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https://hackaday.com/2025/06/17/robot-dinosaur-yolos-colors-and-shapes-for-kids/ | Robot Dinosaur YOLOs Colors And Shapes For Kids | Tyler August | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"educational toy",
"object detection",
"YOLO"
] | YOLO can mean many things, but in the context of [be_riddickulous]’s
AI Talking Robot Dinosaur
it refers to the “You Only Look Once” YOLOv11 object-detection algorithm by Ultralytics, the method by which this adorable dino recognizes colors and shapes to teach them to children.
If you’re new to using YOLO or object recognition more generally, [be_riddiculous]’s tutorial is not a bad place to get started. She goes through how many images you’ll need and what types to get the shape-and-color recognition needed for this project, as well as how to annotate them and train the model, either locally or in the cloud.
The project itself is an adorable paper-mache dinosaur with a servo-actuated mouth hiding some LEDs and a Raspberry Pi camera module to provide images. In operation, the dinosaur “talks” to children using pre-recorded voice lines, inviting them to play a game and put a specific shape, or shape of a specific color (or both) in its mouth. Then the aforementioned object detection (running on a laptop) goes “YOLO” and identifies the shape so the toy can provide feedback on the child’s choice via a speaker in the belly of the beast.
The link to the game code is currently not valid, but it looks like they used PyGame for the audio output code. A servo motor controls the mouth, but without that code it’s not entirely clear to us what it’s doing. We expect by the time you read this there’s good odds [be_riddickulous] will have fixed that link and you can see for yourself.
The only thing that holds this back from being a great toy to put in every Kindergarten class is the need to have a laptop close by to plug the webcam into. A Raspberry Pi 5 ought to have the horsepower to run YOLOv11, so with a little extra effort the whole thing could be standalone — there might even be room in there for batteries.
We’ve had other hacks aimed at little ones, like
a kid-friendly computer to relive the glory days of the school computer lab
or one of the many iterations of the
RFID jukebox idea
. If you want to wow the kiddos with AI, perhaps take a look at this
talking Santa plush
.
Got a cool project, AI, kid-related, or otherwise? Don’t forget to
toss us a tip! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139871",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2025-06-18T04:35:21",
"content": "Neat project but could have been self contained e.g. no laptop, just run the YOLO model directly on the Pi. Even a Pi4 is powerful enough to run a tailored model with custom training.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,371,513.699074 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/bringing-an-obscure-apple-operating-system-to-modern-hardware/ | Bringing An Obscure Apple Operating System To Modern Hardware | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"apple",
"intel",
"Rhapsody OS",
"unix"
] | During Apple’s late-90s struggles with profitability, it made a few overtures toward licensing its software to other computer manufacturers, while at the same time trying to modernize its operating system, which was threatening to slip behind Windows. While Apple eventually scrapped their licensing plans, an interesting product of the situation was Rhapsody OS. Although Apple was still building PowerPC computers, Rhapsody also had compatibility with Intel processors, which [Omores]
put to good use
by running it on a relatively modern i7-3770 CPU.
[Omores] selected a Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 motherboard because it supports IDE emulation for SATA drives, a protocol which Rhapsody requires. The operating system installer needs to run from two floppy disks, one for boot and one for drivers. The Gigabyte motherboard doesn’t support a floppy disk drive, so [Omores] used an older Asus P5E motherboard with a floppy drive to install Rhapsody onto an SSD, then transferred the SSD to the Gigabyte board. The installation initially had a kernel panic during installation caused by finding too much memory available. Limiting the physical RAM available to the OS by setting the maxmem value solved this issue.
After this, the graphical installation went fairly smoothly. A serial mouse was essential here, since Rhapsody doesn’t support USB. It detected the video card immediately, and eventually worked with one of [Omores]’s ethernet cards. [Omores] also took a brief look at Rhapsody’s interface. By default, there were no graphical programs for web browsing, decompressing files, or installing programs, so some command line work was necessary to install applications. Of course, the highlight of the video was the installation of a Doom port (RhapsoDoom).
This isn’t the first obscure Apple operating system
we’ve seen
; some of them have even
involved updates
to Apple’s
original releases
. We’ve also seen people build
Apple hardware
.
Thanks to [Stephen Walters] for the tip! | 17 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139514",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2025-06-17T05:15:53",
"content": "“an interesting product of the situation was Rhapsody OS”Not really. Rhapsody is NeXTSTEP with a thin veneer of MacOS style UI. NeXT had already ported their OS to Intel, PA RISC, and SPARC. These were all ... | 1,760,371,513.953273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/history-of-forgotten-moon-bases/ | History Of Forgotten Moon Bases | Al Williams | [
"History",
"Space"
] | [
"apollo",
"moon base",
"nasa"
] | If you were alive when
2001: A Space Odyssey
was in theaters, you might have thought it didn’t really go far enough. After all, in 1958, the US launched its first satellite. The first US astronaut went up in 1961. Eight years later, Armstrong put a boot on the moon’s surface. That was a lot of progress for 11 years. The movie came out in 1968, so what would happen in 33 years? Turns out, not as much as you would have guessed back then. [The History Guy] takes us through a trip of
what could have been if progress had marched on after those first few moon landings
. You can watch the video below.
The story picks up way before NASA. Each of the US military branches felt like it should take the lead on space technology. Sputnik changed everything and spawned both ARPA and NASA. The Air Force, though, had an entire space program in development, and many of the astronauts for that program became NASA astronauts.
The Army also had its own stymied space program. They eventually decided it would be strategic to develop an Army base on the moon for about $6 billion. The base would be a large titanium cylinder buried on the moon that would house 12 people.
The base called for forty launches in a single year before sending astronauts, and then a stunning 150 Saturn V launches to supply building materials for the base. Certainly ambitious and probably overly ambitious, in retrospect.
There were other moon base plans. Most languished with little support or interest. The death knell, though, was the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which forbids military bases on the moon.
While we’d love to visit a moon base, we are fine with it not being militarized. We also want our
jet packs
. | 37 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139524",
"author": "marc",
"timestamp": "2025-06-17T06:08:20",
"content": "“Never ceases to amaze me how far the human imagination outstrips human capability”.It’s a comment I read in relation to the video on YouTube. Imagination is a faculty that is usually not well understood, ev... | 1,760,371,514.025473 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/an-open-source-justification-for-usb-cable-paranoia/ | An Open-Source Justification For USB Cable Paranoia | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"badusb",
"rubber ducky",
"USB cable"
] | Most people know that they shouldn’t plug strange flash drives into their computers, but what about a USB cable? A cable doesn’t immediately register as an active electronic device to most people, but it’s entirely possible to hide a small, malicious microcontroller inside the shell of one of the plugs. [Joel Serna Moreno] and some collaborators have done just that with their
Evil Crow Cable-Wind
.
This cable comes in two variants: one USB-A to USB-C, and one with USB-C to USB-C. A tiny circuit board containing an ESP32-S3 hides inside a USB-C plug on each cable, and can carry out a keystroke injection attack. The cable’s firmware is open-source, and has an impressive set of features: a payload syntax checker, payload autocompletion, OS detection, and the ability to impersonate the USB device of your choice.
The cable provides a control interface over WiFi, and it’s possible to edit and deploy live payloads without physical access to the cable (this is where the syntax checker should be particularly useful). The firmware also provides a remote shell for computers without a network connection; the cable opens a shell on the target computer which routes commands and responses through the cable’s WiFi connection (demonstrated in the video below).
The main advantage of the Evil Crow Cable Wind is its price: only about $25, at which point you can afford to lose a few during deployment. We’ve previously seen a
malicious cable
once before. Of course, these attacks aren’t limited to cables and USB drives; we’ve seen them in
USB-C docks
, in
a gaming mouse
, and the fear of them
in fans
.
Thanks to [rustysun9] for the tip! | 37 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139474",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T23:33:44",
"content": "Making it easier for someone to do something terrible is a bad move.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8139477",
"author": "dro",
"tim... | 1,760,371,513.893144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/cube-teeter-totter-one-motor-many-lessons/ | Cube Teeter Totter: One Motor, Many Lessons | Matt Varian | [
"hardware"
] | [
"control system theory",
"pid",
"reaction wheel"
] | Balancing robots are always fun to see, as they often take forms we’re not used to, such as a box standing on its corner. This project, submitted by [Alexchunlin], showcases a cool
single motor reaction cube
, where he dives into many lessons learned during its creation.
At the outset, [Alexchunlin] thought this would be a quick, fun weekend project, and while he achieved that, it took longer than a weekend in the end. The cube’s frame was a simple 3D print with provisions to mount his MotorGo AXIS motor controller. This motor controller was initially designed for
another project
, but it’s great to see him reuse it in this build.
Once the parts were printed and assembled, the real work began: figuring out the best way to keep the cube balanced on its corner. This process involved several steps. The initial control code was very coarse, simply turning the motor on and off, but this didn’t provide the fine control needed for delicate balancing. The next step was implementing a PID control loop, which yielded much better results and allowed the cube to balance on a static surface for a good amount of time. The big breakthrough came when moving from a single PID loop to two control loops. In this configuration, the PID loop made smaller adjustments, while another control loop focused on the system’s total energy, making the cube much more stable.
By the end of the build, [Alexchunlin] had a cube capable of balancing in his hand, but more importantly, it was a great learning experience in controls. Be sure to visit the project page for more details on this build and check out his video below, which shows the steps he took along the way. If you find this project interesting, be sure to explore some of our other featured
reaction wheel projects
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139459",
"author": "Cad the Mad",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T21:29:35",
"content": "Amazing project!(Assuming this is the year 2025 and I’m not a condescending jerk.)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8139527",
"author": ... | 1,760,371,514.192935 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/kludge-compensates-for-kaput-component-with-contemporary-capacitor/ | Kludge Compensates For Kaput Component With Contemporary Capacitor | Seth Mabbott | [
"PCB Hacks"
] | [
"adapter board",
"analog oscilloscope",
"capacitor failure"
] | It is a well-known reality of rescuing certain older electronic devices that, at some point, you’re likely going to have to replace a busted capacitor. This is the stage [Kevin] is at in the 3rd installment in his saga of
reviving a 50-year-old Military Tektronix oscilloscope
.
[Kevin]
recently discovered
a failed capacitor in the power supply for this vintage analog scope. Having identified and removed the culprit, it was time to find a way to replace the faulty component with a modern equivalent. The original capacitor is out of fashion to the degree that a perfect replacement would be impractical and likely not desirable. This job would call for a bit of adaptation.
