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https://hackaday.com/2023/09/09/large-format-photos-without-the-large-price-tag/ | Large Format Photos Without The Large Price Tag | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"digital conversion",
"film",
"large format"
] | There’s a good reason that the go-to format for most film photographers is 35 mm, in that it provides a mix of convenience and cost. Shooting huge large-format negatives in the style of a 19th-century photographer can return astounding pictures with detail and lens effects unavailable on relatively tiny cameras, but it’s hardly the most convenient or cheapest medium.
[Amos Chapple] may have a way to cut those costs
though, by using a digital camera to capture the image projected by the camera onto a screen where the film would otherwise be.
He’s following in the footsteps of a Ukrainian photographer who tried the same technique photographing the projected image from the lens side, but that approach gave disappointing results due to the offset angle. Instead he’s placing the camera behind a translucent screen, having his DSLR behind a sheet of waxed paper held at the focal plane.
The results are we’d have to say, stunning. The old Soviet Ukrainian camera he’s using is something of a beast, but his photos of dancers at a folk festival have that other-worldly look to them which might well have something form the 1890s about it. We like it a lot and perhaps it’s tempting to fashion a poor-mans version using a cardboard box, and try for ourselves. Long-time readers will know
it’s not the only attempt to digitize a large format camera we’ve seen
. | 37 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680846",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2023-09-09T08:15:46",
"content": "Wouldn’t it be possible to put a beam splitter or a one-way mirror in front of the lens inside the camera and photograph the projection from the inside without the offset?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,372,176.513048 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/08/adding-composite-video-to-the-mattel-aquarius/ | Adding Composite Video To The Mattel Aquarius | Robin Kearey | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks",
"Retrocomputing",
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"7805",
"composite video",
"Mattel Aquarius",
"switching regulator"
] | In the home computer market of the 1980s, there were several winners that are still household names four decades later: the Commodore 64, the Apple II and the Sinclair Spectrum, to name a few. But where there are winners, there are bound to be losers as well – the Mattel Aquarius being a good example. A price war between the bigger players, combined with a rather poor hardware design, meant that the Aquarius was discontinued just a few months after its introduction in 1983. However, this makes it exactly the type of obscure machine that [Leaded Solder] likes to tinker with, so he was happy to finally get his hands on a neat specimen listed on eBay. He wrote an interesting blog post detailing
his efforts to connect this old beast to a modern TV
.
The main issue with the Aquarius is that it only has an RF video output, which results in a rather poor rendition of its already very limited graphics capabilities. Luckily, there is a fix available in the form of
a composite A/V adapter
that’s an almost plug-and-play upgrade. The only thing you need to do, as [Leaded Solder] illustrates in his blog post, is open up the computer, desolder the RF modulator and solder the A/V adapter in its place. Getting to that point was a bit tricky due to heavy EMI shields that were fixed in place with lots of solder, requiring liberal use of a desoldering iron.
While he had the machine opened up, [Leaded Solder] decided to also replace the original 7805 linear voltage regulator with a switching model, in order to reduce the amount of heat dissipated inside the cramped case. Once all this was done, the Aquarius booted up as usual, but this time with sharp, readible graphics and clear audio.
Interestingly, Mattel used a type of hardware encryption on its peripheral bus in an attempt to prevent unauthorized third-party extensions. Now that the computer is in a usable state, [Leaded Solder] is planning to reverse-engineer this system and figure out how it worked exactly. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing that, since
the only homebrew Aquarius hardware we know of
used a software trick to get around the lockout. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680820",
"author": "LambdaMikel",
"timestamp": "2023-09-09T05:03:59",
"content": "Yeah, it’s a nice product and mod! I’ve installed it too in my Aquarius. There is actually no real need to uninstall the RFI shield. I just left it in place.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,176.405343 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/08/linux-fu-build-a-better-ls/ | Linux Fu: Build A Better Ls | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"eza",
"linux",
"ls",
"lsd"
] | Ask someone to name all the things they can find in a room. Only a few will mention air. Ask a Linux command line user about programs they use and they may well forget to mention
ls
. Like air, it is seemingly invisible since it is so everpresent. But is it the best it can be? Sure, you can use environment variables and aliases to make it work a little nicer, but, in fact, it is much the same
ls
we have used for decades. But there have always been moves to make better
ls
programs. One of them,
exa
, was recently deprecated in favor of one of its forks,
eza
.
One thing we liked about
eza
is that it is a single file. No strange installation. No multiple files to coordinate. Put it on your path, and you are done. So installation is easy, but why should you install it?
Features
One of the nice features of
eza
is that it has better defaults. Sure, you can work around that with
ls
, but it is still nice. It also knows about things like hyperlinks, Git repos, and even icons — sort of.
By default, the program ignores . and .., even if you give the
-a
option. You can, however, use
-a
twice to show those directories, as well. Want to know if a file is tracked or ignored in Git? Use the
--git
option. If you want to see file permissions in octal (and who doesn’t?), try
-o
. The
--git-ignore
option allows you to skip things you’ve already told Git not to worry about. You can even get a nice tree-like output (
-T
).
Column headers are a simple but nice feature (
-lh
).
A few output lines from eza
Of Course…
Of course,
ls
has a lot of options, too. You can suppress the . and .. directories, for example, with
-A
. You can also ask it to create hyperlinks. In fact, if there is one complaint we have, it is that the options are different, and many scripts use
ls
. So replacing
ls
with
eza
can be a problem. You might be better off aliasing it only for commands you enter. It would be nice if, for example,
eza
took normal
ls
options until you used a special option to trigger extended options.
If you want, for example, to list only directories using stock ls, you usually use one of two options:
ls -d */ls -l | grep ^d
With
eza
, you simply say:
eza -D
Then Again…
Eza
isn’t going to change your world. In general, you can do everything it does with some combination of existing tools or
ls
options. But it is handy, especially if you work with tools it knows about like Git. Another common choice is LSDeluxe, known as
lsd
. This is widely supported and also has a configuration file, so you can make its defaults what you want.
A few output lines from lsd
The
lsd
program is probably a bit more compatible with
ls
, which we like. It also offers tree view, icons, and Git modes. One thing we definitely like is the ability to specify –classic to get output similar to what you get from the stock
ls
.
Overall, they are both pretty similar. Which one you choose will probably fall to your personal preference. Or, maybe you want to stick with the old Unix principle that programs should do one thing and only one thing well. Then you might stick with the old way of doing things, and that’s fine too. Linux is, after all, about choice.
Grep
is another one of those tools you might
consider replacing
. Of course, if you really want a different experience, try
changing shells
. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680793",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2023-09-09T02:16:11",
"content": "ls -edalf",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6680827",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2023-09-09T06:41:48",
"... | 1,760,372,176.785311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/08/tear-apart-your-house-for-200-with-this-rotary-subwoofer/ | Tear Apart Your House For $200 With This Rotary Subwoofer | Julian Scheffers | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"fan",
"rotary subwoofer",
"subwoofer"
] | Many movies and songs use a lot of of bass to make it feel more real to the viewer or listener. Because of this, subwoofers are common in high-quality audio setups, often costing a substantial part of the budget. [Daniel Fajkis] takes the subwoofer to it’s logical extreme
by building a rotary subwoofer
on a $200 budget.
The principle of a rotary subwoofer is that a normal subwoofer physically moves the air, and so does a fan. If you could make a fan oscillate the air instead of only pushing it, you could turn it into such a subwoofer, which is exactly what [Daniel] did. [Daniel] mounts a large electric motor on the case of an ex-subwoofer to spin the fan. Then, he uses the rotor linkage of a model helicopter and a modified subwoofer speaker to pitch the fan blades, spinning around to create a truly impressive gust of air oscillating at as low as 1 Hz.
The video, after the break, is well made with some good humor, including the legendary quote: “It’s gonna tear apart my household, there’s no way we’re surviving this one.”
If that isn’t enough force from a subwoofer for you, maybe
this subwoofer vortex cannon
is. | 44 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680747",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2023-09-08T23:13:46",
"content": "That is an impressive sub-woofer!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6681088",
"author": "RAY D",
"timesta... | 1,760,372,176.287229 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/08/homebrew-linear-actuators-improved/ | Homebrew Linear Actuators Improved | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"linear actuator",
"linear actuators"
] | [Harrison Low] published some 3D-printed linear actuators, which generated a lot of interest. He got a lot of advice from people on the Internet, and he took it to heart. The result: an
improved version
that you can see in the video below.
The
original design
used carbon fiber and Kevlar and was quite stiff. The actuators could move very fast, which was important to [Harrison]. However, they were also prone to wear and had issues with the force required to assemble them. He also wanted the design to be more modular to facilitate repair. The new design removes the bowden tubes, and the resulting actuator is both easier to assemble and easier to service.
One of the great things about 3D printing is you can iterate quickly, incorporating lessons you learn into new revisions. The old actuator, for example, failed after 39,000 cycles. The new ones were able to make 50,000 cycles and didn’t seem to be worse for the wear.
[Harrison] is looking at some future improvements, including using the motor body as one of the spools and switching to synchromesh cable. He’s looking for suggestions for the next generation, so be sure to share your ideas and experience.
If you want to
make your own
, the last part of the video shows detailed assembly instructions. It looks like they would be worth watching as the assembly isn’t trivial.
If you want something easier to put together, maybe try one
hosted on a PCB
. Or, there are other designs, many of which are
quite inexpensive
. | 19 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680717",
"author": "Anni",
"timestamp": "2023-09-08T21:34:48",
"content": "This actuators could be an inovation on love life toys, it looks more elegant than these bulky ones. Could you put a thicker Rod in the middle? And how much force comes out?There is a failed start up with a ... | 1,760,372,176.65093 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/07/building-up-unicode-characters-one-bit-at-a-time/ | Building Up Unicode Characters One Bit At A Time | Dan Maloney | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"binary",
"codepoint",
"glyph",
"keyboard",
"true type font",
"unicode",
"usb hid",
"UTF-8"
] | The range of characters that can be represented by Unicode is truly bewildering. If there’s a symbol that was ever used to represent a sound or a concept anywhere in the world, chances are pretty good that you can find it somewhere in Unicode. But can many of us recall the proper keyboard calisthenics needed to call forth a particular character at will? Probably not, which is where
this Unicode binary input terminal
may offer some relief.
“Surely they can’t be suggesting that entering Unicode characters as a sequence of bytes using toggle switches is somehow easier than looking up the numpad shortcut?” we hear you cry. No, but we suspect that’s hardly [Stephen Holdaway]’s intention with this build. Rather, it seems geared specifically at making the process of keying in Unicode harder, but cooler; after all, it was originally his intention to enter this in last year’s
Odd Inputs and Peculiar Peripherals
contest. [Stephen] didn’t feel it was quite ready at the time, but now we’ve got a chance to give this project a once-over.
The idea is simple: a bank of eight toggle switches (with LEDs, of course) is used to compose the desired UTF-8 character, which is made up of one to four bytes. Each byte is added to a buffer with a separate “shift/clear” momentary toggle, and eventually sent out over USB with a flick of the “send” toggle. [Stephen] thoughtfully included a tiny LCD screen to keep track of the character being composed, so you know what you’re sending down the line. Behind the handsome brushed aluminum panel, a Pi Pico runs the show, drawing glyphs from an SD card containing 200 MB of True Type Font files.
At the end of the day, it’s tempting to look at this as an attractive but essentially useless project. We beg to differ, though — there’s a lot to learn about Unicode, and [Stephen] certainly knocked that off his bucket list with this build. There’s also something wonderfully tactile about this interface, and we’d imagine that composing each codepoint is pretty illustrative of how UTF-8 is organized. Sounds like an all-around win to us. | 33 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680182",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2023-09-07T11:35:52",
"content": "That thing looks beautiful. Really well done! I want two of them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6680187",
"author": "mathman",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,372,176.853419 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/07/intels-chips-light-the-way-to-faster-processor-arrays/ | Intel’s Chips Light The Way To Faster Processor Arrays | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"cpu",
"intel",
"multi-processor",
"photonic interconnect"
] | It’s very likely indeed that whatever you are reading this on will have a multi-core processor. They’re now the norm, but the path to they octa-or-more-core chip in your phone has gone from individual processors with PCB interconnects through many generations of ever faster on-chip ones.
But what if your power needs are so high-end that you need more cores that can be fitted on one chip, but without the slow PCB interconnect to another? If you’re Intel, you
develop a multi-core processor with an on-chip photonic interconnect
. It talks to the neighboring ones in its cluster at full speed, via light.
The chip in question isn’t one you’ll see in a machine near you, instead it’s inspired by the extremely demanding requirements for DARPA’s
HIVE
graph analytics program. So this is a machine for supercomputers in huge data centers rather than desktop computers, it will be assembled into multi-die packages with that chip-to-chip optical networking built in. But your computer today is the equal of a supercomputer from not that many years ago, so never say you won’t one day be using its descendant technologies. | 19 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680169",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2023-09-07T10:07:25",
"content": "I remember the days when Intel’s Thunderbolt technology was still “Light Peak”. It was meant to provide optical links between motherboard components etc. Boy, was I disappointed when Thunderbolt came out, ... | 1,760,372,176.709746 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/bespoke-implants-are-real-if-you-put-in-the-time/ | Bespoke Implants Are Real—if You Put In The Time | Brian McEvoy | [
"Medical Hacks",
"PCB Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"biohacking",
"flex board",
"flex PCB",
"flexable pcb design",
"grinding",
"hid",
"implant",
"physical security",
"rfid"
] | A subset of hackers have RFID implants, but there is a limited catalog. When [Miana] looked for a device that would open a secure door at her work, she did not find the implant she needed, even though the lock was susceptible to cloned-chip attacks. Since no one made the implant,
she set herself to the task
. [Miana] is no stranger to implants, with 26 at the time of her talk at DEFCON31, including a couple of custom glowing ones, but this was her first venture into electronic implants. Or electronics at all. The full video after the break describes the important terms.
The PCB antenna in an RFID circuit must be accurately tuned, which is this project’s crux. Simulators exist to design and test virtual antennas, but they are priced for corporations, not individuals. Even with simulators, you have to know the specifics of your chip, and [Miana] could not buy the bare chips or find a datasheet. She bought a pack of iCLASS cards from the manufacturer and dissolved the PVC with acetone to measure the chip’s capacitance. Later, she found the datasheet and confirmed her readings. There are calculators in lieu of a simulator, so there was enough information to design a PCB and place an order.
The first batch of units can only trigger the base station from one position. To make the second version, [Miana] bought a Vector Network Analyzer to see which frequency the chip and antenna resonated. The solution to making adjustments after printing is to add a capacitor to the circuit, and its size will tune the system. The updated design works so a populated board is coated and implanted, and you can see an animated loop of [Miana] opening the lock with her bare hand.
Biohacking can be anything from improving how we
read our heart rate
to
implanting a Raspberry Pi
. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680128",
"author": "vlad",
"timestamp": "2023-09-07T05:33:54",
"content": "???",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6680129",
"author": "Dalle Lelle",
"timestamp": "2023-09-07T05:36:47",
"content": "Pippi Longstocking on... | 1,760,372,176.348905 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/the-computer-that-controlled-chernobyl/ | The Computer That Controlled Chernobyl | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"Chernobyl",
"soviet",
"V-30M"
] | When you think of Chernobyl (or Chornobyl, now), you think of the nuclear accident, of course. But have you ever considered that where there is a nuclear reactor, there is a computer control system? What computers were in control of the infamous reactor? [Chornobyl Family] has
the answer
in a fascinating video documentary you can see below.
The video shows a bit of the history of Soviet-era control computers. The reactor’s V-30M computer descended from some of these earlier computers. With 20K of core memory, we won’t be impressed today, but that was respectable for the day. The SKALA system will look familiar if you are used to looking at 1970s-era computers.
Interestingly, the video shows some old newsletters from the reactor’s engineering staff detailing the trials of engineers installing the computer. As you might expect, the computer was made to be highly reliable and monitored several safety systems and special isolated software.
There are plenty of Soviet teletypes, magnetic tape drives, and paper tape punches in view. While the user interface looks daunting with cryptic codes. However, this is typical of the time to work around the limited hardware. The Apollo vehicles were not terribly different, for example.
SKALA got an upgraded helper in 1991 which looks a little more modern. Still nothing like we have today. If you are jaded at looking at old hardware from
DEC
and
IBM
, these Soviet computers will scratch your itch for novelty. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680203",
"author": "JNA",
"timestamp": "2023-09-07T13:07:53",
"content": "Ummm…. The first Pacific Rim movie specifically taught that if I have a massive ‘transformer’ running on nuclear power, that it doesn’t have any electronics/computers in it; everything can run just fine on a... | 1,760,372,176.201432 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/quake-2-ported-to-apple-watch/ | Quake 2 Ported To Apple Watch | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games"
] | [
"apple watch",
"build",
"mac",
"quake",
"quake 2",
"touch controls",
"xcode"
] | DOOM always seems to spontaneously appear on any new device the day it’s released. From printers to industrial robots to pregnancy tests, it always makes its way on anything with an integrated circuit and a screen. But that’s not the only 90s video game with a cult following and and ability to run on hardware never intended for gaming. The early Quake games are still remarkably popular, and
the second installment of this series was recently brought to the Apple Watch thanks to [ByteOverlord]
.
Building this classic for the Apple Watch requires using the original Quake files and some work with Xcode to get a package together that will run on the wrist-bound computer. There are a few other minimum system requirements to meet as well, but with all of that out of the way the latest release runs fairly well on this small watch. The controls have been significantly modified to use the Apple’s touch screen and digital crown instead of any peripherals, and as a result it’s not likely you’d win any matches if it was possible to cross-play with PC users with a setup like this, but it’s definitely playable although still missing a few features compared to the PC version.
This actually isn’t the first Quake game to be ported to the Apple Watch, either.
The first version of Quake ran on this device
thanks to [MyOwnClone]’s efforts a little over a year ago. It’s also not the first time we’ve seen Quake running on unusual Apple hardware, either. Take a look at
this project which uses one of the early iPods to play this game
, along with the scroll wheel for a one-of-a-kind controller.
Thanks to [Joni] for the tip! | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,372,176.441601 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/thin-keyboard-fits-in-steam-deck-case/ | Thin Keyboard Fits In Steam Deck Case | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"case",
"keyboard",
"KiCAD",
"pcb",
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"steam deck",
"svg",
"thin"
] | Although some of the first Android-powered smartphones had them and Blackberries were famous for them, physical keyboards on portable electronics like that quickly became a thing of the past. Presumably the cost to manufacture is too high and the margins too low regardless of consumer demand. Whatever the reason, if you want a small keyboard for your portable devices you’ll
likely need to make one yourself like [Kārlis] did for the Steam Deck
.
Unlike a more familiar mechanical keyboard build which prioritizes the feel and sound of the keyboard experience, this one sacrifices nearly every other design consideration in order to be thin enough to fit in the Steam Deck case. The PCB is designed to be flexible using copper tape cut to size with a vinyl cutter with all the traces running to a Raspberry Pi Pico which hosts the firmware and plugs into the Steam Deck’s USB port. The files for the PCB are available in KiCad and can be exported as SVG files for cutting.
In the end, [Kārlis] has a functioning keyboard that’s even a little more robust than was initially expected and which does fit alongside the Deck in its case. On the other hand, [Kārlis] describes the typing experience as “awful” due to its extreme thinness, but either way we applaud the amount of effort that went in to building a keyboard with this form factor. The Steam Deck itself is a platform which lends itself to all kinds of modifications as well, from the control sticks to the operating systems, and
Valve will even show you how
. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680113",
"author": "elwing",
"timestamp": "2023-09-07T03:30:59",
"content": "It’s worth mentionning that most gaming handheld PC had keyboard before the steam deck but after the deck a whole new gen of gaming handheld PC lost keyboards. through some of the newer brands try to reint... | 1,760,372,176.904419 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/downgrade-your-heathkit-h8-to-the-worlds-first-8-bit-microprocessor/ | Downgrade Your Heathkit H8 To The World’s First 8-bit Microprocessor | Julian Scheffers | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"downgrade",
"heathkit h8",
"intel 8008",
"retro computing"
] | Typically when you’re replacing parts in an old computer it’s either for repairs or an upgrade. Upgrades like adding a more capable processor to an old computer are the most common, and can help bring an old computer a bit closer to the modern era. [Dr. Scott M. Baker] had a different idea,
when he downgraded a Heathkit H8 from an 8080 to an 8008
.
Despite the very similar numbers, the 8080 runs at four to nearly sixteen times the speed of its predecessor. In addition to this, the 8008 is far less capable on multiple fronts like address space, I/O ports, the stack and even interrupts. The 8008 does have one thing going for it though: the 8008 is widely known as the world’s first 8-bit microprocessor.
The custom 8008 CPU board for the Heathkit H8.
In the video after the break, [Scott] goes into great detail about the challenges presented in replacing the 8080 with the 8008, starting with the clock. The clock is two-phase, so that what would otherwise be a single oscillator now also has a clock divider and two NAND gates.
Boring clock stuff aside, he does some great hacking using the I/O ports including expanding the I/O port count from 32 to the full 256, bit-banging serial, implementing an interrupt controller and even memory mapping 64 KiB into 16 KiB of address space! With that and a few more special adapter circuits, we think [Scott] has done a great job of downgrading his H8 and the resulting CPU board looks fabulous.
Maybe you’re wondering what happens if you upgrade the computer instead of the CPU? What you get is
this credit-card sized 6502 computer
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6680008",
"author": "jcwren",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T20:29:05",
"content": "The 4004 is considered to be the world’s first microprocessor.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6680013",
"author": "David Bovvinge",
... | 1,760,372,177.37669 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/road-salt-bah-new-roadway-material-promises-a-better-solution-to-snow-and-ice/ | Road Salt? Bah! New Roadway Material Promises A Better Solution To Snow And Ice | Lewin Day | [
"green hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Science"
] | [
"road",
"road salt",
"roadway"
] | If you’ve ever lived somewhere it gets properly cold, you’ll know that winter’s icy grasp brings the inevitable challenge of keeping roadways safe. While road salt and gritting have long been the go-to solutions, their detrimental environmental impact and the potential for infrastructure degradation are well-documented.
However, a game-changing new development might just offer a brighter, greener solution.
Just imagine it—roads that stay ice free without requiring regular attention.
Rethinking Road Salt
Put this stuff in asphalt, and you’ve really got something. Credit: Research paper,
ACS Omega
The environmental hazards posed by chloride-based salts are significant. When these salts are washed off roads, they can contaminate nearby water sources. Furthermore, the repeated application throughout the winter months causes wear and tear on the roads and induces nasty corrosion on vehicles and infrastructure. There’s a reason cars in snowbelt regions rust so much faster, after all. And while road salt does serve its purpose of melting ice, once a fresh layer of ice forms, drivers are back in peril until salt trucks make their rounds again.
To address these concerns, many municipalities have embarked on a mission to formulate a safer alternative. Solutions include everything from byproducts from sugar beet refining or ethanol production processes. Recently, though, researchers from China’s Hebei University of Science and Technology have been working with an environmentally-friendly, chloride-free acetate-based salt. As per
the research paper
, not only is this salt kinder to our planet, but it’s also less corrosive, making it gentler on vehicles and infrastructure. Moreover, its efficacy in lower temperatures is a significant advantage over traditional solutions. Where traditional sodium chloride becomes ineffective as a deicing agent at around -10.9 ºC (12.3 ºF), the homemade sodium acetate solution used by researchers had a far lower freezing point of -23.5 ºC (-10.3 ºF).
The visual difference on the ground was stark: the asphalt with the special additive remained ice and snow free under conditions where an untreated road was completely covered. Credit: Research paper,
ACS Omega
Building on this breakthrough, the scientists combined the acetate-based salt with various compounds including a surfactant, silicon dioxide, sodium bicarbonate, and blast furnace slag. The idea was to allow the blast furnace slag to act as a porous carrier for the acetate salt, while the sodium bicarbonate acted as a corrosion inhibitor. The surfactant was used to increase the absorption of the porous carrier, while the silicon dioxide was used to disperse the materials more evenly. The mixed slurry was dried and crushed, with the combined powder subsequently encapsulated in a polymer solution, leading to the creation of microcapsules that could be incorporated directly into road asphalt. The concept was simple: including the microcapsules in the road surface directly would let the microcapsules slowly release their acetate salt content over time, keeping the roads ice free.
The newly developed asphalt was subsequently tested in real-world conditions on a highway off-ramp at the Sizhuang Toll Station of Beijing-Xiong’an highway.
The results of this experiment were nothing short of remarkable. The revamped asphalt not only continuously melted falling snow but also lowered the freezing point of water dramatically from -2.5 ºC (27.5 ºF) to a chilly -21 ºC (-6 ºF) on the material’s surface. In the winters of 2021 and 2022, the test section of road could be seen to outperform the neighboring regular asphalt, with almost no snow removal required in light snow conditions. In heavier snows, the snow and ice layer on the road was generally thin enough to be penetrated by regular traffic, avoiding the major loss of grip typical of a more resilient ice layer. If that wasn’t impressive enough, lab tests suggest that a slab of this innovative pavement, at just 5-cm (2-in) thick, could continuously release its stored acetate salt for an astonishing seven to eight years, ensuring roads remain clear throughout multiple winter seasons. That’s a significant improvement over
previous stored-salt-release systems that exist.
.
As cities and countries grapple with the dual challenges of ensuring road safety and minimizing environmental impact, this new asphalt mixture might just be the solution we’ve been waiting for. The prospect of roads that can actively fend off ice for years without the need for frequent, ecologically harmful salt applications is truly a tantalizing one. Those sick of seeing their cars rot away in record time would likely also appreciate a better solution than good old sodium chloride. Watch this space, and consider petitioning your transport authorities for better ice-resistant roads in future.
Banner image: “
October Snow
” by Nicholas_T. Thumbnail image: “
DSNY salt truck
” by Chris Hamby. | 68 | 29 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679948",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T17:28:33",
"content": "“with the combined powder subsequently encapsulated in a polymer solution”So… plastic.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6679955",
"author": "O... | 1,760,372,177.617249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/get-a-fresh-build-plate-at-the-push-of-a-button/ | Get A Fresh Build Plate At The Push Of A Button | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3D printable",
"build plate",
"captive hardware",
"flexible",
"steel sheet",
"storage"
] | For best results, a build sheet for a 3D printer’s print bed should be handled and stored by the edges only. To help make that easier, [Whity] created the
Expandable Steel Sheet Holder
system that can store sheets efficiently without touching their main surfaces, and has a clever mechanism for ejecting them at the push of a button.
Pushing the button (red, bottom left) pivots the section at the top right, ejecting the plate forward for easy retrieval.
The design is 3D printable and made to be screwed to the bottom of a shelf, which is great for space saving. It can also be extended to accommodate as many sheets as one wishes, and there’s a clever method for doing that.
Once the first unit is fastened to a shelf, adding additional units later is as simple as screwing them to the previous one with a few M3 bolts, thanks to captive nuts in the previously-mounted unit. It’s a thoughtful feature that makes it easy to expand after the fact. Since build sheets come in a variety of different textures and surfaces for different purposes, one’s collection does tends to grow.
Interested, but want it to fit some other manufacturer’s sheets? The design looks easy to modify, but before you do that, check out the
many remixes
and you’re likely to find what you’re looking for. After all,
flexible magnetic build sheets are useful in both resin and filament-based 3D printing
. | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679923",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T16:17:52",
"content": "Nice build, but I would prefer a lever that secures the build plate when stored and a spring that ejects it when said build plate is released. Seehttps://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinon_FZ-506-8584.... | 1,760,372,177.513 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/mining-and-refining-quartz-both-natural-and-synthetic/ | Mining And Refining: Quartz, Both Natural And Synthetic | Dan Maloney | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"mining",
"natural resources",
"Quartz"
] | So far in this series, pretty much every material we’ve covered has had to undergo a significant industrial process to transform it from its natural state to a more useful product. Whether it’s
the transformation of bauxite from reddish-brown clay to lustrous aluminum ingots
, or
squeezing solid sulfur out of oil and natural gas
, there haven’t been many examples of commercially useful materials that are taken from the Earth and used in their natural state.
Quartz, though, is at least a partial exception to this rule. Once its unusual electrical properties were understood, crystalline quartz was sent directly from quarries and mines to factories, where they were turned into piezoelectric devices with no chemical transformation whatsoever. The magic of crystal formation had already been done by natural processes; all that was needed was a little slicing and dicing.
As it turns out, though, quartz is so immensely useful for a technological society that there’s no way for the supply of naturally formed crystals to match demand. Like
copper
before it, which was first discovered in natural metallic deposits that could be fashioned into tools and decorations more or less directly, we would need to discover different sources for quartz and invent chemical transformations to create our own crystals, taking cues from Mother Nature’s recipe book on the way.
Crystals Everywhere
Pure quartz, or “rock crystal” from Brazil. Source:
Didier Descouens
, CC BY-SA 4.0
Pick up a rock almost anywhere on Earth and chances are pretty good that there’s at least some quartz in it. Quartz is the second-most abundant mineral in the continental crust, and is present both as visible crystals, ranging in size from immense outcroppings weighing tons down to the grains of beach sand, and as cryptocrystals so small you need a microscope to see them, which are hidden within other rocks, like flint.
Chemically, quartz is nearly pure silicon dioxide (SiO
2
). When there are no impurities, pure quartz is water-clear and often referred to as “rock crystal”. Impurities can give transparent quartz beautiful hues, such as yellowish citrine (iron) or rose quartz (titanium, iron, and manganese). Inclusions and trapped gasses can turn quartz translucent (milky quartz) and natural irradiation can even act on stray aluminum in the crystal matrix and turn it gray (smoky quartz).
Natural quartz crystals usually have a long body with a hexagonal cross-section with six-sided pyramidal caps on each end. Quartz crystal outcroppings can be found all over the world, with notable examples in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, where rockhounds harvest
crystals of often ridiculous proportions
, and the Mohawk Valley in New York, where the misnamed
“Herkimer Diamond”
is found.
Aside from its aesthetic charms, and disregarding the claims of mysterious powers made by crystal enthusiasts, quartz has a lot of industrial uses. Its abundance of silicon makes it the perfect feedstock for
silicon wafer production
, and fused quartz glass of nearly pure silicon dioxide is used for everything from optical communication fibers to the crucibles used to melt silicon for the
Czochralski method
of growing monocrystalline silicon ingots.
Natural Isn’t Always Better
The piezoelectric effect, a property of certain crystals to vibrate at a characteristic frequency when a voltage is applied across them (and vice versa), has been known since the experiments of the Curie brothers in the 1880s, with quartz being one of the main crystals they focused on. Piezoelectricity first proved its utility in World War I, with submarine warfare and the need for ultrasonic transducers for sonar. Shortly after, the twin post-war explosions of radio and telephone increased the demand for quartz crystal oscillators.
Almost all of the quartz needed for these components was harvested from natural crystals
, mostly from Brazil and the quarries in Arkansas, from which raw slabs were painstakingly cut, polished, and processed to make finished piezoelectric components.
R. A. Sullivan and R. A. Ladice at Western Electric’s pilot plant for synthetic quartz production, circa 1959. Source: Public Domain
But then along came World War II, and the demand for natural quartz crystals exploded. Quartz was a critical material for prosecuting the war, and the supply of natural quartz was only barely keeping up with the demand, especially since crystals had to meet stringent requirements of purity and physical characteristics, such as lack of cracks and inclusions. It was clear too that the post-war period was going to see an even greater demand for quartz thanks to a burgeoning consumer electronics market, as well as continued expansion of the telephone network and the newfangled televisions that were coming along.
