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https://hackaday.com/2025/08/10/coping-with-disappearing-capacitance-in-a-buck-converter/ | Coping With Disappearing Capacitance In A Buck Converter | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"hardware",
"Parts"
] | [
"analog discovery",
"buck converter",
"capacitor",
"ceramic",
"ceramic capacitor",
"dielectric"
] | Designing a circuit is a lot easier on paper, where components have well-defined values, or lacking that, at least well-defined tolerances. Unfortunately, even keeping percentage tolerances in mind isn’t always enough to make sure that circuits work correctly in the real world, as [Tahmid] demonstrates by
diagnosing a buck converter
with an oddly strong voltage ripple in the output.
Some voltage ripple is an inherent feature of the buck converter design, but it’s inversely proportional to output capacitance, so most designs include a few smoothing capacitors on the output side. However, at 10 V and a 50% duty cycle, [Tahmit]’s converter had a ripple of 0.75 V, significantly above the predicted variation of 0.45 V. The discrepancy was even greater at 20 V.
The culprit was the effect of higher voltages on the ceramic smoothing capacitors: as the voltage increases, the dielectric barrier in the capacitors becomes less permittive, reducing their capacitance. Fortunately, unlike in
the case of electrolytic capacitors
, the degradation of ceramic capacitors performance with increasing voltage is usually described in specification sheets, and doesn’t have to be manually measured. After finding the reduced capacitance of his capacitors at 10 V, [Tahmid] calculated a new voltage ripple that was only 14.5% off from the true value.
Anyone who’s had much experience with electronics will have already learned that passive components –
particularly capacitors
– aren’t as simple as the diagrams make them seem. On the bright side, they are
constantly improving
. | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8160389",
"author": "Bunsen",
"timestamp": "2025-08-10T18:07:55",
"content": "Class 2 ceramic capacitors are probably the most popular way to start learning about Standard Datasheet Lies, the nice-sounding specs that are technically not quite lies but are applicable to approximately... | 1,760,371,460.084117 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/10/a-solar-only-battery-free-device-that-harvests-energy-from-a-bpw34-photodiode/ | A Solar-Only, Battery-Free Device That Harvests Energy From A BPW34 Photodiode | John Elliot V | [
"hardware",
"Radio Hacks",
"Solar Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth low energy",
"BPW34 Silicon PIN photodiode",
"BQ25504 ultra-low-power boost converter",
"mosfet",
"Nordic nRF"
] | Normally when you think solar projects, you think of big photovoltaic cells. But a photodiode is just an inefficient, and usually much smaller, PV cell. Since [Pocket Concepts]’s
Solar_nRF
has such a low power budget, it can
get away with using BPW34 photodiodes in place of batteries
. (Video, embedded below.)
The BPW34 silicon PIN photodiode feeds a small voltage into a BQ25504 ultra-low-power boost converter energy harvester which stores power in a capacitor. When the capacitor is fully charged the battery-good pin is toggled which drives a MOSFET that powers everything downstream.
When it’s powered on, the Nordic nRF initializes, reads the current temperature from an attached I2C thermometer, and then sends out a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising packet containing the temperature data. When the capacitor runs out of energy, the battery-good pin is turned off and downstream electronics become unpowered and the cycle begins again.
[Pocket Concepts] uses a Nordic Semiconductors Power Profiler Kit II to help determine charge requirements. He calculates that 37 uF would be enough power for a single cycle, then uses 100 uF to get between one and three transmissions done using a single charge.
[Pocket Concepts] finishes his video with a request for project ideas. Is this a soil moisture meter? Earrings that monitor your biometrics? Something else? If you have some ideas of your own please sound off in the comments!
[Pocket Concepts] said he was inspired by
Ultra low power energy harvester from BPW34
over on Hackaday.io, be sure to check that out for some interesting low-power project ideas. If you’re interested in other applications for Nordic nRF chips check out
ESP32 Turned Handy SWD Flasher For NRF52 Chips
and
Ground Off Part Number Leads To Chip Detective Work
for some examples. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8160307",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2025-08-10T14:25:37",
"content": "It´s a good old trick, but the star of the show here is not the BPW34, it´s the incredible BQ25504 !!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8161058",
... | 1,760,371,459.888119 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/09/a-love-letter-to-prototype-zero/ | A Love Letter To Prototype Zero | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"creativity",
"newsletter",
"prototyping"
] | An old friend of mine at my hackerspace introduced me to the concept of Prototype Zero: The Version that Even Your Own Sweet Mother Isn’t Allowed to See. The idea is that when you’re building something truly new, or even just new to you, your first take will almost always be ugly, and nothing will work the way it will by the time you make your second one. But it’s also important to the exercise that you see it all the way through to the end if you can.
I’m reminded of this after seeing a marvelous video by [Japhy Riddle] where he discusses his Prototype Zero of the
Tape-Speed Keyboard
. About halfway through the video he says that he would have done it totally differently if he knew then what he knows now: the hallmark of Prototype Zero. Yet he finishes it up, warts and all, documents it, and plays around with all of its possibilities. (Documenting it publicly
isn’t
part of the Prototype Zero method.)
I don’t think that [Japhy] is going to make a Prototype 1.0 out of this project, but I could be wrong; he seems to be content with having scratched the variable-speed tape itch. But if he
did
want to, he’s learned all of the gotchas on the engineering side, and found out exactly what such an instrument is capable of. And this loops back to the importance of getting Prototype Zero finished. You may have learned all of the tricks necessary to build the thing even before you’ve put the last screw in, but it’s when you actually have the thing in your hands to explore that you get the ideas for refinement that you simply can’t think up when it’s still just a concept.
Don’t be afraid to make your prototype quick and dirty, because if it ends up too dirty, you can just call it Prototype Zero. But don’t be tempted by the siren’s song of the 80% finished prototype either. Exploring putting Prototype Zero into use is its real purpose.
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
! | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159800",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2025-08-09T15:33:54",
"content": "Oh my goodness, this PERFECTLY describes the very first “Arduino” project I did many, many years ago. I knew nothing about electronics but had seen a MAKE magazine in a bookstore, was curious, bought it, a... | 1,760,371,460.254061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/09/3d-printing-a-giant-beyblade-arena/ | 3D Printing A Giant Beyblade Arena | Lewin Day | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arena",
"beyblade"
] | Beyblade spinning tops are pretty easy to find at toy shops, department stores, and even some supermarkets. However, the arenas in which the tops do battle? They’re
much
harder to come by, and the ones on sale in any given market often leave a lot to be desired. [LeftBurst] got around this problem
by printing a grandiose Beyblade arena.
[LeftBurst]’s desire was to score a Beyblade stadium more similar to those featured in the anime, which are much larger than those sold as part of the official toy line. [Buddha] was enlisted to model the massive arena, but it then needed to be printed. Given its size, printing it in one piece wasn’t very practical. Instead, [LeftBurst] decided to print it in segments which would then have to be assembled. Super glue was used to put all the parts together, but there was more left to do. The surface finish and joins between the parts would cause issues for tops trying to move across the surface. Thus ensued a great deal of post-processing with primer, putty, and a power sander.
The final result is a massive stadium that plays well, and is ideal for larger multi-Beyblade battles that are more akin to what you’d see in the anime. If you’re playing at this scale, you might appreciate
some upgraded launcher technology, too
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159703",
"author": "Hussien",
"timestamp": "2025-08-09T12:06:17",
"content": "sage",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8159962",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2025-08-09T23:12:45",
"content": "Geg",
... | 1,760,371,459.764243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/09/learn-c-with-a-lisp/ | Learn C With A Lisp | Al Williams | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"c++",
"lisp"
] | One reason Forth remains popular is that it is very simple to create, but also very powerful. But there’s an even older language that can make the same claim: LISP. Sure, some people think that’s an acronym for “lots of irritating spurious parenthesis,” but if you can get past the strange syntax, the language is elegant and deceptively simple, at least at its core. Now, [Daniel Holden]
challenges you to build your own Lisp
as a way to learn C programming.
It shouldn’t be surprising that LISP is fairly simple. It was the second-oldest language, showing up in the late 1950s with implementations in the early 1960s. The old hardware couldn’t do much by today’s standards, so it is reasonable that LISP has to be somewhat economical.
With LISP, everything is a list, which means you can freely treat code as data and manipulate it. Lists can contain items like symbols, numbers, and other lists. This is somewhat annoying to C, which likes things to have particular types, so that’s one challenge to writing the code.
While we know a little LISP, we aren’t completely sold that building your own is a good way to learn C. But if you like LISP, it might be good motivation. We might be more inclined to suggest
Jones on Forth
as a good language project, but, then again, it is good to have choices. Of course, you could choose not to choose and try
Forsp
. | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159616",
"author": "Saint Aardvark the Carpeted",
"timestamp": "2025-08-09T08:20:25",
"content": "Neat! I am always grateful when authors make their book freely available. This may be the thing that finally lets me understand C.This book will also join the Make-a-lisp project (ht... | 1,760,371,460.136532 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/one-file-six-formats-just-change-the-extension/ | One File, Six Formats: Just Change The Extension | Lewin Day | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"file format",
"file formats",
"mp4",
"pdf",
"png"
] | Normally, if you change a file’s extension in Windows, it doesn’t do anything positive. It just makes the file open in the wrong programs that can’t decode what’s inside. However, [PortalRunner] has crafted a file that can behave as six different filetypes,
simply by swapping out the extension at the end of the filename.
The basic concept is simple enough. [PortalRunner] simply found a bunch of different file formats that could feasibly be crammed in together into a single file without corrupting each other or confusing software that loads these files.
It all comes down to how file formats work. File extensions are mostly meaningless to the content of a file—they’re just a shorthand guide so an operating system can figure out which program should load them. In fact, most files have headers inside that indicate to software what they are and how their content is formatted. For this reason, you can often rename a .PNG file to .JPEG and it will still load—because the operating system will still fire up an image viewer app, and that app will use headers to understand that it’s actually a PNG and not a JPEG at heart, and process it in the proper way.
[PortalRunner] found a way to merge the headers of various formats, creating a file that could be many different types. The single file contains data for a PNG image, an MP4 video, a PDF document, a ZIP archive, a Powerpoint presentation, and an HTML webpage. The data chunks for each format are lumped into one big file, with the combined headers at the very top. The hijinx required to pull this off put some limitations on what the file can contain, and the files won’t work with all software… but it’s still one file that has six formats inside.
This doesn’t work for every format. You can’t really combine GIF or PNG for example, as each format requires a different initial set of characters that have to be at the very beginning of the file. Other formats aren’t so persnickety, though, and you can combine their headers in a way that mostly works if you do it just right.
If you love diving into the binary specifics of how file formats work, this is a great project to dive into. We’ve seen similarly mind-bending antics from [PortalRunner] before,
like when they turned Portal 2 into a webserver
. Video after the break. | 39 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159564",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2025-08-09T06:01:46",
"content": "Ange Albertini has a long series of articles on making polyglot files in PoC||GTFO –https://github.com/angea/pocorgtfois his mirror of the issues but there are plenty of others.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,460.020461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/whispers-from-the-void-transcribed-with-ai/ | Whispers From The Void, Transcribed With AI | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"digital audio hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"CUDA",
"gpu",
"openai",
"radio",
"sdr",
"VAD",
"whisper"
] | ‘Hearing voices’ doesn’t have to be worrisome, for instance when software-defined radio (SDR) happens to be your hobby. It can take quite some of your time and attention to pull voices from the ether and decode them. Therefore, [theckid] came up with a nifty solution:
RadioTranscriptor
. It’s a homebrew Python script that captures SDR audio and transcribes it using OpenAI’s Whisper model, running on your GPU if available. It’s lean and geeky, and helps you hear ‘the voice in the noise’ without actively listening to it yourself.
This tool goes beyond the
basic listening
and recording. RadioTranscriptor combines SDR, voice activity detection (VAD), and deep learning. It resamples 48kHz audio to 16kHz in real time. It keeps a rolling buffer, and only transcribes actual voice detected from the air. It continuously writes to a daily log, so you can comb through yesterday’s signal hauntings while new findings are being logged. It offers GPU support with CUDA, with fallback to CPU.
It sure has its quirks, too: ghost logs, duplicate words – but it’s dead useful and hackable to your liking. Want to change the model, tweak the threshold, add speaker detection:
the code is here
to fork and extend. And why not go the extra mile, and
turn it into art
? | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159525",
"author": "Evan",
"timestamp": "2025-08-09T04:06:54",
"content": "As far as I can tell, this is getting its input from your computer’s microphone / audio in, not an SDR. I guess you could use a virtual audio interface to get the audio from some other program that’s actuall... | 1,760,371,459.819302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/tearing-down-a-mysteriously-cheap-5-fiber-optic-to-cable-tv-adapter/ | Tearing Down A Mysteriously Cheap $5 Fiber Optic To Cable TV Adapter | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"cable",
"fiber",
"fiber optic",
"RF",
"RF modulator"
] | In his regular browsing on AliExpress, [Ben Jeffrey] came across something he didn’t understand—
a $5 fiber optic to RF cable TV adapter
. It was excessively cheap, and even more mysteriously, this thing didn’t even need power. He had to know how it worked, so he bought one and got down to tinkering with it.
Inside the device in question.
[Ben] needed some hardware to test the device with, so he spent $77 on a RF-to-fiber converter and a cheap composite-to-RF modulator so he could test the $5 fiber-to-RF part. A grand expenditure to explore a $5 device, but a necessary sacrifice for the investigation. Once [Ben] hooked up a fiber optic signal to the converter, he was amazed to see it doing its job properly. It was converting the incoming video stream to RF, and it could readily be tuned in on a TV, where the video appeared clean and true.
It was disassembly that showed how simple these devices really are. Because they’re one-way converters, they simply need to convert a changing light signal into an RF signal. Inside the adapter is a photodiode which picks up the incoming light, and with the aid of a few passives, the current it generates from that light becomes the RF signal fed into the TV. There’s no need for a separate power source—the photodiode effectively works like a solar panel, getting the power from the incoming light itself. The part is ultimately cheap for one reason—there just isn’t that much to it!
It’s a neat look at something you might suspect is complex, but is actually very simple. We’ve explored other weird TV tech before, too, like the way
Rediffusion used telephone lines to deliver video content
. Video after the break. | 26 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159391",
"author": "volt-k",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T23:09:39",
"content": "Is RF TV over fiber a standard thing to begin with? As I’m struggling to see why would anyone need this adapter in the first place.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,460.206252 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/clock-of-clocks-expands-goes-digital/ | Clock Of Clocks Expands, Goes Digital | Tyler August | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"clock",
"cnc",
"light pipe",
"meta clock",
"neopixel",
"PMMA",
"rgb",
"stepper"
] | Some people just want to have their cake and eat it too, but very few of us ever get to pull it off. [Erich Styger] has, though with
V5 of his “MetaMetaClock”
— a clock made of clocks, that uses the orientation of the hands to create digits.
We’ve seen
previous versions
of this clock. As before, the build is exquisitely detailed and
all relevant files are on GitHub
. This version keeps the
acrylic light-pipe hands of version 4
, but adds more of them: 60 clocks vs 24. Larger PCBs are used, grouping the dual-shaft steppers into groups of four, instead of the individual PCBs used before. Each PCB has an NXP LPC845 (a Cortex M0 microcontroller) that communicates on an RS-485 bus. Placing four steppers per microcontroller reduces parts count somewhat compared to previous versions (which had each ‘clock’ on its own modular PCB) albeit at the cost of some flexibility.
While the last version used veneers on its face, this version is cut by CNC by from a large slab of oak. It’s certainly the most attractive version yet, and while bigger isn’t always better, more clock faces means more potential effects. Date? Time? Block letters? Arbitrary text? Kaleidoscopic colours from the RGB LEDs? It’s all there, and since it’s open source, anyone who builds one can add more options. A BLE interface makes it quick and easy to wirelessly switch between them or set the time.
It’s nice sometimes to watch projects like this improve incrementally over time. [Erich] mentions that he plans to add Wifi and a web-based user interface for the next version. We look forward to it, and are grateful to [jicasi] for the tip. Just as it is always clock time at Hackaday, so you can always toss
a tip of your own into the box.
Eventually [Erich] will have enough clocks for Bad Apple, but this version can do short text strings among many other effects. Check his blog for more demo videos. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159333",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T20:41:32",
"content": "So, if you want to see what this would look like before building all those clocks, you could cut 60 holes in a piece of cardboard, place it over a 40″ LCD, and tile a bunch of analog clock animations in that... | 1,760,371,459.940654 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/2025-one-hertz-challenge-the-real-time-clock-the-vic-20-never-had/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: The Real-Time Clock The VIC-20 Never Had | Lewin Day | [
"contests",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge",
"real time clock",
"VIC-20"
] | Like many early microcomputers, the Commodore VIC-20 did not come with an interna real-time clock built into the system.
[David Hunter] has seen fit to rectify that with an add-on module
as his entry to the 2025 One Hertz Challenge.
[David]’s project was inspired by a product that Hayes produced in the 1980s, which provided a serial-port based real-time clock solution for computers that lacked one on board. The heart of the project is an Arduino Uno, which itself uses a Dallas DS3231 RTC module to keep accurate time. [David] then drew from an IEC driver
developed by [Lars Pontoppidan] for the MM2IEC project.
This enables the Arduino to report the time to the VIC-20 via its IEC port.
The project is a neat way to provide a real-time clock source to programs written in Commodore BASIC. It’s also perfectly compatible with the IEC bus, so it can be daisy chained along with printers and disk drives without issue. [David] hasn’t tested it with a Commodore 64, but he suspects it should work just as well on that platform, too.
If you’ve ever wanted to build something clock-based for the VIC-20 but didn’t know how, this is a great piece of hardware to solve that problem. Meanwhile, you might find joy in reading about real-time clock hacks for other systems
like the Raspberry Pi.
Meanwhile, if you’re working on your own nifty timekeeping projects, don’t hesitate to
let us know! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159359",
"author": "Gus Mueller",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T22:02:09",
"content": "I remember wiring up some sort of RTC to a VIC-20 back in the 1980s — of course, I connected it directly to the address and data bus of the 6502 so it would be in the memory space along with gobs or b... | 1,760,371,459.713754 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/hackaday-podcast-episode-332-5-axes-are-better-than-3-hacking-your-behavior-and-the-man-who-made-models/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 332: 5 Axes Are Better Than 3, Hacking Your Behavior, And The Man Who Made Models | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Elliot and Dan got together this week for a review of the week’s hacking literature, and there was plenty to discuss. We addressed several burning questions, such as why digital microscopes are so terrible, why computer systems seem to have so much trouble with names, and if a thermal receipt printer can cure ADHD.
We looked at a really slick 5-axis printer that COVID created, a temperature-controlled fermentation setup, and a pseudo-Mellotron powered by a very odd tape recorder. We also learned little about designing 3D printed parts with tight tolerances, stepping a PC power supply up to ludicrous level, and explored a trio of unique entries for the One Hertz Challenge.
And for the Can’t Miss section, we looked at what happens to planes when they get hit by lightning (and how they avoid it), and say goodbye to the man who launched a lot of careers by making model kits.
It was also exciting to learn that the first day of Supercon is Halloween, which means a Friday night sci-fi cosplay party. It’s gonna be lit.
Download this MP3, full of twisty passages, all alike
.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 327 Show Notes:
News:
Get Your Tickets For Supercon 2025 Now!
What’s that Sound?
Boom, nailed it
Congrats to [Dan Maloney] who came up with the right answer at the last second, and of course also to [Wes G]!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Open Source 5-Axis Printer Has Its Own Slicer
Non-planar Slicing Is For The Birds
Why Names Break Systems
Why Cheap Digital Microscopes Are Pretty Terrible
Quick And Dirty Microscope Motion Control For Focus Stacking
First Days With A New Microscope
A DIY Fermenter For Flavorful Brews
The Tape Speed Keyboard
Can A Thermal Printer Cure ADHD?
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks
Sparks Fly: Building A 330 KV Supply From A PC PSU
A Speed Loader For Your 3D Printer Filament
How To Design 3D-Printed Parts With Tolerance In Mind
Fire Alarm Disco Party
Dan’s Picks:
2025 One Hertz Challenge: Blinking An LED The Very Old Fashioned Way
2025 One Hertz Challenge: Shoulda Put A Ring Oscillator On It
2025 One Hertz Challenge: Op-Amp Madness
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Farewell Shunsaku Tamiya: The Man Who Gave Us The Best Things To Build
Thanks, Tamiya-san
What Happens When Lightning Strikes A Plane? | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,460.293408 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/talking-robot-uses-typewriter-tech-for-mouth/ | Talking Robot Uses Typewriter Tech For Mouth | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animatronics",
"ibm",
"puppet",
"robot",
"Selectric",
"typewriter"
] | Many decades ago, IBM engineers developed the typeball. This semi-spherical hunk of metal would become the heart of the Selectric typewriter line. [James Brown] has now leveraged that very concept to create a pivoting mouth mechanism for a robot
that appears to talk.
What you’re looking at is a plastic ball with lots of different mouth shapes on it. By pivoting the ball to different angles inside the head of a robot, it’s possible to display different mouth shapes on the face. By swapping mouth shapes rapidly in concert with recorded speech, it’s possible to make the robot appear to be speaking. We don’t get a great look at the mechanism that operates the ball, but Selectric typeball operation is well documented elsewhere if you seek to recreate the idea yourself.
The real benefit of this mechanism is speed. It might not look as fluid as some robots with manually-articulated flexible mouths, but the rapid mouth transitions really help sell the effect because they match the pace of speech. [James] demonstrated the finished product
on Mastodon
, and it looks great in action.
This isn’t the first time we’ve featured [James Brown]’s work. You may recall he got
DOOM running on a tiny LEGO brick a few years back
.
Thanks to [J. Peterson] for the tip! | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159219",
"author": "smellsofbikes",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T15:55:37",
"content": "He consistently builds the most mind-blowing stuff.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8159220",
"author": "cliff claven",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,371,460.47956 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/this-week-in-security-perplexity-v-cloudflare-greedybear-and-hashicorp/ | This Week In Security: Perplexity V Cloudflare, GreedyBear, And HashiCorp | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"ai",
"GreedyBear",
"HashiCorp",
"NVIDIA",
"This Week in Security"
] | The Internet is fighting over whether
robots.txt
applies to AI agents. It all started when
Cloudflare published a blog post
, detailing what the company was seeing from Perplexity crawlers. Of course, automated web crawling is part of how the modern Internet works, and almost immediately after the first web crawler was written, one managed to DoS (Denial of Service) a web site back in 1994. And the
robots.txt
file was first designed.
Make no mistake,
robots.txt
on its own is nothing more than a polite request for someone else on the Internet to not index your site. The more aggressive approach is to add rules to a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that detects and blocks a web crawler based on the user-agent string and source IP address. Cloudflare makes the case that Perplexity is not only intentionally ignoring
robots.txt
, but also actively disguising their webcrawling traffic by using IP addresses outside their normal range for these requests.
This isn’t the first time
Perplexity has landed in hot water
over their web scraping, AI learning endeavors. But Perplexity has
published a blog post, explaining that this is different
!
And there’s genuinely an interesting argument to be made,that
robots.txt
is aimed at indexing and AI training traffic, and that agentic AI requests are a different category. Put simply, perplexity bots ignore
robots.txt
when a live user asks them to. Is that bad behavior, or what we should expect? This question will have to be settled as AI agents become more common.
Breaking Into the Vault
Researchers at
Cisco Talos took a look at the Dell ControlVault
, a Hardware Security Module (HSM) built into many Dell laptops. The firmware running on these embedded processors had some problems, including a stack-overflow and other memory-related issues. Usually the potential for abuse of these kind of attacks is limited mostly to the theoretical realm, but this embedded HSM also includes accessible USB pins, that can be accessed with a custom connector. The vulnerabilities found, then represent a real attack scenario where the firmware on the HSM can be tampered with, via nothing more than physical access. To prove the point, the Talos write-up includes a great video of a compromised machine accepting a green onion as a valid fingerprint for Windows Login.
Trend Micro In the Wild
Trend Micro’s
Apex One system is under active exploitation
, as a pair of vulnerabilities allow an authenticated attacker to inject system commands in the system’s management console. The full fix is expected to roll out later this month, but a mitigation disables a specific feature of the console, the Remote Install Agent. This leads to the obvious conclusion that the installation process was allowing for code execution as part of the install process.
GreedyBear
There was an interesting malware campaign run this year,
by a group that Koi Security is calling GreedyBear
. The campaign could be called a blitz, where malicious browser extensions, ransomware binaries, and scammy websites were all employed at once, with the goal of stealing cryptocurrency. The surprising thing is that so far not much over $1 million has been reported as stolen through the campaign.
The first technique used was “Extension Hollowing”, where safe, boring browser extensions are published, and maintained for a few months. Good reviews come in naturally or are purchased, and the publisher appears trustworthy. Then the extension is updated, with malicious code suddenly shipping. These extensions are now sniffing for user input and form filled data.
The second technique used was the old classic, packing malware into cracked and pirated software. The source of many of these malicious binaries seems to be primarily Russian piracy sites.
The final approach discovered was the simple scam website, often typo-squatting on nearly-legitimate domain names. These sites advertised fake hardware wallets or wallet repair, but only existed to steal whatever information would-be customers were willing to share.
The question may be raised, why does Koi Security believe all this activity is connected? The answer boils down to a single IP address,
185.208.156.66
. This was the Command and Control server for the entire network of activity, and should be seen as a definite red flag in logs and records.
HashiCorp Vault Audit
The fine folks at
Cyata took a crack at HashiCorp’s Vault
, a source available secrets storage solution. And they discovered a host of subtle but important issues. The first on the list is an outstanding find, and it deals with how Vault protects against brute-force attacks. It’s supposed to be a simple counter, that locks out password attempts for a while, once a threshold of failures has been reached. The problem is that usernames aren’t case sensitive, but the failure counter
is
case sensitive in tracking password failures. Tried guessing the
admin
password too many times? Try the
Admin
account next.
The Multi-Factor Authentication has some issues, like the TOTP code reuse protection. This attempts to enforce that a code is only used once while valid. The problem is that a code of “
123456
” and “
123456
” both evaluate the same for the TOTP valuation itself, but as different codes for the reuse protection. This could enable an attacker to first abuse the reuse protection error message to identify a valid but used code, and then insert the space to be able to use the code for authentication.
After authentication, this same style of attack is possible again, this time targeting the root policy protections. An admin cannot assign this “
root
” policy, but can assign a “
root
” policy. Those are treated as different policy identifiers by the validation code, but the same thing in the final implementation.
And finally, they discovered a Remote Code Execution flaw, via plugin installation. This one requires admin access, but an information leak and an audit log that allows writing to anywhere on the disk is enough to execute code injected in that audit log. This seems to be the first RCE ever made public in Vault, which is an impressive statement for both Hashicorp and Cyata.
Bits and Bytes
Nvidia isn’t taking last week’s talk of backdoors laying down,
taking the offensive this week
to reassure everyone that “There are no back doors in NVIDIA chips.” There’s a separate bit of news that US lawmakers are considering legislation that would require a kill-switch and location verification in future hardware.
It’s reassuring to be reminded that
cyber-criminals do get captured and extradited
. A Nigerian man was arrested in France and is being extradited to the US on multiple charges of fraud, identity theft, and other crimes. No word on whether the Nigerian national was or has claimed to be a prince.
And finally, filed in the “awkward” category, Google has disclosed that
they were also a victim in the Salesforce hacks
that Google researchers discovered and first publicized. These were good-old social engineering campaigns, where the attacker contacted an employee at the target company, and convinces them to read off an eight-digit security code. A group calling itself ShinyHunters has started an exploitation campaign using data pilfered in the attacks. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159205",
"author": "Collie147",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T15:19:34",
"content": "Any robot, AI, corporeal or non corporeal being should respect robots.txt. But I put a lock on my door, that doesn’t mean everyone will respect that and keep out but if I find my stuff in someone else’s... | 1,760,371,460.424603 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/is-it-time-to-retire-the-tp4056/ | Is It Time To Retire The TP4056? | Tyler August | [
"Battery Hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"BQ25185",
"charge controller",
"lithium battery",
"TP4056"
] | The TP4056 is the default charge-controller chip for any maker or hacker working with lithium batteries. And why not? You can get perfectly-functional knockoffs on handy breakout boards from the usual online sources for pennies. Betteridge’s Law aside, [Lefty Maker] thinks that it may well be time to move on from the TP4056 and spends
his latest video telling us why, along with promoting an alternative.
His part of choice is another TI chip, the BQ25185. [Lefty] put together his own charge controller board to show off the capabilities of this chip — including variable under- and over-charge protection voltages. Much of his beef with the TP4056 has less to do with that chip than with the cheap charge modules it comes on: when he crows about the lack of mounting holes and
proper USB-PD
on the knock-off modules, it occurs to us he could have had those features on his board even if he’d used a TP4056.