Starting with the recently desoldered pads on the power supply board as a template, [Kevin] walks us through his process of transferring his meticulously acquired measurements to KiCAD for the purpose of creating an adapter PCB. Once the original pads are mapped, he then draws in pads matching the leads of the new component, referencing the manufacturer’s schematic of the replacement part.
With everything drawn in place and design rule checks satisfied, it’s a quick turnaround from the PCB fabricator before this Tektronix scope moves one step closer to happy tracing again.
While the end product of this kludge is about as simple of a PCB as you might imagine, [Kevin’s] documentation is a thorough tutorial on the process for retrofitting components via adapter boards, covering some of the subtleties that you might miss if you’ve never been through it before.
We are looking forward to the next installment of Kevin’s undertaking. In the meantime, you can delve into other oscilloscope repair projects,
here
,
here
and
here
, or go deep on why capacitors fail as in the
capacitor plague of the early 2000s
(though these are not the same vintage or necessarily the same reason for failure as in [ Kevin’s ] device). | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139428",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T18:47:46",
"content": "“The original capacitor is out of fashion to the degree that a perfect replacement would be impractical and likely not desirable.”Old building with old breakers. Definitely not made anymore.",
"paren... | 1,760,371,514.245062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/retrotechtacular-arthur-c-clarke-predicts-the-future/ | Retrotechtacular: Arthur C. Clarke Predicts The Future | Al Williams | [
"History",
"Interest"
] | [
"Arthur C. Clarke",
"futurism",
"predictions",
"the future"
] | Predicting the future is a dangerous occupation. Few people can claim as much success as Arthur C. Clarke, the famous science and science fiction author. Thanks to the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Company, we can see what Sir Arthur thought about the future in 1964 and then ten years later in 1974.
Perhaps his best-known prediction was that of communication satellites, but he called quite a few other things, too. Like all prognosticators, he didn’t bat a thousand, and he missed a wrinkle or two, but overall, he has a very impressive track record.
Horizon
In the 1964 BBC show,
Horizon: The Knowledge Explosion
, Clarke himself talked about how hard it is to predict the future. He then goes on to describe ultra-modern cities prior to the year 2000. However, he thought that after the year 2000, we won’t care about cities. We’ll communicate with each other without regard to location. Shades of the Internet and cell phone!
He clearly saw the work-from-home revolution. However, he also thought that we’d enslave other animals, which–mercifully–didn’t come to pass. His thoughts on computers were much more on point, although we still don’t quite have what he thought we would.
Direct information dumps to your brain are probably not happening anytime soon. Suspended animation isn’t very popular, either. Of course, all of this could still happen, and it would be totally spooky if he’d been 100% right.
To wrap up, he talks about a replicator when K. Eric Drexler was not even ten years old. We won’t say he called out the 3D printer, exactly, but he was on the track.
The Home Computer
Fast forward to 1974. A science reporter brought his son with him to an old-school mainframe room and pointed out to Clarke that in the year 2001, the boy would be an adult. Clarke predicted that the boy would have a computer in his house that would connect to other computers to get all the information he needed.
Once again, Clarke was really interested in being able to work from anywhere in the world. Of course, he moved to Sri Lanka and still managed to work, so maybe he just thought we should all enjoy the same privilege.
Two Years Later
In 1976, Clarke spoke with an AT&T interviewer about the future. He clearly saw the Internet for news and communications with — you guessed it — working from home.
He also brought up the smart watch, another invention to add to his yes column. About the only thing in that interview that we haven’t had luck with yet is contact with extraterrestrials.
Our Guess
We try not to make too many predictions. But we are going to guess that at least some of Clarke’s predictions are yet to come. There is one thing we are pretty sure of, though. When anyone predicts the future — even Clarke — they rarely see the gritty details. Sure, he saw the cell phone, but not the cell phone plan. Or malware. Or a host of other modern problems that would perplex anyone back in the 1960s.
Clarke has
a better track record than most
. We love looking at what people thought we’d be doing
here in the future
. | 24 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139410",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T17:49:32",
"content": "“Of course, all of this could still happen, and it would be totally spooky if he’d been 100% right.”invents time machine",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,371,513.816979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/expanding-racks-in-the-spirit-of-the-hoberman-sphere/ | Expanding Racks In The Spirit Of The Hoberman Sphere | John Elliot V | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"expanding racks",
"Hoberman Sphere"
] | If you’re a mechanical engineering wonk, you might appreciate this latest video from [Henry Segerman] wherein he demonstrates his various
expanding racks
.
[Henry] explains how the basic “double-rack” unit can be combined to make more complex structures. These structures are similar in spirit to the
Hoberman sphere
, which is a compact structure that can be expanded to fill a large space.
The double-rack units get a lot more interesting when you combine two or more of them. They each have rails that accommodate additional double-racks, holding the double-racks together. Because of how the gears from each double-rack are connected to the teeth of the others, expanding two double-racks causes all connected units to also expand.
Through the rest of the video, [Henry] shows you the marvelous myriad ways the basic structures can be combined to make remarkable expanding racks. He also explains some of the missteps and gotchas that his latest designs avoid based on his experience.
If you’re interested in such things, you might also like to check out
Lathe Gears Make A Clock
or
Gear Up: A 15-Minute Intro On Involute Gears
.
Do you have your own mechanical engineering hacks? Let us know
on the tips line
! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139431",
"author": "Thinkerer",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T19:01:18",
"content": "Neat exposition – these are commonly used on expandable tables and the like.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8139442",
"author": "paulvdh",
... | 1,760,371,513.743942 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/big-chemistry-seawater-desalination/ | Big Chemistry: Seawater Desalination | Dan Maloney | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Original Art"
] | [
"desalination",
"isobaric",
"membrane",
"polyamide",
"pressure",
"reverse osmosis",
"RO",
"sea water",
"water"
] | For a world covered in oceans, getting a drink of water on Planet Earth can be surprisingly tricky. Fresh water is hard to come by even on our water world, so much so that most sources are better measured in parts per million than percentages; add together every freshwater lake, river, and stream in the world, and you’d be looking at a mere 0.0066% of all the water on Earth.
Of course, what that really says is that our endowment of saltwater is truly staggering. We have over 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of the stuff, most of it easily accessible to the billion or so people who live within 10 kilometers of a coastline. Untreated, though, saltwater isn’t of much direct use to humans, since we, our domestic animals, and pretty much all our crops thirst only for water a hundred times less saline than seawater.
While nature solved the problem of desalination a long time ago, the natural water cycle turns seawater into freshwater at too slow a pace or in the wrong locations for our needs. While there are simple methods for getting the salt out of seawater, such as distillation, processing seawater on a scale that can provide even a medium-sized city with a steady source of potable water is definitely a job for Big Chemistry.
Biology Backwards
Understanding an industrial chemistry process often starts with a look at the feedstock, so what exactly is seawater? It seems pretty obvious, but seawater is actually a fairly complex solution that varies widely in composition. Seawater averages about 3.5% salinity, which means there are 35 grams of dissolved salts in every liter. The primary salt is sodium chloride, with potassium, magnesium, and calcium salts each making a tiny contribution to the overall salinity. But for purposes of acting as a feedstock for desalination, seawater can be considered a simple sodium chloride solution where sodium anions and chloride cations are almost completely dissociated. The goal of desalination is to remove those ions, leaving nothing but water behind.
While thermal desalination methods, such as distillation, are possible, they tend not to scale well to industrial levels. Thermal methods have their place, though, especially for shipboard potable water production and in cases where fuel is abundant or solar energy can be employed to heat the seawater directly. However, in most cases, industrial desalination is typically accomplished through reverse osmosis RO, which is the focus of this discussion.
In biological systems, osmosis is the process by which cells maintain equilibrium in terms of concentration of solutes relative to the environment. The classic example is red blood cells, which if placed in distilled water will quickly burst. That’s because water from the environment, which has a low concentration of solutes, rushes across the semi-permeable cell membrane in an attempt to dilute the solutes inside the cell. All that water rushing into the cell swells it until the membrane can’t take the pressure, resulting in hemolysis. Conversely, a blood cell dropped into a concentrated salt solution will shrink and wrinkle, or crenellate, as the water inside rushes out to dilute the outside environment.
Water rushes in, water rushes out. Either way, osmosis is bad news for red blood cells. Reversing the natural osmotic flow of a solution like seawater is the key to desalination by reverse osmosis. Source:
Emekadecatalyst
, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reverse osmosis is the opposite process. Rather than water naturally following a concentration gradient to equilibrium, reverse osmosis applies energy in the form of pressure to force the water molecules in a saline solution through a semipermeable membrane, leaving behind as many of the salts as possible. What exactly happens at the membrane to sort out the salt from the water is really the story, and as it turns out, we’re still not completely clear how reverse osmosis works, even though we’ve been using it to process seawater since the 1950s.
Battling Models
Up until the early 2020s, the predominant model for how reverse osmosis (RO) worked was called the “solution-diffusion” model. The SD model treated RO membranes as effectively solid barriers through which water molecules could only pass by first diffusing into the membrane from the side with the higher solute concentration. Once inside the membrane, water molecules would continue through to the other side, the permeate side, driven by a concentration gradient within the membrane. This model had several problems, but the math worked well enough to allow the construction of large-scale seawater RO plants.
The new model
is called the “solution-friction” model, and it better describes what’s going on inside the membrane. Rather than seeing the membrane as a solid barrier, the SF model considers the concentrate and permeate surfaces of the membrane to communicate through a series of interconnected pores. Water is driven across the membrane not by concentration but by a pressure gradient, which drives clusters of water molecules through the pores. The friction of these clusters against the walls of the pores results in a linear pressure drop across the membrane, an effect that can be measured in the lab and for which the older SD model has no explanation.
As for the solutes in a saline solution, the SF model accounts for their exclusion from the permeate by a combination of steric hindrance (the solutes just can’t fit through the pores), the Donnan effect (which says that ions with the opposite charge of the membrane will get stuck inside it), and dielectric exclusion (the membrane presents an energy barrier that makes it hard for ions to enter it). The net result of these effects is that ions tend to get left on one side of the membrane, while water molecules can squeeze through more easily to the permeate side.
Turning these models into a practical industrial process takes a great deal of engineering. A seawater reverse osmosis or SWRO, plant obviously needs to be located close to the shore, but also needs to be close to supporting infrastructure such as a municipal water system to accept the finished product. SWRO plants also use a lot of energy, so ready access to the electrical grid is a must, as is access to shipping for the chemicals needed for pre- and post-treatment.