Seeing the intensely manual process of harvesting natural quartz as a threat to the future of the telephone network, engineers and scientists at Bell Labs, the R&D arm of AT&T, started research in the late 1940s into commercial-scale methods for making artificial quartz crystals. Artificial synthesis of crystals has been around since the late 1800s, but only on a microscopic scale. They needed a way to grow big crystals, and a lot of them, with bonus points if the method was cheap and easy to scale up to industrial levels.
The method they came up with, hydrothermal synthesis, is basically a way to reproduce the conditions under which natural quartz crystals originally formed. It uses moderate heat — around 300°C or so — but tremendous pressure — in the range of 20,000 psi (137 MPa). The pressure vessel that’s used has to have tremendous strength; the walls are often almost a foot (30 cm) thick, and have heating elements embedded in them. But to feed these vessels, a suitable stock of material is needed, and it turns out that lower grades of natural quartz are the perfect starting point for synthetic crystals.
It Takes Quartz to Make Quartz
The beginning stages of commercial quartz mining bear a lot of resemblance to many of the mining methods we’ve looked at so far. Most non-electronic-grade quartz, known as lascas, is harvested from open-cast mines. Overburden is stripped away with heavy machinery and sometimes explosives — although blasting is never used on the quartz itself, to avoid damage from sudden and intense heating — and quartz is hauled away for processing.
After crushing, washing, sizing, and chemical treatment with various acids to dissolve away unwanted minerals, quartz lascas can be shipped off to manufacturers who specialize in taking this high-purity but disordered quartz powder to the next level — synthetic quartz.
To start hydrothermal synthesis, crushed quartz is layered into the bottom of the pressure vessel and topped with a perforated baffle plate. Water is added to the vessel along with a small amount of mineralizer — either sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate. The mineralizer’s job is to dissolve the silicon dioxide in the quartz into sodium silicate:
Into the slurry in the pressure chamber is lowered a sturdy frame to which several thin sheets of quartz have been attached. These sheets, cut to the proper crystal orientation for the desired piezoelectric property, serve as the seed crystals upon which the synthetic crystals will grow.
With the vessel charged and sealed, heating begins. A gradient is established, with more heat being applied to the bottom of the vessel. The silica-rich water in the vessel boils, generating steam that gradually increases the pressure inside the chamber. Convection causes the process fluid to flow up through the chamber to the cooler area at the top; there, the silicates are less soluble, causing them to deposit on the seed crystals and continue their growth. Synthesis is a slow process; the crystals only add about a half-millimeter of new material every day, meaning that a commercially useful synthetic crystal can take months to create. Economies of scale are realized by making the synthesis chambers massive, big enough to create hundreds of crystals at a time.
By the time synthesis is complete, the 99.9999% pure silicon dioxide crystals are about eight kilograms in mass and are the size of your head. Synthetic quartz crystals look nothing like their natural counterparts; rather than the long hexagonal body and pyramidal caps of natural crystals, they’re more squat, having grown outward from both faces of the seed crystal sheet, and the crystal facets have a scalloped appearance. The seed crystal is often visible within the water-clear crystal, too.
Once the synthetic crystals are done growing, they need to be processed. The crystals are first ground flat in the plane parallel to the seed crystal lying inside. Diamond saws then cut the crystal into thin slices perpendicular to the ground face, called a lumber. After removing the narrow section of seed crystal from the middle, a diamond gang saw cuts the lumber into thin wafers at just the right angle across the crystal. These wafers then go through repeated lapping, slicing, and testing operations to tune their piezoelectric properties before ending up in an integrated crystal oscillator or other finished crystal component. | 17 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679897",
"author": "Neptoid",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T14:54:32",
"content": "I remember my time serving as conscript in 1984-1986, mostly assigned to vehicle maintenace. We had a couple of very large off-road MAZ trucks which were used to haul trailers with T-55 tanks. Those thing... | 1,760,372,177.322246 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/its-numbers-all-the-way-down-with-this-tape-measure-number-station-antenna/ | It’s Numbers All The Way Down With This Tape Measure Number Station Antenna | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"cryptography",
"espionage",
"radio",
"sdr",
"shortwave",
"spy",
"tape measure"
] | For all their talk of cooperation and shared interests, the nations of the world put an awful lot of effort into spying on each other. All this espionage is an open secret, of course, but some of their activities are so mysterious that no one will confirm or deny that they’re doing it. We’re talking about numbers stations, the super secret shortwave radio stations that broadcast seemingly random strings of numbers for the purpose of… well, your guess is as good as ours.
If you want to try to figure out what’s going on for yourself,
all you need is a pair of tape measures
and a software defined radio (SDR), as [Tom Farnell] demonstrates. Tape measure antennas have a long and proud history in amateur radio and shortwave listening, being a long strip of conductive material rolled up in a convenient package. In this case, [Tom] wanted to receive some well-known numbers stations in the 20- to 30-meter band, and decided that a single 15-meter conductor would do the job. Unlike
other tape measure antennas
we’ve seen, [Tom] just harvested the blades from two 7.5-meter tape measures, connected them end-to-end, and threw the whole thing out the window in sort of a “sloper” configuration. The other end is connected to an RTL-SDR dongle and a smartphone running what appears to be SDRTouch, which lets him tune directly into the numbers stations.
Copying the transmissions is pretty simple, since they transmit either in voice or Morse; the latter can be automatically decoded on a laptop with suitable software. As for what the long strings of numbers mean, that’ll remain a mystery. If they mean anything at all; we like to think this whole thing is an elaborate plan to get other countries to waste time and resources intercepting truly random numbers that encode nothing meaningful. It would serve them right. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679851",
"author": "SomedaySomeone",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T11:51:52",
"content": "Nice write up on number stations herehttps://warontherocks.com/2018/05/explaining-the-mystery-of-numbers-stations/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,372,177.256444 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/06/finally-a-machine-to-organize-resistors/ | Finally, A Machine To Organize Resistors! | Jenny List | [
"hardware",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"resistors"
] | Perhaps it’s a side-effect of getting older, but it seems like reading the color bands on blue metal-film resistors is harder than it was on the old brown carbon ones. So often the multimeter has to come out to check, but it’s annoying. Thus we rather like [Mike]’s
Resistorganizer
, which automates the process of keeping track of the components.
At its heart is a fairly simple concept, with the microcontroller reading the value of a resistor by measuring the voltage from a potential divider. The Resistorganizer extends this using an array of analogue multiplexer chips, and is designed to plug into one side of a breadboard with the idea being that each line can have a resistor connected to earth through it. Of course it’s not quite as simple as that, because to maintain a readable range a set of resistors must be switched in and out to form the other half of the divider for different ranges. Thus another multiplexer chip performs that task.
Finally a set of digital multiplexers handles an LED to see which of the many resistors is currently selected through a pair of buttons, and a dot-matrix LCD display delivers the value. We want one already! | 37 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679796",
"author": "duderino",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T08:09:46",
"content": "Sure, getting the multimeter out is annoying. I’m struggling to see how this is *less* annoying.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6679815",
"auth... | 1,760,372,177.449918 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/streaming-video-from-an-esp32/ | Streaming Video From An ESP32 | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"browser",
"ESP32",
"images",
"javascript",
"microcontroller",
"mqtt",
"streaming",
"video"
] | The ESP32, while first thought to be little more than a way of adding wireless capabilities to other microcontrollers, has quickly replaced many of them with its ability to be programmed as its own platform rather than simply an accessory. This also paved the way for accessories of its own, such as various sensors and even a camera. This guide goes over
taking the input from the camera and streaming it out over the network to multiple browsers
.
On the server side of things, the ESP32 and its attached camera are set up with MQTT, a lightweight communications protocol which uses a publish/subscribe model to send information. The ESP32 is configured to publish its images only, but not subscribe to any other nodes. On the client side, the browser runs a JavaScript program which is able to gather these images and stitch them together into a video.
This can be quite a bit of data to send out over the ESP32’s compact hardware, so there are some tips and tricks for getting more out of these little devices, including using an external antenna for better Wi-Fi signal, or omitting it entirely in favor of Ethernet. As far as getting a lot out of a tiny microcontroller, though, leveraging MQTT really helps the ESP32 go a long way. These chips have come along way since they were first introduced;
they’re powerful enough to act as 8-bit gaming consoles too
.
Thanks to [Surfskidude] for the tip! | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679743",
"author": "Lua Jit",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T05:33:24",
"content": "I love that this code is entirely written in Lua!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6679762",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2023-... | 1,760,372,177.707843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/electro-optical-control-of-lasers-with-a-licorice-twist/ | Electro-Optical Control Of Lasers With A Licorice Twist | Dan Maloney | [
"Science"
] | [
"anethole",
"anise",
"electro-optical",
"high voltage",
"Kerr effect",
"laser",
"nitrobenzene",
"ouzo",
"polarizing"
] | You’ve got to hand it to [Les Wright]; he really knows how to dig into optical arcana and present topics in an interesting way. Case in point:
an electro-optical control cell that’s powered by ouzo
.
OK, the bit about the Greek aperitif may be stretching things a bit, but the Kerr Cell that [Les] builds in the video below does depend on
anethole
, the essential component of aniseed extract, which lends its aromatic flavor to everything from licorice to Galliano and ouzo. As [Les] explains, the Kerr effect uses a high-voltage field to rapidly switch light passing through a medium on and off. The most common medium in Kerr cells is nitrobenzene, a “distressingly powerful organic solvent” with such fun side effects as toxicity, flammability, and carcinogenicity.
Luckily, [Les] found a suitable substitute in the form of anethole — a purified sample, not just an ouzo nip. The solution went into a plain glass cuvette equipped with a pair of aluminum electrodes, which got connected to one of the high-voltage supplies we’ve seen him build before for
his nitrogen laser
. A pair of polarizing filters go on either end of the cuvette, and are adjusted to blank out the light passing through it. Applying 45 kilovolts across the cell instantly turns the light back on. Watch it in action in the video below.
There’s a lot of room left for experimentation on this one, including purification of the anethole for potentially better results. We’d also be curious if plain ouzo would show some degree of Kerr effect. For science, of course. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679697",
"author": "PWalsh",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T02:20:13",
"content": "I looked into this awhile back, and IIRC acrylic has a fairly large Kerr coefficient. At least, large in comparison to simple and easily available materials.The effect is proportional to the length of the ... | 1,760,372,177.663926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/clean-up-your-resin-printing-rinse-with-dialysis/ | Clean Up Your Resin-Printing Rinse With Dialysis | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"cross-link",
"cure",
"dialysis",
"filter",
"IPA",
"isopropyl",
"photopolymer",
"resin",
"rinse",
"uv"
] | There’s a lot to like about resin 3D printing. The detail, the smooth surface finish, the mechanical simplicity of the printer itself compared to an FDM printer. But there are downsides, too, not least of which is the toxic waste that resin printing generates. What’s one to do with all that resin-tainted alcohol left over from curing prints?
How about sending it through
this homebrew filtering apparatus
to make it ready for reuse? [Involute] likens this process to dialysis, and while we see the similarities, what’s going on here is a lot simpler than the process used to filter wastes from the blood in patients with failing kidneys — there are no semipermeable membranes used here. Not that the idea suffers from its simplicity, mind you; it just removes unpolymerized resin from the isopropyl alcohol rinse using the same
photopolymerization
process used during printing.
[Involute] did some initial experiments to see what would happen to used IPA when exposed to UV light. The video below shows the results — the unreacted resin quickly clumps, making it easy to filter out of the IPA. Turning that into an actual process was a bit trickier, requiring a pump to send the resin through a long loop of UV LED-wrapped clear vinyl tubing, where the cross-linking occurs. From there the plastic-IPA mixture passes through two filters, 5 microns followed by 0.5 microns, after which it’s ready for reuse. [Involute] also added a timer to control the pump, making this a walk-away process — although since IPA is pretty flammable, we’d probably stay close by.
At more than seven times the price of gasoline, 99% IPA isn’t something you want to be throwing away. And flushing resin-tainted alcohol down the drain is a big no-no. So something like this can not only save resin-printing fans big bucks, but make the whole process a little greener, too. Kudos to [Involute] for that. | 64 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679660",
"author": "questiony",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T00:17:01",
"content": "Are there no commercial apparatuses that do this aleeady that one can buy?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6679666",
"author": "m1ke",
... | 1,760,372,177.808476 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/raspi-powered-typewriter-is-a-real-muse/ | Raspi-Powered Typewriter Is A Real MUSE | Kristina Panos | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"lcd",
"raspberry pi",
"touchscreen",
"typewriter",
"writing"
] | Thanks to parenting and life in general, [Brendan] had fallen out of the habit of writing and wasn’t happy about it. If you write anything ever, you already know there are endless distractions when it comes to doing so on a computer. Sure, there always typewriters, but it’s difficult to do anything with the fruits of a typewriter other than scan it in or make copies, and it’s basically un-editable except by hand.
Instead of just sitting down and writing, [Brendan] did what any of us would do —
took the time to create an elegant solution
. The Most Unusual Sentence Extractor, or MUSE, is a Raspberry Pi-based typewriter with the best of both worlds. It’s essentially a word processor, but it can save to the cloud.
[Brendan] found beautiful inspiration in the Olympia Traveller de Luxe typewriter, a delightfully boxy affair made in the 1960s and 70s with lovely keys. Starting with a 68Keys.io board, [Brendan] set about re-creating the lines of the Traveller de Luxe in Tinkercad.
Since it doesn’t really need a platen, this was the perfect place to mount a screen using black PVC. At first, [Brendan] was going to use an e-ink screen, but a mishap led to a better solution — an LCD touchscreen that makes document navigation a breeze.
We absolutely love the look of this machine, which was obviously a labor of love. And yeah, it does the trick:[Brendan] is writing again. Though it maybe be inconvenient, we agree that it really is nice to have a dedicated workstation for certain things.
Looking for the complete opposite of this project? How about
a Chat GPT-assisted daisywheel typewriter? | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679593",
"author": "Chris Pepin",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T20:32:47",
"content": "Nice looking machine! I completely understand about the number of distractions to be found on your main PC. I’ve been contemplating setting up an old laptop to use only for writing but something like ... | 1,760,372,177.952397 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/spooky-noise-box-has-post-halloween-potential/ | Spooky Noise Box Has Post-Halloween Potential | Kristina Panos | [
"Holiday Hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"halloween",
"noise box",
"piezo",
"piezo disk",
"spring"
] | There’s more than one way to scare people on Halloween. Sure, there’s always the low-brow jump scare, but that will generally just annoy the person and possibly cause a heart attack. No, what you need is a sustained soundscape of hellish audio. And where does one find hellish audio?
Well, you make your own with a spooky-sounds noise box
.
And no, we’re not talking about a soundboard that goes ‘boo’ and ‘ooo-OOO-oooh’ and whatnot. This is a full-on DIY instrument that has potential beyond Halloween. Essentially, the wooden box takes input vibrations from various doodads, and these vibrations are picked up by a piezo disk or two glued to the underside of the lid. The piezos are wired up to a 3.5 mm jack, which runs out to the PC and [SvartalfarQc]’s favorite Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). From there, it’s just a matter of playing around with the sounds — looping them, running them through various instrument voices, adding effects, and so on.
We love the the things that [SvartalfarQc] came up with, including a wind-up walking heart thing, a retractable badge holder, and that noise box mainstay, a sproingy doorstop.
We all know piezos are awesome, but have you ever considered that
they can be used to digitize old wax cylinder recordings? | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679704",
"author": "james",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T02:35:39",
"content": "Getting a bit of Axel Foley vibes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6679727",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T04:31:42",
"conten... | 1,760,372,177.997845 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/jennys-daily-drivers-raspberry-pi-desktop/ | Jenny’s Daily Drivers: Raspberry Pi Desktop | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"operating system",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi Desktop"
] | One of the more exciting prospects upon receiving one of the earliest Raspberry Pi boards back in 2012 was that it was a fully-functional desktop computer in the palm of your hand. In those far-off days, the Debian OS distro for the board wasn’t even yet called Raspbian, but it would run a full-on desktop on your TV and you could use it after a fashion to browse the web or do wordprocessing. It wasn’t in any way fast, but it was usable enough to be more than a novelty. I’ve said before on these pages that the Raspberry Pi folks’ key product is their OS rather than their computers. While they rarely have the fastest or highest spec hardware, you can depend on Raspberry Pi OS being updated and supported through the life of the board unlike many of their competitors. I can download their latest OS image and still run it on that 2012 board, which to me ranks as a very laudable achievement.
The OS They Don’t Really Tell You About
The background image may have changed since the first release back in 2016, but the UI hasn’t.
Raspberry Pi OS doesn’t run on any other ARM single board computers but their own, but it’s not quite accurate to say that it only runs on Raspberry Pi hardware. Since 2016
when it was launched as PIXEL
, the folks in Cambridge have also maintained a PC version for 32-bit i386 computers, now called
Raspberry Pi Desktop
. It may be the Pi product they don’t talk about much, but you can still find it on their downloads page.
Like the ARM version, it’s based on Debian and presents as close as possible to the environment you’d find on your Pi. I’m interested to see whether it still lives up to the claim of being usable on older hardware, so I’ve downloaded a copy and installed it on my trusty 2007 Dell Inspiron 640. It rocks a 1.6 GHz Core Duo with 4 GB of memory and a SATA SSD so it’s not the lowest spec hardware on the block, but by 2023’s standard it represents a giveaway-spec old laptop. Can I use it as a daily driver? Let’s find out!
The first thing I noticed on downloading the ISO was that it’s dated July 2022 and is based upon Debian 11, Bullseye. This is the same Debian version as the current ARM distro for the Pi, but a year-old ISO leaves me with mild abandonware concerns. I made a note to be especially careful to run an
apt upgrade
on first boot.
Polished At First Sight, But A Little Unfinished At The Edges
As shipped, it doesn’t bind the Print Screen key. Spectrum image: Bill Bertram, CC BY-SA 2.5.
The installation is extremely straightforward and very Debian in nature. You have all the choices and you can go off-piste should you wish, but the default options are pre-selected and thus it’s almost as simple as hitting return at every option. The first boot is familiar to seasoned Pi users, as you’re taken into locale and user creation screens but without the Pi configuration you’d find on the single board computers. Then it’s time to reboot, and after a not-too-long startup, you’re into the familiar Raspberry Pi desktop.
It’s LXDE-based so it’s a smooth experience on the Dell. Opening up the menu, we find the full Raspberry Pi suite of educational software, plus Chromium, and the LibreOffice productivity suite. There’s a graphical software package installer but it’s limited to a meagre selection of Pi-approved packages, so it’s off to
apt
should you wish for more. I did exactly that after upgrading my packages, choosing to download the GIMP graphics package. So I’ve installed the Raspberry Pi Desktop, and I’ve got a Debian system with LXDE and a few Pi extras. I can see it’s great for anyone using a Pi on a regular basis, and although the Dell is slow by 2023 standards it’s quick enough to be perfectly usable. It’s a conventional Linux desktop, however there are a few unexpected quirks even so. Out of the box there’s no binding from the Print Screen key to
scrot
, meaning I had a minor task chasing up how to do that.
So Raspberry Pi Desktop is a conventional Linux desktop for 32-bit Intel platforms, with a comfortingly familiar back-end, a very Pi-like interface, and none of the treacle slowness of an Ubuntu variant. You can use it as a daily driver, I did so, and you’ll find it an extremely basic but perfectly acceptable experience. I think I’ll leave it on the Dell, unlike the Lubuntu that was on the machine before it restores a bit of zip to the experience of a 14-year-old machine.
Endnote: The Daily Driver That Wasn’t
As a final note, this month’s
Daily Drivers
wasn’t supposed to feature this OS at all. Instead I was going to feature the open-source BeOS continuation, Haiku. I haven’t done that though, because despite a lot of work throughout the last month, enlisting the help of multiple hackerspace friends, and even asking for help online, I simply couldn’t get Haiku to reliably boot on any machine I tried. Between us we have the experience to get almost anything running, but this one defeated us. I am not however here to deliver a roasting to the OS for not working when I tried it, because this series is about using it as a day-to-day OS on real hardware, and I feel that Haiku or any other OS still deserves the chance to deliver that. Thus I’ll leave Haiku on the shelf for now, and come back to it again in the future when perhaps it will have a version which I can work with. | 31 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679531",
"author": "Rog Fanther",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T17:32:16",
"content": "Re:Haiku, have you have asked for help in Haiku´s forum ? Some installation options are a little different from what one would expect , but it has worked on the machines I´ve given to it. From old no... | 1,760,372,178.245987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/hackaday-prize-2023-the-gearing-up-challenge-finalists/ | Hackaday Prize 2023: The Gearing Up Challenge Finalists | Dan Maloney | [
"contests",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"2023 Hackaday Prize",
"Gearing Up",
"tools"
] | If there’s more to life than just a workshop full of tools, it’s probably a workshop full of tools that you’ve built yourself. At least that was the thinking behind the recently concluded “Gearing Up” challenge of the
2023 Hackaday Prize
, which unsurprisingly generated quite a list of entries for our judges to review and whittle down to their top ten favorite tools, jigs, fixtures, and general labor-savers.
Having piqued the interest of our crack team of judges, these ten projects have not only earned a spot in the 2023 Hackaday Prize Finals, but they’ll also get a $500 cash prize to boot. But the heat is really on now; like all the finalists from the previous rounds, they’ve only got until October to get their projects as far along as they can before the final round. The grand prize is grand indeed — $50,000 in cash and a residency at the Supplyframe Design Lab in Pasadena!
We’re really getting down to the wire here, but it’s worth taking a little time out to look at some of the Gearing Up challenge winners, and what they came up with to make life in the shop a little easier. And don’t forget — the one who dies with the most tools wins!
Wrangling Electrons
Given Hackaday’s focus on electronics, it’s probably no real surprise that most of the Gearing Up finalists came up with tools designed to make prototyping circuits easier in some way. It’s an area that’s ripe for improvements, too, between rapidly shrinking components that make for a lot of fussy manual work.
One project that really caught the eye of the judges was
Jumperless
, the jumper-free solderless breadboard. Fiddling with jumper wires might seem like an essential part of the breadboarding experience, but not with Jumperless, which aims to replace all those wires with a matrix of analog switches. All you have to do is plug in your parts and make virtual connections on the companion GUI. Jumperless takes care of making the connections for you. Jumperless also has a bunch of built-in goodies, like DACs and ADCs, which can be switched in and out of the circuit under prototype as needed. It’s also got some LEDS embedded in the breadboard area, which can light up and provide visual cues about what’s connected to what. Pretty slick!
Once you get past the breadboard stage you’re going to need to start slinging solder, and that’s when most of us have probably had the experience of needing just one more hand than the OEM provided. Between the iron, a roll of solder, a pair of tweezers, and maybe a hot-air station, most of us have needed help at one time or another. Sure, there are plenty of “helping hands” fixtures, but what’s the point if you’ve got to drop your tools in the middle of things to set one up? Enter
this work-holding robot arm
, an Alexa-compatible articulated arm that you can whistle up when you need help. The 6-DOF robot arm can swing into action when you need it most, to tweak the position of a PCB for optimal access. There’s also a set of fixed gripper jaws that can get in on the action, making this a complete co-working suite. This really feels like one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” ideas, and the judges seem to agree.
Now that your circuit is built, what about decoding? In keeping with “the most tools” sentiment, many of us sport quite a collection of test instruments, and the “wall o’ gear” is something many of us aspire to. But what if you need to go mobile with your test setup? Are you going to lug around racks of equipment just to take a few simple measurements in the field? Of course not, which is the rationale behind
Felini
, the electronics lab in your pocket. Billed as a “Swiss Army knife of electronics,” Felini packs a ton of functionality into a tiny package with a touch-screen interface. It’s optimized for embedded applications, supporting DAP Link debugging, RS485, I2C, CANBus, servo testing, and Neopixel testing, too. It also has built-in GPIO pins that can be configured for voltage measurements, frequency counting, and general-purpose timing applications. Sure beats lugging around all that extra gear.
Hardware Helpers
Electronics prototyping wasn’t the only place our Gearing Up entrants shined, of course. Every trade has its pain points, after all, and it doesn’t take much pain before somebody gets to thinking that there has to be a better way. We were lucky enough to have a few of these kinds of projects show up in this round, too.
If you’ve done any cybersecurity work, chances are pretty good you’ve got a laptop kitted out with a suite of tools that let you get your job done quickly and easily. But one laptop pretty much looks like another, and where’s the fun in rolling up to a job looking like everyone else? Well, if you bust in with
CyberSecDeck-001
, you’re certainly going to make a statement! A cross between a cyberdeck and a server room crash cart, this platform is sure to command attention. From its tacti-cool chassis to the Kali Linux inside, everything about this oozes cyberpunk cred, especially its host of bolt-on accessories.
Back in the lab, you might have a need for something like this
DIY Spin Coater
. If you need to apply a thin layer of liquid to a flat surface — think photoresist on a blank copper-clad board — nothing beats a spin coater for fast and consistent results. This one sports a powerful BLDC and controller to really get things going, and is powerful enough that it can spin out a thick, goopy blob of silicone evenly over a PCB.
And finally, if you prefer to mill your PCBs rather than etch them, you’ll need to check out the
Minamill 3DP
. While it’s generally true with machine tools that bigger means better, there are plenty of situations where a small, light-duty machine can shine. The Minamill aims to capitalize on that fact, making up for what it lacks in power and rigidity with persistence and precision. Made mostly from 3D-printed parts, Minamill turns out some fantastic small parts. We’re particularly impressed with the PCBs it creates — just think of the precision required to take off the copper layer and only the copper layer, and leave traces down to 0.2 mm behind. It looks like a fantastic tool to have on the bench next to you for rapid prototyping.
Gearing Up Finalists
DIY Spin Coater
Jumperless
Felini – Revolutionary Pocket-Sized Electronic Lab
Low-Cost Universal Tensile Testing Machine
UV projection printer for PCBs and item marking
10kW (30kW pulse) Electronic Load
OMOTE – DIY Universal Remote
CyberSecDeck-001
Work-holding Robotic Arm for Electronic Workshop
Minamil 3dp: another minimal CNC mill
Are We There Yet?
It may be hard to believe, but yes, we’re almost at the end of the 2023 Hackaday Prize. We’re currently deep into the final challenge, the
Save the World Wildcard
, where pretty much anything goes. If you haven’t started your Hackaday Prize entry, now’s your time, and the clock is ticking — the challenge closes at 7:00 PM PDT on September 12, 2023. So get going!
And we’d be remiss not to thank our sponsors for their generous help in making the 2023 Hackaday Prize possible. Thanks!
The
Hackaday
Prize 2023
is Sponsored by: | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679670",
"author": "Paul McClay",
"timestamp": "2023-09-06T00:53:41",
"content": "D’oh.@Dan Maloney the “Minamil 3dp” pic here is from the earlier laser-cut version (retronymously “2dc”). Maybe swap inhttps://cdn.hackaday.io/images/3980021691450688776.jpgfrom this year’s contest en... | 1,760,372,178.416416 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/usb-c-power-for-ham-radio/ | USB-C Power For Ham Radio | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"connector",
"ham",
"handheld",
"power delivery",
"radio",
"usb",
"USB-PD",
"yaesu"
] | Even though manufacturers of handheld ham radios have been busy adding all sorts of bells and whistles into their portable offerings, for some reason, many of them lack a modern USB-C port. In the same vein, while some have USB for programming or otherwise communicating between the radio and a computer, very few can use USB for power. Instead , they rely on barrel jacks or antiquated charging cradles. If you’d like to modernize your handheld radio’s power source,
take a look at what [jephthai] did to his Yaesu
.
In the past, USB ports could be simply soldered onto a wire and used to power basically anything that took 5 VDC. But the radio in question needs 12 volts, so the key was to find a USB-C cable with the built-in electronics to negotiate the
right amount of power from USB-PD devices
. For this one, [jephthai] cut the barrel connector off his radio’s power supply and spliced in some Anderson power pole connectors so he could use either the standard radio charger or one spliced onto this special cable.
With this fairly simple modification out of the way, it’s possible to power the handheld radio for long outings with the proper USB battery bank on hand. For plenty of situations this is much preferable to toting around a 12 V battery, which was the method of choice for
powering things like QRP rigs
when operating off-grid. | 28 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679498",
"author": "ChuckT",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T15:38:32",
"content": "I already ordered it and Amazon sent me the wrong item.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6679516",
"author": "Jeff",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T1... | 1,760,372,178.308738 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/youve-got-mail-straining-the-limits-of-machine-and-man/ | You’ve Got Mail: Straining The Limits Of Machine And Man | Kristina Panos | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"culling machine",
"facer-canceller",
"hamper dumper",
"mail sorting",
"mail sorting machine",
"mail-flo",
"USPS"
] | When we last left this subject
, I told you all about Transorma, the first letter-sorting machine in semi-wide use. But before and since Transorma, machines have come about to perform various tasks on jumbled messes of mail — things like distinguishing letters from packages, making sure letters are all facing the same way before cancelling the postage, and the gargantuan task of getting huge piles of mail into the machines in the first place. So let’s dive right in, shall we?
The Canceller
The Leavitt Canceling Machine. Image via
Smithsonian Postal Museum
It didn’t take too long for hand-canceling to get out of hand.
The first cancelling machine
, created in 1875, made fairly quick work of that.
The thing was hand-fed, hand-cranked, and only worked on items of a single size and shape. Still, this machine created by Thomas and Martin Leavitt laid the way for all future cancelling machines.
Once the letters were inserted, a number of feed rollers separated the pieces and fed them into the machine singly and spaced apart.
The letter would then move on to a rotating die hub and ring die that did the actual cancelling, adding the postmark and those iconic wavy lines of cancellation. Finally, the mail piece passed to a stacking bin for retrieval.
The Culling Machine
Although the cancelling machine saved a great deal of time and labor over hand-canceling everything, there was still plenty of room for improvement. The culling machine’s job is to separate mail based on size before it gets canceled. Not only did the culling machine save time and space, it made for more sanitary working conditions.
The machine works like a sieve, or one of those sorters where coins fall through the holes based on size — the smaller items dropped to the bottom. The idea was to sort large, flat envelopes and packages from regular letters and then pass them on to other machinery.
At some point, a study was done on culling machines which found that they weren’t very economical or efficient. Even though they saved some money, the speed of mechanical culling was about the same as manual culling. But in 1960, someone designed a culling machine with several inclined belts and horizontal cylinders that would remove oversize pieces. This machine could cull about 60,000 pieces of mail per hour.
Be sure to check out the video below, which tells all about automatic culling and cancelling of letters.
The Edger-Stacker
Improvements in pre-cancellation continued throughout the postal system. Once mail was culled, it had to be stacked in one direction in order to go through the canceling machine, and this was largely still done by hand. But some enterprising postal employees in the Nashville, TN post office dreamed up a machine that would do this mechanically.
No longer would letters have to be hand-stacked before entering the cancelling machine. USPS was chuffed about this invention since it had been thought up by postal employees. But it was also quite successful, showing an ROI ranging from 70% at one post office to 566% at another.