On the other hand, the flexibility offered by the BQ25185 is great to future-proof projects in case the dominant battery chemistry changes, or you just change your mind about what sort of battery you want to use. Sure, you’d need to swap a few resistors to set new trigger voltages and charging current, but that beats starting from scratch.
[Lefty Maker] also points out some of the advantages to making your own boards rather than relying on cheap modules. Namely, you can make them however you want. From a longer USB port to indicator LEDs and a built-in battery compartment, this charging board is exactly what [Lefty Maker] wants. Given how cheap custom PCBs are these days, it’s not hard to justify rolling your own.
The same cannot be said of genuine TI silicon, however. While the BQ25185 has a few good features that [Lefty Maker] points out in the video, we’re not sure the added price is worth it. Sure, it’s only a couple bucks, but that’s more than a 300% increase!
We’ve seen
other projects pushing alternative charge controllers
, but for now the
TP4056 reigns as the easy option
. | 30 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159099",
"author": "Pedro",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T11:08:10",
"content": ">perfectly-functional>knockoffspick one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8159321",
"author": "Daniel",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T20:14... | 1,760,371,461.095344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/08/exploring-the-trs-80s-color-basics-random-number-function/ | Exploring The TRS-80’s Color BASIC’s Random Number Function | Maya Posch | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"basic",
"pseudorandom",
"trs-80"
] | Although these days we get to tap into many sources of entropy to give a pretty good illusion of randomness, home computers back in the 1980s weren’t so lucky. Despite this, their random number generators were good enough for games and such, as
demonstrated by the [CoCo Town] YouTube channel
.
The CoCo is the nickname for the TRS-80 Color Computer, which despite its name, shares absolutely nothing with the TRS-80. Its BASIC version is called
Color BASIC
, which like many others was based on Microsoft BASIC, so the video’s description should be valid for many other BASIC versions as well. In the video we’re first taken through a basic summary of what the floating point format is all about, before running through an example of the algorithm used by Color BASIC for its
RND
function, using a
test program
written in Color BASIC.
As described in the video, the used algorithm appears to be the
linear congruential generator
, which is a pseudo-random generator that requires minimal resources from the hardware it runs on. Of course, its main disadvantage is that it will fairly rapidly begin to repeat itself, especially with a limited number of output bits. This makes it a decent choice even today for something like simple game logic where you just want to get some variation without aiming for cryptographically secure levels of randomness.
Thanks to [Stephen Walters] for the tip. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159093",
"author": "Julian Skidmore",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T10:55:17",
"content": "ZX81 BASIC’s Random function is probably simpler (not having watched the video). It’s uint16_t seed=((seed+1)*75) MOD 65537)-1. MOD 65537 is easy to compute:uint32_t tmp=((seed+1)*75; // it’s neve... | 1,760,371,460.748817 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/light-transport-and-constructing-images-from-a-projectors-point-of-view/ | Light Transport And Constructing Images From A Projector’s Point Of View | Lewin Day | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"optics",
"photograph",
"projector",
"siggraph"
] | Imagine you have a projector pointing at a scene, which you’re photographing with a camera aimed from a different point. Using the techniques of modelling light transport, [okooptics] has shown us how you can capture an image from the projector’s point of view, instead of the camera—
and even synthetically light the scene however you might like.
The test scene used for the explanation of the work.
The concept involves capturing data regarding how light is transported from the projector to the scene. This could be achieved by lighting one pixel of the projector at a time while capturing an image with the camera. However, even for a low-resolution projector, of say 256×256 pixels, this would require capturing 65536 individual images, and take a very long time. Instead, [okooptics] explains how the same task can be achieved by using binary coded images with the projector, which allow the same data to be captured using just seventeen exposures.
Once armed with this light transport data, it’s possible to do wild tricks. You can synthetically light the scene, as if the projector were displaying any novel lighting pattern of your choice. You can also construct a simulated photo taken from the projector’s perspective, and even do some rudimentary depth reconstruction. [okooptics] explains this tricky subject well, using visual demonstrations to indicate how it all works.
The work was inspired by the
“Dual Photography” paper
published at SIGGRAPH some time ago, a conference that continues to produce
outrageously interesting work
to this day. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8159032",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T08:07:53",
"content": "Please also add the tag:https://hackaday.com/tag/structured-light/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8159052",
"author": "boondaburrah",
"times... | 1,760,371,461.023925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/microsofts-new-agentic-web-protocol-stumbles-with-path-traversal-exploit/ | Microsoft’s New Agentic Web Protocol Stumbles With Path Traversal Exploit | Maya Posch | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"internet hacks"
] | [
"chatbot",
"computer security",
"large language model"
] | If the term ‘NLWeb’ first brought to mind an image of a Dutch internet service provider, you’re probably not alone. What it actually is – or tries to become – is Microsoft’s vision of a parallel internet protocol using which website owners and application developers can integrate whatever LLM-based chatbot they desire. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the NLWeb protocol
just suffered its first major security flaw
.
The flaw is an absolute doozy, involving a basic path traversal vulnerability that allows an attacker to use appropriately formatted URLs to traverse the filesystem of the remote, LLM-hosting, system to extract keys and other sensitive information. Although Microsoft patched it already, no CVE was assigned, while raising the question of just how many more elementary bugs like this may be lurking in the protocol and associated software.
As for why a website or application owner might be interested in NLWeb, the
marketing pitch
appears to be as an alternative to integrating a local search function. This way any website or app can have their own ChatGPT-style search functionality that is theoretically restricted to just their website, instead of chatbot-loving customers going to the ChatGPT or equivalent site to ask their questions there.
Even aside from the the strong ‘solution in search of a problem’ vibe, it’s worrying that right from the outset it seems to introduce pretty serious security issues that suggest a lack of real testing, never mind a strong ignorance of the fact that a lack of user input sanitization is the
primary cause for widely exploited CVEs
. Unknown is whether
GitHub Copilot was used
to write the affected codebase. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158904",
"author": "SETH",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T02:05:52",
"content": "Yikes, the same companies touting AI integration into software and OS are the same ones telling us we have to have encrypted disks, secure boot and TPM. Weird.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,371,460.975365 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/teardown-of-a-persil-smartwash-smart-laundry-detergent-ball/ | Teardown Of A Persil Smartwash Smart Laundry Detergent Ball | Maya Posch | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"internet of things",
"laundry",
"teardown"
] | How to make doing laundry more smart, depending on your perspective. (Credit: Zerobrain, YouTube)
Ever since the invention of washing machines, the process of doing laundry has become rather straightforward. Simply toss the dirty laundry into the machine, fill up the detergent, and let the preset program handle the rest. This of course has not prevented companies from coming up with ways to add more complexity to doing laundry, with Henkel’s Smartwash technology the latest example, as
demonstrated by German YouTube channel [ZeroBrain]
with a complete teardown.
Henkel is the owner of detergent brands like Persil and Somat, with the
Smartwash ball
supposedly offering ‘smart’ dosing of detergent for washing machines, with naturally a smartphone app with intrusive localization to personalize the laundry experience. Sadly the video is only in German, but the language of teardowns is universal.
Before the teardown, the device got tested as intended, with the video showing how to put the detergent with its special pod inside the device. The device then got connected to WiFi, followed by it performing the typical IoT firmware update. After half an hour [Zerobrain] was finally ready to do the laundry. During the washing cycle the 441 gram heavy ball audibly bounced inside the machine, though the rubber outside covering should prevent damage.
The IP68-rated internals are clearly not designed to be easily opened, requiring a certain level of violence to correct for this oversight. Eventually the internals are revealed, showing the inductive charging coil, controls pad and main PCB, along with a pump for the double-chambered detergent pod and a bunch of sensors dangling at the end of flexible PCBs.
The Persil Smartwash fully disassembled. (Credit: Zerobrain, YouTube)
Interestingly, the heart of the main PCB is an ESP32-D0WD-V3, flanked by an ESP-PSRAMH 64 Mbit pseudo-static RAM. For charging the Li-ion cell a TP4056 is used, while a T3168 handles the wireless (Qi) power side of things. As for sensors, there are two Hall effect sensors that seem to be used to measure how much detergent and softener are being excreted by the pump.
What is fascinating is that it uses a single pump to pump both types of fluids independently from each other. There also appears to be a presence sensor to detect the presence of a pod, and some of the other ICs on the PCB may be an IMU to detect motion of the ball, but as hinted at in the accompanying app, you are still supposed to know the hardness of the local water supply and punch in the same details like laundry dirtiness that you’d normally read off the label on the detergent and softener packaging.
Thanks to [Jan Prägert] for the tip. | 37 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158876",
"author": "SteveS",
"timestamp": "2025-08-08T00:51:43",
"content": "Smart… wifi connected…. laundry detergent pods….Which are actually full of well-engineered sensors and pumps, because that’s important when you’re dealing with … (checks notes) … laundry detergent.Which i... | 1,760,371,460.925322 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/a-repeater-for-wwvb/ | A Repeater For WWVB | Bryan Cockfield | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"amplifier",
"arduino",
"clock",
"pwm",
"radio",
"watch",
"wristwatch",
"wwvb"
] | For those living in the continental US who, for whatever reason, don’t have access to an NTP server or a GPS device, the next best way to make sure the correct time is known is with the WWVB radio signal. Transmitting out of Colorado, the 60-bit 1 Hz signal reaches all 48 states in the low-frequency band and is a great way to get a clock within a few hundred nanoseconds of the official time. But in high noise situations, particularly on the coasts or in populated areas these radio-based clocks might miss some of the updates.
To keep that from happening [Mike] built a repeater for this radio signal
.
The repeater works by offloading most of the radio components to an Arduino. The microcontroller listens to the WWVB signal and re-transmits it at a lower power to the immediate area, in this case no further than a few inches away or enough to synchronize a few wristwatches. But it has a much better antenna for listening to WWVB so this eliminates the (admittedly uncommon) problem of [Mike]’s watches not synchronizing at least once per day. WWVB broadcasts a PWM signal which is easy for an Arduino to duplicate, but this one needed help from a DRV8833 amplifier to generate a meaningfully strong radio signal.
Although there have been other similar projects oriented around the WWVB signal
, [Mike]’s goal for this was to improve the range of these projects so it could sync more than a single timekeeping device at a time as well as using parts which are more readily available and which have a higher ease of use. We’d say he’s done a pretty good job here, and his build instructions cover almost everything even the most beginner breadboarders would need to know to duplicate it on their own. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158781",
"author": "William",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T20:23:40",
"content": "Cool project, though txtempus can already do this and only needs an RPi zero. I use it to sync all my watches and a clock a meter away from the nightstand.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,371,461.183208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/2025-one-hertz-challenge-the-easy-way-to-make-a-nixie-tube-clock/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: The Easy Way To Make A Nixie Tube Clock | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks",
"contests"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge",
"clock",
"frequency counter",
"nixie",
"nixie tube"
] | Let’s say you want to build a Nixie clock. You could go out and find some tubes, source a good power supply design, start whipping up a PCB, and working on a custom enclosure. Or, you could skip all that,
and just follow [Simon]’s example instead.
The trick to building a Nixie clock fast is quite simple — just get yourself a frequency counter that uses Nixie tubes for the display. [Simon] sourced a great example from American Machine and Foundry, also known as AMF, the company most commonly associated with America’s love of bowling.
The frequency counter does one thing, it counts the number of pulses in a second. Thus, if you squirt the right number of pulses to represent the time — say, 173118 pulses to represent 5:31 PM and 18 seconds — the frequency counter effectively becomes a clock. To achieve this, [Simon] just hooked an ESP32 up to the frequency counter and programmed it to get the current time from an NTP time server. It then spits out a certain number of pulses every second corresponding to the current time. The frequency counter displays the count… and there you have your Nixie clock!
It’s quick, dirty, and effective, and a sweet entry to our 2025 One Hertz Challenge. We’ve had some other great entries, too, like this
nifty hexadecimal Unix clock,
and even some
non-horological projects
, too! | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158812",
"author": "Scoops",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T21:55:39",
"content": "This is similar to how I did my counter clock, but mine sent 1 pulse every second. Then after 59 seconds, reset the counter and send 100 pulses up to the next minute to advance the minute:https://hackaday.... | 1,760,371,461.137666 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/the-64-degree-egg-and-other-delicious-variants/ | The 64-Degree Egg, And Other Delicious Variants | Lewin Day | [
"cooking hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"cooking",
"egg",
"eggs",
"sous-vide"
] | Many of us have boiled an egg at some point or another in our lives. The conventional technique is relatively straightforward—get the water boiling, drop the egg in, and leave it for a certain period of time based on the desired consistency. If you want the yolk soft, only leave it in for a few minutes, and if you want it hard, go longer.
Ultimately, though, this is a relatively crude system for controlling the consistency of the final product. If you instead study the makeup of the egg, and understand how it works, you can elicit far greater control over the texture and behavior of your egg with great culinary benefits.
Knockin’ On 64
Traditional boiled eggs cooked for 4 minutes, 7 minutes, and 9 minutes. When cooking in boiling water, temperatures are high enough to create a fully firm white in just a few minutes. Credit:
Wikisearcher
, CC BY-SA 3.0
It all comes down to the physical basics of what goes on when we cook an egg. Whether frying, poaching, or simply boiling, one thing is the same—the liquid contents of the egg turn more solid with heat. This is because the heat causes the proteins in the egg white and egg yolk to
denature—
they untangle and unravel from their original folded structure into a new form which is the one we prefer to eat.
Physical chemist Hervé This is widely credited as revolutionizing the way we think about cooking eggs, through his careful study of how temperature affected the cooking process of a “boiled” egg. He invented the idea of the “6X °C egg”—a method of cooking eggs to generate a pleasant, smooth consistency by carefully controlling how the proteins denature. His work has
since been expanded upon
by many other researchers eager to untangle the mysteries of how egg proteins behave with heat.
Different purveyors of these theories each have their own ideals—but it’s common to hear talk of the “64-degree egg” or “65-degree egg.” To create such an egg, one typically uses a sous vide water bath set at a very precise temperature, in order to cook the egg in as controlled a manner as possible. The process is a relationship between time and temperature, and so the cooking times used are a lot longer than with boiling water at 100 C—immersing the eggs for 60 minutes or more is typical. This also helps to ensure the eggs are safe to eat, with the lower temperature needing a longer time to quash potentially harmful bacteria.
Sous Vide Eggs
by
u/passswordistaco
in
sousvide
Enthusiasts share cooking times and temperatures along with qualitative results, ever searching for the ideal egg.
The results of such a process? Eggs cooked in this manner are prized for their tender yolks and an overall consistency not dissimilar to custard. The process denatures the yolk and white proteins just enough to create an incredibly smooth egg with luxurious mouthfeel, and they’re often cited as melting in the mouth.
The onsen egg from Japan is a traditional egg dish cooked at approximately 70 C for 30 to 40 minutes, similarly creating an egg with a luxurious consistency. Credit:
Blue Lotus
, CC BY 2.0
The only real drawback? It’s typical to get some runny whites left over, since the low cooking temperature isn’t enough to fully denature the proteins in that part of the egg. These eggs were once a neat science experiment from the world of molecular gastronomy, with the cooking method since becoming widespread with restaurants and sous vide enthusiasts around the world.
There are even more advanced techniques for those committed to egg perfection. A research team from the University of Naples, Italy,
determined that cycling an egg between two pans
—one with boiling water, the other at 30 C—allowed both the yolk and the white to each reach target doneness. To get the whites to around 85 C while holding the yolk at 65 C, the team used the technique of swapping between pans to get both to their ideal temperature by modelling heat transfer through the egg. This controls the amount of heat transferred to the yolk deeper inside the egg, ensuring that it’s not overcooked in the effort to get the whites to set. Ultimately, though, this process requires a great deal of work swapping the egg back and forth for a full 30 minutes.
Few make that sort of commitment to eggcellence.
Featured image, the imaginatively named “
Selective Photography of Breakfast in Plate
” by [Krisztina Papp]. | 43 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158713",
"author": "David H",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T17:09:39",
"content": "This article differs in significant ways from the explanation given by the totally serious & factual & not at all silly science program “Look Around You” (https://youtu.be/Bi-Up8Xuh9c?si=-v2o7Jhk_hMsVw6c)... | 1,760,371,461.272684 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/buying-large-lifepo4-batteries-how-cheap-is-too-cheap/ | Buying Large LiFePO4 Batteries: How Cheap Is Too Cheap? | Maya Posch | [
"Battery Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"LiFePO4",
"lithium battery",
"teardown"
] | It’s a well-known factoid that batteries keep getting cheaper while capacity increases. That said, as with any market that is full of people who are hunting for that ‘great deal’, there are also many shady sellers who will happily sell you a product that could be very dangerous. Especially in the case of large LiFePO
4
(LFP) batteries, considering the sheer amount of energy they can contain. Recently [Will Prowse]
nabbed such a $125, 100 Ah battery
off Amazon that carries no recognizable manufacturer or brand name.
Cheap and cheerful, and probably won’t burn down the place. (Credit: Will Prowse, YouTube)
If this battery works well, it could be an amazing deal for off-grid and solar-powered applications. Running a battery of tests on the battery, [Will] found that the unit’s BMS featured no over-current protection, happily surging to 400 A, with only over-temperature protection keeping it from melting down during a discharge scenario. Interestingly, under-temperature charge protection also worked on the unit.
After a (safe) teardown of the battery the real discoveries began, with a row of missing cells, the other cells being re-sleeved and thus likely salvaged or rejects. Fascinatingly, another YouTuber did a similar test and found that their (even cheaper) unit was of a much lower capacity (88.9 Ah) than [Will]’s with 98 Ah and featured a completely different BMS to boot. Their unit did however feature something of a brand name, though it’s much more likely that these are all just generic LFP batteries that get re-branded by resellers.
What this means is that these LFP batteries may be cheap, but they come with cells that are likely to be of questionable quality, featuring a BMS that plays it fast and loose with safety. Although [Will] doesn’t outright say that you shouldn’t use these batteries, he does recommend that you install a fuse on it to provide some semblance of over-current protection. Keeping a fire extinguisher at hand might also be a good idea. | 42 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158688",
"author": "Jan Prägert",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T15:57:19",
"content": "I mean, if you have a garden, you could dig a pit, concrete-line it and place all that stuff into it.Totally secure.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,371,461.355764 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/vrml-and-the-dream-of-bringing-3d-to-the-world-wide-web/ | VRML And The Dream Of Bringing 3D To The World Wide Web | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"internet hacks",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"VRML",
"Web3D",
"WebGL"
] | You don’t have to be a
Snow Crash
or
Tron
fan to be familiar with the 3D craze that characterized the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web in particular. From phrases like ‘surfing the information highway’ to sectioning websites as if to represent 3D real-life equivalents or sorting them by virtual streets like Geocities did, there has always been a strong push to make the Internet a more three-dimensional experience.
This is perhaps not so strange considering that we humans are ourselves 3D beings used to interacting in a 3D world. Surely we could make this fancy new ‘Internet’ technology do something more futuristic than connect us to text-based BBSes and serve HTML pages with heavily dithered images?
Enter VRML, the Virtual Reality Modelling Language, whose 3D worlds would surely herald the arrival of a new Internet era. Though neither VRML nor its successor X3D became a hit, they did leave their marks and are arguably the reason why we have technologies like WebGL today.
Inspired By Wheels
View of
CyberTown’s
VRML-based Plaza and interface.
With an internet-based virtual reality a highly topic concept, David Raggett from Hewlett Packard Laboratories
submitted a paper
back in 1994 titled
Extending WWW to support Platform Independent Virtual Reality
. This imagined a virtual reality layer to the WWW by the end of the millennium featuring head-mounted displays (HMDs) and tracking of a user’s limbs to fully integrate them into this virtual world with potentially realistic physics, sound, etc.
Describing these virtual worlds would be at the core of this VR push, with SGML (standardized general markup language) forming the basis of such world definitions, much like how HTML is a specialized form of SGML to define the structure and layout of a document. The newly minted VRML would thus merely define 3D worlds rather than 2D documents, with both defining elements and their positioning.
Although nothing revolutionary by itself – with games and 3D modeling software by then having done something similar with their own file formats to define 3D models and worlds for years already – VRML would provide a cross-platform, fully open and independent format that was specifically made for the purpose of this online VR experience.
All Starts With Polygons
The interesting thing about VRML is perhaps that it was pushing for a shared online 3D experience years before the first commercially successful MMORPG came onto the scene in 1999 in the form of EverCra^W
EverQuest
. VRML was pitched in 1994 and by 1995 the very RPG-like MMO experience called
Colony City
(later
CyberTown
) was launched. This created a virtual world in which members could hold jobs, earn virtual currency and purchase 3D homes and items that were all defined in VRML.
CyberTown endured until 2012 when the company behind it shut down, but there’s an ongoing push to revive CyberTown, with the
revival project
‘s GitHub project giving a glimpse at the preserved VRML-based worlds such as the
home world
. These
.wrl
files (short for ‘world’) use the VRML version 2.0 standard, which was the 1997 version of VRML that got turned into an ISO standard as ISO/IEC 14772:1997, with
the specification itself
being readily available over at the Web3D website.
As defined in part 1 of the specification, each VRML file:
implicitly establishes a world coordinate space for all objects defined in the file, as well as all objects included by the file;
explicitly defines and composes a set of 3D and multimedia objects;
can specify hyperlinks to other files and applications;
can define object behaviors.
VRML got combined with the Humanoid Animation (
HAnim
) standard to make realistic humanoid articulation and movement possible. Much like HTML documents, it are often the external resources like textures that determines the final look, but basic materials can be defined in VRML as well.
A very basic example of VRML is provided on the Wikipedia entry for a simple triangle:
#VRML V2.0 utf8
Shape {
geometry IndexedFaceSet {
coordIndex [ 0, 1, 2 ]
coord Coordinate {
point [ 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0.5, 1, 0 ]
}
}
}
The interesting part comes when the
material
and
texture
appearance properties are set for a shape, albeit with basic lighting, no shaders and similar advanced features. All of these would see major improvements by the late 90s as consumer graphic cards became commonplace, especially during 1999 when we saw not only NVidia’s impressive RIVA TNT2, but especially its revolutionary Geforce 256 GPU with its hardware transform and lighting engine.
At this point video games began to look ever more realistic – even on PC – and with the release of new MMORPGs like 2004’s
World of Warcraft
and
EverQuest II
, the quirky and very dated look of VRML-based worlds made it clear that the ‘3D WWW’ dream in the browser was effectively dead and the future was these MMORPGs and kin.
It also seems fair to say that the fact that these games came with all of the assets on installation discs was a major boon over downloading hundreds of megabytes worth of assets via an anemic dial-up or crippled cable internet connection of the late 90s and early 2000s.
A Solution In Search Of A Problem
Virtual Environment Reality workstation technology in 1989 (helmet & gloves) (Credit:
NASA
)
One could argue that science-fiction like
Snow Crash
provides us with the most ideal perspective of a VR layer on top of the Internet, where its Metaverse provides a tangible addition to reality. This same concept of a metaverse where the mind is no longer constrained by the limitations of the body is found in animated features like
Ghost in the Shell
and
Serial Experiments
Lain, each of which feature digitalized, virtual worlds that unchain the characters while creating whole new worlds previously considered impossible.
In these worlds characters can find information much faster, move through digital currents like fish in water, inhibit the digital brains of Internet-connected devices, and so on. Meanwhile back in reality the way we humans interact with virtual worlds has barely changed from the 1980s when NASA and others were experimenting with VR interface technologies.
Why move clumsily through a faux 3D environment with cumbersome input devices strapped to your body and perhaps a display pushed up to your noggin when you can just use mouse and keyboard to tappity-tap in some commands, click a hyperlink or two and observe the result on your very much 2D monitor?
As around 2003 the latest web-based VR world hype came in the form of
Second Life
, it followed mostly the same trajectory as CyberTown before it, while foregoing anything like VRML. After some companies briefly had a presence in Second Life before leaving, it became a ghost town just in time for Facebook to rename itself into Meta and try its hand at the very creatively named
Metaverse
. Despite throwing billions of dollars at trying to become at least as popular as CyberTown, it mostly left people with the feeling of what the point of such a ‘metaverse’ is.
Never Stop Dreaming
The
Web3D Consortium
was set up in 1997 along with the standardization of VRML, when it was called the VRML Consortium. Its stated goal is to develop and promote open standards for 3D content and services on the web. It currently pushes the somewhat newer
X3D
standard, which among other things supports multiple syntax types ranging from XML to classical VRML. It also supports modern physically based rendering (PBR), which puts it at least somewhat in the same ballpark as modern 3D graphic renderers.
Meanwhile there is the much more significant
WebGL
, which was originally created by Mozilla, but has since found a loving home at Khronos. This uses the
canvas
feature of HTML 5 to render 2D and 3D graphics using OpenGL ES, including support for shaders. The proposed
WebGPU
would merge the web browser and GPUs tighter still, albeit with its own shader language instead of the standard OpenGL ES one.
With these new technologies it would seem that rendering prettier 3D worlds in browsers has become easier than ever, even as the dream of bringing 3D worlds to the WWW seems as distant as the prospect of VR games taking the world of gaming by storm. Barring major human-computer interface advances, the WWW will remain at its optimum with keyboard and mouse, to browse through 2D documents. This alongside 3D game worlds controlled with the same keyboard and mouse, with said worlds rendered on a very much 2D surface.
Here’s to dreaming that maybe some of those exciting aspects of sci-fi will one day become science-fact, and to those who strive to make those dreams reality, in lieu of simply being given a
nanotech-based Primer
as a shortcut. | 17 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158650",
"author": "rclark",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T14:14:03",
"content": "I explored VRML at work/home back when. Still have a ‘Teach Yourself VRML 2’ book in my library. Seemed promising for mapping our SCADA system entities into a 3D environment. Ie. View a substation/power... | 1,760,371,461.416456 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/a-pc-that-uses-hot-coffee-as-coolant/ | A PC That Uses Hot Coffee As Coolant | Lewin Day | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"coffee",
"coffee maker",
"computer",
"general electric",
"pc",
"water cooling"
] | Modern computers generate a great deal of heat when under load, thus we cool them with fans and sometimes even water cooling systems. [Doug MacDowell] figured that water was alright,
but why not use coffee instead?
Someone tell us how [Doug] made this graph look like it’s right out of a 1970s college textbook.
The concept is simple enough — replace water in a PC’s cooling loop with fresh-brewed coffee. [Doug] fully integrated an entire PC build on to the side of a General Electric drip coffee maker. It’s an absolute mess of tubes and wires, but it’s both a PC and a functional coffee maker in one.
The coffee maker percolates coffee as per normal into the carafe, and from there, it’s then pumped through two radiators on top of the PC. From there, it circulates to the water block on top of the CPU, and then back to the carafe on the coffee maker where the cycle repeats. Doug notes the coffee is initially so hot (90 C) that the PC is at risk of crashing, but after 75 minutes circulating through the system, the coffee and CPU sit at an equilibrium temperature of 33 C.
You can’t really drink coffee from this machine. PC water cooling components are not food safe in any way, and [Doug] notes mold will become an issue over time. For short periods at least, though, it’s possible to sort-of-cool your computer with hot, fresh coffee if you really want to do that.
We’ve featured some great hacks of conventional coffee machines over the years,
including this fantastic talk at Supercon 2023
. | 38 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158617",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T11:04:43",
"content": "Awesome! Can’t wait for the Halloween build! 😃",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8158618",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T... | 1,760,371,461.497814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/07/sparks-fly-building-a-330-kv-supply-from-a-pc-psu/ | Sparks Fly: Building A 330 KV Supply From A PC PSU | Matt Varian | [
"High Voltage"
] | [
"atx psu",
"Cockcroft-Walton",
"high voltage"
] | If you’re hunting for a bench power supply, you’ll quickly notice options dry up above 48 V or so, and you definitely won’t find a 330 kV supply on the shelf at your local electronics shop. But with just a few parts, [Mircemk] has crafted a
high-voltage source
from a modified PC power supply that delivers electrifying results.
The sparks arcing over a foot of thin air are a dead giveaway, but let’s be clear: this project is not for beginners. High voltage — defined as around 1,000 V and up, with this project hitting 350 times that — carries risks of severe injury or death. Only tackle it if you fully understand the dangers and take precautions like proper insulation and never working alone.
This project showcases a Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier, a clever setup using diodes and capacitors to step up voltage. The capacitors charge and discharge in an alternating pattern, doubling the voltage after each diode pair. [Mircemk] uses 3 mm thick Plexiglas as an insulator, providing both structure and electrical isolation for the diode-capacitor cascade.
To achieve the 330,000 V output, [Mircemk] starts by modifying a standard PC ATX power supply, removing the Schottky diodes from the secondary winding’s output to produce a roughly 15 V square wave. This feeds into another transformer, boosting the voltage before it enters the Cockcroft-Walton multiplier. At first glance, the multiplier’s sides look identical, but their opposite polarities create a massive potential difference across the spark gap.
