url stringlengths 37 208 | title stringlengths 4 148 | author stringclasses 173
values | publish_date stringclasses 1
value | categories listlengths 0 12 | tags listlengths 0 27 | featured_image stringlengths 0 272 | content stringlengths 0 56.1k | comments_count int64 0 900 | scraped_comments_count int64 0 50 | comments listlengths 0 50 | scraped_at float64 1.76B 1.76B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/20/bike-computer-powers-on-long-after-your-legs-give-out/ | Bike Computer Powers On Long After Your Legs Give Out | Brian McEvoy | [
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"accelerometer",
"bicycle",
"bike",
"bike computer",
"compass",
"exercise",
"fitness",
"Handlebar",
"IMU",
"inertial measurement unit",
"lcd",
"low power",
"microcontroller",
"stm32l476",
"temperature"
] | A typical bicycle computer from the store rack will show your speed, trip distance, odometer, and maybe the time. We can derive all this data from a magnet sensor and a clock, but we live in a world with all kinds of sensors at our disposal. [Matias N.] has the drive to put some of them into a
tidy yet competent bike computer
that has a compass, temperature, and barometric pressure.
The brains are an STM32L476 low-power controller, and there is a Sharp Memory LCD display as it is a nice compromise between fast refresh rate and low power. E-paper would be a nice choice for outdoor readability (and obviously low power as well) but nothing worse than a laggy speedometer or compass.
In a show of self-restraint, he didn’t try to replace his mobile phone, so there is no GPS, WiFi, or streaming music. Unlike his trusty phone, you measure the battery life in weeks, plural. He implemented EEPROM memory for persistent data through power cycles, and the water-resistant board includes a battery charging circuit for easy topping off between rides.
When you toss the power of a mobile phone at a bike computer, someone will
unveil the Android
or you can
measure a different kind of power from your pedals
.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272206",
"author": "acassis",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20T19:46:32",
"content": "This is a nice project from Matias!It is a shame that Hackaday didn’t publish about the NuttX Online Workshop that happened this weekend. Matias presented about his Bike project there. BTW, if someone wan... | 1,760,373,383.096221 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/20/esp32-altair-emulator-gets-split-personality/ | ESP32 Altair Emulator Gets Split Personality | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Microcontrollers",
"Retrocomputing",
"Slider"
] | [
"altair",
"CP/M",
"emulation",
"ESP32",
"FabGL",
"open source",
"vga32"
] | If you wanted me to demo CP/M running on an emulated Altair 8800, I’d pull out a tiny board from my pocket. You might wonder how I wound up with an Altair 8800 that runs CP/M (even WordStar), that fits in your pocket and cost less than $10. Turns out it’s a story that goes back to 1975.
When the Altair 8800 arrived back in 1975, I wanted one. Badly. I’d been reading about computers but had no hands-on experience. But back then, as far as I was concerned, the $400 price tag might as well have been a million bucks. I was working for no real pay in my family’s store, though in all fairness, adjusted into today’s money that was about $2,000.
I’d love to buy one now, but a real Altair costs even more today than it did back then. They also take up a lot of desk space. Sure, there are replicas and I’ve had a few. I even helped work the kinks out of Vince Briel’s clone which I’ve enjoyed. However, the Briel computer has two problems. First, it takes a little work to drive a serial port (it uses a VGA and a PS/2 keyboard). Second, while it’s smaller than a real Altair, it is still pretty large — a byproduct of its beautiful front panel.
So to quickly show off CP/M to someone, you need to haul out a big box and find a VGA monitor and PS/2 keyboard — both of which are becoming vanishing commodities. I made some modifications to get the serial port working, but it is still a lot to cart around. You could go the software route with a simulator like SIMH or Z80pack, but now instead of finding a VGA monitor and a PS/2 keyboard, you need to find a computer where you can install the software. What I really wanted was a simple and portable device that could boot CP/M.
The ESP32 Solution
The FABGL library lets the EPS32 drive a VGA monitor and also provides terminal-like capabilities using a PS/2 keyboard. It also covers quite a few other functions, like working with a flash file system or an external memory card. One of the examples is an Altair 8800 emulation adapted from another open source project. The VGA32 board is made to work with the library and is very inexpensive. It took a little work, but the Altair emulation worked fine on the board, so I wound up with a $10 replacement for the Briel computer that fits in my pocket. The only problem was it still needed a VGA monitor and a PS/2 keyboard.
I wanted to change the code a bit so that I could use the serial port and because of the nice design of the emulator, it turned out to not only be relatively easy but also pretty simple to allow for both modes — you can drive a VGA or use it via the USB cable with a normal serial terminal program.
The Emulation
Before I get into the changes, let’s look at the emulation as it existed before I started tinkering with it. Fabrizio — the FAB in FABGL — had certainly come up with a nice design. The main Arduino Sketch file organized the configuration of the Altair, and it included disk images that you can mount as read only or read write.
The only issue I ran into was that the emulation used some features that don’t appear to be in the library the Arduino IDE installs via the library manager. The manager claims to have version 1.8 which matches what’s on GitHub, but there were still unresolved symbols when building the example.
The solution was to remove the existing library, download the entire GitHub repository as a ZIP file, and then ask the library manager to install from the archive. After that, everything went fine. If you want to do the install, you might as well start with
my fork
, so you can get the updated Altair example code.
The next layer of abstraction down is in the /src directory’s machine.cpp file. This file has a hardware abstraction layer for the actual CPU emulations in a different file. The machine.cpp file contains the code to manage memory, disk drives, I/O devices, and actually run programs.
The CPU code is in two parts. There’s an 8080 emulation originally from Viacheslav Slavinsky and a Z-80 emulation by Lin Ke-Fong. There were modifications, but overall, these files are just the emulation logic.
When you run the code it tries to find an SD card, but if it doesn’t find one, it will use internal flash for the disk drive emulation. It has all the bootloader code and pretty much operates like a real Altair, albeit without a front panel, of course. There is an emulation menu that you can bring up with the Pause key on the keyboard. Though obviously that won’t do us much good without a PS/2 keyboard connected.
From the emulation menu, you can dump and read data from the punch and reader device. However, the CP/M disks also have utilities you use to XModem files back and forth to your PC. You can also do things like select the 8080 vs Z80 CPU and set the emulation speed.
The Investigation
I started digging around the code to see how hard it would be to add the serial port. Turns out, the configuration has the serial port setup but uses it as the CP/M punch/reader device. In the code, there are three lines that attach different streams to the SIO0, SIO1, and SIO2 devices. The console devices (SIO0 and SIO1) are set to the terminal stream that FABGL provides. SIO2 uses the standard serial stream.
That was a good sign, and sure enough, the terminal stream is compatible with the serial one. As a simple experiment, I just changed the terminal references to serial. The system booted up and gave me a CP/M prompt over the serial terminal.
That left a few minor problems. Without a PS/2 keyboard, there’s no way to get to the emulation menu. In addition, the emulation menu was hardwired to the terminal. It was reasonably easy to fix both of these problems.
Fixing the Emulation Menu
There’s only one user button on the VGA32 board, so it made sense to use it to call up the emulation menu on the serial port. It wasn’t hard to change the code that calls it (in machine.cpp):
IRAM_ATTR int Machine::nextStep(CPU cpu)
{
auto keyboard = fabgl::PS2Controller::instance()->keyboard();
static int inmenu=0;
if (m_menuCallback && keyboard->isVKDown(VirtualKey::VK_PAUSE))
m_menuCallback(0);
// check for menu
if (!digitalRead(USER_BUTTON))
{
if (inmenu==0)
{
inmenu=1;
m_menuCallback(1);
inmenu=0;
}
}
With this change, the emulation menu callback gets an extra argument and that argument is set depending on the entry method. The problem is, you have to change in the main file. I factored out the code that the menu uses to read the keyboard to a getChar function. It appears the terminal blocks until you press a key, but the serial port does not, so it took a little change to make that work right.
To minimize the code changes, I changed all the references to Terminal to CONSOLE and added this line to the start of the emulator_emu function:
Stream &CONSOLE=stream?(Stream &)Serial:(Stream &)Terminal;
Using a reference means I didn’t have to change all the dots to arrows which would have been the case had I used a pointer.
Dual Personality
The final change I wanted to make was to allow the original code to work so you could still use the VGA and keyboard. I thought about making a new item on the emulation menu but decided to use the user button again, instead. On startup, the code looks at the state of the button. With the button up, the board starts in serial mode. If the button is down, the board sets up the VGA terminal and waits for the button to release:
if (!digitalRead(USER_BUTTON))
{
streamsel=0;
// TTY
SIO0.attachStream(&Terminal);
// CRT/Keyboard
SIO1.attachStream(&Terminal);</pre>
// Serial
SIO2.attachStream(&Serial);
}
else
{
streamsel=1;
// TTY
SIO0.attachStream(&Serial);
// CRT/Keyboard
SIO1.attachStream(&Serial);
// Serial
SIO2.attachStream(&Serial);
}
// wait for button release
while (!digitalRead(USER_BUTTON));
Open Source Fun
This is a great example of how you can build on other’s work. The emulators were from different sources, and Fabrizio did a great job of providing reusable components. It was very straightforward to modify the code to do what I wanted to do.
Am I writing this post using WordStar? Maybe. Just remember, you’ll either need the right terminal emulation or you’ll want to install the WordStar disks to a read write disk so you can run WSChange and pick the terminal type you have.
For a few bucks, this was a great way to have a bootable CP/M computer with a lot of options. The idea isn’t limited to the ESP32 either, as you could
certainly put something together using the Arduino
. It might not be quite the same as
building the real thing from scratch
, but it’s certainly a lot cheaper. | 36 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272174",
"author": "Jose Rodriguez",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20T17:28:42",
"content": "What is the vendor hardware used?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6272195",
"author": "rwoodsmall",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20... | 1,760,373,383.430299 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/20/print-your-way-to-keyboard-stability/ | Print Your Way To Keyboard Stability | Kristina Panos | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"3D printed mechanical keyboard",
"diy keyboard",
"keyboard",
"keyboard stabilizer",
"magnets",
"stabilizer"
] | Keyboard key stabilizers, or stabs as they’re known in enthusiast circles, do exactly what you’d expect — they stabilize longer keys like the Shifts and the space bar so that they don’t have to be struck dead-center to actuate evenly. Stabs work by flanking the key switch with two non-functional switch actuators linked with a thick wire bar. Some people love stabs and insist on stabilizing every key that’s bigger than 1u, while other people think stabs are more trouble than they’re worth for various reasons, like rattling.
[Riskable 3D Printing] has been working on
a parametric, printable stabilizer system for Cherry MX caps that uses small disk magnets
to keep the wire in place. As you can see in the video (embedded after the break), the result is a crisp clacker that doesn’t rattle. The magnets stabilize the wire, so it snaps back quite nicely.
Although the print is an easy one, [Riskable] says the design process wasn’t as cut and dried as it seems. The center points of the stabilizer stems aren’t supposed to be in the center of cutouts, even though it looks that way to the naked eye. After that, the pain point has shifted to the wire, and getting it as straight as possible before making the necessary bends. [Riskable] is going to make a straightener to help out,
and we suggest something like this one
.
Clacker hacking is quite the rabbit hole, especially when combined with 3D printing.
We recently saw a completely 3D-printed macro pad, springs and all
.
Thanks for the tip, [BaldPower]! | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272252",
"author": "robin",
"timestamp": "2020-08-21T00:59:58",
"content": "why no mention of his other ventures in keyboard switch design? he has recently made some very neat complete keyswitches that, except for magnets, can be completely printed. kind of an oversight imo.",
... | 1,760,373,382.958802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/20/russell-kirsch-pixel-pioneer-and-the-father-of-digital-imaging/ | Russell Kirsch: Pixel Pioneer And The Father Of Digital Imaging | Kristina Panos | [
"Biography",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Original Art",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"digital imaging",
"drum scanner",
"nist",
"photomultiplier",
"photomultiplier tube",
"pixel",
"pixels",
"scanner",
"SEAC"
] | It’s true what they say — you never know what you can do until you try. Russell Kirsch, who developed the first digital image scanner and subsequently invented the pixel, was a firm believer in this axiom. And if Russell had never tried to get a picture of his three-month-old son into a computer back in 1957, you might be reading Hackaday in print right now. Russell’s work laid the foundation for the algorithms and storage methods that make digital imaging what it is today.
Russell reads SEAC’s last printout. Image via
TechSpot
Russell A. Kirsch was born June 20, 1929 in New York City, the son of Russian and Hungarian immigrants. He got quite an education, beginning at Bronx High School of Science. Then he earned a bachelor’s of Electrical Engineering at NYU, a Master of Science from Harvard, and attended American University and MIT.
In 1951, Russell went to work for the National Bureau of Standards, now known as the National Institutes of Science and Technology (NIST). He spent nearly 50 years at NIST, and started out by working with one of the first programmable computers in America known as
SEAC
(Standards Eastern Automatic Computer). This room-sized computer built in 1950
was developed as an interim solution for the Census Bureau to do research
(PDF).
Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) was the first programmable computer in the United States. Credit: NIST via
Wikimedia
Like the other computers of its time, SEAC spoke the language of punch cards, mercury memory, and wire storage. Russell Kirsch and his team were tasked with finding a way to feed pictorial data into the machine without any prior processing. Since the computer was supposed to be temporary, its use wasn’t as tightly controlled as other computers. Although it ran 24/7 and got plenty of use, SEAC was more accessible than other computers, which allowed time for bleeding edge experimentation.
NIST ended up keeping SEAC around for the next thirteen years, until 1963
.
The Original Pixel Pusher
This photo of Russell’s son Walden is the first digitized image. Public Domain via
Wikimedia
The term ‘pixel’ is a shortened portmanteau of
picture element.
Technically speaking, pixels are the unit of length for digital imaging. Pixels are building blocks for anything that can be displayed on a computer screen, so they’re kind of the first addressable blinkenlights.
In 1957, Russell brought in a picture of his son Walden, which would become the first digital image
(PDF). He mounted the photo on a rotating drum scanner that had a motor on one end and a strobing disk on the other. The drum was coupled to a photo-multiplier vacuum tube that spun around on a lead screw. Photo-multipliers are used to detect very low levels of light.
As the drum slowly rotated, a photo-multiplier moved back and forth, scanning the image through a square viewing hole in the wall of a box. The tube digitized the picture by transmitting ones and zeros to SEAC that described what it saw through the square viewing hole — 1 for white, and 0 for black. The digital image of Walden is 76 x 76 pixels, which was the maximum allowed by SEAC.
Variable-Shaped Pixels
If Russell Kirsch had any regrets, it is that he designed pixels to be square.
Ten years ago at the age of 81, he started working on a variable-shaped pixels with the hope of improving the future of digital imaging
. He wrote a LISP program to explore the idea, and simulated triangular and rectangular pixels using a 6×6 array of square pixels for each.
Alternative pixel geometries. Image via
Cloudseed Films
In in the video below, Russell discusses the idea and proves that variable pixels make a better image with more information than square pixels do, and with significantly fewer pixels overall. It takes some finagling, as pixel pairs of triangles and rectangles must be carefully chosen, rotated, and mixed together to best represent the image, but the image quality is definitely worth the effort. Following that is a video of Russell discussing SEAC’s hardware.
Russell retired from NIST in 2001 and moved to Portland, Oregon. As of 2012, he could be found in the occasional coffeehouse,
discussing technology with anyone he could engage
. Unfortunately, Russell developed Alzheimer’s and died from complications on August 11, 2020. He was 91 years old. | 28 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272147",
"author": "Duane Craps",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20T14:51:54",
"content": "Never heard about wire storage. I’m guessing the cabinets on the left with the loops drooping down were the wire storage where a loop of magnetic wire acted like a long shift register memory.",
"p... | 1,760,373,383.351662 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/20/eavesdropping-on-satellites-for-fun-and-profit/ | Eavesdropping On Satellites For Fun And Profit | Dan Maloney | [
"cons",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"DEF CON",
"downlink",
"eavesdroppings",
"exploit",
"geosynchronous",
"satellite",
"security"
] | Geosynchronous satellites, girdling the Earth from their perches 36,000 km above the equator, are remarkably useful devices. Depending on where they’re parked, they command views of perhaps a third of the globe at a time, making them perfect communications relays. But as [James Pavur] points out in
his DEF CON Safe Mode talk, “Whispers Among the Stars”
, geosynchronous satellite communication links are often far from secure.
[James], a D. Phil. student in Systems Security at Oxford University, relates that his exploits rely on the wide areas covered by the downlink signals from the satellites, coupled with security as an afterthought, if it was even thought of at all by satellite service providers. This lackadaisical approach let him use little more than a regular digital satellite TV dish and a tuner card for a PC — off-the-shelf stuff that you’d really have to try hard to spend more than $300 on — to tap into sensitive information.
While decoding the digital signals from satellites into something parseable can be done with commercial applications, [James] and his colleagues built a custom tool, GSExtract, to pull data from the often noisy signals coming down from on high. The setup returned an amazing bounty of information, like maritime operators relaying the passport information of crew members from ship to shore, point-of-sale terminal information from cruise ships in the Mediterranean, and in-flight entertainment systems in jet airliners. The last example proved particularly alarming, as it revealed an exploitable connection between the systems dedicated to keeping passengers content and those in the cockpit, which clearly should not be the case.
We found [James’] insights on these weaknesses in satellite communications fascinating, and it’s well worth the 45 minutes to watch the video below and perhaps try these exploits, which amount to
side-channel attacks
, for yourself. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272138",
"author": "cdilla",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20T14:26:33",
"content": "A most enjoyable talk.Interesting that the FBI released a notification cited their work weeks before it was published.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,373,383.044247 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/20/palm-sized-sixteen-segments-light-the-way-to-our-hearts/ | Palm-Sized Sixteen Segments Light The Way To Our Hearts | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"LED Hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"16 segment",
"7 segment",
"7-segment display",
"daisy chain",
"led",
"oshw",
"stm8"
] | It’s no secret that we here at the Hackaday are suckers for cool display. LEDs, OLEDs, incandescent, nixie or neon, you name it and we want to see it flash. So it fills us with joy to discover a new way to
build large, daisy-chainable 16-segment digits
, and even more excited to learn how easy they are to fab and assemble.
A cousin of the familiar 7 segment display, the 16 segment gives so many more possibilities (128% more possibilities to be exact) for digit display. To be specific, those extra segments unlock the ability to display upper and lowercase latin characters as well as scads of punctuation.
But where the character set is complex, the assembly is anything but thanks to a great design from [Kolibri] called klais-16. They’re available fully assembled if you want to jump straight to code, but thanks to thorough documentation (seriously,
check this out
) assembly is a snap.
Each module is composed a very boring PCBA base layer which should be inexpensive from the usual sources, even when ordering one
fully assembled
. A stackup of three more PCBs are used for spacing and diffusion with plans for die-cut or injection mold layers if a larger production run ends up happening. Board dimensions for each character are 100 mm x 66.66 mm (about 4″ x 2.5″). Put together, each module can stand on its own or be easily daisy-chained together to make a longer single display.
Addressing all those bits with an elaborate, ugly control scheme would be a drag but fortunately the firmware for the onboard STM8 microcontroller exposes a nice boring serial interface which can be used without configuration to display strings. There’s even an
example Windows Batch script
! | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272052",
"author": "Alphatek",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20T08:27:16",
"content": "Not a hack… It’s far too professional for that. One of the best thought-through and finished projects I’ve seen on here for a long time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,383.199156 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/antenna-pulls-in-am-stations/ | Antenna Pulls In AM Stations | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"am",
"antenna",
"broadcast band",
"loop antenna",
"magnetic loop",
"magnetic loop antenna"
] | While we can’t argue that FM has superior audio quality and digital streaming allows even higher quality in addition to worldwide access, there’s still something magic about hearing a weak and fading AM signal from thousands of miles away with nothing between the broadcaster’s antenna and yours. If you can’t have a big antenna — or even if you can — a loop antenna can help your big antenna fit in less space. In the video after the break,
[TheOffsetVolt] covers an AM loop
and shows how it can pull in distant AM stations.
Continuing with the
educational radio
he’s talked about before, he adds a loop antenna that is two feet on each side of a square, making it four square feet in area. Although he calls it an amplifier, it’s really just a passive tuned circuit that couples to the radio’s built-in antenna. There’s no actual connection between the antenna and the radio.
We aren’t sure if the reradiation explanation is really what’s happening, or if it is just transformer coupled to the main antenna. But either way, it seems to work well. You can think of this as adding a preselector to the existing radio. Loop antennas are directional, so this design could work as a direction finder.
We have seen many loop antennas, some with
novel construction methods
. Some even
tune themselves
. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272029",
"author": "steves",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20T05:38:57",
"content": "You can’t argue that FM has superior audio quality? That’d be with the implication that it doesn’t, right? But, with all other things being equal, why does FM have superior or inferior audio quality to AM?... | 1,760,373,383.272001 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/building-the-scoreboard-of-your-imagination/ | Building The Scoreboard Of Your Imagination | Mike Szczys | [
"Games"
] | [
"Dungeons & Dragons",
"Dungeons and Dragons",
"Hyper Light Drifter",
"RPG",
"stat tracker",
"tabletop gaming"
] | It might seem like electronic games and tabletop games are somewhat at odds. But there are always places where the lines are cleverly blurred as with
this stat tracker beautifully constructed from a sandwich of circuit boards
.
The nature of role playing games is one of deep imagination, putting yourself in the shoes of the player your are building though out a campaign. But of course the game board and pieces are there to keep track of all the data that your imagination just can’t. This can be done with a character card and some markers, a pad of paper, or a spreadsheet on your laptop. But to keep his mind in the world of
Hyper Light Drifter
, [Albert Phan] built this stat tracker that lives up to the aesthetic of the game.
The stackup of three PCBs does a brilliant job here, using cutouts on either end of the faceplate as a flexible tab that you press to actuate the surface mount button on the bottom PCB. The third PCB act as a spacer, not just for the six low-profile buttons, but also for the 40 LEDs that display status. That spacer has holes cut out for each light, providing isolation, with the FR4 substrate of the top plate acting as a diffuser.
It looks spectacular, it saves state between uses, and can be recharged via USB. But what’s that you say? You don’t play Hyper Light Drifter? Just respin the top PCB (and we suppose you’d need to tweak firmware as well) and you can swap it out for your game of choice.
http://www.pegasusprototyping.ca/assets/images/stattracker/stat_tracker_buttons_usage.webm | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6272017",
"author": "Albert Phan",
"timestamp": "2020-08-20T03:53:32",
"content": "Thank you so much for featuring my project! I really love how nice the art and pcb construction came out. My board has 46 LEDs in total. 45 for health energy and dash points and 1 battery icon that is... | 1,760,373,383.138876 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/model-railroad-engine-gets-a-tiny-oled-rollsign-while-showing-off-tidy-protoboard-skills/ | Model Railroad Engine Gets A Tiny OLED Rollsign While Showing Off Tidy Protoboard Skills | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"model railroad",
"model railway"
] | When catching public transport, it’s very helpful if the bus or train in question has a large display indicating the route or destination. While many transit lines now rely on flipdot or LED displays, the classic rollsign still gets the job done. [diorama111] wanted to emulate this on a model railroad,
and set about building a simulacrum at tiny scale.
Intended to suit an HO-scale model train, the build makes use of a tiny 0.6 inch NHD-0.6-6464G OLED display. It’s wired up with a boost converter for power and hooked up to a tiny circuit consisting of an ATMEGA328p and an infrared receiver. The microcontroller is responsible for receiving commands from the remote control, and displaying the appropriate image on the screen. The hidden beauty of this one is well shown in the video below as [diorama111] cleanly and meticulously assembles the circuit on protoboard with just an iron and tweezers.
What makes this project great is how neatly it’s integrated into the body of the train. Nestled inside the locomotive, it almost looks like a stock part of the model. While the nature of the OLED display does come across a touch anachronistic, implementing the vertical scroll really does add a lot to the final effect.
We love to see creative scale modelling projects,
and we’ve seen some great work from [diorama111] in the past, too.
Video after the break. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271811",
"author": "Bill",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T08:49:58",
"content": "I wish my hands were as steady when doing such fine work!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6271825",
"author": "sid1950",
"timestamp": "2020-08-1... | 1,760,373,383.00154 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/restoring-commodores-unloved-plus-4/ | Restoring Commodore’s Unloved Plus/4 | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"commodore",
"commodore plus/4",
"plus/4"
] | The Commodore Plus/4 was not loved by the marketplace after its launch in 1984. Despite its namesake feature of having productivity programs built in, its lack of compatibility with Commodore 64 software and oddball status meant that it struggled to find acceptance. However, like so many retro computers, it maintains a following to this day. [Drygol] had collected a total of eight neglected units,
and set to giving them a full workover
.
First on the docket is cleaning, and [Drygol] makes short work of disassembling the computers and removing decades of dirt and dust. Keycaps are treated with Retrobright to restore their original color. The black styling of the case means it gets a simple wash down instead, and then a rub with thin oil to restore the plastic’s original sheen.
[Drygol] steps through various popular hacks for the platform too, from 6510 CPU replacements for the often-failing 7501 and 8501, to SD2IEC card interfaces to replace the much-maligned storage original storage options. Damaged keyboard studs are replaced with hacked-up Amiga parts, while LEDs that are long out of production are swapped out for cut-down modern parts.
The impressive thing is just how much community support there is for an also-ran Commodore that never truly caught the public’s eye. Efforts are ongoing, too, with projects like
THED
aiming to reproduce some of the custom chips used on the platform.
We’ve featured posts on the engineering that goes into Commodore’s 8-bit computers as well,
like this excellent piece from [Bil Herd] on the story of the Commodore 128.
Of course, if you’re working your own wonders with retro hardware,
you know who to call. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271809",
"author": "IanS",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T07:35:29",
"content": "You need to trim the retrohax link. It causes a suspicious-looking redirection because somebody has copied a Google search result.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,373,383.469724 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/encouragement-machine-battles-your-inner-bully/ | Encouragement Machine Battles Your Inner Bully | Kristina Panos | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"dc motor",
"encouragement",
"servo",
"stepper motor"
] | We would be preaching to the choir if we told you that fear is the action killer when it comes to the challenge of new projects in uncharted territory. Everyone who reads Hackaday knows that it takes mettle to forge through the self-doubt as we push ourselves to new engineering heights.
[JBV Creative] hears the voice, too: the one that says you can’t build that thing, it’s too difficult/useless. He knows that both creativity and anti-creativity stem from the same source — the powerful human mind that dreams up these projects in the first place.
The Encouragement Machine
combines the two in a piece that engineers art from garbage, aka negative thoughts. It works by first acknowledging the most basal of discouraging thoughts — an important step of the process — and then it simply trims away the negativity.
This machine uses a stepper motor to feed receipt paper underneath a custom stamp that says YOU CAN’T DO IT. Then it passes the paper through a pair of servo-driven scissors that snip off the apostrophe-t.
Ironically or not, [JBV Creative] ran into a few issues with this build, but managed to muster up enough moxie to work through the problems without encouraging slips of paper. We have to wonder how much more smoothly the next project will go given all the positivity he now has on-demand.
[JBV] doesn’t delve into the electronics much, but it looks like an Arduino and a motor driver to us. We totally dig the design — it looks like an electrical substation or rocket launch pad that happens to have a Ferris wheel. Step right up and check out the build video after the break.
Generic encouragement is great all-purpose attitude adjuster, but what if you want more specific sentiments?
Here’s an affirmation mirror that will help you believe whatever you program into the scrolling display
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271871",
"author": "RetiredHobgoblin",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T16:40:08",
"content": "How does this solve the cyberbullying epidemic?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,373,383.511025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/dropcontroller-sets-the-bar-for-documentation/ | DropController Sets The Bar For Documentation | Brian McEvoy | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"how-to",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"ble",
"bluetooth",
"Bluetooth 4.0",
"bluetooth LE",
"photography",
"wireless"
] | dropController
has the kind of documentation we wish would spontaneously generate itself whenever we build something. [Martyn Currey] built a robust rig for water droplet photography, and we don’t want to dismiss the hardware, but the most impressive part might be the website. It might not be very fancy, but it’s thorough and logically organized. You can find parts lists, assembly manuals, tutorials, sketches, and schematics. If only all the projects that came our way were so well detailed.
Water droplet photography is pretty cool, although freehanding it will make your patience fall faster than 9.81 m/s². The concept is that a solenoid valve will flicker open to release a drop of water, wait for a certain number of microseconds, and then trigger your DSLR via a wired remote cable. The tricky part comes from controlling as many as six valves and three flashes. We don’t have enough fingers and toes to press all those buttons.
The bill of materials contains many commonly available parts like an Arduino Nano, an LM2596 voltage regulator, some MOSFETS, an HC-06 Bluetooth module, plus standard audio connectors to hook everything up. Nothing should break the bank, but if money is not an issue, [Martyn] sells kits and complete units.
Waterdrop controllers
are not the newest kids on the block, and
strobe photography
is a time-honored tradition.
All pictures credits are to [Martyn Currey]. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271787",
"author": "none",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T03:13:34",
"content": "Error in Line “faster than”: v > a",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271797",
"author": "Vladimir",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T04:54:23",... | 1,760,373,384.035331 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/share-your-clipboard-across-machines-using-mqtt/ | Share Your Clipboard Across Machines Using MQTT | Danie Conradie | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"clipboard",
"copy paste",
"encryption",
"mqtt"
] | Many of us regularly move from one computer to another for work, play, and hacking; every now and then finding yourself wishing you could copy something on one machine and paste on another without additional steps in between. [Ayan Pahwa] was well acquainted with this frustration, so he created
AnywhereDoor
, a cross-platform clipboard sharing utility that uses MQTT.
Some cloud-based solutions already exist to do this, but that means sending your private clipboard data to someone else’s server. Not keen on that idea, [Ayan]’s solution makes use of a MQTT broker that can run anywhere on the local network, and lightweight python clients to run on Mac, Windows and Linux. The client checks your clipboard at specified intervals, and publishes new data to a topic on the broker, to which all the clients are subscribed. The data is end-to-end encrypted using
Fernet
symmetrical key encryption, so the data won’t be readable to anyone else on the network. Currently, AnywhereDoor only supports copying text, but media is planned for a future version.
We like the relative simplicity of the utility, and see it being very handy for hackers bouncing between machines in the lab. Simple software utilities that solve a specific and real problem can are very useful, like a
wiring documentation tool
, or
Kicad to isolation routing patchwork
converter. | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271749",
"author": "beatjunkie",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T20:34:15",
"content": "Supporting anything beside text is a bad idea. The mqtt spec has a maximum message size of approx 260MB. And most public brokers are restricted. Even when using a private broker – sending large message... | 1,760,373,384.186947 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/open-exosuit-project-helps-physically-challenged-put-one-foot-in-front-of-another/ | Open Exosuit Project Helps Physically Challenged Put One Foot In Front Of Another | Mike Szczys | [
"Medical Hacks",
"Robots Hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"assistive device",
"exoskeleton",
"rehabilitation",
"walker",
"walking"
] | Humans make walking look simple, but of course that’s an illusion easily shattered by even small injuries. Losing the ability to walk has an enormous impact on every part of your day, so rehabilitative advances are nothing short of life-changing. The
Open Exosuit for Differently Abled project
is working feverishly on their Hackaday Prize entry to provide a few different layers of help in getting people back on their feet.