The Facer-Canceller
Perhaps the most important part of organizing anything tangible is to get all the pieces going the same direction, like a game of 52-card pickup. Thus the facing part of the facer-canceller is quite important. Now, letters could be fed in every which way and would in theory get flip-turned upside down if necessary in order to be cancelled.
If you click to embiggen, check out the cuts throughout the stamp that resemble the ones on a price tag sticker. I’m surprised the USPS isn’t doing this already.
Developed in 1958, the first facer-cancellers worked using light sensors to detect the stamp’s location and flip the letter if necessary to face the stamp for proper cancellation. It also used optical sensors to detect the color contrast between stamp and envelope, but it didn’t always work — insufficient contrast would fool the device.
The next phase in facing technology was the use of invisible-to-the-eye phosphorescent inks in the stamps themselves, rather than relying on contrast. This improved machine could only process about 3,000 more letters per hour, but the rejection rate went way down.
Even so, up to 500 letters could be cancelled per minute. Whereas letters were previously cancelled at a rate of 16,000 per hour with ten-person crews, the facer-canceller allowed just six people to cancel about 27,000 pieces of mail per hour. But even today, the facer-canceller isn’t spotless, as you can see by this fittingly upside-down postmark on a letter from Australia. (It happens quite a bit in the States, too, but this one is funnier.)
Mail-Flo
The USPS continued to seek ways to make mail move more efficiently and mechanize as much of the process as possible. So they developed a conveyor belt system for larger post offices to replace as much manual handling of the mail as possible.
A hamper dumper doing its job. Image via
Smithsonian Postal Museum
Mail-Flo was first installed in Detroit in late 1956, and worked in concert with other systems like overhead conveyors. The point was to get rid of the need for things like hampers, boxes, and inside trucks.
While it turned out that Mail-Flo itself cost quite a bit to run each year, the cat was out of the bag when it came to conveyor belts, and they continued to be installed in postal facilities.
Hamper Dumper
You’ve probably seen mail being moved around in large hampers that resemble the kind of laundry basket in which one might hope to escape a dodgy situation. These were traditionally emptied piece by piece. In larger offices, the 400-600 pound hampers were physically dumped out by a couple of strong employees. That is, until the hamper dumper came along.
Hamper dumpers do exactly what you think — they upend hampers onto things like sorting tables and Mail-Flo belts. The machine was designed to eliminate about 95% of manual labor normally required.
But Wait, There’s More
Stay tuned for more about the USPS’ other advancements, including OCR machines, ZIP codes, vending machines, and something called v-mail. We’ll also take a look at ways the USPS has attempted to improve productivity and service as well as the customer experience. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679476",
"author": "Charles Lamb",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T14:45:01",
"content": "Quite clearly B. S. Johnson had nothing to do with this equipment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6679535",
"author": "greenbit",
... | 1,760,372,178.169212 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/entertain-your-cats-automatically-with-lazerpaw/ | Entertain Your Cats Automatically With LazerPaw | Julian Scheffers | [
"home hacks",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"cat",
"computer vision",
"lazer"
] | Most of us would agree that kittens are very cute, but require lots of attention in return. What would you do if you adopted three abandoned cats but didn’t have all day to play with them? [Hoani Bryson]
solved his problem by building LazerPaw
— an autonomous, safe way to let your cats chase lasers.
Having recently tinkered with computer vision in the form of OpenCV, [Hoani] decided he would make a laser turret for his cats to play with. An infrared camera, used so that the LazerPaw works in the dark, is mounted to the laser and the Raspberry Pi. These electronics are then mounted on a servo-based pan/tilt module, which is in turn mounted with two smartphone clamps to the ceiling. That way, when the cats chase the laser, they will be looking away from the beam source. Additionally, if the device is aiming directly at a cat, the laser is turned off. Finally, [Hoani] added some NeoPixels with
an Arduino-based controller
for extra hacker vibes.
The LazerPaw’s software
takes in a 30 FPS stream from a webcam, scales it down for performance, and applies a threshold filter to it. When a black pixel, which is assumed to be a cat, is detected, it “pushes” the camera away from it depending on how close to the laser it is. The effect of this is that every time a cat catches up to the laser, it moves away again. The processed images are also sent to an interactive website for remote cat playtime. Finally, there is also a physical start button so you don’t need WiFi to use it.
Is your cat more of a sunbather than a deadly murder beast? Maybe it’ll like
this cat chair that follows the sun
. | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679428",
"author": "jcwren",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T12:17:14",
"content": "That’s really cool :)On a different note, why is it in all HaD posts with YouTube videos, if you click the “YouTube” in the bottom of the video you get a “www.youtube.com is blockedwww.youtube.com refused ... | 1,760,372,178.369311 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/05/hands-free-compass-uses-haptic-feedback/ | Hands-Free Compass Uses Haptic Feedback | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"belt",
"compass",
"microcontroller",
"motor",
"pico",
"raspberry pi",
"vibration"
] | If you’ve never experienced it before, getting turned around on a cloudy day in the woods or getting lost during an event like a snowstorm can be extremely disorienting and stressful — not to mention dangerous. In situations where travel goes outside the beaten path, it’s a good idea to have some survival gear around, including a good compass. But if you need your hands for other things, or simply don’t want to have to stop often to check a compass, you might want to try out something like
this belt-mounted haptic feedback compass
.
The compass is based around a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller and uses a ULN2803a transistor array chip to control a series of motors. The motors are mounted all along a belt using custom 3D printed clips with wires woven to each through the holes in the belt. The firmware running on the belt communicates with an Android app via USB to control each of the motor’s vibration based on the direction the wearer is traveling and their desired heading. With certain patterns, the wearer can get their correct heading based on the vibrations they feel through the belt.
While it does rely on having a functioning phone, a modern smartphone’s built-in compass doesn’t require a signal to work. We would still recommend having a good simple compass in your pack as backup if you’re going to be far off the beaten path, though. There are other ways of navigation besides by compass, map, or GPS too.
Have a shot at inertial navigation if you want a challenge
.
Thanks to [Peter] for the tip! | 15 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679369",
"author": "Lazarus",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T09:00:16",
"content": "I made something similar back during my studies, where I incorporated navigation and patterns :)https://youtu.be/Ho1vmEiVBVUI’ve always found tactile interfaces to be underappreciated, but implementing th... | 1,760,372,178.723729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/this-model-mimics-the-international-space-station/ | This Model Mimics The International Space Station | Julian Scheffers | [
"Space"
] | [
"diy",
"international space station",
"telemetry"
] | It’s not an overstatement to say that the International Space Station (ISS for short) is an amazing feat of engineering, especially considering that it has been going for over two decades. The international collaboration isn’t just for the governments, either, as many images, collected data and even some telemetry have been made available to the public. This telemetry inspired [Bryan Murphy] and his team to create
the ISS MIMIC
, a 1:100 scale model of the ISS that reflects its space counterpart.
The model, covered by [3D Printing Nerd] after the break, receives telemetry from the real ISS and actually reflects the orientation of the solar panels accordingly! It also uses this entirely public information to show other things like battery charge level, power production, position above the earth and more on a display. An extra detail we appreciated is the LEDs near the solar panels, which are red, blue or white to indicate using battery, charging battery and full battery respectively. The ISS orbits the earth once every 90 minutes, which can be seen by the LEDs changing color as the ISS enters the shadow of the earth, or exits it.
What could you do to make this better you might ask? Make the it open-source of course! The ISS MIMIC is fully open-source and uses common tools like 3D printing with PLA, Raspberry Pis and Arduinos to make it as accessible as possible for education (and hackers). Naturally, the goal of this project is to educate, which is why it’s open-source and aims to teach programming, electronics, mechatronics and problem solving.
Video after the break.
This project brings the space station to a Raspberry Pi, but what about flipping the tables and bringing
the Raspberry Pi to the space station
? | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679342",
"author": "MarB",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T08:01:28",
"content": "What a fantastic project!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6679360",
"author": "Knochi",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T08:41:23",
"content": "That... | 1,760,372,178.462588 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/3d-printed-um-hook-and-loop-fasteners/ | 3D Printed — Um — Hook And Loop Fasteners | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"hook and loop",
"velcro"
] | [Teaching Tech’s]
latest video
discusses “3D printed Velcro.” But as even he admits, Velcro is a trademark, so we think it is more appropriate to talk about hook and loop fasteners. In fact, you can see the good-natured official video about the trademark below [Teaching Tech’s] video. Regardless, his experiments with several 3D-printed Vel… fastener designs are worth watching.
Some of the designs were rather large, like we would have expected. However, some of the designs were fairly small and looked almost like real Velcro. However, since the pattern is not as random as the fabric portions of the real deal, it seems like alignment between parts is more critical when you are joining the two halves.
The obvious question: What’s the best material to use? [Teaching Tech] tried PLA, PETG, and TPU. TPU didn’t lock very tightly. The conclusion was that PETG was better, and — oddly — the stringing on the print was actually an advantage in this application. The bond was also surprisingly robust. We wondered if there was any advantage to printing the hooks in one material and the loops in another. Let us know if you try that.
If you use OpenSCAD, he has created a file you can use to
reproduce the hook and loop design
. Honestly, if you had asked us if you could 3D print this kind of thing, we would have laughed, but it appears to work much better than we would have thought.
If you want to learn more about how this stuff works,
we can help
. This looks much different than the
3D-printed fastener
we saw back in 2013. | 38 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679178",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2023-09-05T02:49:32",
"content": "Those examples look less like Velcro and more like 3M’s Mushroom Hook Fastener. The genuine article is amazing stuff.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,372,178.537968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/heat-pump-control-that-works/ | Heat Pump Control That Works | Bryan Cockfield | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"automation",
"control",
"cooling",
"ESP32",
"Heat pump",
"heating",
"home automation",
"humidity",
"hvac",
"temperature",
"tft",
"user interface"
] | Heat pumps are taking the world by storm, and for good reason. Not only are they many times more efficient than electric heaters, but they can also be used to provide cooling in the summer. Efficiency aside, though, they’re not perfectly designed devices, largely with respect to their climate control abilities especially for split-unit setups. Many of them don’t have remotely located thermostats to monitor temperature in an area, and rely on crude infrared remote controls as the only user interface. Looking to make some improvements to this setup, [Danilo]
built a setup more reminiscent of a central HVAC system to control his
.
Based on an ESP32 from Adafruit with an integrated TFT display, the device is placed away from the heat pump to more accurately measure room temperature. A humidity sensor is also included, as well as an ambient light sensor to automatically reduce the brightness of the display at night. A large wheel makes it quick and easy to adjust the temperature settings up or down. Armed with an infrared emitter, the device is capable of sending commands to the heat pump to more accurately control the climate of the room than the built-in controls are able to do. It’s also capable of logging data and integrating with various home automation systems.
While the device is optimized for the Mitsubishi heat pumps that [Danilo] has, only a few lines of code need to be changed to get this to work with other brands. This is a welcome improvement for those frustrated with the inaccurate climate controls of their heat pumps, and since it integrates seamlessly into home automation systems could also function in tandem with other backup heat sources, used in cold climates when it’s too cold outside to efficiently run the heat pump. And, if you don’t have a heat pump yet,
you can always try and build your own
. | 33 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6679052",
"author": "Mark Topham",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T23:41:52",
"content": "Thermostats, and other interior climate controls are horrendously over expensive for what they do. Custom solutions shouldn’t be necessary to improve on them.I find it depressing, the amount of gain a... | 1,760,372,178.6077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/developing-a-4500-rpm-twin-cylinder-air-engine/ | Developing A 4,500 RPM Twin-Cylinder Air Engine | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"air engine",
"compressed air"
] | Compressed air isn’t really a practical form of energy storage for headline uses like transport or heating, but it’s a fun thing to tinker with at the small scale. [Tom Stanton] is plenty experienced in that area, having built a series of compressed air engines over the years.
His latest effort is capable of running at up to 4,500 RPM, and delivering a full 0.05 horsepower.
Two-cylinder power!
[Tom’s] ultimate goal is to put his new tiny air engine on a small model aircraft. To enable consistent performance, his engine needs a regulator, but off-the-shelf models for industrial use were too hefty for his use. Thus, he set about equipping his engine with a lightweight regulator of his own 3D-printed design.
His latest ball-valve air engine was then designed to run on this lower regulated pressure of approximately 30 psi. It initially proved less efficient than his previous designs, but some engineering analysis revealed the problem. [Tom] does a great job of stepping through his process of understanding how these engines perform, and how he uses these findings to guide his design choices going forward.
It’s also great to see a YouTuber not just building fun things, but taking measurements and doing some real engineering.
[Tom’s] air engines keep getting better
, and we can’t wait to see where he takes his designs next. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678968",
"author": "craig",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T20:43:13",
"content": "There was a dude named Gasparin that made small CO2 motors sufficient for powering peanut scale free flight airplanes. They haven’t been made for about 20 years but the general principle was a piston with a... | 1,760,372,178.666484 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/the-scope-of-this-kickstarter-ten-years/ | The ‘Scope Of This Kickstarter? Ten Years. | Kristina Panos | [
"Crowd Funding",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"kickstarter",
"Oscilloscope Watch",
"PDI",
"watch",
"xmega",
"xprotolab"
] | It may have taken ten years to come through on this particular Kickstarter, but a promise is a promise. In late August 2023, backers who had since likely forgotten all about the project
started receiving their oscilloscope watches
from creator [Gabriel Anzziani]. Whatever the reason(s) for the delay, the watch looks great, and is miles ahead of
the prototype pictures
.
As you may have guessed, it functions as both a watch and an oscilloscope. The watch has 12- and 24-hour modes as well as an alarm and calendar, and the ‘scope has all the features of the
Xprotolab
dev board, which [Gabriel] also created: ‘scope, waveform generator, logic analyzer, protocol sniffer, and frequency counter.
Internally, it has an 8-bit Xmega microcontroller which features an internal PDI, and the display is a 1.28″ E ink display.
When we covered this ten years ago
, the screen was the type of Sharp LCD featured in the Pebble watch. [Gabriel]’s ‘scope watch features eight buttons around the edge which are user-programmable. One of [Gabriel]’s goals was for people to make their own apps.
Of course, the Kickstarter rewards are no longer available, but if you want to build your own small, digital ‘scope,
check out this DIY STM32 project
.
Image via
the Company Formerly Known As Twitter | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678939",
"author": "Andy Pugh",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T18:17:22",
"content": "Really! Wow!I always felt a bit sorry for the guy. It was fairly clear to me that he hadn’t made enough on the Kickstarter to fund the development and manufacture, especially after the first hiccup.I su... | 1,760,372,178.781071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/minimalist-led-lamp-is-circular-beauty-incarnate/ | Minimalist LED Lamp Is Circular Beauty Incarnate | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"addressable leds",
"glowables",
"lamp",
"led",
"ws2812b"
] | Lamps used to be things built to provide light with specific purpose, whether as reading lamps, desk lamps, or bedside table lamps. Now we just build them for the
vibes
, as with
this minimalist LED lamp from [andrei.erdei].
The build uses a 3D-printed frame printed in opaque grey, with a diffuser element printed in a more translucent white. This is key to allowing the LED to nicely glow through the lamp without ugly distracting hotspots spoiling the effect. The lamp mounts 36 WS2812B LEDs in strip form. These are controlled from an Arduino Nano running the FastLED library for lightweight and easy control of the addressable LEDs. Smooth rainbow animations are made easy by the use of the HSV color space, which is more suitable for this job than the RGB color space you may otherwise be more familiar with.
[andrei.erdei] does a great job of explaining the build, including the assembly, electronics, and code aspects. The latter could serve as a particularly good resource if you’re just starting out on your own builds
in the blinky, glowable space
. Video after the break. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678888",
"author": "Echo",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T14:46:49",
"content": "Cool project, it looks like a nice intro to combining 3D printing and electronics and it’s very well documented.I have one question though, I personally think it would have looked a lot better with a smoothe... | 1,760,372,178.892735 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/see-some-of-the-stranger-vr-ideas-from-siggraph/ | See Some Of The Stranger VR Ideas From SIGGRAPH | Donald Papp | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"experimental",
"haptics",
"interface design",
"reaction wheels",
"virtual reality",
"vr"
] | [Devin Coldewey]
shared his experiences with some of the more unusual VR concepts
on display at SIGGRAPH 2023. Some of these ideas are pretty interesting in their own right, and even if they aren’t going to actually become commercial products they give some insight into the kinds of problems that are being worked on. Read on to see if anything sparks ideas of your own.
In the area of haptics and physical feedback, Sony shared research prototypes that look like short batons in which are hidden movable weights. These weights can shift up or down on demand, altering their center of gravity. [Devin] states that these units had a mild effect on their own, but when combined with VR visuals the result was impressive. There’s
a video demonstration
of how they work.
A more unusual take on physical feedback was a wrist-mounted device with two flywheels attached to it. This device — dubbed
SomatoShift
— is shown in the header image above. They work exactly like the reaction wheels on satellites. By turning these spinning wheels, different forces can be felt by the wearer. The prototype looks cumbersome, but the forces exerted by the system can be controlled with very high accuracy.
JumpMod
is something readers may remember from earlier this year, and consists of a 2 kg weight worn as a backpack. By moving the weight upward or downward at precise times, the wearer can feel the illusion of a higher (or lower) than normal jump.
Meta’s Butterscotch prototype, with physically-moving varifocal lens assembly.
VR headset research prototypes from Meta made an appearance, including a light field passthrough headset (
Flamera
prototype) that has
a fascinating external lens array
and a varifocal display (named
Butterscotch
) which may remind regular readers of
prototypes showcased last year
.
Let us take a moment to bring up some other experimental work that, while not present at SIGGRAPH, is nevertheless good idea fodder.
Finger Haptics
uses electrical signals to simulate feeling in the palm side of the hand and fingers, which is notable because the hand is left free to hold and manipulate objects normally. Nothing is actually worn or mounted on the palm-side of the hands or fingers.
Another approach is from the company
Tactical Haptics
which created a grip with sliding panels that simulate feelings of feedback via a shearing kind of movement (
PDF
) which seems like an approach particularly suited to some DIY.
Finally, one of our favorite DIY projects is
Real Virtual Magic
, which uses a small off-the-shelf EEG unit to make magic’s effectiveness in Skyrim VR depend on the wearer’s actual state of mind.
Know of any other interesting, useful, or just plain bizarre VR interface ideas? Share them in the comments, or use the
tips line
. We’d love to hear about them. | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678872",
"author": "MarB",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T13:04:02",
"content": "https://hackaday.io/project/190611-enhancer-mask-lite",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6678880",
"author": "Bobtato",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T13... | 1,760,372,178.842601 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/04/fiery-torch-build-is-remarkably-stylish/ | Fiery Torch Build Is Remarkably Stylish | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"flames",
"flaming torch",
"torch"
] | Hollywood movies, RPGs, and Dungeons and Dragons campaigns are all full of flaming torches. They’re a typical source of light in scenarios where electrical solutions simply aren’t available.
[Wesley Treat] decided to build a rather attractive ceremonial torch of his own design
, showing off his impressive crafting skills in the process.
The torch ignited a pretty rad sculpture.
The build starts with a foam simulacra that helps [Wesley] rough out the general shape of the torch. It’s a little shorter and stubbier than an Olympic torch might be, for reference. The main body of the torch is then hewn out of stout wooden blocks with the aid of a bandsaw with a nifty angle-adjustable cutting bed. A torch was then used to heat and bend steel strip to make an attractive and heat-resistant flame shroud to sit on top. A wad of fuel-soaked material installed inside the shroud serves as the actual flaming compoment.
[Wesley] built the torch for the Maker Burn at Maker Camp in upstate New York. It did a plenty good job of helping burn down the giant scrap wood jackalope sculpture built for the event. We do love
the fire and the flames
around these parts. Video after the break. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678875",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T13:20:45",
"content": "Is Maker Burn more family-friendly than that flooded out desert gathering?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678907",
... | 1,760,372,178.945942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/modding-a-nerf-blaster-the-old-fashioned-way/ | Modding A Nerf Blaster The Old Fashioned Way | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"blaster",
"nerf",
"nerf blaster"
] | The Pistol Splat was a very weak blaster built for children, designed to shoot toy-grade paintball-like ammunition. [Matt Yuan] recognised the potential of the single-shot design, though,
and repurposed it as a powerful Nerf blaster.
The blaster is a simple spring-plunger design. Upon pulling the trigger, the spring drives the piston forward, shooting the ammunition out the barrel. As stock, the Pistol Splat featured an incredibly strong spring and an unrestricted barrel, giving it plenty of performance capability. With some finagling, it’s capable of shooting a Nerf dart at 100 feet per second in stock form.
[Matt] improved the blaster by removing its dry-fire protection spring, which consists of a second spring to resist the plunger’s motion. Modification also involved fitting a barrel sized to properly seal on the darts. These two mods boosted the dart velocity to 110 feet per second. Adding a spacer to ensure the spring fully drove the piston forward for its full travel further boosted the dart velocity to a mighty 145 feet per second.
It bears noting that
serious Nerf blasters like these demand eye protection.
Video after the break. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678884",
"author": "make piece not war",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T14:22:11",
"content": "Well, well, well, what do we got here?No dinamite, no take off rocket assist, no gun powder, no ethanol dragster engine, no antimatter. The Myth Busters are not impressed.Not even a bigger spri... | 1,760,372,179.13497 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/growing-oxides-on-silicon-on-the-road-to-diy-semiconductors/ | Growing Oxides On Silicon On The Road To DIY Semiconductors | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"semiconductors",
"silicon oxide",
"silicon waver",
"tube furnace"
] | Doing anything that requires measurements in nanometers is pretty difficult, and seems like it would require some pretty sophisticated equipment. But when the task at hand is
growing oxide layers on silicon chips
in preparation for making your own integrated circuits, it turns out that the old Mark 1 eyeball is all you need.
Alert readers may recall that [ProjectsInFlight] teased this process in
his previous video
, which covered the design and construction of a DIY tube furnace. In case you missed that, a tube furnace is basically a long, fused quartz tube wrapped in electrical heating elements and lots of insulation, which is designed to reach the very high temperatures needed when making integrated circuits. The tube furnace proved itself up to the task by creating a thin layer of silicon dioxide on a scrap of silicon wafer.
In the current work, [ProjectsInFlight] takes that initial success and builds on it. A lot of the video below is devoted to explanations of what exactly a silicon oxide layer is and why you’d need one; if you’ve never been introduced to the subject matter or your understanding is shaky, this section is actually really valuable. The actual creation of silicon oxide starts at about the 7:45 mark, with an exploration of the effect of time in the furnace on layer thickness. This is measured by the color change on the surface of the silicon as the silicon oxide layer grows. It’s a bit subjective, but with some careful measurements of time and temperature, the results are pretty predictable.
One area where [ProjectsInFlight]’s simple tube furnace design caused problems was with maintaining a proper atmosphere. As he touched on in the first video, silicon oxide formation is much quicker if water vapor is present. He used a simple steam generator — a flask of water on a hot plate — but found that his oxides weren’t forming as expected because the steam was actually condensing before even making it into the tube furnace. The solution was simple — more heat and better insulation — and he was able to reliably build oxide layers in the 350 to 400 nm range.
This looks like great work, and we’re excited to see the next steps along [ProjectsInFlight]’s road to homebrew semiconductors. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678797",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2023-09-04T02:48:00",
"content": "I hope he is successful in making MOSFETs before the zombie apocalypse!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6678821",
"au... | 1,760,372,179.091754 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/hackaday-links-september-3-2023/ | Hackaday Links: September 3, 2023 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"construction",
"cubesat",
"DCMA",
"deorbit",
"e-meter",
"EAS",
"emergency alert system",
"fcc",
"fema",
"hackaday links",
"Kapton",
"orbital drag",
"right to repair",
"Scientology",
"sewer",
"waste water",
"WEA",
"world robot conference"
] | Right-to-repair has been a hot-button topic lately, with everyone from consumers to farmers pretty much united behind the idea that owning an item should come with a plausible path to getting it fixed if it breaks, or more specifically, that you shouldn’t be subject to prosecution for trying to repair your widget. Not everyone likes right-to-repair, of course — plenty of big corporations want to keep you from getting up close and personal with their intellectual property. Strangely enough,
their ranks are now apparently joined by the Church of Scientology
, who through a media outfit in charge of the accumulated works of Church founder L. Ron Hubbard are arguing against exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that make self-repair possible for certain classes of devices. They apparently want the exemption amended to not allow self-repair of any “software-powered devices that can only be purchased by someone with particular qualifications or training or that use software ‘governed by a license agreement negotiated and executed’ before purchase.
It’s pretty obvious what they’re after here — they don’t want anyone snooping around in their “electropsychometers,” or E-Meters — we hate to break the news, but
it’s way too late for that
. There’s plenty more that can be said about this, but we’d prefer to stay away from most of that. We will say, however, that the wording of the exemption sought makes us a little uncomfortable; aren’t certain ham radios “software-powered devices” used by people with “particular qualifications or training”? We shudder to think of the potential unintended consequences of this one.
Well, that worked a little too well. SBUDNIC, a 3U cubesat that was designed to test low-cost methods for deorbiting dead satellites,
reentered the atmosphere last month
— about four years ahead of schedule. The satellite was built on a shoestring budget by Brown University students, alumni, and faculty, and sent into orbit aboard a SpaceX flight in May of 2022. The satellite was built mainly from off-the-shelf components, including 48 Energizer AA batteries, an Arduino, and a spaceframe made out of wood, plus a deployable “drag sail” made of Kapton and 3D-printed spars. The satellite was deployed at an altitude of 520 kilometers, and calculations showed that it would deorbit itself within about five years thanks to the drag from the sail, as opposed to 25 years or more without it. It’s not clear why the satellite only lasted 455 days; maybe the sail worked too well, or maybe solar activity increased drag on the satellite. Either way, we’d certainly chalk it up as an overall success, despite its early demise.
One way to keep your finger on the pulse of technology is by monitoring what kind of trade shows various industries are convincing people to pay a lot of money to come to. So what does something like the
“World Robot Conference”
say about the future of robotics? With 600 exhibitors and more than 800,000 attendees, we’d say that there’s a lot of anticipation for a robot-filled future. The article highlights seven different bots, some aimed at consumers, like a cyborg cat with creepy glowing eyes that totally won’t suck your soul, and some aimed at specific industries, like fruit harvesting and surgery. It’s worth a look through these to see what’s going on in the field, or just to get some inspiration for your next build.
Heads up, fellow US citizens: the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has
a nationwide combined Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) test scheduled for October 4
. If all goes according to plan, at 2:20 PM EDT on the appointed day — a Wednesday, by the way — every TV, radio — satellite and terrestrial, we assume — cell phone, and weather radio from Maine to Hawaii will go off at the same time. Since it’ll be right in the middle of a workday for most of the country, it should make for quite a distraction at the office, especially if you’re lucky enough to enjoy the many benefits of an open floorplan workspace. You’ve been warned.
And finally, we doubt very much that there’s anyone who hasn’t already seen this, but if you’re as much of a “sidewalk supervisor” as we are, you’ll want to check out
Grady’s new video series
over at Practical Engineering. He’s taking a deep dive into the construction of a sewage pump station in Texas, from groundbreaking to (presumably) commissioning of the completed station. Episode One is pretty interesting — since the pumping station is designed to accept municipal wastewater fed by gravity, the first step is to build a really deep hole. We’ve been watching construction for yours, and there was still plenty to learn from this guided tour. Beautiful drone shots, too. Check it out. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678754",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T23:19:48",
"content": "Let’s see who gets ahead of the WEA/EAS symphony and “predicts” it as as some lunatic indication of aliens/political shenanigans/religious end-times/various singularities.10/4 good buddy…Orson Welles wo... | 1,760,372,179.184885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/bare-pcb-makes-a-decent-homemade-smart-watch/ | Bare PCB Makes A Decent Homemade Smart Watch | Lewin Day | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"ESP-12E",
"ESP8266",
"smart watch",
"smartwatch",
"watch",
"wifi"
] | These days, we live in a post-
Dick Tracy
world, where you can make a phone call with your fancy wristwatch, and lots more besides. [akashv44] has gone a simpler route,
designing their own from scratch with a bare PCB design.
The build is based around the ESP-12E microcontroller, providing useful wireless connectivity that lets the watch interface with the outside world. The firmware makes queries of NTP servers and Yahoo’s weather API to collect time and weather data for display. It’s also capable of interacting with Blynk relay modules for controlling other equipment, which [akashv44] uses with lights and an air conditioner. The watch uses a small OLED display and a handful of small surface-mount tactile buttons for control. Power is courtesy of a small lithium-ion pouch cell, with charging handled by a TP4056 battery management IC.
It’s a simple smartwatch, but nonetheless one that teaches all kinds of useful skills in embedded development and design. It’s also funny to think how simple it is to build.
A decade ago
, before the ESP8266 was released, getting wireless connectivity in such a small package
was a major engineering challenge
. Even the Apple Watch didn’t come out until 2015! Food for thought. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678728",
"author": "Misterlaneous",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T21:17:45",
"content": "I’d have gone with an esp32 for added Bluetooth and better ability to sleep. If space is an issue use a c3.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "667... | 1,760,372,179.275375 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/solar-powered-flower-chases-the-light/ | Solar Powered Flower Chases The Light | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"flower",
"sculpture",
"solar",
"solar panel",
"solar power"
] | Many plants are capable of tracking the sun in order to get the most possible light.
[hannu_hell] built a solar powered sculpture that replicates this light sensitivity
for the benefit of better charging its own batteries, allowing it to run theoretically indefinitely where suitable light was available.
The 3D-printed flower features six movable petals mounted on an articulated stem. The flower’s leaves themselves bear solar panels that collect energy, analogous to leaves on a plant. A Raspberry Pi Pico is at the heart of the show, which is outfitted with a DS1307 real-time clock and a ST7735 TFT display for displaying date and time information. It’s also responsible for controlling servos that aim the flower’s solar panels towards the brightest light source available. This is achieved by using the Pico to read several photoresistors to determine light levels and adjust the leaves accordingly.
It’s a fun build, and one that could teach
useful lessons
relevant to even
large-scale solar arrays
. Video after the break. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678440",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T20:42:46",
"content": "That plant is AFRAID of mobile phones! Something you have not learned yet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6678516",
"author": "support1c0f862c91",... | 1,760,372,179.225978 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/will-an-8088-run-doom-now-yes-it-will/ | Will An 8088 RunDOOM? Now, Yes It Will! | Jenny List | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"8088",
"doom",
"pc"
] | The question on everyone’s lips when a new piece of hardware comes out is this: Will it run
DOOM
? Many pieces of modern hardware have been coaxed into playing id Software’s 1993 classic, but there have always been some older machines that just didn’t have the power to do it. One of them has now been conquered though, and it’s a doozy. [Frenkel]’s Doom8088, as its name suggests,
is a port of the game for the original PC and AT
.
As can be seen
in this gameplay video
, it’s not always the slickest of gaming experiences. But it works, so the question is, how on earth can a machine that was below the spec of the original, run this game? The answer comes in it being a port of
GBADoom
for the Game Boy Advance, a platform with less memory than a DOS PC. It still relies on extensive hard disk access for every frame though, which leaves it snail-like.
We set out to install it ourselves on one of the web based PC emulators, but fell over on the size of the required Watcom installation. If any of you have the real thing lying around though, we’d love to hear about how the game performed in the comments.
