knowing the most significant bits (MSBs) are much more useful when trying to solve HNP. To put it another way, it’s more useful to know that a number is between one thousand and five thousand, than to know that it is even. The fact that the information leakage reveals the most significant byte means that it’s much more useful than just shortening the key size by eight bits.
After discovering multiple cases where the new key starts with a zero byte, an HNP solution is feasible, and the victim’s session key can be calculated. With that key, the entire session can be decrypted.
Raccoon isn’t too hard to mitigate. On the server-side, simply don’t reuse DH keys. This is considered best practice anyway, and most distros and devices ship in this configuration by default. On the client side, dropping support for Diffie Hellman key exchange in the TLS handshake also mitigates the issue. All the major web browsers have already retired these older modes, but there will inevitably be support in libraries and applications for years to come. The timing side-channel that makes this all possible requires very tight measurement tolerances, so it will likely be difficult to actually use Raccoon in the real world.
There are cases where Raccoon is much easier to pull off. Certain configurations of F5 BIG-IP devices
have a particular bug that makes detection of the zero byte much easier
. The report indicates that there are other implementation with similar flaws, likely in the process of being reported and fixed.
TLS Finished
Next is yet another TLS attack, but this one is entirely
a vulnerability in the wolfSSL client
. The report describes the problem as the TLS 1.3 state machine not being strictly enforced. Put simpler, wolfSSL accepts a “finished” message while still in the process of validating the certificate. An attacker can successfully man-in-the-middle a TLS connection. Version 4.5.0 has been released, addressing the bug.
h2c Request Smuggling
Many web services use an architecture where an Nginx instance works as a reverse proxy and load balance. Nginx often does the TLS termination, as well as providing security and user authentication. In this arrangement, end users aren’t intended to directly connect to the back-end servers. A method to bypass that separation often brings about unexpected security problems. [Jake Miller] over at Bishop Fox Labs did some interesting work on
using HTTP/2 over cleartext (h2c) as a new way to accomplish HTTP request smuggling
. We’ve talked a bit about
HTTP request smuggling in the past
.
The trick here is that it’s possible to request a connection upgrade from HTTP/1.1 directly to an h2c connection. This is usually done using TLS-ALPN, a TLS extension specifically designed for managing allowed protocols. The HTTP/2
specification doesn’t allow
the upgrade request to be sent in a regular TLS connection, but it seems that some front-ends incorrectly allow the request to be forwarded to the back-end. If the protected HTTP server allows the connection upgrade, the front-end will dutifully treat the connection as an unmanaged tunnel, bypassing any protections built into the front-end service.
SSH Honeypot
How many login attempts does an open SSH service attract in three months?
Thanks to [David Tomaschik]
, we can safely say it’s over nine (hundred) thousand! The analysis of the login attempts proves interesting, with a litany of default and often used username/password combinations represented. One password in particular caught my attention,
J5cmmu=Kyf0-br8CsW
. This doesn’t seem to show up anywhere other than the list of commonly guessed passwords. I immediately wondered if it was an injection attack that worked on some obscure system. [David] asks for information on this password guess, if anybody knows where it’s from, and I’ll echo that curiosity.
Security Through Obscurity
Finally for this week, an essay by [Utku Sen] caught my attention on
the virtues of security through obscurity
. It’s a good opportunity to talk about this controversial topic, but if you have time, go read the essay first. His point is essentially that obscurity is a useful component of a defense in depth strategy. So long as one is careful about it, this isn’t a terrible idea, with some caveats.
On some level, nearly all security is through obscurity. Your password is secure because it’s obscure enough to not be on a list of common passwords. Your 4096 bit key is obscure enough that it won’t be guessed before the heat death of the universe. Beyond that, things like moving your SSH port is useful to cut down log noise. Disabling root SSH logins forces an attacker to guess the account name as well as the password, essentially adding key length.