We’ve seen a number of exosuit projects in the past, and all of them struggle in a few common places. It’s difficult to incorporate intuitive user control into these builds, and quite important that they stay out of the way of the user’s own balance. This one approaches those issues with the use of a walker that both provides a means of steadying one’s self, and facilitates sending commands to the exosuit. Using the OLED screen and buttons incorporated on the walker, the user can select and control the walking, sitting, and standing modes.
The exoskeleton is meant to provide assistance to people with weakness or lack of control. They still walk and balance for themselves, but the hope is that these devices will be an aid at times when human caregivers are not available and the alternative would be unsteady mobility or complete loss of mobility. Working with the assistive device has the benefit of continuing to make progress in strengthening on the march to recovery.
The team is hard at work on the design, and with less than two weeks left before the entry deadline of the
2020 Hackaday Prize
, we’re excited to see where the final push will bring this project!
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271738",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T19:45:02",
"content": "Walking barefoot in a lab is an invitation to serious injury. Do they want to help people with disabilities or inflict them on themselves?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,384.077434 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/linux-fu-one-at-a-time-please-critical-sections-in-bash-scripts/ | Linux-Fu: One At A Time, Please! Critical Sections In Bash Scripts | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"bash",
"Bash script",
"critical section",
"Flock",
"semaphore",
"shell script",
"singleton"
] | You normally think of a critical section — that is, a piece of a program that excludes other programs from using a resource — as a pretty advanced technique. You certainly don’t often think of them as part of shell scripting but it turns out they are surprisingly useful for certain scripts. Most often, a critical section is protecting some system resource like a shared memory location, but there are cases where a shell script needs similar protection. Luckily, it is really easy to add critical sections to shell scripts, and I’ll show you how.
Sometimes Scripts Need to Be Selfish
One very common case is where you want a script to run exactly one time. If the same script runs again while the original is active, you want to exit after possibly printing a message. Another common case is when you are updating some file and you need undisturbed access while making the change.
That was actually the case that got me thinking about this. I have a script — may be the subject of a future Linux-Fu — that provides dynamic DNS by altering a configuration file for the DNS server. If two copies of the script run at the same time, it is important that only one of them does modifications. The second copy can run after the first is totally complete.
Atomic Files
The problem is one of atomicity. You could, for example, create a temporary file with an obscure name and make sure that the file doesn’t exist. But what if someone else checks at the same time? You both note the file isn’t there and then you both create the file thinking you are running alone. No good.
It turns out files are a possible answer, but the locking of a file using
flock
is the right way to do it. There are two general options here: call
flock
to execute a command for you and it will acquire the lock and release it when the command completes, or you can use
flock
in your own script to protect a block of code.
The Easy Case
The idea behind
flock
is that it will put a lock on a file. The file can be open for reading or writing — it doesn’t really matter. You can get a shared lock or — the default — ask for an exclusive lock. You can only get an exclusive lock if there are no other locks on the file.
What file do you use? It depends. For a script, sometimes it is worth using the script file itself as the lock. That certainly makes it unambiguous although if someone copies the script to a new name, lookout. Another answer is to use a temporary file. Most systems will have
/var/lock
directory for just this purpose.
Consider a case where you have a script that works with a file. One option to the script deletes the file, but you don’t want to do that if another instance of the file is using it at the time. You might do something like this:
flock "$0" rm "$SHAREDFILE"
This gets an exclusive lock. Other parts of the script might look like this:
flock -s "$0" awk -f script.awk "$SHAREDFILE"
The -s means the lock is shared, so anyone else asking for a shared lock will get it, but the exclusive lock for the rm will block until the file — which in this case is the shell script itself — is unlocked.
Unblocking
Of course, sometimes you don’t want to wait forever. You can use the -n option to tell
flock
to not block. Or use -w to wait for a specified number of seconds (which does not have to be an integer). By default, if the lock doesn’t work,
flock
will return a 1, but you can change that by using -E to select a different code since the command you run may also return a 1 for some reason.
Critical Section Blocks
Sometimes you don’t want to run a single command. You want to lock up an entire portion of a script. You can do that, too. The
flock
command can take a numeric file descriptor. The file can be open for reading or writing, but it must exist. If you use the script file, that’s a sure bet that it exists, of course.
You can use all the same options for blocking and time outs and you have to open up a file descriptor using bash constructs. There are several ways to do that — and I’ve made
a repo of examples
which I’ll reference below — but I usually just use a redirect in a subshell. You can also use
exec
to get the same effect.
Have a look at
this script
. It is a bit contrived, but it prepares a log file and then calls itself twice to create two different entries in that log file. There’s no critical section protecting the log, so you’ll see after the script completes how the output from both subprocesses mix together.
You can use the easy method by just having
flock
lock the script file before calling the subprocesses. That’s the approach in cs.sh that you can
see here
. However, in a script like this it is usually more effective to use the block with a numeric file handle. Here’s the
same example using that style of
flock
. The subprocesses look like this:
( flock 99
echo Here is a log entry from A along with a directory of /etc >>"$LOGFILE"
ls /etc >>"$LOGFILE"
echo That is all from A >>"$LOGFILE" ) 99<"$LOCKFILE"
exit 0
Of course, this is a silly example. It would be just as easy in this case to run process A, wait for it to complete, and then run process B. But that’s not always the case and in a complex script, you may have work that both processes can execute in parallel, only waiting for specific critical sections. In that case, running the processes in series would be less efficient.
Singleton
A very common use case for the critical section block is to stop a script from running more that one instance at any given time.
#!/bin/bash
LOCKFILE="$0"
( if flock -n 99
then
echo Running task
sleep 20
echo Done
exit 0
else
echo You can only run one copy of this script at a time!
exit 1
fi ) 99<$LOCKFILE"
This pattern is useful if you have a program that you plan to run periodically using something like cron. You might run it every minute, but — on occasion — the program might take more than a minute to complete. A flock barrier can prevent a large number of copies from running all at once.
In all of these cases, the file closing automatically releases the lock, so you don’t have to explicitly let go of the lock. If you ever do need to release it early, the -u option is your friend.
A Few Notes
Turns out
flock
isn’t part of the POSIX standard, but it is pretty common. Before Linux kernel 2.6. 12,
flock
didn’t work correctly over NFS, either. If you use /var/lock or /tmp, those are very unlikely to be NFS mounted, anyway. If, for some reason, you are on a system without
flock
, mkdir is not assured to be atomic, but it usually is, so that could be another option since it also returns a status if it created a directory or not.
This locking technique is one of those things you won’t need every day. But when you do need it, it is invaluable.
The opposite of running things one at a time is
running them in parallel
. You normally don’t need to unlock a lock file, since
flock
takes care of that when the file closes, but if you want to be super defensive, maybe consider cleaning up anything that needs cleaning using
a trap
. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271709",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T18:11:42",
"content": "If the system crashes with open locks, will they need to be deleted, or do they just go away?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271721",
"author":... | 1,760,373,384.600079 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/new-contest-circuit-sculpture-challenge/ | New Contest: Circuit Sculpture Challenge | Mike Szczys | [
"contests"
] | [
"Circuit Sculpture",
"contest"
] | We’re bringing back one of our most popular contests, the
Hackaday Circuit Sculpture Challenge
! Make your functional circuits go beyond utility by turning them into art!
Solar-powered circuit sculpture
by [Mohit Bhoite] which was featured last year.
Wire and circuit boards are a fantastic media for creating beautiful projects, and for this one we want both the copper and the boards (or lack of) to be part of the beauty. Your sculpture could be crisp and angular bends in brass rod, a rat’s nest of enamel wire, PCBs with organic shapes, or something completely wild. Your only constraint is that there needs to be some type of working circuit involved.
Three entries will be chosen as top winners in the Most Functional, Most Beautiful, and Best Video categories and be awarded $200 in components from Digi-Key who are sponsoring this contest and also putting together a calendar with images of the top twelve sculptures.
The
Wonderlandscape
by [Michael Aichlmayr]
takes the “sculpture” part of Circuit Sculpture to new levels.
Tell us the story of your creation, including a deep dive into how you built the sculpture and what trial and error you went through to pull it off. Many circuit sculptures in the past have included jig-building to get the wire bends just right, so we have a fourth prize of $100 in Tindie credit for the Best Jig build.
Get your project started now on Hackaday.io and use that “Submit Project To:” button in the left sidebar of your project page to enter it in the
Circuit Sculpture Challenge
. You have until November 10th to submit your entry. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,383.996048 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/get-your-sql-statements-right-the-first-time-with-sql-lint/ | Get Your SQL Statements Right The First Time With SQL Lint | Sven Gregori | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"code analysis",
"lint",
"mysql",
"postgres",
"sql"
] | What’s your average success rate of getting a SQL statement right on the first try? In best case, you botched a simple statement without side effects and just have to try again with correct syntax or remove that typo from a table name, but things can easily go wrong fast here. But don’t worry, the days of fixing it on the fly can be over, thanks to [Joe Reynolds] who wrote
a linter for SQL
.
A linter parses code to tell you where you screwed up. While checking SQL syntax itself is somewhat straightforward, [Joe]’s
sql-lint
tool will also check the semantics of it by looking up the actual database and performing sanity checks on it. Currently supporting PostgreSQL and MySQL, it can be either run on a single SQL file or a directory of files, or take input directly from the command line. Even better, it also integrates within your editor of choice — assuming it supports external plugins — and
the documentation
shows how to do that
specifically for Vim
.
If you can look past the fact that it’s written in TypeScript and consequentially results in a rather large executable (
~40 MB
), it might serve as an interesting starting point for the language itself, or adds a new perspective on writing
this type of analyzer
. And if databases aren’t your terrain,
how about shell scripts
?
Example use of sql-lint | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271693",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T16:46:28",
"content": "Those databases are tiny toys for little boys and are utterly incapable of handling serious loads without falling over. Look to the Gartner Group or KLAS findings on enterprise SQL for real solutions that will... | 1,760,373,384.239563 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/inputs-of-interest-the-infogrip-bat-chording-keyboard/ | Inputs Of Interest: The Infogrip BAT Chording Keyboard | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"assistive device",
"assistive technology",
"Cherry MX black",
"chording keyboard",
"EVA foam",
"shock absorber"
] | I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that by researching weird and interesting keyboards, I would uncover more weird and interesting keyboards. This is the BAT personal keyboard by Infogrip, and it’s something I came across while researching
the DataHand keyboard
and mentally filed away as something cool to look into.
When I came across a used BAT for a reasonable price, I snagged it, even though it didn’t come with any of the manuals or software, not even a cord. Like I said, reasonable price. I looked these keyboards up and found out that you can buy them new for a lot more than what I paid.
My gently used BAT in all its angular glory.
The lowercase letter chords use either the middle thumb key or no thumb key. Image via
Infogrip
So what is this thing? It’s a chording keyboard that’s meant to be used a standard PC input device by anyone who either can’t use a regular keyboard or has a need for speed.
Years of research went into the BAT’s chording scheme, which was developed in conjunction with NASA’s Stennis Space Center
.
Instead of stretching your fingers all over a regular keyboard, poking keys one at a time to spell out words, you press combinations of keys simultaneously, like playing chords on a piano.
You’re meant to use your thumb for the red, grey, and blue keys, and lay the other four on the rest of the keys. All of the alphabet keys are chorded with or without the gray thumb key, and all the number, symbol, and modifier keys are accessed through the red and blue layers.
Why would you want one of these? Well, given enough time to learn the chords, you can do anything a standard 104+ keyboard can do with only seven keys. You would never need to look down, not even for those weird seldom-used keys, and the only finger that ever travels is your thumb. All of this reduced hand/finger/wrist travel is going to be easier on the body.
The BAT lets you CAD like a madlad. Via
Bill Buxton
The BAT is also part programmable macro pad, and from what I can gather, the main selling point was that you could quickly input shortcuts in CAD programs and the like, because you could keep one hand on the mouse.
The BAT came in both left- and right-handed versions that can be used either alone or together. Imagine how fast you could type if you chorded everything
and
split the typing duties between both hands! The only trouble is learning all those different finger combinations, although they say it doesn’t take that long.
So why is it called the BAT? Legend has it that it’s because company started out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but also because
a pair of BATs sitting next to each other resembles a bat
(PDF).
Connector Inspector
This version of the BAT seems to be from the middle of the availability timeline — the late 1990s. It has an AT port and 5-pin mini DIN, which I originally mistook for PS/2 from the seller’s pictures. Whoops!
At least all three of the cords are beige.
The first thing I did was email the company about a replacement cord. I thought these keyboards were still being made, because they have new ones that look very much like this one, but come in black and use USB. I got an email back from a rep who told me Infogrip went out of business, and that their company is selling off the new old stock until it runs out.
I started my initial cord searches with the mini DIN side, and my thinking was simply that it’s newer technology. Yes, but it turns out that mini DIN cords are kind of uncommon and difficult to find — at least cords that terminate in something I can use on the other end.
The BAT started out with an RS-232 serial port, then moved to this AT/5-pin mini DIN version that I have, and then to USB-Boxy sometime in the early 2000s. I gave up on searching for a mini DIN when I found a cheap AT to PS/2 converter and equally inexpensive PS/2 cable to use with one of those PS/2 to USB cables that you couldn’t swing a ball mouse without hitting in the early 2000s. It seems to work, at least partially. My system recognizes it and declares it ready to use. I can get all the LEDs to light up, but none of the chords I try will produce output in any text editor I’ve tried. I might have better luck if I can find an AT to PS/2 cord.
Tour and Teardown
It’s difficult to give a fair assessment about a device without using it for a while. So far, I haven’t been able to do that. But outwardly, the BAT feels like it was designed for the best possible user experience.
The BAT’s keys take very little actuating force because of the springs. Image via
Deskthority
The point of a keyboard like this is that you should never have to look down at your hand(s). To help with that, both of the red and blue thumb keys have homing bumps, and the gray one doesn’t.
All the keycaps seem to be mounted backwards, as in 180° from normal — and based on the pictures I’ve found, this is how Infogrip intended them to be. This way, the keys have a really low profile and are easier to actuate. The pinky key is taller than the rest to account for how short and weak pinkies tend to be. And underneath each keycap, there are three layers of 1/8″ thick foam to absorb the shock of typing.
The BAT’s keyswitches are Cherry MX blacks that have been modified with exceptionally light springs that make them take even less force to actuate than reds. I can’t fathom how they could have made this keyboard any easier or more comfortable to type on, unless maybe the wrist rest was gel instead of foam, or it had adjustable tenting to change the typing angle.
I don’t understand why it has a coin cell, especially considering
this troubleshooting blog post from Infogrip that suggests removing the battery altogether because “you don’t need it and it can cause problems”
. Does anyone know or care to speculate? I did try this, along with the hard reset sequence, but it still behaves the same way.
Will This Become My New Favorite Input Device?
I’m going to try to get this keyboard to work as it’s supposed to. But if that doesn’t happen, I think it would make a fantastic macro pad, especially if I come up with my own scheme for chorded shortcuts. And there’s plenty of room in the case to design a board that fits the keyswitch footprint.
Since my hand is small, there might be enough room for a trackball just below the thumb keys, and some mouse buttons and a scroll wheel under the other keys. I’m in the middle of designing
a 5-key macro pad
that will sit right in front of my trackball mouse, but the idea of combining a trackball mouse and a macro pad into a track-ro is tempting. We’ll see how it goes. | 29 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271671",
"author": "Modem Junki",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T14:45:34",
"content": "Chording can be an incredibly fast input method. Stenographers do this and it’s impressive to see an accurate steno transcription happen in real time.You should check out a used Stenograph machine if ... | 1,760,373,384.546378 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/e3d-teaches-additive-machines-how-to-subtract/ | E3D Teaches Additive 3D-Printers How To Subtract | Sonya Vasquez | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"News"
] | [
"3d printing",
"asmbl",
"E3D",
"E3D-Online",
"near-net-shape manufacturing",
"toolchanger"
] | We might’ve thought that extrusion based 3D printers have hit their peak in performance capabilities. With the remaining process variables being tricky to model and control, there’s only so much we can expect on dimensional accuracy from extruded plastic processes. But what if we mixed machines, adding a second machining process to give the resulting part a machined quality finish? That’s exactly what the folks at E3D have been cooking up over the last few years: a toolchanging workflow that
mixes milling and 3D printing into the same process
to produce buttery smooth part finishes with tighter dimensional accuracy over merely 3D printing alone.
Dubbed ASMBL (Additive/Subtractive Machining By Layer), the process is actually the merging of two complimentary processes combined into one workflow to produce a single part. Here, vanilla 3D printing does the work of producing the part’s overall shape. But at the end of every layer, an endmill enters the workspace and trims down the imperfections of the perimeter with a light finishing pass while local suction pulls away the debris. This concept of mixing og coarse and fine manufacturing processes to produce parts quickly is a re-imagining of a tried-and-true industrial process called
near-net-shape manufacturing.
However, unlike the industrial process, which happens across separate machines on a large manufacturing facility, E3D’s ASMBL takes place in a single machine that can change tools automatically. The result is that you can kick off a process and then wander back a few hours (and a few hundred tool changes) later to a finished part with machined tolerances.
What are the benefits of such an odd complimentary concoction, you might ask? Well, for one, truly sharp outer corners, something that’s been evading 3D printer enthusiasts for years, are now possible. Layer lines on vertical surfaces all but disappear, and the dimensional tolerances of holes increases as the accuracy of the process is more tightly controlled (or cleaned up!) yielding parts that are more dimensionally accurate… in theory.
But there are certainly more avenues to explore with this mixed process setup, and that’s where you come in. ASMBL is still early in development, but E3D has taken generous steps to let you build on top of their work by posting their
Fusion 360 CAM plugin
, the
bill-of-materials and model files for their milling tool
, and even the STEP files for their
toolchanging motion system
online. Pushing for a future where 3d printers produce the finer details might just be a matter of participating.
It’s exciting to see the community of 3D printer designers continue to rethink the capabilities of its own infrastructure when folks start pushing the bounds beyond pushing plastic. From
homebrew headchanging solutions
that open opportunity by lowering the price point, to
optical calibration software
that makes machines smarter, to
breakaway Sharpie-assisted support material
, there’s no shortage of new ideas to play with in an ecosystem of mixed tools and processes.
Have a look at ASMBL at
2:29
in their preview after the break. | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271640",
"author": "Alfie",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T11:05:34",
"content": "Damn, id love to buy another 3d printer id never use.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271692",
"author": "jake",
"timestamp": "2020-... | 1,760,373,384.463124 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/18/robots-with-a-delicate-touch-assemble-playstation-4/ | Robots With A Delicate Touch Assemble PlayStation 4 | Roger Cheng | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"assembly line",
"playstation 4",
"robot",
"robot actuator",
"robot arm",
"sony"
] | Sony’s video game division is gearing up for their upcoming PlayStation 5, pushing its predecessor PlayStation 4 off the spotlit pedestal. One effect of this change is Sony ever so slightly relaxing secrecy surrounding the PS4, allowing [Nikkei Asian Review]
inside a PlayStation 4 final assembly line
.
This article was written to support Sony and PlayStation branding for a general audience, thus technical details are few and far in between. This shouldn’t be a huge surprise given how details of mass production can be a competitive advantage and usually kept as trade secrets by people who knew to keep their mouths shut. Even so, we get a few interesting details accompanied by many quality pictures. Giving us a glimpse into an area that was formerly off-limits to many Sony employees never mind external cameras.
The quoted engineers are proud of their success coaxing robots to assemble soft and flexible objects, and rightly so. Generally speaking robots have a hard time handling non-rigid objects, but this team has found ways to let their robots handle the trickier parts of PS4 assembly. Pick up wiring bundles and flat ribbon cables, then plug them into circuit board connectors with appropriate force. Today’s automated process is the result of a lot of engineers continually evolving and refining the system. The assembly machines are covered with signs of those minds at work. From sharpie markers designating positive and negative travel directions for an axis, to reminders written on Post-It notes, to assembly jig parts showing the distinct layer lines of 3D printing.
We love seeing the result of all that hard work, but lament the many interesting stories still untold. We would have loved a video showing the robots in action. For that, the record holder is still Valve who provided
an awesome look at the assembly of the Steam Controller
that included a timelapse of the assembly line itself being assembled. If you missed that the first time, around, go watch it right now!
At least we know how to start with the foundations: everything we see on this PS4 assembly line is bolted to an aluminum extrusion big or small. These building blocks are useful whether we are building a personal project or a video console final assembly line, so we’ve looked into
how they are made
and how to
combine them with 3D printing
for ultimate versatility.
[via
Adafruit
] | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271630",
"author": "Gregg Eshelman",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T09:39:21",
"content": "Something was loose in the motherboard rack photo. Apparently the screw wouldn’t tighten further so someone put a washer under it and a paperclip to take up the slack. Another picture shows some so... | 1,760,373,384.131538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/fitting-snake-into-a-qr-code/ | Fitting Snake Into A QR Code | Danie Conradie | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"executable",
"qr code",
"snake",
"windows"
] | QR codes are usually associated with ASCII text like URLs or serial numbers, but did you know you can also encode binary data into them? To demonstrate this concept, [MattKC] embarked on a journey to create a
QR code that holds an executable version of Snake
. Video after the break.
As you might expect, the
version 40 QR code
he ended up using is much larger than the ones you normally see. Consisting of a 171 by 171 grid, it’s the largest version that can still be read by most software. This gave [MattKC] a whopping 2,953 bytes to work with. Not a lot of space, but still bigger than some classic video games of the past.
To start, he first wrote Snake to run in a web browser using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which was able to fit in the available space. Modern browsers do a lot of the lifting with built-in features, and [MattKC] wanted more of a challenge, so he decided to instead create a Windows executable file. His first attempts with compiled C code were too large, which led down the rabbit trail of x86 Assembly. Here he found that his knowledge of Assembly was too limited to create a small enough program without investing months into the project. He went back to C and managed to compress his executable using
Crinkler
, a compressing linker commonly used in the demoscene. This shrunk the file down to 1,478 bytes.
Zbar
, a command-line barcode reader for Windows was used to test the final Snake QR code. [MattKC] discovered a bug in Zbarcam that prevented it from reading binary data via a webcam input, so through the power of open source, he submitted a bug fix which is now integrated into the official release.
All the files are available for anyone to play with on
[MattKC]’s website
. The video below goes into a lot of detail on the entire journey. Since this project proves software can be embedded in QR codes, it means that malware could also be hidden in a QR code, if there is an exploitable bug somewhere in a smartphone QR reader app.
QR codes are an interesting tool with a variety of uses. Take a deep dive into
how they work
, generate a
3D printable version
, or build a
QR jukebox
, if you want to learn more. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271612",
"author": "Steven",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T06:57:34",
"content": "It can’t be long until someone does this with Doom.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271638",
"author": "jakershaker13",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,373,384.396461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/simple-mp3-player-hides-home-automation-brilliance/ | Simple MP3 Player Hides Home Automation Brilliance | Bryan Cockfield | [
"digital audio hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"children",
"home automation",
"jooki",
"mp3 player",
"mqtt",
"openhab",
"repurpose"
] | Like bubble wrap or the corkscrew, plenty of everyday objects have lost almost all ties to their original purpose. It could be that the original product had no market but was able to find one in an unexpected place, or simply that the original use case disappeared. We think that this
MP3 player for children might arrive at a similar fate as a home automation controller
thanks to a recent project by [Sebastian].
The MP3 player is known as a Jooki and works by using small figurines (and a few buttons) to control the device. Different figurines cause the MP3 player to change playlists, for example, but it turns out that the device is capable of communicating over
MQTT
. This means that [Sebastian] was able to use the MQTT messages from the Jooki to do all kinds of things beyond its intended use with openHAB,
an open-source home automation system
, such as dimming the lights and closing the blinds when he puts his son to bed.
This platform has considerable potential for hacking thanks to the lightweight communications system it uses under the hood. The Jooki is a little pricey, but if you happen to have one around, it’s an impressive tool that can go well beyond its original intended use. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271582",
"author": "Josh",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T02:11:46",
"content": "What’s this about bubble wrap and corkscrews?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271585",
"author": "thomastechguy",
"timestamp": "2020-... | 1,760,373,384.641742 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/ibm-reveals-power10-cpu-based-on-the-openpower-isa-3-1-specification/ | IBM Reveals POWER10 CPU Based On The OpenPOWER ISA 3.1 Specification | Maya Posch | [
"News"
] | [
"chiselwatt",
"ibm",
"microwatt",
"power",
"Power ISA",
"softcore"
] | This week, IBM
revealed
their
POWER10
CPU, which may not seem too exciting since it’s primarily aimed at big iron like mainframes and servers. The real news for most is that it is the first processor to be released that is based on the open
Power ISA
specification v3.1. This new version of the Power ISA adds a number of new instructions as well as the notion of optionality. It updates the v3.0 specification that was released in 2015, right after the founding of the
OpenPOWER Foundation
.
Currently, a number of open source designs for the Power ISA exists, including
MicroWatt
(Power v3.0, VHDL) and the similar ChiselWatt (written in Scala-based Chisel). In June of this year, IBM also released the VHDL code for the
IBM A2
processor on
Github
. This is a multi-core capable, 4-way multithreaded 64-bit design, with silicon-implementations running at up to 2.3 GHz and using the Power ISA v2.06 specification.
The ISA specifications and other relevant technical documentation can be obtained from the
OpenPOWER
website, such as for example the
Power ISA v3.0B specification
from 2017. The website also lists the
current cores and communities
around the Power ISA.
(Main image: POWER10 CPU, credit IBM) | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271977",
"author": "Bruce Perens K6BP",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T23:22:05",
"content": "Forgive me for not figuring this out by myself. There are so many projects, and so little Bruce. Why would I be interested in this rather than RISC-V?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,384.778926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/re-imagining-the-crossed-gantry-3d-printer/ | Re-imagining The Crossed Gantry 3D Printer | Sonya Vasquez | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"croxy",
"k2"
] | Simply having a few go-to 3D printer motion system designs is no reason to stop exploring them, as even small iterations on an existing architecture can yield some tremendous improvements. In the last few months, both [
Annex_Engineering
] and [
wesc23
] have been piloting a rail-derived crossed gantry architecture, a “CroXY” as it’s come to be known. Borrowing concepts from Ultimaker’s crossed gantry using rods, the Hypercube Overkill project, and perhaps even each other, the results are two compact machine frames capable of beautiful prints at extremely high speeds–upwards of 400 mm/sec in [Annex_Engineering’s] case!
Both gantry designs take a rotated MGN12 rail (a la the
Railcore
) and cross two of them, mounting the carriage at the intersection point much like an Ultimaker. Each crossed rail controls a degree of freedom with vanilla Cartesian kinematics, but each degree of freedom also has a redundant motor for added torque. Like the
CoreXY
design, this setup is tailored for clean prints at high speeds since the motion-related motors have been removed from the moving mass. However the overall belt length has been reduced tremendously, resulting in a much stiffer setup.
But the innovation doesn’t stop there. Both gantries also feature a unique take on a removable Z probe. When the machine needs to level the bed, it travels to a corner to “quickdraw” a magnetically attached limit switch from a holster. Once mounted, this probe becomes the lowest point on the carriage, allowing the carriage to travel around the bed probing points. When finished, the probe simply slots back into its holster, and the print can begin.
Both [wesc23’s]
CroXY
and a variant of [Annex_Engineering’s]
K2
are up on Github complete with bills of materials if you’re curious to poke into the finer details. With commercial 3D printer manufacturers spending the last few years in a race to the bottom, it’s exciting to still see new design pattern contributions that push for quality and performance. For more design patterns contributions, have a look at [Mark Rehorst’s]
Kinematically coupled bed design
. | 36 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271937",
"author": "R",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T20:39:44",
"content": "There’s a LOT of ghosting in that part. The rails have a lot of flex in the orientation that they’re used in. Simply turning them 90 degrees to a horizontal rather than vertical orientation would increase rigid... | 1,760,373,384.716677 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/building-the-ultimate-raspberry-pi-automation-controller/ | Building The Ultimate Raspberry Pi Automation Controller | Tom Nardi | [
"green hacks",
"Raspberry Pi",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"automation",
"Raspberry Pi Zero W",
"solar"
] | At this point, we’ve lost count of how many automation projects we’ve seen with some variant of a Raspberry Pi at the helm. Which is hardly surprising, as the boards are cheap, powerful, and well documented. The list of reasons
not
to use one has never been very long,
but with the PiCon One that [Frank] has been working on
, it’s about to get even shorter.
The project takes the form of an IP65 industrial enclosure and support electronics that the Raspberry Pi Zero W plugs into. While expandable in nature, [Frank] has a core set of features he’s aiming for as a baseline such as additional serial ports, integrated uninterruptible power supply, a battery-backed Real Time Clock (RTC), an array of programmable status LEDs, and support for XBee and GPS plug-in modules. Feedback is provided through a pair of four digit seven-segment displays and a color 320×480 TFT screen running a custom user interface.
[Frank] envisions the PiCon One for use as a rugged solar power controller, eventually able to measure array output, energy consumption, and even operate motorized mounts to keep the panels pointed at the sun. To that end, he’s recently been experimenting with running
JPL’s Horizon software
on the Pi to determine the sun’s position in real-time. But the device is capable of so much more, and would make an ideal controller for many home and potentially even industrial applications.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 34 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271907",
"author": "Jay Cop",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T19:11:26",
"content": "The GPS is a smart idea. It would help me find my house in case it gets stolen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271931",
"author": "fizzym... | 1,760,373,385.292802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/how-to-get-into-cars-aero-mods-for-more-grip/ | How To Get Into Cars: Aero Mods For More Grip | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"aero",
"aerodynamics",
"car",
"car hacks",
"cars"
] | In 1960, Enzo Ferrari said “Aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines”. It’s a quote that’s been proven laughably wrong in decades since. Aerodynamics are a key consideration for anyone serious about performance in almost any branch of motorsport. Today, we’ll take a look at how aero influences the performance of your car, and what modifications you might undertake to improve things.
Gains To Be Had
Improving the aerodynamics of your vehicle can mean wildly different things, depending on what your end goal is. Aerodynamics affects everything from top speed, to fuel economy, to grip, and optimizing for these different attributes can take wildly different routes. Often, it’s necessary to find a balance between several competing factors, as improvements in one area can often be detrimental in another.