Pores and Pressure
Seawater processing starts with water intake. Some SWRO plants use open intakes located some distance out from the shoreline, well below the lowest possible tides and far from any potential source of contamination or damage, such a ship anchorages. Open intakes generally have grates over them to exclude large marine life and debris from entering the system. Other SWRO plants use beach well intakes, with shafts dug into the beach that extend below the water table. Seawater filters through the sand and fills the well; from there, the water is pumped into the plant. Beach wells have the advantage of using the beach sand as a natural filter for particulates and smaller sea critters, but do tend to have a lower capacity than open intakes.
Aside from the salts, seawater has plenty of other unwanted bits, all of which need to come out prior to reverse osmosis. Trash racks remove any shells, sea life, or litter that manage to get through the intakes, and sand bed filters are often used to remove smaller particulates. Ultrafiltration can be used to further clarify the seawater, and chemicals such as mild acids or bases are often used to dissolve inorganic scale and biofilms. Surfactants are often added to the feedstock, too, to break up heavy organic materials.
By the time pretreatment is complete, the seawater is remarkably free from suspended particulates and silt. Pretreatment aims to reduce the turbidity of the feedstock to less than 0.5 NTUs, or nephelometric turbidity units. For context, the US Environmental Protection Agency standard for drinking water is 0.3 NTUs for 95% of the samples taken in a month. So the pretreated seawater is almost as clear as drinking water before it goes to reverse osmosis.
SWRO cartridges have membranes wound into spirals and housed in pressure vessels. Seawater under high pressure enters the membrane spiral; water molecules migrate across the membrane to a center permeate tube, leaving a reject brine that’s about twice as saline as the feedstock. Source:
DuPont Water Solutions
.
The heart of reverse osmosis is the membrane, and a lot of engineering goes into it. Modern RO membranes are triple-layer thin-film composites that start with a non-woven polyester support, a felt-like material that provides the mechanical strength to withstand the extreme pressures of reverse osmosis. Next comes a porous support layer, a 50 μm-thick layer of polysulfone cast directly onto the backing layer. This layer adds to the physical strength of the backing and provides a strong yet porous foundation for the active layer, a cross-linked polyamide layer about 100 to 200 nm thick. This layer is formed by interfacial polymerization, where a thin layer of liquid monomer and initiators is poured onto the polysulfone to polymerize in place.
An RO rack in a modern SWRO desalination plant. Each of the white tubes is a pressure vessel containing seven or eight RO membrane cartridges. The vessels are plumbed in parallel to increase flow through the system. Credit: Elvis Santana, via Adobe Stock.
Modern membranes can flow about 35 liters per square meter every hour, which means an SWRO plant needs to cram a lot of surface area into a little space. This is accomplished by rolling the membrane up into a spiral and inserting it into a fiberglass pressure vessel, which holds seven or eight cartridges. Seawater pumped into the vessel soaks into the backing layer to the active layer, where only the water molecules pass through and into a collection pipe at the center of the roll. The desalinated water, or permeate, exits the cartridge through the center pipe while rejected brine exits at the other end of the pressure vessel.
The pressure needed for SWRO is enormous. The natural osmotic pressure of seawater is about 27 bar (27,000 kPa), which is the pressure needed to halt the natural flow of water across a semipermeable membrane. SWRO systems must pressurize the water to at least that much plus a net driving pressure (NPD) to overcome mechanical resistance to flow through the membrane, which amounts to an additional 30 to 40 bar.
Energy Recovery
To achieve these tremendous pressures, SWRO plants use multistage centrifugal pumps driven by large, powerful electric motors, often 300 horsepower or more for large systems. The electricity needed to run those motors accounts for 60 to 80 percent of the energy costs of the typical SWRO plant, so a lot of effort is put into recovering that energy, most of which is still locked up in the high-pressure rejected brine as hydraulic energy. This energy used to be extracted by Pelton-style turbines connected to the shaft of the main pressure pump; the high-pressure brine would spin the pump shaft and reduce the mechanical load on the pump, which would reduce the electrical load. Later, the brine’s energy would be recovered by a separate turbo pump, which would boost the pressure of the feed water before it entered the main pump.
While both of these methods were capable of recovering a large percentage of the input energy, they were mechanically complex. Modern SWRO plants have mostly moved to isobaric energy recovery devices, which are mechanically simpler and require much less maintenance. Isobaric ERDs have a single moving part, a cylindrical ceramic rotor. The rotor has a series of axial holes, a little like the cylinder of an old six-shooter revolver. The rotor is inside a cylindrical housing with endcaps on each end, each with an inlet and an outlet fitting. High-pressure reject brine enters the ERD on one side while low-pressure seawater enters on the other side. The slugs of water fill the same bore in the rotor and equalize at the same pressure without much mixing thanks to the different densities of the fluids. The rotor rotates thanks to the momentum carried by the incoming water streams and inlet fittings that are slightly angled relative to the axis of the bore. When the rotor lines up with the outlet fittings in each end cap, the feed water and the brine both exit the rotor, with the feed water at a higher pressure thanks to the energy of the reject brine.
For something with only one moving part, isobaric ERDs are remarkably effective. They can extract about 98% of the energy in the reject brine, pressuring the feed water about 60% of the total needed. An SWRO plant with ERDs typically uses 5 to 6 kWh to produce a cubic meter of desalinated water; ERDs can slash that to just 2 to 3 kWh.
Isobaric energy recovery devices can recover half of the electricity used by the typical SWRO plant by using the pressure of the reject brine to pressurize the feed water. Source:
Flowserve
.
Finishing Up
Once the rejected brine’s energy has been recovered, it needs to be disposed of properly. This is generally done by pumping it back out into the ocean through a pipe buried in the seafloor. The outlet is located a considerable distance from the inlet and away from any ecologically sensitive areas. The brine outlet is also generally fitted with a venturi induction head, which entrains seawater from around the outlet to partially dilute the brine.
As for the permeate that comes off the RO racks, while it is almost completely desalinated and very clean, it’s still not suitable for distribution into the drinking water system. Water this clean is highly corrosive to plumbing fixtures and has an unpleasantly flat taste. To correct this, RO water is post-processed by passing it over beds of limestone chips. The RO water tends to be slightly acidic thanks to dissolved CO
2
, so it partially dissolves the calcium carbonate in the limestone. This raises the pH closer to neutral and adds calcium ions to the water, which increases its hardness a bit. The water also gets a final disinfection with chlorine before being released to the distribution network. | 40 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139339",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T14:32:01",
"content": "I imagine renewables changes the power equation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8139394",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2025-06-... | 1,760,371,514.107251 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/this-thermochromic-clock-is-a-ray-of-sunshine/ | This Thermochromic Clock Is A Ray Of Sunshine | Tyler August | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"analog clock",
"clock",
"thermochromic"
] | It’s never a bad time to look at a clock, and one could certainly do worse than this delightful
Paper Sunshine Clock
by [anneosaur]. The sun-ray display is an interesting take on the analog clock, and its method of operation is not one we see every day, either.
Reading the clock is straightforward: there are twelve rays divided into two segments. Once you figure out that this artful object is a clock, it’s easy enough to guess that the rays give the hours, and half-rays are half-hours. In the photo above, it’s sometime between nine o’clock and nine thirty. Our Swiss readers might not be terribly impressed, but a “fuzzy” clock like this is quite good enough much of the time for many people.
Even the flex PCB holding the resistors looks like a work of art.
The title gives away its method of operation: it’s thermochromic paint! The paint is printed onto a piece of Japanese awagami paper, which is pressed against a flexible PCB holding an array of resistors. Large copper pads act as heat spreaders for the resistors. For timekeeping and control, an Atmega328PB is paired with a DS3231MZ RTC, with a coin cell for backup power when the unit is unplugged. (When plugged in, the unit uses
USB-C, as all things should
.) That’s probably overkill for a +/-30 minute display, but we’re not complaining.
The Atmega328PB does not have quite enough outputs to drive all those resistors, so a multiplexing circuit is used to let the 10 available GIPO control current to 24 rays. Everything is fused for safety, and [anneosaur] even includes a temperature sensor on the control board. The resistors are driven by a temperature-compensated PWM signal to keep them from overheating or warming up too slowly, regardless of room temperature. The attention to detail here is as impressive as the aesthetics.
[annenosaur] has even thought of those poor people for whom such a fuzzy clock would never do (be they Swiss or otherwise) — the Paper Sunshine Clock has a lovely “sparkle mode” that turns the rays on and off at random, turning the clock into an art piece. A demo video of that is below. If you find this clock to be a ray of sunshine, everything you need to reproduce it is on GitHub under an MIT or CC4.0 license.
This is not the first thermochromic clock we’ve featured, though
the last one was numeric
. If you must have minute accuracy in a thermochromic analog clock,
we’ve got you covered there, too
.
Special thanks to [anneosaur] for submitting the hack. If you’ve seen (or made) a neat clock,
let us know
! You won’t catch us at a bad time; it’s always clock time at Hackaday. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139289",
"author": "alialiali",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T11:17:21",
"content": "I wonder if you could shape the heat spreaders a bit like they did on the old Duracell energy check strips.With the goal that the light up effect spread evenly from bottom to top?",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,371,514.152565 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/16/dummy-plug-gets-smarter-with-raspberry-pi/ | Dummy Plug Gets Smarter With Raspberry Pi | Al Williams | [
"Video Hacks"
] | [
"dummy plug",
"edid",
"hdmi"
] | [Doug Brown] had a problem. He uses a dummy HDMI plug to fool a computer into thinking it has a monitor for when you want to run the computer headless. The dummy plug is a cheap device that fools the computer into thinking it has a monitor and, as such, has to send the Extended Display ID (EDID) to the computer. However, that means the plug pretends to be some kind of monitor. But what if you want it
to pretend to be a different monitor
?
The EDID is sent via I2C and, as you might expect, you can use the bus to reprogram the EEPROM on the dummy plug. [Doug] points out that you can easily get into trouble if you do this with, for example, a real monitor or if you pick the wrong I2C bus. So be careful.
In [Doug’s] case, he wanted to drop a 4K dummy plug to 1080p, but you could probably just as easily go the other way. After all, the plug itself couldn’t care less what kind of video you send it. It drops it all anyway.