We’ve shown you so many ports of
DOOM
over the years to have lost count. One of our favourite recent ones
uses an extremely unconventional but very retro display. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678404",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T17:53:33",
"content": "20 seconds per frame? “it’s not always the slickest of gaming experiences” indeed :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678477",
"author": "Cuthb... | 1,760,372,179.325776 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/to-give-is-better-than-to-receive/ | To Give Is Better Than To Receive | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"hacker culture",
"knowledge",
"sharing",
"talks"
] | Better to give a talk at a hacker event, that is. Or in your hackerspace, or even just to a bunch of fellow nerds whenever you can. When you give the talk, don’t be afraid to make it too “easy” to understand. Making a tough topic comprehensible is often the sign that you really understand it, after all, and it’s also a fantastic service to the audience. And also don’t be afraid that your talk isn’t “hard core” enough, because with a diverse enough crowd, there will absolutely be folks for whom it’s still entirely new, and they’ll be thankful.
These were the conclusions I got from talking to a whole range of people at Chaos Communication Camp the weekend before last, and it’s one of the great opportunities when you go to an event like this. At Camp, there were a number of simultaneous stages, and with
so many talks that new ones are still being released
. That meant that everyone had their chance to say their bit, and many many did.
And that’s great. Because it’s obvious that getting the work done, or diving deep into a particular topic, is part of the hacker experience, but it’s also equally important to share what you’ve gained with the rest of the community. The principle of spreading the knowledge is a cornerstone of our culture, and getting people up to talk about what they’ve learned is the manifestation of this cultural value. If you know something, say something!
Of course, when you’re not at a conference, you could be writing up your hacks and
sending them in to the tips line
(hint, hint!). That’ll work too.
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! | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678373",
"author": "Dude with FHSS",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T15:30:35",
"content": "“If you know something, say something”My past and optimistic 27 year old self would firmly believe in that motto. My present, cynical 34 year old self knows it’s not exactly true. I’ve been burned ... | 1,760,372,179.420547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/teaching-a-mini-tesla-to-steer-itself/ | Teaching A Mini-Tesla To Steer Itself | Dan Maloney | [
"Machine Learning",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"autonomous",
"behavior cloning",
"convolutional neural network",
"machine learning",
"self-driving",
"servo",
"steering angle",
"tesla"
] | At the risk of stating the obvious, even when you’ve got unlimited resources and access to the best engineering minds, self-driving cars are hard. Building a multi-ton guided missile that can handle the chaotic environment of rush-hour traffic without killing someone is a challenge, to say the least. So if you’re looking to get into the autonomous car game,
perhaps it’s best to start small
.
If [Austin Blake]’s fun-sized Tesla go-kart looks familiar, it’s probably because we covered the
Teskart
back when he whipped up this little demon of an EV from a Radio Flyer toy. Adding self-driving to the kart is a natural next step, so [Austin] set off on a journey into machine learning to make it happen. Having settled on behavioral cloning, which trains a model to replicate a behavior by showing it examples of the behavior, he built a bolt-on frame to hold a steering servo made from an electric wheelchair motor, some drive electronics, and a webcam attached to a laptop. Ten or so human-piloted laps around a walking path at a park resulted in a 48,000-image training set, along with the steering wheel angle at each point.
The first go-around wasn’t so great, with the Teskart seemingly bent on going off the track. [Austin] retooled by adding two more webcams, to get a little parallax data and hopefully improve the training data. After a bug fix, the improved model really seemed to do the trick, with the Teskart pretty much keeping in its lane around the track, no matter how fast [Austin] pushed it. Check out the video below to see the Teskart in action.
It’s important to note that this isn’t even close to “Full Self-Driving.” The only thing being controlled is the steering angle; [Austin] is controlling the throttle himself and generally acting as the safety driver should the car veer off course, which it tends to do at one particular junction. But it’s a great first step, and we’re looking forward to further development. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678423",
"author": "MmmDee",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T19:18:16",
"content": "I very much liked the enthusiasm, presentation and the detailed explanation of the build. However, while I don’t know much about AI or self driving, the described implementation seems to be more like a ser... | 1,760,372,179.45888 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/make-better-3d-printed-molds-for-thermoforming-plastics/ | Make Better 3D Printed Molds, For Thermoforming Plastics | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Engineering"
] | [
"3D Printering",
"FDM",
"high temp",
"mold",
"thermoforming",
"vacuum forming"
] | Thermoforming — which includes vacuum-forming — has its place in a well-rounded workshop, and Mayku (makers of desktop thermoforming machines) have a short list of
tips for getting the best results when 3D printing molds
on filament-based printers.
A mold is put into direct, prolonged contact with a hot sheet of semi-molten plastic. If one needs a mold to work more than once, there are a few considerations to take into account. The good news is that a few simple guidelines will help get excellent results. Here are the biggest ones:
The smoother the vertical surfaces, the better.
Since thermoforming sucks (or pushes) plastic onto and into a mold like a second skin, keeping layer heights between 0.1 mm and 0.2 mm will make de-molding considerably easier.
Generous draft angles.
Aim for a 5 degree draft angle. Draft angles of 1-2 degrees are common in injection molding, but a more aggressive one is appropriate due to layer lines giving FDM prints an inherently non-smooth surface.
Thick perimeters and top layers for added strength.
The outside of a mold is in contact with the most heat for the longest time. Mayku suggests walls and top layer between 3 mm to 5 mm thick. Don’t forget vent holes!
Use a high infill to better resist stress.
Molds need to stand up to mechanical stress as well as heat. Aim for a 50% or higher infill to make a robust part that helps resist deformation.
Ensure your printer can do the job.
3D printing big pieces with high infill can sometimes lift or warp during printing. Use enclosures or draft shields as needed, depending on your printer and material.
Make the mold out of the right material.
Mayku recommends that production molds be printed in nylon, which stands up best to the heat and stress a thermoforming mold will be put under. That being said, other materials will work for prototyping. In my experience, even a PLA mold (which deforms readily under thermoforming heat) is good for at least one molding.
Thermoforming open doors for an enterprising hacker, and 3D printing molds is a great complement. If you’re happy being limited to small parts, small “dental” formers
like the one pictured here
are available from every discount overseas retailer. And of course, thermoforming is
great for costumes and props
. If you want to get more unusual with your application, how about forming
your very own custom-shaped mirrors
by thermoforming laminated polystyrene? | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678312",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T09:21:22",
"content": "I tried thermoforming, and I didn’t have this list to refer to. I also didn’t have a “proper” thermoforming machine. I had a sheet of MDF with a grid of holes drilled in it and a shop vac. I heated my plas... | 1,760,372,179.508609 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/rgb-graphics-on-a-dec-rainbow-with-reverse-engineered-monitor/ | RGB Graphics On A DEC Rainbow With Reverse-Engineered Monitor | Maya Posch | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"DEC Rainbow",
"vga"
] | One of the delights of the boring pre-VGA era is that you get to express your creativity when it comes to making a random color CRT work with an equally exciting dual CPU computer like the DEC Rainbow 100. This is the situation that the folk over at Usagi Electric
found themselves in
with a recent project. The Rainbow 100 is an interesting computer in that it can boot not only DOS with its 8088 processor, but also CP/M on the Z80 processor. Although generally used in monochrome mode, it supports a color graphic card to output RGB signals via its male DB15 connector.
DEC Rainbow 100 to Princeton Ultrasync adapter. With strain-relief zip tie.
Unfortunately, the target monitor – a Princeton Ultrasync – featured a female DB25 connector that obviously wasn’t going to connect directly, thus requiring a spot of reverse engineering. Making this very easy, the PCB containing the input connector had the traces clearly marked with the intended signal, which just left the mapping of the two connectors. One complication here was with the Rainbow 100 outputting an RGB signal with sync-on-green, whereas the monitor expected a separate synchronization signal.
Fortunately, most analog monitors aren’t particularly fussy so long as they get the expected signal somewhere in the input, which just left the final issue, of the Rainbow 100 outputting the monochrome signal on a special monochrome pin. This allowed everything to work as it should, and leaving those of us who joined the computing era in the 90s appreciative of standard VGA cables, other than for those weird Sun and Apple systems with their proprietary connectors. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678276",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T05:17:28",
"content": "“The Rainbow 100 is an interesting computer in that it can boot not only DOS with its 8088 processor, but also CP/M on the Z80 processor.”I heard of the Rainbow before, but I wonder if it’s possible to rep... | 1,760,372,179.560491 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/labor-day-bbqs-may-feature-nypd/ | Labor Day BBQs May Feature NYPD | Kristina Panos | [
"News"
] | [
"barbecue",
"drone",
"drones",
"labor day",
"nypd",
"POST Act"
] | Planning to host a large backyard wingding in the NYC metro area this weekend? Be sure to watch the skies for uninvited guests. That’s right,
the NYPD are deploying drones over “large” Labor Day events and yes, even private barbecues
. The strategy was announced during a briefing about J’ouvert — that’s a yearly Caribbean festival that marks the end of slavery. It generally brings crowds of thousands and draws a strong police presence to Brooklyn.
While this particular invasion may come as a bit of a shock, this certainly isn’t the first time the NYPD has deployed drones in the name of public safety or in response to emergencies. Data shows they have used them 124 times this year, which is up a staggering 31 times from the four events in 2022.
As you may have guessed, this has invited backlash from privacy and civil liberties advocates. One pointed out that this action “flies in the face of
the POST Act
,” a city law that requires the NYPD to provide transparency about their various surveillance tactics. The advocates cite the fact that regulations have not kept up with the proliferation of technology.
No matter what happens in the future with regulations, the NYPD can always crash large parties the old fashioned way. Usually, the neighbors will complain at some point, unless they were all invited.
Photo via
Unsplash
. | 53 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678247",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T02:21:52",
"content": "If it can be proven NYPD’s drones are too low per FAA rules, can people fire a net gun to snare the drone legally? Or be a prick and have everyone show hand made signs “We’re having grilled pigs, come on ov... | 1,760,372,179.781379 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/tiny-drone-racing-gate-records-your-best-laps/ | Tiny Drone Racing Gate Records Your Best Laps | Lewin Day | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"drone",
"drone racing",
"drone racing gate",
"gate",
"tinywhoop"
] | Professional drone racing is now an elite sport, with all the high-end tech, coverage, and equipment that goes along with it. If you’re just practicing with tiny drones in your home though, you might not be so well equipped. You might want to build something like
this tiny FPV drone racing gate
from [ProfessorBoots] to help keep track of laptimes while you’re training.
The build uses ultrasonic range sensors to detect when an object passes through the gate. The gate itself consists of a ring of addressable LEDs in strip form. The gate switches from green to red as a visual indicator of a drone passing through the gate. There’s also a small 2.4-inch touch screen that displays laptimes and enables the gate to be configured quickly and easily. The gate also serves up a webpage on the local network for viewing laptimes in a browser.
It does bear noting that at this stage, it’s primarily a practice tool. The gate doesn’t currently work for proper competitions, as it has no way of determining
which
drone might be flying through the gate at any one time.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen a TinyWhoop drone
, either. Video after the break. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678695",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T18:19:24",
"content": "I wonder if the drone would have a signature on radio frequencies if that loop was a loop antenna?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678752",
... | 1,760,372,180.416933 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/if-you-arent-making-your-own-relays/ | If You Aren’t Making Your Own Relays… | Al Williams | [
"Parts"
] | [
"electromagnetics",
"reed switches",
"relays"
] | We’ve all been there. Someone will say something like, “I remember when we had to put our programs on a floppy disk…” Then someone will interrupt: “Floppy disk? We would have killed for floppy disks. We used paper tape…” After a few rounds, someone is talking about punching cards with a hand stylus or something. Next time someone is telling you about their relay computer, maybe ask them if they are buying their relays already built. They will almost surely say yes, and then you can refer them to [DiodeGoneWild], who shows how he is
making his own relays
.
While we don’t seriously suggest you make your own relays, there are a lot of fun techniques to pick up, from the abuse of a power drill to the calculation of the coil parameters. Even if you don’t learn anything, we get the desire to make as much as you can.
In all fairness, using reed switches seems like skipping the hard part. We were hoping to see even the contacts being homebrewed. That could have more practical application since contact material is a vastly underappreciated characteristic of relays. A lot of the bad rap they get for high failure rates is due to the contact material being incorrectly specified. If you match the contact material to the application, relays are often quite reliable.
Did you or will you make your own relays? Tell us why in the comments. Meanwhile, if you want to build a relay computer, consider using the
relays as multiplexers
instead of switches. If you need inspiration, here’s
one neat build
. | 46 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678635",
"author": "Skip Flem",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T14:07:15",
"content": "You neglected the promising career of keypunch operator…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678649",
"author": "SB5K",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,372,179.878585 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/hackaday-prize-2023-gen5x-a-generatively-designed-5-axis-3d-printer/ | Hackaday Prize 2023: Gen5X A Generatively Designed 5-Axis 3D Printer | Dave Rowntree | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Hackaday Columns",
"The Hackaday Prize"
] | [
"3d printed",
"5-Axis",
"generative design",
"parametric design"
] | [Ric Real] is entering the 2023 Hackaday Prize with the
Gen5X, a generatively designed 3D printed five-axis 3D printer
. The concept is not a new one, with the type of construction being seen a few times here and there. In addition to the usual three directions of motion, we’re familiar with, with the cartesian bot design, these types of machines add an additional two rotation axes, one which can swing the build platform front and back around the X-axis, and a second that provides rotation around the Z-axis. These combined motions give rise to some very interesting capabilities, outside of our familiar 3D printing design constraints.
As for the generative side of things, this is a largely theoretical idea. Essentially the concept is that the machine’s design can be iteratively updated and optimised for performance to fit into the constraints of available hardware such as motors and other ‘vitamins’ needed to create the next generation of machines. The design files should be parameterised enough such that this optimisation process can be automated, potentially via input from AI, but we suspect we’re a way off from that yet. Whether this project as yet satisfies any of these lofty goals remains to be seen, but do keep an eye on it if you’re so inclined. There is a
Fusion 360 project here
to dig into, but if you’re not interested in the research side of the project, but just want to build a 5-axis machine to play with, then you can find the
project source on the GitHub Page
.
If this feels familiar, you’d be on the right track, as we
covered at least one other 5D printer recently
. We have also
touched upon generative design at least once
. We’re sure we will see more on this topic in the future.
The
Hackaday
Prize 2023
is Sponsored by: | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678606",
"author": "snow",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T11:18:10",
"content": "3d printing is always a to way race you need the hardware and the software. without an adequate 5d slicer having a 5d printer is a pretty moot point. especially since the hardware is not the hard part…….",
... | 1,760,372,179.950281 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/03/heres-why-gpus-are-deep-learnings-best-friend/ | Here’s Why GPUs Are Deep Learning’s Best Friend | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"ai",
"car analogy",
"deep learning",
"gpu",
"machine learning",
"NVIDIA"
] | If you have a curiosity about how fancy graphics cards
actually
work, and why they are so well-suited to AI-type applications,
then take a few minutes to read [Tim Dettmers] explain why this is so
. It’s not a terribly long read, but while it does get technical there are also car analogies, so there’s something for everyone!
He starts off by saying that most people know that GPUs are scarily efficient at matrix multiplication and convolution, but what really makes them most useful is their ability to work with large amounts of memory very efficiently.
Essentially, a CPU is a latency-optimized device while GPUs are bandwidth-optimized devices. If a CPU is a race car, a GPU is a cargo truck. The main job in deep learning is to fetch and move cargo (memory, actually) around. Both devices can do this job, but in different ways. A race car moves quickly, but can’t carry much. A truck is slower, but far better at moving a lot at once.
To extend the analogy, a GPU isn’t actually just a truck; it is more like a
fleet
of trucks working in parallel. When applied correctly, this can effectively hide latency in much the same way as an assembly line. It takes a while for the first truck to arrive, but once it does, there’s an unbroken line of loaded trucks waiting to be unloaded. No matter how quickly and efficiently one unloads each truck, the next one is right there, waiting. Of course, GPUs don’t just shuttle memory around, they can do work on it as well.
The usual configuration for deep learning applications is a desktop computer with one or more high-end graphics cards wedged into it, but there are other (and smaller) ways to enjoy some of the same computational advantages without eating a ton of power and gaining a bunch of unused extra HDMI and DisplayPort jacks as a side effect.
NVIDIA’s line of Jetson development boards
incorporates the right technology in an integrated way. While it might lack the raw horsepower (and power bill) of a desktop machine laden with GPUs, they’re no slouch for their size. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678581",
"author": "Then",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T08:28:04",
"content": "So its more like container shipping? :p",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678589",
"author": "tadpole",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T10:07:... | 1,760,372,182.516825 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/arduino-powered-trap-hopes-to-catch-mice/ | Arduino-Powered Trap Hopes To Catch Mice | Lewin Day | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"mouse trap",
"mousetrap"
] | The old adage that you’ll make a fortune by developing a better mouse trap is not super realistic, as the engineers behind Sony’s Betamax video tape standard could tell you. However, you can still learn a lot building your own,
as this project from [ROBO HUB] demonstrates.
The trap is intended to catch mice in a humane fashion, without injury to the animal. To that end, it uses an Arduino Nano armed with an ultrasonic distance sensor to detect when mice have entered a plastic container. The container’s hinged door is is held open with a servo. When a mouse is detected, the servo trips the door to snap shut under the power of an elastic band.
The key to making this design work well is ensuring that there are no gaps in the closed container that the mouse can use to escape. They’re wily creatures able to squeeze through positively tiny spaces, so it’s important to get this right. Besides that, you want to check the trap regularly, lest any caught mice simply claw and chew their way out.
We’ve seen a few mousetraps around these parts before, too.
Video after the break. | 30 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678550",
"author": "Bruce",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T05:23:24",
"content": "Overkill. A $5 PIR sensor + solonoid to trip a gravity assisted door works 100%.Verified by 10 mice.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678628",
... | 1,760,372,182.584728 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/high-quality-3d-scene-generation-from-2d-source-in-realtime/ | High Quality 3D Scene Generation From 2D Source, In Realtime | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"machine learning",
"nerf",
"neural radiance fields",
"real-time"
] | Here’s some fascinating work presented at SIGGRAPH 2023 of a method for radiance field rendering using a novel technique called Gaussian Splatting. What’s that mean? It means
synthesizing a 3D scene from 2D images, in high quality and in real time
, as the short animation shown above shows.
Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs) are a method of leveraging machine learning to, in a way, do what photogrammetry does: synthesize complex scenes and views based on input images. But NeRFs work in a fraction of the time, and require only a fraction of the source material. There are different ways to go about this and unsurprisingly, there tends to be a clear speed vs. quality tradeoff. But as the video accompanying this new work seems to show, clever techniques mean the best of both worlds.
A short video summary is embedded just below the page break. Interested in deeper details?
The research PDF is here
. The amount of development this field has seen is nothing short of staggering, and certainly higher in quality than what was
state-of-the-art for NeRFs only a year ago
. | 28 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678527",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2023-09-03T03:44:18",
"content": "I still don’t get what the “original” is…Is it a series of photographs that are rendered 3D?Is It a single photograph?Is it a computer image?",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,372,182.353705 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/02/is-a-pigeon-faster-than-the-internet/ | Is A Pigeon Faster Than The Internet? | Chris Lott | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"carrier pigeon",
"data transfer",
"internet speed",
"pigeon"
] | [Jeff Geerling]’s
latest project
is for the birds — literally. Even though he has a brand new high-speed fiber optic internet connection, online backups of YouTube video projects still take hours. He decided to see if the
conclusions from a 2009 in South Africa study
still hold true today — that using carrier pigeons to send files can be faster than the internet. [Jeff] sets up an experiment to send 3 TB of data by homing pigeon a distance of one mile to establish a baseline. Next, [Jeff] sends the same 3 TB of data over the internet, and donning the cap of honorary pigeon, simultaneously embarks on a journey by air to his off-site backup service in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.
[Jeff] points out that you also have to consider the transfer time of your files onto and from the pigeon-suitable memory cards. He jumped through several hoops to minimize that, but it still consumed 2-1/2 hours total. Trying to keep the comparison fair, he also spent a couple days optimizing his internet connection to eek out the best possible speed.
Comparison of Total Transit Times vs Distance
The results are interesting. In the 3 TB to Canada experiment, jet-assisted [Jeff] needed about seven hours, beating the internet’s eleven hours by a comfortable margin. The chart above shows the transit time for each method vs distance. As you can see, the internet only wins when you consider distances of thousands of miles. Homing pigeons win at distances up to a few hundred miles.
While not by air, Amazon’s
AWS Snowmobile service
uses a huge truck to carry exabytes of data from your site to their servers. If you want to try this yourself, first read up on
RFC 1149
,
A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers
from 1990, and its modern IPv6 version
RFC 6214
. We also wrote a piece
about another unusual application of carrier pigeons
during WWI. | 46 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678484",
"author": "Red Five",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T23:28:59",
"content": "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon hurtling down the highway carrying a load of tapes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678486",... | 1,760,372,182.235444 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/re-creating-pink-floyd-in-the-name-of-speech/ | Re-Creating Pink Floyd In The Name Of Speech | Kristina Panos | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"ai",
"brainwaves",
"machine learning",
"pink floyd",
"prosody"
] | For people who have lost the ability to speak, the future may include brain implants that bring that ability back. But could these brain implants also allow them to sing? Researchers believe that, all in all,
it’s just another brick in the wall
.
In a new study published in PLOS Biology
, twenty-nine people who were already being monitored for epileptic seizures participated via a postage stamp-sized array of electrodes implanted directly on the surface of their brains. As the participants were exposed to Pink Floyd’s
Another Brick In the Wall, Part 1
, the researchers gathered data from several areas of the brain, each attuned to a different musical element such as harmony, rhythm, and so on. Then the researchers used machine learning to reconstruct the audio heard by the participants using their brainwaves.
First, an AI model looked at the data generated from the brains’ responses to components of the song, like the changes in rhythm, pitch, and tone. Then a second model rejiggered the piecemeal song and estimated the sounds heard by the patients. Of the
seven audio samples published in the study results
, we think #3 sounds the most like the song. It’s kind of creepy but ultimately very cool. What do you think?
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/journal.pbio_.3002176.s007.wav
Another cool aspect is that this revealed which parts of the brain respond to what when listening to music. While many of us might assume it all goes on in the auditory cortex, some audio such as the onset of voices and synthesizers is processed just behind and above the ear in the superior temporal gyrus. Even though this study focused on recreating music, the researchers believe this will move the idea of the speech brain implant forward.
Why Pink Floyd? While the researchers admit to a fondness for the band, the song they chose is layered and complex, which makes for interesting analysis. Although we are not sheep, we would have to agree.
Main
and
thumbnail
images via Unsplash. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678025",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T11:47:18",
"content": "It’s a bit of a magic trick, to be honest. They play a song, then record the brain waves, then record the brain waves and play back pieces of the song that correspond to those brainwaves. Of course it’s goin... | 1,760,372,182.290407 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/big-3d-printed-hand-uses-big-servos-naturally/ | Big 3D Printed Hand Uses Big Servos, Naturally | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"hand",
"robot hand",
"robotics"
] | [Ivan Miranda] isn’t afraid to dream big, and hopes to soon build a 3D printed giant robot he can ride around on. As the first step towards that goal,
he’s built a giant printed hand big enough to hold a basketball.
The hand has fingers with several jointed segments, inspired by those
wooden hand models
sold as home decor at IKEA. The fingers are controlled via a toothed belt system, with two beefy 11 kg servos responsible for flexing each individual finger joint. A third 25 kg servo flexes the finger as a whole. [Ivan] does a good job of hiding the mechanics and wiring inside the structure of the hand itself, making an attractive robot appendage.
As with many such projects, control is where things get actually difficult. It’s one thing to make a robot hand flex its fingers in and out, and another thing to make it move in a useful, coordinated fashion. Regardless, [Ivan] is able to have the hand grip various objects, in part due to the usefulness of the hand’s opposable thumb. Future plans involve adding positional feedback to improve the finesse of the control system.
Building a
good robot hand is no mean feat,
and it remains one of the challenges behind
building capable humanoid robots
. Video after the break. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678011",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T10:35:06",
"content": "Don’t these people have jobs?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678046",
"author": "Manuel",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T13:04:15",
... | 1,760,372,182.004361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/super-nes-cartridge-pulls-a-sneaky-plays-minecraft/ | Super NES Cartridge Pulls A Sneaky, PlaysMinecraft | Donald Papp | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"cartridge",
"external hard drive",
"minecraft",
"nintendo",
"Super NES",
"super nintendo"
] | Sometimes it’s the little touches and details that make a project. That’s certainly the case with [Franklinstein]’s
Super Nintendo (SNES) Cartridge Hard Drive
. It might only be an enclosure for a solid-state hard drive with a USB interface, but the attention to detail is what really makes it worth checking out.
A SNES cartridge has a pretty standard clamshell-ish construction, but fitting the solid-state drive plus cable adapter turned out to be a bit of a challenge.
Since [Franklinstein] wanted the cartridge to look as original as possible, careful measuring and cutting was needed to securely fit the drive and provide an unobtrusive USB-C port tucked discreetly into the cartridge’s opening. We like the technique of using a 3D printed fixture to take up the slack on the cable by exactly the right amount, resulting in a 100% rattle-free end product. A custom
Minecraft
sticker label provides the finishing touch.
Being able to plug it into a computer and actually play
Minecraft
is a neat gimmick, but it really shows that some careful construction and assembly can be what makes something look like a clean build instead of a hack job. Take a look at
additional build detail and pictures
, and check out the video of the build, embedded below.
Hey, if sneaky cartridge mod tricks intrigue you, then you’ll absolutely want to check out how it was possible to play
DOOM
on a NES from a cartridge
. Maybe that’s the next evolution for a cartridge with a
Minecraft
label on it? | 24 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677961",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T05:45:12",
"content": "+1",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6677989",
"author": "ag",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T08:35:50",
"content": "+1. The cartridge does not play... | 1,760,372,182.648603 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/emulating-x86-on-apples-aarch64-x64-emulator/ | Emulating X86 On Apple’s AARCH64 X64 Emulator | Lewin Day | [
"ARM"
] | [
"aarch64",
"arm",
"x64",
"x86",
"x86-64",
"x86_64"
] | You might know [Evan Martin] as the developer of
retrowin32
. It’s a Windows and x86 emulator designed to run on a Mac or on the web. He’s recently been exploring
how to run 32-bit x86 binaries on the AArch64 (aka ARM64) architecture.
[Evan] realized that Apple’s ARM-based Macs feature a high-quality x86 emulator, used via the Rosetta binary translation system. It only supports 64-bit x86-64 binaries, also known as x64, and thus he had initially discounted it for running older 32-bit x86 software. However, as it turns out, x64 features a special compatibility mode for running 32-bit code. [Evan] was able to leverage this to run 32-bit Windows executables rather neatly via the high-performance Rosetta emulator.
To run a 32-bit executable on a 64-bit processor in this way, one creates a 64-bit program that is tasked with loading the 32-bit executable. It’s a little fussy, involving some tricks to handle memory management between the 32-bit code and the 64-bit wrapper, and how to interface with the OS, but [Evan] explains deftly how it’s all done.
[Evan] notes that this hack may not work forever, especially if Apple changes or deprecates Rosetta’s remaining x86-64 emulation in the future. Regardless, Apple’s
“Game Porting Toolkit”
relies on similar techniques used by
Wine.
If you find yourself
dancing across platforms
, you might learn some nifty tricks from [Evan]’s example! | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677942",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T02:48:26",
"content": "The asahi team did a short demo of running x86 steam and portal on the M1 under linux with FEX, but it required running the system on a 4K page kernel to match x86. Long term, that’s not feasible.The M1’s IOMMU... | 1,760,372,182.461304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/an-unexpected-appearance-of-an-iconic-motorola-chip/ | An Unexpected Appearance Of An Iconic Motorola Chip | Maya Posch | [
"Reverse Engineering",
"Teardown"
] | [
"bigclive",
"buck-boost",
"motorola"
] | Big Clive’s reverse-engineered schematic of the USB charger containing the MC34063 IC.
Generally when you crack open a cheap car-to-USB charger unit that came with some widget, you do not expect to find anything amazing inside. That’s why it was such a surprise to [Big Clive] when said car USB charger
revealed a blast from the past
in the form of an
MC34063
. This is a switching regulator that supports buck, boost and inverting topologies, but perhaps it most notable feature is that it was first produced by Motorola in the early 1980s.
This particular IC is marked as having been produced by ON Semiconductor which means that it’s technically still manufactured by Motorola – with ON Semiconductor being the Phoenix division that was spun off in 1999 – but it’s somewhat remarkable that this particular chip isn’t only produced by ON Semi today, but
also by Texas Instruments
. Much like the venerable NE555 timer IC and Intel’s 8051 MCU architecture, it would seem that certain chips and designs are simply made to become commodities in the future.
This appears to be the case for the MC34063 as well, which may lack some niceties of more modern ICs, such as built-in thermal protection, and it switches at only up to 100 kHz, but it can be bought for peanuts, has a wide input voltage range of 3 to 40 V, can switch up to 1.5 A and supports multiple common topologies. Often a 100 kHz switching regulator is all you need, in which case it’s handy to have a stack of such commodity chips lying around, plus the MC34063 comes in PDIP packaging as well, which is a boon for prototyping. | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677931",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T01:33:27",
"content": "Like opening a donut and finding a hole inside.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6677933",
"author": "starhawk",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T01:... | 1,760,372,182.420113 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/hoverboard-turned-into-bonkers-omniwheeled-bike/ | Hoverboard Turned Into Bonkers Omniwheeled Bike | Lewin Day | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike",
"hoverboard"
] | Segways stunned the world when they first hit the market in 2001. Hoverboards then terrified the world with nasty accidents and surprise fires. [James Bruton] loves hoverboards regardless, and set out on a mighty upgrade regime
turning the ride-on toy into a giant omniwheeled bicycle.
The build relies on two giant omniwheels of [James’s] own creation, using lasercut and 3D-printed parts. The wheels are mounted perpendicularly on either end of a boxy plywood “bike frame” built in two sections, with a split in the middle. The two halves can rotate relative to each other, much like the two halves of a stock hoverboard.
Amazingly, the build relies on the stock hoverboard motors and electronics. The hoverboard wheel motors are responsible for driving the omniwheels at either end via a toothed belt drive. The gear ratio of the belt reduction is set up to cancel out the greater diameter of the omniwheels, such that the hoverboard’s tuning isn’t disrupted. Wisely, [James] also fitted a safety power cutout, too.
The result is a self-balancing “bike” the likes of which you’ve never seen before. At present, it can balance upright and rotate relatively well. However, control is difficult, requiring the use of the rider’s body weight and the twisting of the bike’s sections. [James] has instead contemplated using servos to tilt the hoverboard sensors instead for an easier control method than the current setup.
It’s a truly bonkers build which is a testament to [James’s] creativity and prowess.
We’ve seen some other great hoverboard hacks before
, but nothing quite like this. Video after the break. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677875",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T20:22:42",
"content": "The Hell’s Angels will never accept him.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678084",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T15... | 1,760,372,182.051262 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/diving-into-starlinks-user-terminal-firmware/ | Diving Into Starlink’s User Terminal Firmware | Maya Posch | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"reverse engineering",
"Starlink"
] | The average Starlink user probably doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about their hardware after getting the dish aligned and wiring run. To security researchers, however, it’s another fascinating device to tinker with as they reverse-engineer the firmware and try to both find out what makes it tick, as well as how to break it. This is essentially the subject of [Carlo Ramponi]’s article over at Quarkslab as he
digs into the firmware architecture
and potential weaknesses in its internal communication.