[Mircemk]’s benchtop exploration into high-voltage territory is a shocking success. If this project lights up your curiosity, dive into our other
high-voltage adventures
, like DIY Tesla coils or plasma speakers, for more electrifying inspiration. | 30 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158593",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T09:01:06",
"content": "okay, impressive sparks, what could possibly go wrong here…Why are there so many people putting videos online with “this video is sponsored by…”. Why are they selling their soul for a free PCB. In this case i... | 1,760,371,462.100852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/automated-rubbish-removal-system/ | Automated Rubbish Removal System | John Elliot V | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"automatic bin",
"automatic trash can",
"rubbish removal"
] | The hackers over at [HTX Studio] built a set of twenty
trash cans which can automatically catch and remove rubbish
.
In order to catch trash a bin needs to do two things: detect where trash will land; and then get there, fast. The second part is easy: three big motors with wheels under the bin. But how does a bin know where the trash will land? It uses a camera installed in the bin itself for that.
[HTX Studio] iteratively trained a model to process visual information from the camera to identify common types of trash. When it sees a trained object flying through the air it rushes to catch it where it will land. After many rounds of fine-tuning it finally started to work reliably.
Once the basic function was working they had some fun creating various specialized variants. One to mop the floor; one to play rock-paper-scissors with you, sort of; and one with an automatic lid, which can be used to “talk trash”. After these three came the ultimate bin: The Punishment Bin, which can fire soft darts.
In addition to the twenty bins themselves they made a recharge station with six bays containing magnetic contact points for recharging the batteries, and a heat-seal mega bin which can empty the smaller bins and put new garbage bags into them. They added LED lighting into the floor of the studio which is used to direct the small bins to the mega bin to be emptied automatically at night time when the office lights go out.
If you’re thinking you’ve seen something like this before, we
covered something similar
back in 2012.
Thanks to [Jack] for sending this one in. | 15 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158567",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T06:26:31",
"content": "There is some serious engineering work hiding behind the slick editing and nice visuals. A welcome change from the editing heavy videos with a simple 3D printed enclosure",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,371,461.947571 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/openai-releases-gpt-oss-ai-model-offers-bounty-for-vulnerabilities/ | OpenAI Releases Gpt-oss AI Model, Offers Bounty For Vulnerabilities | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"bug bounty",
"LLM",
"openai"
] | OpenAI have just released
gpt-oss
, an AI large language model (LLM) available for local download and offline use licensed under Apache 2.0, and optimized for efficiency on a variety of platforms without compromising performance. This is their first such “open” release, and it’s with a model whose features and capabilities compare favorably to some of their hosted services.
OpenAI have partnered with
ollama
for the launch
which makes onboarding ridiculously easy.
ollama
is an open source, MIT-licensed project for installing and running local LLMs, but there’s no real tie-in to that platform. The models are available separately:
gpt-oss-20b
can run within 16 GB of memory, and the larger and more capable
gpt-oss-120b
requires 80 GB. OpenAI claims the smaller model is comparable to their own hosted o3-mini “reasoning” model, and the larger model outperforms it. Both support features like tool use (such as web browsing) and more.
LLMs that can be downloaded and used offline are nothing new, but a couple things make this model release a bit different from others. One is that while OpenAI have released open models such as
Whisper
(a highly capable speech-to-text model), this is actually the first LLM they have released in such a way.
The other notable thing is this release coincides with a
bounty challenge for finding novel flaws and vulnerabilities in gpt-oss-20b
. Does ruining such a model hold more appeal to you than running it? If so, good news because there’s a total of $500,000 to be disbursed. But there’s no time to waste; submissions need to be in by August 26th, 2025. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158559",
"author": "Very Obvious",
"timestamp": "2025-08-07T05:31:52",
"content": "lmao. “Open”AI continuing the misleading name trend.This is not Open Source Software. This is an open weights model. Huge difference. You have no idea what’s in that blob.Why is nobody calling this s... | 1,760,371,461.725055 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/2025-one-hertz-challenge-an-animated-ferrofluid-display/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: An Animated Ferrofluid Display | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge"
] | Ferrofluid is fun. You’ve probably seen all kinds of demos with it bouncing around in response to magnetic fields, or dancing near a speaker.
[beastie417] decided to turn the entertaining fluid into a display.
The basic concept of the ferrofluid display. Note the header image of this article shows the electromagnet array without the ferrofluid pane in place.
The concept is straightforward enough. First, construct a tank of ferrofluid with a white panel behind it for contrast. Then, place it in front of a grid of electromagnets. Now you have many “pixels” you can turn on and off. You turn a magnet on to attract ferrofluid to that point, and turn it off to let it fall away. Since the ferrofluid contrasts with the white background, you have a viable display!
[beastie417] notes that while the concept is simple, the execution is hard. Ferrofluid can be very difficult to work with, instantly staining many materials like acrylic and even glass that isn’t properly prepared. It can also be quite expensive to construct a display like this, with [beastie417] noting their 16×12 pixel design costing approximately $700 thus far. Then you have to figure out how to drive all the pixels—this project uses DRV8908 coil driver ICs running off a microcontroller which controls the display and handles animations.
We’ve seen some great ferrofluid displays before,
like this neat build that could even create readable glyphs.
Meanwhile, if you’re doing rad things with the coolest fluid of the new millennium, don’t hesitate
to let us know
! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158499",
"author": "beastie417",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T23:53:54",
"content": "In addition to the hackaday.io link, you can see more pictures of the project here:https://www.instructables.com/Animated-Flat-Panel-Ferrofluid-Display-Using-Elect/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,371,461.877318 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/a-robot-controller-with-the-compute-module-5/ | A Robot Controller With The Compute Module 5 | Lewin Day | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"compute module",
"compute module 5",
"raspberry pi"
] | The regular Raspberry Pi line is a flexible single-board computer, but sometimes you might find yourself wishing for a form factor that was better designed for installation into a greater whole. This is why the Compute Module variants exist. Indeed, leveraging that intention, [Hans Jørgen Grimstad] has used the powerful Compute Module 5 as the heart of his
“Overlord” robot controller.
The Compute Module 5 offers a powerful quad-core 64-bit ARM chip running at 2.4 GHz, along with anywhere from 2 to 16GB of RAM. You can also get it with WiFi and Bluetooth built in onboard, and it comes with a wide range of I2C, SPI, UART, and GPIO pins to serve whatever ends you envision for them. It’s a whole lot of capability, but the magic is in what you do with it.
For [Hans], he saw this as a powerful basis for a robot controller. To that end, he built a PCB to accept the Compute Module 5, and outfit it with peripherals suited to robotics use. His carrier board equips it with an MCP2515 CAN controller and a TJA1051 CAN transceiver, ideal for communicating in a timely manner with sensors or motor controllers. It also has a 9-axis BNO055 IMU on board, capable of sensor fusion and 100Hz updates for fine sensing and control. The board is intended to be easy to use with hardware like Xiaomi Cybergear motors and Dynamixels servos. As a bonus, there is power circuitry on board to enable it to run off anything from 5 to 36V. While GPIOs aren’t exposed, [Hans] notes that you can even pair it with a second Pi if you want to use GPIOs or camera ports or do any other processing offboard.
If you’re looking for a place to start for serious robot development, the Overlord board has plenty of capability.
We’ve explored the value of the Compute Module 5 before, too.
Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own carrier boards, don’t hesitate to
let the tipsline know! | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158472",
"author": "Ken C",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T21:43:11",
"content": "LOLWUT? 64-bit ARM CPU running at multiple GHz just to control a bunch of H-bridges?!?! This is so wasteful it makes my head roll in sadness.During my time at the university we used cheap $5 Adafruit H-brid... | 1,760,371,461.77621 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/2025-one-hertz-challenge-square-waves-the-way-you-want-em/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: Square Waves The Way You Want ‘Em | Jenny List | [
"contests"
] | [
"2025 One Hertz Contest",
"32.768 kHz",
"cmos",
"divider"
] | On an old fashioned bench a signal generator was once an indispensable instrument, but has now largely been supplanted by the more versatile function generator. Sometimes there’s a less demanding need for a clock signal though, and one way that might be served comes from [Rupin Chheda]’s
square wave generator
. It’s a small PCB designed to sit at the end of a breadboard and provide handy access to a range of clocks.
On the board is a crystal oscillator running at the usual digital clock frequency of 32.768 kHz, and a CMOS divider chain. This provides frequencies from 2048 Hz down to 0.5 Hz for good measure. It’s a simple but oh-so-useful board, and we can imagine more than a few of you finding space for it on your own benches.
This project is part of our awesome
2025 One Hertz Challenge
, celebrating all the things which strut their stuff once a second.
It’s by no means the first to feature a 32.768 kHz divider chain
, and if you have a similar project there’s still time to enter. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158446",
"author": "cgifool",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T19:50:48",
"content": "Where all the 555s at?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8158471",
"author": "SETH",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T21:38:26",
"content": "The gr... | 1,760,371,461.821889 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/jennys-daily-drivers-freedos-1-4/ | Jenny’s Daily Drivers: FreeDOS 1.4 | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"16bit",
"dos",
"freedos"
] | When I was a student, I was a diehard Commodore Amiga user, having upgraded to an A500+ from my Sinclair Spectrum. The Amiga could do it all, it became my programming environment for electronic engineering course work, my audio workstation for student radio, my gaming hub, and much more.
One thing that was part of my course work it couldn’t do very well, which was be exactly like the PCs in my university’s lab. I feel old when I reflect that it’s 35 years ago, and remember sitting down in front of a Tulip PC-XT clone to compile my C code written on the Amiga. Eventually I cobbled together a 286 from cast-off parts, and entered the PC age. Alongside the Amiga it felt like a retrograde step, but mastering DOS 3.3 was arguably more useful to my career than AmigaDOS.
It’s DOS, But It’s Not MS-DOS
Where do I want to go today?
I don’t think I’ve used a pure DOS machine as anything but an occasional retrocomputing curio since some time in the late 1990s, because the Microsoft world long ago headed off into Windows country while I’ve been a Linux user for a very long time. But DOS hasn’t gone away even if Microsoft left it behind, because the FreeDOS project have created an entirely open-source replacement. It’s not MS-DOS, but it’s DOS. It does everything the way your old machine did, but in a lot of cases better and faster. Can I use it as one of my Daily Drivers here in the 2020s? There is only one way to find out.
With few exceptions, an important part of using an OS for this series is to run it on real hardware rather than an emulator. To that end I fished out my lowest-spec PC, a 2010 HP Mini 10 netbook that I hold onto for sentimental reasons. With a 1.6 GHz single core 32 bit Atom processor and a couple of gigabytes of memory it’s a very slow machine for modern desktop Linux, but given that FreeDOS can run on even the earliest PCs it’s a DOS powerhouse. To make it even more ridiculously overspecified I put a 2.5″ SSD in it, and downloaded the FreeDOS USB installer image.
Of course a DOS machine runs DOOM, or at least in this case, FreeDOOM.
Installing FreeDOS is simple enough, just a case of booting from the install drive and following the instructions. There’s no automatic disk partitioning, but fortunately due to all that practice in the ’90s I’m a DOS FDISK wizard. I went for the full installation of every FreeDOS package, because with a machine this powerful, why not!
Booting into FreeDOS on a machine this much faster than a DOS-era PC is so fast as to feel almost instantaneous. The tiny size of the executables, the miniscule amount of resources required, and the speed of the SSD ncompared to an MFM or IDE hard drive makes it like no other OS I have tested, not even RiscOS on the Raspberry Pi. It almost doesn’t feel like the DOS I remember!
DOS has two config files for drivers and configuration, and while CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT have morphed into FDCONFIG.SYS and FDAUTO.BAT they are exactly the same. Yet again, all that experience from the ’90s paid off, and I was immediately at home editing out all the default items relating to things such as a CD-ROM that I just don’t have.
I Wasn’t Networked When I Last Used DOS, And I’m Not This Time Round Either
Sadly this was the closest I came to the web on this machine.
Navigating around the DOS command line I found all the different software that had been installed. There’s a package manager called FDIMPLES to manage it all, though since I had everything on my install medium I used it mostly to see what I had. Yes, it comess with DOOM, in fact in two different versions. I’m most interested for my work in using it with an internet connection though, so before I could try Arachne or Dillo to browse the web I needed to set up a network connection. And here I hit my first FreeDOS snag. It comes witht he excellent Crynwyr colelction of DOS network card drivers, but sadly the RealTek chip or the Broadcom wireless card in the HP are both too new to even have a DOS driver. So I could look at Arachne, but not do anything with it.
If I can’t write for Hackaday in a browser on this machine, can I use a word processor? Sadly there’s none included in the package list, but the FreeDOS website suggests Ability Plus. This is a former commercial package now freeware, so I downloaded it and transferred it to the HP. Sadly no matter what memory configurations I tried, I couldn’t get it to run. For a laugh I also tried Microsoft Word 5.5 which also refused to run, but given Microsoft’s shenanigans with DR DOS back in the day, that was hardly a surprise. I’m not giving up though, so this is being written in the FreeDOS editor.
A Distraction-Free Writing Powerhouse
For the past couple of months then, this quaint old laptop with a space-helmeted Wrencher sticker on the front has been my occasional companion. It’s been on the road with me, on the Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, and into more than one hackerspace. Using DOS again has been an interesting experience, and sometimes frustrating when it comes to mixing up the forward slash and the back slash on returning to Linux, but it’s not been an unpleasant one. For a start, this is probably the fastest-responding computer I own, then there’s the distraction-free aspect of it, with no networking and a single-tasking user interface I have nothing to get in the way of my writing. Oddly I don’t remember my old 286 being like this, but the truth is I must never have appreciated what I had. Getting your work off a DOS machine with no network, floppy, or serial port is a little inconvenient and involves booting from a USB installation medium, but being honest that’s probably less of a chore than using a LapLink serial cable was back in the day.
If you need no-frills and no distraction computing and don’t mind forgoing drivers for all but the most ancient peripherals, then try FreeDOS. If it’s not quite the DOS for you but you still want to put a toe in the open-source DOS water, an alternative might be the DR-DOS derived
SvarDOS
, and if you want the real thing but don’t mind the version everyone hated, there’s always
MS-DOS version 4
. For myself though, I think I’ll stick with FreeDOS. Of all the operating systems in this series so far it’s the only one I’m going to hang on to; this little HP will come out of the drawer whenever I need to just go away and write something. | 66 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158416",
"author": "Rick",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T17:55:23",
"content": "So it’s a clone of MS-DOS but not quite, and it doesn’t run most software written for MS-DOS? About as useful as a toilet seat in a turkish restroom.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,371,462.269335 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/a-portable-12-vdc-water-chiller-for-the-chemistry-lab/ | A Portable 12 VDC Water Chiller For The Chemistry Lab | Maya Posch | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"chiller",
"laboratory equipment"
] | Having a chiller is often essential for the chemistry laboratory, but what if you’re somewhere without easy access to water, nevermind a mains outlet to plug your usual chiller into? In that case you can build a portable one that will happily run off the 12 VDC provided by a mobile source like the accessory outlet in a car while reusing the water from its reservoir,
as demonstrated by [Markus Bindhammer] in a recent video
.
The build uses a compressor-based freezer as the base, which is significantly more capable than the typical Peltier-cooled refrigerators that cannot cool as fast or efficiently. The changes he made involve running in- and outlet tubing into the freezer’s compartment, with a submerged 12 VDC water pump providing the water to the outlet. This pump is controlled by a variable speed controller board that’s put in a box on the outside with the power lead also sneaking into the freezer. With these modifications in place the freezer’s functionality isn’t significantly impacted, so it can be used as normal.
After filling the compartment with water, the lid is closed and the freezer engaged. The pump controller is then switched on, with the water flow adjusted to fit the distillation job at hand. Although in this case a fairly small freezer was modified, nobody is saying that you cannot also do it with a much larger freezer, and fill it with ice cream and other treats to help it and lab critters cool down faster. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158385",
"author": "Rock Erickson",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T15:56:53",
"content": "tl;dw what’s the power, in Watts?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8158390",
"author": "Markus Bindhammer",
"timestamp": "2025... | 1,760,371,462.155706 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/australias-space-program-finally-gets-off-the-pad-but-only-barely/ | Australia’s Space Program Finally Gets Off The Pad, But Only Barely | Lewin Day | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"austraila",
"gilmour space",
"rocket",
"space",
"space program"
] | Australia is known for great beaches, top-tier coffee, and a laidback approach to life that really doesn’t square with all the rules and regulations that exist Down Under. What it
isn’t
known for is being a spacefaring nation.
As it stands, a startup called Gilmour Space has been making great efforts to give Australia the orbital launch capability it’s never had. After numerous hurdles and delays, the company finally got their rocket off the launch pad. Unfortunately,
it just didn’t get much farther than that.
You Will Not Go To Space Today
Gilmour Space
was founded back in 2013, and established its rocketry program two years later. The company has a straightforward mission—it aims to provide Australian-made launch vehicles for putting satellites into orbit. Over the past decade, the company has been working hard on establishing a spaceport and building a series of ever-larger rockets, inching its way towards its stated goal.
The company aims to reach space with the Eris rocket. The 23-meter-long, 30-tonne vehicle came about after years of engineering work, and stands as Australia’s only realistic bid to join the exclusive club of nations capable of orbital launches. The three-stage rocket uses four hybrid rocket motors in the first stage, one in the second stage, and a liquid rocket engine in the third stage. It’s intended to carry payloads up to 300 kg into orbit. The Eris was first assembled and staged on the company’s launch pad in Bowen, Queensland, in early 2024, and even fully fueled up for a dress rehearsal in September last year. However, local aviation authority CASA was not yet satisfied with preparations, and had not provided the required permits for launch. Since then, the wait has continued, with an expected launch date in March 2025 passing by without fanfare. Even with CASA approval, the Australian Space Agency was still not satisfied with Gilmour’s preparations.
Ultimately, the company would wait long eighteen months for complete regulatory approval to launch their Eris rocket from the Bowen orbital spaceport. Ultimately, everything finally fell into place, with the company set to launch on July 30.
The launch began as so many do, with smoke billowing from the pad as the four first-stage rocket motors ignited. Seconds later, Eris began to inch into the sky… only to falter at low altitude. Having barely cleared the top of the launch structure, the rocket began to fall back to Earth, toppling over sideways while creating a relatively small fireball in its failure. One presumes the payload—a jar of Vegimite sandwich spread—was lost.
Founder Adam Gilmour suggested one of the main engines may have failed during the short 14-second flight. Credit: ABC News via YouTube screenshot
Speaking after the event to
ABC News
,
Gilmour Space founder Adam Gilmour speculated as to what happened. “From the videos, it looks like we lost one of the main engines a few seconds into the flight,” he stated. “I’m hoping the next rocket goes to orbit, and if it does, then the next rocket after that will be our first commercial one that takes satellites up.”
It may not have been much to look at, but the company was nonetheless positive about finally making forward steps towards its eventual goal. “Today, Eris became the first Australian made orbital launch vehicle to lift off from Australian soil — achieving around 14 seconds of flight,” stated the company. “For a maiden test flight, this is a strong result and a major step forward for Australia’s sovereign space capability.” Gilmour Space noted its multiple successes—all four rocket engines igniting successfully, the rocket clearing the tower, and the positive operation of its flight software and control systems. While the launch failed to get far off the pad—for reasons yet to be fully determined—the company was ultimately upbeat, and looks towards its second test flight of the Eris rocket.
Indeed, this result has long been expected by Gilmour Space founder, Adam Gilmour. In interviews earlier this year, he noted that the complexities of large scale rocketry meant he didn’t expect grand achievements from the first test flight. “It’s very hard to test an orbital rocket without just flying it,” he told the
Sydney Morning Herald
in March this year
.
“We don’t have high expectations we’ll get to orbit… I’d personally be happy to get off the pad.”
Gilmour Space still has a long way to go to reach orbit—roughly 100 km or so, given the rocket only just got off the pad. Still, it’s hardly the first space program to face early failures on its way to the heavens. If anything, the test launch actually happening has reignited interest in the project, bringing renewed attention to the Australian effort to finally join the space club. | 42 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158362",
"author": "Piotrsko",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T14:41:39",
"content": "Yup, it IS rocket science. It ain’t easy either, or even Musk could build boosters.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8158375",
"author": "... | 1,760,371,462.351563 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/can-a-thermal-printer-cure-adhd/ | Can A Thermal Printer Cure ADHD? | Tyler August | [
"Lifehacks"
] | [
"gamification",
"productivity",
"thermal printer"
] | No, of course not. Per Betteridge’s law, that’s the answer to any headline with a question mark. On the other hand, while a thermal printer might not cure ADHD, it can help treat it — according to [Laurie Hérault],
to the point of curing his procrastination habit.
Even if you don’t have ADHD, you probably do procrastinate sometimes, so this hack is worth a look.
The printer itself is a key hardware portion of the hack, but the hack itself is purely organizational. [Laurie] started with post-its before adding automation. Before the post-it notes came a simple realization: [Laurie] could sit and play games for hours, but not buckle down for serious work for more than a few minutes, if he could even get started. (Who can’t relate?) That sent him down a rabbit hole reading about the psychology of what makes games so addictive — and the idea of “gamification” that was so popular in educational circles not long ago.
Unlike work, games give you a loop of unambiguous, instant, and continuous feedback to pump your dopamine circuits. [Laurie] uses the example of an FPS. You aim, you shoot — and either you miss, or you hit the target. Either way, there’s feedback. When you hit, your brain gives you dopamine. This fast loop of input -> feedback is what [Laurie] felt he was missing from his day.
You’d want to organize the post-its better than this. (Image by
Pexels
.)
That’s where the post-it notes came in. Post-its went up on a board with all of his tasks for the day; the input was his completing the tasks, and the feedback was taking them down, crumpling them up, and putting them into a clear jar that would serve as a score bar for his productivity. The feedback actually rewarded multiple senses this way: the tactility of crumpling paper, the sound of it, and the visual of the rising level of the jar.
A key insight [Laurie] had in this process is that many productivity apps (including gamifying ones) are focused too much on high-level tasks by default. “Clean the kitchen,” for example. That’s too big! It’s daunting, and it takes too long for that immediate, gamified feedback. Instead [Laurie] breaks down “Cleaning the Kitchen” into “Clean the dishes”, “Wipe the Counter”, “Take out the Trash”, et cetera. The smaller the steps, the more frequent the reward, and the easier it is to start them without exerting much willpower: just like a video game.
Of course writing all of those post-it notes gets tedious, especially for recurring and pre-scheduled tasks, and that tedium increases exponentially when breaking tasks down into the smallest possible chunks. That’s where the thermal printer came in. [Laurie] wrote a simple software utility to allow him to create high-level tasks, and break them down into small action items that are immediately sent to the thermal printer. After that, the system works just as it does with the post-it notes. He promises to share this software, but it does not seem to have yet been released. Hopefully he’s not procrastinating on that, or our faith in the process is ruined.
Thermal printers are great for lifehacks, like this hack
for receipt-like mementos,
or this one to
ease the load on a dungeon master
. If you prefer you can skip the ‘life’ part of lifehacks, and
just make an instant camera
. | 34 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158296",
"author": "HappyBundom",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T11:16:04",
"content": "I was going to leave an insightful comment but I got distracted :(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8158659",
"author": "Danny Zeda",
... | 1,760,371,462.424672 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/06/a-speed-loader-for-your-3d-printer-filament/ | A Speed Loader For Your 3D Printer Filament | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"bowden",
"speed loader"
] | Reloading filament on a 3D printer is hardly anyone’s favorite task, but it’s even worse when you’re trying to shove stiff filament down a long and winding Bowden tube.
Enter the speed loader from [Mr Flippant],
which aims to take the pain out of this mechanically-frustrating chore.
The design is simple enough. It’s a small handheld tool that uses a 12 VDC gear motor to drive a set of Bondtech-style drive gears that you might find in an extruder. They’re assembled in a 3D printed housing with a microswitch to activate the motor, and a 9 volt battery to supply the juice.
To use the device, first thread the filament into the beginning of the Bowden tube. The idler gear is on a hinge, such that clamping it into position around the filament with the main gear activates the microswitch and turns the motor on, driving the filament all the way to the extruder. Job done! [Mr Flippant] notes that the filament should be as straight and unkinked as possible for best results, but that’s good advice when 3D printing in general.
Funnily enough, around these parts, when we talk about speed loaders,
we’re usually discussing tapes
.
Thanks to [LookAtDaShinyShiny] for the tip! | 23 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158253",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T08:34:25",
"content": "IF your Bowden tube is THAT long that you feel you need this gadget, then it´s just TOO long.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8158396",
"author... | 1,760,371,462.484529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/lorasense-pi-hat-aims-to-kick-start-iot-projects/ | LoRaSense Pi Hat Aims To Kick Start IoT Projects | John Elliot V | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"hat",
"humidity",
"LoRa",
"raspberry pi",
"RGB LED",
"temperature"
] | [Avi Gupta] recently sent in their
LoRaSense RGB Pi HAT
project. This “HAT” (Hardware Attached to Top) is for any Raspberry Pi with 40-pin header. The core of the build is the custom printed circuit board which houses the components and interconnects. The components include an SHT31 temperature and humidity sensor, an SX1278 LoRa module, and a 10 amp 220 VAC relay. The interconnects include support for UART, I2C, SPI, and WS2812B RGB LED interfaces as well as a stackable header for daisy chaining HATs.
The attached components in combination support a wide range of use cases. Possible uses for this Raspberry Pi HAT include smart home systems, agricultural projects, industrial monitoring, smart greenhouse, remote weather stations, or alerting systems. You can detect weather conditions, send and receive information, switch mains powered loads, and use RGB LEDs for status and alerting.
If you’re interested in LoRa technology be sure to read about
the Yagi antenna that sends LoRa signals farther
. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158186",
"author": "Ewald",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T05:13:53",
"content": "And 1 Hz because….?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8158204",
"author": "Szaja",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T06:01:27",
"content... | 1,760,371,462.528559 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/why-names-break-systems/ | Why Names Break Systems | Ian Bos | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"apostrophe",
"ASCII",
"code injection",
"sql injection",
"unicode",
"web design"
] | Web systems are designed to be simple and reliable. Designing for the everyday person is the goal, but if you don’t consider the odd man out, they may encounter some problems. This is the everyday life for some people with names that often have unconsidered features, such as apostrophes or spaces. This is the life of [Luke O’Sullivan], who even had to fly under a
different name than his legal one
.
[O’Sullivan] is far from a rare surname, but presents an interesting challenge for many computer systems. Systems from the era of penny pinching every bit relied on ASCII. ASCII only included 128 characters, which included a very small set of special characters. Some systems didn’t even include some of these characters to reduce loading times. Throw on the security features put in place to prevent injection attacks, and you have a very unfriendly field for many uncommon names.
Unicode is a newer standard with over 150,000 characters, allowing for nearly any character. However, many older systems are far from easy or cheap to convert to the new standard. This leaves many people to have to adapt to the software rather than the software adapting to the user. While this is simply poor design in general, [O’Sullivan] makes sure to point out how demeaning this can be for many people. Imagine being told that your name isn’t important enough to be included, or told that it’s “invalid”.
One excuse that gets thrown about is the aforementioned injection prompts that can be used to affect these systems. This can cause systems to crash or even change settings; however, it’s not just these older systems that get affected. For modern-day injection prompts, check out
how AI models can get affected
!
Thanks to Ken Fallon for the tip! | 74 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158127",
"author": "Rocky",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T02:16:30",
"content": "If you reject names because you are afraid of injection prompts your software sucks because you are concatenating strings to form SQL-statements that are later parsed. And if you are forced to do it that wa... | 1,760,371,462.73721 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/2025-one-hertz-challenge-shoulda-put-a-ring-oscillator-on-it/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: Shoulda Put A Ring Oscillator On It | Tyler August | [
"classic hacks",
"contests"
] | [
"Circuit Sculpture",
"free form circuit",
"led blinker",
"ring oscillator"
] | Entries keep ticking in for the One Hertz Challenge, some more practical than others. [Pierre-Loup M.]’s
One Hertz Sculpture
has no pretensions of being anything but pretty, but we can absolutely respect the artistic impulse behind it.
The sculpture is a free-form circuit inside of a picture frame. There are 9 LEDs in a ring with a few other components to produce a reverse-chase effect (one going dark at a time) taking about 1 second to circle the sculpture. As far as free-form circuit art goes, it’s handsomely done, but as this is Hackaday it’s probably the electronics, rather that the aesthetics that are of interest.