To understand aerodynamics with regards to cars, we need to know about the forces of lift (or downforce), and drag. Drag is the force that acts against the direction of motion, slowing a vehicle down. Lift is the force generated perpendicular to the direction of motion. In the context of flight, the lift force is generated upwards with respect to gravity, lofting planes into the air. In an automotive context, we very much prefer to stay on the ground. Wings and aerodynamic surfaces on cars are created to create lift in the opposite direction, pushing the vehicle downwards and creating more grip. We refer to this “downwards lift” as downforce.
Drag consists of several components, and can quickly become very complex. However, a simplified understanding of the different types of drag is enough to make basic improvements to a vehicle. The most obvious element is the cross-section of an object moving through flow. The general shape of a vehicle has the biggest effect here. A vehicle like a bus, which has a nearly-flat rectangular cross section, will have a lot of form drag. Conversely, slimmer, more streamlined shapes have less. There’s also lift-induced drag to consider, which is drag created by surfaces which generate lift, or in this case, downforce. For this reason, Formula 1 cars and other vehicles that generate a lot of downforce experience this type of drag. There’s also skin-friction drag, generated as air moves along the body of the car. Typically this is not a major concern when exploring vehicle aerodynamics, however it’s worth noting that washing the bugs off your car will generally reduce this component of drag.
It’s also important to remember that aerodynamic forces are proportional to velocity
squared.
This means that as speed doubles, the aerodynamic forces of downforce and drag are quadrupled. Aerodynamic modifications to your car have the most effect at high speeds. This means that if your primary motorsport activity is parking lot autocross under 60 MPH, you won’t find much gain from aerodynamics. If instead your main pursuit is high-speed track work with many corners over 150 MPH, you could shave seconds off of your lap times with the right setup.
Thus, improving your vehicle’s aerodynamics is about manipulating the forces of downforce and drag. Application is key here. If you’re looking for ultimate fuel economy, minimizing drag is a must while downforce is unimportant. Conversely, if you’re creating a time-attack car, you’ll need as much downforce as you can get to maintain high cornering speeds. With the lift-induced drag being a necessary trade-off, as you’ll overcome that with sheer horsepower. A salt-flats land speed racer will also aim to reduce drag to a minimum, while likely wishing to maintain just a touch of downforce to keep the wheels on the ground past the 200 MPH mark.
Like any engineering discipline, it’s all about making carefully considered trade-offs to get the best possible performance. For this article, we’re interested on mods to generate more grip, helping keep a track-focused car glued to the tarmac.
More Downforce Please, And Don’t Skimp On The Down
You’re building a track car, aiming to carve the corners and leave your competitors in the dust. You’ve already got sticky tires and top-notch dampers – you now need to make the air work for you. These mods will help you in your quest to cut that lap time to smithereens.
Rear Wing
Most GT Wings are made of carbon fibre for its high strength and light weight. Adjustment is usually achieved with Allan keys.
A great way to get the authentic race car look and increase downforce, a big wing on the back of your car is a common aero mod among serious track fiends. Stick-on ducktails can have some minor effects, but for real gains, you’ll want a GT-style wing.
These should come with adjustments, allowing the angle of attack to be changed; thus varying the amount of downforce generated. This is an important aspect of tuning, both to avoid excessive drag, as well as getting the aero balance right. Too much rear downforce can lead to understeer in high-speed corner, as the wing pressing down on the rear reduces traction at the front of the car.
Mounting the wing in the right place is important too, with different set ups better suited to different cars. The wing needs clear airflow, and to be able to transfer the downforce to the body of the car effectively. Attaching the wing securely is a must – if it falls off on track, you’ll be in big trouble.
Front Splitter
This rather extreme front splitter is fitted to a time attack car. Note the rods, which can be changed in length to alter the angle of attack. This allows the amount of downforce generated to be tuned to suit the car and track.
A front splitter is a common modification, essentially acting in the same way as a rear wing, just on the front. Due to packaging constraints and the need to see out of the front windshield, they tend to look a little different, and are mounted at the bottom of the front bumper.
Front splitters come in a huge range of designs, from mild to wild. They can be as simple as a molded lip that helps guide the airflow smoothly under the front of a car, to a giant carbon fiber wing with adjusters and many layers of strakes and winglets to get the ultimate downforce.
For the street driver, the former is common as both an aero mod and a styling choice. The latter is generally limited to all-out time attack builds, with the average track rat falling somewhere in between. These devices can make a huge difference to front-end grip at speed, as they help press the steering wheels into the road.
Undertrays and Diffusers
A front undertray can help by reducing turbulence and thus drag under the car.
A less obvious way to nonetheless have a major effect on a vehicle’s aerodynamics is to look underneath. By carefully managing the airflow in this area, it’s possible to create a large amount of downforce.
Not just limited to purpose-built single seaters, it’s possible to make improvements to even mass-produced street cars if one is adventurous enough with sheet metal and carbon fiber. Typically, the goal in this case is to smooth the flow under the hood area, allowing the front splitter to work better, before the flow reaches a diffuser in the rear. A diffuser helps create downforce by slowing down the flow under the car by allowing it to expand, creating a low pressure zone which sucks the car onto the track.
Undertrays are available for many popular sports cars. They can also be easily manufactured out of sheet metal for those eager to build their own. It’s generally hard to go wrong, with a flat undertray being better than none at all. The key is to make something easily removable for service, and not blocking off necessary flow for cooling purposes at the front of the car.
Diffusers are somewhat more complex, requiring some calculation and forethought in their design. It’s also important to either avoid placing components too near hot exhaust pipes, or to use materials that can withstand the heat. Due to their complexity and expense, they’re generally something used by the more hardcore racer rather than those just starting out.
Consider The System As A Whole
Unlike a more powerful engine or stickier tires, aerodynamic parts aren’t always a simple drop-in solution for speed. Often, it’s important to consider the vehicle as a whole when making changes to aerodynamics. For the amateur, aero mods are something best approached once one is familiar with the performance of their car on track. For example, if the car is squirrelly under brakes at the end of a fast straight, a front splitter may help. If you’re noticing a lot of understeer in high-speed corners since you fitted the new rear wing, dialing it down a couple notches might help. Considering how the parts will work with the car as a whole is key to getting the most of out any modifications made!
While this article won’t help the experienced track nut shave seconds off at Willow Springs, it should serve as a guide to the neophyte as to how various common aerodynamic mods affect performance. Knowing how and where to spend your money is a major part of building a fast car, and this series aims to help you on that quest. Good luck, and happy wrenching! | 32 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271877",
"author": "abjq",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T17:25:24",
"content": "What about side skirts -very effective in F1 before being banned. We have no such rules on our own cars – bring on the skirts. Also you ought to mention active wings, we are hackers, with servos, after all."... | 1,760,373,385.597607 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/automating-mini-blinds-the-rental-friendly-way/ | Automating Mini Blinds The Rental-Friendly Way | Donald Papp | [
"home hacks",
"how-to"
] | [
"28BYJ",
"3d printed",
"automation",
"blinds",
"ESP8266",
"esphome",
"home assist",
"motor mount"
] | [Chris Mullins] wanted to automate opening and closing the slats of mini blinds in his apartment, and came up with a system to do it as a fun project. Manually opening and closing the slats means twisting a rod. Seems straightforward to automate that, but as usual when having to work around something that already exists, making no permanent alterations, complications arose.
The blinds are only 1 inch wide, leaving little room for mounting any sort of hardware. While there is a lot of prior art when it comes to automating blinds, nothing he found actually fit the situation [Chris] had,
so he rolled his own
.
The rod that is normally twisted to control the blinds is removed, and the shaft of a stepper motor takes its place. [Chris]’ mounting solution is made to fit blinds with narrow 1 inch tracks (existing projects he found relied on 2 inch tracks) and the 3D printed mount is fully adjustable, so the 28BYJ stepper motor can be moved into exactly the right position. Speaking of the stepper motor, the 28BYJ motor is unipolar but the A4988 driver he wanted to use is for bipolar steppers only. Luckily, cutting a trace on the motor’s PCB is all it takes to turn a unipolar motor into bipolar.
To drive the motor and provide wireless functionality, the whole thing works with a Wemos D1 ESP8266, an A4988 stepper driver, and a buck converter. While it worked fine as a one-off on a perfboard, [Chris] used the project as an opportunity to learn how to make a PCB using KiCad; the PCB project is
here on GitHub
and the ESP8266 runs the
ESPHome
firmware. Be sure to check out
the project page on his blog
for all the details; [Chris] links to all the resources there, and covers everything from a bill of materials to walking through configuration of ESPHome with integration into the open-source
Home Assistant
project.
Looking to control natural light but blinds aren’t your thing? Maybe consider
automated curtains
. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271854",
"author": "RandyKC",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T15:46:13",
"content": "Another thought, could you have lengthened the rod and mounted the stepper on the window sill? Less twisty and the extra weight on the blind bracket is removed",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,373,385.212474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/airlines-seek-storage-for-grounded-fleets-due-to-covid-19/ | Airlines Seek Storage For Grounded Fleets Due To COVID-19 | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Slider"
] | [
"air travel",
"airline",
"airliner",
"airlines",
"airplane",
"commercial air travel"
] | Ask any airline executive what their plans were back in January 2020, and you’d probably get the expected spiel about growing market share and improving returns for shareholders. Of course, the coronovirus pandemic quickly changed all that in the space of just a few months. Borders closed, and worldwide air travel ground to a halt.
Suddenly, the world’s airlines had thousands of planes and quite literally nowhere to go. Obviously, leaving the planes just sitting around in the open wouldn’t do them any good. So what exactly is involved in mothballing a modern airliner?
Location, Location, Location
Airplanes parked at Southern California Logistics Airport near Victorville [via
Google Maps Satellite View
]
The first thing required to park a modern airliner is space. Airports have limited room to store aircraft, as they’re primarily designed for constant flights in and out rather than extended stays. Instead, dedicated facilities are used to store airliners that are taking a sabbatical from the flight line. The most sought after places are in cool, dry climates, where the ambient conditions take a minimal toll on the aircraft’s materials and systems. High humidity can speed the corrosion of parts, and also aid fungal and microbial growth in aircraft interiors and fuel tanks. High temperatures also cause rubber parts to perish quicker, and the UV light can damage interiors if not managed correctly.
Popular locations in the US include Victorville in California and facilities in Arizona
, where conditions are favorable. Similar facilities run overseas, with European airlines looking towards Spain and Australian airlines storing some aircraft in the dry climate of Alice Springs. Often, if cool and dry isn’t on the table, hot and dry is a good second-best option. As important as the location is the presence of skilled maintenance staff to carry out the work.
Many airlines prefer to store their planes in locations where they can rely on their own engineering crews to look after their precious assets
.
Parking Vs. Storage
When an airline decides a plane won’t be flying commerical routes for a while, a decision has to be made as to how long the plane will be decommissioned. Exact practices vary, but most draw a distinction between active parking and long-term storage.
Covering engines is key to minimising corrosion and damage from pests. Photo credit:
Nicholas Kimura
Active parking concerns planes that are being kept in a ready-to-fly or almost-ready-to-fly configuration
. These planes are most typically stored at airports or facilities relatively nearby their typical operational routes. Planes in active parking are intended to be ready to rejoin the flight line within 24-48 hours when needed. In this regime, parts like landing gears will be specially lubricated and engine covers will be fitted to keep out insects and birds as well as corrosion. Other apetures, such as holes for pitot tubes and vents, will similarly be sealed. The aircraft will also be moved slightly every few weeks to avoid flat spotting the tyres. Engines, hydraulic systems, and electronics will be powered up at regular intervals every few weeks to ensure the plane remains in a functional state. This avoids negative effects such as capacitors failing from lack of use or bearings flat-spotting from long periods of sitting. Planes will also be flown periodically on short flights to ensure airworthiness.
Long-term storage is for planes that are intended to be out of action for many months
before they will be called upon again. In the current climate, this is particularly relevant for large-capacity widebody aircraft, as low demand will see smaller twin-engined jets serving the majority of routes for the foreseeable future. In these cases, more work is done to prepare the aircraft for storage. Engines may be “pickled”, where their normal lubricants are replaced with special anti-corrosion agents designed to minimise the effects of time. For longer-term storage, the engines may be removed entirely and shipped back to the manufacturer.
More effort may be placed on more labor-intensive preservation methods, designed to reduce the ongoing effort required to maintain the plane in storage. Regular engine starts, landing gear checks and hydraulic tests are avoided, at the expense of the aircraft needing to go through a longer process to rejoin the flightline at the end of storage. In some cases, companies like Airbus mandate that any stored aircraft must be brought back to flight-ready status after two years, before a further storage period. With such restrictions on the table, many airlines will elect to retire or recycle an aircraft at this point rather than continue to pay the high costs of storage. Many larger aircraft, like the 747,
are facing early retirement for this very reason.
It’ll Get Worse Before It Gets Better
A Qantas 747 sets off on its final flight to Mohave, California. The type’s retirement was brought forward as a result of the 2020 pandemic.
With the pandemic raging and no end in sight, air travel looks set to remain in the doldrums for years to come. Current estimates expect the industry
to be back at pre-pandemic levels by 2024 at the earliest.
This has led to flow-on problems, with existing aircraft no longer the only problem. Boeing hit record production levels of the 787 Dreamliner at precisely the wrong time,
and is now stuck holding an excess of undelivered aircraft.
This follows on from the issues the company already faced,
trying to find enough parking for grounded 737 MAX aircraft.
Thankfully, the checklist-focused and highly dilligent aerospace industry was prepared with procedures in place to handle such a situation. The real hurdle is merely overcoming the sheer scale of the problem, in both space and time. In future years, expect to see great turnover in fleets as airlines turn to newly delivered planes to replace older craft that have spent just a little too long cooking out in the desert.
Pour one out for the great flying giants of yesteryear, and maybe ask your local boneyard magnate to shout the next round at the pilot’s bar. | 58 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271836",
"author": "Foot",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T14:08:43",
"content": "When there is a problem named at one site there is usually a solution at another on the very same day. Isn’t the internet awesome?!?https://www.space.com/lava-tubes-mars-and-moon-habitable.html",
"parent... | 1,760,373,385.076304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/19/printing-plating-and-baking-makes-diy-microlattices-possible/ | Printing, Plating, And Baking Makes DIY Microlattices Possible | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"electroless",
"enig",
"lattice",
"mask",
"materials",
"nickel",
"photocurable",
"plating",
"resin",
"sla",
"uv"
] | To be honest, we originally considered throwing
[Zachary Tong]’s experiments with ultralight metallic microlattices
into the “Fail of the Week” bucket. But after watching the video below for a second time, it’s just not fair to call this a fail, so maybe we’ll come up with a new category — “Qualified Success of the Week”, perhaps?
[Zachary]’s foray into the strange world of microlattices began when he happened upon a 2011 paper on the subject in
Science
. By using a special photocurable resin, the researchers were able to use light shining through a mask with fine holes to create a plastic lattice, which was then plated with nickel using the electroless process, similar to the first half of the electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) process used for PCBs. After removing the resin with a concentrated base solution, the resulting microlattice is strong, stiff, and incredibly light.
Lacking access to the advanced materials and methods originally used, [Zachary] did the best he could with what he had. An SLA printer with off-the-shelf resin was used to print the skeleton using the same algorithms used in the original paper. Those actually turned out pretty decent, but rather than electroless plating, he had to go with standard electroplating after a coat of graphite paint. The plated skeletons looked great — until he tried to dissolve the resin. When chemical approaches failed, into the oven went the plated prints. Sadly, it turns out that the polymers in the resin expand when heated, which blew the plating apart. A skeleton in PLA printed on an FDM printer fared little better; when heated to drive out the plastic, it became clear that the tortuous interior of the lattice didn’t plate very well.
From
aerogels
to
graphene
, we love these DIY explorations of new and exotic materials, so hats off to [Zachary] for giving it a try in the first place. | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271818",
"author": "Mechanicus",
"timestamp": "2020-08-19T11:29:02",
"content": "Definitely a fail, but those are the best for learning. Electroless plating is better option Caswell has an affordable nickel system solution based on cadmium not palladium.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,385.126316 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/somethings-brewing-up-in-the-woods-and-it-looks-stunning/ | Something’s Brewing Up In The Woods – And It Looks Stunning | Sven Gregori | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"3D printed mold",
"apocalypse",
"camping",
"CNC milling",
"coffee",
"coffee maker",
"off grid"
] | Caffeine fuels the hacker, and there are plenty of options to get it into your system, from guzzling energy drinks to chewing instant coffee pellets. But let’s take a nice cup of coffee as input source, which itself can be prepared in many ways using all kinds of techniques. In its simplest form, you won’t need any fancy equipment or even electricity, just heat up some water over a fire and add your ground beans to it. This comes in handy if you’re camping out in the woods or find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world, and in case you still prefer a stylish coffee maker in such a situation — why let an apocalypse ruin having nice things? — you’re in luck, because [Andreas Herz] designed
this nifty looking off-the-grid coffee maker
.
The design somewhat resembles a certain high-end precision coffee maker that even
fictional billionaires
approve of, which [Andreas] created in Fusion 360
and is available online
. The device base is made from brass, wood, and silicone he cast from a 3D printed mold, while the glass and ceramic parts — i.e. the water tank and coffee pot — are simply store bought. [Andreas] opted for fuel gel as heat source, which burns under a copper coil that acts as heat exchanger and starts the actual brewing process. It took him a few attempts to get it right, and in the end, a coat of black exhaust paint did the trick to get the temperatures high enough.
This may not be the fastest coffee maker, as you will see in the video after the break, but choosing a different fuel source might fix that — [Andreas] just went the safe(r) way by using fuel gel here. But hey, why rush things when you’re camping or having a cozy time in a cabin anyway. Now all you need is the right blend, maybe even your own, made with
a camp stove coffee roaster
. Of course, in case of an actual apocalypse, you may not have easy access to a CNC router or 3D printer, but then there’s always the option to build
an espresso machine from salvaged motorcycle parts
. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271569",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T01:01:52",
"content": "“Caffeine fuels the hacker, and there are plenty of options to get it into your system, from guzzling energy drinks to chewing instant coffee pellets.”https://azivmedics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/co... | 1,760,373,385.165942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/vizy-the-ai-camera-aims-to-ease-machine-vision/ | Vizy The AI Camera Aims To Ease Machine Vision | Donald Papp | [
"Crowd Funding",
"digital cameras hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"charmed labs",
"crowdfunding",
"embedded",
"IoT",
"kickstarter",
"machine vision",
"Pixy",
"pixy2",
"vizycam"
] | Cameras are getting smarter and more capable than ever, able to run embedded machine vision algorithms and pull off tricks far beyond what something like a serial camera and microcontroller board would be capable of, and
the upcoming Vizy aims to be even smarter and easier to use yet
. Vizy is the work of Charmed Labs, and this isn’t their first foray into accessible machine vision. Charmed Labs are the same folks behind the
Pixy and Pixy 2
cameras. Vizy’s main goal is to make object detection and classification easy, with thoughtful hardware features and a browser-based interface.
Vizy can identify common birds with “Birdfeeder”, one of the several built-in applications that uses local processing only.
The usual way to do machine vision is to get a USB camera and run something like OpenCV on a desktop machine to handle the processing. But Vizy leverages a Raspberry Pi 4 to provide a tightly-integrated unit in a small package with a variety of ready-to-run applications. For example, the “Birdfeeder” application comes ready to take snapshots of and identify common species of bird, while also identifying party-crashers like squirrels.
The demonstration video on their page shows off using the built-in high-current I/O header to control a sprinkler, repelling non-bird intruders with a splash of water while uploading pictures and video clips. The hardware design also looks well thought out; not only is there a safe shutdown and low-power mode for the Raspberry Pi-based hardware, but the lens can be swapped and the camera unit itself even contains an electrically-switched IR filter.
Vizy has
a Kickstarter campaign planned
, but like many others, Charmed Labs is still adjusting to the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought. You can sign up to be notified when Vizy launches; we know we’ll be keen for a closer look once it does. Easier machine vision is always a good thing, because it helps free people to focus on
clever ideas like machine vision-based tool alignment
. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271535",
"author": "sarain",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T22:27:49",
"content": "Cool to see this sort of thing becoming more accessible. Reminds me ofhttps://xkcd.com/1425/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271540",
"aut... | 1,760,373,385.353906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/cellerator-wants-to-be-your-automated-desktop-biotech-lab/ | Cellerator Wants To Be Your Automated Desktop Biotech Lab | Mike Szczys | [
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"biotech",
"lab tools"
] | Cellerator really had us at “make designer beers”, but of course
this multi-purpose biotech lab
has a lot more to offer. It seeks to lower the cost and complexity barriers for automating useful scientific equipment, and wants to pave the way for more innovation in material science based.
The approach taken by Cellerator is to take existing lab tools and automate common research tasks using components familiar to anyone who’s used a 3D printer. A gantry system with end effectors designed for different tools like pipettes automate the processing of samples. A camera (with or without microscope) can be used for feedback via computer vision, or simply by logging snapshots.
A number of screenshots from the software show the depth of the plans for the system. They include widgets for telling the system where various fixtures such as the hot plate, centrifuge, and bioreactor are located. Sub menus for each tool set parameters for their operation, with a scheduling and instruction system for customizing each experiment as well as recording all of the data along the way.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271510",
"author": "Arthur Wolf",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T20:26:23",
"content": "What electronics do you plan to use for this? Smoothieware is the default platform for both openpnp and opentrons, both project very close to this one. If you plan on making this open-source, I can se... | 1,760,373,385.406095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/the-mostly-forgotten-story-of-atmospheric-railway/ | The Mostly Forgotten Story Of Atmospheric Railway | Jenny List | [
"Engineering",
"Hackaday Columns",
"History",
"Slider",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"atmospheric railway",
"Isambard Kingdom Brunel",
"railroad",
"railway"
] | It doesn’t matter whether you know it as a railway, a railroad, a chemin de fer, or a 铁路, it’s a fair certainty that the trains near where you live are most likely to be powered either by diesel or electric locomotives. Over the years from the first horse-drawn tramways to the present day there haven’t been many other ways to power a train, and since steam locomotives are largely the preserve of museums in the 21st century, those two remain as the only two games in town.
But step back to the dawn of the railway age, and it was an entirely different matter. Think of those early-19th-century railway engineer-barons as the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos’ of their day, and instead of space and hyperloop startups their playground was rail transport. Just as some wild and crazy ideas are spoken about in the world of tech startups today, so it was with the early railways. One of the best-known of these even made it to some real railways, I’m speaking of course about the atmospheric railway.
These trains were propelled not by a locomotive, but by air pressure pushing against a piston in a partially evacuated tube between the tracks.
This Railway Sucks
Looking at the steam locomotives of the 20th century that form the bulk of those in preservation it seems curious that such a system might find favour when steam did such a good job of pulling trains. But the locomotives of the 1830s and 1840s at the dawn of the railway era did not have either the power or the traction of their later stablemates, and when faced with any significant gradient were often unable to tackle it.
The atmospheric system promised to solve this problem by replacing the relatively small mobile steam engine on the locomotive with a much larger one by the tracks, and removing the limited adhesion between the single driving wheels of those early locomotives from the equation entirely. A train would be simply pulled up the slope by the invisible hand of atmospheric pressure, something which seemed attractive to early railway companies not keen on the idea of digging expensive cuttings and tunnels to replace the inclines.
A Piece of the South Devon Railway’s atmospheric tube. Chowells. (
CC BY-SA 3.0
)
The atmospheric tube was made of cast-iron sections bolted together and mounted between the rails. Along the top of the tube was a slot for the piston rod to pass through, fitted with thick greased leather flaps designed to separate as the piston passed but to provide a vacuum seal at other times. It was successful enough to be taken up by several railway lines of the day, but why don’t we hear about it today? The answer is one with several layers, and is best answered by looking at those lines which proceeded as far as putting the system into practice.
Not All Atmospheric Railways Were A Failure
The Dalkey Railway as seen by the
Illustrated London News
(Public domain).
The first successful atmospheric railway was in Ireland, connecting the port of Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) near Dublin to the settlement of Dalkey, a distance of 1.74 miles. It opened in 1843 as an extension to the existing Dublin and Kingstown railway, and continued in operation until the mid 1850s when its traction was replaced by more conventional steam locomotives. Its success provided the inspiration for atmospheric traction in Paris on the railway from Paris to St Germain, the last 1.5km section of which was to have a gradient too steep for a locomotive. it opened in 1847 and like the Dalkey line continued in use until the advent of suitable steam traction which replaced it in 1860.
Both the previous two lines were very short sections in places that would soon become part of the populated suburbs of their cities, but those which followed attempted to bring atmospheric traction to longer distance travel. The London and Croydon railway was an 8.75 mile line whose local traffic shared tracks with express trains from another company, and it was proposed that another track be laid alongside the main line for these local trains, which would use atmospheric power. The first section opened in 1846 and showed promise in tests, but suffered a series of catastrophic pumping engine failures soon afterwards which caused its abandonment in 1847 in favour of steam power.
One of the most visible remnants of the South Devon Railway’s atmospheric traction, the pumping house at Torquay. Geof Sheppard (
CC BY-SA 4.0
)
Probably the most well-known and most ambitious of the atmospheric railways is the South Devon Railway, with the famous
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
as its engineer and part of his Great Western empire. It was planned that the entire 52 miles of the line between Exeter and Plymouth would be using the atmospheric system, but the first section to be completed in 1847 was that from Exeter to Teignmouth, a distance of about 13 miles. It was plagued by a series of problems like seals that froze shut in winter and dried out in summer, and by inadequate power from the series of pumpin engines set up beside the line. It was abandoned in favour of steam traction in 1848, and remains part of the main line to the West Country today. It’s this railway which defines the public history of atmospheric traction as one of the great Brunel’s failures, casting its successes in France and Ireland into the shade.
The atmospheric railways then are a mere footnote in engineering history where they live alongside such other interesting ideas as
the maglev
. It’s obvious that it’s an idea with potential and it’s certain that a modern version using the same pipes with perhaps a Neoprene or a silicone seal could be considerably more successful. But perhaps its time simply came and went, while it’s a good idea it had the simple misfortune to be not as good as a locomotive once locomotive technology was sufficiently developed. And that fate is something that’s happened to far greater inventions than an iron tube with a strip of leather along its top. | 58 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271468",
"author": "X",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T17:24:13",
"content": "Don’t forget the counterbalance trolley on Queen Anne hill in Seattle.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271476",
"author": "Ren",
"timest... | 1,760,373,385.742291 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/open-and-sustainable-engineering-hack-chat/ | Open And Sustainable Engineering Hack Chat | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"engineering",
"green",
"Hack Chat",
"open source",
"photovoltaic",
"solar",
"sustainable"
] | Join us on Wednesday, August 19 at noon Pacific for the
Open and Sustainable Engineering Hack Chat
with
Joshua Pearce
!
Since the first of our hominid ancestors learned to pick up a rock and make it into a tool, we humans have been using our engineering skills to change the world. For most of the 2 million or so years since that first technological leap, natural materials like stone and wood were the focus of our engineering projects, and except for a few tantalizing remnants, most of what was built has returned to the Earth whence it came.
Then we discovered other materials; we learned to free metals from rocks and how to harvest the fossilized hydrocarbon remains of ancient plants. Iron, aluminum, plastic, and silicon became our stock in trade, and the planet is now layered so thick with these materials and the byproducts of harvesting them that a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene Epoch, has been proposed to cover this time of human activity and its impact on the geological record.
But if we humans are clever enough to make such an impact, we should be clever enough to think our way out of the mess, and wise enough to see the need. That’s where the efforts of Dr. Pearce’s research at the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) lab are focused. Dr. Pearce envisions a sustainable future powered by pervasive solar photovoltaic systems and using open-source technologies like 3D printing to drive new models for manufacturing. We’ve recently seen interesting work from his lab, like
this grinder that makes custom compression screws
for plastic recycling. The
MOST page on Hackaday.io
is filled with other great examples of the technology that supports their mission, from
low-cost environmental testing instruments
to
3D-printable microfluidics
.
Dr. Pearce will join us on the Hack Chat to talk about open and sustainable engineering. Be sure to stop by with your questions and to find out what you can do to engineer a brighter future, starting right in your own shop.
Our Hack Chats are live community events in the
Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging
. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, August 19 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. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,373,385.643573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/mercurial-light-box-has-a-secret-switch/ | Mercurial Light Box Has A Secret Switch | Kristina Panos | [
"how-to",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"Circuit Sculpture",
"Edison bulbs",
"filament LED",
"light box",
"mercury switch"
] | Hit up the lighting aisle of any big box hardware store these days and you’ll probably find a variety of Edison bulbs — modern bulbs meant to evoke the bare, complicated tungsten filament bulbs from the early days of electric candlelight. Edison bulbs use filament LEDs, which resemble skinny candles with wicks at both ends and give off a nice light, especially when diffused by acrylic.
This simple light box uses two filament LEDs that float inside on an internal circuit sculpture
. [lonesoulsurfer] likes to use old cell phone batteries and USB charging boards in his builds, and that’s exactly what’s inside this box.
Our favorite part of the build elevates this simple light box into a curiosity for those not in the know. It’s controlled with a mercury tilt switch, so all you’d have to do in a power outage is locate the box and turn it upside down, provided it has a charge.
We love elemental switch design around here,
like this light box that switches on with salt water
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271446",
"author": "Jake of All Trades",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T16:06:19",
"content": "When those filament LEDs were newer, they seemed to only be available in series-wired, 70v+ models. I’m excited to learn that 3v ones are readily available now!",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,373,385.793889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/your-phone-is-now-helping-to-detect-earthquakes/ | Your Phone Is Now Helping To Detect Earthquakes | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"accelerometer",
"big data",
"distributed sensor",
"earthquake",
"earthquake detector",
"google",
"MEMS accelerometer"
] | Most people’s personal experience with seismographs begins and ends with simple childhood science experiments. Watching a pendulum make erratic marks on a piece of paper while your classmates banged on the table gave you an idea on how the device worked, and there’s an excellent chance that’s the last time you gave the concept much thought. Even among hackers, whose gear in general tends to be more technologically equipped than the norm, you’re unlikely to find a dedicated seismograph up and running.
But that’s not because the core technology is hard to come by or particularly expensive. In fact, one could say with almost absolute certainty that if you aren’t actively reading these words on a device with a sensitive accelerometer onboard, you have one (or perhaps several) within arm’s reach. Modern smartphones, tablets, and even some laptops, now pack in sensors that could easily be pushed into service as broad strokes seismometers; they just need the software to collect and analyze the data.
Or at least, they did. By the time you read this article, Google will have already started rolling out an update to Android devices which will
allow them to use their onboard sensors to detect possible earthquakes
. With literally billions of compatible devices in operation all over the planet, this will easily become the largest distributed sensor network of its type ever put into operation. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to be getting a notification on your phone to duck and cover anytime soon.