The user terminal hardware itself is a quite standard AArch64 ARM-based SoC, along with the proprietary communication interface, all of which is controlled by the Linux-based firmware. Dumping the firmware itself was made easy thanks to
existing work
by researchers at the KU Leuven, involving dumping the contents of the onboard eMMC storage. After this the firmware architecture could be analyzed, which turned out to consist out of mostly C++-based binaries, but with a single big binary for the user front-end written in Go.
Communication between these processes is handled through a custom inter-process protocol called ‘Slate Sharing’, all of which is coordinated via the core User Terminal Control process. It are these Slate IPC messages which form the most likely attack surface for a fuzzing attack, with the
SoftwareUpdateRequest
command being an interesting target as it would seem to not require authentication since it doesn’t address a specific user. This work is part of [Carlo]’s master’s thesis, and should form the basis of further research on the Starlink User Terminal firmware. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677965",
"author": "tomás zerolo",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T05:57:43",
"content": "How careful here. The Musk is a bit irascible as of late and might invite security researchers to a cage fight.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "... | 1,760,372,182.689373 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/hefty-3d-printed-quadcopter-meets-nasty-end/ | Hefty 3D Printed Quadcopter Meets Nasty End | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"quadcopter",
"weight"
] | You can readily buy all kinds of quadcopters off the shelf these days, but sometimes it’s more fun to build your own. [Michael Rechtin] did just that,
with a hefty design of his own creation.
The build is an exploration of all kinds of interesting techniques. The frame itself uses generative design techniques to reduce weight while maintaining strength, while the motors themselves make heavy use of 3D-printed components. The design is modular and much of it slots together, too, and it uses a homebrewed flight controller
running dRehmflight.
It draws 2.5 kW from its lithium polymer batteries and weighs over 5 kg.
The DIY ethos led to some hurdles, but taught [Michael] plenty along the way. Tuning the PID control loop posed some challenges, as did one of the hand-wound motors being 5% down on thrust. Eventually, though, the quad flew well enough to
crash into a rectangular gate,
before hitting the ground. Any quad pilot will tell you that
these things happen.
Drilling into the quad with a battery still inside then led to a fire, which did plenty of further damage.
[Michael’s] quad doesn’t appear to be specifically optimized to any one task, and it’s easy to see many ways in which it could be lightened or otherwise upgraded. However, as a freeform engineering thinking exercise, it’s interesting to watch as he tackles various problems and
iteratively improves the design.
Video after the break. | 26 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678233",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T00:14:27",
"content": "I can understand using 3D printed parts, but with the easy availability and affordable cost of carbon fiber tubing I don’t understand printing the whole thing out of plastic. Adding the dovetails also add... | 1,760,372,182.752208 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/an-electric-unicycle-in-minimalist-form/ | An Electric Unicycle, In Minimalist Form | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"IMU",
"monowheel",
"unicycle"
] | When self balancing scooters hit the market a few years ago they brought alongside them a range of machines, from the hoverboard kids toys which have provided so many useful parts, to the stand-astride electric unicycles. These last machines have a bulky battery and controller box atop the wheel, and [Dycus] set his sights on this
by transferring it to a backpack with the vehicle’s IMU sensor relocated to one of the pedals.
Such a job is not merely a simple case of rewiring with some longer cables, as a first challenge the IMU communicates via I2C which isn’t suitable for longer distances. This is solved by a chipset which places the I2C on a differential pair, but even then it’s not quite a case of stepping on and zipping about. The PID parameters of the balancing algorithm on a stock machine are tuned for the extra weight of the battery on top, and these needed to be modified. Fortunately there have been enough people hacking the STM microcontroller and firmware involved for this task to be achievable, but we’d rate it as still something not for the faint-hearted.
The final result can be seen in the video below, and the quality of the physical work shows as very high. The former battery box is repurposed into a stylish backpack, and though the newly minimalist foot pedals and wheel are a little less easy to get going he zips around with ease.
Hungry for more?
This ain’t the first we’ve shown you
. | 18 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678166",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T20:26:36",
"content": "[Dycus] on that contraption is an epic face-plant waiting to happen. He should be wearing a full-face helmet with a mouth guard.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,372,183.60226 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/hackaday-prize-2023-10-kw-electronic-load/ | Hackaday Prize 2023: 10 KW Electronic Load | Dave Rowntree | [
"The Hackaday Prize",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"2023 Hackaday Prize",
"electronic load",
"high power",
"pwm",
"stm32"
] | [tinfever] needed a high-power benchtop electronic load for an upcoming project, and by their own admission
decided foolishly to build their own
. And we’re glad they did. The thing is, whilst this isn’t exactly a super-cheap project to build, buying a commercial offering with a capability of 10 kW and up to 30 kW pulsed, is going to cost an absolute fortune.
A selection of small resistors
Built inside a cubic frame using what appears to be standard 2020 aluminum rails and fixturing, the modular construction is nice and clean, with plenty of space around the load boards to allow the cooling air to circulate.
The operating principle is very simple; custom PCBs act in parallel to provide any load needed, by switching in the on-board load resistor. Each load board handles all the details of switching and dumping the power due to the inductance in the system wiring and the wire-wound resistors themselves.
Whilst we know that wire-wound resistors are reverse-wound to minimize inductance, there will still be some, and each load board will contribute a little more when the whole system is scaled up. Also, each load PCB handles its own temperature sensing, and current measurement passing these data off to the control PCB. A front-end connector PCB provides a variety of connection options to interface to the DUT (Device Under Test.) The system controller is based around an STM32 processor which deals with quite a lot more than you might think is needed on a first look.
The sense currents from each load need to be sensed, scaled, and summed to keep the overall load accuracy within the 1% spec. Also, it is on duty for PWM control of the cooling fans, handling the user interface, and any other remote connectivity. There are a lot of details on the project page, as we’re only skimming the surface here. If you’re interested in building an active load, this is a project you really should be digging into.
We shall watch with interest for when [tinfever] scales up this eight-slot prototype to the full specification of 52 stages! When working with power applications, there comes a point when you really need an electronic load, and to that end,
here’s one with a very specific use case
to get you started.
There is also the option of buying something cheap from the usual sources and
hacking on some custom firmware
to adapt it a little to your needs.
The
Hackaday
Prize 2023
is Sponsored by: | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678153",
"author": "willmore",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T19:46:39",
"content": "Wait, hold up, TIL, what’s this about “reverse wound” wire-wound resistors?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678164",
"author": "Denny",
... | 1,760,372,183.414568 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/on-vim-modal-interfaces-and-the-way-we-interact-with-computers/ | On Vim, Modal Interfaces And The Way We Interact With Computers | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"Emacs",
"vi",
"vim"
] | The ways in which we interact with computers has changed dramatically over the decades. From flipping switches on the control panels of room-sized computers, to punching holes into cards, to ultimately the most common ways that we interact with computers today, in the form of keyboards, mice and touch screens. The latter two especially were developed as a way to interact with graphical user interfaces (GUI) in an intuitive way, but keyboards remain the only reasonable way to quickly enter large amounts of text, which raises many ergonomic questions about how to interact with the rest of the user interface, whether this is a command line or a GUI.
For text editors, perhaps the most divisive feature is that of modal versus non-modal interaction. This one point alone underlies most of the
Great Editor War
that has raged since time immemorial. Practically, this is mostly about highly opiniated people arguing about whether they like Emacs or vi (or
Vim
) better. Since in August of 2023 we said our final farewell to the creator of Vim –
Bram Moolenaar
– this might be a good point to put down the torches and pitchforks and take a sober look at why Vim really is the logical choice for fast, ergonomic coding and editing.
First, There Was Vi
Text editors weren’t originally really much of a thing when it came to home computers, with the need to edit text and configuration files the most pressing on larger UNIX systems. This was the world in which the
vi
editor (short for ‘visual’) saw the light in 1976, when Bill Joy created it as a visual mode for the
ex
line editor that worked better on a teleprinter. Bill Joy did admit to being strongly inspired by the modal
Bravo
editor, which was created at Xerox PARC in 1974 for the Alto Executive operating system.
As the standard editor in BSD Unix distributions and part of the
Single UNIX Specification
,
vi
became well-known and despite it being proprietary software, demand grew for a version that would work on home computers. This turned out to be
Stevie
(ST Editor for Vi Enthusiasts), originally written by Tim Thompson for the Atari ST in 1987, but later ported by Tony Andrews to UNIX, OS/2 and Amiga in 1988. It was this Amiga port that Bram Moolenaar – as an Amiga user – would pick in 1991 as the basis for
what would become Vim
.
Initially ‘Vim’ stood for ‘Vi IMitation’, but after the project picked up speed and gained many new features that made it much more than ‘just vi’, it became ‘Vi IMproved’, or ‘Vim’ for short. Even though Bill Joy had by then joined the Dark Side with his entry in the Church of Emacs, this did not mean that the mode-based editing approach first coined with the Bravo editor at Xerox PARC was now on the ropes. Instead Vim is still the editor you’ll usually find installed by default on Unix, BSDs, Linux distributions and others, whether in its vi-compatibility configuration or full Vim glory.
Strain Modifier
Vim is the canonical mode-based editor. Perhaps the most straightforward way to describe the difference between mode-less and mode-based text editors is in the way that modifier keys are used. If you want to perform commands with a mode-less editor, you have to use the Alt, Ctrl, Shift, Meta, or Cmd and some of the alphanumeric keys simultaneously to form the key combination that triggers the desired command. Depending on the number of these commands are configured this can mean simultaneously hitting a mere two keys all the way up to five or more in some kind of claw-like death grip. In the case of Emacs the common issue with a sore finger is referred to as an ‘
Emacs pinky
‘ from overextension to the Ctrl key.
With a mode-based editor, you hit the configured key (like ‘Esc’) to leave the Insert Mode and enter Command Mode where you type out the string with the command. From a repetitive strain injury (
RSI
) point of view, it ought to be somewhat obvious that the latter approach puts less stress on one’s hands and wrists as they can remain mostly on the home row, rather than having to contort continuously to reach for modifier keys to form uncomfortable combinations, or even shift your position for that bane of ergonomics: the mouse.
Beyond the inevitability of accessing the Shift key now and then in order to capitalize a letter here and there, or to hit Caps Lock for that bit of SQL syntax, your hands should remain on the home row when using a mode-based editor like Vim, with your weak pinky rarely having to exert a trembling reach all the way over to the Alt and Ctrl keys. When you are done typing in whatever text had to be typed in Insert Mode, you move your left hand slightly over to hit the Esc key to enter Command Mode, which is also a nice change of position that allows for stretching your hands some.
Vim As IDE
Although Vim started as a text editor, it has over the decades collected many features which are generally associated with integrated development environments (IDEs). This include syntax highlighting, code folding, integration with toolchains and a robust extension ecosystem that allows a user to turn a basic Vim installation into an IDE for whatever target language and environment they need.
In order to get started with configuring Vim as an IDE, you only
have to follow
one of the
countless tutorials
you can find
all around
the internet
, owing to just how many people use Vim exactly for this purpose. Some mention trying out countless other IDEs and editors, only to come back to Vim. One thing that is highly attractive here is how
transparent and configurable
it is. You can quickly check and configure settings in the plain text configuration file, and share these settings with others, or simply back up your entire Vim configuration, which is very convenient when switching between systems.
Finding additional plugins for Vim can be a bit of a chore if you’re looking for something specific, but the official
scripts database
on the Vim site, as well as as sites like
Vim Awesome
can help with sifting through what’s available. There are also plenty of recommendations by Vim users on which plugins they figure are the best for
developers
and
sysadmins
. Although perhaps not as glitzy and user-friendly as something like Visual Studio Code, Vim will happily run on the command line, even inside a screen session via SSH on a remote server, without requiring a gigabyte of RAM and lugging a browser-sized attack surface along with it.
:wq
For the average computer user, vi and Vim, Emacs and mode-based editors are something that they will likely never come across in their daily, Windows and MacOS-based experience. To them these sound and look like tools used by hackers, as they sit in darkened rooms in front of multiple screens with text busily scrolling past in terminals. Yet when the Editor War first began to pick up speed, that was basically all that computing was like, whether in DOS, CP/M, UNIX, or the various BASIC runtimes including that of the pre-MacIntosh Macs.
In that era nobody was quite certain what the best way to create a user interface was, with even the GUIs of Windows 1 through 3.xx looking quite bizarre to today’s generations. These days we have more or less settled on a few standard ways of interacting with computers, but as the ongoing strife between the Church of Emacs and the Enlightened of Vim shows, nothing is ever fully settled, even as both sides bring their best arguments to bear.
Regardless of what the future of computing will look like, we all owe Bram Moolenaar a thanks for his role in giving us Vim, and kickstarting the community around it. | 65 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678113",
"author": "Thomas Brusehaver",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T17:09:45",
"content": "Before the PC, and IBM keyboards, the Ctrl key was where the caps lock key is.Pinky strain want a problem.(I had a co worker who remapped the Ctrl key to the caps lock key, no one else could use... | 1,760,372,183.348428 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/hackaday-podcast-234-machines-on-fire-old-kinect-new-kinect-and-birth-of-the-breadboard/ | Hackaday Podcast 234: Machines On Fire, Old Kinect New Kinect, And Birth Of The Breadboard | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | It might sound like a joke, but this week, Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start things off by asking how you keep a Polish train from running. Like always, the answer appears to be a properly modulated radio signal. After a fiery tale about Elliot’s burned beans, the discussion moves over to the adventure that is home CNC ownership, the final chapter in the saga of the Arecibo Telescope, and the unexpected longevity of Microsoft’s Kinect. Then it’s on to the proper way to cook a PCB, FFmpeg in the browser, and a wooden cyberdeck that’s worth carrying around. Finally, they’ll go over the next generation of diode laser engravers, and take a look back at the origins of the lowly breadboard.
Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Download it yourself
. You don’t need the cloud!
Episode 234 Show Notes:
News:
Polish Railways Fall Victim To Cheap Radio Attack
Add Full-Color Images To Your 3D Prints With Toner Transfer
What’s that Sound?
Think you recognize this week’s sound?
Let us know
!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Impulse Buying A 3040 CNC Machine, What Could Go Wrong?
Blame It On The Sockets: Forensic Analysis Of The Arecibo Collapse
NSF Releases Video Of Arecibo’s Final Moments
The Battle For Arecibo Has Been Lost
Tensions High After Second Failed Cable At Arecibo
Damage To Arecibo Leaves Gaping Hole In Astronomy
Going To Extremes To Block YouTube Ads
GTA 6 Hacker Found To Be Teen With Amazon Fire Stick In Small Town Hotel Room
Microsoft Discontinues Kinect, Again
Kinect Gave Us A Preview Of The Future, Though Not The One It Intended
PCB Toaster Oven Solders Your Boards
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Kitchen Steganography With Turmeric
Explore FFmpeg From The Comfort Of Your Browser
Card/IO Is A Credit Card-Sized, Open Source ECG Monitor
Tom’s Picks:
Checking Belt Tension Gets Easier For (Some) Prusa 3D Printers
This CRT Luggable Makes Sense
Take A PEEK At This 3D Printer
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Review: WAINLUX K8, A Diode Laser That’s Ready To Work
Retro Gadgets: The 1974 Breadboard Project | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678112",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T17:07:51",
"content": "I appreciate the fact Elliot had more important things to do at the time but…. I wish there was a video!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678120",
... | 1,760,372,183.551703 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/motorized-camera-slider-rides-on-carbon/ | Motorized Camera Slider Rides On Carbon | Bryan Cockfield | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"automated",
"camera",
"dolly",
"motion",
"motorized",
"parallax",
"slider",
"speed control",
"time-lapse"
] | While not every camera mount needs to have six degrees of freedom, one or two can be extremely helpful in the photographic world. In order to make time-lapse shots with some motion or shots that incorporate some parallax, a moving camera mount or dolly is needed, and
this small one builds upon a pre-existing, although non-motorized, camera slider
.
The slider is an inexpensive model from everyone’s favorite online warehouse, with rails that are at least coated in carbon, if not made out of it entirely, to ensure smooth camera motion. To add the motorization to automatically move the camera, a stepper motor with a belt drive is used which is controlled by an Arduino. A few limit switches are added, letting the dolly perform different movement patterns automatically, and a pair of potentiometers for fine and coarse speed control are included as well, letting the camera take both time-lapse and video while using this mount at various controllable speeds.
With everything tucked into a relatively small box at one end of the dolly, the build is both accessible and functional. The code for the microcontroller is also available on
the project’s GitHub page
for anyone looking to replicate or build upon the project. And, for those looking to add more degrees of freedom to their camera setups, take a look at this
DIY pan and tilt mount
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678318",
"author": "Christer",
"timestamp": "2023-09-02T10:27:39",
"content": "PWM controlled geared motor seams simpler and smaller?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,183.245598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/01/this-week-in-security-not-a-vulnerability-bgp-bug-propogation-and-press-enter-to-hack/ | This Week In Security: Not A Vulnerability, BGP Bug Propogation, And Press Enter To Hack | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"bgp",
"CVE",
"This Week in Security",
"TPM"
] | Curl was recently notified of a CVE,
CVE-2020-19909
, rated at a hair-raising 9.8 on the CVSS scale. And PostgreSQL has
CVE-2020-21469
, clocking in with a 7.5 severity. You may notice something odd about those two vulnerabilities, but I promise the 2020 date is only the tip of the iceberg here.
Let’s start with PostgreSQL. That vulnerability was only present in version 12.2, which released in February of 2020, and was fixed with the 12.3 release in May of that same year. The problem is a stack buffer overflow, which doesn’t seem to enable code execution, but does cause a denial of service situation. To trigger the bug? Repeatedly send the PostgreSQL daemon the SIGHUP signal.
If you’re familiar with Linux signals, that might sound odd. See, the SIGHUP signal technically indicates the end of a user session, but most daemons use it to indicate a restart or reload request. And to send this signal, a user has to have elevated privileges — elevated enough to simply stop the daemon altogether. Put simply,
it’s not a security vulnerability
, just a minor bug.
And now
on to curl
— This one is just bizarre. The issue is a integer overflow in the
--retry-delay
argument, which specifies in seconds how often curl should retry a failing download. The value is multiplied by 1000 to convert to milliseconds, resulting in an overflow for very large values. The result of that overflow? A smaller value for the retry delay.
[Daniel Stenberg]
makes the point that this tale is a wonderful demonstration
of the brokenness of the CVE system and NVD’s handling of it. And in this case, it’s hard not to see this as negligence. We have to work really hard to construct a theoretical scenario where this bug could actually be exploited. The best I’ve been able to come up with is an online download tool, where the user can specify part of the target name and a timeout. If that tool had a check to ensure that the timeout was large enough to avoid excess traffic, this bug could bypass that check. Should we be assigning CVEs for that sort of convoluted, theoretical attack?
But here’s the thing, that attack scenario should rate something like a CVSS of 4.8 at absolute worst. NVD assigned this a 9.8. There’s no way you can squint at this bug hard enough to legitimately rank it that severe. At the time of writing, the NVD lists this as “UNDERGOING REANALYSIS”.
BGP Allergies
In early June, a Border Gateway Protocol
(BGP) route started announcing from a small network in Brazil
. That route had a BGP Entropy Label Capability Attribute as part of the attribute fields, but the length of that field set to zero. Most other BGP routers have no idea what this attribute means, so it’s ignored but passed on.
Juniper routers, however, are quite well aware of what that attribute is, and are quite opinionated on how it should be formatted. And this route got it wrong. The old response to a decoding error is to trigger a BGP session shutdown, dropping the router from the wider Internet temporarily. Because the route that caused the problem is still being announced, that process can continue to iterate, keeping the affected routers offline until someone steps in to fix the problem. RFC 7606 fixes this problem, by specifying that only the bad routes are to be dropped. But rollout on this RFC has been slow.
Which leads to the actual research of this story. [Benjojo] decided to set some BGP routers up on a testbench, and fuzz some BGP packets. There’s an impressive list of vendors that didn’t fall to the attack, but Juniper, Nokia, FRR, OpenBSD, and Extreme Networks all had somewhat unexpected results. Of those, the OpenBSD security team stood out for taking the report seriously, and rapidly preparing a patch to address it. The other vendors were less responsive, to put it mildly.
TPM Hacking Made Easy
Here on Hackaday, we’ve covered a couple different Trusted Platform Module (TPM) attacks, where an encryption key can be sniffed off a physical trace on the motherboard. It turns out, those attacks way over-complicate the matter, and
you can just mash the enter key
like a 6-year-old playing street fighter.
This attack works on Linux machines that use the TPM to power unattended unlocking for LUKS disk encryption. This sounds odd at first, but it’s the solution to doing disk encryption for the server in the network closet, without having to walk over and type a password in for every reboot. The TPM supplies the encryption key, and the OS takes over security. The trick is to shoot that gap, hitting enter multiple times before the TPM unlocks the disk, each counting as a password entry attempt. Rate limiting kicks in, preventing the normal boot flow, and eventually the system fails to boot and drops the user to a root privileged shell.
The hard drive is still locked, but it’s easy enough to use the boot-time tools to ask the TPM to unlock the disk. It’s apparently possible to rapid-fire the enter key fast enough by hand to hit this issue. The solution is actually a bit complicated. You can add
rd.shell=0
and
rd.emergency=reboot
to the kernel command line, and it closes the gap, but that might not be the best option for most users.
Bits and Bytes
Remember Wardriving? Where you could take a laptop and WiFi card, and drive around looking for vulnerable wireless networks? Chances are, you have a more powerful computer in your pocket, so
why not put it to work
? The entire
mobile-hacker series
is about the Kali NetHunter Android toolkit, and walks us through installation, picking some peripherals, and getting to work auditing WiFi. Enjoy responsibly!
One of our favorite tools in the anti-malware toolkit, Malwarebytes,
is prepping for some big changes
. Sadly, about 100 employees were let go as part of the groundwork for splitting the business into consumer and enterprise arms. No work yet on how the flagship anti-malware product will be affected.
An new malware strain, “Infamous Chisel”,
has been found apparently targeting Ukrainian Android devices
. The malware permanently installs itself over the
netd
daemon, and uses the TOR network for communications. It even includes Dropbear SSH for remote access. With the permanent installation and file replacement, this malware doesn’t seem to be intended for stealth installs. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6678110",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2023-09-01T18:51:40",
"content": "I got into the second paragraph till I realized that the sun isn’t hurling another gas cloud on us.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6678227",
... | 1,760,372,183.172616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/logic-analyzers-tapping-into-raspberry-pi-secrets/ | Logic Analyzers: Tapping Into Raspberry Pi Secrets | Arya Voronova | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"logic analyser",
"logic analyzer",
"pulseview",
"raspberry pi",
"sigrok"
] | Today, I’d like to highlight a tool that brings your hacking skills to a whole new level, and does that without breaking the bank – in fact, given just how much debugging time you can save, how many fun pursuits you can unlock, and the numerous features you can add, this might be one of the cheapest tools you will get. Whether it’s debugging weird problems, optimizing your code, probing around a gadget you’re reverse-engineering, or maybe trying to understand someone’s open-source library, you are likely missing out a lot if you don’t have a logic analyzer on hand!
It’s heartbreaking to me that some hackers still don’t know the value that a logic analyzer brings. Over and over again, tactical application of a logic analyzer has helped me see an entirely different perspective on something I was hacking on, and that’s just the thing I’d like to demonstrate today.
Diving In
A logic analyzer has a number of digital inputs, and it continuously reads the state of these digital inputs, sending them to your computer or showing them on a screen – it’s like a logic-level-only oscilloscope. If you have an I2C bus with one MCU controlling a sensor, connect a logic analyzer to the clock and data pins, wire up the ground, launch the logic analyzer software on your computer, and see what’s actually happening.
For instance, have you ever noticed the ID_SC and ID_SD pins on the Raspberry Pi GPIO connector? Are you wondering what they’re for? Don’t you want to check what actually happens on these pins? Let’s do that right now!
I’m using a $10 logic analyzer you can get off Aliexpress or Amazon, a laptop, and a Raspberry Pi with an SD card and a power supply. Here, it is wired up – you only need three female-female wires, two signals and one ground. “SD” and “SC” sounds like I2C – typical I2C frequency is usually either 100 kHz or 400 kHz. A good rule of thumb is to set your frequency to be three or four times larger than the clock frequency of the data stream you’re about to capture. As such, I plan to set my logic analyzer’s sample rate to 2 MHz. If it turns out to be too slow to catch up with the data being transferred, I can increase the sample rate and just do the sampling again.
The software I’m using is Pulseview – it’s a wonderful GUI for logic analyzers, and can interface to a large variety of logic analyzers. It’s open-source, Linux-friendly, hackable and has good UX, even if it’s not recently maintained. You can install it from your distro’s repository, or
download the .exe
if you’re on Windows. With the logic analyzer connected, I plug it into my USB port,
launch Pulseview,
set the sample rate and reading duration, which can be infinite, disable all channels except the two I’m interested in, press ‘Capture’ and plug the Pi into power.
After I plug the Pi in, logic levels on both of the pins go up as 3.3 V power appears – and, after a few seconds, there’s a short burst of activity on these two pins. Zooming in, the activity does indeed look like I2C – and in Pulseview, it’s quite easy to decode! Press the “Protocol decoders” button on the settings taskbar, type “I2C” on your keyboard, select the I2C decoder, then doubleclick the decoder tag on the left and select which channels are SCL and SDA – it’s easy to tell, SCL will look like a clock signal with equal highs and lows, while high and low intervals on SDA will vary; on the picture above, D1 is SCL and D0 is SDA. Zooming in on the I2C events decoded, we can see that this activity is I2C requests to read data from the address 0x50, and these requests are followed by NACK events (red marker), which means they don’t receive a response.
Now, if you’ve looked into Raspberry Pi HAT design, you might already guess that these I2C requests are coming from the Raspberry Pi bootloader, which is looking for the I2C EEPROM containing on-HAT device information, so that the Pi can load Device Tree overlay data from it and use that data to configure any hardware on the HAT connected. You don’t have to rely on whatever little information is available online about this process – with a logic analyzer, you can investigate what actually happens, find any hidden features and caveats, so that even proprietary hardware is as little of an obstacle to you as possible.
Fooling The Pi’s Proprietary Firmware
This is a simple example of what you can do with a logic analyzer and a Raspberry Pi with a 40-pin header. Let’s ramp it up! On the Pi board alone, I2C is used in a few different places – HDMI display configuration, Pi camera configuration, a GPIO expander on the Pi 3 that compensates for lack of IO on the CPU – there’s plenty. You can explore all of these for fun, but, let’s achieve an actual practical goal.
What you could do with all that I2C? Well, here’s a small but situational problem with
the Raspberry Pi cameras
– they’re
not hotpluggable
; and if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that you don’t always have to respect limitations of your technology. You might not always want to have your Pi camera dangling around on a cable, for instance – that’s a bit subpar, it’s fair to only want to have the camera plugged in if you actually want to take a picture. Well, now we can actually check what’s happening on the camera I2C bus, and if that’s the culprit, making it hotpluggable sounds exactly like the kind of thing we could pull off – plus, we’re going to be fighting against the proprietary firmware on the Pi while at it!
Technically, the Pi firmware will only recognize a Pi camera if it’s plugged in during boot – the closed-source bootloader checks camera presence during boot, which certainly implies communication over I2C, maybe it’s even setting some camera-specific I2C registers; if you don’t have a camera plugged in during boot, that won’t happen and you will need to reboot your Pi for the camera to work. But after boot you can unplug the camera and plug it back in, and it will work just fine!
Given this riddle, my guess is that there’s really no reason why a Pi camera couldn’t work if it’s plugged earlier, apart from the inflexible on-boot detection logic. The default camera FPC is also mechanically not hotplug-capable, so I’m going to work around this by modifying the FPC so that the GND pins make contact first when you hotplug it. The main problem stays, though – the Pi bootloader is closed-source and we can’t modify the detection logic, making it so that it only runs once software actually tries to access a camera. We can, however, hack it by wiring up our own MCU to that I2C bus and making it present as a camera on the I2C bus!
Here’s the roadmap – we wire the logic analyzer up to the Pi Camera I2C bus, see what kind of activity happens as the Pi boots up, then we add an MCU that taps into the camera I2C pins – a RP2040 will do nicely, given that it can function as an I2C peripheral. The hardware needed for such a hack is minimal – a microcontroller board and a few jumper wires, that’s it.
Hack A Pi With A Pi
After soldering onto camera I2C bus pullup resistors on a Pi Zero, I captured the on-boot I2C communications with the v1 camera plugged in, and here’s my findings. There’s three I2C addresses queried on boot – 0x10, 0x1a and 0x36, my camera responds to 0x36. Apparently, 0x10
is used for the sensor
on the Pi Camera v2, and I’d guess that 0x1a is the 12 MP camera.
With the v1 5 MP camera I used, nothing is written into the registers – it seems there’s only three transactions that read from the camera sensor’s registers, with each transaction first sending two write bytes, which is typically a register address in such transactions. Having two-byte register addresses does make these transactions look a bit weird! That said, being able to unplug the camera and plug it back in without problems does lead me to believe it shouldn’t be a problem.
Now that I know what’s happening under the hood, I’m going to unplug the three jumper wires from the logic analyzer, wire them up to a small RP2040 board I have, and get hacking on the software side of the project. If I can get I2C peripheral-emulating firmware going, I’ll have Pi camera v1 hotplug operational for all of my portable device building purposes! Just like this, with a logic analyzer and three wires, we have figured out a way to add hotplug capability to the Raspberry Pi camera – something known as impossible, until we decided to probe it.
This kind of hack is where a logic analyzer is the best tool for the job, and you might have noticed that a few crucial parts of this hack, namely, sniffing the I2C data being transmitted, aren’t feasible without a logic analyzer.
It also gives you insights into how proprietary things work – both in the HAT EEPROM detection example and the camera detection example, we can see that every failed transaction is repeated three times, and you wouldn’t be wrong to guess that the Raspberry Pi bootloader code has an I2C transaction wrapper that retries I2C transactions in case a transaction spuriously fails – a good practice through and through!
Thinking about getting a logic analyzer? The analyzers are great for what they are and will be enough for majority of the tasks, and they go for around $10 on typical online marketplaces – more than enough for all the things you might want to probe. You can also
use a Pi Pico
as a logic analyzer – though you will find that you likely have to compile Pulseview and the under-the-hood software yourself to include support for that, doable but less straightforward than using one of the FX2-based analyzers with stock Pulseview support.
Pic by [SparkFun Electronics],
CC-BY-2.0
Keep your logic analyzer within an arm’s reach, and it will help you skip entire steps on your hacking journey, purely by going beyond the boundaries and checking what actually goes on. Next time, I’d like to show you where logic analyzers shine and where they fall short – their capabilities, constraints and weaknesses, and the different types of operation you can find, all while hacking on a fun hardware task – stay tuned! | 46 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677836",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T17:47:11",
"content": "“A logic analyzer has a number of digital inputs, and it continuously reads the state of these digital inputs”No. It reads the state when you start the capture, or when a pre-defined condition (trigger) occur... | 1,760,372,183.774307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/the-neo6502-is-a-credit-card-sized-retro-computer/ | The Neo6502 Is A Credit-Card Sized Retro Computer | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"neo6502",
"W65C02"
] | The venerable MOS Technology 6502 turned up in all kinds of computers and other digital equipment over the years. Typically, it was clocked fairly slow and had limited resources, but that was just how things used to be. Today, the 6502 can run at an altogether quicker pace,
and the Neo6502 was the board built to take it there.