Want to know
more about HDMI
? We can help out with that. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139245",
"author": "Andrzej",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T08:12:19",
"content": "Note that this is not specific to the RPi. Various Linux GPU drivers expose the HDMI I2C interface as /dev/i2c-X. A comment on the linked blog post also mentions similar functionality on Windows.",
"p... | 1,760,371,514.490388 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/making-corrugated-cardboard-stronger-and-waterproof/ | Making Corrugated Cardboard Stronger And Waterproof | Maya Posch | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"biodegradable",
"cardboard"
] | As useful as corrugated cardboard is, we generally don’t consider it to be a very sturdy material. The moment it’s exposed to moisture, it begins to fall apart, and it’s easily damaged even when kept dry. That said, there are ways to make corrugated cardboard a
lot more durable, as demonstrated by the [NightHawkInLight]
. Gluing multiple panels together so that the corrugation alternates by 90 degrees every other panel makes them more sturdy, with wheat paste (1:5 mixture of flour and water) recommended as adhesive.
Other tricks are folding over edges help to protect against damage, and integrating wood supports. Normal woodworking tools like saws can cut these glued-together panels. Adding the wheat paste to external surfaces can also protect against damage. By applying kindergarten papier-mâché skills, a custom outside layer can be made that can be sanded and painted for making furniture, etc.
Beyond these and other tips, there remains the issue of protection against water intrusion. The (biodegradable) solution here is shellac. Unfortunately, pure (canned) shellac isn’t good enough for long-term exposure to moisture, so the recipe recommended here is: 0.5 L of (~91%) IPA, 125 g of shellac flakes, and 15 g of beeswax. After heating and stirring, a paste wax is created that can be brushed on the cardboard to provide water resistance, without turning said cardboard into chemical waste.
As an alternative waterproof coating (but not biodegradable) there’s another recipe: 100 g hot glue sticks, 25 g paraffine wax or beeswax, and 20 mL of mineral oil (which lowers the melting temperature).
Although these methods, including the also discussed UV protection coatings – require some time and materials investment. Since cardboard is effectively free, there’s something to be said for this approach, if only as a fun chemistry or physics project. For [NightHawkInLight] it’s being used as the roof on his DIY camper, for which it seems like a nice lightweight, waterproof option.
Thanks to [James Newton] for the tip. | 45 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139225",
"author": "Jerry Whiting",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T05:25:30",
"content": "Mod Podge OutdoorAs always, YMMV",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8139227",
"author": "C M",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T05:37:20",
"co... | 1,760,371,514.436753 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/bento-vr-xr-from-a-keyboard/ | Bento – VR/XR From A Keyboard | Ian Bos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed keyboard",
"Apple keyboard",
"minimalism",
"steam deck",
"XR"
] | XR may not have crashed into our lives as much as some tech billionaires have wished, but that doesn’t stop the appeal of a full display that takes up no physical space. At that point, why not get rid of the computer that takes up living space as well? That is what [Michael] tries to do with
Bento
, the form factor of an Apple Magic keyboard and the power of a Steam Deck.
Steam Deck modding
is a great project to get started on but we don’t see too many VR or XR uses of the mobile pc. While the VR gaming potential is limited by lackluster power, general productivity is a perfect use case. All that productivity power can be found in a 3D printed case with a battery, allowing for some mobile use. A magic keyboard sits on top of the case, so the entire package takes up less space than the average mechanical keyboard. However, we could always support the addition of a mechanical key version. There’s plenty of spare room in this current design, just look at the storage area!
[Michael] believes that this use of XR fulfills a more true course for “spatial computing” than Apple’s Vision Pro. Of course, this design is not restricted to only XR use; the Steam Deck is capable of running on any normal monitor you would like. Regardless, we need to see the model files to verify for ourselves! [Michael] claims these resources will be available soon, and trust us that we will be waiting!
Minimalist builds are far from unheard of here on Hackaday. After all, less room taken up by random cables or clutter means more room for projects. This is a lesson clearly followed by similar projects such as this completely
wireless-powered desktop
! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139214",
"author": "KDawg",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T03:34:59",
"content": "Also this“While the VR gaming potential is limited by lackluster power,”what are you talking about the 5 year old PS5 has a “disk drive” that is almost as fast as DDR3 ram 10 years ago",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,371,514.539022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/hackaday-links-june-15-2025/ | Hackaday Links: June 15, 2025 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"anthropomorphization",
"autonomous",
"commercialization",
"death-cleaning",
"dexterity",
"figure",
"hackaday links",
"helix",
"hoarding",
"insurance",
"logistics",
"market",
"robotaxi",
"self-driving",
"tesla",
"Waymo"
] | Are robotaxis poised to be the Next Big Thing™ in North America? It seems so, at least according to Goldman Sachs, which
issued a report this week
stating that robotaxis have officially entered the commercialization phase of the hype cycle. That assessment appears to be based on an analysis of the total ride-sharing market, which encompasses services that are currently almost 100% reliant on meat-based drivers, such as Lyft and Uber, and is valued at $58 billion. Autonomous ride-hailing services like Waymo, which has a fleet of 1,500 robotaxis operating in several cities across the US, are included in that market but account for less than 1% of the total right now. But, Goldman projects that the market will burgeon to over $336 billion in the next five years, driven in large part by “hyperscaling” of autonomous vehicles.
We suspect
the upcoming launch of Tesla’s robotaxis
in Austin, Texas, accounts for some of this enthusiasm for the near-term, but we have our doubts that a market based on such new and complex technologies can scale that quickly. A little back-of-the-envelope math suggests that the robotaxi fleet will need to grow to about 9,000 cars in the next five years, assuming the same proportion of autonomous cars in the total ride-sharing fleet as exists today.
A look inside the Waymo robotaxi plant
outside of Phoenix reveals that it can currently only convert “several” Jaguar electric SUVs per day, meaning they’ve got a lot of work to do to meet the needed numbers. Other manufacturers will no doubt pitch in, especially Tesla, and factory automation always seems to pull off miracles under difficult circumstances, but it still seems like a stretch to think there’ll be that many robotaxis on the road in only five years. Also,
it currently costs more to hail a robotaxi
than an Uber or Lyft, and we just don’t see why anyone would prefer to call a robotaxi, unless it’s for the novelty of the experience.
On the other hand, if the autonomous ride-sharing market does experience explosive growth, there could be knock-on benefits even for Luddite naysayers such as we.
A report
, again from Goldman Sachs — hey, they probably have a lot of skin in the game — predicts that auto insurance rates could fall by 50% as more autonomous cars hit the streets. This is based on markedly lower liability for self-driving cars, which have 92% fewer bodily injury claims and 88% lower property damage claims than human-driven cars. Granted, those numbers have to be based on a very limited population, and we guarantee that self-drivers will find new and interesting ways to screw up on the road. But if our insurance rates fall even a little because of self-driving cars, we’ll take it as a win.
Speaking of robotics, if you want to see just how far we’ve come in terms of robot dexterity, look no further than
the package-sorting abilities of Figure’s Helix robot
. The video in the article is an hour long, but you don’t need to watch more than a few minutes to be thoroughly impressed. The robot is standing at a sorting table with an infeed conveyor loaded with just about the worst parcels possible, a mix of soft, floppy, poly-bagged packages, flat envelopes, and traditional boxes. The robot was tasked with placing the parcels on an outfeed conveyor, barcode-side down, and with proper separation between packages. It also treats the soft poly-bag parcels to a bit of extra attention, pressing them down a bit to flatten them before flicking them onto the belt. Actually, it’s that flicking action that seems the most human, since it’s accompanied by a head-swivel to the infeed belt to select its next package. Assuming this is legit autonomous and not covertly teleoperated, which we have no reason to believe, the manual dexterity on display here is next-level; we’re especially charmed by the carefree little package flip about a minute in. The way it handles mistakenly grabbing two packages at once is pretty amazing, too.
And finally, our friend Leo Fernekes dropped
a new video
that’ll hit close to home for a lot of you out there. Leo is a bit of a techno-hoarder, you see, and with the need to make some room at home and maintain his domestic tranquility, he had to tackle the difficult process of getting rid of old projects, some of which date back 40 or more years. Aside from the fun look through his back-catalog of projects, the video is also an examination of the emotional attachments we hackers tend to develop to our projects. We touched on that a bit in
our article on tech anthropomorphization
, but we see how going through these projects is not only a snapshot of the state of the technology available at the time, but also a slice of life. Each of the projects is not just a collection of parts, they’re collections of memories of where Leo was in life at the time. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of things that are so strongly symbolic of a time that’s never coming back, and we applaud Leo for having the strength to pitch that stuff. Although seeing a clock filled with 80s TTL chips and a vintage 8085 microprocessor go into the bin was a little tough to watch. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139209",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T03:12:00",
"content": "I’ve said for years that insurers are going to be the true arbiter of the effectiveness of self-driving technology. But I’m also extremely skeptical about it lowering insurance rates – more likely that the... | 1,760,371,514.671623 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/electromechanical-atari-is-a-steampunk-meccano-masterpiece/ | Electromechanical Atari Is A Steampunk Meccano Masterpiece | Tyler August | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"electromechanical",
"erector",
"lunar lander",
"meccano"
] | If William Gibson and Bruce Sterling had written an arcade scene into “The Difference Engine”, it probably would have looked a lot like [Pete Wood]’s
Meccano Martian Mission
, as illustrated in the video below by the [London Meccano Club]. Meccano Martian Mission is an homage to Atari’s 1978 Lunar Lander video game, but entirely electromechanical and made of– you guessed it– Meccano.
You might think Meccano is “too modern” to count as steampunk, but it squeaks just into the Victorian era. The first sets hit stores in 1901, the last year of Queen Victoria’s long reign. Since then, Meccano has developed a large following that has produced some
truly impressive constructions
, and this arcade game can stand
amongst the best of them
.
The game has all the features of the original: a swiveling spaceship, two-axis speed control, and even a little yellow flame that pops out when you are applying thrust. There’s a timer and a fuel gauge, and just like the original, there are easier and harder landing pads that offer score multipliers. While the score must be totted up manually, the game
will
detect a crash and flag it with a pop-down banner. It really has to be seen to be believed. It’s all done with cams and differentials hitting potentiometers and microswitches — not an Arduino in sight; [Pete] does a good job explaining it in the second half of the embedded video, starting about 10 minutes in.
The brains of the operation: cams and gears, and ingenuity.
Sure, might not be new or groundbreaking — these are old, old techniques — but not many people know them well enough to use them anymore, especially not with this degree of sophistication. To see these electromechanical techniques applied anachronistically to replicate one of the great pioneers of the arcade world tickles our fancy. It’s no wonder that perfecting this mechanical marvel has taken [Pete Wood] a decade.