A Fair Weather Sensor
The accelerometers in our mobile devices were obviously never meant to detect earthquakes, but as any hacker knows, intent is often irrelevant when talking about hardware. The idea was for these sensors to determine the orientation of the gadget, or perhaps perform gesture detection, but they’re certainly capable of detecting subtle vibrations as well. Unfortunately, the use of this sensor for detecting earthquakes is hindered by an outside influence: the device’s owner.
Just imagine how often a smartphone is moved or shaken around on a daily basis. Or consider how the average user would react if their battery life was suddenly being reduced because Google was having their device constantly push accelerometer data upstream.
Google says they will compare data from multiple devices to filter out false positives.
For these reasons, among others, smartphones in active use are no good as seismic sensors. So Google will only poll the sensors in devices which are plugged in and not being used. In many cases, that means the phones won’t be providing any useful data until their owner has gone to sleep.
Even then, there’s always going to be a question of where the phone has been placed. A proper seismometer should be securely anchored to the ground, but you can’t expect smartphone owners to place their devices on the basement floor every night. The phone could end up laying in bed with them, or placed on a table with a fan that vibrates all night.
So even when the phone isn’t being used, the data from these devices will need to be stringently analyzed, filtered, and cross-referenced with other sensors in the area. One shaking phone does not an earthquake make; it will take a complex algorithm to divine any meaning from the tea leaves that are millions of accelerometers chirping away at night.
Resistance is Futile
Obviously, the biggest hurdle in setting up a system like this would be getting everyone to install and configure the application on their phone. It’s the same reason that
voluntary COVID-19 contact tracing applications have only been of limited use
. If you can’t get more than a small percentage of the population to install an application that can tell them when they might have been exposed to coronavirus, good luck getting them to install one that sniffs out earthquakes.
Which is why Google isn’t bothering to give them a choice. Not directly, at least. On devices running Android 5.0 or above, the new seismic API will be automatically installed as part of the Google Play Services framework rather than as a system update. That means even phones that have hit their End of Life (EOL) date will still pick up the new capability. You might not be getting security updates from your device manufacturer anymore, but you’ll be getting this.
In the hierarchy of invasive snooping a company can do on your mobile device, collecting anonymous seismic readings while it’s charging seems pretty low. Google has indicated that there will be some mechanism for the phones to trigger on a seismic event rather than pointing a firehose of accelerometer data back at the server whenever a charging phone is idle:
If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred.
It is, however, unclear if there will be a way to opt-out of this program other than disabling Location Services entirely. There’s no apparent incentive for Google, and whatever agencies they ultimately share the system with, to pull anything more than the accelerometer data and generalized location for these events. However, if that data becomes compromised, it’s impossible to say what else it might be useful for.
Being part of a massive network of sensors for scientific research is a really cool idea, aside from the privacy issue. It’s fair to say that if you own an Internet connected smartphone, there were far more serious invasions of your privacy happening already.
Who’s Data Is It, Anyway?
While our devices might be producing the data, it doesn’t seem that there’s any immediate plans for us to have access to it. Eventually we might see a public API that would allow developers to utilize the Android seismometer network, but for now, Google says the data will simply be integrated into Search. The idea is that if a user feels the ground shaking and turns to Google for more information, they’ll be able to see how large of an area has been impacted. After they’ve had time to refine the system the plan is to start pushing out earthquake warning notifications, something they’ve already experimented with as part of the
United States Geological Survey ShakeAlert system
.
For those who’d rather not wait on their friendly neighborhood megacorp to provide the public with this potentially life saving data, there are options. On the same day Google started rolling out their system, the Linux Foundation
announced it would help support the OpenEEW Project
.
The OpenEEW sensor board
This system gets its seismic data from open hardware sensors that combine an ESP32 with the same type of MEMS accelerometer found in smartphones,
which you can either build yourself
or (eventually) purchase as a turn-key product. While the project can never hope to compete with Google in terms of the number of active sensors in the field, these devices have the advantage of being permanently mounted and operating 24/7.
Whether its in your smartphone or an IoT device you build yourself, networks of these low-cost accelerometers seem poised to change the way earthquakes are detected. When even a few seconds advanced warning can be the difference between life and death, we’ll take all the help we can get. | 37 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271419",
"author": "ShakeItUp",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T14:11:12",
"content": "I would love to put my phone in the paint shaker machine at the hardware store and see what kinds of alerts the server would get! Oh wait that’s evil not good.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,373,385.911224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/3d-on-the-zx-spectrum-48k/ | 3D On The ZX Spectrum 48K | Inderpreet Singh | [
"classic hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"3d",
"assembly",
"oled",
"z88dk",
"ZX Spectrum"
] | There are times when a project becomes such a big part of a maker’s life that they find themselves revisiting it even years later. [Thanassis] combined this phenomena with his love for the ZX Spectrum when he
ported one of his old 3D rendering projects to the ZX Spectrum 48K.
The video below shows the result, and they speak for themselves.
The roots of this project go back around three years, when [Thanassis] posted a similar project for the
ATMega328 which employed fixed point math tricks for achieving the graphics
. The code needed to be even tighter to run on the Spectrum, eventually getting boiled down to just a handful of calculations. This got the proof of concept working with the z88dk compiler, but it wasn’t quite fast enough.
In the end, hand assembly optimizations nearly doubled the performance to a blistering 10 frames per second. There’s also a version that kicks it all the way up to 40 FPS, but only if you give it a few minutes to do the calculations ahead of time.
With a few teaks and the right display
, this project could produce some very cool retro visuals. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271389",
"author": "Alex Cat3",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T11:19:25",
"content": ">”With a few teaks and the right display…”Those teaks really do a great job rendering tree-D! ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271430",
... | 1,760,373,385.960522 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/17/gridsound-an-audio-workstation-in-your-browser/ | GridSound – An Audio Workstation In Your Browser | Sven Gregori | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"DAW",
"digital audio workstation",
"javascript",
"synthesizer",
"web browser"
] | If you’re into creating music, you’ll have a surprisingly large variety of open source options at your disposal, ranging from Audacity as rather simple audio editor to Ardour as a full-blown, studio-worthy DAW — and LMMS, Rosegarden, MusE etc. for anything in between.
With [Thomas Tortorini]’s GridSound project
, you’ll have one additional choice on your list now, except this one runs in your browser. So if you find yourself in a sudden moment of inspiration, all you’ll need is a browser and off you go.
From the feature set’s point of view, GridSound leans towards LMMS and offers a drum kit, piano roll, and synthesizer. It appears that you won’t be able to record real world instruments at this point, but it’s also a work in progress, so who knows what the future will bring. The code is available on
GitHub
and you can explore GridSound itself
here
— no login required, unless you want to save your work. Running in a browser, GridSound is naturally written in JavaScript and uses the
Web Audio API
to perform the actual audio tasks.
What’s impressive is that [Thomas]
opted
against any UI framework-of-the-week, but instead implemented everything from scratch in pure vanilla JavaScript. In fact, the entire code base seems to be self-contained without any third party dependencies, and that alone deserves some respect. Sure, JavaScript isn’t everybody’s cup of tea —
“real developers use assembly”
— so if you prefer something more physical,
how about some cardboard music
? | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271397",
"author": "Tom Armstrong",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T12:24:52",
"content": "Sounds interesting. I pressed ‘here’ in yellow, as advised but that was as far as it went, I will try again later.Cheers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,373,385.836979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/modified-bricks-can-house-energy-too/ | Modified Bricks Can House Energy, Too | Kristina Panos | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"brick",
"bricks",
"energy storage",
"PEDOT",
"rust",
"supercapacitor"
] | What if building an emergency battery were as easy as painting conductive plastic onto bricks, stacking them, and charging them up? Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have done just that —
they’ve created supercapacitors by modifying regular old red bricks from various big-box hardware stores
.
The bricks are coated in poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), a conductive polymer that soaks readily into the bricks’ porous surface. When the coated brick is connected to a power source such as a solar panel, the polymer soaks up ions like a sponge. PEDOT:PSS reacts with the iron oxide in the bricks, the rust that gives them their reddish-orange color. Check out the demonstration after the break — it’s a time lapse that shows three PEDOT-coated bricks powering a white LED for ten minutes.
We envision a future where a brick house could double as a battery backup when the power goes out. The researchers thought of that too, or at least had their eye on the outdoors. They waterproofed the PEDOT-coated bricks in epoxy and found they retain 90% of their capacitance and are still efficient after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles. Since this doesn’t take any special kind of brick, it seems to us that any sufficiently porous material would work as long as iron oxide is also present for the reaction. What do you think?
If you can get your hands on the stuff, PEDOT:PSS has all kinds of uses from
paper-thin conductors
to
homebrew organic LEDs
.
Thanks for the tip, [Qes]! | 43 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271347",
"author": "Nathan McCorkle",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T05:13:59",
"content": "Alright!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6271349",
"author": "Filip",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T05:25:46",
"content": "The real Po... | 1,760,373,386.393765 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/hydraulic-lifting-workbench-to-save-your-back/ | Hydraulic Lifting Workbench To Save Your Back | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"hydraulic",
"lift table",
"workbench",
"workshop from scratch"
] | Working on heavy mechanical machines at awkward heights can be a real back breaker. [Workshop From Scratch] knows this all to well, so he built himself a very clean
hydraulic lifting workbench
to use around the workshop.
As we’ve come to expect from this aptly named channel, everything on the device has been built from scratch. Though he did use an off-the-shelf manually operated hydraulic piston. The lifting mechanism consists of a parallel bar linkage which allows the benchtop to stay parallel through its entire range of motion. The hand lever of the hydraulic piston was converted to a foot pedal for comfort, and the base has some sturdy trolley wheels to move it around the workshop. Raising the table is admittedly quite slow due to the manual pumping required, but it gets the job done eventually.
Making your own tools and equipment provides a lot of satisfaction, especially if you end up using it a lot. [Workshop From Scratch] builds some excellent tools, like this
magnetic drill press
,
magnetic vice
and a
workshop crane
. We hope to see many more. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271421",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T14:16:49",
"content": "That looks quite useful!One improvement I would implement if it were mine would be a ratcheting safety to prevent the table from dropping suddenly if there’s a failure in the hydraulic system.",
"... | 1,760,373,386.153925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/hackaday-links-august-16-2020/ | Hackaday Links: August 16, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"hackaday links"
] | Potentially bad news for those of us who prefer not to be assimilated into the Google hive mind:
Mozilla seems to be on the rocks
. Citing revenue problems, the maker of Firefox and other popular tools will be trimming 250 employees, about a quarter of its workforce, and shuttering its office in Taipei. CEO Mitchell Baker specifically mentioned that “development tools, internal tooling, and platform feature development” in the Firefox team would see reduced investment. Like a lot of companies do these days, she managed to blame COVID-19 for the company’s woes. That seems a little specious to us, but whatever the reason for the downturn in revenue, here’s hoping that Mozilla can keep Firefox alive.
Speaking of our evil overlords, looks like it another one of those “oopsies” moment for Google when it
“accidentally” activated some of its smart speakers to listen into household events without the wake word
. In this case, a user reported getting a text about a smoke alarm going off in their home. The alarm was not a surprise, since the user was cooking at the time, but the notification was, since they didn’t opt into that particular service. Google’s response was that an update pushed to the speaker accidentally activated that feature, a situation that they say has since been rectified. To be clear, this is an interesting feature and one of the more compelling use cases we’ve seen for a smart speaker, but it’s something we’d certainly want to sign off on before it’s activated. Yes, accidents happen, but these kinds of accidents seem to happen to Google an awful lot lately.
We’ve probably all had the experience over the last few months of being in public when the urge to cough hits. Masked or not, you struggle to fight back the tickle, lest someone hear you and think you’re infected. But now it’s possible for a computer to cough-shame you, thanks to
a deep learning cough locater
. The model was trained against recordings of people coughing and is coupled to an acoustic camera, which identifies the cougher with a bounding box and a contour image of the cough which looks for all the world like a virtual cloud of microbes. It’s genuinely interesting technology, sort of the public health version of
ShotSpotter
, but we doubt it’ll be of much practical use in public; if you want to find someone who has just coughed,
someone acting like this
will likely already be on the case.
Modern jet fighter technology is advancing rapidly, so much so that the forces they can apply during extreme maneuvers can quickly be lethal to pilots. Given that humans aren’t likely to evolve the ability to resist turning into a puddle of goo under high g-forces anytime soon, fighters of the future will likely incorporate AI of some sort. To prepare for that eventuality, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is running some
AI fighter competitions this week
that really look interesting. Dubbed Alpha Dogfight Trials, the challenge starts with simulated dogfights between AI systems. The winner of those rounds will go up against a human pilot in the final match, which will be streamed live with commentary and multi-screen coverage.
You need to register
to get in on the action, and time is limited.
And finally, let these three words roll around in your head for a minute:
robotic chameleon tongue
. It’s actually nowhere near as disturbing as it sounds, since at its heart the “Snatcher” is actually just a beefed-up tape measure. Designed for remote retrieval tasks, the Snatcher can shoots it steel proboscis out almost a meter in just 600 milliseconds. Its designers envision uses for it on drones, but we can see it potentially being deployed on satellites too. It shouldn’t be too hard to build something like this at home, either. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271321",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-08-17T00:37:16",
"content": "I would not want to be poked in the eye with a high speede tape measure!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6271333",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timesta... | 1,760,373,386.210169 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/building-a-gimballed-motorcycle-helmet-camera-from-scratch/ | Building A Gimballed Motorcycle Helmet Camera From Scratch | Mike Szczys | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"action cam",
"camera",
"helmet",
"helmet cam",
"motorcycle",
"sla"
] | [Nixie Guy] has hit all of important design elements
in a single motorcycle helmet-cam project
which packs in so much that the build log spans three posts. These cameras need to stand up to the elements and also to being pelted by insects at 80 MPH. They need to attach securely to the helmet without interfering with vision or movement of the head. And you should be able to adjust where they are pointing. The balance of features and cost available in consumer cameras make this list hard to satisfy — but with skills like these the bootstrapped camera came out great!
Where can you get a small, high quality camera? The drone industry has been iterating on this problem for a decade now and that’s where the guts of this creation come from. That produced an interesting issue, the board of the CADDX Turtle V2 camera gets really hot when in use and needs to have air flowing over it. So he threw a custom-milled heat sink into the side of the SLA resin printed housing to keep things somewhat cool.
Since the mill was already warmed up, why not do some mold making? Having already been working on a project to use
a casting process for soft PCB membranes
, this was the perfect technique to keep the buttons and the SD card slots weather tight on the helmet cam. A little pouch battery inside provides power, and the charging port on the back is a nice little magnet job.
Everything came together incredibly well. [Nixie Guy] does lament the color of the resin case, but that could be easily fixed by reprinting with colored resin.
While you’re bolting stuff onto your helmet,
maybe some excessive bling is in order
? | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271302",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T21:50:01",
"content": "A good looking, rather polished end result.That said I always am a little nervous about buggering around with safety equipment – come down on a helmet mount at just the wrong angle and watch it punch ri... | 1,760,373,386.26144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/e-ink-moon-phase-viewer-keeps-interest-from-waning/ | E-Ink Moon Phase Viewer Keeps Interest From Waning | Kristina Panos | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"e-ink display",
"ItsyBitsy",
"Moon phases",
"rtc",
"The Moon"
] | It’s a shame that so many cool things happen in the night sky, but we can’t see them because of clouds or light pollution. If you missed seeing the comet NEOWISE or this summer’s Perseid meteor showers, there’s not a lot to be done but look at other people’s pictures. But if it’s the Moon and its phases you keep missing out on, that information can be acquired and visualized fairly easily.
This project includes a bunch of firsts for [Jacob Tarr], like designing a custom PCB and utilizing a three-color E-ink screen to
show the Moon in its current phase along with the date and time
.
[Jacob]’s moon phase viewer runs on an ItsyBitsy M4 Express, which holds data pulled from NASA ahead of time to save battery. Every morning, the board dishes out the daily info on a schedule kept by a real-time clock module.
We particularly like the minimalist case design, especially the little shelf that holds the lithium-ion cell. This is just the beginning, and [Jacob] plans to add more detail for anyone who wants one for themselves.
If you want something more Moon-shaped,
here’s a printed version that gets brighter in time with the real thing
. Or you could just make
a giant light-up full moon
like Hackaday super alumnus [Caleb Kraft]. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271290",
"author": "Rumble_in_the_Jungle",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T19:46:45",
"content": "It does what?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271310",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T22:12:11",... | 1,760,373,386.446692 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/write-in-pipelinec-for-fpgas/ | Write In PipelineC For FPGAs | Elliot Williams | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"c++",
"fpga",
"hdl",
"programming language"
] | The best thing about field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), when you have a massively parallel application, is that everything runs in parallel. The worst thing about FPGAs, when you need a lot of stuff to happen in sequence, is that everything runs in parallel. If you have a multi-step computation, for example, you need to break it up into chunks, figure out the timing between them, and make sure that each chunk clears before it is fed new data. This is pipelining, and taking care of all the low-level details yourself is one of the things that can sometimes make FPGA a four-letter word beginning with “F”.
[Julian Kemmerer]’s
PipelineC
is a C-like language that compiles down into VHDL so that you can use it in an FPGA, and it does the pipelining for you. He has examples of how you’d use it to
construct a simple state machine
, and after you’ve written a few hundred state machines the long way, you’ll know why this is a good idea.
PipelineC
isn’t the only high level synthesis language out there
, but it sits in an interesting place. It doesn’t take care of memory or define interfaces. It just takes care of pipelining. We haven’t tried it out yet, but it looks like it would be interesting for moderately complex projects, where the
mechanics of pipeline signalling
is a hassle, but you don’t require the deluxe treatment. Check it out, and if you like it, let us (and [Julian], natch) know.
If you want to dive head-first into pipelining, give [Al Williams]’
two-part mini-series
a look.
Pipeline graphic
CC BY-SA 3.0
by
CBurnett | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271257",
"author": "Jesse Jenkins",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T15:03:28",
"content": "Historical comment. Originally, they were called Programmable Gate Arrays (PGA). However. They were also offered in pin grid array (PGA) packages, which was confusing. Adding the F made them a 4 l... | 1,760,373,386.319655 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/give-a-man-a-phish-and-you-entertain-him-for-a-day/ | Give A Man A Phish, And You Entertain Him For A Day | Sven Gregori | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bank",
"countermeasures",
"curl",
"fraud",
"phishing",
"shell script"
] | With millions of phishing attempts happening daily, we’ve probably all had our fair share of coming across one. For the trained or naturally suspicious eye, it’s usually easy to spot them — maybe get a good chuckle out of the ridiculously bad ones along the way — and simply ignore them. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t exist if they weren’t successful enough in the big picture, so it might be a good idea to inform the targeted service about the attempt, in hopes they will notify users to act with caution. And then there’s [Christian Haschek], who decided
to have some fun and trying to render the phished data useless by simply flooding it with garbage
.
After his wife received a text message from “their bank”, [Christian] took a closer look at the URL it was pointing to, and found your typical copy of the real login form at a slightly misspelled address. As the usual goal is to steal the victim’s credentials, he simply wrote a shell script that sends random generated account numbers and PINs for all eternity via cURL, potentially lowering any value the attackers could get from their attempt.
As the form fields limit the input length of the account number and PIN, he eventually wondered if the server side will do the same, or whether it would crash if longer data is sent to it. Sadly, he’ll never know, because after he modified the script, the site itself returned a 404 and had disappeared.
In the quest against phishing attacks, this should count as a success, but as [Christian] seemed to enjoy himself, he yearned for more and decided to take a look at a similar attempt he saw mentioned earlier on Reddit. Despite targeting the same bank, the server-side implementation was more sophisticated, hinting at a different attack, and he definitely got his money worth this time — but we don’t want to give it all away here.
Rest assured, [Christian Haschek] continues the good fight, whether by annoying attackers
as he did with ZIP-bombing random WordPress login attempts
or
battling child pornography with a Raspberry Pi cluster
. Well, unless he’s busy
hunting down an unidentified device hooked up in his own network
.
(Banner image by
Tumisu
) | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271243",
"author": "Adam",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T12:32:40",
"content": "The complexity of these sites is all over the map, but my experience is the ones that get dropped on a hacked WP site just have a short PHP that emails the result to a free email account. Some don’t include ... | 1,760,373,386.511279 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/16/draw-on-your-lawn-with-this-autonomous-mower-and-rtk-gps/ | Draw On Your Lawn With This Autonomous Mower And RTK-GPS | Adil Malik | [
"gps hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"ardumower",
"autonomous lawnmower",
"differential GPS",
"gps",
"RTK"
] | The rise of open source hardware has seen a wide variety of laborious tasks become successfully automated, saving us humans a great deal of hassle. Suffice to say, some chores are easier to automate than others. Take the classic case of a harmless autonomous vacuum cleaner that can be pretty dumb, bumping around the place to detect the perimeter as it traverses the room blindly with a pre-programmed sweeping pattern.
Now in principle, this idea could be extended to mowing your lawn. But would you really want a high speed rotating blade running rampant as it aimlessly ventures outside the perimeter of your lawn? The
Sunray update to the Ardumower autonomous lawn mower project
has solved this problem without invoking the need to lay down an actual perimeter wire. As standard consumer grade GPS is simply not accurate enough, so the solution involves implementing your very own RTK-GPS hardware and an accompanying base station, introducing centimeter-level accuracy to your mowing jobs.
RTK-GPS, also known as Carrier Phase Enhanced GPS, improves the accuracy of standard GPS by measuring the error in the signal using a reference receiver whose position is known accurately. This information is then relayed to the Ardumower board over a radio link, so that it could tweak its position accordingly. Do you
need
the ability to carve emojis into your lawn? No. But you could have it anyway. If that’s not enough to
kick off the autonomous lawnmower revolution
, we don’t know what is. | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271223",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T08:45:08",
"content": "Oh, I love this! I phantasized about this when I was mowing the (rather complex) lawn of my parents each week, all my youth. I’m so happy someone realized this idea now!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,373,386.551922 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/the-mask-launcher-like-an-airbag-for-your-face/ | The Mask Launcher; Like An Airbag For Your Face | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"COVID",
"Covid-19",
"face mask",
"facemask"
] | One of the most effective ways to slow the spread of pathogens like the novel coronavirus is to have individuals wear facemasks that cover the nose and mouth. They’re cheap, and highly effective at trapping potentially infectious aerosols that spread disease. Unfortunately, wearing masks has become a contentious issue, with many choosing to go without. [Allen Pan] was frustrated by this,
and set out to make a launcher to quite literally shoot masks directly onto faces.
To fire the masks, Allan built a pneumatic system that gets its power from a compact CO2 canister. This is hooked up to a solenoid, which is fired by the trigger. The high-pressure CO2 then goes through a split to four separate barrels cleverly made out of brake line ([Allen] says it’s faster to get parts from the automotive supply than the home store these days). Each barrel fires a bola weight attached to one of the strings of the mask, in much the same way a net launcher works. The mask is then flung towards the face of the target, and the weights wrap around the back of the neck, tangling and ideally sticking together thanks to neodymium magnets.
Amazingly, the mask worked first time, wrapping effectively around a dummy head and covering the nose and mouth. Follow-up shots were less successful, however, but that didn’t deter [Allen] from trying the device on himself at point-blank range. Despite the risk to teeth and flesh, the launcher again fires a successful shot.
While it’s obviously never meant to be used in the real world, the mask launcher was a fun way to experiment with pneumatics and a funny way to start the conversation about effective public health measures.
We’ve featured similar projects before, too
. Video after the break.
America has a pandemic problem so I solved it by making a gun:
pic.twitter.com/WRaiuVU90K
— Allen Pan (@AnyTechnology)
August 15, 2020 | 33 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271218",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T07:44:18",
"content": "as soon as I watched this I thought someone should bring out a game (on the computer) where you run around shooting masks onto people..",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,373,386.775112 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/helmet-decal-charger-keeps-them-ready-to-glow/ | Helmet Decal Charger Keeps Them Ready To Glow | Kristina Panos | [
"LED Hacks",
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"drill battery",
"glow in the dark",
"phosphorescence",
"timer",
"UV LED"
] | When firefighters are battling a blaze, it’s difficult for them to find each other in the smoky darkness. To help stand out they wear glow-in-the-dark decals on their helmets, but since they spend so much of their down time stowed away in a dark locker, they don’t always have a chance to charge up.
[Bin Sun]’s firefighter friend inspired them to build
a portable charging system that can stuff those helmet decals full of photons in a matter of minutes
. Although phosphorescent materials will charge in any light, they charge the fastest with ultraviolet light. This uses a pair of UV LED strips controlled by an off-the-shelf programmable timer, and powered with an 18-volt drill battery stepped down to 12 V. The timer makes it easy for [Bin Sun]’s friend to schedule charge times around their shifts, so the battery lasts as long as possible while keeping the decals ready to glow.
We love that [Bin Sun] seems to have thought of everything. The light strips are nestled into 3D-printed holders that also house small magnets. This makes it easy to position the lights on either side of the locker so both the front and back decals soak up the light.
Phosphorescent materials are great as a reusable display medium,
especially when they’re designed to look like Nixie tubes
. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271241",
"author": "Jii",
"timestamp": "2020-08-16T12:19:46",
"content": "Better make sure all the gear next to the UV lights are UV resistant, but nice idea.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271251",
"author": "socks... | 1,760,373,386.711202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/anything-becomes-a-clock/ | Anything Becomes A Clock | Bryan Cockfield | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"bearing",
"clock. lazy susan",
"friction",
"low-torque",
"motor",
"movement",
"Object",
"turntable"
] | Clocks are a popular project around here, and with good reason. There’s a ton of options, and there’s always a new take on ways to tell time. Clocks using lasers, words, or even ball bearings are all atypical ways of displaying time, but like a mathematician looking for a general proof of a long-understood idea this clock from [Julldozer]
shows us a way to turn
any
object into a clock
.
His build uses AA-powered clock movements that you would find on any typical wall clock, rather than reaching for his go-to solution of an Arduino and a stepper motor. The motors that drive the hands in these movements are extremely low-torque and low-power which is what allows them to last for so long with such a small power source. He uses two of them, one for hours and one for minutes, to which he attaches a custom-built lazy Suzan. The turntable needs to be extremely low-friction so as to avoid a situation where he has to change batteries every day, so after some 3D printing he has two rotating plates which can hold any object in order to tell him the current time.
While he didn’t design a clock from scratch or reinvent any other wheels, the part of this project that shines is the way he was able to utilize such a low-power motor to turn something so much heavier. This could have uses well outside the realm of timekeeping, and reminds us of this
3D-printed gear set
from last year’s Hackaday prize. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271193",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T23:40:58",
"content": "You know you can use this technique to make a 12 hour clock only using one clock, like the one pictured here, only not as fancy.https://a.1stdibscdn.com/antique-french-gilt-bronze-marble-and-tole-revolv... | 1,760,373,386.8163 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/vintage-ammeter-becomes-plant-moisture-gauge/ | Vintage Ammeter Becomes Plant Moisture Gauge | Lewin Day | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"analog gauge",
"soil moisture sensor",
"soil sensor",
"steam gauge hack"
] | It’s not uncommon to happen across vintage measurement equipment at the local flea market or garage sale. Often with an irresistible aesthetic, and built to last decades, these tools nonetheless tend to be sidelined when modern multimeters are available. [Build Comics] had just such a piece on hand,
and decided to repurpose it with some modern hardware instead.
The build begins with a Hartmann & Braun 60 amp ammeter. Replete in a nice wooden box, it’s the perfect candidate for a modern refit. The device uses an indicator of the moving iron type. Intending to turn the device into a soil moisture monitor, [Build Comics] began by removing the original heavy-wound coil. In its place, a custom coil was installed instead, wound on a 3D printed bobbin using a modified sewing machine. This allows the meter to be easily driven by an Arduino with little more than a transistor on a GPIO pin. To detect moisture, a Iduino ME110 moisture probe was used. Complete with cloth-covered wire to maintain the vintage look. The original meter plate was also photographed, modified, and reprinted, to read moisture levels instead of current.
If you’re interested in these gauge restoration techniques but don’t have a green thumb, no worries. [Build Comics] used similar tricks to
put together a gorgeous weather station
that would look great on your desk. | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271183",
"author": "Miroslav",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T21:58:02",
"content": "Me 110 moisture probe? What a waste of vintage aircraft.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6271186",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,373,386.868625 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/keycap-customizer-brings-all-your-caps-to-the-board/ | Keycap Customizer Brings All Your Caps To The Board | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3D CAD",
"artisan keycap",
"cad",
"key stem",
"keyboard",
"keycap",
"keyswitch",
"openscad"
] | With bright colors and often intricate designs, after the physical shape of a keyboard the most conspicuous elements are surely the keycaps. Historically dictated by the stem of the key switch it attaches to, keycaps come in a variety of sizes, colors, profiles, and designs. As they necessarily include small features with tight tolerances to fit the stem of their key switch, injection molding is the classic manufacturing technique for a keycap. But as hobbyist 3D printing matures and resin printers become more accessible, home keycap manufacturing is increasingly good option. Instead of designing each cap by hand, consider trying [rsheldiii]’s
KeyV2 OpenSCAD script to create custom caps
with ease.
To cover the basics, KeyV2 can generate full keycap sets with Cherry or Alps stems, in the SA, DSA, DCS profiles (and more!) for any typically sized keyboard. Generating a particular cap of arbitrary profile, position, and size is just a short chain of function calls away. But standard keycap sets aren’t the highlight of this toolset.
If you’re not an OpenSCAD aficionado yet, visit [Brian Benchoffs]
great getting-started guide
or
our other coverage
to get a feel for what the tool can do. Part of OpenSCAD’s attraction is that it is the the paragon of parametric modeling. It’s declarative part files ensure that no parameter goes undefined, which is a perfect fit for KeyV2.
The root file upon which all caps are based on has
about
150
keycap parameters
which can be tweaked, and that’s before more elaborate customization. Making simple “artisan” caps is a snap, as the magic of OpenSCAD means the user can perform any Boolean operations they need on top of the fully parameterized keycap. Combining an arbitrary model with a keycap is one
union()
away. See the README for examples.
For the prospective user of KeyV2 worried about complexity; don’t be, the documentation is a treat. Basic use to generate standard keycaps is simple, and there are plenty of commented source files and examples to make more complex usage easy. Thinking about a new keyboard? Check out our
recent spike in clacky coverage
. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271152",
"author": "Barry Thelemann",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T18:03:57",
"content": "I soooo want a set of Commodore 64 key-caps for cherries sized to fit in an off the shelf PC keyboard, ideally double shot so it can be lit too",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,373,388.712362 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/hammer-seeks-nail/ | Hammer Seeks Nail | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"diy foam cutter",
"habits",
"hacking",
"inspiration",
"newsletter"
] | People sometimes say “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail” as if that were a bad thing. Hitting up Wikipedia, they’re calling it the
Law of the Instrument
or
Maslow’s Hammer
and calling it a cognitive bias. But I like hammers…
I’m working on a new tool, a four-axis hot-wire foam cutter
based roughly on this design
, but built out of stuff in my basement so far. I want it primarily to turn out wings for RC airplanes so that I can play around with airfoils and construction methods and so on. But halfway through building this new “hammer”, I’m already getting funny ideas of other projects that could be built with it. Classic nail-seeking behavior.