The Neo6502 from [Olimex]
is a credit-card sized retro computer built around the W65C02. If you’re unfamiliar with that chip, it’s essentially a 6502 that can go
fast.
How fast? It can be readily overclocked to a blazing 16 MHz, if you’re so inclined!
Unlike some 6502 retro builds, the Neo6502 doesn’t live so firmly in the past. It’s outfitted with an HDMI video interface to make it easy to hook up to modern monitors, so you needn’t fuss around with old displays. Similarly, it has a USB host port to accept input from a keyboard, and audio out via a 3.5 mm jack. There’s also a tiny PCB-mount speaker, as well as I2C, SPI, and UART interfaces. Finally, there’s 2 MB of flash onboard, and a 40-pin connector hosting all the 6502 signals that you know and love. Which is all of them. Much of this lavish equipment comes courtesy of an RP2040 microcontroller onboard that handles all the bits and bobs that aren’t fit for the CPU itself.
It’s still a new project, with things like
a BASIC interpreter
currently in development and boards not yet openly available. But, if you’ve always wanted to play with a hotshot 6502, this could be the board for you.
Try out the emulator
and see how you go. | 53 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677799",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T16:00:27",
"content": "Ironically the RP2040 on board is way faster and more capable than the poor 6502, even clocked at 16MHz ….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6677893",
... | 1,760,372,183.875195 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/copper-be-gone-the-chemistry-behind-pcb-etching/ | Copper Be Gone: The Chemistry Behind PCB Etching | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Featured",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [
"acid",
"anisotropic",
"Chemistry",
"copper",
"cupric",
"etching",
"ferric chloride",
"Hydrochloric",
"isotropic",
"oxidation",
"pcb",
"peroxide",
"reduction",
"sodium persulfate"
] | For a lot of reasons, home etching of PCBs is somewhat of a dying art. The main reason is the rise of quick-turn PCB fabrication services, of course; when you can send your Gerbers off and receive back a box with a dozen or so professionally made PCBs for a couple of bucks, why would you want to mess with etching your own?
Convenience and cost aside, there are a ton of valid reasons to spin up your own boards, ranging from not having to wait for shipping to just wanting to control the process yourself. Whichever camp you’re in, though, it pays to know what’s going on when your plain copper-clad board, adorned with your precious artwork, slips into the etching tank and becomes a printed circuit board. What exactly is going on in there to remove the copper? And how does the etching method affect the final product? Let’s take a look at a few of the more popular etching methods to understand the chemistry behind your boards.
Wet, Dry, or In Between?
At the end of the day, PCB etching is all about removing copper from a board in as controlled a fashion as possible. PCB etching methods generally fall into one of two broad categories: wet and dry processes. For the home gamer, dry processes would include methods like milling out traces with a CNC router, or even the tried and true method of scratching out traces using a razor blade. On a commercial level, dry etching generally refers to methods like laser etching, where a high-power laser is used to ablate copper from the underlying substrate to create traces, or plasma etching, which uses RF energy to generate a reactive plasma from an etching gas.
Isotropic vs. anisotropic etching. Most wet etching methods are isotropic to some degree, which can lead to problems like undercutting.
With the notable exception of scratching out traces with an X-Acto, these dry etching methods all have the disadvantage of needing specialized machines of some sort. What they lack in simplicity, though, they make up for in the direction of etching and the fine control they achieve in copper removal. Dry etching methods are all anisotropic processes; that is, they direct copper removal in a single direction and avoid the risk of undercutting. Wet methods, all of which rely on chemical reactions to get metallic copper into an aqueous solution, are isotropic processes, meaning that they proceed more or less evenly in all directions. This can become a problem; if the process is not tightly controlled, the etching reactions can extend underneath the resist layer masking off areas of the future traces of the PCB, potentially creating high-resistance narrowing of traces or even open circuits.
Ferric Chloride
If you’ve done any PCB etching at home, chances are pretty good that you’ve at least tried the old standby, ferric chloride. It’s cheap and easy, and has a lot of advantages over other wet etching chemistries, not least of which is that you can make an almost unlimited supply of the stuff using nothing but a handful of nails and some chemicals you can easily source at a pool store and a pharmacy:
Also known as iron (III) chloride (FeCl
3
), ferric chloride quickly and effectively dissolves metallic copper, but what does the reaction look like? The overall reaction is pretty straightforward:
When ferric chloride comes in contact with metallic copper, one of its chlorine atoms is transferred to a copper atom, making copper (II) chloride, or cupric chloride, which is soluble in water. This allows the copper that was once bonded to the PCB substrate to be rinsed away. It seems simple enough, but that overall reaction hides a lot of chemical complexity, and the details are worth digging into a bit.
First, a bit about nomenclature. Compounds with metal cations (positively charged species) have traditionally used different suffixes to denote their oxidation state, or the charge of the atom. The “-ic” suffix denotes the higher oxidation state, while “-ous” refers to the lower oxidation state. The suffix is tacked onto the Latin prefix for the metal, yielding names such as “ferric”, referring to iron with a 3+ oxidation state, or “ferrous”, which is a 2+ state. This convention stretches back almost to the days of alchemy, and while it’s still in common use, the standard nomenclature is now to indicate the oxidation state with parenthetical Roman numerals in compound names, iron (III) chloride (FeCl
3
) and iron (II) chloride (FeCl
2
).
The nomenclature sets the stage for understanding the underlying reactions that make ferric chloride good at etching copper. In solution, ferric chloride rapidly dissociates into iron (III) and chloride ions:
(eq. 1)
Likewise, water dissociates into hydrogen and hydroxyl ions:
(eq. 2)
This results in an abundance of iron (III) ions with a strong positive charge in an environment with a lot of negatively charged hydroxyl ions. They get together and form iron (III) hydroxide, which is an insoluble compound that precipitates out of solution:
(eq. 3)
Pulling all those hydroxyl ions out of solution leaves behind a bunch of hydrogen ions, which has the effect of making the solution more acidic (decreasing its pH). This creates an environment where the iron (III) ions from equation 1 gain an electron (reduction) from the solid copper cladding on the PCB, resulting in oxidation of the copper to copper (II) ions in solution:
(eq. 4)
The copper (II) and iron (II) ions in solution are then free to glom onto all those highly electronegative chloride ions from equation 1, forming the copper (II) chloride and iron (II) chloride products on the right side of the overall equation, and leaving behind copper-free areas on the newborn PCB. The etching solution eventually becomes saturated with copper (II) oxide, which starts precipitating out of the solution as a blue-green solid. It takes a while to get there, though; depending on the strength of the etchant when fresh, you can expect it to hold up to 50 grams per liter of copper metal before it can hold no more.
Persulfates
Ammonium persulfate. The persulfate bit on the right is what matters; the counterion on the left could just as easily be sodium or potassium. Source: [Kemikungen], own work (public domain).
Another wet etching method often used by hobbyists is the persulfate method. In general, persulfates are strong oxidizers, thanks to the oxygen-to-oxygen bond between the two sulfate groups. This makes persulfate a peroxide, like the more familiar hydrogen peroxide, where the double oxygen presents a good acceptor site for electrons.
Persulfates are usually available as salts of either sodium or ammonium, or sometimes even potassium. These positively charged species are known as counterions; when dissolved in water, persulfate salts rapidly dissociate into free persulfate ions and their counterions:
The counterions just sort of float off and don’t participate in the following etching reaction in any serious way; they just busy themselves loosely binding to the persulfate ions and falling back off in a constant dance of equilibrium. The real action is with the persulfates, which are ready to get to work on metallic copper.
Unlike with ferric chloride, the overall reaction between persulfates and copper is pretty much the whole story:
When the persulfate ions come in contact with solid copper, the metal eagerly donates electrons to the peroxide bond, reducing the bond and splitting the persulfate into two sulfate ions while solubilizing the copper. The dissolved copper then binds to one of the sulfate ions to make copper (II) sulfate, which lends the persulfate etchant solution a familiar blue-green tinge as etching proceeds.
Cupric Chloride
Another etchant popular with homebrewers and commercial manufacturers alike is cupric chloride, or using the currently accepted nomenclature, copper (II) chloride. It might seem a little weird that an etchant for copper would contain copper itself, but cupric chloride etches quickly and cheaply, and has the benefit of regeneration.
While it’s possible to just buy (or make) a cupric chloride solution by treating scrap copper with hydrochloric acid, it’s easier to just throw all the ingredients together with the PCB to be etched and let the copper on the board stand in for the scrap copper. The overall reaction is pretty simple, but again, it hides some interesting chemical complexity:
Cupric chloride attacks the metallic copper on the PCB, producing two molecules of soluble cuprous chloride in the process. Pretty simple, but where does the cupric chloride come from in the first place? We need a way to dissolve a little bit of copper from the board and get it to react with some chloride ions. This is commonly done with a mixture of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide. First, the hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water and an oxygen radical, while the hydrochloric acid dissociates into hydrogen and chloride ions:
This is a pretty potent mix, with the oxygen radical and the chloride ions attacking the solid copper metal and forming a complex known as tetrachlorocuprate:
The chlorine-copper complex is capable of directly oxidizing copper, which creates the cupric chloride that will then go on and do the bulk of the etching:
The key advantage of cupric chloride etching is regeneration, which can be accomplished in a number of ways. Industrially, chlorine gas is often bubbled through the etchant; this changes the cuprous chloride back into cupric chloride without diluting the etchant, but is obviously not something that you’d want to do in the home lab. Sodium perchlorate, another strong oxidizing agent, is sometimes used industrially, but has the disadvantage of generating a sodium chloride precipitate to the etchant which needs to be removed. There are also electrolytic and electroosmotic methods that restore the cupric chloride while also recovering the metallic copper, but those are obviously complicated.
Luckily, the home gamer has a simple regeneration method available, one that uses chemicals that we’ve already added to get the reaction started: hydrochloric acid and peroxide:
Oxidizing cuprous chloride with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of chloride ions from hydrochloric acid effectively resets the etching solution, restoring the cupric chloride and making the solution ready for another go at the solid copper metal. This does produce water molecules, though, so dilution is a problem, but that can be compensated for to some degree by adding more acid. Still, it’s a pretty neat system, a nearly closed-loop process that’s cheap and simple.
There are obviously a lot of details missing from this quick tour, and there are a ton of other etching methods I haven’t covered. But whichever one you choose to use, make sure you take the proper precautions, wear your PPE, and have a plan for what you’re going to do with the waste. | 37 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677765",
"author": "wibble",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T14:09:20",
"content": "Have a plan for what you are going to do with the waste?!That’s a bit of a throwaway line isn’t it — I have yet to find a way to dispose of used etchant in my part of the UK, currently I just store it in l... | 1,760,372,183.684768 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/a-hacker-friendly-software-package-for-your-next-ai-project/ | A Hacker-Friendly Software Package For Your Next AI Project | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Software Development"
] | [
"ai",
"large language model",
"LLM",
"openai",
"python"
] | If you’re interested in using Large Language Models (LLM) in a project, but aren’t plugged directly into the fast-developing world of artificial intelligence (AI), knowing what tool or software to use can be daunting. Luckily, [Max Woolf] created
simpleaichat
, which is complete with examples and documentation and minimal code complexity.
As [Max] puts it, the main motivations behind the project are to provide useful tools while making it easier for non-engineers to peer through the breathless hyperbole and see just how AI-based apps actually work. This project was directly inspired by [Max]’s own real-world software experiences in this area, particularly his
frustrations with popular and much-hyped frameworks
in which “Hello World” feels a lot more like Hell World.
simpleaichat
is a Python package that provides easy and powerful ways to interface with the OpenAI API, makers of ChatGPT. Now, it is true that OpenAI’s models are not open source and access is not free, but they are easily one of the most capable and cost-effective services of their kind.
Prefer something a little more open, and a
lot
more private? There’s always the option to
run an LLM locally
on your own machine, possibly with the help of a tool like
text-generation-webui
or
gpt4all
. Running an LLM locally will not have the quality of OpenAI’s offerings, but it can still do the job. It’s also possible to give these local LLMs an interface that mimics OpenAI’s API, so there are loads of possibilities.
Are you getting ideas yet? Share them in the comments, or keep them to yourselves and
submit a tip
once your project is off the ground! | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677822",
"author": "Nathan Bowman",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T16:56:44",
"content": "Langchain (or Flowise, which is a GUI for Langchain) – are two excellent options that are much more flexible and have a great community behind them.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,372,183.929495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/31/why-are-we-only-just-now-hearing-about-led-beaded-curtains/ | Why Are We Only Just Now Hearing About LED Beaded Curtains | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"addressable leds",
"beaded curtain",
"beads",
"led",
"led strip",
"led strips"
] | Beaded curtains are a pretty banal piece of home decor, unlikely to excite most interior design enthusiasts. Throw on some addressable LEDs, though, and you’ve got something eye-catching at the very least,
as [Becky] demonstrates.
Joining the LED strands at the bottom made running the wiring easy but made walking through the blinds hard.
The project started with an existing beaded curtain as a base. A series of addressable LED strands were then carefully sewn to the beads using knots tied in plain sewing thread. The strands were configured as a single strand as far as the data lines were concerned, to make animation easy. Power was supplied to both ends of the strand to ensure nice and even brightness across the strands.
The brains of the system is a PixelBlaze controller, which makes it easy to wirelessly control the behavior of the strings. It’s the perfect tool for quickly whipping up fancy animations and pretty effects without hand-assembling a bunch of code yourself.
There was only a few problems with the project. [Becky] found a pretty passable LED beaded curtain from China midway through the project, which reduced her enthusiasm to finish the build. There were also issues walking through the curtain due to the wiring scheme she chose, where the bottom of one strand was connected to its neighbor.
Regardless, it’s a
fun blinky build
that brings some color to an otherwise drab doorway. It’s hard to complain about that! Video after the break. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677690",
"author": "Neverm|nd",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T08:30:25",
"content": "I mean, not actually just in the way Becky has redesigned them, and I agree, with age, they do seem ‘tacky’. I never grew up with them in my household but it seems like an excellent, if seeming unattrac... | 1,760,372,183.99731 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/restoring-a-45-year-old-video-game/ | Restoring A 45 Year Old Video Game | Julian Scheffers | [
"Games"
] | [
"gaming",
"restoration",
"retro"
] | When we say vintage video game, some of you may think of the likes of Lemmings, Mario or maybe even Donkey Kong but
the game that [Vintage Apparatus] restored
is slightly older and much more minimalist, using an LED matrix and some 7-segment displays rather than this newfangled color CRT thing.
The game is disassembled before cleaning.
[Vintage Apparatus] starts by removing the battery and cover from the 1977 Mattel electronics (American) football game, which uses rather uncommon 2mm triangular screws. To his and our surprise, the circuit board and its beautiful array of LEDs seem to be in excellent condition, so he moves on to cleaning the case itself.
The case, on the other hand, is a bit dirty on the outside, so [Vintage Apparatus] takes out the buttons and starts cleaning with the back cover a Q-tip. After a bit of scrubbing and some extra care to avoid removing any stickers, he moves on to the considerably dirtier and somewhat scratched front case. After some wrestling with the creases and speaker grill of the front cover, the outside of the front case looks nice and clean. Finally, he puts back the buttons and circuit board in the front cover before adding closing it all up with the back cover and screwing it back together.
The game, which immediately comes to life and was actually made by the Mattel calculator division, is a sort of evasion game where the player is a bright dot that can move forward, up or down. The player avoids the dimmer dots, the “tacklers”, in order to run as far as possible as fast as possible. When one of the tacklers tackles the player, the amount of downs is increased and the fifth down means game over. After either scoring or getting downed one too many times, the field is flipped and it’s now player 2’s turn.
Video after the break. | 28 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677662",
"author": "gregg4",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T05:13:39",
"content": "Egads! I remember that. I didn’t want one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6677916",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
... | 1,760,372,184.067431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/the-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machine-saga-and-calls-for-right-to-repair/ | The McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Saga And Calls For Right To Repair | Maya Posch | [
"News",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"ice cream machine",
"McDonald's",
"right to repair"
] | The inside of a Taylor C709 ice cream machine, as seen from the back with the cover over the electronics removed. (Credit: iFixit)
Raising a likely somewhat contentious topic, iFixit and Public Knowledge have
challenged
the manufacturer behind McDonald’s ice cream machines to make them easy to diagnose and repair. This is a subject that’s probably familiar to anyone who is vaguely familiar with US news and the importance of ice cream at McDonald’s locations to the point that a live tracker was set up so that furtive customers can catch a glimpse at said tracker before finding themselves staring in dismay at an ‘Out of Order’ sign on one of these Taylor ice cream machines.
The story is more complex than just a machine being “broken”
, however. The maintenance contracts are lucrative, the instruction manual is long, and the error codes are cryptic. When you add to that the complexity of cleaning and maintaining the machines, it’s tempting to just claim the machine is out of order. These Taylor machines (the C602 and the C709 from the iFixit video) are a bit more complex than your usual ice cream maker in that they also have a pasteurization element that’s supposed to keep already poured mix safe to use the next day.
During the heating cycle and other functions errors can occur that will trigger error messages on the screen, as detailed in the
C602 manual
. These manuals are apparently available to the employees at McDonald’s establishments, but according to iFixit and those in the business, many error messages still necessitate a (very expensive) call to a service technician. It should be noted that the
Taylor Company
has been repeatedly bought by and sold off to other companies since 1967, with the
Middleby Corporation
being the parent company since 2018.
Perhaps the more puzzling aspect of this whole saga is why it is that consumer-oriented organizations are essentially fighting McDonald’s battles for them, as here only McD customers are deprived of a treat, rather than being the ones who are paying the thousands of dollars in service costs. Where these machines are somewhat interesting is on the used market, which is when hacking them becomes somewhat interesting, and that’s where the DMCA exception that iFixit and Public Knowledge are asking the US Copyright Office for makes sense, as hacking an ice cream maker you own should be your right. Just don’t hack the one at your local McD’s without explicit written permission. | 45 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677642",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2023-08-31T03:32:54",
"content": "OK Peeps. This site monitors in near-real-time which McDonald’s ice cream machines are broken and where they are located:https://mcbroken.com/It has a map. Sample pop-up says:4492 Weston RdDavieChecked 321 ... | 1,760,372,184.153702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/all-mechanical-coil-winder-is-a-scrap-bin-delight/ | All-Mechanical Coil Winder Is A Scrap-Bin Delight | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"coil",
"ham",
"inductor",
"magnet wire",
"radio",
"solenoid"
] | If there’s something more tedious than winding coils, we’re not sure what it is — possibly rolling and wrapping coins; that’s really a bother. But luckily, just like there are mechanical ways to count coins, there are tools to make coil production a little less of a chore, but perhaps none that have as much charm as
this all-mechanical coil winder.
We’d say that [Ralph (
VK3ZZC
)]’s amazing invention firmly falls under the “contraption” category, without a hint of the term being used as a pejorative. The rig was based on the MoReCo Coilmaster, a machine that was once commercially available at a fairly steep price, according to [Ralph], and still seems to command a premium even today. Never being able to afford an original, [Ralph] spun up his own from scrap metal and tooling no more sophisticated than a drill press. It’s a riot of brass and steel, with a hand crank that drives the main winding shaft while powering a cam that guides the wire along the long axis of the coil form. Cams can be changed out for different winding patterns, and various chucks adapt to hold different coil forms to the winding shaft.
There are a ton of interesting details in the build, which [Ralph] explains over on fellow ham [Peter (VK3YE)]’s YouTube channel — video below. The neatest idea is a reservoir attached to the wire feed tube that holds beeswax. The wire gets coated with wax as it feeds out to the coil, serving not only to lubricate things a bit but also to provide some tackiness to encourage the magnet wire to stay in place on the coil form. It’s a lovely detail, although [Ralph]’s source for the wax — the coating from a block of cheese — isn’t exactly appetizing.
We’ve seen coil winders before, but most of them are
motorized and Arduino-fied affairs
. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but seeing an all-mechanical solution in action is pretty cool too. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677609",
"author": "socksbot",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T23:21:08",
"content": "There’s also the winder from the Morris Gingery books:https://youtu.be/FIOocMoRsYQ",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6677710",
"author": "Ma... | 1,760,372,184.44173 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/3d-printing-rc-car-tires-to-go-fast/ | 3D Printing RC Car Tires To Go Fast | Lewin Day | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"R/C car",
"tires",
"wheels"
] | There’s a bit of a high-speed arms race in the RC world on YouTube these days. [Michael Rectin] is in on the action, and he’s been exploring
how to 3D print a decent set of tires to help his RC car reach higher speeds mph
.
His first efforts involved experiments with TPU. The tires looked okay, but had very little traction. He later moved on to VarioShore TPU, a filament capable of delivering various properties depending on the printing method. Printing for the softest, and thus grippiest, possible tires, [Michael] whipped up some sporty looking boots for his wheels.
His tires improved over off-road RC tires in one major way. His design didn’t suffer significant ballooning as the rotational velocity increased. However, the VarioShore material lacked grip compared to off-the-shelf rubber RC tires designed for high-speed use. The commercially-available tires also offered a smoother ride.
[Michael] also demonstrated some neat tricks for high-speed RC driving. He used a modified flight controller to correct the car’s steering in response to perturbations, and put in a scaling method that reduces steering inputs at higher speed. That didn’t entirely stop the carnage though, with some incidents seeing wheels thrown off in big tumbling crashes.
Electric-powered RC cars can go darn quick these days, but you might want to
consider jet power
if you want to break records. Video after the break. | 15 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677586",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T20:26:28",
"content": "Considering tire technology is a billion dollar industry (with a lot of R&D and closely gaurded secrets) printing tires with 2 off the shelf filaments is indeed a hack. Hope the bug has bit him and he star... | 1,760,372,184.492656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/ai-assistant-translates-your-every-request-for-the-command-line/ | AI Assistant Translates Your Every Request For The Command Line | Lewin Day | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"ChatGPT",
"command line",
"command line tools"
] | If you don’t live on the command line, it can be easy to forget the exact syntax of commands. It often leaves you running to the “/?” or “–help” switches, or else a quick Google search to find the proper incantations.
Shell-AI is a machine-learning assistant
that could change all that by helping you find the proper command for the job, right on the command line!
Shell-AI accepts natural-language inputs — simply type in “shai” followed by what you’re trying to do. It will then take in your request, run it through an OpenAI language model like GPT-3.5-Turbo, and then present you with three (or more) potential commands. You can then select which command to use and get on with your day.
As demonstrated
, it’s more than capable of following commands like “download a random image” or “show only image files ls.” And, hilariously, it responds to the request “do something crazy” with just one suggestion: “rm -rf”. That seems rather fitting.
We wouldn’t blindly follow any commands coming out of a large language model, of course. But, if you know what you’re doing, it could prove a useful little tool to ease
your regular duties on the command line. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677553",
"author": "UnderSampled",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T18:46:47",
"content": "I would love to see more of these using local models, like Llama 2. If speed is not an issue, inference can be run on CPU with system ram.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,372,184.391048 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/3d-printed-engine-gets-carburetor/ | 3D Printed Engine Gets Carburetor | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"alcohol",
"carburetor",
"damage",
"engine",
"head",
"valve timing",
"valves"
] | 3D printed materials have come a long way in the last decade or so as printers have become more and more mainstream. Printers can use all kinds of different plastics with varying physical characteristics, and there are even printers now for other materials like concrete and metal. But even staying within the realm of the plastic printer can do a lot of jobs you might not expect.
[Camden Bowen] recently 3D printed a single-piston engine
which nearly worked, and is back with some improvements to it thanks to a small carburetor.
The carburetor itself isn’t 3D printed (although not from lack of trying) — it’s on loan from a weed eater, and is helping to solve a problem with the fuel-air mixture of his original design. Switching from butane to a liquid fuel also solved some problems as well, and using starter fluid also helped to kick off the ignition. Although it ran for a short period of time over several starts, the valve train suffered some damage with the exhaust valves melting in place to the head. This is actually a problem common to any internal combustion engine like this, especially if the fuel-air mixture is too lean, there’s incomplete combustion, the valves aren’t adjusted properly, or any number of other problems. In this case it seems to have been caused by improper engine timing.
It’s actually noteworthy though that the intake valves weren’t burned, meaning that if the engine can be tuned to allow for complete combustion before the exhaust gasses leave the combustion chamber, the plastic 3D printed head and valve train will likely survive much longer operational periods. We’ll certainly look forward to the next iteration of this engine build to see if that’s the case. If 3D printed piston engines aren’t your speed, though, take a look at
this jet engine which uses a 3D printed compressor
.
Thanks to [Rickert] for the tip! | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677497",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T16:11:09",
"content": "Or, y’know, the exhaust valve melted because it’s made of plastic and being repeatedly exposed to 900 C gas exiting the cylinder. What’s the temperature of the 3D printer’s hotend?It might survive longer if mad... | 1,760,372,184.33691 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/converting-wind-to-electricity-or-the-doubly-fed-induction-generator/ | Converting Wind To Electricity Or: The Doubly-Fed Induction Generator | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"engineering",
"generation",
"power",
"wind power",
"Wind turbine"
] | Humanity has been harvesting energy from the wind for centuries. The practice goes back at least to 8th century Persia where the first known historical records of windmills came, but likely extends even further back than that. Compared to the vast history of using wind energy directly to do things like mill grain, pump water, saw wood, or produce fabrics, the production of electricity is still relatively new. Despite that, there are some intriguing ways of using wind to produce electricity. Due to the unpredictable nature of wind from moment to moment, using it to turn a large grid-tied generator is not as straightforward as it might seem. Let’s take a look at four types of wind turbine configurations and how each deal with sudden changes in wind speeds.
Predicting the Future
First, though, it is important to note that
wind patterns on the order of a year or more
in any particular area are well-known and used for the design of wind farms. Furthermore, wind speed forecasts on shorter timescales like a day or a week are also accurate enough to get a very close estimate of power production capabilities on those timescales, although there is a large public misconception that wind isn’t a reliable source of electricity because it doesn’t always blow. Quite the contrary; extremely accurate predictions of average wind speeds are available hours and days in advance because of how good weather forecasting has gotten in the last few decades, allowing generators like fossil fuel plants to scale down production as more wind generation becomes available with plenty of warning.
Brake For Emergency
Even though long- and short-term wind forecasting is extremely robust, wind gusts are much harder to deal with and remain a challenge for any wind turbine. While it might be easy to think a turbine will simply apply a mechanical brake to slow the rotation when a gust happens, for large turbines this generally not an economically viable solution. It would mean sending technicians up to replace brake pads constantly, not to mention the mechanical stresses on the turbine the constant braking action would cause. While there are also blade pitch systems, also known as aerodynamic brakes, which can turn the blades (or
just the blade tips
) into or out of the wind in order to stay as close as possible to the turbine’s ideal design rotational speed, these pitch systems are still too slow for some gusts.
‘
Wind Turbines
” by Oast House Archive
Mechanical brakes are necessary, though. They’re typically only used during an emergency stop when a technician is in physical danger, as a last resort for stopping a major overspeed event if the blade pitch system fails, or for temporarily “parking” the turbine rotor during certain maintenance processes only after the aerodynamic brakes have been applied. Offline turbines, such as those waiting on generator or gearbox replacements, may not use the brake long-term, either, as turbines with blades pitched out of the wind can “pinwheel” for long periods of time even in heavy wind without risk.
Even for maintenance tasks that require stopping the turbine’s rotation completely, they’re typically used only long enough to install a rotor locking mechanism. Instead of using these brakes to control rotational speed during operation, much more clever electrical solutions to the problem of wind gusts have been found that reduce the amount of wasted energy, reduce the amount of maintenance that otherwise would need to be done on the braking systems, and which sometimes can harvest the energy from the gust itself. The first solution is incredibly straightforward.
Type 1 Wind Turbines: Fixed Speed
The type 1 wind turbine, sometimes referred to as a fixed-speed turbine, actually doesn’t concern itself much with dealing with short, transient changes in wind speed. Using the inherent properties of an induction generator solves this problem effortlessly. In this configuration, the output of the generator is connected directly to the grid, and the grid’s inertia keeps it mostly at the correct rotational speed. When a gust arrives, the generator will simply “
slip
” a little past its synchronous speed, and will then recover back to a normal state after it has absorbed the gust. If the gust is too much, turbines in this category may also employ an electric “brake” which dumps the excess energy into a resistor bank or equivalent device, slowing the turbine slightly.
The benefits of induction machines in this regard are largely simplicity and cost; generally only small (or old) wind turbines use simple induction generators like this now due to their higher electrical losses compared to other generator types. There aren’t just electrical losses to consider, either. The aerodynamic losses of operating at a fixed speed can be significant when a lower or higher rotor speed might otherwise be more efficient. Other noteworthy downsides include the inability to
provide reactive power to the grid
as well as being extremely sensitive to voltage and frequency variations on the grid, meaning they more easily trip offline for electrical transients.
An example of a Type 1 wind turbine used for bulk energy production was the
Zond Z-40
, produced in the 1980s. Smaller yet modern turbines for home power production or distributed generation may often fit into this category as well.
Type 2 Wind Turbines: Variable Speed
The type 2 wind turbine, also called a variable-speed turbine, attempts to solve some of these problems. A device called a converter is integrated into the turbine to precisely control the magnetic field within the generator’s rotor. This means that the turbine can change how much slip there is within the generator and, as the name implies, can allow the turbine to operate at a more aerodynamically efficient rotational speed even as average wind speed changes. Not only does this improve the electrical and aerodynamic efficiencies, but by varying the rotor’s magnetic field the turbine can provide or absorb reactive power from the grid.
A Vestas V47 wind farm in western Texas. The V47 uses a Type 2 configuration. Photo courtesy of Bryan Cockfield
There are some downsides, though, largely with respect to complexity and cost. To control the magnetic field in the rotor a
slip ring
is required, which can be a maintenance-intensive piece of equipment compared to the type 1 turbines. The converter itself is also an extra maintenance item, and there are some other additional components that add costs as well such as
thyristors
which help the generator smoothly connect to the grid. The benefits of having rotor control greatly outweigh the small downsides, though, and the type 2 turbine largely replaced the type 1 turbine for large-scale energy production in new wind farms around the late 90s and early 00s.
Type 4 Turbines: Huge Inverters
In order to save the most interesting for last, let’s skip ahead a bit and discuss the Type 4 turbine layout. Type 4 turbines span a wide array of seemingly unrelated machines, but they all have one thing in common: the electrical output from the generator is “fully inverted” meaning that 100% of the generated energy passes through a power electronics system which converts it to grid voltage and frequency. Any wind gusts that come along that aren’t absorbed by the turbine’s pitch system are simply handled by the power electronics. These converters are similar to the converters used in the type 2 machines except that the power electronics systems must be massive to handle the full rated power of each turbine’s generator.