The project reminds us of the
Meccano Pinball Machine
featured here years ago, but that somehow felt like a more natural fit for the apparently undead building kits. We
lamented Meccano’s demise in 2023,
but the brand is apparently being revived this year. Hopefully, that means there can be more young members for the [London Meccano Club] and groups like them, to keep the perforated-steel flame alive through another six reigns.
This hack is the bee’s knees, and we’re very thankful to [Tim Surtell] for the tip. Remember, the
tip line is always open
!. | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139119",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T20:11:49",
"content": "Cool, really really cool!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8139417",
"author": "Niklas",
"timestamp": "2025-06-16T18:24:32",
"co... | 1,760,371,514.946549 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/upgrade-your-filament-dryer-with-a-swiveling-filament-port/ | Upgrade Your Filament Dryer With A Swiveling Filament Port | Maya Posch | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"3d printing filament",
"filament dryer"
] | Many FDM filament dryers have a port through which you can guide the filament. This handy feature allows you to print from the spool without removing it from the dryer, saving time and limiting exposure to (moist) air. Unfortunately, these exit ports aren’t always thought out very well, mostly in terms of the angle with the spool as it unrolls. The resulting highly oblique orientation means a lot of friction of the filament on the side of the port. This issue is addressed in a
recent [Teaching Tech] video
, with a simple, low-cost solution.
The basic idea is to have a swiveling port, inspired by a spherical bearing. The design shown in the video uses a PC4-M6 pneumatic connector to pass the PTFE tube. Connector choice is critical here, as many PC4-M6 pneumatic connectors won’t accommodate the PTFE. As a fallback, you can drill out a connector to enable this.
Once the connector is sorted, you need a 13 mm (~0.5″) step drill bit to widen the opening in the filament dryer. This ready-to-print version has 10 degrees of freedom in any direction, but you can adapt it to fit your needs. With this mod installed, the angle with which the filament enters the port should remain as close to zero as possible, preventing both friction and damage to the port and filament. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139069",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T17:44:05",
"content": "The angle remains unchanged by the port. I was thoroughly confused by “the angle it enters the port is 0° “. I guess I was imagining this as relative to the original port angle.Problem seems to be that th... | 1,760,371,514.802384 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/smart-lamp-keeps-students-on-track-with-image-recognition/ | Smart Lamp Keeps Students On Track With Image Recognition | Tyler August | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"object recognition",
"Seeed Grove AI Vision",
"ws2182b"
] | It’s a common enough problem: you’re hitting the books, your phone dings with a notification, and suddenly it’s three hours later. While you’ve done lots of scrolling, you didn’t do any studying. If only there were a quick, easy project that would keep an eye on you and provide a subtle nudge to get you off the phone. [Makestreme] has that project, an
AI study lamp
that shifts from warm white to an angry red to remind students to get back to work. See it in action in the demo video below.
The project is pretty simple: the components are an ESP-32c3, a WS2812b addressable RGB LED strip, and a Grove Vision AI module. The Grove Vision AI module is, well, an AI vision module. It’s an easy way to get image recognition into your projects, especially considering the wealth of pre-trained models available from Seeed’s
Sensecraft AI
. As it turns out, Senscraft had a pre-trained model to identify cell phones that worked with the Grove Vision module, so putting things together probably didn’t take [Makestreme] away from studying for too long. If you want to replicate the project, it will take you even less time, since they were helpful enough to share their code on Hackaday.io.
The camera is placed above [Makestreme]’s desk to watch for phone use, and the lamp itself was made of things they had lying around. You could, of course,
3D Print one
, or
make it out of plywood
if you were looking for a different aesthetic. If you don’t need help studying, you could use the Grove Vision module to
make a creepy clock
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8139016",
"author": "Dumptruck",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T14:30:26",
"content": "What if your lamp was the police.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8139059",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T16:48:09",
"con... | 1,760,371,514.721426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/an-rc-car-driven-with-old-3d-printer-motors/ | An RC Car Driven With Old 3D Printer Motors | Ian Bos | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"radio controlled car",
"upcycling"
] | With the newer generation of quick and reliable 3D printers, we find ourselves with the old collecting dust and cobwebs. You might pull it out for an emergency print, that is if it still works… In the scenario of an eternally resting printer (or ones not worth reviving), trying to give new life to the functional parts is a great idea. This is exactly what [MarkMakies] did with a simple
RC rover design
from an old Makerbot Replicator clone.
Using a stepper motor to directly drive each wheel, this rover proves its ability to handle a variety of terrain types. Stepper motors are far from the most common way to drive an RC vehicle, but they can certainly give enough power. Controlling these motors is done from a custom protoboard, allowing the use of RC control. Securing all these parts together only requires a couple of 3D printed parts and the rods used to print them. Throw in a drill battery for power, and you can take it nearly anywhere!
With the vehicle together [MarkMakies] tested to a rocketing 0.6 m/s fully loaded 4WD. Of course, less weight proves more exciting. While [Mark] recognizes some inherent issues with a stepper-driven all-terrain vehicle, we could see some clever uses for the drive system.
Broken down 3D printers are a dime a dozen, so you should try making something similar by checking out
[Mark]’s design files
! 3D printers are machines of fine-controlled movement so it’s no surprise to find reuse in these projects is fairly common. Just like this nifty
DIY camera slider
! | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138989",
"author": "B7ur",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T12:58:35",
"content": "How to change old 3d printer to laser cute",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8139234",
"author": "Andrea Campanella",
"timestamp": "2025... | 1,760,371,514.764745 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/15/adaptive-keyboards-writing-technologies-for-one-handed-users/ | Adaptive Keyboards & Writing Technologies For One-Handed Users | Maya Posch | [
"computer hacks",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"accessibility",
"keyboard layouts",
"physical disability"
] | After having been involved in an accident, [Kurt Kohlstedt] suffered peripheral neuropathy due to severe damage to his right brachial plexus — the network of nerves that ultimately control the shoulder, arm, and hand. This resulted in numbness and paralysis in his right shoulder and arm, with the prognosis being a partial recovery at best. As a writer, this meant facing the most visceral fear possible of writing long-form content no longer being possible. While searching for solutions, [Kurt] looked at various options, including speech-to-text (STT), before focusing on
single-handed keyboard options
.
The reason why STT didn’t really work was simple: beyond simple emails and short messages, the voice-driven process just becomes too involved and tedious with editing, rearranging, and deleting of text fragments. [Kurt] couldn’t see himself doing a single-pass narration of an article text or dealing with hours of dictating cursor movements.
One of the first single-hand typing methods he tried is as simple as it’s brilliant: by moving the functional hand a few keys over (e.g. left hand’s index finger on J instead of F), you can access all keys with a single hand. This causes a lot more stress on the good hand, though. Thus, for a long-term solution, something else would be needed.
Thanks to his state loan program (MNStar), [Kurt] was able to try out Maltron’s ‘Key Bowl’, the TIPY ‘Big Fan’, and the Matias Half-QWERTY keyboard, which describes pretty much what they look like. Of these, the Maltron was functional but very clunky, the TIPY required learning a whole new keyboard layout, something which [Kurt] struggled with. Despite its mere 22 keys, the Matias half-QWERTY offered the most straightforward transition from using a full keyboard.
It was the Matias keyboard that worked the best for [Kurt], as it allowed him to use both his left hand normally, along with adapting the muscle memory of his right hand to the left one. Although [Kurt] didn’t select the Matias in the end, it did inspire him to choose the fourth option: using a custom keymap on his full-sized QWERTY keyboard. In the remaining two parts in this series, Kurt] takes us through the design of this keymap along with how others can
set it up
and use it.
Our own
[Bil Herd] found himself on a similar quest
after losing a finger to a ladder accident.
Thanks to [J. Peterson] for the tip. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138973",
"author": "El Gru",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T11:30:26",
"content": "As someone who has worked a lot with single-handed keyboard applications (photo editing) and has adjusted many hotkey maps to make them work I can very much relate to this project. Apps like Photoshop or d... | 1,760,371,514.993503 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/the-pcb-router-you-wish-you-had-made/ | The PCB Router You Wish You Had Made | Jenny List | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"cnc",
"pcb router"
] | The advent of cheap and accessible one-off PCB production has been one of the pivotal moments for electronic experimenters during the last couple of decades. Perhaps a few still etch their own boards, but many hobbiest were happy to put away their ferric chloride. There’s another way to make PCBs, though, which is to mill them. [Tom Nixon]
has made a small CNC mill for that purpose
, and it’s rather beautiful.
In operation it’s a conventional XYZ mechanism, with a belt drive for the X and Y and a lead screw for the Z axis. The frame is made from aluminium extrusion, and the incidental parts such as the belt tensioners are 3D printed. The write-up is very comprehensive, and takes the reader through all the stages of construction. The brains of the outfit is a Creality 3D printer controller, but he acknowledges that it’s not the best for the job.
It’s certainly not the first PCB router we’ve seen, but it may be one of the nicer ones. If you make a PCB this way, you might like to
give it professional-looking solder mask with a laser
. | 41 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138922",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T06:16:07",
"content": "Why even bother. You can get PCB’s nowadays for less than the electricity it will take to mil your own.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138923",
... | 1,760,371,514.882481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/meowsic-keyboard-midi-adapter-aims-for-purrfection/ | Meowsic Keyboard MIDI Adapter Aims For Purrfection | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"electronic music",
"midi",
"Midi adapter",
"musical synthesizer"
] | Both small children and cats have a certain tendency to make loud noises at inopportune times, but what if there were a way to combine these auditory effects? This seems to have been the reasoning behind the creation of the Meowsic keyboard, a children’s keyboard that renders notes as cats’ meows. [Steve Gilissen], an appreciator of unusual electronic instruments, discovered that while there had been projects that turned the Meowsic keyboard into a MIDI output device, no one had yet added MIDI input to it, which of course spurred the creation of his
Meowsic MIDI adapter
.
The switches in the keys of the original keyboard form a matrix of rows and columns, so that creating a connection between a particular row and column plays a certain note. [Steve]’s plan was to have a microcontroller read MIDI input, then connect the appropriate row and column to play the desired note. The first step was to use a small length of wire to connect rows and columns, thus manually mapping connections to notes. After this tedious step, he designed a PCB that hosts an Arduino Nano to accept input, two MCP23017 GPIO expanders to give it enough outputs, and CD4066BE CMOS switches to trigger the connections.