But really, neither of those scenarios are what we’re talking about when we talk negatively about security through obscurity. The phrase usually refers to vulnerable software, or really bad policy, that we don’t think will ever get attacked because it won’t get noticed, like running a super old version of WordPress on the company website, and not worrying about it, because hardly anybody visits it. A particularly troubling example is the tendency of certain companies to write really sloppy and insecure code, and trusting that because the source is closed, the flaws will never be found.
What we really need is to think about what threats we are protecting against. Avoiding SSH log spam is a bit different from protecting against a determined attacker. Moving your SSH port is helpful in the first case, but not at all in the second. In the end, I agree with [Utku]’s conclusion. Obscurity isn’t a security solution, but sometimes it can be useful. Also, since he mentioned port knocking, I have to plug
Fwknop
. It’s the idea of port knocking, but with real crypto, not just obscurity. | 7 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277359",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T15:49:20",
"content": "I do wish ssh had even trivial, rudimentary port-knocking built-in. Again, just to cut down on log spam. I’ve already configured every publicly facing ssh server I control for only publickey auth, but it doe... | 1,760,373,359.37714 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/a-deep-dive-into-the-sterzo-steering-plate/ | A Deep Dive Into The Sterzo Steering Plate | Tom Nardi | [
"hardware",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"ble",
"exercise bike",
"reverse engineering",
"Zwift"
] | Pedaling in place isn’t the most exciting pastime, so it’s no surprise that modern technology is being used to make the in-home biking experience a bit more interactive. With a stand on the rear wheel providing resistance, and a movable steering plate under the front to read the handlebar angle, you can now use your standard bike as the “controller” in a virtual environment provided by software such as Zwift.
Paving the way towards a DIY Sterzo clone
[Keith Wakeham] wanted to
take a closer look at how Zwift communicated with his Sterzo steering device
, and it turned into a pretty epic bout of exploration and reverse engineering. As the video after the break shows, he didn’t
just
go from sniffing the device’s proprietary Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communications protocol to figuring out how to emulate it in software so you could roll your own Zwift peripheral. He also tore the device apart, pulled the firmware from its microcontroller, and postulated how you could build your own low-cost clone device that would work with the existing software.
Even if you have absolutely zero interest in virtual biking, the video [Keith] has put together for this project is really a must watch. Have you ever wanted to sniff and reverse engineer BLE communications? Looking for a real-world example of pulling the firmware off of a consumer device? Maybe in the market for some tips on how to identify unknown ICs on a board? All of that, and quite a bit more, is covered in this nearly hour long hacking tour de force.
On the other hand, if you
are
interested in adding your own hardware to Zwift, then this look at
getting an unsupported stationary bike working with it
should be useful. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277333",
"author": "Ettore",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T13:22:22",
"content": "I am a Zwifter and have been after a Sterzo for my trainer. Here in the States, so far, you can’t find them and the Amazon offering is not the smart unit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,373,359.430277 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/11/game-boy-plays-forever/ | Game Boy Plays Forever | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games",
"News",
"Retrocomputing",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"capacitor",
"clone",
"delft",
"emulator",
"energy",
"game boy",
"harvesting",
"intermittent computing",
"low power",
"nintendo",
"northwestern",
"solar panel",
"video game"
] | For those of us old enough to experience it first hand, the original Game Boy was pretty incredible, but did have one major downside: battery consumption. In the 90s rechargeable batteries weren’t common, which led to most of us playing our handhelds beside power outlets. Some modern takes on the classic Game Boy address these concerns with modern hardware, but this group from the Delft University of Technology and Northwestern has created
a Game Boy clone that doesn’t need any batteries at all
, even though it can play games indefinitely.
This build was a proof-of-concept for something called “intermittent computing” which allows a computer to remain in a state of processing limbo until it gets enough energy to perform the next computation. The Game Boy clone, fully compatible with the original Game Boy hardware, is equipped with many tiny solar panels which can harvest energy and is able to halt itself and store its state in nonvolatile memory if it detects that there isn’t enough energy available to continue. This means that Super Mario Land isn’t exactly playable, but other games that aren’t as action-packed can be enjoyed with very little impact in gameplay.