And some of these thoughts are making me reconsider the design of my hammer. I originally wanted to build it low, because it’s not likely that I’ll ever want to cut wing sections taller than 50 mm or so. But as soon as cutting out giant letters to decorate my son’s room, or maybe parts for a boat hull enter my mind, that means a significantly taller cutter, with ensuing complications.
So here I am suffering simultaneously from Maslow’s Hammer and scope creep, but I’m not sad about either of these “ills”. Playing with a couple manual prototypes for the CNC hot-wire cutter has expanded my design vocabulary; I’ve thought of a couple cool projects that I simply wouldn’t have had the mental map for before. Having tools expands the possible ways you can build, cognitive bias or not.
One person’s scope creep is another’s “fully realizing the potential of a project”. I’m pretty sure that I’ll build a version two of this machine anyway, so maybe it’s not a big deal if the first draft were height-limited, but the process of thinking through the height problem has actually lead me to a better design even for the short cutter. (Tension provided by an external bow instead of born by the vertical CNC towers. I’ll write the project up when I’m done. But that’s not the point.)
Maybe instead of lamenting Maslow’s cognitive bias, we should be celebrating the other side of the same coin: that nails are tremendously useful, and that the simple fact of having a hammer can lead you to fully appreciate them, and in turn expand what you’re capable of. As for scope creep? As long as I get the project done over my vacation next week, all’s well, right?
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
the web version of the newsletter
.
Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning?
You should sign up
! | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271123",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T14:25:00",
"content": "Wait, you need 4′ x 6′ x 8′ feet build volume so you can do a homebuilt aircraft like the Rutan Quickie…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6271129... | 1,760,373,388.557601 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/wireless-sax-mic-done-on-the-cheap/ | Wireless Sax Mic Done On The Cheap | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"microphone",
"saxophone"
] | Sometimes, economies of scale don’t work in our favor. While guitarists and singers will find themselves well catered to by the accessories market, players of fancier, less popular instruments will often have to dig deeper in their pockets to get what they need. [Henry Goh] found himself in need of a saxophone mic. However, off-the-shelf solutions were a touch expensive,
and thus he decided he could probably whip something up himself.
(Video, embedded below.)
Parts of a saxophone, for the uninitiated. The microphone should be placed a good distance from the center of the bell to pick up the best sound.
It’s a simple solution, one that we could imagine any maker quickly whipping up with junkbox parts. Not one to skimp on quality, [Henry] picked a Rode Wireless Go paired with a lavalier mic for a quality wireless microphone solution. The real problem would be mounting the device, intended to be worn on a shirt, to the right position in front of the saxophone’s bell.
To achieve this, most dedicated sax mics used a bendable arm to allow the position to be readily changed. Instead, [Henry] whipped up some mounts on the 3D printer that would allow him to mount the Rode wireless mic hardware on an bendy Energizer LED torch. The torch even comes with a clamp allowing it to be easily attached to the instrument, making fitment a cinch.
[Henry] estimates the solution saved him up to $800 SGD. The final result is cost effective, and gives quality easily good enough for amateur and community performances. As a bonus, the hack is non-destructive, meaning you can repurpose the lavalier mic for other work as needed.
We love a good hack on the cheap, and it’s something we see all the time in the music scene.
This guitar build is a great example of the form
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%20&feature=youtu.be | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271114",
"author": "John Spencer",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T12:55:47",
"content": "I suppose a clothes peg and a bit of gaffer tape would be considered too simple to be serious.(It’s easy to criticise, I know, I know).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,373,388.835214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/15/four-steppers-make-a-four-voice-midi-instrument/ | Four Steppers Make A Four-Voice MIDI Instrument | Jenny List | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"midi",
"stepper motor"
] | Any owner of a budget 3D printer will tell you that they can be pretty noisy devices, due to their combinations of stepper motors and drives chosen for cost rather than quiet. But what if the noise were an asset, could the annoying stepper sound be used as a musical instrument? It’s a question [David Scholten] has answered with the
Stepper Synth
, a device that takes an Arduino Uno and four stepper motors to create a four-voice MIDI synthesiser.
Hardware-wise it’s as simple as you’d expect, a box with four stepper motors each with a red 3D-printed flag on its shaft to show rotation. Underneath there is the Arduino, plus a robot control shield and a set of stepper driver boards. On the software side it uses MIDI-over-serial, so as a Windows user his instructions for the host are for that operating system only. The Arduino makes use of the
Arduino MIDI library
, and he shares tips on disabling the unused motors to stop overheating.
You can hear it in action in the video below the break, and we’re surprised to say it doesn’t sound too bad. There’s something almost reminiscent of a church organ in there somewhere, it would be interesting to refine it with an acoustic enclosure of some kind.
This isn’t the first such instrument we’ve brought you, for a particularly impressive example take a look at
the Floppotron
. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271093",
"author": "bob",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T08:19:51",
"content": "the initial d track seemed out of tune, wonder what causes the issue, as i assume the code uses standard musical frequency scales. quality of music is compareable to an 80s microcomputer.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,373,388.497167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/quick-3d-printed-airfoils-with-these-openscad-helpers/ | Quick 3D-Printed Airfoils With These OpenSCAD Helpers | Elliot Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed plane",
"airfoil",
"openscad",
"propeller",
"wing"
] | You know how it is. You’re working on a project that needs to move air or water, or move
through
air or water, but your 3D design chops and/or your aerodynamics knowledge hold you back from doing the right thing? If you use OpenSCAD, you have no excuse for creating unnecessary turbulence: just click on your favorite foil and paste it right in. [Benjamin]’s
web-based utility
has scraped the fantastic
UIUC airfoil database
and does the hard work for you.
While he originally wrote the utility to
make the blades for a blower for a foundry
, he’s also got plans to try out some 3D printed wind turbines, and naturally has a
nice collection of turbine airfoils as well
.
If your needs aren’t very fancy, and you just want something with less drag, you might also consider [ErroneousBosch]’s
very simple airfoil generator
, also for OpenSCAD. Making a NACA-profile wing that’s 120 mm wide and 250 mm long is as simple as
airfoil_simple_wing([120, 0030], wing_length=250);
If you have more elaborate needs, or want to design the foil yourself, you can always plot out the points, convert it to a DXF and extrude. Indeed, this is what we’d do if we weren’t modelling in OpenSCAD anyway. But who wants to do all that manual labor?
Between open-source simulators, modelling tools, and 3D printable parts, there’s no excuse for sub-par aerodynamics these days. If you’re going to
make a wind turbine
, do it right! (And sound off on your favorite aerodynamics design tools in the comments. We’re in the market.) | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271089",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T07:18:25",
"content": "the hard part isn’t getting proper airfoil geometry, its validating that geometry, a very non-trivial task. a design that looks like it would work well might turn out to be really inefficient. when i ... | 1,760,373,388.750489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/single-piece-3d-printed-pcb-vise/ | Single Piece 3D-Printed PCB Vise | Danie Conradie | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"design for manufacturing",
"PCB vise",
"soldering"
] | Making full use of the capabilities and advantages of 3D printing requires a very different way of thinking compared to more traditional manufacturing methods. Often we see designs that do not really take these advantages into account, so we’re always on the lookout for interesting designs that embrace the nature of 3D-printed parts in interesting ways. [joopjoop]’s
spring-loaded PCB vise
is one such ingenious design that incorporates the spring action into the print itself.
This vise is designed to be printed as a single piece, with very little post-processing required if your printer is dialed in. There is a small gap between the base plate and the springs and clamping surfaces that need to be separated with a painters knife or putty knife. Two “handles” have contours for your fingers to operate the clamping surfaces. It opens quickly for inserting your latest custom PCB.
PLA can be surprisingly flexible if the right geometry is used, and these springs are an excellent example of this. In the video below [Chuck Hellebuyck] does a test and review of the design, and it looks like it works well for hand soldering (though it probably won’t hold up well with a hot air station). Last month our own [Tom Nardi] recently reviewed
a similar concept that used spiral springs
designed into the printed part. While these both get the job done, [Tom’s] overall verdict is that a design like
this rubber-band actuated PCB vise
is a better long-term option.
It takes some creativity to get right, but
printing complete assemblies as a single part
, is a very useful feature of 3D printing. Just be careful of trying to make it the
solution for every mechanical problem
. | 27 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271073",
"author": "john ferguson",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T03:17:14",
"content": "Spelling “Vise” vice certainly suggests heavy engineering participation here. Wow.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6271131",
"author"... | 1,760,373,388.66455 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/tech-at-home-winners-who-made-the-best-of-their-quarantine/ | Tech At Home Winners Who Made The Best Of Their Quarantine | Tom Nardi | [
"contests",
"Roundup"
] | [
"Making Tech at Home",
"pandemic",
"winners"
] | Back in April we challenged hackers to make the best of a tough situation by spending their time in isolation building with what they had laying around the shop. The pandemic might have forced us to stay in our homes and brought global shipping to a near standstill, but judging by the
nearly 300 projects
that were ultimately entered into the
Making Tech At Home Contest
, it certainly didn’t stifle the creativity of the incredible Hackaday community.
While it’s never easy selecting the winners, we think you’ll agree that the
Inverse Thermal Camera
is really something special. Combining a surplus thermal printer, STM32F103 Blue Pill, and OV7670 camera module inside an enclosure made from scraps of copper clad PCB, the gadget prints out the captured images on a roll of receipt paper like some kind of post-apocalyptic lo-fi Polaroid.
HexMatrix
Hive Lamp
The
HexMatrix Clock
also exemplified the theme of working with what you have, as the electronics were nothing more exotic than a string of WS2811 LEDs and either an Arduino or ESP8266 to drive them. With the LEDs mounted into a 3D printed frame and diffuser, this unique display has an almost alien beauty about it. If you like that concept and have a few more RGB LEDs laying around, then you’ll love the
Hive Lamp
which took a very similar idea and stretched it out into the third dimension to create a standing technicolor light source that wouldn’t be out of place on a starship.
Each of these three top projects will receive a collection of parts and tools courtesy of Digi-Key valued at $500.
Runners Up
Out friends at Digi-Key were also kind enough to provide smaller grab bags of electronic goodies to the creators of the following 30 projects to help them keep hacking in these trying times:
Bar Bot on the Cheap
TELEBOT
Hydraulic Drill Press on a Budget
SDR LimeToGo
Quarantine Fan PWMer
Melba I
74xx Discrete Clock
Arduino Cat Training Console
toolsloth
berlinClock
HDD Delta Robot
Zero Budget Pedalboard
IOT Motion Sensor (3D print) – DIY
Mokki: Much Retro Game Console
Truly WiFi Extender
MP3Flower
Hacking a iMac G5 into an HDMI monitor
Atari 8 bit, NES and SMS on an ESP32
Calorie Restricted Phone Charging
Desk Plant Weather Station
Starburst
Stepper Synth
Virtual Pipe Organ
PolyMorph Receiver
No-Face-Touchy Training Collar (No Magnets!)
DIY 6-digit multimeter
DIY Lithophane Floating Lamp
LLTP – Light Logic Transistorless Processor
3D Printed Hand-Following AI Task Light
DIY An Electronic Desk Calendar
The Making Tech At Home Contest might be over, but unfortunately, it looks like COVID-19 will be hanging around for a bit. Hopefully some of these incredible projects will inspire you to make the most out of your longer than expected downtime. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271063",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T01:04:38",
"content": "+1 to Digikey for sponsoring this contest!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6271145",
"author": "fruchti",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T17:29:32",
... | 1,760,373,388.442772 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/abused-hard-drive-becomes-pov-clock/ | Abused Hard Drive Becomes POV Clock | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"h-bridge",
"hard drive",
"led",
"persistence of vision",
"POV",
"rgb",
"rtc",
"voice coil",
"ws2812b"
] | We all know that there’s not much to do with an old hard drive. Once you render the platters unreadable and perhaps harvest those powerful magnets, there’s not much left of interest. Unless, of course, you
turn the whole thing into a persistence-of-vision clock
.
At least that’s what [Leo] did when he created “PendoLux”. The clock itself is pretty simple; like any POV project, it just requires a way to move an array of flashing LEDs back and forth rapidly enough that they can trick the eye into seeing a solid image. [Leo] put the read head mechanism of an old HDD into use for that, after stripping the platters and motor out of it first.
The voice coil and magnet of the head arm are left intact, while a 3D-printed arm carrying seven RGB LEDs replaces the old heads. [Leo] added a small spring to return the arm to a neutral position, and used an Arduino to drive the coil and flash the LEDs. Getting the timing just right was a matter of trial and error; he also needed to eschew the standard LED libraries because of his heavy use of interrupts and used direct addressing instead.
POV clocks may have dropped out of style lately — this
hard drive POV clock
and
a CD-ROM version
were posted years ago. But [Leo]’s clock is pretty good looking even for a work in progress, so maybe the style will be making a comeback.
[via
Hackaday.io
] | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271041",
"author": "dendad",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T21:46:03",
"content": "About time some one did this ;)Actually, that is a pretty clever use of the old stuff.Next thing is to do a few in a row maybe?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"com... | 1,760,373,388.604609 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/analyzing-water-quality-with-a-pair-of-robots/ | Analyzing Water Quality With A Pair Of Robots | Tom Nardi | [
"Science",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"ardupilot",
"Open Source Underwater Glider",
"PixHawk",
"submersible"
] | To adequately study a body of water such as a lake, readings and samples need to be taken from an array of depths and locations. Traditionally this is done by a few researchers on a small boat with an assortment of tools that can be lowered to the desired depth, which is naturally a very slow and expensive process. As the demand for ever more granular water quality analysis has grown, various robotic approaches have been suggested to help automate the process.
A group of students from Northeastern University in Boston have been working on
Project Albatross, a unique combination of semi-autonomous vehicles
that work together to provide nearly instantaneous data from above and below the water’s surface. By utilizing open source software and off-the-shelf components, their system promises to be affordable enough even for citizen scientists conducting their own environmental research.
The surface vehicle, assembled from five gallon buckets and aluminum extrusion, uses a Pixhawk autopilot module to control a set of modified bilge pumps acting as thrusters. With ArduPilot, the team is able to command the vehicle to follow pre-planned routes or hold itself in one position as needed. Towed behind this craft is a sensor laden submersible inspired by the
Open-Source Underwater Glider (OSUG)
that
won the 2017 Hackaday Prize
.
Using an array of syringes operated by a NEMA 23 stepper motor, the glider is able to control its depth in the water by adjusting its buoyancy. The aluminum “wings” on the side of the PVC pipe body prevent the vehicle from rolling will moving through the water. As with the surface vehicle, many of the glider components were sourced from the hardware store to reduce its overall cost to build and maintain.
The tether from the surface vehicle provides power for the submersible, greatly increasing the amount of time it can spend underwater compared to internal batteries. It also allows readings from sensors in the tail of the glider to be transmitted to researchers in real-time rather than having to wait for it to surface. While the team says there’s still work to be done on the PID tuning which will give the glider more finely-grained control over its depth, the results from a recent test run already look very promising.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271080",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2020-08-15T05:23:37",
"content": "Those hardware store brand 5gal buckets are flimsy and prone to split down the side. Real “pickle” buckets are food grade and quite tough. They would fair a lot better in the sun too.",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,373,388.791729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/how-to-choose-the-right-gps-module-for-your-project/ | How To Choose The Right GPS Module For Your Project | Lewin Day | [
"gps hacks",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"Beidou",
"Galileo",
"glonass",
"gps",
"navigation"
] | You’ve built a brand new project, and it’s a wonderful little thing that’s out and about in the world. The only problem is, you need to know its location to a decent degree of accuracy. Thankfully, GPS is a thing! With an off-the-shelf module, it’s possible to get all the location data you could possibly need. But how do you go about it, and what parts are the right ones for your application? For the answers to these questions, read on!
All The Same, But Totally Different
Working with GPS may seem daunting, but thanks to the efforts of industry and individuals, these days, it’s remarkably straightforward. Most modules on the market all work in a similar way. They most commonly communicate over a standard serial interface, usually at 9600 baud, though I2C and SPI interfaces are also available. The messaging format is also standardised, with data being output in the NMEA-0183 format. This standard is well-documented for those wishing to parse the data. However, for those truly in a hurry, it’s possible to find code for many microcontroller platforms that will do the work for you. Projects like NeoGPS, Adafruit GPS, and minmea will take an incoming serial data stream, and spit out all the geographic location data you could possibly ask for. So is a GPS just a GPS?
Depending on your application, you may require different things out of your GPS module. Fast-moving platforms relying on GPS to guide an autopilot will benefit from a fast update rate, while a passive location tracking device may do perfectly well updating just once per second. Accuracy requirements are varied, with some applications requiring resolution down to the centimeter range. There are also additional features that help in edge cases, like dead reckoning and multi-constellation fixes. A clear understanding of your use-case and budget are key to picking the right hardware for the job.
I Just Need To Know Roughly Where It Is!
For applications where you’re looking for accuracy down to a few meters at low update rates, a basic GPS module will do. Available for under $20, they generally offer refresh rates of 1-5 Hz, and few bells and whistles. For many projects, this is enough for indicating the location of a person, robot, or vehicle. Basic autopilots can also get by at these refresh rates. Power draw of such modules is usually below 50mA, and communication is over serial.
Devices based on the
GP-20U7
and the now-superseded
uBlox NEO-6M
fall into this range. Cheap and cheerful, they’re a great way to build your first GPS project on a budget.
I Need A Signal At All Times!
If losing a fix is unacceptable, or you’re trying to pull a lock in difficult urban environments, it pays to source a module capable of operating in such conditions. In these cases, features like external antenna connectors can help, allowing bigger antennas to be fitted. An important note is that the common PCB U.FL connectors are only rated for a handful of cycles, and break easily – so consider getting a
U.FL to SMA pigtail
to avoid this. Antennas come in many shapes and sizes, but most dedicated parts will be an improvement on the standard small ceramics that come with many modules.
A quality antenna with a dedicated ground plane can boost reception significantly. Source: Orolia
Getting an accurate location fix depends on having a clear signal from a multitude of satellites – so having more to choose from makes this easier. Modules that can also pick up signals from alternative constellations are more likely to “see” enough satellites to get a fix. With China’s BEIDOU, Europe’s Galileo, and Russia’s GLONASS systems in orbit, having a module that can pick up these additional signals can be a huge benefit when working in complex environments with limited view of the sky.
Sometimes, though, no matter what, you’re going to be out of reach of even a single satellite. Things like tunnels can make it impossible to get a fix. In these cases, modules that feature dead-reckoning come in handy. When signals drop out, the module uses onboard inertial measurement hardware to update the location fix until reception is resumed. This can make a big difference in usability, particularly for turn-by-turn guidance applications.
These added features can improve the availability of a fix, but come at a cost. Modules like the
XA1110
and
ublox NEO-M8U
ship in the $50-100 range. However, for the price, they also often pack in additional interface options like USB-serial and I2C, along with higher update rates.
I Need Fast Updates!
Drone autopilots often benefit from faster update rates. Source: Krista Almanzan
If you’re building something that moves at rapid speeds, 5 Hz updates might be a little slow for your tastes. Faster modules update anywhere from 10Hz to 25Hz, providing much better guidance for whatever you’re building that might have cause to travel so quickly. Of course, if you’re building a cruise missile, you’re probably not shopping at Sparkfun, but hey, go off queen! These devices generally communicate at higher baud rate serial or I2C to provide quicker location updates.
Modules offering this capability can still be had fairly cheaply, falling anywhere from $20-100. Look out for units like the
SAM-M9N
or
BN-880Q
for your high-speed projects.
I Need Accuracy Down To The Centimeter!
For some applications, accuracy is everything. If you’re piloting a combine harvester and don’t wish it to drive through a fence, a fix down to the meter simply isn’t good enough. In these cases, receivers using Real Time Kinematics (RTK) technology are just the ticket. They pair the received satellite signals with local correction data sourced from a base station, ideally within a 10 km radius of their position.
RTK works by supplying local correction data from base stations to the mobile unit. Source: GPS for Land Surveyors
This data can be provided over the Internet or via a LoRa radio link, and allows the module to deliver a fix accurate down to the centimeter in ideal conditions. Some operators run base stations for public use, but it’s possible to run your own with the right hardware. Many high-end modules can be set up to act as a base station for other units operating in the area.
The cost of this accuracy is complexity and, of course, price. RTK-capable GPS modules come in at around the $200-300 mark, featuring modules like the
NEO-M8P
and
ZED-F9P.
A base station is also required to provide correction data, and you’ll have to provide your own if one isn’t available locally. You’ll need to get the data into the module too, either over the internet or other radio data link. Be sure to account for these requirements when costing the design!
Conclusion
We are blessed to have access to a wide variety of GPS modules aimed at the maker market, spanning a broad spectrum of capability and price. Where high performance once cost thousands of dollars and was only available at the industrial level, now it can be had for much less from a variety of retailers online. Use your project requirements as a guide, and set forth to complete your now location-aware project. As always, happy hacking! | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270992",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T17:44:27",
"content": "And soon (TM) we’ll have access to L5-capable devices outside of current high-end phones and we’ll be able to get down to 30cm or so (I think). Can’t wait.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,373,388.900578 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/hackaday-podcast-080-trucks-on-a-wire-seeing-sounds-flightless-drone-and-tea-laser-strike/ | Hackaday Podcast 080: Trucks On A Wire, Seeing Sounds, Flightless Drone, And TEA Laser Strike | Mike Szczys | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"acoustics",
"electric vehicles",
"Hackaday Podcast",
"HOPE conference",
"multirotor",
"spectra",
"TEA laser",
"Wind turbine"
] | Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys flip through the index of great hacks. This week we learn of a co-existence attack on WiFi and Bluetooth radios called Spectra. The craftsmanship in a pneumatic drone is so awesome we don’t care that it doesn’t fly. Building a powerful TEA laser is partly a lesson in capacitor design. And join us in geeking out at the prospect of big rigs getting their juice from miles of overhead wires.
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 080 Show Notes:
New This Week:
Six New HackadayU Courses Announced for Fall 2020
Hackaday U Course: Ghidra with [wrongbaud]
(video)
2020 Hackaday Prize
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Acoustic Camera Uses Many, Many Microphones
True Craftsmanship: Pneumatic Powered Drone Wasn’t Made To Fly
How About A Nice Cuppa TEA Laser?
Legit Hack Creates TEA Laser Power By Mr. Wimshurst
HAWT Wind Turbine Is Mostly 3D Printed
WinDIY’s hub – Oh my god mechanics
UIUC Airfoil Coordinates Database for OpenSCAD
NACA Airfoils – 4 digit fully parametric OpenSCAD library by Parkinbot – Thingiverse
Separation Between WiFi And Bluetooth Broken By The Spectra Co-Existence Attack
Official Arduboy Upgrade Module Nears Competition
3D Printing For Wire Paths Yields An Arduboy Minus The PCB
The Arduboy Gets A Crank Mod
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Glasgow Uses An FPGA As An Embedded Systems Multitool
Print With Plasma!
ESPFLIX Brings Streaming Video To The World Of Microcontrollers
Mike’s Picks:
Wood-Fired Hot Tub For The End Of The World
Breathtaking Alarm Clock Looks Like It Came From A 1960 Fallout Shelter
Unique Instrument Plucks Out Notes On A Ruler
Can’t-Miss Articles:
HOPE 2020 Delivers Historic Marathon Of Hacking
HOPE 2020 UPDATE
Our Trucks Won’t Need No Batteries! Electric Trucks Look To Overhead Wires For Power | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271013",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T18:52:58",
"content": "The trains and trucks conversation was a bit overwhelmed by the logistics side of it, so what was skipped over was the cost calculation that didn’t account for capacity factors, so it under-estimated the cos... | 1,760,373,388.939404 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/5-lets-your-documents-go-virtual/ | $5 Lets Your Documents Go Virtual | Al Williams | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"document camera",
"skype",
"video conferencing",
"zoom"
] | Video conferencing is nothing new, but the recent world events have made it much more mainstream than it has been in the past. Luckily, web camera technology is nothing new and most software can also show your screen. But what about your paper documents? Turns out that [John Nelson] can show you how to spend
$5 for an old laptop camera module
and put your documents center stage on your next Zoom, Skype or other video conferences.
This is especially good for things that would be hard to draw in real time during a conference like a quick sketch, a schematic, or as you can see in the post and the video demo below, chemical molecule diagrams.
It isn’t hard to imagine how this works, but getting a steady holder for the laptop does take a little workshop effort. There’s also an earlier version made to work with
a desktop computer
and has a few more dollars tied up in more substantial base.
We might have been tempted to make an Elmo clone by taking a nice desk lamp and just strapping the camera to it. However, that would cost a lot more than $5 unless you are good at shopping thrift stores.
We have seen a few projects using these
laptop cameras
lately. They are cheap, easy to stick into things and work with normal USB connections. Of course, conferencing also involves audio, so you might want to think about adding a
mute switch
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270957",
"author": "Olivier",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T15:08:03",
"content": "It’s low-tech – It’s perfect for me !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270977",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T16:5... | 1,760,373,389.40806 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/this-week-in-security-def-con-intel-leaks-snapdragon-and-a-robot-possessed/ | This Week In Security: DEF CON, Intel Leaks, Snapdragon, And A Robot Possessed | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"DEF CON",
"Snapdragon",
"This Week in Security"
] | Last weekend, DEF CON held their “SAFE MODE” conference: instead of meeting at a physical venue, the entire conference was held online. All the presentations are available on
the official DEF CON YouTube channel
. We’ll cover a few of the presentations here, and watch out for other articles on HaD with details on the other talks that we found interesting.
Lock Picking
We don’t often dabble with physical security in our weekly roundup, but the lockpicking track is a big part of DEF CON. It’s a perfect excuse. So first up is
a presentation about safe-cracking
by [Jared Dygert]. You know the scene in the movie where the super thief cracks the safe by listening to it as he spins the dial? Yeah, forget that. The real technique doesn’t have anything to do with sound. A typical three-number combination safe has a trio of wheels inside the locking mechanism. Each of these wheels have a narrow slot, or gate, cut into them. When the three gates are lined up, the locking bar can fall into the slots, and a fourth wheel pulls the lock open.
That fourth wheel is the key to cracking a safe, as the locking bar rides directly on the outer surface of that wheel. The gate there is shaped differently from the others, with a curved edge on one side. It’s possible to feel exactly when the locking bar begins to drop into that gate. Because of the shape of that special fourth gate, it’s possible to measure the width, and by extension discover how far the locking bar has dropped. As the three wheels with unknown gates aren’t perfectly the same size, it’s possible to map the surface of the largest wheel and discover where the gate is. For a demonstration, watch the video linked above.
It’s hard to mention lock pickers without giving a shout-out to a pair of YouTubers,
[Bosnianbill]
and
[LockPickingLawyer]
. I came across a video this week from the lawyer of this dynamic duo, and it’s the most polite-yet-savage burn I’ve seen in a long while. Before you watch, know that the tool he uses is the
Sparrows Disk Pick
, and he and [Bosnianbill] worked together to design and beta test the tool.
A Dragon’s Achilles Heel
Snapdragon processors are quite popular in high end Android devices. These processors are packaged in a System on a Chip (SoC), which really contains a number of processors and devices. A Snapdragon SoC has a processor, GPU, Wifi modem, Image Signal Processor, and Digital Signal Processor. We talk a lot about security vulnerabilities in the software that runs on the CPU. What if I told you there were vulnerabilities in software running on those other processor cores, too? Well yeah, there will obviously be poorly written code there too. What hasn’t been obvious is how to find those vulnerabilities, and then how to attack them. Now, thanks to the researchers at Checkpoint Security, and
their work on Achilles
, we know a way to attack the dragon’s heel.
When an app needs to use the Snapdragon DSP, it invokes a serialization library, referred to as a
stub.so
file. Once the data is serialized, it is transferred to the DSP over shared memory, using the DSRPC driver. Along with the data to be processed, the application also sends along the processing library. This library is essentially the program that will run on the DSP. There is a code signing requirement. The DSP will only run code that has been signed by Qualcomm, but there is no version checking or revocation mechanism. In essence, any DSP library Qualcomm has ever signed is allowed to run on every DSP. To make matters worse, an Android app can access the DSP with no special permissions. Even if only one vulnerable DSP library were created, the weak code-signing scheme means that every Qualcomm DSP is vulnerable.
A few articles are suggesting that a malicious video or audio file downloaded from the net can trigger the vulnerability. This is incorrect. So far, only an application with direct access to the DSP can launch the attack. During the virtual press conference on Thursday, this was addressed by a Checkpoint researcher. While it’s theoretically possible for a video file to trigger a yet-to-be-found vulnerability, the flaw they found is a deserialization bug that is only triggered by a malicious serialization process. This means data processed using the official serialization process can’t trigger this vulnerability. The deserialization bug is actually rooted in the Software Development Kit that is distributed to OEMs and used to build the individual libraries. To put it simply, it’s not just one or two DSP library that is vulnerable, but all of them, which is where the “400 vulnerabilities” comes from.
Once a malicious application uses the vulnerability to break the deserialization routine and achieve code execution, what’s next? Qualcomm did at least do proper user/kernel separation, and an additional vulnerability is needed to escalate privilege up to full compromise. Once there, the primary threat is data leakage. The malware on the DSP can examine all the data that other applications share for processing. This likely means full access to the device’s microphone, and potentially camera when it is use. I was able to ask Checkpoint if they had managed to permanently modify the DSP’s firmware, as this sort of modification could survive through even a full factory reset. Their response is that they had investigated this question, and had been unable to make a permanent modification. This isn’t surprising as firmware of this nature is often not stored on the SoC itself, but is loaded from the main system flash memory as a part of the boot process.
So far, this set of vulnerabilities doesn’t pose a huge risk to the everyday user. The normal advice of not installing untrusted applications is still the best solution. The major danger here is that DSP malware could be used by an installed application to access the microphone audio without having any permissions. The process of fixing this set of vulnerabilities will be a headache for years to come. Not only will the individual vulnerable libraries need to be updated, the signing problems will need to be addressed so vulnerable libraries can’t be trivially executed. It does not appear that any fixes are available at this time.
For your viewing pleasure, one of the other excellent talks from DEF CON is below, where [Christopher Wade] dives deeply into firmware hacking, primarily on Android devices.
Intel Leaks 20 GB
A very large
dump of Intel code and documentation
was made public last week. The official Intel explanation a partner or customer must have abused their access to Intel’s “Resource and Design Center”, and leaked the documents from there. According to ZDnet’s coverage, though, the leaker claims to have found the documentation on a CDN server that wasn’t properly configured.