[Steve] was farsighted enough to expect some mistakes in the PCB, so he checked the connections before powering the board. This revealed a few problems, which some bodge wires corrected. It still didn’t play during testing, and after a long debugging session, he realized that two pins on an optoisolator were reversed. After fixing this, it finally worked, and he was able to create the following video.
Most of the MIDI hacks we’ve seen involved creating
MIDI outputs
, including one based
on a Sega Genesis
. We have seen MIDI input added
to a Game Boy
, though. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138926",
"author": "macsimki",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T06:40:01",
"content": "it seems he forgot the power and gnd on some chips. typical as on kicat (pun intended) you can place the separate gates on the schematic and the last option is the power rail connections. a dcr check sho... | 1,760,371,515.034267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/laptop-brick-is-brought-back-from-the-brink/ | Laptop Brick Is Brought Back From The Brink | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"mosfet",
"power supply",
"switching power supply"
] | We’ve all been there. [Kasyan TV] had a universal adapter for a used laptop, and though it worked for a long time, it finally failed. Can it be fixed?
Of course, it can
, but it is up to you if it is worth it or not. You can find [Kasyan’s] teardown and repair in the video below.
Inside the unit, there were a surprising number of components crammed into a small area. The brick also had power factor correction. The first step, of course, was to map out the actual circuit topology.
The unit contains quite a bit of heat sinking. [Kasyan] noted that the capacitors in place were possibly operated very near their operating limit. Since the power supply burned, there was an obvious place to start looking for problems.
One of the two synchronous rectifier FETs was a dead short. Everything else seemed to be good. The original FETs were not available, but better ones were put in their place. A snubber diode, though, appeared to be the root cause of the failure. Testing with a programmable load showed the repair to be a success.
Of course, you aren’t likely to have this exact failure, but the detailed analysis of what the circuit is doing might help you troubleshoot your own power supply one day.
We were surprised none of the traces burned out, but
that can be fixed, too
. Oddly, this cheap supply looked to be better than some of the
inexpensive bench supplies we’ve seen
. Go figure. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138901",
"author": "limroh",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T01:29:59",
"content": "at least 20 years ago I repaired an original laptop PSU.Just measuring its output voltage everything looked fine but charging the laptop just wouldn’t work – not to mention running it only from the PSU.But... | 1,760,371,515.297572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/led-probe-a-smart-simple-solution-for-testing-leds/ | LED Probe: A Smart, Simple Solution For Testing LEDs | Matt Varian | [
"ATtiny Hacks"
] | [
"ATtiny202",
"attiny85",
"led",
"led tester",
"test eqiupment"
] | If you’ve worked on a project with small LEDs, you know the frustration of determining their polarity. This ingenious
LED Probe
from [David] packs a lot of useful features into a simple, easy-to-implement circuit.
Most multimeters have a diode test function that can be used to check LEDs; however, this goes a step further. Not only will the probe light up an LED, it will light up no matter which side of the LED the leads are touching. A Red/Green LED on the probe will indicate if the probe tip is on the anode or cathode.
The probe is powered by a single CR2032 battery, and you may notice there’s no on/off switch. That’s because the probe enters a very low-current sleep mode between uses. The testing intelligence is handled by either an ATtiny85 or, in the newest version, an ATtiny202, though the basic concept and design are compatible with several other chips. All the design files for the PCB, the ATtiny code, a parts list, and a detailed explanation of how it works are available on [David]’s site, so be sure to check them out. Once you build one of these probes, you’ll want something to test it on, so explore some of the
LED projects
we’ve featured in the past. | 13 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138934",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T07:28:33",
"content": "Clever, and I believe it can work for any LED, providing it´s not a COB LED array where several LEDs are put in series. So, not good for LED light “bulbs”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,371,515.251968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/upgrading-an-old-espresso-machine/ | Upgrading An Old Espresso Machine | Maya Posch | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"espresso machine",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | The Francis! Francis! X1 espresso machine in its assembled state. (Credit: Samuel Leeuwenburg)
Recently, [Samuel Leeuwenburg]
got his paws on a Francis! Francis! X1
(yes, that’s the name) espresso machine. This is the espresso machine that is
mostly famous
for having been in a lot of big TV shows in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, the X1 even became a pretty good espresso machine after the manufacturer did some more tinkering with it, including changing the boiler material, upgrading the pump, etc.
In the case of the second-hand, but rarely used, machine that [Samuel] got, the machine still looked pretty good, but its performance was pretty abysmal. After popping the machine open the boiler turned out to be pretty much full of scale. Rather than just cleaning it, the boiler was upgraded to a brass version for better heat retention and other perks.
The best part of this relatively simple machine is probably that it has been
reverse-engineered
, making modding it very easy. After some thinking, [Samuel] decided to pull the very basic controller PCB and replace it with something capable of tighter temperature control. This turned into a custom PCB featuring the obligatory Raspberry Pi Pico along with a MAX3185 for water temperature measurement. The Pico had to be programmed to handle heater control duty. There’s even an HTTP API on the WiFi-enabled Pico board.
Unfortunately, the all-metal enclosure also makes for a perfect Faraday cage, putting an end to remote automation dreams for now, at least. With the machine buttoned up, [Samuel] remembered that the primary task of an espresso machine is to make espresso, which it is now, fortunately, even more capable of than before the surgery, and which requires you to be present at the machine anyway.
Thanks to [Milo] for the tip. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138774",
"author": "pax",
"timestamp": "2025-06-14T17:21:37",
"content": "“There’s even an HTTP API”HTCPCP?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138919",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2025-06-15T06:03:18",
... | 1,760,371,515.36961 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/make-magical-looking-furniture-with-kerf-bend-wizard/ | Make Magical-Looking Furniture With Kerf Bend Wizard | Tyler August | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"CNC machined",
"kerf bending",
"python"
] | The intersection between “woodworkers” and “programmers” is not a densely populated part of the Venn diagram, but [Michael Schiebler] is there with his
Kerf Bend Wizard
to help us make wood twist and bend like magic.
Kerf bending is a fine technique we have
covered before
: by cutting away material on the inside face of a piece of wood, you create an area weak enough to allow for bending. The question becomes: how much wood do I remove? And where? That’s where Kerf Bend Wizard comes to the rescue.
More after the break…
From spline (user input in black, expected output in pink)…
You feed it a spline– either manually or via DXF–and it feeds you a cut pattern that will satisfy that spline: just enough wood removed in just the right places that the edges of the cut should touch when the bend is achieved. This means less cut time and a stronger piece than eyeballing the kerfs. It works with both a table saw blade or a tapered end mill on a CNC or manual router. You can specify the kerf width of your table saw, or angle of your end mill, along with your desired cut depth.
… to cuts …
The output is DXF, convenient for use with a CNC, and a simple table giving distances from the edge of the piece and which side to cut, which is probably easier for use on the table saw. (Kerf Bend Wizard is happy to handle complex bends that require kerfing both sides of the material, as you can see.)
… to curved wood.
This was [Michael]’s thesis project, for which he hopefully got a good grade. The code is “semi-open” according to [Michael]; there’s a
GitHub where you can grab an offline version
for your own use, but no open-source license is on offer. Being a broke student and an artist to boot, [Michael] also can’t promise he will be able to keep the web version available without ads or some kind of monetization, so enjoy it while you can!
If CNCs or table saws aren’t your thing,
kerf bending has long been used with laser cutters, too.
Our thanks (which, as always, is worth its weight in gold) to [Michael] for the tip. If you’re in the intersection of the Venn diagram with [Michael],
we’d love to hear what you’re up to
. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138853",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2025-06-14T22:57:54",
"content": "What’s the point of having such thick wood when you eliminate 90% of the strength by cutting through it? Why not just use real wood (not plywood) and steam-bend it? Or if you must bend plywood, why not ... | 1,760,371,516.20877 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/the-switch-2-pro-controller-prepare-for-glue-and-fragile-parts/ | The Switch 2 Pro Controller: Prepare For Glue And Fragile Parts | Maya Posch | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"Nintendo Switch",
"teardown"
] | The Switch 2 Pro controller’s battery is technically removable, if you can get to it. (Credit: VK’s Channel, YouTube)
For those of us who have worked on SNES and GameCube controllers, we know that these are pretty simple to get into and maintain. However, in the trend of making modern game controllers more complex and less maintainable, Nintendo’s new Switch 2 Pro controller is giving modern Xbox and PlayStation controllers a run for their money in terms of repair complexity. As shown in a teardown by
[VK] on YouTube
(starting at nine minutes in), the first step is a disappointing removal of the glued-on front plate. After that you are dealing with thin plastic, the typical flimsy ribbon cables and a lot of screws.
The main controller IC on the primary PCB is an ARM-based MediaTek MT3689BCA Bluetooth SoC, which is
also used
in the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons. The 3.87 V, 1070 mAh Li-ion battery is connected to the PCB with a connector, but getting to it during a battery replacement might be a bit of a chore.
The analog sticks are Alps-branded and do not seem to match any other sticks currently on the market. These are disappointingly also still resistive potentiometer sticks, meaning they might have to be replaced before long due to stick drift. Reassembly has a few tricky parts, especially with the two sticks being not identical, yet easy to swap by accident. Which would require a second disassembly round.
There’s also a soft-touch coating on these controllers, which have been known to get… gunky after a few years, so time will tell what the lifespan is here. As is typical, these controllers also only work with the Switch and not with a PC or other consoles. Overall, it seems like a nice, silent controller, but the repairability seems low at best. | 33 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138726",
"author": "codeasm",
"timestamp": "2025-06-14T11:15:45",
"content": "Reading about the coating is sad. Why arent manufacturers learning we hate that type of coating? Now you can remove it with baking soda and a bit of water (making what appears to be a paste), but why?",
... | 1,760,371,515.517586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/14/a-concentric-clock-with-multiple-modes/ | A Concentric Clock With Multiple Modes | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"3D printed parts",
"clock",
"minimal user interface",
"minimalism",
"Raspberry Pi Pico W"
] | Most of us spend our lives within reach of a device that provides a clock, stopwatch, and a timer – you’re almost certainly reading this article on such a device – but there are fewer options if you want a screen-free clock. [Michael Suguitan]’s
TOKIDOKI
rectifies this situation by combining those three functions into a single, physical, analog clock face.