The researchers note that it’ll be a long time before their energy-aware platform becomes commonplace in devices and replaces batteries, but they do think that internet-connected devices that don’t need to be constantly running or powered up would be a good start. There are already
some low-powered options available
that can keep their displays active when everything else is off, so hopefully we will see even more energy-efficient options in the near future.
Thanks to [Sascho] for the tip! | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277296",
"author": "Sergio Costas",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T09:55:16",
"content": "If the Game Boy has a problem with battery consumption, imagine the Game Gear or the Atary Lynx… :-D",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277297"... | 1,760,373,359.475253 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/10/arduino-takes-control-of-dead-business-card-cutter/ | Arduino Takes Control Of Dead Business Card Cutter | Tom Nardi | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Parts",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"Arduino Mega 2560",
"cutter",
"motor driver",
"stepper",
"TB6600",
"trash"
] | It’s a common enough situation, that when an older piece of equipment dies, and nobody wants to spend the money to repair it. Why fix the old one, when the newer version with all the latest bells and whistles isn’t much more expensive? We all understand the decision from a business standpoint, but as hackers, it always feels a bit wrong.
Which is exactly why [tommycoolman] decided to
rebuild the office’s recently deceased Duplo CC-330 heavy duty business card cutter.
It sounds like nobody really knows what happened to the machine in the first place, but since the majority of the internals were cooked, some kind of power surge seems likely. Whatever the reason, almost none of the original electronics were reused. From the buttons on the front panel to the motor drivers, everything has been implemented from scratch.
An Arduino Mega 2560 clone is used to control four TB6600 stepper motor drivers, with a common OLED display module installed where the original display went. The keypad next to the screen has been replaced with 10 arcade-style buttons soldered to a scrap of perfboard, though in the end [tommycoolman] covers them with a very professional looking printed vinyl sheet. There’s also a 24 V power supply onboard, with the expected assortment of step up and step down converters necessary to feed the various electronics their intended voltages.
In the end, [tommycoolman] estimates it took about $200 and 30 hours of work to get the card cutter up and running again. The argument could be made that the value of his time needs to be factored into the repair bill as well, but even still, it sounds like a bargain to us; these machines have a four-figure price tag on them when new.
Stories like this one are important reminders of the
all wondrous things you can find hiding in the trash
. Any time a
machine like this can be rescued from the junkyard
, it’s an accomplishment worthy of praise in our book. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277313",
"author": "\"Temporary\" Wiring",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T11:43:18",
"content": "“Two months ago I told myself this wiring was temporary.”Hopefully everything is color coded and there is wiring and code documentation available!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,359.604742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/10/iss-ham-radio-repeater/ | ISS Ham Radio Repeater | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Radio Hacks",
"Space"
] | [
"ham radio",
"iss",
"repeater",
"space station"
] | There is a long history of spacecraft carrying ham radio gear, as the Space Shuttle, Mir, and the ISS have all had hams aboard with gear capable of talking to the Earth. However, this month, the ISS started operating an
FM repeater
that isn’t too dissimilar from a terrestrial repeater. You can see [TechMinds] video on the repeater, below.
The repeater has a 2 meter uplink and a 70 centimeter downlink. While you can use a garden variety dual-band ham transceiver to use the repeater, you’ll probably need a special antenna along with special operating techniques.
One of the problems you’ll find is that ISS moves fast enough that you will observe doppler shift in the frequencies. The video reproduces a table of frequencies you may have to move through to receive the shifting signal.
You can probably hear the ISS with a good pass with no special equipment, but [TechMinds] wasn’t able to close an actual contact in the video. But [K0LWC] got really close using a pretty standard radio setup, as you can see in the second video.