Despite the huge cost and complexity of large power electronics systems, this opens up a huge number of other design options. For example, essentially any generator can be used and operated at any speed. For AC generators this means that the turbine no longer needs control of the rotor’s magnetic field like a type 2 turbine would; even permanent magnet generators can be used in these setups. AC generators can often require two stages of converters though, one to turn the generated AC to DC and another to take the DC and convert it to grid voltage and frequency. However, it’s also possible to skip the first conversion step by using DC generators directly, much like the
unique Clipper Liberty
turbines did with their four-generator system.
And, speaking of Clipper, a type 4 machine can also allow the gearbox to be eliminated from the design. Some of the largest wind turbines in the world like the
Siemens Gamesa direct-drive turbines
are examples of turbines with no gearboxes, which are generally (but not always) found in type 4, fully-inverted configurations.
With type 4 turbines, since the energy all passes through an inverter it makes essentially no difference how much or what kind of electrical energy is produced. Essentially the only downside of the type 4 machine is the huge cost of the power electronics, which brings us to perhaps the most elegant solution to this problem.
Type 3: Doubly-Fed Induction Generators
Combining all of the perks of the type 2 machine with some of the perks from a type 4, we come at last to the doubly-fed induction generator, also known as a DFIG (pronounced “dee-fig”). It gets this name because, unlike the type 2, both the stator and rotor are capable of sending energy to the grid. During startup or during periods of low wind speed, called “sub-synchronous speed”, the rotor converter draws power from the grid to drive the magnetic field on the rotor. However, above the generator’s natural synchronous speed, called “super-synchronous speed”, the process reverses and the rotor is able to generate energy instead, sending it back through the converter to the grid. At all points in the turbine’s operation, though, the magnetic field of the rotor is meticulously controlled to keep the generator at the ideal rotational speed.
A series of General Electric 1.5 MW turbines in Oklahoma. GE turbines of this vintage are type 3, with a DFIG configuration. Photo courtesy of Bryan Cockfield
Not only does this allow for control over the generator’s power factor (meaning that DFIG turbines can provide or consume reactive power and support the grid like a type 2 turbine) and allows for much more robust ride-through of low voltage events on the grid, this also means that a much smaller converter is needed since only the rotor’s power has to be sent through the power electronics. Unlike a type 4 machine where 100% of the power goes through a massive inverter, a DFIG’s stator is connected directly to the grid, and only the rotor uses a converter, meaning that around two thirds of the turbine’s energy passes directly to the grid. The cost savings are significant and the only major downsides are slightly increased complexity in the control systems and the maintenance associated with a slip ring.
The DFIG offers an elegant solution to many problems with wind turbine design, although like other types of turbines handling wind gusts is only part of the story for why a particular configuration might be used. It’s not a technology seen often outside of the wind industry, either, since precise control over a generator is generally not needed when the input speeds are more constant than wind allows. But DFIGs do see some use in pumped storage facilities where the flow through the hydroelectric generators isn’t constant, and they can also be used like a
synchronous condenser
to provide voltage and frequency support to local or isolated power grids. | 97 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677453",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T14:28:37",
"content": "The ability to predict wind generation capacity doesn’t make wind energy reliable. At best, it makes it predictable, so that loads can be curtailed and/or dispatchable generation like coal, gas, and to some... | 1,760,372,184.732236 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/stay-online-when-the-power-goes-out-with-this-fiber-modem-ups-hack/ | Stay Online When The Power Goes Out With This Fiber Modem UPS Hack | Lewin Day | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"fiber modem",
"Uninterruptible Power Supply",
"ups",
"verizon"
] | It’s desirable to have your Internet connection up at all times, particularly as it can take some time to get back online if you have a power interruption or similar. [Brink] had some issues with the power supply in their apartment, so they set about whipping up a backup power solution
to keep their Verizon ONT fiber modem up and running in such events.
The I-211M-L modem is actually equipped to run on backup battery power, but by default, it will only keep phone service online. Data and television services are normally switched off when the mains supply goes out. Thankfully,
a minor mod to the unit’s power cable shared by [mousehunt]
enables it to keep data services online when running on backup power. Grounding a bunch of pins with a strip of foil is enough to do the job.
From there, it’s a simple matter of hooking up a stout 12 V battery to the modem via its backup power connector. [Brink] specified a nifty 12 V rechargeable lithium ion pack for the job, which is sold as a portable power unit for running LED strips. Some neat cabling to keep the battery charged later, and you’ve got a working UPS setup to keep the comms online.
Combined with a UPS to run the rest of your computers and networking equipment, this is a great solution to stay online during local power outages. We’ve featured some other great UPS hacks over the years, too, like these
supercap UPSs for special cases.
If you’ve got your own nifty power hacks, don’t hesitate to
drop us a line! | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677357",
"author": "Orzel",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T11:33:58",
"content": "My main server and my internet box are both on the main UPS. When the power outage is short enough, outside wont even notice… I don’t consider this a hack, though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,372,184.791816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/30/ack1-makes-getting-to-know-the-attiny1616-easy/ | ACK1 Makes Getting To Know The ATtiny1616 Easy | Julian Scheffers | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"attiny",
"attiny1616",
"diy electronics"
] | Many readers will be familiar with Microchip’s ATtiny85, which has been a popular choice for DIY projects in the past for its low price and (for the time) small size. But those looking for a more modern and capable 8-bit chip may find the ATtiny1616-MNR of interest. It offers expanded flash storage, more GPIO, and ditches SPI programming in favor of UPDI — a protocol that can be done using nothing more than an USB-UART converter and a resistor.
What’s in the kit if you buy it.
But here’s the catch: the new chip is only available in SMD and there are far fewer tutorials for it! That’s why
[Bradán Lane] has created ACK1
, a cute little AVR Coding Kit for those of us who want to play with the ATtiny1616 and a companion for
his free and open-source course
.
The board contains an array of 6 by 7 LEDs in a
charlieplexed configuration
, a large piezo buzzer, two push buttons, an on/off switch, and a CR2032 battery holder to keep it on without the need for a cable. The kit looks gorgeous in its white-on-black theme with gold plated contacts and can be had for $20 on Tindie at the time of writing.
The ATtiny1616 itself runs at up to 20 MHz and has 17 GPIO pins, 16 KiB of flash storage, 2 KiB of RAM, and 256 bytes of EEPROM for configuration — making it roughly on par with the original Arduino Uno.
The course that goes hand-in-hand with the ACK1 is all about the features of the ATtiny1616, from the basics of using the programmer to reading the buttons, using timers, driving the charlieplexed LEDs, storing data in the EEPROM and much more. Though it does not cover the basics of C, the course is free, and even licensed MIT, so that anyone can share it and improve upon it.
If you enjoy seeing beautiful microcontrollers, you’ll definitely want to see
the stylish Uno Plus+
. | 13 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677372",
"author": "András",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T12:24:32",
"content": "I have started using this series of AVR chips. There are very few examples online but once I managed to set them up they turned out to be wonderful chips. The peripheries are very logical. I love them. The... | 1,760,372,184.849794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/polish-railways-fall-victim-to-cheap-radio-attack/ | Polish Railways Fall Victim To Cheap Radio Attack | Lewin Day | [
"News"
] | [
"Poland",
"rail",
"railway",
"trains"
] | Poland’s railways have recently come under a form of electronic attack,
as reported by Wired.
The attack has widely been called a “cyber-attack”
in the mainstream media
, but the incident was altogether a more simple affair pursued via good old analog radio.
The attacks were simple in nature. As outlined in an
EU technical document
, Poland’s railways use a RADIOSTOP system based on analog radio signals at around 150 MHz. Transmitting a basic tone sequence will trigger any duly equipped trains receiving the signal to engage emergency braking. It’s implemented as part of the PKP radio system on the Polish railway network.
The attacks brought approximately 20 trains to a standstill, according to
the BBC,
with services restored within hours. There was no major safety risk in the event, something made clear in a statement
from Polish rail authorities
. Regardless, the attacks frustrated logistics across the rail network.
It’s believed the perpetrators of the attack were supporters of the Russian war effort, as the stop signals were also joined by broadcasts of the Russian national anthem and a speech from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The attacks have some significance to the invasion of Ukraine, as Poland has been a hub for crucial weapons deliveries supporting the defence of Ukraine.
The concern is that any unsophisticated individual could achieve the same results with cheap off-the-shelf equipment under $100. The emergency stop feature is completely insecure, which has been public knowledge for some time. Unlike an emergency brake on a passenger train, which requires proximity to actuate, the RADIOSTOP feature can be triggered at will from any remote location within transmission range. That makes catching perpetrators more difficult.
Poland’s railways will receive an upgrade to more secure cellular technology by 2025, with the 150 MHz system retained
only for shunting duties and other edge cases.
Interestingly, it will use
GSM-R
for connectivity, which is a big deal in Europe.
Until then, the vulnerability will remain as long as the 150MHz RADIOSTOP feature is enabled. Polish radio authorities may have their work cut out chasing down illegal transmitters in the meantime to prevent repeat attacks. It’s not the only way
to bring a railway to a stop
, but it’s unfortunately an easy and effective one.
[Thanks to Charles for the tip!] | 41 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677301",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T05:44:57",
"content": "Is “cyber” restricted to digital-only? Coming from the Greek for “steersman” and even later referring more to manipulation of machines or robotic systems more than anything, this would be a classical cyberatta... | 1,760,372,184.929241 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/1-graphene-sensor-identifies-safe-water/ | $1 Graphene Sensor Identifies Safe Water | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Science"
] | [
"graphene",
"sensors",
"water quality"
] | If you live in a place where you can buy Arduinos and Raspberry Pis locally, you probably don’t spend much time worrying about your water supply. But in some parts of the world, it is nothing to take for granted, bad water accounts for as many as 500,000 deaths worldwide every year. Scientists have reported a graphene sensor they say costs a buck and can detect
dangerous bacteria and heavy metals in drinking water
.
The sensor uses a GFET — a graphene-based field effect transistor to detect lead, mercury, and E. coli bacteria. Interestingly, the FETs transfer characteristic changes based on what is is exposed to. We were, frankly, a bit surprised that this is repeatable enough to give you useful data. But apparently, it is especially when you use a neural network to interpret the results.
What’s more, there is the possibility the device could find other contaminants like pesticides. While the materials in the sensor might have cost a dollar, it sounds like you’d need a big equipment budget to reproduce these. There are silicon wafers, spin coating, oxygen plasma, and lithography. Not something you’ll whip up in the garage this weekend.
Still, it is interesting to see a FET used this way and a cheap way to monitor water quality would be welcome.
Using machine learning with water sensors
isn’t a new idea. Of course, the sensor is one part of the equation.
Monitoring is the other
. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677280",
"author": "Yaakov",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T02:44:17",
"content": "I’m sorry, what’s your point? It’s about impure water, not covid.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6677282",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,372,185.061415 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/ikeas-billy-bookshelf-is-a-useful-3d-printing-enclosure/ | IKEA’s Billy Bookshelf Is A Useful 3D Printing Enclosure | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3d printing",
"ikea",
"ikea hacks"
] | The results from your 3D printer may be improved if you use a dedicated enclosure for the job. This is particularly helpful for printing certain materials which are more sensitive to cold drafts or other thermal disruptions to the working area. If you want an elegant solution to the problem, consider getting yourself
an IKEA Billy bookshelf,
says [wavlew].
The Billy makes a remarkably elegant 3D printing workstation, overall. It’s got a nifty slide-out drawer that makes a perfect mounting point for a 3D printer. It lets you slide out the printer for maintenance, using the controls, or extracting finished prints. It also naturally features plenty of storage for your filament, tools, and other
accoutrements.
When it comes to the business of actually printing though, you just slide the printer inside and shut the door. Its thermal and noise isolating performance can also be further improved by adding a silicone door seal.
We love this idea. Too often, 3D printers are left chugging away on messy desks, where they’re subject to blasts from AC vents and other disruptions. Having everything tidily tucked away in a cupboard neatens things significantly, and could also prove helpful
if you pursue fume extraction, too.
If you’ve identified any other nifty maker applications for IKEA furniture, be sure to let us know! | 49 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677231",
"author": "PEBKAC",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T23:03:56",
"content": "While this is a pretty build, ime IKEA furniture lacks the rigidity needed for good printing performance.I have decided to just keep my printer on the floor where it has less flex in relation to the house ... | 1,760,372,185.012922 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/checking-belt-tension-gets-easier-for-some-prusa-3d-printers/ | Checking Belt Tension Gets Easier For (Some) Prusa 3D Printers | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"audio",
"belt tension",
"measurement",
"tool"
] | Belts on a 3D printer should be tight enough, but not too tight. That can be an iffy thing to get right for someone who lacks familiarity with CNC platforms. Prusa Research aims to make it a bit easier with
a web app that can measure tension via your mobile phone’s microphone
and diagnose belt tightness, at least for their MK4 and XL printers.
Using different tools to analyze belt tightness (including belt acoustics)
have been tried in the past
with mixed results, but this is a pretty focused approach that aims to give exact guidance for specific printer models. It’s pretty useful to provide someone with a reliable go/no-go number, after all.
What happens to a printer if a belt’s tension is not right? Well, there’s actually a pretty forgiving range within which the printer will mostly work fine, but not as well as it could be. Loose belts can have novices chasing other problems, and overly-tightened belts definitely put extra strain on parts. It’s one of those things that’s worth a little extra work to get right.
3D printable
tension meter
is a different option for Prusa MK3 and Mini printers, if one has some Prusament PETG to print it in.
Everything about belt tension for Prusa printers is
covered in their documentation
, but did you know there’s also neat
3D printable tension meter
for Prusa MK3 and Mini printers? It’s meant to be printed in Prusament PETG (printing in other materials may have different results) but it’s a pretty neat idea for a tool.
If you have a Prusa MK4 or XL and want to try their new method,
go here
and allow access to your device’s microphone. Then select a printer model and an axis to test. Gently strum the upper part of the belt (avoid touching the bottom belt in the process) and watch live results telling you whether the belt is too tight, too loose, or just right. Prusa have
a video demonstrating the process
, also embedded below. | 22 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677190",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T20:22:19",
"content": "Considering how many printers are copies of the Prusa, surely this could get a close-enough reading on those. I might see how it compares to the actual measured tension on one of the knock-offs.",
"parent_... | 1,760,372,185.127534 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/a-wifi-rgb-camera-grip-is-probably-not-ideal-for-night-shoots/ | A WiFi RGB Camera Grip Is Probably Not Ideal For Night Shoots | Lewin Day | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"dslr",
"rgb",
"ws2812b"
] | RGB LEDs can be found on everything from motherboards to sticks of RAM these days. [dslrdiy] wanted to bring this same visual flair to his camera setup, so built what he’s calling
the world’s first RGB camera grip.
The build is based on an existing off-the-shelf camera grip. It’s disassembled for the build, with a pair of 18650 lithium batteries installed inside as a power supply. They run a small DC-DC converter, which powers a Raspberry Pi Zero and a WS2812B LED strip which provides the lovely colorful lighting effects. The LEDs light up a translucent spacer installed in the camera grip solely for the purpose of aesthetics.
So far, so straightforward. However, [dslrdiy] also implemented one more useful feature. The Pi Zero is able to scrape photos from the camera, and automatically load them on to a Windows network share. That’s a nice zero-fuss way to get pictures off your camera when you return to your home network.
We’re not sure too many professional photographers will rush after the RGB grip, as it’s often poor practice to introduce strange uncontrolled colorful lights into a scene. However, the wireless tethering feature does seem attractive
depending on your usual workflow.
Video after the break. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677504",
"author": "shod",
"timestamp": "2023-08-30T16:40:55",
"content": "Negative enough words fail me :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,372,185.165265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/retro-gadgets-the-1974-breadboard-project/ | Retro Gadgets: The 1974 Breadboard Project | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Teardown"
] | [
"breadboards"
] | It is hard to imagine experimenting with electronics without the ubiquitous solderless breadboard. We are sure you have a few within arm’s reach. The little plastic wonders make it easy to throw together a circuit, try it, and then tear it down again. But, surprisingly, breadboards of that type haven’t always been around, and — for a while — they were also an expensive item. Maybe that’s what motivated [R. G. Cooper] to build Slip-n-Clip — his system for quickly building circuits that he published in a 1974 edition of the magazine
Elementary Electronics
.
The system isn’t really what you would think of as a breadboard today, but it was effective and certainly cheap to build. The biggest problem? It wasn’t something you’d use with DIP ICs. But in the early 1970s, you might not be building very much with ICs, and the ones you used might be in oddball transistor-like packages. Things were strange in the 70s!
A Brief History of Breadboards
In the very old days, people built radios and such on wooden substrates that were actually bread-cutting boards. That’s where the name came from. It was common to draw a diagram with the physical layout you had in mind, glue it to the board, and use it as a guide for building and troubleshooting. Wood was easy to drill and cut. A nail or a thumbtack would make dandy terminals. Probably the last time we saw that done was about a dozen years ago in
Make Magazine
. Even then, it was only a novelty — few people still build circuits like this, but you can see how [Colin] did it in the video below.
If you had students building circuits, this could be a real drag. So, unsurprisingly, [Orville Thompson] from DeVry Technical Institute got a patent in 1960 for
a spring-loaded solderless breadboard
. Innovative, but not quite how we know them today.
Not Quite There
[Thompson’s] breadboard was more like a spring-loaded patch panel. This would be useful for things you might build on a real breadboard, but in a decade or two, ICs in DIP packages would become a big thing.
In 1971, [Ronald Portugal], working for E&L Instruments, figured out that there would be a market for a board with spring contacts that could accept DIP chips. The
patent
shows something you’d easily recognize today. AP Products claimed they’d been making solderless breadboards since 1968, but we imagine they looked a lot different.
Of course, breadboards weren’t a common fixture in hobby labs in 1971. By 1977, though, they were small breadboards in the Radio Shack catalog for $9.95 — about half the cost of lava lamp and worth about $50 in today’s money. In 1976, a 6×7 inch breadboard from AP was about $50.
Back in 1974
Meanwhile, back in 1974, [Cooper] wanted to put together circuits easily. His solution? A wooden board, some copper pipe, rubber bands, and paper clips. The plan was simple. Drill holes in a piece of plywood to form a grid. The holes were just big enough to pass one-inch pieces of copper pipe through them. Epoxy would hold the pipes in permanently.
That leaves the springs. A piece of scrap wood and some nails make a jig for bending paper clips into hooks that grab the lip of the copper pipe. They also grab rubber bands, so there are two hooks in two different pipes attached to each rubber band. When you pull up on one hook, the other hook pulls back against you. Slip your wire or component under the hook, and the rubber band tension will hold it in place.
Some simple labels finish up the board. Not a bad project, and for some circuits, it may be even better than a conventional solderless breadboard. Of course, not DIP IC friendly at all.
We can see how this would have been an economical solution. You probably had scrap wood, paper clips, and rubber bands hanging around. Copper pipe is common enough, too. By contrast, a 1976 Heathkit catalog touted the new Heathkit ET-3300 breadboard. Four breadboards were mounted in a case with a triple-fixed (+5, +12, and -12) power supply. While $80 doesn’t sound like that much, that was a third of the median US weekly salary in 1976. You also saw a lot of breadboards in cases with things like LEDs, switches, and other external components, but they were not cheap, either. You can see [Lee Adamson] repairing an ET-3300 in the video below.
So we can see what might motivate you to find a piece of scrap wood and stick some pipes in it. Are we suggesting you do the same? Probably not. Although for the right project, it would give a decidedly nostalgic and interesting look. With a little decoration, it would probably look good for a steampunk build, for example.
E&L Instruments literally invented the modern breadboard, but you don’t really think of their name as synonymous with the product. Maybe because they cost $1,300 back then. You can see [CuriousMarc] tear down one he calls an “eBay Disaster” in the video below.
No Fame
The Slip-n-Clip was never very famous, we imagine. But it was a great example of how ingenious people were when they couldn’t just order cheap stuff from the comfort of their couch. We wonder if anyone reading this actually built one back in the day. Let us know in the comments.
Everyone “knows” that solderless breadboard have a lot of extra capacitance and other bad circuit parameters. But
how bad is it
, really? We’ve seen them subject to all kinds of
surgery
and even downright
torture
. | 36 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677109",
"author": "Dave Beck",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T17:25:46",
"content": "Having lived through that era and experiencing the rise of the breadboard, there a few other options that we had that worked well for us ‘way back then’. The first was to borrow from tube equipment we w... | 1,760,372,185.277773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/wifi-pwm-backlight-and-graphics-on-updated-chumby-kernel/ | WiFi, PWM Backlight, And Graphics On Updated Chumby Kernel | Matthew Carlson | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"chumby",
"devicetree",
"linux"
] | For some, the Chumby was a peek at what could have been. That vision never died for [Doug Brown], and he has been working tirelessly on bringing mainline Linux kernel support to the customizable smart display. He has posted several updates but
recently got graphics and the PWM backlight working
.
Of course, we
covered when [Doug] first started working on the new kernel
, so it’s high time we revisited the progress. The WiFi hardware uses a Marvell 88W8686 chipset, which talks over the SDIO bus, so it’s a matter of convincing the libertas driver to talk to it. With a USB to Ethernet adapter, [Doug] could boot new kernels over NFS, so he didn’t have to walk over to swap the SD card. After dealing with an unhandled fault when trying to read the SDHCI_HOST_VERSION register, [Doug] had access points showing up in NetworkManager but could not connect. As a nasty hack, he temporarily removed the interrupts and switched to polling in the driver. While that worked, it would never get upstreamed. A critical interrupt was being dropped, and commands went out of sequence. A second, perhaps ugly hack, read a register after acknowledging an SDIO interrupt, which seemed to work. But it was still a hack, and [Doug] wanted something cleaner. In a blind stroke of luck, he found the errata online and noticed that it mentioned that an interrupt could be missed when a signal was asserted. After following the workaround with a lot of head-scratching and deep diving, he had a fully working WiFi driver.
Graphics were a more straightforward endeavor compared to WiFi. He enabled the simpledrm driver (similar to simplefb) but using Direct Rendering Manager. He had a working panel that could run Qt apps by adding the frame buffer to the device tree with the correct compatible string, registers, and data. However, there was a Vivante GC300 graphics accelerator onboard that he wanted to use. A driver for Vivante GPUs already exists in the kernel, but after enabling it, the driver detects the GC300 and then starts complaining. He discovered that older revisions of the GC300 (like the ones found in Chumbys) mapped registered at different addresses and didn’t set some bits in their idle registers. Of course, just loading a GPU driver isn’t quite enough. He modified an x11 server that supported Vivante accelerators to support the GC300.
For hacking purposes, [Doug] set the backlight GPIO high. While easy to see, perhaps not the best for a device meant to blend in. The PAX166 comes with PWM hardware, though confusingly, it has two PWM modes for pin 84. PWM1 and PWM2 share some common clock and reset bits in a decidedly undocumented way. PWM2 doesn’t work until you configure and then turn off PWM1. However, the backlight turned off once out of UBoot and into Linux. Linux re-initialized the hardware too quickly, causing the device to freak out. This was solved using the abrupt shutdown register.
It’s a journey through debugging, Linux internals, and device tree hackery. Perhaps the most incredible thing is that these changes are submitted for upstreaming to the Linux kernel, with many landing in Linux 6.2. While it’s a shame
new Chumbys aren’t being made,
making
your own smart display has never been easier
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677165",
"author": "David Kuder",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T19:13:56",
"content": "Many many moons ago I was building a car PC using a chumby 8″ as the base. A car wreck and continued problems with the software ecosystem shelved the project, and I eventually reused the LCD before it... | 1,760,372,185.202895 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/the-2003-northeast-blackout-and-the-harsh-lessons-of-grid-failures/ | The 2003 Northeast Blackout And The Harsh Lessons Of Grid Failures | Maya Posch | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"History",
"Slider"
] | [
"blackout",
"electricity grid"
] | The grid failure in 2003 which reverted much of the eastern US and Canada back to a pre-electrification era may be rather memorable, yet it was not the first time that a national, or even international power grid failed. Nor is it likely that it will be the last. In August of 2023 we mark the 20th anniversary of this blackout which left many people without electricity for up to three days, while costing dozens of people their lives. This raises the question of what lessons we learned from this event since then.
Although damage to transmission lines and related infrastructure is a big cause of power outages – especially in countries where overhead wiring is the norm – the most serious blackouts involve the large-scale desynchronization of the grid, to the point where generators shutdown to protect themselves. Bringing the grid back from such a complete blackout can take hours to days, as sections of the grid are reconnected after a cascade scenario as seen with the 2003 blackout, or the rather similar 1965 blackout which affected nearly the same region.
With how much more modern society relies today on constant access to electrical power than it did twenty, let alone fifty-eight years ago, exactly how afraid should we be of another, possibly worse blackout?
Anatomy Of A Blackout
Crossed wires shorting out, Troy, Illinois. After a few minutes of sporadic arcing, the transformer down the street burned out. (Credit:
Robert Lawton
)
In the most simple terms, a grid blackout (‘power outage’) occurs when one or more grid parameters venture outside of safe operating limits, causing protections to engage. Here it’s also important to distinguish between a localized blackout and a cascade event, as was the case in 2003. In the former case something like overhead wiring may short due to a falling tree, causing fuses to trip and disabling that part of the grid until repairs can be made. This is similar to how a fusebox in a house will trip, whether due to a short or overload situation.
To go from this type of annoyance to a full-blown blackout with cascade failure, these protections have to fail for some reason, which will allow voltage and load swings to propagate across the network, causing more and more transmission lines and generators to either trip into safety mode or fail catastrophically. In the case of the
1965 northeast blackout
, the start of the cascade was an issue with a
protective relay
on a transmission line at the
Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Station No. 2
in Queenston, Ontario.
Due to this relay having been programmed incorrectly, it tripped when the external load increased, which led to the transmission line to Ontario being cut. The surge of power overloaded successive other transmission lines, each of which tripped and worsened the cascade failure. Along with a number of power stations, the North-Eastern grid effectively broke into a number of islands, with only some being powered due to safeties kicking in on time. Despite the 1960s US not being as reliant on electrical power as today, it did have a
significant impact
on the populace.
A number of more limited blackouts occurred in the New York City region since then, with the
1977 NYC blackout
being highly notable. This blackout started with a lightning strike on a substation that tripped two circuit breakers, with equipment issues preventing the transmission line to recover and resulting in additional transmission lines to trip.
The 2019 Manhattan blackout
was very similar, but remained limited to an even smaller area after an explosion took out a substation.
Staying In Sync
After previous larger and smaller blackouts, one might get the impression that the North-American grid was getting more and more reliable, with any issues quickly being localized and prevented from spreading. This was what made the
2003 blackout
such a memorable event, as not only was it on-par with the 1965 blackout, it happened in an era where reliance on continuous electrical power had become a fact of life. The
final report
by the joint Canadian-US task force that was set up afterwards provides a detailed overview of the chain of events, starting in chapter 3.
As noted in the report, the causes behind the cascade failure did not appear out of nowhere, but were the result of long-term institutional failures and weaknesses, including poor preparation and planning, issues with the monitoring tools, as well as internal communication issues at FirstEnergy, the Ohio-based company which caught most of the flak during the investigation. These deficiencies led to the rather mundane events of overhead 345 kV transmission lines shorting out on foliage and a power plant dropping off the grid not being adjusted for in time, causing the cascade effect that shutdown much of the North-Eastern grid, while leaving some parts of the grid operating but isolated, reflecting the situation of 1965.
Some regions, such as in Canada around the
Bruce nuclear power station
, did suffer a blackout, but the station was able to disconnect from the grid and use its steam bypass circuit to keep the reactors running at 60% power before attempting to reconnect to the grid about five hours later. Such safeties allowed some areas to recover faster than others.
Grid frequency in the affected region on August 14, 2003, up to 16:09 EDT (Source: US-Canada Power System Outage Task Force)
Major issues in the planning before the cascade failure included a lack of spare reactive capacity, which was crucial at the time due to a lot of reactive demand from compressor-based airconditioning units in the late Summer heat. The need to balance reactive power rather than just real power (a property associated with resistive loads which have a power factor of 1.0) is a major concern in grid health, especially since reactive power is also consumed within transmission lines, making more remote generators less useful than ones near the load.
As more transmission lines failed, available reactive power dropped, along with the grid’s voltage. Interestingly, the grid frequency remained relatively stable in the period leading up to the blackout, with the cascade failure of multiple sets of transmission lines leading to overload situations that tripped the protective relays of more transmission lines and ultimately well over 250 generators. What this illustrates is how the working of an interconnected grid like the Northeastern one is very much a delicate balancing act that goes well until someone cuts their tolerances a bit too narrow, as was the case here.
Challenges
Naturally, we have now learned from these mistakes, the grid is more reliable than ever and no such blackout will ever occur again. Or that would be the assumption if there hadn’t been major shifts on the way the grid works since 2003. Rather than a focus on a limited number of large generating stations near population centers with a small number of high-voltage direct current (
HVDC
) transmission lines to maximize local reactive power and grid reliability due to a lack of need for
AC phase synchronization
, we now see a trend of many small generators in the form of VRE (variable renewable energy) that are neither dispatchable nor provide reactive power, while requiring a massive increase in transmission capacity and scale.
We’re already seeing the issues with this type of change cropping up, with early last year Japan seeing itself
plunged into a power crisis
as a result of an earthquake followed by intense frigid weather that stretched the grid to its limits. During this Winter weather, output from VRE generators was minimal, and not enough gas or coal capacity was available to make up the difference. This led to a call by the government to reduce power usage by industry and households, allowing the country to scrape by.
A year prior, Texas got its own blast of frigid Winter weather, leading to the
2021 Texas power crisis
. Although there was initially a lot of confusion about the causes, ultimately the culprit was a lack of capacity. Part of this was caused by a lack of winterization of equipment leading to a lot of gas capacity becoming unavailable, the other part was a lack of input from VRE sources, which sharply dropped off when they would have been most useful:
ERCOT’s hourly electricity generation by source from February 7-17, 2021. (source: US EIA)
Although winterizing equipment will help Texas to some extent, ultimately grid reliability relies on a number of fundamental factors, one of which is having sufficient dispatchable (reserve) power, whether that is spinning or reactive reserve power. Adding more transmission lines to more remote (intermittent) generators would seem to run counter to the goal of making the grid reliable, at least if avoiding a scenario like
rolling blackouts
is part of this reliability goal. The lack of reliable dispatchable generators is a major issue which countries
like South Africa
have been struggling with for years now, causing massive economical damage.
If the goal is to somehow integrate more intermittent generators and associated transmission lines into the grid, this will soon hit practical limits before grid stability can no longer be guaranteed. This is the topic of a lot of research, with
Tingting Xu et al. (2021)
indicating a maximum of 25% PV solar and 60% wind VRE power in Japan’s grid. Modeling of a number of grid architectures that assume a high uptake of VRE by
Oliver Smith et al. (2022)
in
Science Advances
finds that grid reliability is likely to suffer no matter whether microgrids or whole-house battery storage are used.
Increased Importance
With how much of modern day society relies on electricity, it is more important than ever that we get grid reliability right. This means all the basics, such as planning in sufficient dispatchable power to cover the needs of the coming days, weeks and months, as well as performing regular maintenance and emergency drills. A lot of this is the domain of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (
NERC
), which oversees the six regional entities (grids) within North America.