The circuit is an example of a ring oscillator: a cascading chain of NOT gates, endlessly feeding into and inverting one
Without timing it, it looks like 1 Hz, even if we know it’s not.
another. The NOT gates are implemented in resistor-transistor logic with 2N3904 NPN transistors, nine in total. Of course the inverter delay of this sort of handmade logic gate is far too fast for an aesthetically pleasing (or visible) chase, so some extra circuitry is needed to slow down the oscillations to something less than the 5 MHz it would naturally do. This is affected by pairing every transistor with an RC oscillator. Ideally the RC oscillator would have a 0.111..s period (1/9th of a second), but a few things got in the way of that. The RC oscillator isn’t oscillating in a vacuum, and interactions with the rest of the circuit have it running just a little bit fast. That’s really of no matter; a simple oscillator circuit like this wasn’t going to be a shoe in for the accuracy-based Time Lords category of this contest. As a sculpture and not a clock, you’re not going to notice it isn’t running at exactly 1Hz. (Though a ring-oscillator based clock would be a sight indeed.)
We’ve seen ring oscillators before,
including inside the venerable 8087 coprocessor
and this
delightfully romantic beating-heart gift
, but this is the first one that seems to have entered the One Hertz Challenge.
If you have a hankering for hertz, the contest is still open, but you’d better get ticking! The contest closes August 19th. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158118",
"author": "guido",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T01:58:10",
"content": "LEDs are also light sensitive.Now I got curious: can we make a ring oscillator circuit where each neighbour LEDs passes the tick to next just with a flash of light?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,462.627178 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/flex-pcb-underlies-the-watch-of-the-future/ | Flex PCB Underlies The Watch Of The Future | Tyler August | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"digital wristwatch",
"led matrix",
"LED watch",
"stm32",
"watch"
] | If you were at OpenSauce, you may have seen new Youtuber [Sahko] waltzing about with a retrofuturistic peice of jewelery that revealed itself as a very cool watch. If you weren’t, he’s his very first video on
YouTube detailing the design and construction of this piece.
We’ve embedded it below, and it’s worth a watch. (Pun intended, as always.)
The build was inspired by the delightful amber LED dot-matrix display modules that circle the band of the watch. They go by HCMS2901, but [Sahko] recommends using the HCMS3901 as it’s both more 3.3V-tolerant and easier to find now. A challenge in mounting so many displays was the voltage on the supply rail dropping below the logic level; presumably the newer version does not have this problem to the same degree. Either way we love the look of these little displays and are pondering projects of our own that might include them.
He’s got quite a few wrapped around his wrist, so at full brightness, all these displays draw one amp. That explains why like the LED watches of the 1970s, the default state of the displays is “OFF”. Even with a LiPo pouch salvaged from a disposable vape, the runtime would only be half an hour at full brightness without that periodicity. Luckily [Sahko] included buttons on the band of the watch to activate it and control the brightness so it isn’t always blasting at full. There are also different modes available, including a really cool waterfall effect you can see in the video.
The band is an interesting choice, too: it’s just a flex PCB. There’s nothing backing it, aside from its own stiffeners, which makes us very curious how well this watch would hold up to daily use. There’s no clasp in the traditional sense, either: the band is closed by a 4-pin connector that doubles as both charge and the USB programmer for the stm32u08 microcontroller that runs the displays. Conveniently for a watch, this version of the stm32 has an RTC, so it keeps time as well. We dig the minimalism of this design; it’s a great contrast to the maximalism of wrapping your wrist in displays.
We’ve seen
very similar displays on an edge-viewed watch,
but a tiny amber LED matrix never gets old. If you wrapping your wrist in all those tiny LEDs is too impractically power-hungry,
try using Nixie tubes
.
We’re always watching for projects– wrist mounted clocks or otherwise– so if you’ve got the time, please
drop us a tip
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158066",
"author": "Mark Topham",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T21:44:15",
"content": "Minimum quantities from major suppliers: 160, at $24/each.Damn. Guess I’ll stick with my Apple Watch for now.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "815... | 1,760,371,462.57503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/2025-one-hertz-challenge-blinking-an-led-the-very-old-fashioned-way/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: Blinking An LED TheVeryOld Fashioned Way | Jenny List | [
"contests",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"2025 One Hertz Contest",
"flasher",
"gears"
] | Making an LED blink is usually achieved by interrupting its power supply, This can be achieved through any number of oscillator circuits, or even by means of a mechanical system and a switch. For the 2025 One Hertz Challenge though, [jeremy.geppert] has eschewed such means. Instead his LED is always on, and
is made to flash by interrupting its light beam
with a gap once a second.
This mechanical solution is achieved via a disk with a hole in it, rotating once a second. This is driven from a gear mounted on a 4.8 RPM geared synchronous motor, and the hack lies in getting those gears right. They’re laser cut from ply, from an SVG generated using an online gear designer. The large gear sits on the motor and the small gear on the back of the disk, which is mounted on a bearing. When powered up it spins at 60 RPM, and the LED flashes thus once a second.
We like this entry for its lateral thinking simplicity. The awesome
2025 One Hertz Challenge
is still ongoing, so there is still plenty of time for you to join the fun! | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158048",
"author": "D",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T19:54:12",
"content": "And the obvious next step is to provide additional gears in the correct ratios to blink once per minute, hour, day, and year.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,371,462.783565 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/get-your-tickets-for-supercon-2025-now/ | Get Your Tickets For Supercon 2025 Now! | Tom Nardi | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday Superconference",
"halloween",
"retro",
"tickets"
] | The wait is over — once this post hits the front page,
ticket sales for the 2025 Hackaday Supercon will officially be live
!
As is tradition, we’ve reserved 100 tickets priced at $148 (plus fees) for what we like to call the True-Believers. Those are the folks that are willing to sign up even without knowing who will be speaking or what this year’s badge looks like. Once those are sold out, the regular admission tickets will cost $296 (plus fees). We might be
slightly
biased, but even at full price, we like to think Supercon is a screaming deal.
Those who join us in Pasadena, California from October 31st through November 2nd can look forward to a weekend of talks, workshops, demos, and badge hacking. But what’s more, you’ll experience the unique sense of camaraderie that’s produced when you pack hundreds of hardware hackers into an alleyway and ply them with as much caffeine as they can handle. Some treat it like a normal hacker con, others as a social experiment, but nobody thinks of it as anything less than a fantastic time.
We’re still working closely with our friends at Supplyframe, DigiKey, and Framework to put together a full itinerary for Supercon 2025, so stay tuned over the coming weeks as things are finalized. But in the meantime, we’ve got a couple new additions this year that we’re pretty excited about.
Friday Halloween Party
Last year it worked out that the night before Supercon happened to align with Halloween, so we put together a little pre-con costume party. It was a big hit, and since this year the first day of Supercon will actually fall on All Hallows’ Eve, we decided to really lean into it.
So on Friday night from 5:00 to 10:00 PM, we’ll be hosting a sci-fi themed costume party at the Supplyframe HQ. There will be prizes for the best dressed, and we’ll obviously be on the lookout for costumes that incorporate futuristic, retro-futuristic, or sci-fi techie details. And being a Hackaday event, there’s no such thing as too many LEDs.
Those who’ve joined us in the past may notice that the time and location of the party puts it during what could best be described as the “general hacking” period of Friday evening. Fear not. Participation is completely optional, and attendees who wish to keep their head down and continue working on their badge will of course be free to do so. It’s what Mr. Spock would do.
Call for Retro Communications Tech!
We love Retro Tech at Hackaday, and we know you do to. That’s why this year we’re curating a crowd-sourced exhibit of retro communication electronics from 1940 to 2000: radios, pagers, walkie-talkies, early cell phones, ham rigs, weird prototypes, you name it. Any thematic connection between this project and the Supercon 2025 badge may or may not be completely coincidental.
If you’ve got gear that talked, beeped, buzzed, or connected us before the age of the smartphone, we want to see it. So get it out of the attic, dust it off, tell us its story, and help bring this exhibit to life.
As with last year’s popular Display Tech exhibit
, all of the hardware will be considered on loan, and it will be returned to its owner after the event. Shipping shouldn’t be too much of an issue for handheld devices, but for the larger pieces of hardware, we’d ideally be looking for stuff that’s already in the Southern California area. That said, if you’ve got something really unique that you’d like to show off, don’t be afraid to contact us — we’ll probably be able to work something out.
The deadline for submissions is September 1st, and the hardware itself will need to be in Pasadena by September 30th to be included in the exhibit. If you’re interested,
just fill out this form
and we’ll be in touch.
All We Need Now is You!
We’ll be scrambling behind the scenes up until the very last minute (and maybe a bit over) to put together another unforgettable Supercon, but the truth is, the most important part of the equation is the attendees. An event is only as good as the folks who show up, and for the last several years, we’ve been fortunate enough to have an incredible cast of hackers and makers join us for an event that we truly believe is unlike anything else out there.
Whether you’re a veteran of several Supercons, or thinking of making 2025 your first year,
we can’t wait to see you in November
. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158389",
"author": "Michael M",
"timestamp": "2025-08-06T16:27:08",
"content": "Is there a place to sign up as a volunteer?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8158690",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,371,462.822968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/student-drone-flies-submerges/ | Student Drone Flies, Submerges | Al Williams | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"underwater"
] | Admit it. You’d get through boring classes in school by daydreaming of cool things you’d like to build. If you were like us, some of them were practical, but some of them were flights of fancy. Did you ever think of an airplane that could dive under the water? We did. So did some students at Aalborg University. The difference is they
built theirs
. Watch it do its thing in the video below.
As far as we can tell, the drone utilizes variable-pitch props to generate lift in the air and downward thrust in water. In addition to the direction of the thrust, water operations require a lower pitch to minimize drag. We’d be interested in seeing how it is all waterproofed, and we’re unsure how deep the device can go. No word on battery life either. From the video, we aren’t sure how maneuverable it is while submerged, but it does seem to have some control. It wouldn’t be hard to add a lateral thruster to improve underwater operations.
This isn’t the first vehicle of its kind (discounting
fictional versions
). Researchers at
Rutgers
created something similar in 2015, and we’ve seen other
demonstrations
, but this is still very well done, especially for a student project.
We did see a
submersible drone
built using parts from a flying drone. Cool, but not quite the same. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8158006",
"author": "dudefromthenorth",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T17:25:26",
"content": "Kind of cool, but unlike a diving seabird, which can adapt it’s means of propulsion more drastically, this is a quadcopter drone that’s neither optimized for air or water. Cool vario-pitch thoug... | 1,760,371,462.984068 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/what-happens-when-lightning-strikes-a-plane/ | What Happens When Lightning Strikes A Plane? | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"aircraft",
"airliner",
"lightning",
"lightning strike"
] | Lightning is a powerful force, one seemingly capable of great destruction in the right circumstances. It announces itself with a searing flash, followed by a deep rumble heard for miles around.
Intuitively, it might seem like a lightning strike would be disastrous for something like a plane flying at altitude. And yet, while damage is possible, more often than not—a plane will get through a lightning storm unscathed. Let’s explore the physics at play.
Flying High
An electrical storm captured off the port side of a Thai Airways flight in June 2025. Pilots typically aim to avoid flying through electrical storms where possible out of an abundance of caution. Credit: author
According to organizations in the know, like the
National Weather Service
and
Airbus
, in-service commercial passenger planes get hit by lightning one to two times a year on average. Despite this, crashes due to lightning strikes are extremely rare in these aircraft. One might imagine that a modern airliner, full of complex electrical systems and fuel, would be highly sensitive to a large release of electrical energy. However, thanks to basic physics and smart design, modern commercial planes are actually able to weather a lightning strike quite well.
Much this comes down to the way electrical current flows through a conductor. In a traditional airliner with an aluminium fuselage and wings, the outer body of the aircraft acts as a Faraday cage. This sees the current from a lightning strike flow primarily through the exterior of the aircraft, without harming anything inside. The lightning strike typically contacts the outside of the aircraft at one point, and leaves the aircraft at another, while the electronic systems inside are largely undisturbed. This effect also works in composite-bodied aircraft, thanks to aircraft manufacturers including conductive foils or strips in the fuselage to ensure this effect is preserved. “All components of the aircraft structure (metallic or composite) must be bonded together with bonding leads or with fasteners to ensure electrical continuity,” notes Airbus
in a discussion on the topic
. “This will enable the lightning current to travel through the aircraft structure without creating significant damage.” Those onboard the plane might here a loud noise and see a giant flash, but actual impact to the aircraft’s structure and electronic hardware is usually very limited.
Aircraft tend to attract lightning when flying through areas of high electric field in the atmosphere. Credit:
Airbus
It’s worth noting that this protective effect is quite important, because aircraft themselves have a tendency to attract lightning when flying through an area of strong electrical field. As explained by Airbus, lightning leaders projecting from a storm can readily meet up with lightning leaders emanating from a plane’s wings, nosecone, tailplane, or other extremities. When this happens, the plane, effectively a large conductor, becomes part of the lightning channel when the discharge happens, carrying current as part of the lightning’s path. A lightning strike may enter the plane at the nose, with discharge passing from the tail, wingtips, or other pointed protrusion. Static discharge wicks can help in this regard. These are small pointed metal protrusions fitted across an airliner’s body, which are intended to release static electricity built up from friction with the air, dust, or precipitation during flight. They can act as discharge points for a lightning strike, too.
As a corona discharge, lightning will tend to leave the aircraft from a sharp point like a wingtip, the tail, or static wicks mounted on the trailing edges of aerodynamic surfaces. Credit: Adrian Pingstone, public domain
While modern aircraft are designed to survive lightning strikes, it’s still better to not get hit in the first place. Often, damage is minor or inconsequential, but planes still need to be checked over after a strike event regardless. For that reason, pilots rely on weather forecasts and guidance from air traffic control to fly around or over danger areas wherever possible.
In the event a modern airliner is struck, damage usually fits the description you’d expect from a large arcing event. Metal components may show burn marks, holes, or pitting, along with deformation from excess heat. Composite parts may also show fiber damage, delamination, or damage to conductive elements impacted by the strike. Post-strike inspections are thus performed to find and repair this damage before a plane flies again.
Unfortunately, while damage or crashes due to lightning strikes are rare, they do still occasionally happen. Flightline Flight 101 crashed in 2001, with the small turboprop plane suspected to have gone down due to electrical failure after a lightning strike. Investigators noted that the Swearingen SA226-AT aircraft had been known to suffer electrical failure in other lightning strike incidents. Another tragic example was LANSA Flight 508, which crashed in 1971 after the Lockheed L-188 Electra suffered wing failure after a lightning strike.
Certain areas of the plane are more likely to suffer damage from a lightning strike—most damage occurs where the lightning strike enters or leaves the aircraft body. Credit:
Airbus
However, more modern passenger airliners from manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus have proven a much more solid safety record when it comes to lightning strikes. This has come as a part of modern regulations, which demand electrical bonding of components to reduce the chance that a lightning strike could ignite fuel vapors or fuel tanks, and panel thickness requirements to make sure lightning strikes can’t easily melt through an entire panel to damage parts inside. Many of these rules were instituted after the loss of Pan Am Flight 214 in 1963, when investigators concluded that a lightning strike had ignited fuel vapor leading to the total loss of the aircraft.
It’s also worth noting that lightning can actually be a large danger to planes when on the ground. Airports are often large, open areas with few tall structures around, meaning that aircraft can be a more likely target for lightning strikes in the area. In the event a plane is struck on the tarmac, crew nearby can be in severe danger if the strike jumps to them on its way to the ground. Aircraft are often grounded with conductive straps when on the tarmac to help reduce the chance of this happening, and work on the ground is often postponed if there is a high risk of lightning in the area. | 24 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157964",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T14:10:45",
"content": "Change from “snakes on a plane” to “ball lightening on a plane”. Much more colorful, and less fearful.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8157975",
... | 1,760,371,463.400263 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/real-time-beamforming-with-software-defined-radio/ | Real-Time Beamforming With Software-Defined Radio | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"ADALM-PLUTO",
"angle of arrival",
"beamforming",
"phased array",
"radio",
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | It is perhaps humanity’s most defining trait that we are always striving to build things better, stronger, faster, or bigger than that which came before. Taller skyscrapers, longer bridges, and computers with more processors, all advance thanks to this relentless persistence.
In the world of radio, we might assume that a better signal simply means adding more power, but performance can also improve by adding more antennas. Not only do more antennas increase gain but they can also be electronically steered,
and [MAKA] demonstrates how to do this with a software-defined radio (SDR) phased array
.
The project comes to us in two parts. In the first part, two ADALM-Pluto SDR modules are used, with one set to transmit and the other to receive. The transmitting SDR has two channels, one of which has the phase angle of the transmitted radio wave fixed while the other is swept from -180° to 180°. These two waves will interfere with each other at various points along this sweep, with one providing much higher gain to the receiver. This information is all provided to the user via a GUI.
The second part
works a bit like the first, but in reverse. By using the two antennas as receivers instead of transmitters, the phased array can calculate the precise angle of arrival of a particular radio wave, allowing the user to pinpoint the direction it is being transmitted from. These principles form the basis of things like phased array radar, and if you’d like more visual representations of how these systems work
take a look at this post from a few years ago
. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157949",
"author": "Gösta",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T12:32:28",
"content": "I never thought beamforming would be hackable on this level, nice article :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8157956",
"author": "Krzysztof",
... | 1,760,371,463.037111 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/open-source-5-axis-printer-has-its-own-slicer/ | Open Source 5-Axis Printer Has Its Own Slicer | Tyler August | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"5-Axis",
"5-axis slicer",
"klipper",
"slicer"
] | Three-axis 3D printing has been with us long enough that everybody knows the limitations, but so far, adding extra axes has been very much a niche endeavor. [Daniel] at Fractal Robotics wants to change that, with the
Fractal 5 Pro 5-axis printer
, and its corresponding
Fractal Cortex slicer
.
The printer looks like an extra-beefy Voron from a distance, which is no surprise as [Daniel] admits to taking heavy inspiration from the Voron Trident. The Fractal 5 shares a core-XY geometry with the Voron, using beefy 30 mm x 30 mm extrusions. Also like the Voron, it runs Klipper on a Raspberry Pi hiding in the base. Under a standard-looking printhead using a BondTech extruder and E3D volcano hotend, we find the extra two axes hiding under the circular build plate. The B axis is a gantry that can pivot the build plate assembly a full 90 degrees; the A axis spins the plate without limit thanks to the slip rings built into the design.
The extruder may look fairly normal, but it has actually been designed very carefully to allow the nozzle to get as close as possible to the build plate when the B-axis is at 90 degrees. It looks like the E3D hotend is actually the limiting factor there, which gives plenty of design freedom when planning prints in the accompanying Fractal Cortex slicer.
Fractal Cortex is an all-new slicer written entirely in Python. It does have a 3-axis legacy mode, but it’s primarily designed for 5-axis slicing with the Fractal 5 Pro. The multi-axis operation looks very straightforward: you place “slicing planes” and orient them along the part, as many as you require. Printing pauses while the A and B axes rotate, then resumes with straight, parallel layers. Sure, non-planar slicing would be the bees’ knees on this sort of 5-axis printer, but we’ve got to say for a young engineer’s first crack at this kind of software, Fractal Cortex looks pretty good.
It sounds like [Daniel] is looking for contributors to the project, so if this project tickles your fancy, head over to the GitHub links at the top of the page and dive in.
We’ve seen
other 5D printers
before, but this one probably takes the cake for build volume, and
having a slicer to match
is a big advantage for anyone who wants to try this at home.
Thanks to [Hari] for the tip. Use all your axes to extrude your projects
into our tips line here
. | 22 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157626",
"author": "lespaul1963",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T17:24:29",
"content": "Projects like this should be banned because they only make entering 3D printing scene for newcomers much less affordable (not only in terms of money but also complex math involved…)",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,371,463.207792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/happy-birthday-6502/ | Happy Birthday 6502 | Jenny List | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Retrocomputing",
"Slider"
] | [
"6502",
"MOS Technology",
"MOS Technology 6502"
] | The MOS Technology 6502 is a microprocessor which casts a long shadow over the world of computing. Many of you will know it as the beating heart of so many famous 8-bit machines from the likes of Commodore, Apple, Acorn, and more, and it has retained enough success for a version to remain in production today. It’s still a surprise though, to note that this part is now fifty years old. Though there are several contenders for its birthday, the first adverts for it were in print by July 1975, and the first customers bought their chips in September of that year. It’s thus only fitting that in August 2025, we give this processor a retrospective.
The Moment Motorola Never Really Recovered From
The advert that started it all. MOS Technology,
Public domain
.
The story of the 6502’s conception is a fascinating tale of how the giants of the early mocroprocessor industry set about grappling with these new machines. In the earlier half of the 1970s, Chuck Peddle worked for Motorola, whose 6800 microprocessor reached the market in 1974. The 6800 was for its time complex, expensive, and difficult to manufacture, and Peddle’s response to this was a far simpler device with a slimmed-down instruction set that his contact with customers had convinced him the market was looking for: the 6502.
There’s a tale of Motorola officially ordering him to stop working on this idea, something he would later assert as such an abandonment of the technology that he could claim the IP for himself. Accompanied by a group of his Motorola 6800 colleagues, in the summer of 1974 he jumped ship for MOS Technology to pursue the design. What first emerged was the 6501, a chip pin-compatible with the 6800, followed soon after by the 6502, with the same core, but with an on-board clock oscillator.
My 6502-powered Beeb may be showing its age, but it remains one of the most comprehensively specified computers for its time I have ever used.
If you were one of the small group of very geeky kids in the early 1980s who really used their home computers instead of merely gaming it’s likely you are part of the only generation ever to have a playground one-upmanship over processor architectures. Those of us with a Z80 in our Sinclair machines would cite the higher clock speed, while the Commodore owners would talk about the 6502’s pipelined architecture and smaller instruction set.
With the benefit of many decades’ hindsight it’s fair to say they had a point, and one that the Z80’s ability to flip between two sets of registers on a dime couldn’t make up for. The 6502 was quick, it had a reliable manufacturing process, and since MOS Technology sold it to anyone for a surprisingly reasonable price rather than restricting it to big-bucks industrial customers, it or one of its many derivatives was a natural choice for much of the first generation of home computers and consoles. If you had an Acorn, an Atari, a Commodore, an Oric, or an Apple 8-bit machine you would have had one, and if you had a Nintendo console you also joined the 6502 club.
Just Who Is Still Buying A 6502?
It’s still not too difficult to find dedicated defenders of the 6502 among those now in their 50s geeks who owned an 8-bit computer when they were new. Just as with their Z80-fan friends, they come from an era when it was possible to fully comprehend the architecture of your computer at nearly gate level. It’s thus understandable that both architectures lingered on in the world of embedded computing long after their heyday on the desktop had passed, but it’s still a surprise to find the WDC version of the chip still in production. Unlike other surviving 8-bit architectures such as the 8051, this is the real thing in a 40-pin DIP rather than a core found embedded in other chips, so we’d be curious to know: aside from a small number of retrocomputing enthusiasts, who is still buying these things? The Z80 finally shuffled off this mortal coil last year, so how long has the WDC W65C02 got left? We’d be curious for your views.
Speaking personally, I had a foot in both camps. Like many British kids of the early 1980s I could save enough pocket money for a Z80-based Sinclair ZX81 of my own, but I had access to a room full of 6502-powered Acorn BBC Micros at school. I thus painstakingly hand-assembled Z80 code for the Sinclair, and was blown away by the built-in assembler in the Beeb. But did I have a favourite? Perhaps not, after all the most important lesson is one I only fully understood years later; that far more important than what architecture a computer uses is what you can do with it. And in that, to my profound sadness as a Sinclair fan, the 6502-powered BBC Micro won hands-down.
Header image: Dirk Oppelt,
CC BY-SA 3.0. | 121 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157568",
"author": "Tim McNerney",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T14:32:41",
"content": "I’ve never understood why the 6502 so “went viral” with home computer manufacturers and game console makers. (AI claims the reasons were “cheaper,” “easier to integrate,” and “ease of programming.” ... | 1,760,371,463.612513 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/fire-alarm-disco-party/ | Fire Alarm Disco Party | Ian Bos | [
"LED Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"disco ball",
"fire alarm"
] | What should your first instinct be when the room catches on fire? Maybe get out of the room, pull an alarm, and have a disco party? Not your first instinct? Well, this seemed pretty obvious to [Flying-Toast], who retrofitted an
old fire alarm to activate a personal disco party
.
After finding a fire alarm being sold on eBay, [Flying-Toast] couldn’t resist the urge to purchase one to use for his own purposes. He immediately gutted the life-saving internals to fill the shell with his own concoction of ESP goodness to be activated by the usual fire alarm mechanism. This sends a signal to the next elements of the party system.
Every part of the party system receives this activation signal, including the most important part, the party lights. Using a generic crystal disco ball and its own ESP, the party lights are more than sufficient to create the proper panic party. Of course, what is a party without music? With another ESP board and salvaged speakers, the proper atmosphere can be set right before the venue burns to the ground. The final touch is the additional hacked WIFI relays to turn off the lights in the room.
Priorities are important in emergencies, and that is exactly what [Flying-Toast] gave us with this project. Learning from this expertise is important, but how about learning from the near misses? For some risky decision making, be sure to check out the
near nuclear war
that was almost caused by a false alarm! | 34 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157506",
"author": "WTF Detector",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T11:08:40",
"content": "What song does the disco party pull up?Burning Down The House? :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8157533",
"author": "ziggurat29",
... | 1,760,371,463.334479 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/the-scourge-of-fake-retro-components-like-unijunction-transistors/ | The Scourge Of Fake Retro Unijunction Transistors | Maya Posch | [
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"fake parts",
"transistor",
"unijunction transistor"
] | We all know that it’s easy to get caught out by fake electronic components these days, with everything from microcontrollers to specialized ASICs being fair game. More recently, retro components that were considered obsolete decades ago are now becoming increasingly popular, with the unijunction transistor (UJT) a surprising example of this. The [En Clave de Retro] YouTube channel
released a video
(Spanish, with English dub) documenting fake UJTs bought off AliExpress.
These AliExpress UJTs were discovered after comments to an earlier video on real UJTs said that
these obsolete transistors
are still being manufactured and can be bought everywhere, meaning mostly on AliExpress and Amazon. Of course, this had to be investigated, as why would anyone still manufacture UJTs today, and did some Chinese semiconductor factory really spin up a new production line for them?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some tests later and after a quick decapping of the metal can, the inside revealed a bipolar transistor (BJT) die (see top image on the left). Specifically, a PNP BJT transistor die, packaged up inside a vintage-style metal can with fake markings claiming it is a 2N2646 UJT.
The video suggests that scams like these might be because people want to get vintage parts for cheap, and that’s created a new market for people who would rather get scammed than deal with the sticker shock of paying for genuine new-old-stock or salvaged components. For example, while programmable unijunction transistors (PUTs) like the 2N6028 are still being manufactured, they
cost a few dollars
a pop in low quantities. UJTs used to be common in timer circuits, but now we have the
555
. | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157460",
"author": "IanS",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T08:32:09",
"content": "In my first real job after leaving Uni an engineer told me that there was no real reason to specify a UJT when a combination of a PNP and an NPN transistor could do the same job, and be more repeatable. I h... | 1,760,371,463.263706 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/reverse-engineering-the-tda7000-fm-radio-receiver-ic/ | Reverse-Engineering The TDA7000 FM Radio Receiver IC | Maya Posch | [
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"fm radio",
"tda7000"
] | A wristwatch featuring the TDA7000 FM radio receiver IC. (Credit:
Philips Technical Review
)
During the 1980s a lot of consumer devices suddenly got a lot smaller as large-scale integration using semiconductor technology took off. This included radios, with Philips’ TDA7000 FM radio receiver IC being the first to cram most of what you’d need for an FM radio receiver into a single chip. Recently, [Ken Shirriff] had
a poke at analyzing a die shot of the TDA7000
, reverse-engineering its functional blocks. How did the Philips engineers manage to miniaturize an FM radio? [Ken] will show you.
The IC was designed in 1977 by two engineers and released in 1983 after some Japanese companies showed strong interest in the IC. While 100 transistors would hardly be LSI today, it was enough to provide a lot of advanced functionality, ranging from differential amplifiers and current mirrors to Gilbert cell mixers. Since it’s an analog chip, it features capacitors in its design in the form of junction capacitors.
In [Ken]’s article, he delves into the process of how the FM signal is processed, amplified, and ultimately turned into a signal that can be sent to an output like headphones or speakers. Although LSI and transistorization are often associated with digitalization and computer technology, analog circuitry like this benefited from it just as much, finally granting humankind the ability to put an entire radio in a single SOIC-packaged chip.
A watch not your thing? How about
a credit card
? These days a one-chip radio is
probably an SDR
. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157419",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T06:21:57",
"content": "This is (was) all overkill really, if we consider that FM signals can be demodulated by an AM receiver.All it needed was to go a bit besides center frequency and let slope detection (edge demodulation) do ... | 1,760,371,463.446604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/open-source-flexible-e-reader/ | Open-Source, Flexible E-Reader | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"e-book",
"e-paper",
"e-reader",
"microcontroller",
"open source",
"pcb",
"real time operating system",
"RTOS",
"zephyr"
] | Although the most popular e-reader by far is the Kindle, some argue that its primary use isn’t even as an e-reader at all but rather as a storefront for one of the world’s richest companies. For those who want user-focused consumer electronics instead, we’ll often reach for something more untethered, like an off-brand ebook that’s nothing more than an Android tablet with an e-paper display or even a jailbroken Kindle freed from the chains of Amazon. But as our 555 enthusiast community continually points out, even these are overkill for reading books.