Regardless, the leak seems to be genuine. Time will tell what interesting tidbits are contained in the 20 GB that were just released. As the information is all marked confidential, there is a bit of a legal grey area as to what programmers are allowed to do with the information.
Robot Exorcist?
And finally, just for fun, researchers at McAfee found
a set of vulnerabilities in the “temi” teleconference robot
. In a surprisingly detailed write-up, they describe how an attacker can possess the robot without any valid credentials, use it to drive the robot around and spy on whatever is nearby. McAfee researchers have shared all their findings with temi’s vendor, and fixes are already available. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270945",
"author": "nathan",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T14:13:14",
"content": "Does anyone know if the intel leak has any info on the IME?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270963",
"author": "pnv57",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,373,389.588886 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/robotic-arm-sports-industrial-design-3d-printed-cycloidal-gears/ | Robotic Arm Sports Industrial Design, 3D-Printed Cycloidal Gears | Donald Papp | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"cycloidal",
"gearbox",
"robotic arm",
"stepper"
] | [Petar Crnjak]’s
Faze4 is a open source robotic arm
with 3D printable parts, inspired in part by the design of industrial robot arms. In particular, [Petar] aimed to hide wiring and cables inside the arm as much as possible, and the results look great! Just watch it move in the video below.
Cycloidal gearboxes have been showing up in robotic arm projects more and more, and Faze4 makes good use of them. Why cycloidal gears? They are readily 3D printed and offer low backlash, which makes them attractive for robotic applications. There’s no need to design cycloidal gears from scratch, either. [Petar] found
this cycloidal gear generator in OnShape
extremely useful when designing Faze4.
The project’s GitHub repository
has all the design files, as well as some video demonstrations and a link to assembly documentation for anyone who would like to make their own. Watch Faze4 go through some test movements in the video embedded below.
Cycloidal gearboxes, which have similarities to both planetary gearing and strain-wave gears, can be mesmerizing to watch.
Check out our previous coverage
for more information on what they are and how they work. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270932",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T13:22:50",
"content": "The title photo made me think of a robotic chainsaw in a dentist’s office!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6270970",
"author": "sneakypoo",
"time... | 1,760,373,389.549005 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/14/moving-fridge-magnets-make-for-unique-clock/ | Moving Fridge Magnets Make For Unique Clock | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"CoreXY",
"fridge",
"fridge magnet",
"servo",
"stepper",
"word clock"
] | We see a ton of clock projects around these parts, and being hackers, we love to feature them all. But every once in a while we stumble upon a great new way to display the time that really gets our attention and requires a closer look, such as
this moving fridge magnet clock
.
The fridge magnets [Craig Colvin] built this unique clock around are the colorful plastic kinds that have adorned the lower regions of refrigerators in toddler-filled households for ages. Instead of residing on a fridge, [Craig] laminated a sheet of white acrylic to a thin sheet of steel, to give the magnets something to hold onto. Moving the numbers is the job of
a CoreXY-style mechanism
. The belt-driven Cartesian movement maneuvers a head to to the right location to pick up a number; a servo in the head moves two powerful magnets into position under the number. The head then moves the number to the right spot, releases its magnets, and the number stays put on the board. You can see it in action in the video after the break.
While we love this as it is, it brings to mind some great mods. One can imagine the addition of letters to make a legit word clock, or to just add a calendar display. We’d also love to see these magnets in their natural habitat by building this into the door of a working fridge. | 40 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270877",
"author": "Menno",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T08:30:02",
"content": "Friggin’ fridge awesome!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6270878",
"author": "Armin Oonk",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T08:33:00",
"content": "... | 1,760,373,389.814049 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/pic32-dma-is-a-weird-machine/ | PIC32 DMA Is A Weird Machine | Elliot Williams | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"bruce land",
"dma",
"hack",
"pic32",
"run dma",
"weird machine"
] | Direct memory access (DMA) systems in computers are more powerful than you might think, and [Bruce Land] and [Joseph Primmer] have done some clever hacking to
take full advantage of this on the PIC32 microcontrollers
. This is a cool proof-of-concept hack — you can do general computing in the DMA subsystem without using the CPU at all if you don’t mind taking your time — but they also include two useful examples: a direct digital synthesis machine and a random number generator. Both of these run using exactly 0% CPU time.
How do they do it? DMA is a mechanism for shuttling data around in memory or between hardware peripherals without involving the CPU. Say you want to take a large block of memory containing music, and spit it out slowly to an I2S audio converter. A DMA subsystem could be configured to take an interrupt from the sound chip, pass it a chunk of data, increment the data pointer, and wait for the next interrupt.
The gimmick, which goes back at least to [Rushanan] and [Checkoway]’s
“Run DMA” paper
, is that you can modify the memory source and destination addresses of one DMA service from another DMA service, and that some registers automatically perform mathematical operations on whatever data is put into them. Combine these together, and you’ve got
transport-triggered programming
.
(An awesome side-note: our own [Al Williams] developed a one-instruction transport-triggered CPU way back in the day: the
One Instruction Wonder
.)
What is this good for? Writing simple helper applications that run independent of the CPU on a PIC32 microcontroller. [Land] and [Primmer]’s direct-digital synthesis example is a great one. But there are a lot of cases where you simply want to take in some new data and pre-process it a little bit before it enters the main program flow. While creating weird machines in the DMA engine might be a slower way to get it done, it keeps the CPU free for doing other stuff. We’re sure you’ll come up with something. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270855",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T05:26:11",
"content": "“The architecture of the Amiga Copper has all the basic features of a transport triggered architecture.”Just think if the Amiga had been more popular.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,373,389.697026 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/automatic-cat-weighing-machine-knows-which-pet-it-is-feeding/ | Automatic Cat Weighing Machine Knows Which Pet It Is Feeding | Jenny List | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"cat",
"cat food",
"feline"
] | Have you ever tried to weigh a cat? For that matter, have you ever tried to get a cat to do
anything
they don’t want to do? The wilful independence of our feline companions is a large part of what endears them to us, and must have done ever since the ancient Egyptians first had a hybrid wildcat that became domesticated
No wonder it’s so hard to care for multiple cats with different dietary needs. But the mere act of weighing the cats just might be the key to automating their diets while giving them the choice of when they want to eat. It’s a task that [Psy0rz] has cracked with
the Meowton, a weighing machine/feeder combo
designed to regulate the diets of his various moggies.
Cat scale uses a load sensor under each corner of the platform
The multi-faceted system involving a scale to weight the cat, a food hopper with dispenser, and a scale for the food bowl. The cat has to stand on the scale to eat, and the dispenser doles out some food when it detects this. It identifies each cat by weight, and controls the quantity dispensed accordingly to spread that cat’s allotted diet over the course of the day.
Behind it all is an ESP32, which delivers the stats to a web interface and makes them available for import to a database. He’s identified a flaw in the system, that two cats of the same weight could cause misidentification. To that end he has an RFID reader under way, but it’s still a work in progress. There is even
a live stream of the unit in action
.
We’re suckers for cats here, and while the various Hackaday Cats provide plenty of companionship and entertainment we’re always up for more. Over the years we’ve featured plenty of cat feeders, but
only one cat elevator
. | 28 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270835",
"author": "KayJay",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T02:09:25",
"content": "Cool build, but dry food is bad for pet cats. Check out catinfo.org to learn why.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270865",
"author": "Lord... | 1,760,373,389.357777 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/tensile-testing-machine-takes-3d-printed-parts-to-the-breaking-point/ | Tensile Testing Machine Takes 3D Printed Parts To The Breaking Point | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"load cell",
"tensile strength"
] | If you’re serious about engineering the things you build, you need to know the limits of the materials you’re working with. One important way to characterize materials is to test the tensile strength — how much force it takes to pull a sample to the breaking point. Thankfully, with the right hardware, this is easy to measure and
[CrazyBlackStone] has built a rig to do just that
.
Built on a frame of aluminium extrusion, a set of 3D printed parts to hold everything in place. To apply the load, a stepper motor is used to slowly turn a leadscrew, pulling on the article under test. Tensile forces are measured with a load cell hooked up to an Arduino, which reports the data back to a PC over its USB serial connection.
It’s a straightforward way to build your first tensile tester, and would be perfect for testing 3D printed parts for strength. The STEP files (13.4 MB
direct download
) for this project are available, but [CrazyBlackStone] recommends waiting for version two which will be published this fall on Thingiverse although we didn’t find a link to that user profile.
Now we’ll be able to measure tensile strength, but the stiffness of parts is also important.
You might consider building a rig to test that as well.
Video after the break. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270820",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2020-08-14T00:12:18",
"content": "wouldn’t the 3d parts be flexing too much to get an accurate reading?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270827",
"author": "X",
"time... | 1,760,373,389.649459 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/gaze-inside-the-valve-index-vr-headset-in-detailed-teardown/ | Gaze Inside The Valve Index VR Headset In Detailed Teardown | Donald Papp | [
"Teardown",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"hmd",
"teardown",
"valve index",
"virtual reality",
"vr"
] | Valve’s unique multilayer lenses are far thinner than one might expect.
Want to see what exactly is inside the $500 (headset only price) Valve Index VR headset that was released last summer?
Take a look at this teardown
by [Ilja Zegars]. Not only does [Ilja] pull the device apart, but he identifies each IC and takes care to point out some of the more unique hardware aspects like the fancy diffuser on the displays, and the unique multilayered lenses (which are much thinner than one might expect.)
[Ilja] is no stranger to headset hardware design, and in addition to all the eye candy of high-res photographs, provides some insightful commentary to help make sense of them. The “tracking webs” pulled from the headset are an interesting bit, each is a long run of flexible PCB that connects four tracking sensors for each side of the head-mounted display back to the main PCB. These sensors are basically IR photodiodes, and detect the regular laser sweeps emitted by the base stations of
Valve’s lighthouse tracking technology
. [Ilja] also gives us a good look at the rod and spring mechanisms seen above that adjust distance between the two screens.
Want more? [Ilja] also has
a gallery of high-resolution images
available for those you who fancy a closer look. Also, if you missed it, we covered an examination of the Index’s optical design as part of
everything you probably didn’t know about field of view in head-mounted displays
.
[via
Twitter
] | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270790",
"author": "msat",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T21:31:22",
"content": "I was somewhat surprised by the number of microcontrollers used in this thing. It’s not entirely clear to me why they needed a USB3 to USB2 interface chip when the 4 port USB3 hub from microchip says “The Su... | 1,760,373,389.743454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/a-high-torque-gearbox-you-can-print-at-home/ | A High Torque Gearbox You Can Print At Home | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"3d printed",
"gearbox"
] | Typically, when we think of 3D printed parts, we think of unique parts with complex geometries that would be hard to fabricate with other techniques. Strength is rarely the first thing that comes to mind, due to the limitations of thermoplastics and the problem of delamination between layers. However, with smart design, it’s possible to print parts capable of great feats,
just as [Brian]’s high-torque gearbox demonstrates.
Pulling a car is a great way to show off the strength of your build.
The gearbox consists of entirely 3D-printed gears, along with the enclosure, with the only metal parts being a few bearings and shafts. Capable of being produced out of PLA on a regular FDM printer, [Brian] has successfully tested the gearbox up to 132 kg∗cm. The suspicion is that there may be more left in it, but some slippage was noticed in the gear train when trying to tow a Ford Focus with the handbrake still on.
Even better, with the addition of a potentiometer, the gearbox can be used as an incredibly tough servo. [Brian] demonstrates this by lifting 22 kg at a distance of 6 cm from the center of the output shaft. The servo does it with ease, though eventually falls off the bench due to not being held down properly.
It’s a build that shows it’s possible to use 3D-printed parts to do some decently heavy work in the real world, as long as you design appropriately. [Brian] does a great job of explaining what’s involved, discussing gear profile selection and other design choices that affect the final performance.
We’ve seen similar work from others before, too.
Video after the break.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270756",
"author": "ArcReactorKC",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T18:47:29",
"content": "This and an actual servo would be great for the belted Z on one of my printers…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270919",
"author": "P... | 1,760,373,389.863678 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/a-tetraquark-for-muster-mark/ | A Tetraquark For Muster Mark! | Moritz v. Sivers | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Science"
] | [
"lhc",
"LHCb",
"nuclear physics",
"pentaquark",
"quark",
"strong force",
"subatomic particle",
"tetraquark"
] | The holy grail of every particle physics experiment is the discovery of a new particle. Finding a new constituent of matter may earn you eternal glory within the history of physics. Unfortunately, since the last missing piece of the Standard Model, the Higgs boson, was discovered in 2012, and with still no clue about the nature of dark matter and dark energy, there is not much hope to stumble upon a new fundamental building block of matter any time soon.
Luckily, this is not true for composite particles, especially the strange world of quark matter still yields some potential for new discoveries. The latest of such was the
observation of a new tetraquark by the LHCb experiment.
But what the hell is a quark anyway and why is it named after a German dairy product?
The Proton Is Not Just a Dot
Up until the 1950s, it was believed that subatomic particles such as the neutron and proton are elementary, point-like particles with no inner structure. In the following decade, the
progress made by accelerator experiments
led to the discovery of an entire zoo of new particles. This sudden “particle explosion” irritated physicists who believed in the beauty of simplicity. Wolfgang Pauli exclaimed that had he foreseen this, he would have become a botanist instead. US physicist Willis Lamb suggested that the discovery of a new particle now ought to be punished with $10,000 fine instead of a Nobel Prize.
In 1964, Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig independently came up with a model proposing that these new particles are not elementary but instead composed of a combination of new fundamental particles called quarks. The name was coined by Gell-Mann who pronounced it “kwork” and later adopted the spelling from the following cryptic line in James Joyce’s book
Finnegans Wake
.
Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he has not got much of a bark
And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.
While Gell-Mann interpreted the line as a call for drinks (“Three quarts for Mister…”) it is unclear what James Joyce really meant. Some think it represents the cry of a seagull while others attribute it to the German word for a
kind of cottage cheese
.
Definitive proof for the existence of quarks came in 1968 when experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center showed that the proton is not a point-like particle but instead contains some inner structure. Still, people only recognized later that what they observed were in fact quarks.
A Quark Comes Rarely Alone
Credit:
MissMJ, Cush
There are six different kinds of quarks (up, down, top, bottom, strange, charm) that have different masses and charges. For every quark there is also an antiparticle with the same mass but opposite charge. The proton, for example, consists of two up quarks (u) with charge +2/3 and one down quark (d) with charge -1/3, while a neutron consists of two down quarks and one up quark.
Like the electric force that acts on charged particles, each quark contains a color charge blue, green, or red, which makes it susceptible to the strong force. In nature, one can only observe color-neutral particles that consist either of three quarks with different colors (called baryons), or a quark-antiquark pair (called mesons).
The fact that one cannot produce isolated quarks is known as confinement. It can be understood as a peculiarity of the strong force that behaves similar to a rubber band. When trying to separate two quarks it becomes more and more difficult with increasing distance so that at some point it is energetically more favorable to create another quark-antiquark pair.
Tetraquarks and Pentaquarks
Invariant mass spectrum of J/ψ pairs measured by LHCb. The narrow peak slightly below 7000 MeV corresponds to the newly discovered tetraquark.
Credit:
LHCb collaboration
Baryons and mesons are not the only possibilities to combine quarks in a color-neutral way. A tetraquark is also viable, being a combination of four quarks qq
qq
, where q and
q
respectively refer to a quark and antiquark. A pentaquark qqqq
q
may even exist.
To search for penta- and tetraquarks one smashes together electrons or protons in an accelerator and analyses the particles produced in the collisions. Since such exotic particles have extremely short lifetimes, they cannot be directly observed in a detector. Instead one plots the number of recorded events vs. the so-called invariant mass, calculated from the energy and momentum of the final decay products. In this plot, a short-lived intermediate particle shows up as a narrow resonance peak. The position of the peak equals the mass of the particle while the width is inversely proportional to its lifetime.
The first indication for the existence of a tetraquark came
in 2003 from the BELLE experiment in Japan.
In the same year, another Japanese experiment called
SLEP maybe saw a pentaquark
. In the meantime, several penta- and tetraquarks have been unambiguously discovered. At the forefront of these discoveries was the LHCb experiment which
confirmed the existence of a tetraquark in 2014
and one year later also
discovered a pentaquark
. The tetraquark discovered recently by LHCb is special because it consists of two charm quarks and two charm antiquarks cc
cc
. All other tetraquarks observed so far have at most two heavy quarks and none of them is made of more than two quarks of the same type.
Why Do We Even Care?
You may wonder why people go through the effort of hunting for these exotic particles. As with most particle physics experiments, it is all about a better understanding of the fundamental forces of nature, in this case, the strong force described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Calculating the properties of bound quarks is fairly complicated and so the measurement of these exotic particles helps to test different theoretical models. For example, it is unclear if all quarks in a tetra- and pentaquark are tightly bound together or if they form a molecule-like, loosely bound combination of baryons and mesons. Discovering more of these particles and measuring their properties could help to resolve this question. | 19 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270730",
"author": "John Spencer",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T17:44:52",
"content": "Thank you for this fine article which, if re-read and re-read a few more times might well update and improve my (very) limited acquaintance with modern particle physics, College was a long, long time... | 1,760,373,389.923586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/six-new-hackadayu-courses-announced-for-fall-2020/ | Six New HackadayU Courses Announced For Fall 2020 | Mike Szczys | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"drones",
"fastLED",
"HackadayU",
"i2c",
"interactive art",
"javascript",
"linux"
] | The fall lineup of
HackadayU
courses was just announced,
get your tickets now
!
Each course is led by expert instructors who have refined their topics into a set of four live, interactive classes plus one Q&A session we like to call Office Hours. Topics range from leveling up your Linux skills and learning about serial buses to building interactive art and getting into first-person view (FPV) drone flight.
Checkout the course titles, instructors, and details listed below. If you’d like to hear about each class from the instructors themselves, their teaser videos are embedded after the break.
Interactive Media Art with Light and Sensors
Instructor: Mirabelle Jones
Course overview:
This course will cover how to develop interactive artworks, installations, and experiences based on sensor input.
Introduction to FPV Drones
Instructor: Ayan Pahwa
Course overview:
We’ll get familiar with the multi-rotor category of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) including physics, aerodynamics, electronics, digital signal processing (DSP), and writing software that is involved.
Intro to LEDs Using Arduino and FastLED
Instructors: Cathy Laughlin & Mirabelle Jones
Course overview:
Students will learn all about how LEDs work as well as how to program LED patterns using the Arduino IDE.
Linux + Electronics: A Raspberry Pi Course
Instructor: Pablo Oyarzo
Course overview:
This course is for those who had wanted to go from Arduino to a Linux computer small enough to fit the project but greatly more powerful to full fill the project’s needs and don’t know where to start.
Embedded Serial Buses (Part 1)
Instructor: Alexander Rowsell
Course overview:
This course will cover the I2C and 1-Wire serial buses. We will look at the hardware layer, the protocol layer, and the software/application layer for both bus types.
Art + Code
Instructor: Casey Hunt
Course overview: Students will grow their technical skills through mastery of the P5.js JavaScript library, and will also learn about aesthetics and art history in the digital space.
HackadayU courses are “pay-as-you-wish”. To help ensure the live seats don’t go to waste, the minimum donation for each class is $1. Proceeds go to charity and we’re happy to report a donation of $4,200 going to Steam Coders from the summer session of HackadayU. A new charity will be chosen for the fall classes, details to follow.
Each class will be recorded and made available once they’ve been edited. You can take a look at the excellent
Reverse Engineering with Ghidra
series right now. Videos of the
Quantum Computing
and
KiCad + FreeCAD
courses are coming soon. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270719",
"author": "PJ Allen",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T17:12:12",
"content": "Hackaday_U logo. Seen that before —https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankin/Bass_Productions",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270789",
"author... | 1,760,373,389.967198 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/pi-saves-vintage-mac-case-from-a-watery-grave/ | Pi Saves Vintage Mac Case From A Watery Grave | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Mac Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"apple",
"mac",
"Mac 512K",
"Mac OS"
] | Like many before it, this Mac 512K case was originally slated to get turned into a kitschy desktop aquarium. But its owner never found the time to take on the project, and instead gave it to [Tony Landi]. Luckily, he decided to forgo the fish and instead
outfit the case with a new LCD display and Raspberry Pi
to emulate Mac OS 7.5.
Mounting the LCD and associated electronics.
In the video after the break, [Tony] walks viewers through the process of mounting the new components into the nearly 30+ year old enclosure. Things are naturally made a lot easier by the fact that the modern electronics take up a small fraction of the Mac’s internal volume. Essentially the only things inside the case are the 10 inch 4:3 LCD panel, the Raspberry Pi, and a small adapter that turns the Mac’s pre-ADB keyboard into standard USB HID.
[Tony] had to design a 3D printed adapter to mount the modern LCD panel to the Mac’s frame, and while he was at it, he also came up with printable dummy parts to fill in the various openings on the case that are no longer necessary. The mock power switch on the back and the static brightness adjustment knob up front are nice touches, and the STLs for those parts will certainly be helpful for
others working on similar Mac conversions
.
With the hardware out of the way, [Tony] switches gears and explains how he got the emulated Mac OS environment up and running on the Raspberry Pi. Again, even if you don’t exactly follow his lead on this project, his thorough walk-through on the subject is worth a watch for anyone who wants to
mess around with Apple software from this era
. | 39 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270687",
"author": "Darth Insidious",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T15:17:15",
"content": "I was excited until I read the part about the LCD screen. I was hoping for a way to re-use the original CRT. Without it it’s just another emulator that cannot support the MacZapper gun. I miss my ... | 1,760,373,390.56036 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/under-pressure-how-aluminum-extrusions-are-made/ | Under Pressure: How Aluminum Extrusions Are Made | Dan Maloney | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Slider"
] | [
"80/20",
"aluminum",
"billet",
"die",
"extrusion",
"hydraulic",
"press",
"ram"
] | At any given time I’m likely to have multiple projects in-flight, by which of course I mean in various stages of neglect. My current big project is one where I finally feel like I have a chance to use some materials with real hacker street cred, like T-slot extruded aluminum profiles. We’ve all seen the stuff, the “Industrial Erector Set” as 80/20 likes to call their version of it. And we’ve all seen the cool projects made with it, from CNC machines to trade show displays, and in these pandemic times, even occasionally as sneeze guards in retail shops.
Aluminum T-slot profiles are wonderful to work with — strong, lightweight, easily connected with a wide range of fasteners, and infinitely configurable and reconfigurable as needs change. It’s not cheap by any means, but when you factor in the fabrication time saved, it may well be a net benefit to spec the stuff for a project. Still, with the projected hit to my wallet, I’ve been looking for more affordable alternatives.
My exploration led me into the bewilderingly rich world of aluminum extrusions. Even excluding mundane items like beer and soda cans, you’re probably surrounded by extruded aluminum products right now. Everything from computer heatsinks to window frames to the parts that make up screen doors are made from extruded aluminum. So how exactly is this ubiquitous stuff made?
The Die
The basic process for extruding aluminum is, outwardly, as simple to understand as the extrusion process used by a 3D-printer: heat material and force it through a die with the desired shape and size. But when PLA is replaced by giant aluminum log, and a Bowden cable and stepper motor by an enormous hydraulic ram, the details quickly cloud the simplicity of the underlying concept.
A die with a distinctive profile. Source:
Phoenix International
Die design is perhaps the most critical part of the extrusion process. Dies have to withstand tremendous forces at high temperatures, and must maintain their dimensional stability while doing so. Extrusion dies start life as round bars of tool steel up to a meter or more in diameter but typically around 30 cm. Dies are usually fairly thin in profile relative to their diameter, since the longer the path the aluminum takes as it passes through the die, the greater the friction it experiences. More friction means more force, which means bigger presses, more wear on the dies, and generally higher costs.
Dies are generally created by specialty manufacturers that employ skilled die design engineers and machinists. The process of turning a design into a die usually starts with roughing out the blank on a CNC lathe, then proceeds to a sequence of CNC milling operations. Electric discharge machining (EDM) is used extensively to get the fine detail needed to provide a smooth finish, and to achieve the precise geometry needed to control the flow of the aluminum through the die.
Most extrusions will have one or more hollow chambers, like the lumen of a pipe or, in the case of our 80/20 profiles, the negative space of the T-slots and the central bore. The die has to create those features, which require parts of the die to “float” in the incoming flow of softened metal. Diemakers accomplish this by suspending these features on arms that bridge the space in the upstream part of the die. The shape and surface finish of these arms has to be carefully designed so that the metal flows around them and joins together to create a smooth, continuous stream of material without voids, which could lead to weakness in the finished product.
Careful consideration of the hydrodynamic forces exerted by and upon the flowing metal are also important to die design. While the exit side of the die is pretty much exactly the size and shape of the finished extrusion, the entrance side is anything but. By some estimates, half of the energy used while extruding aluminum goes into overcoming friction between the metal and the die, so everything that can be done to reduce those forces is like money in the bank. The entrance of the die has to be designed to direct the incoming metal as smoothly and easily as possible into the final shape, which is part of the reason die designers include very generous draft angles over the width of the die.
The Squeeze
There are a number of different ways to approach the extrusion process, each with its own pros and cons. Direct extrusion is basically what you’re familiar with in 3D printing, or if you’ve ever used one of those squeezy things in a Play-Doh set: a slug of softened material is pressed against a die, which then flows through the die to assume its final shape. Indirect extrusion turns that around, forcing the die to move relative to the material. Both approaches have their pros and cons, and both result in extrusions with different metallurgical properties.
In either process, a large log of aluminum, called a billet, is heated in either a gas furnace or by induction. The temperature varies with the specific alloy and the complexity of the die, but it’s important to note that the billet is not melted, just softened. The die and much of the hydraulic press are also heated, to prevent thermal stresses from breaking anything in the machinery and to prevent the aluminum from cooling too soon and sticking to the die.
Aluminum extrusion presses generally have a horizontal orientation, with a massive hydraulic ram facing the die across a narrow gap. The preheated billet is placed into the gap, and the hydraulic ram starts to press it into the die (or, in indirect extrusion, moves the die over the material). The softened metal begins to flow into the spaces of the die, around the arms, and narrowing down into the final shape as it exits the die.
The growing extrusion exits the press and is almost immediately quenched with either air or, more commonly, a water bath. The quenching process is important, because as the extrusion exits the die it is still soft and liable to be deformed. Quenching also sets the crystal structure of the metals in the alloy, giving the finished extrusion its desired metallurgical properties.
Stretching and Aging
But even with quenching, the extrusions that come out of the die onto the long outfeed tables are far from complete. The tremendous forces exerted during extrusion coupled with the thermal stresses of quenching inevitably warps and twists the profiles. This is corrected with a stretching operation, where extrusions are literally picked up and stretched out the long way with hydraulic tools. This restores the profile to its intended shape; the few percent change in the length of the profile necessarily changes the profile dimensions slightly, a fact which has to be accounted for by the die designers.
Curiously, fresh extrusions need to be aged somewhat at elevated temperatures before reaching their final specified strength. This is accomplished in large aging towers over a period of hours to days, depending on the alloy. Aged extrusions are then cut to length, possibly have a finish applied — clear or dyed anodized finishes are very popular for 80/20 extrusions as they protect the aluminum from oxidation — and packaged for shipping.
Given the amount of material that goes into an aluminum extrusion, and the investment needed to run the massive machines that do the job, it’s easy to understand why 80/20 profiles cost what they do. So now maybe I’ll just bite the bullet and order what I need.
Featured images:
F&L Industrial Solutions, Inc
. | 50 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270660",
"author": "Ruzzolo",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T14:07:07",
"content": "Never understood why they cost so much – apart from the die, they should cost a bit more then their weight in aluminum.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,373,390.431412 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/drone-buoy-drifts-along-the-gulf-stream-for-citizen-science/ | Drone Buoy Drifts Along The Gulf Stream For Citizen Science | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Atlantic",
"buoy",
"drifter",
"drone",
"gps",
"Gulf Stream",
"iridium",
"oceanography",
"satellite",
"sensor",
"solar"
] | It may be named after the most famous volleyball in history, but “Wilson” isn’t just a great conversationalist. [Hayden Brophy] built the
free-drifting satellite buoy
to see if useful science can be done with off-the-shelf hardware and on a shoestring budget. And from the look of the data so far, Wilson is doing pretty well.
Wilson belongs to a class of autonomous vessels known as drifters, designed to float along passively in the currents of the world’s ocean. The hull of [Hayden]’s drifter is a small Pelican watertight case, which contains all the electronics: Arduino Pro Trinket, GPS receiver, a satellite modem, and a charger for the LiPo battery. The lid of the case is dominated by a 9 W solar panel, plus the needed antennas for GPS and the Iridium uplink and a couple of sensors, like a hygrometer and a thermometer. To keep Wilson bobbing along with his solar panel up, there’s a keel mounted to the bottom of the case, weighted with chains and rocks, and containing a temperature sensor for the water.
Wilson is programmed to wake up every 12 hours and uplink position and environmental data as he drifts along. The drifter was launched into the heart of the Gulf Stream on August 8, about 15 nautical miles off Marathon Key in Florida, by [Captain Jim] and the very happy crew of the “Raw Deal”. As of this writing,
the tracking data
shows that Wilson is just off the coast of Miami, 113 nautical miles from launch, and drifting along at a stately pace of 2.5 knots. Where the buoy ends up is anyone’s guess, but we’ve seen
similar buoys make it all the way across the Atlantic
, so here’s hoping that hurricane season is kind to Wilson.
We think this is great, and congratulations to [Hayden] for organizing a useful and interesting project. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270615",
"author": "Daniel Larrosa",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T11:39:15",
"content": "Beautiful project !Note: the complete URL is:https://projectwilson2020.wixsite.com/mysite/home(the URL shown in the video results in error 404 “Page not found”)Best regards,A/P Daniel F. LarrosaMon... | 1,760,373,390.341699 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/13/head-tracking-nes-water-blaster-is-good-summer-fun/ | Head-Tracking NES Water Blaster Is Good Summer Fun | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"FPV",
"head tracking",
"water gun"
] | Super Soakers were great fun back in the day, but adults tend to get tired of the manual labour of pumping pretty quickly. [Sean] decided to build something a touch more modern,
coming up with this head-tracking water blaster
.
The water spray tracks the movement of the wearer’s head. With a camera mounted on the nozzle, this allows the user to simply look to designate targets. Similar technology is used in military fighter jets.
To eliminate pumping, the build instead enlists the services of an electric pump, powered by a 12 V battery. Pushing water through a tube into a 3D printed nozzle, it provides a fat stream of water with around 5 meters range, with little effort from the user. The nozzle is fitted into a NES Zapper, and attached to a servo pan-tilt platform. The camera is mounted on the water gun, and hooked up to a set of Fat Shark FPV goggles with an IMU unit. When the user looks around, the water gun moves in sync with their head movements. This allows for the user to look at targets to hit them with the water stream, a very intuitive method of aiming.