TOKIDOKI displays time by lighting the appropriate segments of two concentric rings of colored LEDs (Adafruit Neopixel rings); the inner ring indicates hours, while the outer ring displays minutes. There is one clock hand, and while it does indicate the passage of time in some situations, its main function is as a dial to control the clock’s different functions. The hand is connected to a Dynamixel XL-330 servo motor, which also serves as a position sensor. Winding the dial clockwise starts a countdown timer, with each successive full rotation switching to a larger unit of time (a fun/unsettling feature is that the largest chronometric unit is the user’s expected lifetime: 84 years). Winding counterclockwise either starts a stopwatch or sets an alarm, depending on how many full rotations you make.
A Raspberry Pi Pico running some MicroPython firmware manages the device and gets the current time from a local network. To soften the light’s quality, the LED rings are pointed backwards to provide back-lighting off of a recessed surface. The entire device is powered by USB-C, and is enclosed in a 3D-printed housing.
This project was designed as an experiment in minimal interfaces, and it certainly achieved that goal, though we imagine that it takes a bit of time to get used to using this clock. We always enjoy seeing
innovative clocks
here, from
digital
to
analogue
, and those that
split the difference
. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,515.441057 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/watkins-tower-londons-failed-eiffel-tower/ | Watkin’s Tower: London’s Failed Eiffel Tower | Maya Posch | [
"History"
] | [
"Eiffel Tower",
"wembley park"
] | The city of London is no stranger to tall constructions today, but long before the first skyscrapers would loom above its streets, Watkin’s Tower was supposed to be the tallest structure in not only London but also the entirety of the UK. Inspired by France’s recently opened Eiffel tower, railway entrepreneur and Member of Parliament [Sir Edward Watkin] wanted to erect a structure that would rival the Eiffel tower, as part of a new attraction park to be constructed near the Middlesex hamlet of Wembley. In a retrospective,
[Rob’s London] channel takes a look at
what came to be known as
Watkin’s Folly
among other flattering names.
The first stage of Watkin’s Tower at Wembley Park. The only to be ever completed. (Source:
Wikimedia
)
After [Gustave Eiffel], the architect of the Eiffel tower recused himself, a design competition was held for a tower design, with the Illustrated Catalogue of the 68 designs submitted
available for our perusal
. The winner turned out to be #37, an eight-legged, 366 meter tall tower, much taller than the 312.2 meter tall Eiffel tower, along with multiple observation decks and various luxuries to be enjoyed by visitors to Wembley Park.
Naturally, [Watkin] commissioned a redesign to make it cheaper, which halved the number of legs, causing subsidence of the soil and other grievances later on. Before construction could finish, the responsible company went bankrupt and the one constructed section was demolished by 1907. Despite this, Wembley Park was a success and remains so to this day with Wembley Stadium built where Watkin’s Folly once stood. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138715",
"author": "Stephen",
"timestamp": "2025-06-14T09:53:51",
"content": "I came across this project in Felix Barker’s fascinating book “London As It Might Have Been”, a collection of extraordinary projects that never came to fruition, including a version of St Paul’s Cathedral... | 1,760,371,515.613024 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/open-a-portal-to-an-nes-emulator/ | Open A Portal To An NES Emulator | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"c++",
"emulator",
"portal",
"portal 2",
"porting",
"scripting",
"smolnes",
"squirrel"
] | The
Portal
games were revolutionary not only for their puzzle-based, narrative-driven gameplay, but also for their unique physics engine, which let players open portals anywhere and conserve momentum and direction through them. They’re widely regarded as some of the best video games ever made, but even beyond that they have some extra features that aren’t talked about as much. Namely, there are a number of level editors and mods that allow the in-game components to be used to build things like logic gates and computers, and this project goes even further
by building a working NES emulator
, all within
Portal 2
.
The main limitation here is that
Portal 2
can only support a certain number of in-game objects without crashing, far lower than what would be needed to directly emulate NES hardware. The creator of the project, [PortalRunner], instead turned to Squirrel, the
Portal 2
scripting language, and set about porting an existing NES emulator called smolnes to this scripting language. This is easier said than done, as everything in the code needs to be converted eight bits and then all of the pointers in smolnes need to be converted to use arrays, since Squirrel doesn’t support pointers at all. As can be easily imagined, this led to a number of bugs that needed to be sorted out before the game would run at all.
For those interested in code golfing, porting, or cross-compatibility, this project is a master class not only in the intricacies of the
Portal 2
scripting language but in the way the NES behaves as well, not to mention the coding skill needed to recognize unique behaviors of the C language and the Squirrel scripting language. But eventually [PortalRunner] is able to get
Super Mario Bros
. running in
Portal 2
, albeit with low resolution and frame rate. Since we heard you like games within games,
someone else put
DOOM
inside
DOOM
so you can
DOOM
while you
DOOM
.
Thanks to [Mahdi] for the tip! | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138678",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-06-14T02:40:43",
"content": "Sounds like Data Table based programming.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8139942",
"author": "필스토리",
"timestamp": "2025-06-18T10:30:57",
... | 1,760,371,515.564185 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/how-a-diy-chicken-coop-door-opener-went-from-simple-to-complex/ | How A DIY Chicken Coop Door Opener Went From Simple To Complex | Maya Posch | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"chicken coop door",
"esphome",
"home assisstant",
"smart home"
] | How hard could it be to make a chicken coop door that can be configured to open and close automatically using a straightforward interface? That’s the question that
[Jeff Sandberg] set out with
, after three years of using a more basic off-the-shelf unit that offered no remote access nor a convenient user interface. The use case for [Jeff] was rather straightforward: the door would be open during the day and closed at night to keep the hens safely inside the coop.
The commercial solution offered an RTC-backed programmable interface as well as a light sensor, but the latter wasn’t always reliable in inclement weather and making simple changes to the programming when e.g. the hens had to stay inside a day due to work on the yard, was much more complicated than needed, plus had to be done on the spot. The new system would solve all these ills.
That said, the existing door mechanism was doing a fine job and could be kept. This just left making a new box with electronics to control it, starting with an ESP32C3 with the ESPHome firmware that is hooked into the local Home Assistant system, along with a motor to lift and lower the door and with magnetic contact sensors.
So far so easy. The hard part came with the installation, which involved trenching to the hen house for mains power, repairing the damage from this, and troubleshooting a power issue that turned out to be due to a dodgy power adapter. The payoff is that now the chicken coop is also part of the smart home and their owner never has to trudge through a soggy garden again to adjust the programming on a dim LC display with far too few buttons. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138645",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T23:11:08",
"content": "LC -> LCD",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138646",
"author": "Dr Bob",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T23:20:42",
"content": "Ackchyual... | 1,760,371,515.732601 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/adapting-an-old-rotary-dial-for-digital-applications/ | Adapting An Old Rotary Dial For Digital Applications | John Elliot V | [
"classic hacks",
"hardware",
"Medical Hacks",
"PCB Hacks",
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"rotary dial",
"telephone dial"
] | Today in old school nostalgia our tipster [Clint Jay] wrote in to let us know about
this rotary dial
.
If you’re a young whippersnapper you might never have seen a rotary dial. These things were commonly used on telephones back in the day, and they were notoriously slow to use. The way they work is that they generate a number of pulses corresponding to the number you want to dial in. One pulse for 1, two pulses for 2, and so on, up to nine pulses for 9, then ten pulses for 0.
We see circuits like this here at Hackaday from time to time. In fact, commonly we see them implemented as USB keyboards, such as in
Rotary Dial Becomes USB Keyboard
and
Rotary Dialer Becomes Numeric Keypad
.
One thing that makes this particular project different from the ones we’ve seen before is that it doesn’t require a microcontroller. That said, our hacker [Mousa] shows us how to interface this dial with an Arduino, along with sample code, if that’s something you’d like to do. The schematic for the project shows how to connect the rotary dial (salvaged from an old telephone) to both a 7-segment display and a collection of ten LEDs.
The project write-up includes links to the PCB design files. The guts of the project are a
4017
decade counter and a
4026
7-segment display adapter. Good, honest, old school digital logic. | 27 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138609",
"author": "a_do_z",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T20:05:53",
"content": "Imagine how younger-generation-theft-resistant your car would be if it used an ignition kill system disabled via rotary dial, and a manual transmission.:-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"rep... | 1,760,371,515.674909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/taking-a-one-handed-keyboard-to-the-next-level/ | Taking A One Handed Keyboard To The Next Level | Jenny List | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"chording keyboard",
"keyboard",
"wrist keyboard"
] | When a wrist mounted keyboard floated past in the Hackaday feed, a mental image surfaced, perhaps something like a Blackberry keyboard mounted on a wrist cuff, maybe with some kind of display. It’s impressive indeed then to open the link and see
[AdamLeBlanc]’s Schist01
. It’s a wrist mounted keyboard, but with its bracket curving in front of the had to support a custom ergonomic chording keyboard, it’s definitely a break from the norm.
The wrist mount has clearly taken a lot of thought, and despite looking something like the arm of a
Star Trek
Borg, appears comfortable. It’s extremely adjustable, and can be demounted into several different parts. Meanwhile the keyboard itself has been formed to his hand by a trial and error process involving keycaps and a clay model. there’s even a thumb-operable touchpad.
We like this peripheral a lot, for the huge attention to detail that has gone into its design, for its boldness, and because we can’t help seeing ourselves using it as the input device for a futuristic head-mounted display. For now though we don’t have any futuristic silver clothing in the wardrobe, so that will have to wait. If you’d like to see more, there’s a video.
Thanks [Shotgun Moose] for the tip. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138724",
"author": "helge",
"timestamp": "2025-06-14T10:56:58",
"content": "I really love the effort and the clay modeling, 3D scanning and CAD that had to be applied to make it happen. However, I wish he had explored first how to make transitioning between keyboard use and a “stow... | 1,760,371,515.787075 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/attack-of-the-beepy-clones/ | Attack Of The Beepy Clones | Arya Voronova | [
"blackberry hacks",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"Beepy",
"Beepy. BeepBerry",
"blackberry keyboard",
"blepis",
"colorberry",
"hackberry",
"hackberry pi",
"open hardware",
"Sharp Memory LCD",
"SQFMI"
] | In the
Blackberry-keyboard-based project lineage story last week
, I covered how a series of open-source projects turned into Beepy, a cool Linux PDA with a lively community. To me, it’s yet another demonstration of power that open-source holds, and more importantly, it shows how even a small pet project of yours could cause big moves in the hardware world, provided you publish it – just ask [JoeN], [WoodWorkeR] and [arturo182].