Enter the ZEReader
.
The ZEReader started out as a bachelor’s engineering thesis project by [Anna-Lena Marx], whose goal was an open-source, microcontroller-based e-reader instead of the Linux or Android ones most commonly available. She’s based the firmware around the
Zephyr Real-Time Operating System
, which is an RTOS geared towards embedded devices. With this as a backbone, it’s trivially easy to implement the e-reader on different microcontrollers as well as use a wide variety of screens. Although
the firmware
is a work-in-progress, it’s already mature enough to support all of the basics of an e-reader, such as reading .epub files, navigating through the book, and saving progress. It even includes basic HTML parsing.
As for the rest of the hardware, there are considerations made for a charging circuit for a lithium battery, a booster circuit for the display, a microSD card slot, and four control buttons. Some planned future improvements include solar charging capability, more advanced power management, and the potential of additional PSRAM. With the core in place and its open-source nature, though, it could be the basis of many e-paper projects as well. If you’re having a hard time deciding on an e-paper display for your e-book, though,
you can always make your own from scratch
. We’ve seen an
Arduino solar book reader before
, by the way. | 30 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157410",
"author": "Oliver",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T05:16:40",
"content": "Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.For a static screen hanging on the wall, I get it. But for a consumer device like this, why? Cost optimalization? The software development effort will be huge.... | 1,760,371,463.677642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/hackaday-links-august-3-2025/ | Hackaday Links: August 3, 2025 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"Agent",
"bot",
"captcha",
"don't panic",
"earthquake",
"hackaday links",
"ham radio",
"human",
"invasive species",
"Myanmar",
"Open AI",
"pythons",
"rabbit",
"robobunny",
"Search and Rescue"
] | When all else fails, there’s amateur radio — and handwritten notes. Both ham radio and clear thinking helped
rescue a mother and her son from a recent California camping trip gone wrong
. While driving to the campsite in the Stanislaus National forest, the 49-year-old mother had the not-uncommon experience of GPS leading her and her 9-year-old son on a merry chase, sending her down a series of forest roads. Eventually the foliage got too dense for the GPS signals to penetrate, leaving the pair stranded in the forest with no guidance on how to get out.
Luckily, our heroes followed the first rule of being lost: don’t panic. Knowing that a search would likely be a needle-in-a-haystack affair thanks to the terrain and heavy cover, they wisely increased their footprint by venturing out a mile or so in different directions to post handwritten notes along the trail. They also used their car’s hazard lights at night and periodic triple blasts on a whistle to signal rescuers, who eventually found them thanks to the notes and a tip from someone who remembered seeing the car. As for the ham radio, that came into play when rescuers in the field were unable to get through to their command post on the regular radios thanks to the dense vegetation. A ham operator in the group was able to punch through and reach a ham at his home, who closed the loop by calling into the sheriff’s office, who were then able to contact the command post.
If like us you’ve always resented having to prove your humanity by clicking on a checkbox, you’re really going to hate OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Agent, which
rubs the whole CAPTCHA thing right in your face
. OpenAI fans on Reddit discovered that the Agent, which is able to conduct a series of tasks, effortlessly clicked on one of those “I’m not a robot” checkboxes to advance to the next step in a video conversion process. What’s worse, Agent gave a play-by-play narration of the process, noting that it would have to “click the ‘Verify I’m human’ checkbox … to prove I’m not a bot.” We’ve always felt — perhaps optimistically — that these checkbox CAPTCHAs would be easily defeated even with one of those screen recorder macros from the Windows 3.0 days. Thanks to OpenAI, it appears that there’s absolutely no justification for them at all, and yet we’re sure we’ll keep seeing them for many years to come. At least the simple checkbox ones — let’s see a bot try to solve one of those traffic light puzzles!
Back in May
, we covered a fantastic video captured during an earthquake in Myanmar in March. While most earthquake videos capture the destruction by showing goods flying off store shelves, water sloshing out of swimming pools, or ceiling tiles collapsing into office spaces, this video was far more subtle, and yet far more terrifying. The video showed a massive slab of earth suddenly shift three meters in a few seconds. That footage has now been analyzed by geologists in Japan, who have concluded that
this was the first direct observation of a curved fault slip
, a type of quake that had only been theorized before. It appears that the curving and sinking seen in the video, which we noted in our original article, were the key to identifying this unusual type of earthquake. Maybe we should have gone with geology instead of biology all those years ago.
And finally, we’ve all heard tales of ecological control gone wrong, the classic example of which is the introduction of cane toads into Australian sugar cane plantations. The toads were supposed to eat cane beetles, which were devastating the sugar cane crop, only to find that the toads couldn’t reach the beetles and instead preyed on their natural predators, multiplying fruitfully in the process and becoming an invasive pest species in the process. So it’s with some trepidation that we read about
robotic bunnies being used to control invasive Burmese pythons
. The plan is being tested in Florida, because of course it’s Florida, but also because there are a lot of pythons in the Everglades thanks to the exotic pet trade. The idea is to take the guts out of 40 stuffed bunny toys, add motors to provide motion and heaters to simulate a warm bunny snack, and place them around the marshes. The goal right now is to just lure the snakes out of hiding to study their habits, in the hopes of finding a way to control their population. One could think of a few ways this could be accomplished more directly with a few additions to the robobunny payloads, but we imagine that wouldn’t go over too well with the snake lovers out there. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157361",
"author": "Eric R Mockler",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T23:57:54",
"content": "Even Florida Man is losing his job to a robot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8157362",
"author": "Hussien",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03... | 1,760,371,465.227386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/05/spatial-audio-in-a-hat/ | Spatial Audio In A Hat | Lewin Day | [
"digital audio hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"ece4760",
"lidar"
] | Students from the ECE4760 program at Cornell have been working on a spatial audio system built into a hat. The project from [Anishka Raina], [Arnav Shah], and [Yoon Kang], enables the wearer to get a sense of the direction and proximity of objects in the immediate vicinity
with the aid of audio feedback.
The heart of the build is a Raspberry Pi Pico. It’s paired with a TF-Luna LiDAR sensor which is used to identify the range to objects around the wearer. The sensor is mounted on a hat, so the wearer can pan the sensor from side to side to scan the immediate area for obstacles. Head tracking wasn’t implemented in the project, so instead, the wearer uses a potentiometer to indicate to the microcontroller the direction they are facing as they scan. The Pi Pico then takes the LIDAR scan data, determines the range and location of any objects nearby, and creates a stereo audio signal which indicates to the wearer how close those objects are and their relative direction using a spatial audio technique called interaural time difference (ITD).
It’s a neat build that provides some physical sensory augmentation via the human auditory system.
We’ve featured similar projects before, too. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157912",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T09:11:23",
"content": "I tried to do something similar, but i had issues with distinguishing between sounds coming from front and back.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,371,465.40675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/2025-one-hertz-challenge-analog-clock-for-microsoft-windows/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: Analog Clock For Microsoft Windows | John Elliot V | [
"clock hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"analog clock",
"Microsoft Windows"
] | Our hacker [glgorman] sent in their submission for the One Hertz Challenge:
an analog software clock for Microsoft Windows
.
I guess we’d have to say that this particular project is a work-in-progress. There is no final clock, yet. But a number of yak’s have been shaved. For instance, we have code for computing geometric objects without using branch instructions, including points and lines and circles and such.
The notes dive deep into various rabbit holes. At one point we find ourselves computing the angle to the sun in the sky, that we may be able to cast the shadow of the clock hands on our clock face. The notes include miscellaneous source code snippets and various screenshots of geometric renderings which have been achieved so far.
We thought it was fun that the geometric software references Euclid’s Elements, which, as you probably know, is the famous geometry book from Ancient Greece, the second most published book of all time, second only to the Bible.
If you’re interested in analog clocks you might like
this one which displays the date, not the time
or
this one which uses colors instead of hands
. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,465.631861 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/brilliant-labs-has-new-smart-glasses-with-a-new-display/ | Brilliant Labs Has New Smart Glasses, With A New Display | Donald Papp | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"AI glasses",
"augmented reality",
"hmd",
"smart glasses"
] | Brilliant Labs have been making near-eye display platforms for some time now, and they are one of the few manufacturers making a point of focusing on an open and hacker-friendly approach to their devices.
Halo
is their newest smart glasses platform
, currently in pre-order (299 USD) and boasting some nifty features, including a completely new approach to the display.
Development hardware for the Halo display. The actual production display is color, and integrated into the eyeglasses frame.
Halo is an evolution of the concept of a developer-friendly smart glasses platform intended to make experimentation (or modification) as accessible as possible. Compared to previous hardware, it has some additional sensors and an entirely new approach to the display element.
Whereas previous devices used a microdisplay and beam splitter embedded into a thick lens, Halo has a tiny display module that one looks up and into in the eyeglasses frame. The idea appears to be to provide the user with audio (bone-conduction speakers in the arms of the glasses) as well as a color “glanceable” display for visual data.
Some of you may remember Brilliant Labs’
Monocle
, a transparent, self-contained, and wireless clip-on display designed with experimentation in mind. The next device was
Frame
, which put things into a “smart glasses” form factor, with added features and abilities.
Halo, being in pre-release, doesn’t have full SDK or hardware details shared yet. But given Brilliant Labs’ history of fantastic documentation for their hardware and software, we’re pretty confident Halo will get the same treatment. Want to know more but don’t wish to wait?
Checking out the tutorials and documentation for the earlier devices
should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157817",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T03:03:56",
"content": "Just want heads up display, no AI garbage and subscription and connected please. Even a clock and a ticker tape of my messages (actually hands free) would be amazing. ‘Smart’ watches also dumb, haven’t wo... | 1,760,371,465.507875 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/how-to-design-3d-printed-parts-with-tolerance-in-mind/ | How To Design 3D-Printed Parts With Tolerance In Mind | Maya Posch | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"FDM"
] | One of the continuing struggles with FDM printing is making sure that parts that should fit together actually do. While adding significant tolerance between parts is an option, often you want to have a friction fit or at least a gap that you cannot drive a truck through. In a video by [Slant 3D]
a number of tips and tricks
to improve parts design with tolerance in mind are provided.
Starting with the fairly obvious, such as avoiding sharp corners, rounding off edges and using chamfered edges and filets for e.g. lids to make getting started easy, the video then moves into more advanced topics. Material shrinkage is a concern, which is where using thin walls instead of solid blocks of material helps, as does using an appropriate infill type. Another interesting idea is to use a compliant mechanism in the lid to get a friction fit without getting all print parameters just right.
On the opposing side to the lid – or equivalent part – you’d follow many of the same tips, with the addition of e.g. slots that allow for the part to flex somewhat. All of this helps to deal with any variability between prints, with the suggested grip fins at the end of the video being probably the most extreme. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157822",
"author": "rupinchheda",
"timestamp": "2025-08-05T03:37:04",
"content": "I think this should be a feature of the slicer and 3d Printer combination that determines the tolerences. People should design for actual dimensions, plus have metadata embedded inside the model, whic... | 1,760,371,465.321842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/the-tape-speed-keyboard/ | The Tape Speed Keyboard | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"analog",
"cassette",
"keyboard",
"musical instrument",
"potentiometer",
"tape deck",
"tape speed",
"tape speed keyboard"
] | For those who experienced any part of the 1960s, even if it’s just experiencing the music from that era here in the future, the sound of the Mellotron is immediately recognizable. The Moody Blues were famous for using the tape-based instrument, and the Beatles and David Bowie produced hits with it as well. It’s haunting sounds are still highly prized today, but the complexity, cost, and maintenance requirement for the tape loops and other moving parts can put many musicians off from owning one. But [Japhy Riddle]
has built an instrument without these downsides
called the Tape Speed Keyboard.
Unlike the Mellotron which used a tape loop for each of its keys, the Tape Speed Keyboard uses only a single cassette tape. As the name implies, it changes the pitch of the sound by modulating the speed of the single tape housed in its own tape deck. The keyboard itself started off life as a Casio MT-35 but since this is a completely analog instrument, it was rewired so each key is connected to a potentiometer whose output voltage is tuned to a specific tape speed. [Japhy] reports that this is similar to tuning an analog piano and the process can be equally temperamental.
With everything electronic working, [Japhy] turned to making this a more acceptable musical instrument. Predictably, turning the motor on and off for each key press came with a bit of delay, causing the sound to come out goofy and muddy. To solve this problem he changed the design to make the tape play continuously rather than start and stop for a key press, and then modified other keys to be on-off switches for sound output. Since cassette tapes have two sides, he can also play either of two sounds in this way.
With the final polish on, the Tape Speed Keyboard is able to produce completely unique compositions that separate it from even the venerable Mellotron. Be sure to check out the video linked below to hear its sound. There have been plenty of other musical projects based around tape decks as well, including
this one inspired by the original Mellotron
and
this tape deck-based guitar effects pedal
.
Thanks to [splashbun] for the tip! | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157708",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T20:24:48",
"content": "I had to check if this was not the guy that devised The Scrubboard, but no, that was Jeremy Bell, seehttps://youtu.be/L6SMyND8hso?si=JzcmLp3JHR2lVfglfor a demo. They should get together and form a tape – I m... | 1,760,371,465.367628 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/a-simple-simulator-for-model-rocket-performance/ | A Simple Simulator For Model Rocket Performance | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"model rocket",
"model rocketry",
"model rockets"
] | When building a model rocket, it can be fun to get into the maths of it all—calculating the expected performance of your build, and then seeing how it measures up in the real world. To aid in that task, [Rotislav Persion] has created
a simple web-based simulator for charting the potential performance of your own rockets.
The calculator lets you key in the fundamentals of your hobby rocket. Punch in the diameter of your rocket, its mass, the standard rocket engine you’re using, and the diameter and delay time of your parachute, and it will chart the altitude profile expected during flight.
Punch in the details for a small 1-inch diameter rocket with an A8-5 engine, and you’ll find it won’t go very high or very far, and the calculator bears that out. However, upgrade to a C6 engine and you’ll go higher and faster, and drift a lot longer once the parachute is deployed.
Perhaps the only thing missing from the simulator is a wider variety of rocket engines to choose from, and more parameters to tweak for finer simulation. However, for small and basic rockets, it’s an interesting starting point you can use to learn about the basic mathematics and physics behind your rocket’s flight.
We’ve seen some great feats in model rocketry, not least of which was a valiant effort
to master vertical landing.
If you’ve got your own unique model rocket hacks cooking up in the lab, don’t hesitate to
notify the tipsline! | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157753",
"author": "Ray",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T22:51:49",
"content": "“the standard rocket engine you’re using”Grew up in the 1950-1969 era … We made our own engines.Of course, not every formulation and design produced the desired burn rate…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth"... | 1,760,371,465.269766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/04/a-gentle-introduction-to-fortran/ | A Gentle Introduction To Fortran | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"FORTRAN",
"high performance computing"
] | Originally known as FORTRAN, but written in lower case since the 1990s with Fortran 90, this language was developed initially by John Backus as a way to make writing programs for the IBM 704 mainframe easier. The 704 was a 1954 mainframe with the honor of being the first mass-produced computer that supported hardware-based floating point calculations. This functionality opened it up to a whole new dimension of scientific computing, with use by Bell Labs, US national laboratories, NACA (later NASA), and many universities.
Much of this work involved turning equations for fluid dynamics and similar into programs that could be run on mainframes like the 704. This translating of formulas used to be done tediously in assembly languages before Backus’ Formula Translator (FORTRAN) was introduced to remove most of this tedium. With it, engineers and physicists could focus on doing their work and generating results rather than deal with the minutiae of assembly code. Decades later, this is still what Fortran is used for today, as a domain-specific language (DSL) for scientific computing and related fields.
In this introduction to Fortran 90 and its later updates we will be looking at what exactly it is that makes
Fortran
still such a good choice today, as well as how to get started with it.
Modern Fortran
Punch card from a typical FORTRAN program by the early 1970s. (Credit: Arnold Reinhold,
Wikimedia
)
The release of the Fortran 90 (F90) specification in 1991 was the first major update to the language since Fortran 77, and introduced many usability improvements, as well as the dropping of punch card era legacy requirements and limitations to variable lengths and more. This is the reason for our focus on F90 here, as there is no real reason to use F77 or earlier, unless you’re maintaining a legacy codebase, or you have a stack of new cards that need punching. In case you are dying to know what changed, the Wikibooks
Fortran Examples
article has examples of early FORTRAN all the way to modern Fortran.
Of note here is that a modern Fortran compiler like GCC’s
GFortran
(forked from
g95
) still supports F77, but users are highly encouraged to move on to Fortran 95, a minor update to F90, with GFortran supporting up to F2008, with coarray support, as covered later. F2018 support is still a
work in progress
as of writing, but many features are already available.
Support for the latest standard (F2023) is not widely available yet outside of commercial compilers, but as a minor extension of F2018 it should eventually get rolled into those features as the implementation progresses. This means that for now F2008 is the latest standard we can reliably target across toolchains with new Fortran code.
Beyond GFortran there are
a few more options
, including
Flang
in LLVM and LFortran in addition to a gaggle of commercial offerings. Unless you intend to run high-performance computing code on massive parallel clusters like
supercomputers
, the GNU and LLVM offerings will probably suffice. Simply fetch either GFortran or Flang from your local package manager or equivalent and you should be ready to start with programming in Fortran.
Hello World
As with most DSLs, there is very little preamble to start writing the business logic. The ‘Hello World’ example is most succinct:
program helloworld
print *, "Hello, World!"
end program helloworld
The program name is specified right after the opening
program
keyword, which is repeated after the closing
end program
. This is similar to languages like Ada and Pascal. The program name does not have to match the name of the file. Although there’s no explicit specification for what the file extension has to be for a Fortran source file,
convention dictates
that for F77 and older you use
.f
or
.for
, while F90 and newer uses generally
.f90
as extension. Although some opt to use extensions like
.f95
and
.f03
, this is rather confusing, isn’t recognized by all compilers and all of those are similar free-form Fortran source files anyway.
Tl;dr:
Use
.f90
for modern Fortran source files. Our Hello World example goes into a file called
hello_world.f90
.
The other point of note in this basic example is the
print
command, which looks somewhat cryptic but
is quite easy
. The first argument is the format, reminiscent of C’s
printf
. The asterisk here simply means that we use the default format for the provided value, but we could for example print the first string as an 11 character wide field and a variable string as 8 wide:
character(len=8) :: name = 'Karl'
print '(a11,a8)', 'My name is ', name
This also shows how to declare and define a variable in Fortran. Note that if you do not start the code with
implicit none
, variable names that start with I through N are considered to be
integer
type and
real
otherwise. With gfortran you can also globally do this by compiling with the
-fimplicit-none
flag.
A total of five
basic types
are supported:
real
integer
logical (boolean)
complex
character
Finally, comments in Fortran are preceded by an exclamation mark
!
. It’s also relevant to note that Fortran – like all good programming languages – is case insensitive, so you can still write your Fortran code like it’s F77 or Fortran II, yelling in all caps without anyone but the people reading your code batting an eye.
Hello Science
Now that we have got a handle on the basics of Fortran, we can look at some fun stuff that Fortran makes really easy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as a DSL that targets scientific computing, much of this fun stuff focuses around making such types of computing as easy as possible. Much of this can be found in the
intrinsic procedures
of Fortran, which make working with real, integer and complex values quite straightforward.
For example,
conjugating a complex number
with
conjg
:
(Credit:
Fortran Wiki
)
Basically, whatever mathematical operation you wish to perform, Fortran should have you covered, allowing you to translate your formulas into a functional program without having to bother with any dependencies or the like. This includes working with matrices and getting into the weeds with
numerical precision
.
Even better is that you’re not stuck running your code on a single CPU core either. Since Fortran 2008,
Coarray Fortran
(CAF) is now part of the specification. This feature enables parallel processing, which is generally implementing on top of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) protocol, with gfortran
implementing
CAF support. Depending on the selected option with the
-fcoarray=
flag, gfortran can use the ‘single’ image (thread) option, or
with a library
like
OpenCoarrays
it can use MPI, GASNet, and others.
When using CAF with MPI, the program (‘image’) is distributed across all nodes in the MPI cluster per its configuration, with synchronization occurring as defined by the program. With OpenCoarrays available from many local OS repositories, this means that any budding molecular scientist and astrophysicists can set up their own MPI cluster and start running simulations with relatively very little effort.
The DSL Life
Much like when we
looked at COBOL
, a DSL like Fortran is often misunderstood as ‘yet another programming language’, much like how in the 1980s
some thought
that the scientific and engineering communities were going to switch over to Pascal or Modula-2. One simple reason that didn’t happen lies in the very
nature of DSLs
, with them being developed explicitly to deal with that specific domain. It will always be possible to do everything a DSL does in any generic programming language, it’s just that a DSL can be optimized more exactly, and is often easier to maintain, since it is
not
generic.
There are many things that Fortran does not have to concern itself with, yet which haunt languages like C and its kin. Meanwhile, reimplementing Fortran in C would come at considerable cost, run into certain limitations of the language and potentially require compromises in order to get close to the original functionality of the DSL.
Running a cluster with Coarray-based Fortran source, churning through complex simulations that require utmost control over precision and where one small flaw can waste days of very expensive calculations, those are the kind of scenarios where you’re not looking for some generic language to poorly reinvent the wheel, but where you keep using the same – yet much more refined – wheel that has gotten us this far. | 75 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157629",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T17:32:07",
"content": "Fortran has a unique language feature.The calculated GOTO.As in GOTO intvarWhere intvar contains alinenumber.For some reason, nobody takes my requests to add a calculated COMEFROM to the language seriously.T... | 1,760,371,465.757083 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/repairing-an-obscure-apple-ii-clone/ | Repairing An Obscure Apple II Clone | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"apple II",
"c64",
"commodore 64"
] | The Apple II was made in great numbers, as was the Commodore 64. But the Mimic Spartan? It was a weird Apple II clone that you needed a Commodore 64 to use. [ARC Javmaster] has found one of these obscure machines
and has set about bringing it back to life.
Check out the video below.
The story of the machine has been told online
by one of the developers on the project,
one [Brent Marykuca]. Basically, the Mimic Spartan was an Apple II clone that was intended to take advantage of a C64 as a host machine. It came in a beige box with a bunch of edge connectors and cables sticking out, and you were intended to nest it on the back of your C64 so it could hook up to all the ports. Then, you could use your machine as a C64 or an Apple II, or sort of… both… and even exchange data between both machines in some limited ways. There are also a few details of this obscure machine that have been collated
by [Mike Naberezny],
who is seeking the original disk that shipped with the machine when new.
It’s early days yet for [ARC Javmaster]’s efforts to restore the Mimic Spartan. Thus far, it’s had a clean and basic test. It was able to display a short line of text on a display before ceasing activity. A full boot hasn’t been achieved just yet, but we can’t wait to see where the resurrection efforts go next.
Back in the day, there were all kinds of Frankenstein computer cards that effectively put one kind of computer inside another. These days,
you can condense an entire retro machine down to run on a single microcontroller.
[Thanks to Stephen Walters for the tip!] | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157375",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2025-08-04T01:04:01",
"content": "It’s amazing what not having keyboards available for the equivalent of $1 US ( in 1977 dollars) did to the market. Have to use a whole system as a keyboard! Truly a hack!I’ll look into it and see what oth... | 1,760,371,465.45207 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/why-cheap-digital-microscopes-are-pretty-terrible/ | Why Cheap Digital Microscopes Are Pretty Terrible | Maya Posch | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Reviews"
] | [
"digital microscope"
] | The depth of field you get with a cheap Tomlov DM9 digital microscope. Pictured is the tip of a ballpoint. (Credit: Outdoors55, YouTube)
We have all seen those cheap digital microscopes, whether in USB format or with its own screen, all of them promising super-clear images of everything from butterfly wings to electronics at amazing magnification levels. In response to this, we have to paraphrase The Simpsons: in this Universe, we obey the laws of physics. This applies doubly so for image sensors and optics, which is where fundamental physics can only be dodged so far by heavy post-processing. In a recent video, the [Outdoors55] YouTube channel
goes over these exact details
, comparing a Tomlov DM9 digital microscope from Amazon to a quality macro lens on an APS-C format Sony Alpha a6400.
First of all, the magnification levels listed are effectively meaningless, as you are comparing a very tiny image sensor to something like an
APS-C
sensor, which itself is smaller than a full-frame sensor (i.e., 35 mm). As demonstrated in the video, the much larger sensor already gives you the ability to see many more details even before cranking the optical zoom levels up to something like 5 times, never mind the 1,500x claimed for the DM9.
On the optics side, the lack of significant depth of field is problematic. Although the workarounds suggested in the video work, such as focus stacking and diffusing the light projected onto the subject, it is essential to be aware of the limitations of these microscopes. That said, since we’re comparing a $150 digital microscope with a $1,500 Sony digital camera with macro lens, there’s some leeway here to say that the former will be ‘good enough’ for many tasks, but so might a simple jeweler’s loupe for even less.
There are some reasonable
hobby-grade USB microscopes
. There are also some
hard-to-use toys
. | 41 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157289",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T17:56:47",
"content": "Mine sits in the soldering tools box.Comparing this kind of ‘microscope’ to a real camera is missing the point.I suppose could mount the micro 4:3 w macro lens on a tripod, set the whole thing sideways, conn... | 1,760,371,465.842514 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/keyboard-hero-a-barebones-alternative-to-the-guitar-version/ | Keyboard Hero: A Barebones Alternative To The Guitar Version | Lewin Day | [
"Games",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"guitar hero",
"pi pico"
] | Guitar Hero was all the rage for a few years, before the entire world apparently got sick of it overnight. Some diehards still remember the charms of rhythm games, though. Among them you might count [Joseph Valenti] and [Daniel Rodriguez],
who built a Keyboard Hero game for their ECE 4760 class at Cornell.
Keyboard Hero differs quite fundamentally from Guitar Hero in one major way. Rather than having the player tackle a preset series of “notes,” the buttons to press are instead procedurally generated by the game based on incoming audio input. It only works with simple single-instrument piano music, but it does indeed work. A Raspberry Pi Pico is charged with analyzing incoming audio and assigning the proper notes. Another Pi Pico generates the VGA video output with the game graphics, which is kept in sync with the audio pumped out from the first Pico so the user can play the notes in time with the music. Rather than a guitar controller, Keyboard Hero instead relies on five plastic buttons assembled on a piece of wood. It works.
It’s obviously not as refined as
the game that inspired it
, but the procedural generation of “notes” reminds us of old-school rhythm game
Audiosurf.
Video after the break. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157262",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T14:17:40",
"content": "that’s just lap guitar hero",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8157277",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T16:58:25",
"content": "F... | 1,760,371,465.897601 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/rebuilt-batteries-for-the-cutest-clamshell-at-the-cafe/ | Rebuilt Batteries For The Cutest Clamshell At The Cafe | Tyler August | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"clamshell",
"ibook",
"laptop battery fix"
] | Keeping retrocomputers going can be tricky enough, but when you’re talking retro laptops, the battery packs add an extra challenge. While one could simply live without the battery, that’s not going to give you the full retro experience. Replacement batteries are long out of stock, so what can one do? Well, one can check out this excellent tutorial by [lazd] on rebuilding an
iBook G3 Clamshell battery.
Even if you don’t have this particular laptop, the general process is likely to be similar for PC laptops of similar vintage. (Which we still can’t believe is a whole
quarter-century
ago.) Luckily for retrocomputer enthusiasts, even Apple used standard 18650 cells in those bygone, halcyon days when computers were allowed to be more than a few atoms thick. They do need to be unprotected, flat-top cells, but that’s easy enough to source.
So it’s really a matter of carefully prying apart the casing (apparently it needs to be Apple-branded; aftermarket cases can’t survive being opened), removing the old batteries, and welding nickel tabs onto the new cells in the proper configuration. One thing that surprised us is that, apparently, Apple did not go in for balancing in those days — so make sure your cells are all in perfect condition and all equally charged before you start, or things won’t end nicely.
As always, battery orientation matters! The cells are welded into two sets in this Clamshell iBook battery.
Assuming you can pull it off (and your battery pack’s control chip has lasted the 300 moons since its manufacture), you’ll get a not-insignificant 5-hour battery run out of what’s sure to be the cutest clamshell computer at the cafe.
If you are repairing an iBook, while you’re at it,
why not upgrade the RAM?
You might even be able to fix the screen if it’s
succumbing to the sadly-too-common vinegar syndrome
. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157251",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T13:02:27",
"content": "Probably wise to hack a balance connection into the battery, even in the form of probe holes in the shell.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8157744",
... | 1,760,371,465.969451 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/03/a-diy-fermenter-for-flavorful-brews/ | A DIY Fermenter For Flavorful Brews | Matt Varian | [
"hardware"
] | [
"beer",
"beer brewing",
"brewing",
"fermentation",
"home-assistant"
] | Fermentation is a culinary art where tiny organisms transform simple ingredients into complex flavors — but they’re finicky about temperature. To keep his brewing setup at the perfect conditions, [Ken] engineered the
Fermenter
, a DIY insulated chamber controlled by Home Assistant for precision and remote monitoring.