It’s a fun build that’s perfect for the summer, and an easy one to recreate for anyone with some spare servos and FPV gear. Of course, with a little face-tracking software,
it would be easy to hit targets automatically.
Video after the break. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6271622",
"author": "PyroJason (@pyrojason)",
"timestamp": "2020-08-18T08:04:58",
"content": "Nice! I was wondering what to do with all my old NES blasters! I didn’t keep the CRT’s.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,373,390.473091 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/rack-em-stack-em-raspberry-pi-controller-board/ | Rack ’em Stack ’em Raspberry Pi Controller Board | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cluster",
"raspberry pi"
] | It isn’t that hard to assemble an array of Raspberry Pi boards and there are several reasons you might want to do so. The real trick is getting power to all of them and cooling all of them without having a mess of wires and keeping them all separated. The
ClusterCTRL stack lets you stack up to five Raspberry Pi boards
together. The PCB aligns vertically along the side of the stack of Pis with sockets for each pin header. Using a single 12 to 24V supply, it provides power for each board, a USB power connection, and provisions for two fans. There is also a USB port to control the fans and power.
There’s also a software component to deliver more granular control. Without using the software, the PI’s power on in one second and monitor a GPIO pin to control the fans. With the software, you can turn on or off individual nodes, gang the two fans to turn on together, and even add more stacks.
There is
a case that you can print from STL files
, although you can buy them preprinted on
the Tindie listing
where the bulk of information on ClusterCTRL is found. You could also have a 3D printing vendor run off a copy for you if you’d rather.
The power supply is a 10A 5.1V DC to DC converter. That works out to 2A per Pi and 51W total. The power supply for the input, then, needs to be enough to cover 51W, the power for the fans, and some overhead for regulator inefficiency and other small overhead.
We’ve seen a lot of Pi clusters over the years including one that is a good
learning tool for cluster management
. Of course, there’s always the Oracle cluster with
1,060 boards
, which is going to take a bigger power supply. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270558",
"author": "raspi is cool learning yay",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T05:45:23",
"content": "cool build. looks like a good cooling solution. looks nice and solid.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6270562",
"author": "cha... | 1,760,373,390.273305 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/retroplug-syncs-gameboy-emulators-with-your-daw-for-chiptunes-overload/ | RetroPlug Syncs Gameboy Emulators With Your DAW For Chiptunes Overload | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"chiptune",
"chiptunes",
"game boy",
"lsdj",
"mgb"
] | The Gameboy is one of the biggest platforms in the chiptune scene. While it’s possible to play a show with a single handheld, many artists choose to use two or even more to fatten their sound and rock the crowd. To ease the workflow of creating songs for such a setup,
[tommitytom] created Retroplug
and you can see him walk through the features in the demo video after the break.
Retroplug is a VST wrapper for the
Sameboy
Gameboy emulator. This makes it possible to run multiple emulated Gameboy instances within digital audio software like Ableton or Fruityloops. Rather than having to juggle multiple 30-year old Gameboys and the associated batteries and link cables, instead, it can all be done within a hosted VST window.
Presently, the software works only with 64-bit Windows and VST2, however source is available for those eager to peek under the hood. It fully implements MIDI support for mGB, and works well with LSDJ and Arduinoboy setups.
*.sav
files are created for each emulated instance too, so when you’re done composing, you can throw your songs onto real hardware when you go out and perform!
We see no shortage of fresh projects, from
Genesis chiptune players
to
MIDI control for Gameboys.
As its adherents always say, chiptune will never die. We’d love to see a similar project done with a C64 emulator, NES, or even the Genesis. If you happen to put it goether,
drop us a line! | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270622",
"author": "Fmr Sgt X",
"timestamp": "2020-08-13T12:21:55",
"content": "You attached a fbclid to the github link, just a heads up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270658",
"author": "Mike Szczys",
"ti... | 1,760,373,390.603123 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/floppy-disks-still-used-to-update-747-flight-software/ | Floppy Disks Still Used To Update 747 Flight Software | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"747",
"flight",
"floppy disk"
] | For garden variety daily computing tasks, the floppy disk has thankfully been a thing of the past for quite some time. Slow, limited in storage and easily corrupted, few yearn for the format to return, even if there is some lingering nostalgia for the disks. As it turns out, though, there is still hardware that relies on floppies –
namely, the Boeing 747-400, as The Register reports.
The news comes from the work of Pen Test Partners, who recently inspected a 747 being retired as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The floppy disks are used to load navigational databases which need to be updated regularly, every 28 days. Engineers responsible for loading updates must perform the process manually on the ground.
Efforts have been made in some areas to replace the disks with more modern technology.
As Aviation Today covered in 2014,
legacy aircraft often require updates involving up to eight floppy disks, leading to slow updates that can cause flight delays. As anyone familiar with the reliability of floppy media knows, it only takes one bad disk to ruin everything. While retrofits are possible, it’s more likely that airlines will simply stick with the technology until the legacy airplanes are retired. Certifying new hardware for flight is a major cost that is difficult to justify when the current system still works.
Floppies continue to cling to relevance, even if for most of us it’s simply as the save icon.
We’ve also seen floppies used as an even more inefficient method of data entry
. It turns out
you can even fit an entire podcast on one, too! | 96 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270261",
"author": "abjq",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T08:56:53",
"content": "3 1/2″?? Pah, my floppy is 8″, but I don’t use it as a rule…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270424",
"author": "Owen",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,373,391.035784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/11/split-keyboard-finder-stacks-them-up-for-your-approval/ | Split Keyboard Finder Stacks Them Up For Your Approval | Kerry Scharfglass | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"ergodox",
"ergonomic",
"ergonomics",
"keyboard",
"mechanical keyboard",
"split",
"split keyboard"
] | Tired of a boring, single piece keyboard? Thinking about a change but don’t know what all your options are? Well prospective-keyboard-shopper, today is your lucky day. We at the Hackaday are here to facilitate the habit with two excellent resources for the eager keyboard shopper;
[pvinis]’s awesome-split-keyboards
and
[jhelvy]’s splitkbcompare
.
As indicated by its title, awesome-split-keyboards is an
awesome list
of split keyboards 50 examples strong. Every split we’ve come across seems to be represented here, many with at least an image or two along with links to more information about how to build or buy the model in question. If that’s not enough, the bottom of the page has a wealth of background information about building or buying your own.
But before making such an important decision it’s important to make sure the keyboard in question will be a good fit in the hands. This is where
splitkbcompare
comes in, providing a visualization of many popular split layouts. If we hadn’t just found awesome-split-keyboards this filterable list and wide selection would have been the highlight here. But what does stand out is the ability to generate 1:1 scale printouts of the layouts in question, even stacking them for comparison, allowing a prospective buyer get a hands on feel for what they’re considering.
Not enough clackin’ action? Recently we’ve been producing a fierce amount of
keyboard related content
, of particular highlight is [Kristina Panos’]’ series called
Inputs of Interest
. Earlier in the summer
she even built her own Ergodox split keeb
.
[Main image source:
HeliDox
by diimdeep] | 16 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270233",
"author": "Severe Tire Damage",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T05:28:31",
"content": "I’ve spent half my day today reading about Ergo keyboards, especially split. Leaning towards the Ergodox EZ. How did you read my mind??",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,373,390.88875 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/11/popcorn-pocket-p-c-open-sourced/ | Popcorn Pocket P. C. Open Sourced | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"linux",
"open source",
"open source hardware",
"OpenSource"
] | If you miss the days you could get an organizer that would — sort of — run Linux, you might be interested in Popcorn computer’s
Pocket P. C.,
which was recently open-sourced on GitHub. Before you jump over to build one, though, there are a few things you should know.
First, the files are untested since the first unit hasn’t shipped yet. In addition, while the schematic looks pretty complete, there’s no actual bill of materials and the PCB layers in the PDF file might not be very easy to replicate, since they are just a series of images, one for each layer. You can see an overview video of the device, below.
Still, the information is there, although we haven’t seen the software yet. The device itself is interesting with a built-in keyboard. The specs are relatively straightforward. A quad-core ARM running at 1.2 GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC. The IPS LCD is just shy of five inches and has a 1920×1080 resolution. There’s the usual suite of connectors and interfaces and you can get a version that incorporates LoRa.
We hope Popcorn will continue releasing information on the device and will make enough software information available for the device to be truly open source. Of course, most of us will just buy one anyway, but it is nice to know that the source is there if you were to want it.
As we’ve noted before,
designing a Linux board
isn’t as hard as it used to be. There are till, though,
some challenges
. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270207",
"author": "Tim",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T02:55:52",
"content": "The edition with LoRaWAN and 3x GNSS looks exciting.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6270213",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T03:30... | 1,760,373,390.824189 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/11/hope-2020-delivers-historic-marathon-of-hacking/ | HOPE 2020 Delivers Historic Marathon Of Hacking | Tom Nardi | [
"cons"
] | [
"2600",
"hope",
"HOPE conference",
"HOPE XIII"
] | Anyone who’s ever attended a hacker conference knows that the talks and workshops are only part of the reason that people travel from all over the country (and indeed, the world) to be there. The social and extracurricular aspects of these events are just as important as the scheduled content, if not more so. After all, you can always watch the recorded version of any presentation you missed when you get back home; but there’s only a relatively short window for drinking Club-Mate, driving a Segway at unreasonable speeds, and hanging out with other people in the community.
So I don’t mind admitting that I was extremely skeptical when it was announced that the
Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference was going virtual
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially since the decision came just a few months before the event was set to kick off in New York. Trying to recreate the experience of a large scale hacker con as an online-only event is hard enough, but doing it on such short notice seemed like a recipe for disaster. Particularly for an event like HOPE that had always crammed the historic Hotel Pennsylvania to the rafters (and sometimes, above) with content and activities.
Which is not to say they didn’t have some interesting ideas. Since so many people were stuck at home anyway, they decided there wasn’t much point limiting HOPE to a single weekend. For 2020, the event would instead run for nine continuous days. Prerecorded talks and interactive workshops would start at 9 AM Eastern and run right up until the wee hours of the morning, often concluding with a live musical performance.
As founder Emmanuel Goldstein described it, the idea was to turn this year’s HOPE into a 24 hour hacker television channel that could beam a diverse array of ideas and opinions into homes all over the planet. Rather than pretending that the classic hacker convention experience could be fully replicated online, they would fully embrace the possibilities offered by the Internet and create something completely different. But could they pull it off?
A Place to Call Home
Whether it runs for two days or nine, an online event needs a central place where attendees can communicate, and these days there’s no shortage of chat platforms to chose from. But the types of people who read 2600 and attend HOPE have some pretty strong opinions on software, so deciding what technology the event would use to bring everyone together was tricky.
Neo would occasionally appear during the video stream to advertise the Matrix server.
The Graybeards would have been happy to stick to IRC, where 2600 has maintained
a tight-knit community for decades
. While the newer players would naturally prefer something they’re more familiar with, such as Slack or Discord. Unfortunately, the privacy issues inherent with proprietary communications platforms are in direct opposition to everything 2600 and HOPE stands for. So in the end they compromised by using Matrix, an
open source decentralized chat protocol
that supports modern mobile and web clients such as Element.
A self-hosted Matrix server was spun up specifically for HOPE, with the “ticket” code attendees received serving as a token to log into the array of channels that had been set up. A bit of guerrilla marketing was used to get as many people on the server as possible, with images popping up between talks explaining why Matrix was a better choice for the hacker community. The number of active users varied from day to day, but by the closing ceremonies, the server boasted slightly north of 1,600 user accounts.
The Matrix server started out with dedicated channels to discuss the streaming presentations as well as the interactive workshops, but it also had channels where users could chat about current events or request technical assistance. As the days went on, the users started to create new channels and the server experienced a sort of organic growth. Soon there was a place to show off your personal projects, find a new job, or just talk with people from your geographical corner of the globe.
Overwhelming Demand
Whether organizers were concerned about the technical ramifications of having too many users logged into each workshop, or they just wanted to limit the logistical issues for the presenters, it had been decided early on that the interactive classes would all have hard limits on how many could attend. If you wanted to participate in a workshop, you needed to register ahead of time to reserve a spot. The most popular ones filled up almost immediately, and within just a few hours, nearly every workshop scheduled for the entire nine day conference was showing that they were no longer available.
The format for workshops was quickly adjusted to meet demand.
This was a fairly serious problem. All of the talks at HOPE were streamed online for free, so the only advantage to purchasing a $200 ticket this year was that it granted you access to the Matrix server and the workshops. With all of the workshops seemingly off the table, attendees started voicing their displeasure in the chat.
Some felt that they’d been mislead, and that it should have been made clear when they purchased their tickets that space would be limited in the workshops. It’s understandable that a room can fill up to capacity at a traditional hacker convention; but when it’s online and free from physical constraints, nobody expected they’d be fighting for seats.
But just as things reached a fever pitch in the chat, cooler heads prevailed. The event organizers pulled down the registration pages and made the backend changes necessary to allow an unlimited number of viewers into each class. There were still some limitations, as only the first 30 or so people would have the ability to use their microphone to directly speak with the presenter, but most people were happy just to passively watch and use the text chat. Additional volunteer moderators would also be assigned to help deal with the higher than expected number of participants in each class so as not to disrupt the experience for anyone else.
As Open As Possible
Between Matrix for chat and
BigBlueButton
for workshops, it was clear that HOPE was leaning heavily on open source software. Organizers not only wanted to keep as much of the operations in-house as possible, but they wanted to make sure nobody was prevented from joining in the festivities because they lacked the proper license or operating system. For an organization like 2600, you’d expect no less.
But more than that, the event itself attended an impressive level of openness. There was a high level of transparency for an operation of this scale, and a
two hour “How We Did It” roundtable discussion during the closing ceremonies
walked viewers through the various software tools they used and even provided details on the hardware everything was served off of. With so many events going digital, the organizers wanted HOPE to serve as a case study for other groups who might have to move their operations into the digital realm. Whether you wanted to know how to provide a dynamic schedule to your attendees or how to mitigate distributed denial-of-service attacks against your Matrix server, the information was there for the taking.
An Event Like No Other
In extending the length of HOPE and providing such a rich virtual environment for attendees to congregate, the event really took on a life of its own. This was perhaps best exemplified by the “bumps” that played between talks. Viewers were invited to submit short videos that would be randomly inserted into the stream whenever there was a lull in programming. As the days went on these videos became increasingly elaborate, eventually encompassing surreal mock commercials and short films broken up into small chunks. It’s something that simply couldn’t have happened at a physical event, or even a shorter online one for that matter.
I was inspired to
submit my own bump on day three
.
The decision to make most talks pre-recorded also ended up working out very well. This served to greatly improve the production value on the talks, as you were watching the presenter’s edited best cut versus a live presentation that could be plagued by technical issues.
You didn’t have to worry about the demo not working, the presenter’s laptop battery cutting out, or the perennially missing HDMI cable; everything was smooth and professional. It also gave presenters the unique opportunity to chat with the viewers and answer questions in real-time as the video played, which in a way actually made for a more personal experience than what’s possible at a physical con.
Was this nine day hacker TV station a direct replacement for an in-person event? No. But that was never the goal. It was something completely different, and in some ways managed to clearly improve on the traditional formula. As the HOPE conference has always been biennial, it would be interesting to see this virtual version revived on the off years as a way to raise funds for 2600. It would certainly be a shame if we had to wait for the next global pandemic before we got to see another event of this scale. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6310922",
"author": "Stappers",
"timestamp": "2021-01-11T22:39:56",
"content": "Hi Survivors of HOPE 2020,Which software setup do you recommend to visitors of upcoming Matrix based events?https://hope.net/faq.htmlseems unaware of the 2020 online edition.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,373,390.654717 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/11/building-a-youtube-remote-control-worthy-of-2020/ | Building A YouTube Remote Control Worthy Of 2020 | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"atmega",
"media",
"remote",
"remote control",
"usb hid"
] | Back in 2018, [Gryo] built a remote control specifically for watching YouTube videos on his computer. It worked perfectly, but it didn’t
quite
fit the expectation one has for a modern media remote — it was a bit chunky, the buttons weren’t very responsive, and it didn’t feel as nice as the remotes that ship with consumer streaming devices. Looking to improve on things, he’s recently unveiled
a far more svelte version of his scratch built media streaming remote
includes a scrollwheel, color feedback, and a UI for customizing how it works.
It might not look the part, but technically [Gyro] categorizes his creation as a wireless keyboard since that’s what the operating system sees it as. This makes it easy to use with whatever media playback software or service might be running on the computer, as button presses on the remote are picked up as standard keyboard events. And the software easily sets which key each button on the remote will be associated with.
Inside the 3D printed case there’s a custom PCB that pulls together the ATmega328P, NRF24L01 radio, and TP4056 charger that tops off the 500 mAh Li-Po battery via USB-C. The receiver is also a custom creation, using a second NRF24L01 chip but swapping out the microcontroller for the ATmega32U4.
[Gyro] has done a fantastic job documenting this build in the write-up, and provides everything you need should you want to spin up your own copy. As much as we liked the
unique approach used in the first version of the remote
, we’ve got to admit this iteration is much more likely to end up sitting on our living room table. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270171",
"author": "huntdesigns",
"timestamp": "2020-08-11T22:08:53",
"content": "Very nice. Excellent size and layout. as it shows up as usb keyboard that is pretty awesome as well. nrf24 gives you ability to control receiver and tx. Any frequency hopping or just a single channel ... | 1,760,373,391.086637 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/11/3d-printing-interactive-maps-for-the-visually-impaired/ | 3D Printing Interactive Maps For The Visually Impaired | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"education",
"geography",
"map"
] | Most maps and educational materials for teaching geography are highly visual in nature. For those with a visual impairment, it can make learning more difficult when suitable resources are not available. After visiting a boarding school in Moscow,
[Sergei] set out to build an interactive map to teach students geography regardless of their vision status
.
After seeing the poorly embossed paper maps used in the school, [Sergei] decided there had to be a better way. The solution was 3D printing, which makes producing a map with physical contours easy. Initial attempts involved printing street maps and world maps with raised features, such that students could feel the lines rather than seeing them.
Taking things a step further, [Sergei] went all out, producing an interactive educational device. The build consists of a world map, and contains audio files with information about countries, cultures, and more. When the ultrasonic sensor detects a user in range, it invites them to press or pull out the removable continents on the map. The device can sense touch, thanks to a pair of MPR121 capacitive touch sensor boards which are used to trigger the audio files.
It’s a great way to use the sense of touch to teach where the sense of vision may be lacking. Previous Prize entries have worked in this field too,
like this haptic glove to help vision-impaired users interpret camera data
. We can’t wait to see what comes next as technology improves!
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270116",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-08-11T18:50:35",
"content": "Love it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6270133",
"author": "Moryc",
"timestamp": "2020-08-11T19:29:34",
"content": "In my school for ... | 1,760,373,391.254393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/11/linux-fu-remote-execution-made-easy/ | Linux Fu: Remote Execution Made Easy | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"Linux Fu",
"ssh"
] | If you have SSH and a few other tools set up, it is pretty easy to log into another machine and run a few programs. This could be handy when you are using a machine that might not have a lot of memory or processing power and you have access to a bigger machine somewhere on the network. For example, suppose you want to reencode some video on a box you use as a media server but it would go much faster on your giant server with a dozen cores and 32 GB of RAM.
Remote Execution
However, there are a few problems with that scenario. First, you might not have the software on the remote machine. Even if you do, it might not be the version you expect or have all the same configuration as your local copy. Then there’s the file problem. the input file should come from your local file system and you’d like the output to wind up there, too. These aren’t insurmountable, of course. You could install the program on the remote box and copy your files back and forth manually. Or you can use
Outrun
.
There are a few limitations, though. You do need Outrun on both machines and both machines have to have the same CPU architecture. Sadly, that means you can’t use this to easily run jobs on your x86-64 PC from a Raspberry Pi. You’ll need root access to the remote machine, too. The system also depends on having the FUSE file system libraries set up.
A Simple Idea
The idea is simple. You could do a video encoding like this:
outrun user@host ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec libx265 -crf 28 output.mp4
This will work even if ffmpeg isn’t on the remote machine and the input and output files will be on your local box where you expect them. Here’s a screencast from the project’s GitHub page:
A Complex Implementation
How does this work? A FUSE file system mounts your local filesystem remotely using a lightweight RPC file system. Then a
chroot
makes the remote machine look just like your local machine but — presumably — faster. There are a few other things done, such as setting up the environment and current directory.
The
chroot
, by the way, is why you need root on the remote machine. As an ordinary user, you can’t pivot the root file system to make this trick work.
To improve performance, Outrun caches system directories and assumes they won’t change over the life of the command. It also aggressively prefetches using some heuristics to guess what files you’ll need in addition to the one that the system asked for.
The Future
We wish there was an option to assume the program will execute on the remote machine and only set up the input and output files. This would make it easier to do things like slice a 3D print on a remote PC from a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint, for example. Of course, this is all open source, so maybe we should go make that fix ourselves.
Then again, you could do something like this pretty easily with
sshfs
and some other tricks. If you want to run a program on a bunch of remote machines,
there are ways to do that
, too. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270073",
"author": "Rob T",
"timestamp": "2020-08-11T17:23:49",
"content": "Wouldn’t the Future be Docker and Containers, or am I missing something? I like the way this works, it is lightweight and needs essentially no setup. But the wish for programs to execute on remote machines ... | 1,760,373,391.146983 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/scratch-build-of-this-tiny-rc-car-is-a-handmade-fabrication-masterpiece/ | Scratch Build Of This Tiny RC Car Is A Handmade Fabrication Masterpiece | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"remote control car"
] | Tiny remote control cars burst onto the scene from time to time, often sold from mall kiosks and covered in garish stickers. However, sometimes it’s more fun to build than to buy. [diorama111] clearly fits into this camp,
building a tiny 1:150 scale RC car from the ground up.
The build starts with a Tomy 1:150 model Toyota Crown / Avalon. However, only the outer shell remain. From giving the wheels rubber tires and fabricating a delicate steering assembly, to adding motors for both locomotion and turning, the mechanical build is on point. But seeing the ATtiny1616 is deadbugged with a DRV8835 motor driver, with the SMD parts hooked up with magnet wire to save the most space possible is equally impressive. A PIC79603 IR module is used to receive the commands to drive the car.
The build is an artful one, and all done by hand — no 3D printing or CNC parts involved. Watching the car drive is a delight. The smooth analog steering and slow speed give it an excellent scale appearance. The only thing we wonder about is the difficulty of driving it quickly without the aid of self-centering steering. It reminds us fondly of
the 1:96 scale fully-functional Mustang RC plane we featured in 2017
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to killergeek for the tip!] | 27 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270508",
"author": "Kyle Brinkerhoff",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T23:13:34",
"content": "now even children can experience the thrill of driving a 1999 Toyota Camry! all jokes aside this is nice to see such great freeform circuitry work",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,373,391.212616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/miniature-star-wars-arcade-lets-you-blow-up-the-death-star-on-the-go/ | Miniature Star Wars Arcade Lets You Blow Up The Death Star On The Go | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"Games"
] | [
"3D resin printer",
"arcade",
"arcade cabinet",
"miniature",
"retropie",
"star wars",
"usb hid"
] | If you have fond childhood memories of afternoons spent at the local arcade, then you’ve had the occasional daydream about tracking down one of those old cabinets and putting it in the living room. But the size, cost, and rarity of these machines makes actually owning one impractical for most people.
While this
fully functional 1/4th scale replica of the classic
Star Wars
arcade game
created by [Jamie McShan] might not be a perfect replacement for the original, there’s no denying it would be easier to fit through your front door. Nearly every aspect of the iconic 1983 machine has been carefully recreated, right down to a working coin slot that accepts miniature quarters. Frankly, the build would have been impressive enough had he only put in half the detail work, but we certainly aren’t complaining that he went the extra mile.
[Jamie] leaned heavily on resin 3D printed parts for this build, and for good reason. It’s hard to imagine how he could have produced some of the tiny working parts for his cabinet using traditional manufacturing techniques. The game’s signature control yoke and the coin acceptor mechanism are really incredible feats of miniaturization, and a testament to what’s possible at the DIY level with relatively affordable tools.
The cabinet itself is cut from MDF, using plans appropriately scaled down from the real thing. Inside you’ll find a Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ running RetroPie attached directly to the back of a 4.3 inch LCD with integrated amplified speakers. [Jamie] is using an Arduino to handle interfacing with the optical coin detector and controls, which communicates with the Pi over USB HID. He’s even added in a pair of 3,000 mAh LiPo battery packs and a dedicated charge controller so you can blow up the Death Star on the go.
Still don’t think you can fit one in your apartment? Not to worry, back in 2012 we actually saw somebody
recreate this same cabinet in just 1/6th scale
.
[Thanks to Paul for the tip.] | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270468",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T21:04:33",
"content": "That’s cool, but if you want to really impress me build a 1/4th scale cockpit version and then play it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6270523",
... | 1,760,373,391.308763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/resq-hunts-for-lost-hikers-from-the-air/ | RESQ Hunts For Lost Hikers From The Air | Lewin Day | [
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2020 Hackaday Prize",
"beacon",
"Search and Rescue",
"wifi"
] | When lost hiking out in the back country, a cell phone might not seem like the most useful tool. Absent a signal from the cellular network, it’s not possible to make outgoing calls for help. However, carrying your phone may just make it a lot easier for rescuers to find you,
and [Eric] is making a tool to do the job.
The handheld version of ResQ features a directional Yagi antenna to help pinpoint the location of the signal.
[Eric]’s project is named ResQ, and aims to find lost hikers by detecting the beacon packets from a cellphone’s WiFi adapter. The project comes in two forms; a handheld unit with a directional Yagi antenna, and a drone-mounted unit that can overfly terrain to scan for signals.
ResQ is built around the ESP8266, which is a cheap and accessible way to build a custom WiFI scanner. Currently, the system is able to detect WiFi devices and log MAC addresses along with timestamps and GPS location data to an SD card to help rescuers locate lost individuals. Future plans involve adding a live downlink to the drone such that any pings can be reported live for rescuers to investigate.
Similar systems exist commercially, primarily working with cell signals rather than WiFi. Costs are prohibitively high for many organisations though, so we can see ResQ filling in gaps as a useful tool to have.
We’ve featured other radio gear for search and rescue before, too.
Video after the break.
The
Hackaday
Prize2020
is Sponsored by: | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270416",
"author": "Hack Jack",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T18:55:06",
"content": "This is a novel idea to help those stranded in the wild. But thinking from a hiker’s point of view. If I have a phone with power and getting no signal, I would put it in Airplane Mode to conserve energy... | 1,760,373,391.414024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/the-ever-accelerating-automation-of-fast-food/ | The Ever-Accelerating Automation Of Fast Food | Lewin Day | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Robots Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"automation",
"burger",
"fast food",
"flipper",
"food",
"McDonald's",
"Pizza",
"robots"
] | In the fast food industry, speed is everything. The concept has never just been about cooking quickly. Players in this competitive space spend huge fortunes every year on optimizing every aspect of the experience, from ordering, to queueing, to cleaning up afterwards. And while fast food restaurants are major employers worldwide, there’s always been a firm eye cast over the gains that automation has to offer.
Flipping Burgers
In the West, fast food most commonly brings burgers to mind. Preparing a quality burger requires attention to the grade of meat, fat content, as well as the preparation steps before it hits the grill. Then it’s all about temperature and time, and getting just the right sear to bring out the natural flavors of the beef. While a boutique burger joint will employ a skilled worker to get things
just right
, that doesn’t fly for fast food. Every order needs to be preparable by whichever minimum-wage worker got the shift, and be as repeatable as possible across entire countries, or even the world, to meet customer expectations.
Flippy ROAR (Robot On A Rail) at work on the fryers in a White Castle in Chicago.
In their efforts to improve efficiency, White Castle have taken the bold step of installing a robotic burger flipper,
imaginitively named Flippy.
Built by Miso Robotics, the robot hangs from a ceiling rail to minimise the space taken up in the kitchen area.
Based on a Fanuc robot arm
, the system uses artificial intelligence to manage kitchen resources, Flippy is capable of managing both the grill and fryers together to ensure fries don’t get cold while the burgers are still cooking, for example. Currently undergoing a trial run in Chicago, White Castle has ambitions to roll the technology out to further stores if successful.
We’ve seen other robotic burger systems before, too. In late 2018,
our own [Brian Benchoff] went down to check out Creator
, which cooks and assembles its burgers entirely by machine. Despite suspicions about the business model, Creator have persisted until the present day with their unique blend of technology and culinary arts. Particularly impressive were their restaurant modifications
in the face of COVID-19.
The restaurant received an overhaul, with meals being robotically prepared directly in a take-out box with no human contact. Take-out meals are double-bagged and passed to customers through an airlock, with a positive-pressure system in the restaurant to protect staff from the outside world.
Pizzabots
Pizza is a staple food for many, with high demand and a stronger dependence on delivery than other fast food options. This has led to the industry exploring many avenues for automation, from preparation to order fulfillment.
In terms of outright throughput,
Zume were a startup that led the charge
. Their system involves multiple robots to knead dough, apply sauce and place the pie in the oven. Due to the variable nature sizes and shapes of various toppings, these are still applied by humans in the loop. Capable of turning out 120 pizzas per hour, a single facility could compete with many traditional human-staffed pizza shops. They also experimented with kitchens-on-wheels that use predictive algorithms to stock out trucks that cook pizzas on the way to the customer’s door. Unfortunately, despite a one-time $4 billion USD valuation, the startup hit a rocky patch and is
now focusing on packaging instead.
Picnic aim to make lots of pizza, fast. Their business model involves working directly with existing restaurants, rather than creating their own fast-food brand from scratch.
Picnic have gone further
, claiming an output rate of up to 300 twelve-inch pies an hour. The startup aims to work with a variety of existing pizza restaurants, rather than striking out as their own brand. One hurdle to overcome is the delivery of a prepared pizza into the oven. There are many varieties and kinds of pizza oven used in commercial settings, and different loading techniques are required for each. This remains an active area of development for the company. The company has a strong focus on the emerging
ghost kitchen
model, where restaurants are built solely to fulfill online delivery orders, with no dining area.
Domino’s is one of the largest pizza companies in the world, and thus far have focused their efforts on autonomous delivery. The DRU, or Domino’s Robotic Unit,
was launched to much fanfare
, promising to deliver pizzas by a small wheeled robotic unit. Equipped with sensors to avoid obstacles and GPS navigation,
the project has not entered mainstream service just yet.
However, between this and the multitude of companies exploring drone delivery, expect to see this become more of a thing in coming years.
Despite the marketing sizzle, the DOM Pizza Checker does not project holograms.
A more immediate innovation from Domino’s has been
the DOM Pizza Checker.
With customer complaints about pizza quality plaguing the chain, the pizza checker is an AI-powered visual system. It’s responsible for determining if the correct pizza has been made, with the right toppings and good distribution. An impressive practical use of AI imaging technology, it sounds an alarm if the pizza isn’t up to scratch, prompting it to be remade. However, it has come under scrutiny as
a potential method to harass franchisees and workers.