The ISS has been
on the air
with digital repeaters and conventional FM radio for some time. The antenna you need doesn’t have to be a huge disk. We’ve seen it done with a
handheld beam antenna and a handheld radio
. | 28 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277242",
"author": "Shirley Dulcey",
"timestamp": "2020-09-11T02:49:02",
"content": "It’s even more like operating through one of the low earth orbit amateur satellites, because (aside from the amateur part) that’s what the ISS is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,373,359.715357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/10/reverse-engineering-a-module-from-a-vacuum-tube-computer/ | Reverse Engineering A Module From A Vacuum Tube Computer | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"diode",
"electron",
"gate",
"IBM 650",
"logic",
"nand",
"retrocomputing",
"triode",
"vacuum tube",
"valve"
] | It’s best to admit upfront that vacuum tubes can be baffling to some of the younger generation of engineers. Yes, we get how electron flow from cathode to anode can be controlled with a grid, and how that can be used to amplify and control current. But there are still some things that just don’t always to click when looking at a schematic for a tube circuit. Maybe we just grew up at the wrong time.
Someone who’s clearly not old enough to have ridden the first wave of electronics but still seems to have mastered the concepts of thermionic emission is [Usagi Electric], who has been doing some great work on
reverse engineering modules from old vacuum tube computers
. The video below focuses on a two-tube pluggable module from an IBM 650, a machine that dates clear back to 1954. The eBay find was nothing more than two tube sockets and a pair of resistors joined to a plug by a hoop of metal. With almost nothing to go on, [Usagi] was still able to figure out what tubes would have gone in the sockets — the nine-pin socket was a big clue — and determine that the module was likely a dual NAND gate. To test his theory, [Usagi] took some liberties with the original voltages used by IBM and built a breakout PCB. It’s an interesting mix of technologies, but he was able to walk through the truth table and confirm that his module is a dual NAND gate.
The video is a bit long but it’s chock full of tidbits that really help clear up how tubes work. Along with some help from
this article about how triodes work
, this will put you on the path to thermionic enlightenment. | 32 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277211",
"author": "alxy",
"timestamp": "2020-09-10T23:30:47",
"content": "Dual NAND = flip flop = 1 bit memory. All you need is 1023 more of these devices for a ZX80 clone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277235",
... | 1,760,373,359.927701 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/10/surfboard-led-strips-light-up-the-waves/ | Surfboard LED Strips Light Up The Waves | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"surf",
"surfer",
"surfing",
"ws2812b"
] | Surfing is an activity predominantly enjoyed during the day, primarily for reasons of warmth and water safety. Of course, if you prefer to carve the waves at night, you might enjoy the latest project from [Moritz Sivers] –
a surfboard kitted out with motion-reactive LEDs
.
The build consists of a regular surfboard, with a channel cut around the perimeter into which WS2812B LED strips are glued. Powered by a lithium rechargable battery, commands are given by an Arduino Nano hooked up to a MPU6050 3-axis gyroscope. This allows the Arduino to change the light patterns based on the movement of the board. Left and right turns, pumping the board, and surfing down a wave all come with their own animations.
It’s a fun twist on night surfing, and makes it easier to spot a downed surfer, too. It’s a build we expect to see recreated in a high-end 4K surf film before the year is out. Of course, if you just need to know if the conditions are right before you head out,
this surf weather station might be just the build for you.
Video after the break. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277153",
"author": "Sean",
"timestamp": "2020-09-10T20:19:16",
"content": "I like the headline picture, complete with signage stating swimming in that spillway could result in death.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277314",
... | 1,760,373,359.974748 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/10/eye-catching-and-crumb-suspending/ | Eye-Catching And Crumb-Suspending | Brian McEvoy | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"acoustic levitation",
"acoustic levitator",
"analog",
"analog circuit",
"levitation",
"standing wave",
"ultrasonic transducer"
] | Printed circuit boards used to be green or tan, and invariably hidden. Now, they can be artful, structural, and like electronic convention badges, they are the entire project. In this vein, we find Open LEV, a horseshoe-shaped desktop bauble bristling with analog circuitry supporting
an acoustic levitator
. [John Loefler] is a mechanical engineer manager at a college 3D printing lab in Florida, so of course, he needs to have the nerdiest stuff on his workspace. Instead of resorting to a microcontroller, he filled out a parts list with analog components. We have to assume that the rest of his time went into making his PCB show-room ready. Parts of the silkscreen layer are functional too. If you look closely at where the ultrasonic transducers (silver cylinders) connect, there are depth gauges to aid positioning. Now that’s clever.