The Fermenter build starts with an insulated chamber constructed from thick, rigid foam board, foil tape, weather strips, and a clever use of magnets to secure the front and top panels, allowing quick access to monitor the fermentation process. The chamber is divided into two sections: a larger compartment housing the fermentation vessel and a smaller one containing frozen water bottles. A fan, triggered by the system, circulates cool air from the bottle chamber to regulate temperature when things get too warm.
The electronics are powered by an ESP8266 running ESPHome firmware, which exposes its GPIO pins for seamless integration with Home Assistant, an open-source home automation platform. A DS18B20 temperature sensor provides accurate readings from the fermentation chamber, while a relay controls the fan for cooling. By leveraging Home Assistant, [Ken] can monitor and adjust the Fermenter remotely, with the flexibility to integrate additional devices without rewiring. For instance, he added a heater using a heat mat and a smart outlet that operates independently of the ESP8266 but is still controlled via Home Assistant.
Thanks [Ken] for sending us the tip on this ingenious project he’s been brewing. If you’re using Home Assistant in a unique way, be sure to send in your project for us to share. Don’t forget to check out some of the other Home Assistant projects we’ve published over the years. Like
a wind gauge
, maybe. Or
something Fallout-inspired
. | 15 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157216",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T09:25:58",
"content": "Ah, the old “Son of Fermentation Chamber” rides again. I built one ages ago and ran it with BrewPi. It’s a great design.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,371,466.303569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/squishy-beyblades-made-with-3d-printer-fail-to-compete-in-the-arena/ | Squishy Beyblades Made With 3D Printer Fail To Compete In The Arena | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Games",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"beyblade",
"spinning tops"
] | When Beyblades first came out a couple of decades ago, they quickly became a fad across Japan and several Western countries. There was a whole ecosystem of parts that you could buy and use to build competitive fighting spinning tops. These days, though — 3D printers are ubiquitous. There’s very little stopping you from printing whatever Beyblade-compatible parts your heart desires,
as [JettKuso] demonstrates.
For [JettKuso], the rubber attack tips were a personal favorite. They had high grip on the plastic arena floor and would allow a top to make rapid, aggressive moves that would knock other tops out of the arena. Not desiring to import specific Beyblade parts at great expense, he decided to print some rubber tips and associated parts instead. The result? Squishy Beyblades!
[JettKuso] built various tops with official and custom TPU parts, and put them in battles to see what worked and what didn’t. In many cases, the TPU replacement parts didn’t make a big difference or proved worse than the standard parts. However, when [JettKuso] got crazy, he found one thing that kind of worked. A mega-heavy TPU top blade, which weighed as much as the standard metal rings, was able to successfully win battles against less competitive standard builds.
Ultimately, the video serves as a testament to the developers of the original toys themselves. It’s not so simple to just print up some parts and have them be competitive with the
tried-and-tested gear that comes off the store shelves
. The experience ultimately gave [JettKuso] a greater appreciation for all the thought that went into the commercial toys. Video after the break. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157184",
"author": "macsimki",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T07:05:10",
"content": "this post needs a lot of duckduckgoing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8157299",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T18:42:11",
... | 1,760,371,466.248593 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/an-ode-to-the-aesthetic-of-light-in-1024-pixels/ | An Ode To The Aesthetic Of Light In 1024 Pixels | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Art",
"LED Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"led",
"led matrix",
"matrix",
"monochrome",
"pico",
"raspberry pi",
"ws2812"
] | Sometimes, brilliant perspectives need a bit of an introduction first, and this is clearly one.
This video essay by [Cleggy]
delivers what it promises: an ode to the aesthetic of light. But he goes further, materializing his way of viewing things into a beautiful physical build — and the full explanation of how to do it at home.
What’s outstanding here is not just the visual result, but the path to it. We’ve covered tons of different LED matrices, and while they’re all functional, their eventual purpose is left up to the builder, like
coasters
or
earknobs
. [Cleggy] provides both. He captured a vision in the streets and then built an LED matrix from scratch.
The matrix consists of 1024 hand-soldered diodes. They’re driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico and a symphony of square waves. It’s not exactly a WS2812 plug-and-play job. It’s engineered from the silicon up, with D-latches and demultiplexers orchestrating a mesmerizing grayscale visual.
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is the secret ingredient of this hack. [Cleggy] dims each white pixel separately, by varying the duty cycle of its light signal. The grayscale video data, compressed into CSV files, is parsed line-by-line by the Pico, translating intensity values into shimmering time slices.
It transforms the way you see and perceive things. All that, with a 1000 LED monochrome display. Light shows are all highly personal, and each one is a
little different
. Some of them are really
kid stuff
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157219",
"author": "alialiali",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T09:33:31",
"content": "Kudos what a lovely final product.Ive always wanted something nice like this to showcase random game of life runs.But the software even on a 328 for decent FPS at 1024×1024 was easy and 10 years later I... | 1,760,371,466.341618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/exploring-versalogic-pre-lsi-logic-cards-with-the-data-620/ | Exploring VersaLOGIC Pre-LSI Logic Cards With The Data/620 | Maya Posch | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"Bendix G15",
"diode-transistor logic",
"discrete logic"
] | Before the era of large-scale integration (LSI) semiconductor circuits, discrete logic circuits using the common diode-transistor logic (DTL) were still necessary and available in a format that was modular and reusable. [David Lovett] over at the
Usagi Electric
farm
has two great examples
that date back to the 1950s and 1960s, showing the jump in technology over the course of a mere decade.
The newer
Varian Data Machines 620
from 1966 uses germanium diodes and transistors, while the 1956
Bendix G-15
uses germanium diodes with vacuum tubes, the latter effectively fulfilling the same purpose as the transistors. The main difference between the modules is the density, with a decade of technological improvements allowing for more than double the logic on similarly sized cards and a similarly impressive reduction in power usage.
Currently, [David] is working on reverse-engineering these so-called VersaLogic modules to be able to troubleshoot the Data/620 machine in his possession. The results of these efforts are being
published on GitHub
. Although you can think of these modules as more or less big versions of the 7400-logic ICs — which began to replace them in the
Data/620I
from 1967 — some of the circuits on the cards get pretty complex.
With hundreds of these VersaLogic cards in one Data/620 computer, finding a few dodgy germanium diodes and transistors on them is quite the struggle. Whereas the Bendix G-15 helpfully provided a semi-automatic tester for the modules, no such option appears to be exist for these VersaLogic cards, leaving [David] to make his own version if he ever wants to see this 1960s machine that was once used at NASA roar back to life, and possibly read out what’s stored in the magic core memory.
This debugging process is complicated by the fact that these aren’t your basic 5V TTL-style logic cards, but rather use -12- and 0V-based
high-threshold logic
(HTL). Developing testing logic and hardware for these cards, which also takes into account the bidirectional nature of some of these cards, is a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, the
Usagi Electric
community is on the job, and you’re cordially invited to hop over to the official Discord channel to pitch in if that’s your thing.
We always enjoy thinking of different ways to
implement logic
. Even the really
bizarre ones
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157202",
"author": "Chros",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T08:42:09",
"content": "It’s a bit scary looking at all those familiar components",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8157271",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03... | 1,760,371,466.159045 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/2025-one-hertz-challenge-learn-morse-code-one-second-at-a-time/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: Learn Morse Code One Second At A Time | Tyler August | [
"contests",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"arudino nano",
"morse trainer",
"PS/2"
] | Learning Morse Code is no longer a requirement for HAMs in many jurisdictions, but it’s still a nice skill to have. [I_void(warranties)] wanted to learn, but couldn’t find a trainer that fit his style. What to do but build it yourself? Since we’re in the midst of a challenge, he took up the gauntlet and turned his need to learn Morse into a
1 hertz Morse code game.
In concept it is quite simple: a message beeps out in Morse, with a corresponding LED flash, all in one second. The player then has one second to type think they heard. Get it done fast enough, and a character LCD will tell you if you scored.
The project is based around an Arduino Nano; thanks to easily-available libraries, a PS/2 keyboard can serve as input and a 2×16 LCD as feedback with no real effort expended. For the audible component of the Morse challenge, an 8-ohm speaker is driven right off a pin on the Arduino. We won’t claim this efficient design only took one second to put together, but it probably didn’t take too long.
Of course this trainer,
unlike some we’ve seen
, only helps you learn to listen to the stream of dots and dashes.
None of the others
ever tried to fit a One Hertz theme, or [I_void(warranties)]’s particular learning style. For some, decoupling send and receive might be just the ticket to finally learning Morse one second at a time. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157128",
"author": "Observer",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T21:21:09",
"content": "When I say the name of this character (W) you do NOT think…”well, there are three syllables, ‘duh,’ ‘bell,’ and ‘you,’ the third longer than the first two, and therefore that translates to (W).” No. To ... | 1,760,371,466.205594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/this-plane-flies-slow-because-its-wings-really-blow/ | This Plane Flies Slow Because Its Wings Really Blow | Tyler August | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"ardupilot",
"blown wing",
"R/C aircraft",
"STOL"
] | The key to Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) operations is the ability to fly slow– really slow. That’s how you get up fast without a long takeoff roll to build up speed. Usually, this involves layers of large flaps and/or leading edge slats, but [rctestflight] on YouTube decided he wanted to take
a more active approach with a fully blown wing.
The airplane in question is R/C, of course, and good thing: these wings would be a safety nightmare for a manned aircraft. With a blown wing, air is blown out of a slot on the top end of the wing, producing a high-speed, high-pressure zone that keeps the wing flying when it would otherwise be completely stalled out. As long as everything works, that’s great! If an engine fails, well, suddenly you aren’t flying anymore — and you’re going too slow to glide. It ends badly.
[rctestflight] doesn’t have to worry about that, though, because this foamboard and pink styro R/C aircraft carries nothing that can’t survive a crash. (A couple of electric ducted fans (EDCs), an Ardupilot, a radio, and a battery are all pretty shock-resistant.) The EDCs sit midway down the chord of the wings, and blow air into a plenum carved into the foam. On each wing, the exhaust from the fans is driven rearward from a slot created by a piece of carbon fiber. This air serves not only as a lift-enhancement but also as the plane’s sole propulsion and a component of its control system.
Propulsion makes sense: all that air washing back of the wing was bound to create thrust, but control? Well, if you run the EDCs at different speeds, you’re going to create a different amount of thrust on each side of the aircraft. Differential thrust on a twin-engined aircraft can usually control yaw, but on this plane, it will also speak to roll as the wing with more thrust will experience greater lift, causing that wing to rise and forcing the other to drop. It’s an interesting control scheme, but ultimately [rctestflight] decided he did not trust it enough not to add in ailerons.
The blown wing does work, however, with the plane having a very, very impressively short takeoff distance– doubly so for a seaplane. We shouldn’t be surprised, though. [rctestflight] has been at this a long time; we’ve seen everything from
human-carrying hydrofoils
to a
series of solar soarers,
to a
3D-printed rover-tank
from the prolific YouTuber.
We still wouldn’t ride in it, though. | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157082",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T17:25:27",
"content": "33min video for this?You watch 20sec at the beginning and then fast forward until you see it working.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8157509",
... | 1,760,371,466.403321 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/thanks-tamiya-san/ | Thanks, Tamiya-san | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"history",
"models",
"newsletter"
] | We’re saddened to
report the passing of Shunsaku Tamiya
, the man behind the Tamiya line of models. What was surprising about this, though, is how many of our readers and writers alike felt touched by the Tamiya model company. I mean, they made great models, and they’re definitely a quality outfit, but the outpouring of fond memories across a broad spectrum was striking.
For example, we originally ran the story as breaking news, but our art director Joe Kim spent a good part of his childhood putting together Tamiya kits, and felt like he absolutely had to do a portrait of Mr. Tamiya to pay his respects. I presume Joe is more on the painting-the-models end of the spectrum of Tamiya customers, given his artistic bent. Jenny’s writeup is absolutely touching, and her fond remembrances of the kits shines through her writing.
Myself, I’m on the making-small-robots end of the spectrum, and was equally well served. Back in the early ’90s, the “twin motor gearbox” was a moderately challenging and tremendously rewarding build for me, but it was also the only variable-ratio small motor gearbox that we had easy access to for making small bots to run around the living room.
Indeed, the Tamiya line included a whole series of
educational models and components
that were just perfect for the budding robot builder. I’m sure I have a set of their tank treads or a slip clutch in a box somewhere, even today.
It’s nice to think of how many people’s lives were touched by their kits, and to get even a small glimpse of that, you just need to read our comment section. We hope the company holds on to Mr. Tamiya’s love for quality kits that inspire future generations, whether they end up becoming artists, engineers, or simply hackers.
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
! | 18 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8157023",
"author": "make piece not war",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T14:27:53",
"content": "While I was at the age of building plastic models, western products (including Tamiya) were not available where I was living. Yet when I see the remenants of my work on top of the furniture in ... | 1,760,371,466.466332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/an-attiny-gpu-fan-controller-that-sticks/ | An ATTiny GPU Fan Controller That Sticks | Heidi Ulrich | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"computer hacks",
"Misc Hacks",
"News",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"12v",
"attiny",
"attiny85",
"DS18B20",
"fan",
"gpu",
"graphics card",
"radeon"
] | When your GPU fan goes rogue with an unholy screech, you either shell out for a new one or you go full hacker mode. Well,
[ashafq] did the latter
. The result is a delightfully nerdy fan controller powered by an ATTiny85 and governed by a DS18B20 temperature sensor. We all know a silent workstation is golden, and there’s no fun in throwing money at an off-the-shelf solution. [ashafq]’s custom build transforms a whiny Radeon RX 550 into a cool, quiet operator. Best of all: it’s built from bits likely already in your junk drawer.
To challenge himself a bit, [ashafq] rolled his own temperature-triggered PWM logic using 1-wire protocol on an
ATtiny85
, all without libraries or bloated firmware. The fan’s speed only ramps up
when the GPU gets toasty
, just like it should. It’s efficient and clever, and that makes it a fine hack. The entire system runs off a scavenged 12V fan. He could have used a 3D printer, but decided to stick onto the card with double-sided tape. McGyver would approve.
The results don’t lie: idle temps at 40 °C, load peaking at 60 °C. Quieter than stock, smarter than stock, and way cheaper too. The double-sided tape may not last, but that leaves room for improvement. In case you want to start on it yourself, read the full write-up and feel inspired to build your own.
Hackaday.io
is ready for the documentation of your take on it.
Modifying fans is
a tradition around here
. Does it always take a processor?
Nope
. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156974",
"author": "ALX_skater",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T11:13:51",
"content": "When external temp. probe indicates 60°C, silicon is probably already running at about 90°C, greatly accelerating damage due to electromigration. I run my PC fans at 100% all the time because it’s chea... | 1,760,371,466.518557 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/02/custom-bedroom-lighting-controlled-by-alexa/ | Custom Bedroom Lighting Controlled By Alexa | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"led"
] | [Arkandas] had a problem. They liked reading in bed, but their bedroom lamps weren’t cutting it—either too bright and direct, or too dim and diffuse. The solution was custom lighting,
and a new project began
.
The concept was simple—build a custom controller for a set of addressable LED lighting strips that would be installed in the bedroom. Specifically, in the headboard of the bed, providing controllable light directly where it was needed. The strips themselves were installed in aluminum channel with plastic diffusers to give a nice smooth light. [Arkandas] then tasked an ESP32 to control the strips, using the FastLED library to work with WS2812B LEDs, and also the Adafruit NeoPixel library for using SK6812 LEDs and their extra white channel. The ESP32 was set up to provide a web interface for direct control over the local network. [Arkandas] also made good use of the FauxmoESP library to enable the device to be controlled via Amazon Alexa, which fit nicely into their existing smarthome setup. Files are
on Github
for the curious.
The final build works well, creating a soft light in the habitable area of the bed that can also be readily controlled via voice commands or via web. We’ve seen the ESP32 do other great feats in this arena before, too,
albeit of the more colorful variety.
Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own smart lighting solutions, don’t hesitate to
tell the tipsline! | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156972",
"author": "volt-k",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T11:07:24",
"content": "Nice! Although I would probably just use the WLED project for the firmware part instead of developing a custom one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "81... | 1,760,371,466.555768 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/universal-control-for-the-last-mac-youd-ever-expect/ | Universal Control For The Last Mac You’d Ever Expect | Tyler August | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"Apple Desktop Bus",
"arduino nano",
"universal control"
] | Universal control is a neat feature on Macintosh computers, allowing you to slide your mouse seamlessly from device to device. Of course you need a relatively recent version of MacOS to make it work, right? Not necessarily– thanks to [Bart Jackobs]
MacFriends, universal control has come to the Macintosh Classic
.
The Arduino is perfect for this purpose, but choosing it ruined a perfectly good pun and we can never forgive that.
Well, not
exactly
universal control, but similar functionality at any rate. [Bart] can slide his mouse from one side of his retina display over onto the glorious 512 x 342, 1-bit display of his Macintosh Classic, just as if the 68k powered antique was a modern device. As you might expect, the Motorola 68000 in that old Mac is getting a teensy bit of help– though sadly for our love of puns, from an Arduino Nano and not any kind of Teensy.
The Arduino is emulating a mouse and keyboard on the Apple Desktop Bus using code based on
the abduino by [akuker]
. [Bart]’s custom software on the modern Mac captures the mouse and keyboard inputs to pipe to the Arduino via USB serial. Apple’s Universal control doesn’t require a wired connection between the two machines, of course, but then, it doesn’t work on the Classic. One could imagine redoing this project for Bluetooth communication to have that a same Clarkian feeling of technological magic Apple has always wanted to convey– but nothing was wireless in 1990 except for telegrams and a handful of telephones, so the project is appropriate as-is.
As much as we might resent that micro-controller for ruining a pun, if you want to hook into the ADB– perhaps
to use old peripherals with an emulated Macintosh
— an Arduino will do the job.
So would a Teensy, though
, and then we’d have our pun.
Our thanks to [Bart Jakobs] for the tip. Don’t forget to send in your own:
the endless maw of the tipsline is always hungry
. | 8 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156941",
"author": "emma.makes",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T06:05:29",
"content": "Cool project, but I don’t understand what pun you’re referring to.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8157038",
"author": "M",
"tim... | 1,760,371,466.607639 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/this-week-in-security-spilling-tea-rooting-ais-and-accusing-of-backdoors/ | This Week In Security: Spilling Tea, Rooting AIs, And Accusing Of Backdoors | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"ai",
"linux",
"NVIDIA",
"tea",
"This Week in Security"
] | The Tea app has had a rough week. It’s not an unfamiliar story:
Unsecured Firebase databases were left exposed to the Internet without any authentication
. What makes this story particularly troubling is the nature of the app, and the resulting data that was spilled.
Tea is a “dating safety” application strictly for women. To enforce this, creating an account requires an ID verification process where prospective
users share their government issued photo IDs with the platform
. And that brings us to the first Firebase leak. 59 GB of photo IDs and other photos for a large subset of users. This was not the only problem.
There was a second database discovered, and this one contains private messages between users. As one might imagine, given the topic matter of the app,
many of these DMs contain sensitive details
. This may not have been an unsecured Firebase database, but a separate problem where any API key could access any DM from any user.
This is the sort of security failing that is difficult for a company to recover from. And while it should be a lesson to users, not to trust their sensitive messages to closed-source apps with questionable security guarantees, history suggests that few will learn the lesson, and we’ll be covering yet another train-wreck of similar magnitude in another few months.
The Pi-hole (And Many Others’) Donor Leaks
The folks at Pi-hole are leading the charge in
reporting on the leaks of the name and email addresses of donors
to that and many other projects. The problem was actually
in version 4.6.0 of GiveWP
, a popular WordPress plugin.
Well this sucks:
@The_Pi_Hole
, my favourite maker of network-level blocker of nasty things, has inadvertently been caught up in a data breach by virtue of a WordPress plugin they use for donations:
https://t.co/ANSMIA5u5G
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt)
July 30, 2025
The details of what happened aren’t pretty. The plugin had a bug where it was injecting the entire donor list into the source code of the site using the plugin. The only redeeming element here is that those leaks were strictly limited to name and email address. But of course, that’s enough for bad actors to scrape the lists and start sending spearphishing emails, which has already happened.
One more thing to cover regarding this issue is the response from Impress.org, the makers of the plugin. The problem was fixed within hours of the report on GitHub. This turn-around is great, but the vulnerable plugin was out for a full week before it was disclosed to the authors. The official comments from Impress.org on the GitHub issue linked above fall just a bit short on recognizing the severity of the issue, and taking responsibility. At the same time, it’s extremely challenging to strike the right note when writing up a response to an issue like this.
Pi in the Bank
We’ve covered a case or two where a mysterious Raspberry Pi was discovered on the network, but this one is a bit different. First off, the network in question belongs to a bank. And second,
this Pi had a 4G cellular modem strapped to it
.
It turns out, this device was dropped as part of a scheme by the cyber crime group tracked as UNC2891. This attack has been reported to have taken place in Asia, with not much more details about the target. It’s believed that this was an attempt to infiltrate the bank’s ATM network, and eventually compromise a Hardware Security Module (HSM), and ultimately steal money from the bank.
This attack was quite sophisticated, with a new technique demonstrated, to hide malicious processes via Linux Bind mounts. This works by bind mounting an existing processes
/proc/
folder over that of the process to hide. Many utilities won’t catch the switcherwoo, as the kernel file handling will follow the bind mount over the real files. Though we do take some issue with the write-up referring to a bind mount as an “obscure Linux feature”.
And since we’re talking about banking, do you know how wire transfers actually work? It turns out,
it’s an ASCII file just under 1k, sent using SFTP
. There are some very old quirks to these files, like the insistence that the number of lines in the file be a multiple of 10, and the padding with 9s.
When you make a Bank ACH transaction, it’s literally just an SFTP upload.
Sent as a NACHA file, it's 940 bytes of ASCII text.
Bank-to-Bank transactions cost ~0.2 cents. As long as it travels via encrypted tunnel; it’s compliant!
Here’s how the quirky system works:
pic.twitter.com/NHewY8Ojgn
— LaurieWired (@lauriewired)
July 29, 2025
Rooting the Root AIs
There have been a rash of stories recently about what can happen when an agentic AI has too much power and ineffective guard rails. This week is no different, with
the first story being about prompt injection in Gemini
. This AI agent does have guardrails, in the form of a whitelist of commands that it is allowed to run on the system. The problem is that it’s not always apparent to users what commands have security implications.
Then there is Copilot Enterprise, which gained a Python sandbox and Jupyter Notebook earlier this year. And
Copilot is perfectly happy to help the user troubleshoot how to run commands
using the
%command
syntax. That gives just enough purchase to get root access in the Jupyter container, but that’s where this exploitation ends. It is interesting, how often
the key to compromising an AI is simply to ask nicely
.
Zero-Trust Falls to CSRF
We don’t know the start-up that this penetration test tested, but we do know that they were building a zero-trust platform for secure VPN-like access.
The entire stack was defeated by an attack as simple as
a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) and an improper Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) configuration. JavaScript running on a malicious web page could use these two weaknesses to access an SSH key generation utility on the target infrastructure, and smuggle the key out. This lead to a complete AWS identity takeover and more. It was a complete win for the red team, and immensely valuable to the client to find this vulnerability chain this way, rather than in production.
Nvidia Backdoors?
The other big news this week is
what sounds like an accusation from Chinese officials that Nvidia has put a backdoor in its new H20 device
. These Enterprise GPUs are engineered specifically for export to China, to meet the current US export restrictions around AI hardware. It’s unclear what exactly is going on here, but it’s not very likely that Nvidia actually put backdoors in their hardware, regardless of the intended market.
Bits and Bytes
CISA has released a new security tool
as Open Source.
Thorium
is a new file analysis tool designed to safely investigate binaries.
CrushFTP has
an RCE because of missed authentication check on an endpoint
. It allows an XML-RPC call to request the use of
system.exec
, which does exactly what it says it does. This manages a 9.8 CVSS as it’s unauthenticated, simple to pull off, accessible from the network, and grants RCE.
And finally, what certainly wins the simplest hack of the week award, [Mahmoud El Manzalawy] was looking at a CRM solution, and discovered an HTTP POST call that was replying with a 201 status, indicating it was successfully inserting a record into the remote database. What happens if that POST was changed to a GET and resent?
The application responds with a full dump of the user database
. It’s not supposed to do that. Which seems to sum up everything we cover in this column. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156746",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T14:55:19",
"content": "it’s not very likely that Nvidia actually put backdoors in their hardware, regardless of the intended market.That in today’s world feels almost almost naive, given how abusive big tech companies so ofte... | 1,760,371,467.534316 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/turning-waste-plastic-into-spools-of-filament/ | Turning Waste Plastic Into Spools Of Filament | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"3d printer filament",
"filament extruder",
"filament joiner",
"PET plastic",
"recycling"
] | Despite being a readily-available source of useful plastic, massive numbers of disposable bottles go to waste every day. To remedy this problem (or take advantage of this situation, depending on your perspective)
[Igor Tylman] created the PETmachine
, an extruder to make 3D printer filament from PET plastic bottles.
The design of the extruder is fairly standard for such machines: a knife mounted to the frame slices the bottle into one long strip, which feeds through a heated extruder onto a spool which pulls the plastic strand through the system. This design stands out, though, in its documentation and ease of assembly. The detailed assembly guides, diagrams, and the lack of crimped or soldered connections all make it evident that this was designed to be built in a classroom. The filament produced is of respectable quality: 1.75 mm diameter, usually within a tolerance of 0.05 mm, as long as the extruder’s temperature and the spool’s speed were properly calibrated. However, printing with the filament does require an all-metal hotend capable of 270 ℃, and a dual-drive extruder is recommended.
One issue with the extruder is that each bottle only produces a short strand of filament, which isn’t sufficient for printing larger objects. Thus, [Igor] also created a
filament welder and a spooling machine
. The welder uses an induction coil to heat up a steel tube, inside of which the ends of the filament sections are pressed together to create a bond. The filament winder, for its part, can wind with adjustable speed and tension, and uses a moving guide to distribute the filament evenly across the spool, avoiding tangles.
If you’re interested in this kind of extruder,
we’ve covered
a number of
similar designs in the past
. The variety of filament welders, however,
is a bit more limited
.
Thanks to [RomanMal] for the tip! | 28 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156720",
"author": "alnwlsn",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T12:50:01",
"content": "I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen one of these bottle filament thingies, but one thing that I’ve always wondered was where people were getting such smooth bottles without any ridges from.One I s... | 1,760,371,466.869924 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/diy-mp3-player-inspired-by-the-ipod/ | DIY MP3 Player Inspired By The IPod | Lewin Day | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"ipod",
"mp3 player"
] | These days, the personal MP3 player has been largely replaced by the the smartphone. However, [Justinas Petkauskas] still appreciates the iPod for its tactility and portability, and wanted to bring that vibe back.
Enter JPL.mp3
The build is based around the ESP32-S3 microcontroller. It’s hooked up with a PCM5102 DAC hooked up over I2S to provide quality audio, along with a micro SD card interface for music storage, and a small IPS LCD. The best feature, though? The mechanical click-wheel which provides a very tactile way to scroll and interact with the user interface. Everything is assembled into a neat 3D printed case, with a custom four-layer PCB lacing all the electronics together.
On the software side, [Justinas] cooked up some custom software for organizing music on the device using a SQLite database. As he primarily listens to classical music, the software features fields for composer/piece and conductor, orchestra, or performer.
[Justinas] calls the final build “chunky, but nevertheless functional” and notes it is “vaguely reminiscent of classic iPods.” We can definitely see the fun in building your own personalized version of a much-enjoyed commercial product, for sure. Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own similar hardware, we’d certainly love to
hear about it. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156679",
"author": "Lightislight",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T09:52:23",
"content": "Looks like a great project. I miss the iPod sometimes. Phone interfaces can be a chore for playing music. I’m sure many younger people think that’s ridiculous, maybe some people my age too.I didn’t r... | 1,760,371,466.986517 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/raspberry-pi-rp2350-a4-stepping-addresses-e9-current-leakage-bug/ | Raspberry Pi RP2350 A4 Stepping Addresses E9 Current Leakage Bug | Maya Posch | [
"Microcontrollers",
"News"
] | [
"raspberry pi",
"rp2350"
] | The RP2350 MCU in A4 stepping.
When Raspberry Pi’s new RP2350 MCU was released in 2024, it had a slight issue in that its GPIO pins would leak a significant amount of current when a pin is configured as input with the input buffer enabled. Known as erratum 9 (E9), it has
now been addressed
per the
July 29 Product Change Note
from Raspberry Pi for the A4 stepping along with a host of other hardware and software issues.