Additionally, the limitations of the system mean that Domino’s
are still perfectly capable of turning out a bad pizza on occasion.
Other Efforts
One of the most visible examples of fast food automation is the widespread adoption of order kiosks by McDonalds,
which kicked off in earnest in 2015.
The majority of stores in the US now rely on these to speed up the ordering process, while also enabling more customization for customers with less fuss. Over-the-counter ordering is still possible at most locations, but there’s a heavy emphasis on using the new system.
McDonald’s automated beverage dispenser will be a familiar sight to many. Considered a great help when it works, and a great hindrance when it jams, spills, or simply shuts down.
In general, online ordering and delivery has become the norm, where ten years ago, the idea of getting McDonalds delivered was considered magical and arcane. This writer made seven attempts to take advantage of an early version of the service in China in 2015, succeeding only once, largely due to a lack of understanding of addresses written in non-Latin characters. However, due to the now-ubiquitous nature of services like Ubereats, Postmates, and Menulog, it’s simple for any restaurant to largely automate their ordering and fulfillment process, and reach customers at a distance from their brick-and-mortar locations.
Other efforts are smaller in scope, but contribute to great efficiency gains back-of-house. McDonalds and other chains have widely adopted automated beverage systems. Capable of automatically dispensing cups and the requisite fluids, they take instructions directly from the digital ordering system and take the manual labor out of drink preparation.
They’re also great at slightly underfilling the cups
, in a way that any human would consider incredibly rude.
Conclusion
Robots in the fast-food kitchen stand to reduce or eliminate tedious, repetitive work. Robots don’t get sick, and less human labour means fewer rostering hassles. It seems to be a foregone conclusion that more automation is on the way, and while some startups may falter, others will surely succeed. Your next meal may just yet be entirely prepared by a robot, even if it’s still delivered by a tired grad student on a moped. Come what may! | 85 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270389",
"author": "Ren",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T17:07:10",
"content": "So, is the title art plugging Yum! ?B^)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum!_Brands",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270391",
"author": "steven",
... | 1,760,373,391.651688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/a-song-of-fog-and-fire-taking-a-look-inside-a-rubens-tube/ | A Song Of Fog And Fire – Taking A Look Inside A Rubens’ Tube | Sven Gregori | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"fire",
"fog",
"fog machine",
"physics",
"rubens tube",
"standing wave"
] | The dark winter months are still a bit ahead of us, but with night returning even to the northernmost places, it might be a good time to get your next mood lighting project started. Despite the ubiquitousness of LED strips, cave-time nostalgia makes it hard to beat the coziness of an actual flame here — well, assuming it’s a controlled flame. While modern LED candles do a decent enough job to fool you from a distance, there’s one apparatus they’ll have a hard time to replicate though: the Rubens’ tube. Tired of their usual straight pipe construct, [RyanMake] added some twists and turns to the concept and created
a flexible Ruben’s tube made from semi-rigid aluminum ducts
.
If you’re not familiar with the
Rubens’ tube
, it’s a combination of science, fun, and danger to visualize standing waves with fire by attaching a loudspeaker to a pipe with equally spaced holes that’s filled with flammable gas, and light it up. As the resulting visual effect depends on the audio signal’s wavelength, and by that the length of the tube itself, [RyanMake]’s flexible duct approach adds some variety to the usual fixed-length pipe versions of it. But that’s not all he did. After seeing the flames in person, he got curious about what’s actually going on inside that tube and
decided to build another one
, this time using a clear plastic tube and a fog machine. While the fog escapes the tube rather unimpressively (and could hardly compete with fire anyway), it gives a nice insight of what’s going on inside those tubes. See for yourself in the videos after the break.
Of course, no experiment is truly conducted without failure, and after seeing his first tube go up in flames several times, you should probably hold on to building one as decorative item for indoors. On the other hand, if shooting fire is what you’re looking for, you might be interested in
this vortex cannon
. And for some more twists on a
standard Rubens’ tube
, check out
the two-dimensional Pyro Board
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270360",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T15:37:16",
"content": "Sawdust as well.https://www.sciencefacts.net/rubens-tube.html",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6270379",
"author": "Steven13",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,373,391.349647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/degrees-of-freedom-booting-arm-processors/ | Degrees Of Freedom: Booting ARM Processors | Bryan Cockfield | [
"computer hacks",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"arm",
"bootloader",
"chromebook",
"Das U-Boot",
"librebo",
"open source",
"Pinebook Pro",
"RedBoot",
"Rockchip",
"uboot"
] | Any modern computer with an x86 processor, whether it’s Intel or AMD, is a lost cause for software freedom and privacy. We harp on this a lot, but it’s worth repeating that it’s nearly impossible to get free, open-source firmware to run on them thanks to the
Intel Management Engine
(IME) and the AMD Platform Security Processor (PSP). Without libre firmware there’s no way to trust anything else, even if your operating system is completely open-source.
The IME or PSP have access to memory, storage, and the network stack even if the computer is shut down, and even after the computer boots they run at such a low level that the operating system can’t be aware of what they’re really doing. Luckily, there’s a dark horse in the race in the personal computing world that gives us some hope that one day there will be an x86 competitor that allows their users to have a free firmware that they can trust. ARM processors, which have been steadily increasing their user share for years but are seeing a surge of interest
since the recent announcement by Apple
, are poised to take over the personal computing world and hopefully allow us some relevant, modern options for those concerned with freedom and privacy. But in the real world of ARM processors the road ahead will decidedly long, windy, and forked.
Even ignoring tedious nitpicks that the distinction between RISC vs CISC is more blurred now than it was “back in the day”, RISC machines like ARM have a natural leg up on the x86 CISC machines built by Intel and AMD. These
RISC machines use fewer instructions
and perform with much more thermal efficiency than their x86 competitors. They can often be passively cooled, avoiding need to be actively cooled, unlike many AMD/Intel machines that often have noisy or bulky fans. But for me, the most interesting advantage is the ability to run ARM machines without the proprietary firmware present with x86 chips.
ARM is an Architecture Licensed to Many Manufacturers
ARM doesn’t make any chips themselves like the x86 manufacturers like Intel do. Rather, they maintain and license their architecture to other companies who in turn build processors that use the ARM instruction set. There is an almost uncountable number of companies making ARM processors: Broadcom, Qualcomm, Rockchip, Atmel, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments, to name a few. And don’t forget Apple, who have been making ARM-based phones and tablets for years and who are about to transition their entire line of products to this superior architecture.
The diversity in manufacturers both is a blessing and a curse when it comes to privacy-respecting options for firmware and software. With so many manufacturers, ARM chips are in almost everything and are so common that there is an easily-accessible wealth of knowledge about how to build software for them (even though desktop computing applications are just a little bit behind).
Applications for the platform are varied as well, from microcontrollers to routers to smartphones and a handful of PCs. However, as anyone with an Android phone may have experienced when trying to unlock their bootloader, there is no uniform way that ARM processors are booted and there’s no uniform or even standardized boot software for ARM-based chips. Some use uboot or coreboot, some need to use some binary blobs, and still others have proprietary firmware that is not open source or able to be modified in any way and even prohibits modifying other software on the device.
Companies using ARM devices are free to open up their devices to be as free as possible like Pine64 does with their phones, tablets, and computers, but others (including cell phone service providers like AT&T or Verizon) can use the freedom afforded to them by the ARM platform to make sure their customers have almost no access to the software running on that hardware. Finding ARM platforms that are open is a challenge if the original manufacturer or supplier didn’t make it a priority, but there are some other options available.
Finding Your Way to ARM and Libre Firmware
One of the more favorable of those options is the Rockchip RK3288, which uses an ARM Cortex-A17 processor and can be found in a number of different Chromebooks. Libreboot, a free and open-source firmware available for a small set of computers, is available for these chips as well which means that (as long as you can get the right
graphics driver installed
) you can run 100% free software on this computer. Of course, the chipset is around six years old so while it is a fair bit newer than other computers running libreboot (
like installing libreboot on my personal laptop which is of the 2008 vintage
), it’s still not the most modern processor out there.
PineBook Pro teardown
shows a Rockchip RK3399 ARM processor.
For something a little newer, a great example of the openness possible with ARM is from Pine64, which produces several laptops, phones, and a tablet all based on ARM chips. Their
PineBook Pro
, for example, uses the upgraded Rockchip RK3399 which has two Cortex-A72 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores, which allows it to split various tasks among themselves in order to make the best use of each of these chips, and of course it uses a libre bootloader as well. The offerings from Rockchip aren’t the only options, either; the Free Software Foundation has a list of other
systems-on-a-chip that have varying degrees of software freedom
.
Popular Choices for Open Bootloaders on ARM
While the open, diverse nature of ARM means that anyone anywhere can code a firmware/bootloader/BIOS for their specific platform of choice, it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel. There are a few options already out there that are popular choices.
The most free of these is the oft-mentioned libreboot, which uses 100% free and open-source software and never uses any binary blobs. It is
available for a handful of ARM-based laptops
from the early 2010s (as well as some other older x86-based boards as well). Libreboot itself is a
fork
distribution of coreboot, a bootloader that is largely free (licensed under GPLv2) but occasionally uses proprietary binary “blobs” of non-free software in order to get certain hardware up and running that might not otherwise have a non-proprietary way of booting.
Besides these two main bootloaders there is also
Das U-boot
, or simply uboot, another free bootloader available for various platforms including ARM. Many specialty bootloaders exist as well, such as
RedBoot
which is built specifically for Red Hat implementations, and
BareBox
which is used largely in embedded devices. Of course, like the many flavors of Linux, there are
an astounding number of other bootloaders available
with various features and levels of freedom.
You Should Value Your Privacy and Security
With so many variables, hopefully the coming ARM revolution will include free options for those of us who value security and freedom from the ground up. While Apple almost certainly will not use a free or open-source bootloader as the firmware for their laptops, they’re not actually driving this movement. There’s sea change happening right now throughout the computing world in favor of ARM processors over their more inefficient and insecure x86 competitors and if Apple is any indication this may eventually spill over into the rest of the PC world as well.
The current state of PCs doesn’t really allow us to “vote with one’s wallet” since there are almost no options in the landscape for security or privacy. But your privacy and security have value. With the diversity of manufacturers of ARM devices, I am hopeful that the a growing number of companies will to listen our needs and finally offer modern, powerful, and competitive computers built from the ground up with hardware, firmware, and software choices that begin with privacy and security in mind. | 97 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270322",
"author": "YGDES",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T14:14:34",
"content": "The illustration is nice as usual.I just expected to see chips of grated cheese come out of the machine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270351",
... | 1,760,373,391.995877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/12/a-special-baseball-bat-with-explosive-hitting-power/ | A Special Baseball Bat With Explosive Hitting Power | Danie Conradie | [
"Tech Hacks",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"baseball",
"blank cartridges",
"explosive",
"machining",
"shane wighton",
"stuff made here"
] | To make up for some lacking athletic ability, [Shane Wighton] of [Stuff Made Here] created a custom
baseball bat with an explosive sweet spot
, that almost guarantees a home run. Inside a custom machined bat, he added a piston mechanism, powered by blank cartridges intended for powder actuated nailers, that can hit a ball with impressive force.
Up to three rimfire blank cartridges are placed in the stationary side of the piston mechanism, and are fired by three firing pins on the back of the piston when a ball hits the front of the piston. The expanding gasses then drive the piston out at high velocity, hitting the ball, before it is stopped from flying out completely by a crossbar. The gasses are exhausted through the side of the sleeve, into a “muffler” machined into the front of the bat. The first time [Shane] fired the mechanism with two cartridges, it almost sheared off the stopping bar, and damaged all the other components and blew the bat apart. This led to a complete redesign, including a crossbar with urethane dampers and an aluminum muffler.
The results with the “upgrades” are pretty impressive, and a little scary. Batting distance was around 350 feet with two cartridges, hitting the ball off a tee to avoid putting a pitcher in the firing line. [Shane] did a lab test with three cartridges, which put a hole in the ball and looked like it would break the bat. He expects that three cartridges would allow him to break the home run record, but would require another redesign and will be left for a future video
We admit to being rather envious of [Shane]’s workshop, and the projects that come out of it. We’ve seen him create an
all-in-one golf club
,
a robotic barber
, and a
robotic basketball hoop
, to name a few. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6270300",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2020-08-12T12:28:58",
"content": "Cool. That’s pretty much in line with my sporting skills. I wonder if you can get 30-06 or 50AE blanks?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6270338",
... | 1,760,373,391.701352 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/10/the-zero-terminal-3-a-pop-out-keyboard-linux-computer-in-your-pocket/ | The Zero Terminal 3: A Pop-Out Keyboard Linux Computer In Your Pocket | Jenny List | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"mobile",
"pi zero",
"portable",
"Raspberry Pi Zero"
] | The mobile phone revolution has delivered us attractively packaged and convenient computing in our pockets, but without the easy hackability we like in our community. Meanwhile the advent of single board computers has given us affordable super-powerful hardware that can run a very capable GNU/Linux operating system and fulfill all our hackable computing needs. Combine the two though? Plenty have tried, few have succeeded in making something as slick as the former with the open power of the latter. Fine if you like your portable devices to have a cyberdeck vibe, but maybe not something you’d take into the boardrooom. Never fear though, for [N-O-D-E] have the solution, in
version 3 of the Zero Terminal
. It’s the ultimate in Raspberry Pi based handheld computing, and it resembles a slightly chunky mobile phone.
At its heart is a Waveshare OLED 5.5″ touch screen, on the back owhich is mounted a PCB that carries a USB hub and power circuitry. A Pi Zero is mounted directly to this, and a cleverly designed HDMI adapter board interfaces it to the display. The power board is a generic one, the one designed for the PCB proved difficult to hand solder. There’s a very smartly designed case to give it that mobile phone feel, and on the back are a set of sockets with all the relevant Pi connections. This opens the possibility of some exciting add-ons, the first of which is a sliding keyboard similar to those on early Android phones. The ‘board is based on
a [Bobricius] design
, though sadly isn’t quite working yet.
As you can see in the video below the break, this is about as slick a mobile Pi as it’s possible to get. [N-O-D-E], we want one. Just take our money! | 35 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269702",
"author": "Arthur Wolf",
"timestamp": "2020-08-10T11:23:34",
"content": "Pretty sure if he did a Kickstarter in the week to come, it’d be furiously popular. If he’s not ready to do the work of setting up the kickstarter and fullfiling it, I’m pretty sure I can think of a f... | 1,760,373,391.86115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/10/unique-instrument-plucks-out-notes-on-a-ruler/ | Unique Instrument Plucks Out Notes On A Ruler | Dan Maloney | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"music",
"plectrum",
"pluck",
"ruler",
"synthesizer",
"vibration"
] | How does one describe the notes that come from a ruler that is anchored on one end and then plucked? The best word we can come up with is “wubulation”. So would that make
this ruler-plucking synthesizer
a “wubulator”? Or perhaps a “wubatron”?
Whatever we decide to call it, [
Dmitry Morozov
] dubbed it the RBS-20, or “ruler bass synth, 20-cm”, for the 20-cm stainless steel ruler that forms the heart of the instrument. The ruler is attached to a linear slide which varies the length of the sprung section. A pair of servos can pluck the free section of the ruler in two different places, providing notes in different registers, while another pair of servos control metal fingers that can damp the vibration, change the sustain, and alter the notes. There’s no resonator; the sounds are instead picked up by a piezo mic. Twelve keys on the base of the instrument can be programmed for various lengths, and an OLED display gives the musician feedback. The video below shows the instrument wubulating, and brings us back to those desktop jam sessions in our grade school days — at least until the rulers were confiscated.
We’ve covered a ton of similarly unique musical instruments before, like this
hybrid synthesizer-violin
,
a symphony of soda bottles
, and inexplicably,
a leg guitar
. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269683",
"author": "Rob T",
"timestamp": "2020-08-10T08:32:38",
"content": "Well it’s not quite Nigel Stanford, but very well executed.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAdqazixuRY",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6269704",
... | 1,760,373,392.30299 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/09/45-minute-podcast-served-up-on-a-floppy-disk/ | 45 Minute Podcast Served Up On A Floppy Disk | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"adaptive multi-rate",
"AMR",
"audio compression",
"floppy",
"floppy disk"
] | Near the turn of the millenium, portable media players like the iPod led to the development of the podcast. The format generally consists of content similar to talk-based radio, and is typically served up in modern codecs like AAC, M4A and MP3. However, [Sean Haas] decided these were all too chunky, and wanted to see if it was possible to deliver similar content on a floppy disk.
The results are predictable, but impressive.
[Sean]’s aim was to try and fit roughly 45 minutes of audio on to a 1.44 MB floppy disk. To pull this off, he looked far and wide for a codec fitting for the task. The choice landed on was Adaptive Multi-Rate, or AMR. Typically used to encode audio for GSM phone calls, it can also be used to create compressed audio files.
Initial attempts weren’t quite good enough to do the job, so [Sean] introduced a pre-processing step with FFMPEG, to speed the audio up 1.2 times. It was then passed through SoX and encoded in AMR at approximately 5 kbit/s. This allowed a 45-minute long MP3 file of 72MB to be compressed down into just 1.2 MB, and thus able to fit onto a floppy disk. Audio quality is predictably poor, as you can hear in the embedded clip below, but definitely intelligible. You’d probably want to skip any musical passages if you were doing this seriously.
[Sean] took it one step further, converted his entire back catalogue, and created an RSS feed. This was then submitted to the usual podcast directories like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and the like. While most rejected the submission, as they lack support for AMR files,
somehow Spotify has no problem with the content.
[Sean] suspects there must be some conversion going on somewhere as browsers don’t usually have AMR players built in.
It’s a fun project, and we’re almost disappointed nobody tried this back in the era of floppy trading and BBSes. If you’re interested in a history of compressed audio standards and how they changed the world,
we’d be happy to oblige
. | 37 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269652",
"author": "Saabman",
"timestamp": "2020-08-10T05:11:09",
"content": "I’m going out a limb here my ignorance of the topic is significant but I would guess no one did it back in the day as the codec for the compression may have been either not readily attainable if it had ye... | 1,760,373,392.181132 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/09/talking-head-teaches-laplace-transform/ | Talking Head Teaches Laplace Transform | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"calculus",
"fourier transform",
"Laplace Transform",
"math"
] | Most people who deal with electronics have heard of the Fourier transform. That mathematical process makes it possible for computers to analyze sound, video, and it also offers critical math insights for tasks ranging from pattern matching to frequency synthesis. The Laplace transform is less familiar, even though it is a generalization of the Fourier transform. [Steve Bruntun] has a good explanation of the math behind
the Laplace transform
in a recent video that you can see below.
There are many applications for the Laplace transform, including transforming types of differential equations. This comes up often in electronics where you have time-varying components like inductors and capacitors. Instead of having to solve a differential equation, you can perform a Laplace, solve using common algebra, and then do a reverse transform to get the right answer. This is similar to how logarithms can take a harder problem — multiplication — and change it into a simpler addition problem, but on a much larger scale.
We assume it was a choice, but [Steve] presents wearing all black on a black background, so we found ourselves imagining him as a floating head of math knowledge. Kidding aside, what a great explanation of the topic! You’ll probably need some calculus to get the most out of the video, but it is interesting to just watch him cut through the equations.
Once you tackle the transform, you’ll find it interesting to learn about the
S-plane
which is the graphical representation of the Laplace transform. If you need a brush up on calculus we have mentioned before that
calculus isn’t really hard
. We also like a
very old book on the subject
. | 25 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269637",
"author": "ian 42",
"timestamp": "2020-08-10T02:10:41",
"content": "that old calculus book is very good, I gave it to my son a couple of years ago to use. Because it is so old it doesn’t assume knowledge you don’t have, doesn’t assume that you are doing everything on a com... | 1,760,373,392.10226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/09/hackaday-links-august-9-2020/ | Hackaday Links: August 9, 2020 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"Chris Gammell",
"contextual electronics",
"Covid-19",
"GoPro",
"hackaday links",
"tire",
"webcam",
"Windows 10"
] | We regret to admit this, but we completely missed the fact that
Windows 10 turned five years old back
in March. Granted, things were a little weird back then — at least it seemed weird at the time; from the current perspective, things were downright normal then. Regardless, our belated congratulations to Microsoft, who, like anyone looking after a five-year-old, spends most of their time trying to keep their charge from accidentally killing itself. Microsoft has done such a good job at keeping Windows 10 alive that it has been installed on “one billion monthly active devices”. Of course, back in
April of 2015
they predicted that the gigainstall mark would be reached in 2018. But what’s a couple of years between friends?
Of all the things that proved to be in short supply during the pandemic lockdowns, what surprised us most was not the toilet paper crunch. No, what really surprised us was
the ongoing webcam supply pinch
. Sure, it makes sense, with everyone suddenly working from home and in need of a decent camera for video conferencing. But we had no idea that the market was so dominated by one manufacturer — Logitech — that their cameras could suddenly become unobtainium. Whatever it is that’s driving the shortage, we’d take Logitech’s statement that “demand will be met in the next 4-6 weeks” with a huge grain of salt. After all, back-to-school shopping is likely to look vastly different this year than in previous years.
Speaking of education, check out
the CrowPi2 STEM laptop
. On the one hand, it looks like just another Raspberry Pi-based laptop, albeit one with a better level of fit and finish than most homebrew Pi-tops. With a Raspberry Pi 4b on board, it can do all the usual stuff — email, browse the web, watch videos. The secret sauce is under the removable wireless keyboard, though: a pretty comprehensive electronics learning lab. It reminds us of the Radio Shack “150-in-One” kits that so many of us cut our teeth on, but on steroids. Having a complete suite of modules and a breadboarding area built right into the laptop needed to program it is brilliant, and we look forward to seeing how the Kickstarter for this does.
Exciting news from Hackaday Superfriend Chris Gammell — he has launched a new podcast to go along with his Contextual Electronics training courses. Unsurprisingly dubbed the
Contextual Electronics Podcast
, he already has three episodes in the can. They’re available as both video and straight audio, and from the few minutes we’ve had to spend on them so far, Chris has done a great job in terms of production values and guests with Sophy Wong, Stephen Hawes, and Erik Larson leading off the series. We wish him luck with this new venture, and we’re looking forward to future episodes.
One of the best things about GoPro and similar sports cameras is their ability to go just about anywhere and show things we normally don’t get to see. We’re thinking of those gorgeous slo-mo selfies of surfers inside a curling wave, or those cool shots of a skier powder blasting down a mountain slope. But this is the first time we’ve seen
a GoPro mounted inside a car’s tire
. The video by the aptly named YouTuber [Warped Perception] shows how he removed the tire from the wheel and mounted the camera, a battery pack, and an LED light in the rim, then remounted the tire. The footage of the tire deforming as it contacts the ground is fascinating but oddly creepy. It sort of reminds us a little of
the footage from cameras inside the Saturn V fuel tanks
— valuable engineering information to be sure, but forbidden in some way. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269622",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2020-08-09T23:18:43",
"content": "The CrowPi2 (weird name) is interesting but how long will the Piexoskeleton be updateable? I mean if in a year you can’t put a new RasPi in it what good is it? As for the shortage of webcams, well I lik... | 1,760,373,392.044263 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/09/how-about-a-nice-cuppa-tea-laser/ | How About A Nice Cuppa TEA Laser? | Dan Maloney | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"dye",
"gas",
"high voltage",
"ischarge",
"laser",
"nitrogen",
"rhodamine",
"tea",
"transversely excited atmospheric"
] | If lasers are your hobby, you face a conundrum. There are so many off-the-shelf lasers that use so many different ways of amplifying and stimulating light that the whole thing can be downright — unstimulating. Keeping things fresh therefore requires rolling your own lasers, and
these DIY nitrogen TEA and dye lasers
seem like a fun way to go.
These devices are the work of [Les Wright], who takes us on a somewhat lengthy but really informative tour of transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) lasers. The idea with TEA lasers is that a gas, often carbon dioxide in commercial lasers but either air or pure nitrogen in this case, is excited by a high-voltage discharge across long parallel electrodes. TEA lasers are dead easy to make —
we’ve covered them
a few times — but as [Les] points out, that ease of construction leads to designs that are more ad hoc than engineered.
In the video below, [Les] presents three designs that are far more robust than the typical TEA laser. His lasers use capacitors made from aluminum foil with polyethylene sheets for dielectric, sometimes with the addition of beautiful “doorknob” ceramic caps too. A spark gap serves as a very fast switch to discharge high voltage across the laser channel, formed by two closely spaced aluminum hex bars. Both the spark gap and the laser channel can be filled with low-pressure nitrogen. [Les] demonstrates the power and the speed of his lasers, which can even excite laser emissions in a plain cuvette of rhodamine dye — no mirrors needed! Although eye protection is, of course.
These TEA lasers honestly look like a ton of fun to build and play with. You might not be
laser welding
or
levitating stuff
with them, but that’s hardly the point. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269606",
"author": "LightningPhil",
"timestamp": "2020-08-09T20:37:30",
"content": "Awesome. Now even tea can take an eye out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6269610",
"author": "Eric Weatherby",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,373,392.235086 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/09/hands-on-internet-of-batteries-quantum-badge-brings-badgelife-add-ons-the-power-and-internet-they-crave/ | Hands-On: Internet Of Batteries Quantum Badge Brings Badgelife Add-Ons The Power And Internet They Crave | Mike Szczys | [
"cons",
"hardware"
] | [
"badgelife",
"defcon 28",
"sao",
"Simple Add-On",
"whiskey pirates"
] | Our friends in the Whiskey Pirates crew sent me the unofficial DEF CON badge they built this year. The
Internet of Batteries QUANTUM
provides power and connectivity to the all-important add-on badges of DC28. The front of the badge is absolutely gorgeous to the point I don’t really want to solder on my add-on headers and disrupt that aesthetic.
The gold-plated copper makes for a uniformed and reflective contrast to the red solder mask which occupies the majority of the front. Here we see the great attention to detail that [TrueControl] includes in his badges. The white stripe of silk screen separating the two colors is covered by some black detailing tape that looks much better than the white.
The antenna of the ESP32 module poking out the underside of the gold cover end of the badge gets its own rectangle of the holographic sticker material, the same as the sheet of stickers that was included in the box. Both decals are small details that make a huge difference to your eye.
The line of nine RGB LEDs have black bezels which goes along with the black stripe motif and underscores the typography of the badge name. These lights are hosted on a daughter board soldered to the underside of the badge with a slot for the LEDs to pass through. They are addressed in a 2×15 matrix that is scanned on the low side by the PSoC5 that drives the badge. This low-res image shows that daughter board before the lithium cell is placed.
User control is provided by a number of capacitive touch pads, one under the word DEF, another under the word CELL, and finally a row of five chevron shaped pads just above those words. The role of the badge is to provide power to add-ons so it makes sense that recharging is built in via a micro USB port.
One trademark design choice worth mentioning is the treatment of four white LEDs, one next to each of the SAO (“Shitty Add-on”) footprints. At first I thought these used cutouts in the board just like the RGB strip, but that isn’t the case. Instead, copper has been kept out of this area to expose the FR4 substrate. A normal surface-mount LED is hand soldered upside down so that it shines toward the board, using this keepout area in the PCB design as a diffuser. This is a trick that [TrueControl] used on last year’s Space Force badge, and while I personally found it quite tricky to get the hang of soldering them, it’s more cost effective than sourcing proper undermount LEDs.
As with many badgelife offerings, this is still a work in progress. The firmware that shipped with the badge is still in the “Hello World” phase. Development is ongoing, but
many bold feature claims are made on the project’s GitHub page
. The planned wireless features include a “Captive Arcade” which can be logged into via the WiFi access point provided by the ESP32. This makes it possible to to display analytics for power usage on each of the four SAO ports, and there’s even plans for a mesh network that incorporates socially interactive features like a chat room and private messages. On a battery?!
Speaking of those SAO ports, there are both male and female headers provided. The idea is that the DEF CELL can be used to power not only an add-on, but a badge as well. When equipped with the
female
shrouded pin header it effectively becomes an add-on for another badge, with the important distinction that this add-on has a Lithium battery and will “back-power” the host badge via the SAO port.
Is that in the spec
? No, that’s why this standard is known as “shitty”, there is inherent risk to connecting devices by different makers using these ports. But it might work without problems, it really depends on the host badge.
With both Bluetooth and WiFi available through the ESP32, and an I2C pin as part of each SAO footprint, it should be possible to use DEF CELL to show meaningful changes on add-on boards based on triggers from the Internet, or devices within wireless range of the badge. That’s a hack for the future, and certainly something we hope to see around your neck at next year’s DEF CON. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269601",
"author": "Jose",
"timestamp": "2020-08-09T19:36:03",
"content": "Not available …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6269613",
"author": "true",
"timestamp": "2020-08-09T21:23:08",
"content": "We... | 1,760,373,392.359465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2020/08/10/raspberry-pi-gets-pata-ide-drive-via-gpio-header/ | Raspberry Pi Gets PATA/IDE Drive Via GPIO Header | Lewin Day | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"gpio",
"ide",
"pata",
"pata ide",
"raspberry pi"
] | By and large, the Raspberry Pi is a computer that eschews legacy interfaces. Primarily relying on SD cards for storage and USB ports for further expansion, magnetic hard drives are a rare sight. However, [Manawyrm] decided that some 40-pin goodness was in order,
and set to making a PATA IDE adapter for the platform.
To achieve the task of interfacing now-vintage IDE devices with the Raspberry Pi, [Manawyrm] elected to use the single board computer’s GPIO pins to get the job done. 23 pins are required, with 16 used for the data bus, with the rest dedicated to address lines, strobes, and other features.
The adapter is no speed demon, netting 800 KiB/s on reads and 500 KiB/s on writes with a Raspberry Pi 4. The main bottleneck comes from relying on libgpiod, which [Manawyrm] readily admits is designed for general IO tasks, not data transfers. Despite this, it’s still fast enough to play an audio CD from an IDE CD-ROM drive without skipping. A kernel build is required, however, as Raspberry Pis are unsurprisingly not configured to use ATA disks by default.
Obviously, more serious applications would substitute a dedicated USB hard disk adapter
or give the Raspberry Pi a PCI-express (PCIe) card
for sata drives instead, but that doesn’t discount the fun inherent in the build. While it may be slow, it shows that talking to PATA hard disks is actually quite straightforward when you understand the basics. Of course, if you want to do the opposite,
and have your Raspberry Pi emulate a PATA disk, that’s possible too
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to DosFox for the tip!] | 36 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6269867",
"author": "ScriptGiddy",
"timestamp": "2020-08-10T23:54:36",
"content": "I love the idea of playing a CD natively on a pi. Romantic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6269868",
"author": "RW ver 0.0.1",
"timestam... | 1,760,373,392.428711 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.