Acoustic levitation takes advantage of the nodes in a standing sound wave. Nodes are points surrounded by higher pressure regions. In other words, if something rests inside a node, any direction it wanders, it will encounter pressure pushing it back. There are also antinodes where nothing wants to hang out. If something disrupts the wave, even from above, the levitating thing will fall.
We have seen
acoustic levitation
before and
magnetic levitation
, but we never get tired of it.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277136",
"author": "Robert Billing",
"timestamp": "2020-09-10T19:24:57",
"content": "Does anyone else remember the levitating toaster in Supercar? It floated a whole slice of bread and usually exploded before it was cooked.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []... | 1,760,373,360.027775 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/10/the-o-bahn-busway-obscure-transit-for-the-masses/ | The O-Bahn Busway – Obscure Transit For The Masses | Lewin Day | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bus",
"buses",
"mass transit",
"public transport",
"transport"
] | Around the world, governments and city planners have long struggled with the issue of transport. Getting people where they need to be in a timely fashion is key to making a city a comfortable, attractive place to live. As far as public transport is concerned, this typically consists of buses on the roads, and trams and trains on rails.
Down in the city of Adelaide, Australia, things get a little muddled, however. Nestled in a river valley lies a special transportation network known as the O-Bahn, where buses ride on concrete rails and the drivers can even take their hands off the wheel. The system remains a rarity worldwide, and was spawned by a perfect storm of conflicting requirements.
A Child of Circumstance
In the 1970s, the South Australian government found itself backed into a corner. Facing a booming population in the north-eastern suburbs, new transport links with greater capacity were needed to get people to the central business district. Original plans from the 1960s had called for more freeways to be built all over the city to solve the problem. In the face of stiff public opposition, legislation was passed in 1970 blocking the construction of any new freeways for a full decade, forcing the government to consider alternatives.
O-Bahn buses passing at speed near Stephens Terrace. Buses formerly reached speeds up to 100 km/h on the network;
this was dropped to 85 km/h in 2012
, adding 20 seconds to the average run. Credit: Lewin Day
Despite plans being shelved, a corridor of land stretching from the city to the north-east had already been acquired for freeway construction. This was retained, and studies were commissioned to determine the best transportation solution to suit the needs of the area. The
“North East Adelaide Public Transport Review”
suggested light-rail or a busway would be the best solution.
Initial plans were proposed to link the north-east with a light-rail tramway that would connect with the existing tramline from the city proper to Glenelg in the west. However, the City of Adelaide protested the plan, believing that extending the existing tramline to the east would damage the city’s carefully planned structure. Plans were made to rectify this by running part of the line underground, massively increasing costs, and the proposal was shelved.
It was at this time, the guided busway in Essen, Germany came to the attention of the state government. Aiming to help reduce congestion by allowing buses to share tram tunnels, it began as a demonstration which later developed into the
Spurbus network.
The system offered lower cost and higher flexibility than light rail, and avoided the need to carve up the city to hook in to the existing light rail network. Had Adelaide laid out its existing heavy or light rail networks differently, the O-Bahn might not have gotten a look in. However, back in the early 1980s, it was an easy solution in a sea of difficult choices.
It Drives Like It’s On Rails
Articulated buses are commonly used on the O-Bahn Busway. Credit:
Beneaththelandslide
, copyrighted free use
The O-Bahn was designed around the concept of the curb-guided busway, a type of public transportation system rarely implemented in practice. Indeed, it’s very name comes from the combination of the German words for bus (
omnibus)
and path (
bahn).