Although the PCN is for stepping A4, it covers both steppings A3 and A4, with the hardware fixes in A3 and only software (bootrom) fixes present in A4, as confirmed by the updated
RP2350 datasheet
. It tells us that A3 was an internal development stepping, ergo we should only be seeing the A4 stepping in the wild alongside the original defective A2 stepping.
When we
first reported
on the E9 bug it was still quite unclear what this issue was about, but nearly a month later it was
officially defined
as an input mode current leakage issue due to an internal pull-up that was too weak. This silicon-level issue has now finally been addressed in the A3 and thus new public A4 stepping.
Although we still have to see whether this is the end of the E9 saga, this should at least offer a way forward to those who wish to use the RP2350 MCU, but who were balking at the workarounds required for E9 such as external pull-downs. | 31 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156652",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T07:40:40",
"content": "It tells us that A3 was an internal development stepping, ergo we should only be seeing the A4 stepping in the wild alongside the original defective A2 stepping.They’re using the remaining A3 chips on Pico... | 1,760,371,467.308576 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/railway-time-why-frances-railways-ran-five-minutes-behind/ | Railway Time: Why France’s Railways Ran Five Minutes Behind | Maya Posch | [
"History"
] | [
"railways",
"time zones"
] | With us chafing at time zones and daylight saving time (DST) these days, it can be easy to forget how much more confusing things were in the late 19th century. Back then few areas had synchronized their clocks to something like Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or other standards like London time or Paris time, with everyone instead running on local time determined by as solar time. This created a massive headache for the railways, as they somehow had to make their time schedules work across what were effectively hundreds of tiny time zones while ensuring that passengers got on their train on time.
In a
recent video [The Tim Traveller] explains
how the creation of so-called Railway time sort-of solved this in France. As railroads massively expanded across the world by the 1850s and travel times dropped rapidly, this concept of
Railway time
was introduced from the US to Europe to India, creating effectively a railway-specific time zone synchronized to e.g. London time in the UK and Paris time in France. In addition to this, French railways also set the clocks inside the stations to run five minutes behind, to give travelers even more of a chance to get to their train on time when stuck in a long goodbye.
By 1911, across Europe GMT was adopted as the central time base, and the French five minute delay was eliminated as French travelers and trains were now running perfectly on time. | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156622",
"author": "san",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T04:43:58",
"content": "“… Deutsche Bahn, who add a random delay to each actual arrival and departure time so that time becomes very relative indeed.”… wait, what? Never heard or experienced this.Is this just connecting trains waiti... | 1,760,371,467.070874 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/2025-one-hertz-challenge-4-function-frequency-counter/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: 4-Function Frequency Counter | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge",
"frequency",
"frequency counter"
] | Frequency! It’s an important thing to measure, which is why [Jacques Pelletier] built a frequency counter some time ago.
The four-function unit is humble
, capable, and also an entry into our 2025 One Hertz Challenge!
The build began “a long while ago when electronic parts were still available in local stores,” notes Jacques, dating the project somewhat. The manner of construction, too, is thoroughly old-school. The project case and the sweet red digits are both classic, but so is what’s inside. The counter is based around 4553 BCD counter chips and 4511 decoder ICs. Laced together, the logic both counts frequency in binary-coded decimal and then converts that into the right set of signals to drive the 7-segment displays. Sample time is either 1 Hz or 0.1 Hz, which is derived from an 8MHz oscillator. It can act as a frequency meter, period meter, chronometer, or a basic counter. The whole build is all raw logic chips, there are no microprocessors or microcontrollers involved.
It just goes to show, you can build plenty of useful things without relying on code and RAM and all that nonsense.
You just need some CMOS chips and a bucket of smarts
to get the job done! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156763",
"author": "Zoot",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T16:31:19",
"content": "Hats off to Jacques for this. This is the kind of stuff I read Hackaday for. Yeah, he could have used a microcontroller or something, but he went old school on us and created something pretty cool from str... | 1,760,371,467.023374 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/double-the-sensors-double-the-fun-with-2-in-1-panoramic-camera/ | Double The Sensors, Double The Fun, With 2-in-1 Panoramic Camera | Tyler August | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"digital camera hack",
"large format photography",
"panoramic camera"
] | When film all came in rolls, it was fairly easy to play with the frame of the image. Companies like Hasselblad (and many others) made camera backs that would expose longer strips of 35 mm film to create stunning panoramic images in one single shot. [snappiness] wanted to bring that style of camera into the digital age, and ended up with a
2-in-1 Sony-based frankencamera
.
Sensors just aren’t readily available in the wide aspect ratio [snappiness] was looking for, and even if they were, bare sensors are hugely expensive compared to consumer cameras. Lacking the budget for high-res scientific CMOS, [snappiness] did what any of us would do, and hacked two Sony A7ii full-frame mirrorless cameras together to get a combined 24x72mm sensor frame.
Conceptually, the hack is really very simple: a 3D print acts like a T-fitting, with the two cameras held parallel off the arms of the T and the lens making the shaft. Inside, the only optics are a pair of mirrors serving as a beam splitter. Each camera sees half the FOV of the lens in its corresponding mirror, which means the images can be stitched together later to make the double-wide pictures [snappiness] is after.
Of course both cameras must be triggered at the same time, but with what looks like a headphone splitter and an aftermarket remote shutter button, that part works perfectly. The optics, not so much– as always with conceptually simple projects, the devil is in the details, and here it’s the mirror alignment where you’ll find Old Nick. [snappiness] made no provision for adjustments, so everything needed to be designed and built with very stringent tolerances. Somewhere along the way, those tolerances were exceeded; as a result, the two cameras don’t share a focal plane.
That means half the composite image will always be out of focus, or that the main lens needs to be refocused and two snaps taken, rather defeating the point the frankencamera. If [snappiness] attempts a version two, perhaps an adjustment mechanism to focus each sensor would be in order. Still, even if it didn’t work perfectly, he’s proven that the idea is sound, and we can’t imagine many people will see this and argue it isn’t a hack.
The world of film did make all of this easier, perhaps– we’ve seen
large-format film cameras out of lego
, and a panorama made from
four full rolls of 35 mm film
. If you know of any other great photography hacks– film or digital– don’t hesitate
to send us a tip
. | 20 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156526",
"author": "macsimki",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T20:20:11",
"content": "jep. back focus is a bitch and a difference of 0.01 mm is significant. in my time as cameraman, setting the back focus of a zoom lens was quite a undertaking.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,467.151089 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/ai-code-review-the-right-way/ | AI Code Review The Right Way | Al Williams | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Software Development"
] | [
"code review",
"LLM"
] | Do you use a spell checker? We’ll guess you do. Would you use a button that just said “correct all spelling errors in document?” Hopefully not. Your word processor probably doesn’t even offer that as an option. Why? Because a spellchecker will reject things not in its dictionary (like Hackaday, maybe). It may guess the wrong word as the correct word. Of course, it also may miss things like “too” vs. “two.” So why would you just blindly accept AI code review? You wouldn’t, and that’s [Bill Mill’s] point with his recent
tool made to help him do better code reviews
.
He points out that he ignores most of the suggestions the tool outputs, but that it has saved him from some errors. Like a spellcheck, sometimes you just hit ignore. But at least you don’t have to check every single word.
The basic use case is to evaluate PRs (pull requests) before sending them or when receiving them. He does mention that it would be rude to simply dump the tool’s comments into your comments on a PR. This really just flags places a human should look at with more discernment.
The program uses a
command-line interface
to your choice of LLM. You can use local models or select among remote models if you have a key. For example, you can get a free key for Google Gemini and set it up according to the instructions for the llm program. Of course, many people will be more interested in running it locally so you don’t share your code with the AI’s corporate overlords. Of course, too, if you don’t mind sharing, there are plenty of tools like GitHub Copilot that will happily do the same thing for you.
The review tool is
just a bash script
, so it is easy to change, including the system prompt, which you could tweak to your liking:
Please review this PR as if you were a senior engineer.
## Focus Areas
– Architecture and design decisions
– Potential bugs and edge cases
– Performance considerations
– Security implications
– Code maintainability and best practices
– Test coverage
## Review Format
– Start with a brief summary of the PR purpose and changes
– List strengths of the implementation
– Identify issues and improvement opportunities (ordered by priority)
– Provide specific code examples for suggested changes where applicable
Please be specific, constructive, and actionable in your feedback. Output the review in markdown format.
Will you use a tool like this? Will you change the prompt? Let us know in the comments. If you want to play more with local LLMs (and you have a big graphics card), check out
msty
. | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156933",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T05:18:18",
"content": "Regarding local models, does someone have any recent experiences whether the models are actually usable for tasks like code review now? I tried some llama variant a year ago, and the quality was useless and w... | 1,760,371,467.374142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/you-can-make-your-own-floppy-drive-cleaning-disks/ | You Can Make Your Own Floppy Drive Cleaning Disks | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"floppy disk",
"head cleaner"
] | Once upon a time, you could buy floppy drive cleaning disks at just about any stationary or computer store. These days, they’re harder to find. If you want to build one yourself, though,
you might do well to follow [Gammitin]’s fine example.
[Gammitin] has been down this road before, having built head cleaning disks before. This time,
a US patent
was the inspiration. It basically indicated that the spinning cleaning disc inside should be made of spunbonded polyester or spunbonded olefin (such as Dupont Tyvek)—so those materials were sought out.
The project began with [Gammitin] disassembling a standard floppy disk down to its bare components. The spindle was then separated from the magnetic platter, and refitted with a disc of Tyvek material using super glue. The disk housing was then glued back together with more super glue, and labelled as a “Floppy Cleaning Disk.” Using the disk is as simple as putting a few drops of isopropyl alcohol on the Tyvek material, and inserting it into a drive. [Gammitin] tested it with an old Olivetti machine, and found it cleaned up the heads nicely.
Sometimes, when a commercial product ceases to exist, you can just make your own at home. This is a great example of that ethos. If you’re cooking up your own tools and accessories to keep your old machines running, we’d love to hear all about it
on the tipsline
! | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156874",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T23:08:05",
"content": "Most stores are stationary. But stationery stores are the ones that sell stationery.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8156879",
"author": "Mil... | 1,760,371,467.935722 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/digital-guitar-of-the-future-has-no-strings/ | Digital Guitar Of The Future Has No Strings | Tyler August | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"capacitive touch",
"electric guitar",
"midi"
] | Electric guitars are great, but they’re just
so
20th century. You’d think decades of musicians riffing on the instrument would mean there are no hacks left in the humble axe. You’d think so, but you’d be wrong. [Michael], for one, has taken it upon himself to
reinvent the electric guitar for the digital era.
Gone are the strings, and the frets have vanished as well. The neck of this guitar is one long custom PCB, looking very sleek with black solder mask. Gold pads serve as touch sensors to give tone data over i2c (from unspecified touch sensing chips) to the Amtel Mega 32u4 at the heart of the build.
With no strings, strumming won’t work, so a laptop-style touchpad serves instead. That means every user interaction with this guitar is with capacitive touch sensors talking i2c. The X and Y coordinates of the touch, along with pressure are sent to the processor over the i2c bus, triggering an interrupt and offering quite a bit of opportunity for sound control.
Said sound control is, of course, done in MIDI. This lets the guitar control a whole variety of synths and/or software, and of course [Michael] is using more futuristic-sounding synths than a pack of guitar samples. That said, what exactly goes on with the MIDI controls is left frustratingly vague. Obviously fretting provides note selection, but does the touchpad just send a “note start” command, or are the X, Y and pressure data used in interesting ways? Is there multitouch support? The video doesn’t say.
How, exactly, the obviously-plastic body of the guitar was manufactured is also left unsaid. Is it a large resin print? SLS? It looks injection-molded, but that
makes no sense for a one-off prototype.
On the other hand, it
looks like he’s selling these
, so it may very well be an injection-molded production case we’re seeing being assembled here, and not a prototype at all.
For all the video leaves us wanting more information, we can’t help but admit the end product both looks and sounds very cool. (Skip to the 4:50 mark in the embedded video to hear it in action.) The only thing that would improve it
would be a hurdy-gurdy mode
. Thanks to [Michael] for the tip, and remember
we want to hear tips
about all the weird and wonderful hacked-together instruments you make or find on the web. | 39 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156840",
"author": "Reg",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T21:14:20",
"content": "What this article is missing is a guitarist.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8157165",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2025-08-03T02:... | 1,760,371,467.232642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/2025-one-hertz-challenge-the-flip-disc-clock/ | 2025 One-Hertz Challenge: The Flip Disc Clock | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"flip dot display",
"kitchen storage tub"
] | Do you like buses, or do you just like the flippy-flappy displays they use to show route information? Either way, you’ll probably love
the flip-disc clock created by [David Plass].
The build is based around four seven-segment flip disc displays. The modules in question are from
Flipo.io.
They use a hefty 0.5 amp pulse to create a magnetic field strong enough to flip the discs from one side to the other with coils placed underneath the fluro/black flipdots themselves. The modules are controlled by a Wemos D1, which uses Wi-Fi to query a NTP server to keep accurate time. It then drives the necessary segments to display the current time. The whole thing is assembled in what appears to be some kind of kitchen storage tub.
Notably, the clock flips a couple dots once every second to meet the requirements of our One-Hertz Challenge. This also makes it obvious that the clock is working when it would otherwise be static. However, [David] notes commenting out that part of the code at times, as it can be quite loud!
This clock has got fluro dots, it’s well-executed, and it’s a fine entry to the 2025 One-Hertz Challenge.
We’ve also previously explored how these beautiful displays work in detail, too.
Meanwhile, if you’re busy repurposing some other kind of mechanical display technology, don’t hesitate to
let us know! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156949",
"author": "rnjacobs",
"timestamp": "2025-08-02T08:00:16",
"content": "Before I watched the video, I assumed it would take a full 60 seconds to update the discs in the clock, flipping one per second.Then I calculated that there are 92 discs so it might not be able to keep u... | 1,760,371,467.450482 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/two-for-the-price-of-one-bornhack-2024-and-2025-badges/ | Two For The Price Of One: BornHack 2024 And 2025 Badges | Jenny List | [
"cons",
"Featured",
"Radio Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"badgelife",
"BornHack",
"LoRa",
"Meshtastic"
] | BornHack
is a week-long summer hacker camp in a forest on the Danish island of Fyn, that consistently delivers a very pleasant experience for those prepared to make the journey. This year’s version was the tenth iteration of the camp and it finished a week ago, and having returned exhausted and dried my camping gear after a Biblical rainstorm on the last day, it’s time to take a look at the badges. In case you are surprised by the plural, indeed, this event had not one badge but two. Last year’s badge suffered some logistical issues and arrived too late for the camp, so as a special treat it was there alongside the 2025 badge for holders of BornHack 2024 tickets. So without further ado, it’s time to open the pack for Hackaday and see what fun awaits us.
Two Very Elegant Badges
Best photographed with the badge turned off, the BornHack 2024 badge’s LEDs are BRIGHT!
Both badges are the work of [Thomas Flummer], someone who has appeared here more than once over the years with an array of beautifully designed badges and SAOs. First out is the 2024 one, and it’s a slim rectangular board around 140 by 45 mm with a row of addressable LEDs and a BornHack logo on the front, and the electronics and LiPo battery on the rear. It’s elegant in its simplicity, with an ESP32-C3 Mini module, battery charger and power supply circuit, and an NT3H2x11 addressable NFC chip and associated antenna. There are also the usual SAO and QWiC connectors flus some GPIO pads for expandability.
The LEDs on the front can display pretty colours of course, but their intended use is for persistence-of-vision displays. On
its GitHub repository
are several firmwares should you wish to play around with this. Meanwhile the NFC chip is interesting in itself, as it’s both a passive tag that can be read when the badge is turned off, and a tag that can be addressed by the ESP32. It was intended for an NFC game at BornHack 2024, but it remains a part worth investigating.
The Molex antenna on the 2025 badge sticks over the PCB antenna, which isn’t ideal, but seemed to work.
Having given some attention to the 2024 badge it’s time to pick up the 2025 model, which is a large white PCB in the shape of an Ø character. On the front is a BornHack logo and a row of backlit status icons on the left hand side, while on the back you’ll find the electronics and a pair of AA batteries. It’s a LoRa experimentation board, so alongside another ESP32-C3 Mini there’s a European 868 MHz LoRa Module. There’s a PCB antenna on the board but this module has one of those tiny co-axial connectors and was supplied with a Molex stick-on antenna. Full design details can be found
in its GitHub repository.
A Real World LoRa Propagation Test
BornHack: Very lovely, but not the best landscape for radio.
Out-of-the-box, this badge came with a Meshtastic node firmware, which for a hacker camp badge worked very well indeed. It’s easy enough to connect to the Meshtastic app on your smartphone, and soon a plethora of nodes sprang up. Most of you will be familiar with Meshtastic networks so it’s not worth going into too much detail on that front, but the site offered an interesting opportunity to test both those Molex antennas, and 868 MHz propagation in a real-world setting.
The BornHack site is not the least challenging location from a UHF radio perspective, being a series of former gravel pits interspersed with dense forest over a large area. Thus instead of line-of-sight it offers earth banks and dense foliage, neither ideal for radio propagation. I tested it by going to the far corners of the site and sending messages to my friends, and I was pleased to find I could cover the whole terrain with no more than a single intermediate badge providing a relay. This is as much to do with the clever tech behind LoRa as it is the Molex antennas, but I was still pleasantly surprised that they worked that well. In use it makes far more sense to take power from a USB-C source than those batteries, and I fond it didn’t appreciably accelerate my phone’s power drain.
The alien abduction artwork on the EMF Explorer makes for great backlighting.
So at the camp with two badges there was plenty to do with both of them, and it’s pleasing to see a design very much focused around life after the camp. I particularly like the “10” they form together as a reference to the tenth BornHack. The 2024 badge provides a fun light show and a chance to experiment with an interesting NFC chip, while there’s every chance you’ll encounter one of the 2025 badges providing Meshtastic service in a European hackerspace over the next few years, or being carried around as a personal node.
The two official badges weren’t entirely the end of the badge story for me at BornHack, because along the way I also picked up a
sporklogic.com
EMF Explorer badge from its creator [Darcy Neal]. It’s an analogue circuit for listening to ambient electric fields in glorious stereo which is enough fun, but the party piece is the UFO design backlit by a green LED. One of the most effective uses of unclad PCB I have seen on a badge. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,467.5863 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/hackaday-podcast-ep-331-clever-machine-tools-storing-data-in-birds-and-the-ultimate-cyberdeck/ | Hackaday Podcast Ep 331: Clever Machine Tools, Storing Data In Birds, And The Ultimate Cyberdeck | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Another week, another Hackaday podcast, and for this one Elliot is joined by Jenny List, fresh from the BornHack hacker camp in Denmark.
There’s a definite metal working flavour to this week’s picks, with new and exciting CNC techniques and a selective electroplater that can transfer bitmaps to metal. But worry not, there’s plenty more to tease the ear, with one of the nicest cyberdecks we’ve ever seen, and a bird that can store images in its song.
Standout quick hacks are a synth that makes sounds from Ethernet packets, and the revelation that the original PlayStation is now old enough to need replacement motherboards. Finally we take a closer look at the huge effort that goes in to monitoring America’s high voltage power infrastructure, and some concerning privacy news from the UK. Have a listen!
And/or
download your own freshly-baked MP3
, full of unadulterated hacky goodness.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 331 Show Notes:
News:
We’ve reache the halfway point:
Announcing The 2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge
What’s that Sound?
If you know what this week’s sound is,
enter your best guess here
.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Painting In Metal With Selective Electroplating
A Dual-Screen Cyberdeck To Rule Them All
Human In The Loop: Compass CNC Redefines Workspace Limits
AVIF: The Avian Image Format
Skateboard Wheels Add Capabilities To Plasma Cutter
Engrave A Cylinder Without A Rotary Attachment? No Problem!
The LumenPnP Pasting Utility: Never Buy Solder Stencils Again?
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Transparent PCBs Trigger 90s Nostalgia
Listening To Ethernet Via Eurorack
Read QR Codes On The Cheap
2025 One-Hertz Challenge: A Clock Sans Silicon
Jenny’s Picks:
A Non-Sony Playstation Motherboard Replacement
A Cable Modem, The Way All Network Gear Should Be Mounted
A Very Tidy Handheld Pi Terminal Indeed
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Power Line Patrols: The Grid’s Eye In The Sky
When Online Safety Means Surrendering Your ID, What Can You Do? | 5 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156762",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T16:30:59",
"content": "Is it broken or is my browser just not showing the player?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8156764",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,371,467.653463 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/08/01/a-proper-computer-for-a-dollar/ | A Proper Computer For A Dollar? | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"basic",
"CH32",
"TinyBASIC"
] | When a tipster came to us with the line “One dollar BASIC computer”, it intrigued us enough to have a good look at
[Stan6314]’s TinyBasRV computer
. It’s a small PCB that forms a computer running BASIC. Not simply a microcontroller with a serial header, this machine is a fully functioning BASIC desktop computer that takes a PS/2 keyboard and a VGA monitor. Would that cheap price stand up?
The board uses a CH32 microcontroller, a RISC-V part that’s certainly very cheap indeed and pretty powerful, paired with an I2C memory chip for storage. The software is TinyBASIC. There’s some GPIO expandability and an I2C bus, and it’s claimed it can run in headless mode for a BASIC program to control things.
We haven’t added up all the parts in the BoM to check, but even if it’s not a one dollar computer it must come pretty close. We can see it could make a fun project for anyone. It’s certainly not the only small BASIC board out there,
it’s got some competition
.
Thanks [Metan] for the tip. | 49 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156775",
"author": "fiddlingjunky",
"timestamp": "2025-08-01T17:27:09",
"content": "A dollar seems doable for qty10k. Probably more like $50-$70 for the hobbyist board house MoQs and low-qty component orders. Been a couple of years since I’ve done a PCB like this but that’s always ... | 1,760,371,467.748124 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/2025-one-hertz-challenge-op-amp-madness/ | 2025 One Hertz Challenge: Op-Amp Madness | Adam Zeloof | [
"clock hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge",
"analog",
"op-amp",
"oscillator",
"sine wave"
] | Sometimes, there are too many choices in this world. My benchtop function generator can output a sine, square, or saw wave anywhere from 0.01 Hz up to 60 MHz? Way too many choices. At least, that’s what we suspect [Phil Weasel] was thinking when he built this
Analog 1 Hz Sinewave Generator
.
A KiCad rendering of [Phil]’s design
[Phil]’s AWG (which in this case stands for
A
nything as long as it’s a 1 Hz sine
W
ave
G
enerator) has another unique feature — it’s built (almost) entirely with op-amps. A lot of op-amps (37, by our count of the initial schematic he posted). His design is similar to a Phased Locked Loop (PLL) and boils down to a triangle wave oscillator. While a 1 Hz triangle wave would absolutely satisfy judges of the One Hertz Challenge, [Phil] had set out to make a sine wave. Using a feedback loop and some shaping/smoothing tricks (and more op-amps), he rounded off the sharp peaks into a nice smooth sine wave.
Sometimes we make things much more complicated than we need to, just to see if we can. This is one of those times. Are there much simpler ways to generate a sine wave?
Yes
— but not exclusively using op-amps! This entry brings stiff competition to the “Ridiculous” category of the
2025 One Hertz Challenge
. | 7 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156576",
"author": "wf",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T23:05:07",
"content": "I really would like to see a spectrum of the simulation and real sine wave.Filters at those frequencies are a real challenge, so I totally appreciate this approach.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,467.843203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/when-online-safety-means-surrendering-your-id-what-can-you-do/ | When Online Safety Means Surrendering Your ID, What Can You Do? | Jenny List | [
"Current Events",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"age verification",
"online safety act",
"uk"
] | A universal feature of traveling Europe as a Hackaday scribe is that when you sit in a hackerspace in another country and proclaim how nice a place it all is, the denizens will respond pessimistically with how dreadful their country really is. My stock response is to say “Hold my beer” and recount the antics of British politicians, but the truth is, the grass is always greener on the other side.
There’s one thing here in dear old Blighty that has me especially concerned at the moment though, and perhaps it’s time to talk about it here.
The Online Safety Act
has just come into force and is the UK government’s attempt to deal with what they perceive as the nasties on the Internet, and while some of its aspirations may be honourable, its effects are turning out to be a little chilling.
As might be expected, the Act requires providers to ensure their services are free of illegal material, and it creates some new offences surrounding sharing images without consent, and online stalking. Where the concern lies for me is in the requirement for age verification to ensure kids don’t see anything the government things they shouldn’t, which is being enforced through online ID verification. There are many reasons why this is of concern, but I’ll name the three at the top of my list.
As always, Ali has you covered.
As anyone who has helped their non technical friends secure their networks will tell you, nothing boosts technical expertise more than presenting a 13-year-old with an online restriction. It’s already been shown
how a tech-savvy kid can use an AI generated fake ID to watch online smut
, and I am thus certain that the Act just won’t work. Kids will trade ways to get round it just like they traded floppies full of dodgy JPGs in the playground back in the ’90s.
The scope of the Act extends way beyond merely the porn sites you might expect, so your average Brit is going to find themselves uploading their drivers’ licence or passport an awful lot. The probability of a data breach involving all that valuable data will approach one, and all those identities will be compromised. Making more laws won’t stop this happening, after all the very definition of a criminal is a person with a disregard for the law.
And finally, that broad scope is catching all manner of inoffensive and blameless online communities who don’t have the resources to put the age verification and other measures in place. Your classic car forum, a support group for people with mental health problems, even possibly
Wikipedia
. Of course it’s important to protect children from inappropriate content, but killing the British internet for everyone else shouldn’t be a side effect.
This issue is likely to rumble on for a while in the UK, as at the time of writing
a petition for its reform
stands around 350k signatures. Thus a further parliamentary debate seems very likely, and no doubt we’ll see a few of our overlords wriggling a little to avoid the inevitable repercussions. You can sign it if you’re a Brit, and meanwhile if you’d like to restore access to the internet that the rest of the world sees,
you can join the hordes of Brits running to acquire VPN access
.
Palace of Westminster header image: Diliff,
CC BY-SA 2.5
. | 108 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156464",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T17:19:47",
"content": "Fake ID business is going to be very profitable for a certain period of time before they patch that. AI is a fun workaround, I guess you no longer go down around an alleyway and meet somebody who has a photo b... | 1,760,371,468.252885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/hexagonal-lighting-brings-a-touch-of-elegance-to-the-workshop/ | Hexagonal Lighting Brings A Touch Of Elegance To The Workshop | Adam Zeloof | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"hexagon",
"homeassistant",
"led",
"lighting"
] | Sometimes, we’re faced with what should be simple household tasks that we choose to make more difficult. Sure, you could buy a clock, hang it on your wall, and move on with your day, or could spend a week or two building the perfect one. [Nejc Koncan] was in one such situation recently when he needed some new overhead lighting. He wanted hexagonal lights — and since none of the off-the-shelf solutions met his exacting requirements,
he built his own
.
Unlike most of the cycling RGB hexagonal lighting solutions available on the market, [Nejc] wanted elegant white outlines that he could control via HomeAssistant. After some careful design and quite a bit of trial-and-error, he ended up with a highly modular and very professional-looking installation. The hexagons are constructed from LED strips set into aluminum extrusions, with junction PCBs at each intersection. To complete the look, all of the strips and wiring are hidden by diffusers that slot into the extrusions — and of course, the whole thing is open source.
We see lots of lighting projects here at Hackaday, and even
other hexagonal lights
— but this might just be one of the most refined. Sometimes it’s worth the extra effort to build a totally over-engineered custom solution. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156432",
"author": "list",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T15:45:49",
"content": "now you too can look like a twitch streamer/youtuber from 2020.but honestly this looks very clean and neat.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8156465",
... | 1,760,371,467.889767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/hands-on-the-hacker-pager/ | Hands On: The Hacker Pager | Tom Nardi | [
"Featured",
"handhelds hacks",
"Reviews",
"Slider",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"LoRa",
"Meshtastic",
"pager"
] | It should come as no surprise that the hacker community has embraced the Meshtastic project. It’s got a little bit of everything we hold dear: high quality open source software, fantastic documentation, a roll-your-own hardware ethos, and just a dash of counterculture. An off-grid communications network cobbled together from cheap parts, some of which being strategically hidden within the urban sprawl by rogue operators, certainly
sounds
like the sort of thing you’d read about it in a William Gibson novel.
But while the DIY nature of Meshtastic is one of its most endearing features for folks like us, it can also be seen as one of its weak spots. Right now, the guidance for those looking to get started is to pick a compatible microcontroller development board, 3D print a case for it, screw on an antenna from AliExpress, flash your creation with the latest firmware, and then spend some quality time with the documentation and configuration tools to actually get it on the air. No great challenge for the average Hackaday reader, but a big ask for the weekend adventurer that’s just looking for a way to keep in touch with their friends while camping.