NERC’s authority was expanded after the 2003 blackout with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, but as the 2021 Texas power crisis and
California’s continuing struggle
with annual rolling blackouts illustrate, this does not stop the constant drop in dispatchable, local generating capacity. With this shift comes the prospect of more blackouts, whether the friendly, preannounced rolling kind or the type that caught the North-East by surprise in 2003. | 87 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677079",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T15:28:27",
"content": "Doesn’t it seem like the grid itself is the problem though? Surely this could be solved by decentralization and redundancy. If every city (or neighborhood, or even house) produced its own electricity, l... | 1,760,372,185.652767 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/blame-it-on-the-sockets-forensic-analysis-of-the-arecibo-collapse/ | Blame It On The Sockets: Forensic Analysis Of The Arecibo Collapse | Dan Maloney | [
"Engineering",
"News"
] | [
"Arecibo",
"cable",
"collapse",
"failure",
"finite element analysis",
"forensic",
"neutron imaging",
"Radio Telescope",
"socket",
"spelter",
"zinc"
] | Nearly three years after the rapid unplanned disassembly of the Arecibo radio telescope,
we finally have a culprit in the collapse: bad sockets
.
In case you somehow missed it, back in 2020 we started getting ominous reports that the cables supporting the 900-ton instrument platform above the 300-meter primary reflector of what was at the time the world’s largest radio telescope were slowly coming undone. From
the first sign of problems
in August, when the first broken cable smashed a hole in the reflector, to
the failure of a second cable
in November, it surely seemed like Arecibo’s days were numbered, and that it would fall victim to all the other bad luck we seemed to be rapidly accruing in that fateful year. The inevitable finally happened on December 1, when over-stressed cables on support tower four finally gave way, sending the platform on a graceful swing into the side of the natural depression that cradled the reflector, damaging the telescope beyond all hope of repair.
The long run-up to the telescope’s final act had a silver lining in that it provided engineers and scientists with a chance to carefully observe the failure in real-time. So there was no real mystery as to what happened, at least from a big-picture perspective. But one always wants to know the fine-scale details of such failures, a task which fell to forensic investigation firm Thornton Tomasetti. They enlisted the help of the Columbia University Strength of Materials lab, which sent pieces of the failed cable to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope reactor for
neutron imaging
, which is like an X-ray study but uses streams of neutrons that interact with the material’s nuclei rather than their electrons.
The full report (PDF)
reveals five proximate causes for the collapse, chief of which is “[T]he manual and inconsistent splay of the wires during cable socketing,” which we take to mean that the individual strands of the cables were not spread out correctly before the molten zinc
“spelter socket”
was molded around them. The resulting shear stress caused the zinc to slowly flow around the cable strands, letting them slip out of the surrounding steel socket and — well, you can watch the rest below for yourself.
As is usually the case with such failures, there are multiple causes, all of which are covered in the 300+ page report. But being able to pin the bulk of the failure on a single, easily understood — and easily addressed — defect is comforting, in a way. It’s cold comfort to astronomers and Arecibo staff, perhaps, but at least it’s a lesson that might prevent future failures of cable-supported structures.
[via
New Atlas
] | 58 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677022",
"author": "Reality Bites",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T12:11:47",
"content": "The choice to go with the lowest bidder always has consequences.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6677035",
"author": "Dan",
"... | 1,760,372,185.518328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/29/its-a-sander-no-its-a-toothbrush-relax-relax-its-both/ | It’s A Sander! No, It’s A Toothbrush! Relax, Relax, It’s Both | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"sanding",
"toothbrush"
] | We always enjoy a project that transforms some common object into something useful for us. [Modelkitsdeluxe] fits the bill by modifying a power toothbrush
into a miniature sander
. If you want to practice your Spanish, you can watch the video below. Or you can try the automatically translated captions.
As you can guess from the user name, he is mainly interested in working with small models, but it struck us that this might also be useful for general 3D printing. Honestly, once you have the idea, there isn’t much to it. You mutilate a brush head that fits the toothbrush to accept a small sanding disk.
There are probably a dozen ways to attach your sandpaper or emery cloth to the head. [Modelkitdeluxe] used double-sided tape and Velcro. While we applaud the upcycling, we’ll probably stick with a hobby tool. Our toothbrush makes an annoying buzz every 30 seconds or so to remind you to move to another part of your mouth. That doesn’t seem like a great feature when doing precision sanding. On the other hand, you could probably yank the controller out of the toothbrush and use it for the motor, drive, and batteries to avoid that.
If you want to tackle that, here’s
something to get you started
. If sanding doesn’t turn your crank, maybe you can try
turning your deadbolt
. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676995",
"author": "Oliver",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T09:39:19",
"content": "Well, I use my old tooth brush since years in a similar way, but not only for sanding.However, I would go for a mini drill machine (e. g. Dremel) and use one of the many available tools for that.",
"pa... | 1,760,372,185.916234 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/this-crt-luggable-makes-sense/ | This CRT Luggable Makes Sense | Jenny List | [
"Cyberdecks"
] | [
"crt",
"cyberdeck",
"luggable",
"luggable computer"
] | There was a time when portable computing meant not a svelte laptop but a suitcase-sized machine that was really a slimmed-down desktop with a small CRT incorporated int he same box. They were heavy and unwieldy, but the computing compromises of using one at the time were less than with what served for more portable machinery. It’s a form factor which understandably has long ago disappeared, but that hasn’t stopped [Sdomi] from reviving it with a
machine that packs plenty of modern computing power
.
It’s a project that started with a monitor, a diminutive green-screen model which had previously adorned a CNC machine. It’s a composite model, so it’s driven from a VGA-to-composite converter. The computing power comes from a thin-client board that packs an up-to-date AMD Ryzen processor and 32 GB of memory, and the case is manufactured from oriented strand chipboard.
The result is a chunky but definitely practical and usable take on a portable cyberdeck, with the caveat that a composite monitor will not deliver the resolution some of us might be used to. We have to admit rather liking it, there’s nothing like the curved glass of a CRT.
It’s by no means the only up to date luggable we’ve seen, though
more often now they feature an LCD
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6677027",
"author": "Inhibit",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T12:21:11",
"content": "More resolution than 80×24 by the looks of it. Sheer luxury!I like the choice of a green screen as well. Although I’m always torn between that and the golden halo of orange.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,372,185.689796 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/restoring-a-persons-voice-using-a-brain-computer-interface/ | Restoring A Person’s Voice Using A Brain-Computer Interface | Maya Posch | [
"Science"
] | [
"bci",
"brain-computer interface",
"phoneme",
"voice synthesis"
] | Being able to vocalize is one of the most essential elements of the human experience, with infants expected to start babbling their first words before they’re one year old, and much of their further life revolving around interacting with others using vocalizations involving varying degrees of vocabulary and fluency. This makes the impairment or loss of this ability difficult to devastating, as is the case with locked-in syndrome (LIS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and similar conditions, where talking and vocalizing has or will become impossible.
In a number of concurrent studies, the use of a brain-computer interface (BCI) is investigated to help patients suffering from LIS (
Sean L. Metzger et al., 2023
) and ALS (
Francis R. Willett et al., 2023
) to regain their speaking voice. Using the surgically implanted microelectrode arrays (Utah arrays) electrical impulses pertaining to the patient’s muscles involved in speaking are recorded and mapped to
phonemes
, which are the elements that make up speech. Each of these phonemes requires a specific configuration of the muscles of the vocal tract (e.g. lips, tongue, jaw and larynx), which can be measured with a fair degree of accuracy.
Ann looking at the avatar which speaks the phrases that were recorded using the BCI. (Credit: Noah Berger, UCSF)
In the case of the study by Sean L. Metzger et al. as recently published in
Nature
, the
accompanying research article
on the University of California San Francisco website details the story of their patient: Ann. At the age of 30, Ann suffered a brainstem stroke which rendered her essentially fully paralyzed. As an LIS patient she lacked for a long time even the ability to move her facial muscles.
Although some functionality has returned over the years, being unable to use her vocal tract to vocalize and speak coherently has left her largely unable to connect with her then young daughter, except via a basic synthesized voice. With the experimental system, Ann’s phonemes are decoded and passed through a voice synthesis network that’s been trained using Ann’s original voice, sampled from an old wedding video. Although the current BCI system is wired and clumsy, the hope is that a future wireless version could give her and many like her a portable version that would make every day life that much easier.
Heading image: Microelectrode (Utay) array location and the decoding of the corresponding actions. (Francis R. Willet et al., 2023) | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676940",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2023-08-29T03:39:59",
"content": "I always think about failure modes with all technology. And putting metal inside someones brain, I see as high risk, high reward. But what happens in a car crash (TBI – Traumatic brain injury) or even just ... | 1,760,372,185.960446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/making-an-injection-mold-for-yourself/ | Making An Injection Mold For Yourself | Jenny List | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"injection molding",
"machining"
] | Injection molding is the obvious onward step from 3D printing when the making of a few plastic parts becomes their series manufacture. The problem with injection molding is though, that making a mold can be prohibitively expensive. Has the advent of affordable CNC machining changed that? [Teaching Tech] takes a look,
and machines a mold for part of a bicycle bracket
.
With a diversion into home-made silicone seals for the injection molding machine, he proceeds to machine the mold itself from a block of aluminium. It’s a basic introduction to mold construction for those of us who’ve never ventured in this direction before, and it provides some interesting lessons. As we’d expect he does a rough machining pass before returning with a ball-end tool to smooth off those curves, but there’s a lesson in measuring rather than believing the paperwork. The tool he used was a bit smaller then the spec, so his path left some rough edges that had to be returned to. Otherwise the use of a removable pair of bolts to form holes in the finished part is we guess obvious after watching the video, but it’s something we learned as injection molding newbies.
This video follows on from
a previous one we also covered
, in which we’re introduced to the machine itself. | 29 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676895",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2023-08-28T23:55:05",
"content": "No ejection pins/sleeves. Parting line through the gate. Bolts as alignment pins. Huge vents drilled by hand.This is clearly his first injection mold.He’d have been much better off just machining the bracket... | 1,760,372,185.867098 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/photography-goes-leaf-green/ | Photography Goes Leaf Green | Jenny List | [
"Art"
] | [
"chlorophyll",
"film",
"photography"
] | Something that haunts film photographers is the prospect of a film shortage. This won’t replace film in that event, but [Applied Science]
demonstrates photography using leaves
. That’s right, a plant can record an image on its leaves.
Anyone with a high-school level of education can tell you that the leaf is a solar energy harvester, with the green chlorophyll using CO2 scavenged from the air to make sugars in the presence of light. It stands to reason that this light sensitivity could be used to capture images, and indeed if you place a leaf in the dark for an extended period of time its chlorophyll fades away where there is no light. The technique described in the video below the break is different though, and much more sensitive than the days-long exposures required to strip chlorophyll. It relies on starch, which the leaf uses to store energy locally when it has an excess of light.
First the starch is depleted by keeping the leaf in the dark, but not long enough to strip the chlorophyll. An image is then exposed on the leaf, and developed by removing the chlorophyll with alcohol and staining the starch with iodine. Merely saying that an image is exposed doesn’t convey that this is hardly a sensitive process though. Exposures take hours in sunlight, with simple masks, with 35 mm negatives, and then with a huge home made lens, a shadowy picture of a pickup truck. We are guessing that if geranium leaves had an ISO number, it would be a tiny fraction of a point.
On one hand this is barely a functional photography medium, while on the other we’re sure that it will be of great interest to artists and other creative people. Where we’re fascinated though is in the choice of leaf. There must be species with more chlorophyll than a geranium, and we wonder how much help some selective plant breeding for starch production could be.
Meanwhile if your taste in photographic chemistry stays with silver halides,
we’ve taken you to a film factory before
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676878",
"author": "Paul McClay",
"timestamp": "2023-08-28T22:04:06",
"content": "following the trailer link: Colin Furze made the first digital camera!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6676911",
"author": "Tom",
"timest... | 1,760,372,186.002842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/the-device-that-won-ww2-a-history-of-the-cavity-magnetron/ | The Device That Won WW2: A History Of The Cavity Magnetron | Adam Fabio | [
"hardware"
] | [
"cavity magnetron",
"magnetron",
"microwave",
"radar"
] | [Curious Droid] is back with a history lesson on one of the most important inventions of the 20th century: The
cavity magnetron
. Forged in the fighting of World War II, the cavity magnetron was the heart of radar signals used to identify attacking German forces.
The magnetron itself was truly an international effort, with scientists from many countries providing scientific advances. The real breakthrough came with the work of [
John Randall]
and [
Harry Boot],
who produced the first working prototype of a cavity magnetron. The device was different than the patented klystron, or even earlier magnetron designs. The cavity magnetron uses physical cavities and a magnetic field to create microwave energy. The frequency is determined by the size and shape of the cavities.
While the cavity magnetron had been proven to work, England was strapped by the war effort and did not have the resources to continue the work. [Henry Tizzard] brought the last prototype to the USA where it was described as “the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores”. The cavity magnetron went on to be used throughout the war in RADAR systems both air and sea.
Today, many military RADAR systems use klystrons or traveling wave tube amplifiers due to requirements for accurate frequency pulses. But the cavity magnetron still can be found in general and commercial aviation RADAR systems, as well as the
microwave ovens we all know and love
.
Check the video out after the break. | 55 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676825",
"author": "Col._Panek",
"timestamp": "2023-08-28T19:17:51",
"content": "In the junk room/archive of Boston’s State house there’s a handful sized crossed-field device that seems too small to be a magnetron, unless it’s a millimeter wave one. Maybe it’s a klystron. It’s unl... | 1,760,372,186.160018 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/maker-faire-hannover-the-right-way-to-do-it/ | Maker Faire Hannover: The Right Way To Do It | Jenny List | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"germany",
"Hannover",
"maker faire"
] | On these pages we bring you plenty of reports from events, most of which are from the hacker or hardware communities. These can be great fun to attend, but they’re not the only game in town when looking at things adjacent to our community. At what you might describe as the consumer end of the market there are the Maker Faires, which bring a much more commercial approach to a tech event. While so many of us are in Germany for Chaos Communication Camp there’s a maker faire ideally placed to drop in on the way back. We took the trip to Hannover, a large and rather pleasant city just off the Berlin to Amsterdam motorway roughly central to the top half of the country. It’s got one of the German emissions zones so without the green tax sticker in the car we took a park-and-ride on one of their clean and efficient trams to alight a short walk from the congress centre.
Plenty To See, And It’s Not All For Kids
An array of European electronic conference badges on show
Outside, a working forge
Face it, we all want a clock like this one!
Vintage test equipment
You may know Bitluni from many featured projects here.
A group of Germans who maintain a 1990s TV studio.
Hackaday’s first post, courtesy of the Wayback Machine and Makerspace Minden.
After the formalities of buying a ticket, we were straight in to the halls. It was a big event so we’ll pass on trying to list everything, instead it’s probably better to take a look at the flavour of a typical maker faire, and assess how this one measures up. It’s something you may have noticed over the years that here at Hackaday we’ve spent more time at camps and conferences than these events, and often with good reason as they tend to veer towards vendors and stuff for kids. There are only so many educational robot kits that we can cover, and after a while it’s clear that perhaps these are not the events for us. So when my friends suggested dropping in to this one I was initially up for it as a day out, but not necessarily as a hot prospect for these pages. I was thus pleasantly surprised to see that the organisers in Hannover had pulled off the impossible, because alongside all the stuff for kids was a healthy dose of grown-up tech. My day started to look interesting.
First up was a walk round the event, from which it’s best to try to give you a flavour rather than individually list everything. The whole thing was spread across several halls and through the grounds of the centre, with what I would class as the main hall being the first one beyond the entrance. In here were many of the traditional maker faire exhibitors, but it was in the further halls where for me the action lay. We hung out for a while with a bunch of friends from
Makerspace Minden
and enjoyed their supreme-quality German cake, before looking further.
Stand-outs for me were the people with an impressive array of working teleprinters, a stand populated entirely with exactly my kind of aged test equipment (I never did get exactly who they were, my German is nonexistent), and outside in the open air a group of German blacksmiths who had set up their forge. This wasn’t the only opportunity for me to wallow in the past though, because they also had an entire hall set aside for robotic combat. It’s rare for me to wish for
SMIDSY
again, but it’s good to see such creativity on show.
You Can’t Go To Germany Without Visiting A Beer garden
So that was Hannover Maker Faire, and I hope the pictures tell the story better than the words. It was hotter than hades and the catering and drinks prices were scandalous, but the quality of the sausages at least lived up to their price. Meanwhile the event was unexpectedly good for a maker faire, and definitely worth going to. The day wasn’t over though, because the lads form Makerspace Minden had further plans.
Wülfeler Biergarten
is a traditional German beer garden somewhere on the southern side of the city, and we repaired to its comforting embrace with them to wash away the day with the local Gilde beer and mountains of some of the best pork ribs I have ever tasted. Thhe perfect end to what turned out to be a pretty good day. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676814",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2023-08-28T18:51:07",
"content": "Beer Gardens!The best part of Germany!Every air traffic control tower, primary school and police station has an attached beer garden!Also good beer for under 10 euro/case.Once my tax paying years are past, I... | 1,760,372,186.067043 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/pcb-toaster-oven-solders-your-boards/ | PCB Toaster Oven Solders Your Boards | Al Williams | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"reflow oven"
] | Using a toaster oven to reflow PCBs isn’t anything new, but just using a toaster oven has some limitations. Making toast isn’t as complex as reflowing PCBs. [Nabil] decided
to modify an oven
to get better results. In fact, this was the second iteration and involved making a custom PCB to replace the one in the oven. You can see the unit in the video below.
Of course, unless you have the exact oven (a Breville BOV450XL), you won’t want to duplicate the board, but it might give you some good ideas. The new board has a 2.8-inch capacitive LCD, an ESP32, and a few sensors and actuators.
The other addition was an exhaust fan, which is a good idea, considering what you put inside. There’s also Raspberry Pi and lots of new holes in the case. Apparently, the oven was able to produce boards even with basic software using proportional control.
We’ve seen
similar builds
, but everyone has a little different take. This isn’t even the first one we’ve seen with a
touchscreen
. | 15 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676751",
"author": "Ccecil",
"timestamp": "2023-08-28T16:15:58",
"content": "“The other addition was an exhaust fan, which is a good idea, considering what you put inside.”Not the designer…but I suspect the fan is there to more accurately follow the reflow profile. After the “flow... | 1,760,372,186.21043 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2023/08/28/review-wainlux-k8-a-diode-laser-thats-ready-to-work/ | Review: WAINLUX K8, A Diode Laser That’s Ready To Work | Tom Nardi | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Laser Hacks",
"Reviews",
"Slider"
] | [
"air assist",
"air filter",
"diode laser",
"Grbl_ESP32",
"laser",
"laser engraver",
"ventilation"
] | Rarely a week goes by that some company doesn’t offer to send us their latest and greatest laser. You know the type — couple of aluminum extrusions, Class 4 diode flopping around in the breeze, and no enclosure to speak of unless you count the cardboard box they shipped it in. In other words, an accident waiting to happen. Such gracious invitations get sent to the trash without a second thought.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt that the average Hackaday reader would be able to render such a contraption (relatively) safe for use around the shop. Build a box around it, bolt on a powerful enough fan to suck the smoke out through the window, and you’ve turned a liability into a legitimate tool. But the fact remains that we simply can’t put our stamp on something that is designed with such a blatant disregard for basic safety principles.
The earlier WAINLUX JL4 — lucky rabbit foot not included.
That being the case, a recent email from WAINLUX nearly met the same fate as all those other invitations. But even at a glance it was clear that this new machine they wanted to send out, the K8, was very different from others we’d seen. Different even from what the company themselves have put out to this point. This model was fully enclosed, had a built-in ventilation fan, an optional air filter “sidecar”, and yes, it would even turn off the laser if you opened the door while it was in operation. After reading through the promotional material they sent over, I had to admit, I was intrigued.
It seemed like I wasn’t the only one either; it was only a matter of days before the
Kickstarter for the WAINLUX K8
rocketed to six figures. At the time of this writing, the total raised stands at just under $230,000 USD. There’s clearly a demand for this sort of desktop laser, the simplicity of using a diode over a laser tube is already appealing, but one that you could actually use in a home with kids or pets would be a game changer for many people.
But would the reality live up to the hype? I’ve spent the last couple of weeks putting a pre-production WAINLUX K8 through its paces, so let’s take a look and see if WAINLUX has a winner on their hands.
Watts Up, Doc?
I should start by clarifying that WAINLUX advertises the K8 as a “Laser Engraving Machine”, presumably to keep the user’s expectations in check. In fact, they’ve plastered the phrase all over every flat spot of the K8. That said, the machine is more than capable of cutting many materials, though the results will depend on which version you purchase. The base 2.5 W model would do fine against cardboard and other thin materials, but you’ll really want to spring for the top-tier 10 W version if you want to cut through harder materials like plywood or acrylic.
For the purposes of this review, I was sent the 10 W model. Although the rest of the hardware is identical between all three versions of the K8, keep this in mind as you read through this review — especially when it comes to the real-world results of cutting and engraving different materials that’s documented at the end.
External Overview
The WAINLUX K8 is somewhat akin to a small microwave, measuring 26.7 centimeters (10.5 inches) along the front and side, and standing 30.5 cm (12 inches) tall. The front features a magnetically latched door that provides an opening roughly 19 cm (7.5 inches) wide. Underneath the main door there is a small “Dust Box” that can be pulled out, which provides a helpful way to collect and dispose of the small bits of waste material that will accumulate during cutting operations.
Next to the door, there’s a momentary button that turns the unit on and off, as well as a “Repeat” button that can be configured to execute a specific cutting or engraving operation each time it’s pressed. It’s rudimentary, but does enable a certain degree of untethered operation. Above both of the buttons is an integrated status light which indicates the K8’s current state, ranging from a solid white when ready and idle to a blinking blue that signifies the laser is actively firing.
On the right side of the unit there’s the outlet for the ventilation system, which could either be piped out a nearby window, or connected directly to the optional air filter unit. Around the back there’s a USB-C port to connect the K8 to your computer, as well as a DC barrel jack.
Laser Movement
It would be fair to say that for the K8, WAINLUX took a fairly straightforward laser engraver design and simply put it in a box. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you were hoping for some kind of advanced CoreXY arrangement under the hood, you might be disappointed.
What we’ve actually got is a pretty standard cantilever setup, often used on so-called “portable” laser engravers such as the JL4 pictured above. Two sections of 20 x 20 aluminum extrusion are attached 90 degrees from each other by a wheeled carriage, which is moved back and forth by a stepper motor and belt. A similar setup is used to move the laser module left to right. The K8 does feature endstop switches at the point of origin, which on this laser, is to the front left of the work area.
This cantilever arrangement isn’t used on larger lasers (or 3D printers, for that matter) as you can only extend it out so far before you start getting stability issues. The only reason they can get away with it on the K8 is because, compared to other lasers in this price range, the work area is quite limited — only 130 mm x 130 mm (5.1 x 5.1 inches).
Unfortunately, that’s the trade-off you make when going to a fully enclosed machine like this. While I think the usable area of the K8 is suitable for a wide array of hacker and maker projects, there’s no question that it’s simply too small for many tasks. Whether you’re willing to go for a larger machine and lose the inherent safety features offered by an integrated enclosure is a decision only you can make for yourself.
Manual Z Axis
With an open-air style laser, there’s usually no provision for a vertical Z axis. To compensate for thicker objects, you’re expected to lift the entire machine off the table. For their earlier lasers WAINLUX even offers “Heightening Modules”, literally just plastic blocks, which you’re expected to prop the machine up with. But obviously that’s not an option with an enclosed machine like the K8.
So to adjust the distance of the laser to the target, the K8 features an internal table that can be raised and lowered with a knob on the right side of the machine. The table is attached to a metal block, which rides on a pair of smooth rods and is moved by a leadscrew attached to the knob. The whole arrangement is very similar to the Z axis on a desktop 3D printer, albeit on a much smaller scale. The table has approximately 100 mm (4.7 inches) of travel, and the documentation says it can hold up to 3 kg (6.6 lbs).
Moving the Z axis up and down is something you’re going to have to do fairly often, as it’s how you ensure that the target is the proper distance from the laser. Helpfully, the module has a small flip-down arm that lets you easily dial this in: just drop the arm, move the table until the arm is touching the target, and you’re good to go. It’s a simple system, though the results should you forget to flip the arm back up might not be pretty.
But being able to make fine adjustments to the Z axis also leads to some interesting possibilities, such as the ability to cut deeper into material by lowering the laser’s focal point on each pass. The Z setup on the K8 looks like it would be relatively easy to motorize, which could make such operations automatic when combined with the right software.
Firmware/Connectivity
The WAINLUX K8 understands standard G-code, which offers plenty of freedom in terms of what software you can use with it. Commands can be sent over a direct USB serial connection, or loaded from a micro SD card. The micro SD slot is rather perplexingly located
inside
the enclosure itself however, so not exactly the most convenient of setups. The K8 also features WiFi that can either be used in Access Point or Station mode. In AP mode, the K8 offers up a WiFi network which you can connect to, which is most useful with a mobile device when using the official Android or iOS application. When in Station mode, the K8 connects to your existing WiFi network and pulls a DHCP lease, which allows you to control the machine even if it’s located in another room.
If there was any question about the firmware running on the machine, you need only look at the network name the K8 creates when in AP mode: GRBL_ESP. That’s right, the machine is
running a custom build of Grbl_Esp32
. I spent some time poking around with the
commands from the official Wiki
and most things seemed to work as expected, though for some reason the web UI wouldn’t load properly.
Now, I know what you’re thinking — since the Grbl_Esp32 project is released under the GPLv3, where’s the source code? I contacted WAINLUX about this and was specifically told that their version of the firmware will be open sourced once it is out of testing, which presumably will happen when the machine actually starts shipping out in October.
To be fair, we’ve heard these kind of promises before. But the fact that I was given a direct answer and not some corporate runaround gives me hope that they’ll hold up their end of the bargain. You can be sure that we’ll keep an eye on the situation.
Air Assist and Ventilation
The WAINLUX K8 is unique in that it offers not only an integrated ventilation system, but also air assist. Both features are provided by standard 40 mm fans, one mounted above the laser module and blowing down through a nozzle bolted over the lens, and the other mounted in the side of the enclosure.
I would be lying if I said these two tiny fans were truly a replacement for the big aftermarket high-flow units that would generally be installed to handle these tasks, but they’re certainly better than nothing, which is what you’d usually get. It seems to me that WAINLUX must have realized selling an optional bolt-on air assist kit for such a compact and integrated laser wasn’t viable, so they included the capability out of the box.
The inclusion of the ventilation fan was arguably a given for an enclosed machine, and it does a good enough job pulling the smoke out of the enclosure. But truth be told, I’m not convinced the little fan has enough power to push the exhaust out of anything but a very short hose. In fact, the K8 doesn’t even come with an exhaust hose, which is a bit telling. So if you’re thinking of venting the K8 out of a window, it better be close. Otherwise, you’ll likely need to invest in an external fan to help it along.
One interesting thing I noticed is that the there’s a small removable hatch that lets you pull the ventilation fan out. There’s nothing mentioned about this in the documentation, and I can’t figure out if this was done to make replacing and cleaning the fan easier, or if you’re supposed to remove the fan entirely when using the optional external air filter. Speaking of which…
External Air Filter (Optional)
One of the things that really interested me in the WAINLUX K8 was the external air filter module. Even when cutting paper or cardboard, these things produce quite a bit of smoke. Readers with long memories may recall I once
reviewed the sub-$100 NEJE DK-8-KZ laser engraver
, and even when using that tiny machine, it would produce enough smoke to get me in trouble around the house.
From that experience, I realized that any larger of a laser would certainly need to ventilated outside. Unfortunately, due to the layout of my office, there’s no good way to do that. So for the longest time, I just assumed that any laser I got would need to be setup in the garage or basement. Neither would be very convenient, but it seemed like there wasn’t much choice.
But with the air filter attached to the K8, I’ve been able to engrave and cut all manner of materials without anyone else in the house even noticing. Well, that’s not
completely
accurate — I did get questioned about what sounded like a small jet aircraft getting ready to take off from my desk. But hey, at least they didn’t smell anything.
The unit is fairly straightforward, consisting of a large three-speed centrifugal fan and a large removable air filter. It’s solidly built, and beyond the broken English on the front panel, looks very professional sitting next to the K8. My only complaint is that it’s a totally separate unit. By that, I mean it requires its own AC adapter and must be activated independently of the laser. It would have been nice if it got its power and control signals from the K8 so they could truly work in unison.
Software Selection
As I mentioned previously, the WAINLUX K8 shows up as a USB serial device and responds to standard G-code, thanks largely due to the fact that it’s powered by a mature and well-supported open source firmware. That means you can easily configure a wide number of programs to work with the K8 simply be filling in a few variables such as bed dimensions and maximum travel speed.
WAINLUX also offers their own software for controlling the laser, but frankly, the less said about it the better. I did track down a Windows computer and installed the in-development version of CutLabX, and even did a few cuts with it to prove it works. That’s more than I’d recommend you do. While functional, the interface (complete with random untranslated Chinese text) is absolutely infuriating to use.
In a future article I plan on looking at some of the open source tools in this space, but for most people, I would recommend downloading
LightBurn
. While in general I avoid closed source software, it’s a well made program with a fairly forgiving licensing arrangement, and works perfectly out of the box with the K8.
Note:
The K8 features a camera at the top of the enclosure, which the promotional material says can be used to visually align the workpiece before cutting or engraving. However I couldn’t get the camera to work in either CutLabX or LightBurn. It could be that the camera hasn’t been enabled yet in the firmware, but the documentation doesn’t mention anything about it. I plan on looking into this further.
Uncensored Hot Photon Action
If you’ve made it this far, you must be really interested in adding a desktop laser to your arsenal. So the least I could do before closing this review out is show some video of the laser in action, as well as a small gallery of some of the things I made with it.
Kerbal Space Program inspired panel, 3 mm acrylic with white paint added to engraved text.
Voronoi candle holder, 5 mm plywood.
Jolly Wrencher, 5 mm plywood.
Jolly Wrencher, slate coaster.
3.5 disks, 2 mm plywood.
Gear toy, 5 mm plywood.
Wrencher on blue anodized aluminum ruler.
Final Thoughts
After spending some quality time with it, I have to say that the WAINLUX K8 is an impressive piece of hardware. The capabilities and build quality are far beyond what I expected, and while the official software leaves
a lot
to be desired, the compatible software that’s already out there makes this something of a moot point. The fully enclosed design of the K8, combined with the air filtration unit, mean I can easily and quickly put it to use without needing to setup a dedicated laser work area. This convenience is somewhat offset by the limited internal volume of the enclosure, but for users who are only looking to do occasional one-off projects, the overall package is still very compelling.
The 10 W WAINLUX K8 will set you back $559 (or $419 during the Kickstarter), and that’s not including the optional air filtration system. While that’s more expensive than the far more powerful K40, the advantage here is that you’re getting a turn-key machine that you can just plug in and start using. No cracked tubes, water cooling, mods, or extra parts to buy.
Of course, the Hackaday community isn’t afraid of doing mods and upgrades to bring a cheaper laser up to snuff. But if you’re in the market for a laser that you can use as a reliable tool, rather than a new project to fiddle with, the K8 might be for you. | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6676735",
"author": "Paul McClay",
"timestamp": "2023-08-28T15:07:33",
"content": "“It would have been nice if it got its power and control signals from the K8 so they could truly work in unison.”Even just control signal would be useful. Then when the small jet aircraft sound stops ... | 1,760,372,186.301413 |
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