Rather than trains riding on rails or buses driving on normal roads, the O-Bahn consists of a concrete track which the buses drive upon. To enable the thoroughfare to be as narrow as possible without compromising safety, the track has large curbs. Buses are then outfitted with guide wheels, which ride along the curbs and control the steering when the bus is on the track.
Close-up of the rubber guide wheel used to steer the bus when riding the O-Bahn track. Credit:
Beneaththelandslide
, copyrighted free use
There are many compelling benefits to the guided busway concept, and the O-Bahn in particular. With the buses being guided by the track, there’s no need for steering or the wide lanes you’d find on a typical road. This allows for the construction of an O-Bahn busway in a much narrower space than would typically be practical, while still allowing travel in both directions.
Additionally, the precast concrete tracks are much cheaper and easier to build than laying conventional railroad tracks. Vehicles that ride on the tracks need only minor modifications to fit guide wheels; this can be achieved easily with virtually any passenger bus. The dedicated tracks allow the buses to maintain high speeds, rather than being stuck in the same congestion as other road vehicles. But, as a bonus, since the system relies on lightly-modified buses, the vehicles can serve dual duty, driving on normal roads as well as the O-Bahn track. This allows services to take advantage of the high-speed dedicated network, and then seamlessly transition on to suburban streets, delivering passengers to their destinations without requiring transfers.
The system does come with some disadvantages, however. Buses tend not to last as long as trains, requiring more regular replacement and maintenance. Additionally, trains generally have a higher capacity and are able to deal with larger numbers of passengers per day. Finally, there’s the always-amusing attempts drivers make to navigate the O-Bahn track in regular passenger cars – usually by accident.
Despite many warning signs, between one and four motorists finds themselves stuck on the track each year. Often,
the car falls into the center of the track
, or ends up sideways, blocking traffic in both directions. There are no known successful attempts of unauthorized civilian vehicles reaching an O-Bahn station via the track; this author, and many others, dream of achieving such a feat one day. To do so, a high-riding vehicle is a must – a heavy duty sump-buster installed at the Hackney Road entrance will rip the oil pan out of the average passenger car.
Tough Comparisons
The system is often compared to
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
, a highly effective system that gives buses dedicated rights-of-way and other features to improve service quality. However, the O-Bahn’s special tracks avoid the problem that has stifled BRT for decades – where local municipalities begin to take away separated bus lanes away over time, repurposing them for general traffic. This quickly kills the efficiency of a BRT system, and happens so often it has a name – BRT creep –
and its own Wikipedia article.
The system carries an estimated 31,000 riders each day on average, and has been the most consistent public transport network in the post-privatization years since the 1990s. Credit: Lewin Day
The O-Bahn does share many commonalities though – high speeds, physically separated tracks, and specialized “stations” instead of “stops”. One thing the O-Bahn could learn from the BRT handbook, however, is off-board fare payment. Currently, in line with all other buses in the Adelaide region, ticket purchase and validation is done upon boarding. This can cause significant delays during high traffic periods. Unfortunately, given the O-Bahn’s integration with the rest of the bus network, implementing this would be impractical.
Overall, the O-Bahn has served the Adelaide region well, even if the idea hasn’t caught on worldwide. The buses are fast, mostly on time, and continued investment has been made to the system over the years, including a major improvement in city access with new tunnel construction in 2015. It’s likely the system will continue to serve the region for decades to come. No government could justify tearing up the track to replace it with rails when the concrete rails are cheap to maintain and new buses can be purchased whenever needed. While trams certainly would have felt a touch fancier, and a full-blown train line would have been a heavy duty solution, buses flying along concrete rails is an oddball concept that worked, and there’s nothing more Adelaide than that! | 77 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6277118",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-09-10T17:12:46",
"content": "Reminds of Disneyland’s PeopleMover.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeopleMover",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6277187",
"author": "LordNot... | 1,760,373,360.259035 |
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