Quality hardware that offers a turn-key experience will be critical to elevating Meshtastic from a hobbyist’s pastime to something that could actually be fielded for applications such as search and rescue. Plus, let’s be honest, even those of us who like to put together our own gadgets can appreciate a more consumer-oriented piece of hardware from time to time. Especially if that hardware happens to be open source and designed to empower the user rather than hold them back.
Enter the
Hacker Pager
from
exploitee.rs
. As the name implies, it’s still very much a device intended for hackers — a piece of hardware designed for the halls of DEF CON rather than trekking through the wilderness. But it’s also an important step towards a new generation of Meshtastic hardware that meets the high standard of quality set by the software itself.
All in One, One For All
Before diving into the device itself, it would be helpful to take a moment to explain how users typically interact with Meshtastic, and what makes the Hacker Pager different.
Connecting an Android phone to Meshtastic via a Heltec V3
Generally speaking, there are two types of Meshtastic devices: stationary nodes placed on rooftops and other vantage points to provide the infrastructure, and mobile nodes that a person would carry with them that allows access the network. This isn’t
strictly
accurate as each mobile device can also relay messages and contribute to the overall mesh network, but for the purposes of this discussion that’s not really an important distinction.
The mobile nodes are essentially radio modems that connect to your smartphone. You might have one strapped to your backpack, or mounted to the roof of your car. An app on your phone allows you to use the radio to tap into the Meshtastic network, and provides (among other features) an SMS-like interface for sending and receiving messages. This can be a little ungainly if you’re physically plugged into the mobile node, but Bluetooth is also an option.
Now, what makes the Hacker Pager different is that it not only works as gateway device to provide access to the Meshtastic network to a tethered smartphone, but it can also be used as a stand-alone communicator. This approach is truly the best of both worlds, as you get all the functionality of the smartphone application, while also giving you the freedom to subtract the phone from the equation entirely.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/hackerpager_message.mp4
The Hacker Pager isn’t the first Meshtastic device to provide this capability, but at the time of this writing, it’s still one of only a handful of options that offer it. It is however the first one to come in the classic pager form factor, which brings with it a certain nostalgic appeal. The unique layout and interface of the Hacker Pager
does
come at a cost though; at least for now, it can’t run the mainline Meshtastic firmware and has its own independent fork. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.
Built By Hackers, For Hackers
I mentioned earlier that the Hacker Pager isn’t designed for a rugged environment, but that doesn’t mean it’s a wimp, either. It’s built like a brick, which I mean in the most positive way possible. But more than that, it’s built how a hacker would build it. Laser-cut acrylic panels, 3D printed body and buttons, you can still see how each component could be produced by a well-equipped home gamer should they need or want to.
That’s something we often see get inadvertently overlooked by open source hardware projects, and I’m happy to see that it seems to have remained a guiding principle for the Hacker Pager. It’s no mean feat either — we always release the design files for our annual Supercon badge, but that’s not to say they’ve always been easy to recreate for the hacker who couldn’t make it out to Pasadena. It’s not that we ever intentionally design the badge to be hard to replicate, it can just get away from you sometimes.
Bodge wire not included on production units. Probably.
While going with a larger footprint for some of the components would have made DIY rework a little easier, there’s nothing about the Hacker Pager that would keep you from either building one yourself or using it as a basis for another design. That includes the license, as the hardware side of the project is available under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2.
I could easily see the Hacker Pager becoming another
Beepy
— an OSHW project that resonates so strongly with the community that it
inspires a whole line of clones
.
A New Way to Mesh
The firmware for the Hacker Pager is forked from the upstream Meshtastic project, and as such, the device is fully compatible with all the infrastructure that’s already out there. Similarly, when used in conjunction with the official Meshtastic smartphone application, you’ll have all the features and functions you’re used to. But when you use the Hacker Pager on its own, it’s unlike any other Meshtastic device out there.
That’s largely due to the fact that the retro-inspired hardware of the Hacker Pager demands a different sort of user interface than any of the existing Meshtastic devices. The menu system makes excellent use of the vibrant 192×64 pixel monochrome LCD, and banging out messages using the on-screen keyboard and directional buttons is a breeze. Users from the younger generations may need some time to adapt, but for those of a certain age, it feels like home.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/hackerpager_demo.mp4
One of my favorite features doesn’t even kick in until you’ve put the Hacker Pager down for a bit. Once the device has hit the user-defined idle timeout, the screen backlight turns off and the screen shifts over to an ambient clock display that also shows critical status information such as battery level, number of nodes in the area, and a new message indicator.
It’s also got the features you’d expect from a modernized pager. You can be notified of incoming messages by the classic audible alert or vibration, naturally. But there’s also 36 addressable RGB LEDs and a dozen UV LEDs that are more than happy to put on a light show each time something hits your inbox.
More Than Idle Talk
Honestly, if everything I’ve just covered was all the Hacker Pager could do, I’d still have come away impressed. But the team at exploitee.rs took things a step further by adding in several tools that should prove useful for anyone who’s into hacking around on Meshtastic or other flavors of LoRa.
The Packet Capture mode (and matching Wireshark plugin) lets you explore the actual communication protocols at work, and the Spectrum Analyzer will visualize anything broadcasting between 850 to 950 MHz and optionally export the results. While there’s no official word on additional tools, it’s not hard to imagine how either exploitee.rs or the community could expand on these capabilities on the future with new functions such as a WiFi or Bluetooth scanner.
Joining the Pager Revolution
If you want your own Hacker Pager, it will set you back $200 for the standard Green/Black model shown here, or $250 for the Special Edition colors (Pink/Black, Orange/Black). Unfortunately, they’re
currently out of stock
.
We made every effort to time the release of this article to coincide with availability of the Hacker Pager, but folks have been chomping at the bit to pick one up since they were first unveiled last year, and demand was simply too great. Sorry about that.
But don’t worry, you haven’t missed your chance. We’re told that units will be available at DEF CON 33 next week if you’re making the trip out to Vegas, and if not, you can put your email down to be notified when the next batch of Hacker Pagers will be ready to go.
In the meantime, you can
read up on the promise of the Meshtastic project
and maybe even
setup your first node
. | 27 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156417",
"author": "Ken C",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T14:26:15",
"content": "I hope the battery was not made in Israel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8156421",
"author": "threeve",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T14:42:08",
... | 1,760,371,468.033736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/farewell-shunsaku-tamiya-the-man-who-gave-us-the-best-things-to-build/ | Farewell Shunsaku Tamiya: The Man Who Gave Us The Best Things To Build | Jenny List | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"modelling",
"plastic model",
"Shunsaku Tamiya",
"tamiya"
] | In the formative experiences of most Hackaday readers there will almost certainly be a number of common threads, for example the ownership of a particular game console, or being inspired into engineering curiosity by the same TV shows. A home computer of a TV show may mark you as coming from a particular generation, but there are some touchstones which cross the decades.
Of those, we are guessing that few readers will not at some point have either built, owned, or lusted after a Tamiya model kit at some point over the last many decades, so
it’s with some sadness that we note the passing of Mr. Tamiya himself, Shunsaku Tamiya, who has died at the age of 90
.
Shunsaku Tamiya
For most of us the word “Tamiya” conjures up an image of a brightly coloured and well illustrated box with the trademark red and blue Tamiya logo containing a model kit, remote controlled car, or other wondrous piece of miniature engineering. Kids’ are shaped by the experiences their toys give them, and while it might seem strange to cite plastic models as a key influence for a hardware hacker, here were toys that could be built in all their intricate detail.
The Tamiya story started in the lumber business, diversifying into wooden toys, and then just like LEGO on the other side of the world from their Shizuoka base, into plastic injection mouldings. Shunsaku Tamiya was famous for his attention to detail and this very much came through in his products.
I learned this first-hand through a professional modeler friend who had the job of making the models featured on British Tamiya packaging. Though she dealt with the British agents of the company and could have spent her entire tenure talking to their marketing department, she found herself dealing with Mr. Tamiya personally. His box models were made by one of the best in the business, but even the quality of the packaging in a distant export market mattered to the boss.
We are sure the Tamiya company will continue to produce the best in plastic modeling, and we envy the kids who are now discovering them for the first time and sharpening an interest in making things that will stay with them for life. Thank you, Shunsaku Tamiya. | 36 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156384",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T11:09:23",
"content": "I never built the models but recognise the Tamiya brand as one that has been around since I was a kid. RIP, Tamiya-san, and thanks for all the fun.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,371,468.334731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/robots-are-coming-for-your-berry-good-job/ | Robots Are Coming For Your Berry Good Job | Al Williams | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"agricultural robot",
"blackberries"
] | We don’t know if picking blackberries at scale is something people enjoy doing. But if you do, we have
bad news
. The University of Arkansas wants to put you out of a job in favor of your new robot overlord. It turns out that blackberries in Arkansas alone are a $24 million business. The delicate berries are typically hand-picked.
The robot hand that can do the same job has three soft fingers and tendons made from guitar strings. Each finger has a force sensor at the tip so it can squeeze the berries just right. How much force does it take to grab a blackberry? To find out, researchers placed sensors on the fingers of experienced pickers and used the data to guide their design. Researchers claim they were inspired by the motion of a tulip opening and closing each day.
Your berry picking job is safe for now, though. They don’t have the vision system to actually find the berries. Not yet, anyway. Of course in the meantime, the gripper could be used for anything that needs a delicate touch.
Oddly, everyone seems to want to develop robots to
pick agricultural items
. We are usually more interested in a
different kind of picking
. | 29 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156355",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T08:19:09",
"content": "The basal human urge to automate away the basics of survival – food, clothing and housing so that humans can be free and pursue better (or worse) things",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,371,468.403813 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/rebooting-wargames-wopr-with-a-pi-and-gemini/ | RebootingWarGames‘ WOPR With A Pi And Gemini | Heidi Ulrich | [
"computer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"gemini",
"War Games",
"wargames",
"WOPR"
] | WarGames
fans, rejoice: [Nick Bild] has rebooted WOPR for real. In his latest hack, the Falcon,
he recreates the iconic AI from the 1983 film
using a Raspberry Pi 400, a vintage SP0256-AL2 speech chip from General Instrument, and Google’s Gemini LLM. A build to bring us back to the Reagan-era.
Where most stop at visual homage, this one simulates true interaction. The Python script acts as dungeon master for Gemini 2.5 Flash, guiding it to roleplay as the WOPR computer. Keypress sounds click-clack in synchrony with every input. Gemini replies are filtered into allophones, through GI-Pi, [Nick]’s own Python library. The SP0256 then gives it an eerily authentic robotic voice, straight out of 1983.
[Nick] himself is no unfamiliar name to Hackaday. Back in 2020, he hosted a
Hack Chat
where he talked us through getting from ideas to prototype builds. He practices what he preaches, since he carried out projects like
a breadboard 6502 computer
, home-automation
controlling AI sunglasses
, and more silly inventions, like
dazzle-proof glasses
.
So… shall we play a game? If you’ve ever longed to chat with an 80s military AI about thermonuclear war or tic-tac-toe without doubting you end the world in a blink, start on this build. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156487",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T18:07:50",
"content": "Would you like to play a game?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8156562",
"author": "Foobar Wombat",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T21:54:28",
"c... | 1,760,371,468.44522 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/legally-distinct-space-invaders-display-wifi-info/ | Legally DistinctSpace InvadersDisplay WiFi Info | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"galaga",
"meter",
"signal strength",
"space invaders",
"wi-fi",
"wifi",
"wireless"
] | In the early 00s there was a tiny moment before the widespread adoption of mobile broadband, after the adoption of home WiFi, and yet before the widespread use of encryption. For this brief time a unique practice arose called wardriving — where people would drive around, document, and use these open wireless networks.
Although the pursuit has diminished with the rise of mobile broadband and WPA encryption, there are still a few use cases for the types of hardware a wardriver would have used.
[arduinocelentano] recently built a Wi-Fi strength monitor in this style but with a unique theme
.
The Silly Space Invaders Dashboard (SSID) uses an ESP8266 to periodically scan for WiFi networks and makes a record of all of the ones it discovers. From there it takes a look at the signal strength that it receives and groups them into a few classes. For each class it assigns a
Space Invaders
-themed sprite corresponding to signal strength, with the strongest ranked at the top for quick and easy viewing. There’s even a special sprite to indicate that most illusive of beasts; the open WiFi network. By the way, if you’re wondering why these
Invaders
don’t look like the baddies from your youth, it’s because the company that owns the rights doesn’t like other people playing with their toys.
During the heyday of wardriving we could only have wished for hardware as powerful, capable, small, and power efficient as what’s in this project. Most of us that partook in the hobby at its peak generally had bulky laptops, possibly some lead-acid batteries, and perhaps one or more wonky antennas to boot. In a way it’s almost a shame that this hobby has largely diminished,
although there are still a few out there poking around unsecured networks
. | 23 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156324",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T04:56:06",
"content": "Really cool! I like the animation!But I don’t get the open WiFi thing. What does that mean? Using unprotected WiFis of strangers?If so, who in his/her right mind would ever use another person’s WiFi withou... | 1,760,371,468.50958 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/the-lumenpnp-pasting-utility-never-buy-solder-stencils-again/ | The LumenPnP Pasting Utility: Never Buy Solder Stencils Again? | John Elliot V | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cnc hacks",
"hardware",
"PCB Hacks",
"Software Hacks",
"Tool Hacks",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"fiducial calibration",
"LumenPnP",
"pick and place",
"solder paste extruder",
"solder stencils"
] | Over on his YouTube channel the vivacious [Stephen Hawes] tells us that
we never need to buy solder stencils again
!
A big claim! And he is quick to admit that his printed solder paste isn’t presently quite as precise as solder stencils, but he is reporting good success with his technique so far.
[Stephen] found that he could print PCBs with his
fiber laser
, populate his boards with his
LumenPnP
, and reflow with his oven, but… what about paste? [Stephen] tried making stencils, and in his words: “it sucked!” So he asked himself: what if he didn’t need a stencil? He built a
Gerber
processing,
G-code
generating, machine-vision implemented… website. The LumenPnP Pasting Utility:
https://paste.opulo.io/
The
WebAssembly
running in the Chrome tab itself connects to the LumenPnP and performs the entire pasting job automatically, with machine-vision fiducial calibration. Automatic alignment with fiducials was critical to the project’s feasibility, and he achieved it using machine-vision from the
OpenCV library
.
In the video heshows us how to jog the camera to the home fiducial, load the Gerber files, and initialize the job. He’s implemented camera jogging by clicking on the image from the camera to indicate the desired target location, which looks like a very handy feature to have!
Some initial setup just needs to be done once at the beginning to setup your board, additional board prints can then self-calibrate from the fiducials. The Z-index for the dispenser needs to be calibrated, and other job settings include nozzle offset calibration, dispense degrees, retraction degrees, and dwell milliseconds.
If you’re interested in other options for solder stencils be sure to read
Solder Stencil Done Three Ways
. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156295",
"author": "Ccecil",
"timestamp": "2025-07-30T23:27:18",
"content": "Great work….although.I have a paste dispenser on my Manncorp 384v2…the Martin dispenser. Apparently, it was a $15k option when the machine was new. It seems to work well but it is very slow.Depending on ... | 1,760,371,468.560679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/soldered-ram-upgrades-finally-available-for-mac-ppc/ | Soldered RAM Upgrades Finally Available For Mac-PPC | Tyler August | [
"Mac Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"hand soldering",
"PowerMac",
"powerpc",
"ram upgrade",
"retrocomputing"
] | In the retrocomputing world, [DosDude1] is a name spoken with more than a little respect. He’s back again with a long-awaited hack for
PowerPC Macintosh: soldered RAM upgrades
!
[DosDude1] is no stranger to soldering his way to more storage–
upgrading the SSD on an M4 Mac Mini,
or doubling
the VRAM on an old GPU
. For a PPC Mac, though, it is not enough just to solder more RAM onto the board; if that’s all it was, we’d have been doing it 20 years ago. Once the RAM is in place, you have to have some way to make sure the computer
knows
the RAM is in place. For a WinTel machine, getting that information to the
BIOS can be as easy as plugging in the right resistors.
This is part of the BootROM dump. It’s easy to see why nobody figured this out before.
PowerPC Macintoshes don’t have BIOS, though. Instead, what’s required is a hack to modify the machine’s BootROM, and write an edited version back into the motherboard’s EEPROM. No one knew how to make that work, until now. [DosDude1] credits a document discovered by [LightBulbFun] on “Boot Flash System Configuration Block” for the secret sauce to hacking the HEX configuration. For example, adding four more 128 MB DIMMS to max out an iBook G3 was a matter of finding the Hex value for number of soldered chips–apparently it was at offset 0x5C. Change this from 0x01 to 0x02 tells the board to look for all 6 chips. Then it’s a matter of flashing the edited hex dump EEPROM, which can be done with a programmer or the flashrom command under Linux.
Solder, flash, reboot– RAM. That’s not the only upgrade in this clamshell. This wasn’t G4 from the factory!
While a few extra hundred MB of RAM isn’t exactly bringing this machine into the 21st century, it is a great quality-of-life upgrade to make old budget hardware match the best of the era. This isn’t magic: if you’re increasing the density, rather than filling up footprints as [DosDude1] demonstrates, you’ve got to make sure the board has got address lines to spare or there’s a way to bodge them in. (128 MB was the max for this one.) The footprints obviously have to match, too, and so do the specs. You’re not going to be putting extra gigabytes of DDR5 into a machine designed with OS9 in mind, but then, you probably don’t need to. It’s already got more than 640 KB, after all, and that’s enough for
anybody
.
Found via
r/VintageApple on Reddit
. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156277",
"author": "TomD",
"timestamp": "2025-07-30T20:36:09",
"content": "I’ve done this to a 2001 Haar CNC machine to add a whopping 15mb of RAM. Makes a massive difference in being able to use modern CAM paths without having to drip feed the system. Thankfully it was immediate... | 1,760,371,468.614463 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/2025-one-hertz-challenge-a-software-only-am-radio-transmitter/ | 2025 One-Hertz Challenge: A Software-Only AM Radio Transmitter | Lewin Day | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday One Hertz Challenge",
"am",
"am radio",
"amplitude modulation",
"twilight zone"
] | We’ve been loving the variety of entries to the 2025 One-Hertz Challenge. Many a clock has been entered, to be sure, but also some projects that step well outside simple timekeeping. Case in point,
this AM transmitter from [oldradiofixer.]
The software-only transmitter uses an ATTiny85 processor to output an AM radio signal in the broadcast band. It transmits a simple melody that you can tune in on any old radio you might have lying around the house. Achieving this was simple. [oldradiofixer] set up the cheap microcontroller to toggle pin PB0 at 1 MHz to create an RF carrier. Further code then turns the 1MHz carrier on and off at varying rates to play the four notes—G#, A, G#, and E—of the Twilight Zone theme. This is set up to repeat every second—hence, it’s a perfectly valid entry to the 2025 One-Hertz Challenge!
It’s a simple project, but one that demonstrates the basics of AM radio transmission quite well. The microcontroller may not put out a powerful transmission, but it’s funny to think just how easy it is to generate a broadcast AM signal with
a bit of software and a length of wire hanging off one pin
. Video after the break. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156268",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2025-07-30T19:16:21",
"content": "Angry HAMs screeching about polluting spectrum in 3, 2, 1…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8156278",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp... | 1,760,371,468.698533 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/one-mans-trash-bicycle-edition/ | One Man’s Trash… Bicycle Edition | Al Williams | [
"gps hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"GPS Navigation",
"Windows CE"
] | [Remy van Elst] found an obsolete bike navigation system, the Navman Bike 1000, in a thrift store for €10. The device was a rebadged Mio Cyclo 200 from 2015.
Can a decade-old GPS be useful
? Well, the answer depends on a little reverse engineering.
There were some newer maps available, but they wouldn’t download using the official software. Out comes WireShark and mitmproxy. That allowed [Remy] to eavesdrop on what was going on between the box and its home server. From there he could intercept the downloaded software image, which in turn yielded to scrutiny. There was one executable, but since the device mounted as a drive, he was able to rename that executable and put his own in using the same name.
The device turns out to run Windows CE. It could even run
DOOM
! Once he was into the box with a file manager, it was fairly straightforward to add newer software and even update the maps using OpenStreetMaps.
This is a great example of how a little ingenuity and open source tools can extend the life of consumer electronics. It isn’t always as easy to find an entry point into some device like this. Then again, sometimes it’s a little
easier than maybe it should be
.
We’d all but forgotten
Windows CE
. We see many people using WireShark, but fewer running mitmproxy. It sure
is useful
. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156312",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2025-07-31T02:52:51",
"content": "Absolutely loved all the rabbit holes you sent me down via the article’s embedded links. Thx!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8168021",
"author":... | 1,760,371,468.651002 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/linux-fu-the-cheap-macropad-conundrum/ | Linux Fu: The Cheap Macropad Conundrum | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"keypad",
"linux",
"macropad"
] | You can get cheap no-brand macropads for almost nothing now. Some of them have just a couple of keys. Others have lots of keys, knobs, and LEDs. You can spring for a name brand, and it’ll be a good bet that it runs QMK. But the cheap ones? Get ready to download Windows-only software from suspicious Google Drive accounts. Will they work with Linux? Maybe.
Of course, if you don’t mind the keypad doing whatever it normally does, that’s fine. These are little more than HID devices with USB or Bluetooth. But what do those keys send by default? You will really want a way to remap them, especially since they may just send normal characters. So now you want to reverse engineer it. That’s a lot of work. Luckily,
someone already has
, at least for many of the common pads based around the CH57x chips.
Open Source Configuration
Thanks to [Mikhail Trishchenkov], you can use a nice Linux tool to easily configure your macropad. You can build it from source, or get built versions for Linux, Windows, and Mac. The whole thing is written in Rust if you want to take it apart or modify it.
The configuration might not make GUI users happy, but most Linux users are just fine with editing a yaml file. The software works with lots of different pads, so you do have to explain what you have first. Then you can explain what you want.
The yaml file has several keys of interest (documented in
the sample file
):
orientation – You can ask the software to treat the pad in its normal orientation or rotated 90, 180, or 270 degrees. This only matters because it is nice to lay out the keys in the right order and you want the knobs clockwise and counterclockwise directions to make sense. Of course, you can do the mental gymnastics to set it up however you like, but this makes it easier.
row, columns – Different pads have different number of rows and columns. Note that this doesn’t respect your Orientation setting. So if you put any knobs to the left, the horizontal keys are the columns and the vertical keys are the rows.
knobs – Your pad may have knobs. Count them here.
layers – You define multiple layers here (but at least one). The cheaper pads only support one layer, but the nicer ones have a pushbutton and LEDs that let you cycle through a few layers of different key definitions.
buttons – Inside a layer, you can have a bunch of key names in brackets. Depending on the orientation, there will be one set of brackets for each column or one set for each row.
knobs – Also inside a layer, you can define what happens on ccw, cw, and press events for each button.
The Key
The key names are generally characters (“2” or “d”) but can also be names of keys like “play” or “ctrl-x.” You can set up multiple keys (“a+b”) and there are mouse events like “click” and “wheeldown.”
You can probably guess most keys, but if in doubt, call the configuration with the show-keys argument to get a list.
I renamed the program to
macropad-tool
. (
ch57x-keyboard-tool
was too much to type.) I didn’t realize at the time that there was
another program
that should work with the same pad that already uses that name.
When you have a yaml file ready, you can verify it and then, if it went well, upload it:
macropad-tool validate myconfig.yaml
macropad-tool upload myconfig.yaml
That’s It?
That’s mostly it. There were only a few problems. First, you need to reinitialize the macropad each time. Second, you probably need to be root to write to the device, which is less than handy. You probably want to do more than just keystrokes. For example, you want to have the top left button bring up, for example, Gimp. As a stretch goal, my macropad didn’t support layers, and even if it did, it isn’t handy to have to push a little button to change them. I set out to fix that — sort of.
Last Problem First
The KDE keyboard shortcut dialog can read the keys and make them do actions.
At first, I thought it would be easy to map things since I use KDE. I set the keypad up to generate F13-F25, keys you don’t normally have on most keyboards. It worked, but apparently my setup sees these keycodes as other special characters that are already mapped to things. I could have fixed it, but I decided to go a different direction.
The likelihood that you would bind something to Control+Alt+Shift+… is small. Generally, only a few odd and dangerous keystrokes use this because it takes a lot of dexterity to press all those keys.
But the macropad doesn’t care. So I set up the first key to be Control+Alt+Shift+A, followed by Control+Alt+Shift+B, and so on. Now, I can easily use the KDE keyboard shortcuts from the control panel to catch those keys and do things like launch a shell, change desktops, or whatever.
All the Rest
All the other problems hinge on one thing: it is hard to run the command to initialize the macropad unless you are root. If you had a simple command to set it up, you could easily run it on startup or at any time you wanted to reinitalize the macropad.
In addition, you could bind a key to run the configuration tool to change configurations to make a poor version of layers. Sure, there would be no indication of what layer you were in, but you could fix that a different way (for example, status text on the taskbar). While not ideal, it would be workable.
So how do we get a simple command that can easily load the macropad? There are a few choices. You could have a script owned by root that is sticky. That way, users could run it, but it could become root to configure the keyboard.
I decided to go a slightly different way. I put the tool in
/usr/local/bin
and the yaml files in
/usr/local/share/macropad
, which I created. Then I
created a script
. You’ll probably want to modify it.
The script calls the keypad loader with
sudo
. But the
sudo
will just prompt you, right? Well, yes. So you could make an entry in
/etc/sudoers.d/99-macropad
:
alw ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/macropad-tool
Now you, or the script on your behalf, can run the tool with
sudo
and not provide a password. Since a normal user can’t change
/usr/local/bin/macropad
or
/usr/local/bin/macropad-tool
, this is reasonable.
If you prefer, you could write a udev rule to match the USB IDs of your macropad and set the permissions. Something like this:
ATTRS{idProduct}=="8840", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1189", MODE="666", GROUP="users"
If you change the permissions, change the script to not use
sudo
. And, of course, change the product and vendor IDs to suit your macropad, along with your group, if you need something different. However, that’s probably the best option.
Fake Layers
Since the script allows you to define different layers, you can make a switch change the layer configuration by simply running the script with a given argument on a key press. A hack, but it works. Obviously, each layer will need its own fake keys unless they provide the same function. The file
/tmp/macropad-current-layer
tracks the current layer, which you can show with something like a
command output
plasmoid.
Arrange for the script to load on startup using your choice of
/etc/rc.local
,
systemd
, or even a udev rule. Whatever you like, and that takes care of all your problems.
Did we mention how cheap these are? Good thing, because you can easily
roll your own
and put some good software on it like
QMK
. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156161",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2025-07-30T14:45:52",
"content": "Udev rules arealwaysthe better choice. Giving an executable (which could have anything in it) full access to your system just so that it can modify a single device is a very bad habit to get into.",
"p... | 1,760,371,468.754168 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/30/everyones-invited-to-the-copyparty/ | Everyone’s Invited To The Copyparty | Tyler August | [
"Network Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"file server",
"nas"
] | Setting up a file server can be intimidating to the uninitiated. There are many servers to choose from, and then you need to decide how to install it — Docker? Kubernates? Well, what’s all that then? [9001] has come to the rescue with
Copyparty, a full-featured file server in a single Python script.
It’s light enough to run on nearly anything, and getting it running could not be easier: run copyparty-sfx.py, and you’ve got a server. There’s even a 32-bit .exe for older Windows machines — Windows 2000 seems to be the oldest version tested.
Browsers supported: almost all of them.
It’ll connect to anything, both in terms of the variety of protocols supported, and the browsers its web interface loads in. The GitHub documentation says browser support : “Yes”, which is pretty accurate going down the list. Sadly Copyparty’s pages do not work in NCSA Mosaic, but IE4 is A-OK.
There’s, FTP, TFTP, HTTP/HTTPS, WebDAV, SMB/CIFS, with unp/zeroconf/mdns/ssdp, etc etc. You need to check the readme for all features, some of which — like transcoding — are only available when dependencies such as ffmpeg installed on the server. Alternatively you can watch the video embedded below to get walked through the features. If the video whets your appetite, can also
visit a read-only Copyparty server
being demoed on a NUC sitting in [9001]’s basement.
Over the years we’ve seen plenty of folks
create personal servers
, but the focus is
generally on the hardware side of things
. While those with more software experience might prefer to configure the various services involved manually, we can definitely see the appeal of a project like Copyparty. In some ways it’s the inverse of the
UNIX Philosophy
: instead of doing one thing perfectly, this program is doing everything [9001] could think of, and doing it “good enough”.
Thanks to [pedropolis] for inviting us to the Copyparty via the tips line. Building a NAS? Writing software? Hardware?
Whatever you do, the tips line is for you. | 47 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8156105",
"author": "DeadlyFoez",
"timestamp": "2025-07-30T11:36:54",
"content": "This software will be exploited quickly.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8156112",
"author": "Ewald",
"timestamp": "2025-07-30T1... | 1,760,371,468.998136 |
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