The journey didn’t end there. For all its benefits, Beepy had some flaws to take care of, some board-killing flaws, even. The 5 V boost regulator was never intended for 4.7 V input it gets when charger is connected, and would occasionally cook itself. A charging current resistor was undersized, leading people to either bodge resistors onto their Beepy boards, or have their battery charge for 30 hours until full. A power path diode was undersized, too, and has burned out on more than a few devices. Also, Beepy’s feature package left things to be desired.
Beepy never made it beyond v1. If I had to guess, partially because of BB Q20 keyboard sourcing troubles, but also definitely some sort of loss of interest. Which is a shame, as the plans v1.5 of the hardware were pretty exciting. In the meantime, other players decided to take up the mantle – here’s a tale of three projects.
Improved, Colorful, Closed
I like to talk about all sides of open-source hardware, good and bad. We’ll start with the bad here. Sometimes, you’ll publish a project under an open license that requires other people to share their work if it’s based on your project files. Then, someone takes your files, makes none to minimal changes, closes the sources, maybe even completely removes the attribution, and starts selling them. That’s the story of Colorberry.
Left: OG Beepy, right: Colorberry; spot 10 differences. If one of them is “stripped of all attribution”, you get bonus points.
It was one of the first Beepy derivatives — seemingly fixing two of the three Beepy bugs, and adding support for a color display from JDI. Unfortunately, it also removed some important elements: namely the attribution to the Beepy on product or project pages – and closed-sourced the files.
Beepy’s PCB is licensed under a reciprocal (copyleft) license, which means that derivative product designers are supposed to share any changes they make. Without access to the source, it’s difficult to confirm that Colorberry really fixed the upstream Beepy bugs. It also makes it harder to diagnose and repair the hardware, and limits the chances the Colorberry would live on should its creator step away from the project.
Unfortunately, the problems don’t stop there. The code to drive the color screen is heavily based upon a driver produced by people in the Beepy community. Like the Beepy hardware, the license for the driver (GPL) requires that changes made to the code be made public. But when Alex, the Colorberry developer, was asked about publishing the code for this driver, he responded that it would happen “once the driver is ready.” A year later, the new story is apparently that he will release the sources once his personal stock of color screens runs out.
Because the driver is only published as (non-stripped) binaries on GitHub, it needs to be recompiled and republished by Alex with every Linux kernel update or distro that Colorberry could be used with. It’s also markedly harder to install (to the point people had to concoct multi-step install scripts), and I have it on good authority that the driver contains a bug that will actually reduce the lifetime of the display. But without the source for the driver, the community can’t fix it.
I confirmed this later on, having looked at the binary files myself – indeed, even the typos from someone else’s open-source driver are still present in Colorberry driver code.
From what I’ve seen, the Beepy open-source design has been a crucial factor for its community to flourish and keep thriving even two years later. Colorberry’s puzzling closed-source decisions just don’t add up to the same value, and I gather that’s a big part of why the project didn’t gain more traction.
The Colorberry isn’t the only Beepy clone to keep the hardware source to itself. The PiBerry from CarbonComputers doesn’t fix the bugs from the original handheld, unfortunately, but it does bring a higher resolution color display to the party. It also doesn’t try to erase its lineage, with both the PCB silkscreen and the documentation referencing the fact that it’s based on the Beepy. Even still, the board design files aren’t included in the PiBerry repository.
What’s interesting in this case is that CarbonComputers later made a newer PiBerry version in same form-factor, aimed at assembly from more off-the-shelf components, and
that version does have its KiCad files published
. I’m willing to give the creators the benefit of the doubt here, and say that not including the source files for the previous versions of the hardware might simply be an omission on their part and not intentional.
These two weren’t the only projects coming to life because of Beepy’s success – at times, if you get someone inspired enough with a project of yours, they could end up building an entire lineup of gadgets. Such is the case of Hackberry Pi, a project coming from a hacker named Zitao.
The Hackberry Family
Ever wanted the power of a Pi 5 in a portable package? That’s where you reach for the Hackberry Pi. The CM5 version is way sleeker than this one, I gotta say.
You might’ve seen
the Hackberry Pi
around – it’s a Beepy-like device with a 720×720 DPI screen derived from Adafruit’s Hyperpixel design and a Q20 keyboard. A number of parts in the first Pi Zero-based versions of the Hackberry Pi were visibly derived from the Beepy design. However, at least the later versions have been re-drawn from scratch in EasyEDA, with a number of diverging design paths, and Zitao has been prolific in building newer and generally better versions of the platform.
From a Pi Zero-based version with Nokia batteries, to Pi 5-based device powered by 18650s, the Hackberry has gone through quite a journey. Just a couple days ago from the time of this writing, the Compute Module-based version of the Hackberry Pi has become available, and it’s been selling like hotcakes.
Zitao’s hardware is inspiring in a few ways. For instance, the ways in which these devices avoid driver installation requirements, with keyboard connected over USB instead of I2C, powerbank chips with LED battery level display instead of the Beepy’s RP2040, and it goes even to the point of soldering a small Bluetooth receiver module onto the board to drive the onboard speakers from the Pi running the show. It’s a kludge, but at the same time, it’s hard to argue with things that work well in practice!
Hackberry Pi devices are also closed source, but at least schematics have been made available. This is good enough to spot most bugs, and those schematics have already been useful for people pointing out poor design decisions in the first versions. Of course, it’s still against the spirit of open-source and in particular the project that made Hackberry Pi possible in the first place – but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
Our Radically Open Beepy Clone
As you might have guessed, I don’t like closed-source devices. In particular I dislike devices that benefit from an open-source ecosystem and then burn the goodwill provided, as if to sterilize and salt the land that would otherwise serve other projects in the future.
Two v1 Blepis units: one assembled with a Sharp display, another with a cheaper color SPI one.
Over the last half a year, I’ve had the privilege of working on
the Blepis
, a Beepy successor built by a hacker collective I’m a part of, called HackMods. We’ve designed, planned out, and assembled the first versions of these boards together, with the goal of having a fleet of Linux PDAs.
Made by hackers for hackers, it’s an experiment in just how far you can push the Beepy design, and we’re keeping things as open-source as we found them – arguably even more so! In particular, even our case design is in FreeCAD and open-source, with
.FCstd
files included.
First major improvement we made was in screen support. Sharp Memory screens can be expensive and are often out of stock for months, and JDI screens are even more expensive than that, often the only options are overpriced eBay listings. This is somewhat okay for a one-off, but it is very sub-optimal if you’re building a fleet of a dozen hacker PDAs for you and your friends.
That’s why we’ve added support for the commonly available 3.2″ 320×240 18-pin SPI color screens in addition to Sharp and JDI screens. We even have touchscreen controller support for the 18-pin panels that come with a touch layer, and support backlight on displays which have it. Of course, the known Beepy bugs are fixed as well. Our 5 V boost is operating within spec, and we have a switch-mode battery charger expected to give off barely any heat at all while providing a fair bit of charging current.
The PCB, done mainly by [LinaLinn] and me, with others’ contributing to it in various ways. It would probably be easier to talk about what we didn’t add. Thankfully, for those things, we have an expansion connector!
What else? Just for a start, we added an RTC, a vibromotor driver, and an onboard buzzer, not to mention things like QWIIC connectors for I2C and USB.
The Beepy didn’t have any onboard USB peripherals – you were expected to make use of the Pi Zero’s microUSB port. But we’ve added a whole USB ecosystem onto all the free space on the board – including a microSD reader, a slanted USB-C slot letting you connect a small USB-C 3.5 mm dongle soundcard for music playback (or other devices), and a USB hub chip to tie it all together. Apart from that, we support host mode on the bottom “charging” USB-C port, too – complete with 5 V power output.
Some of these features, like power output on the main USB-C port, are not supported by the firmware yet, But we’ve gotten pretty familiar with Beepy firmware while building v1, so, adding firmware support for those features is not expected to be that complicated.
Our expansion connector is also unparalleled when it comes to interfaces we expose. A single-row 23-pin header has 3.3 V, 5 V and VBAT power rails with over-current and backflow protection, plus I2C, SPI, UART, SDIO, PWM, and I2S, all ESD-protected.
We’ve already had a LoRa expansion module contributed by someone from the Beepy community, and one of our members has designed a DECT board. We plan on doing doing boards aimed at general-purpose hacking & BIOS chip flashing soon. If you ever wanted a PDA with a powerful expansion header for hardware hacking purposes, this is the design for you.
The Gift Of Giving Back
If you’re looking for a Linux PDA board, I hope you can appreciate the Blepis hardware design we bring to you, only possible because of a string of open-source projects before it. Our design files and driver/firmware sources are all on GitHub and GitLab, with
a summary available on [Michael]’s BBKB ecosystem website.
Blepis is meant to work with JLCPCB PCBA, and we have
a GitLab integration for exporting the project files
– all the JLC part numbers are input into the schematics, so just upload the files and get a batch of motherboards delivered to your doorstep. To complete it, get a Pi Zero, a battery, a Blackberry Q20 keyboard, a display out of the list of supported ones, print the shell (v2-compatible shell
coming soon
), and off you go.
Seeing entirely new projects happen, each cooler and more advanced than the previous one, all because people kept publishing their code and PCB files, and then, getting to build a dream device for me and my friends thanks to someone else’s work – these kinds of experiences are what radicalized me in favour of being fervently pro-open-source. I see open-source philosophy live and thrive through dreams of hackers and barrels of viral licenses, through publishing despite imperfections, and building off each other’s dreams to turn the tide of tomorrow. I hope you get to experience it, too. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138568",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T17:37:38",
"content": "You know what would be a neat include? A SIP phone (plus speaker and microphone). You could then use it to make SIP calls over wifi…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
... | 1,760,371,516.079462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/cassette-data-storage-from-the-1970s/ | Cassette Data Storage From The 1970s | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"audio tape",
"kansas city standard",
"kc standard"
] | When home computers first appeared, disk drives were an expensive rarity. Consumers weren’t likely to be interested in punch cards or paper tape, but most people did have consumer-grade audio cassette recorders. There were a few attempts at storing data on tapes, which, in theory, is simple enough. But, practically, cheap audio recorders are far from perfect, which can complicate the situation.
A conference in Kansas City settled on a standard design, and the “Kansas City standard” tape format appeared. In a recent video,
[Igor Brichkov] attempts to work with the format using 555s and op amps
— the same way computers back in the day might have done it. Check out the video below to learn more.
These days, it would be dead simple to digitize audio and process it to recover data. The 1970s were a different time. The KC standard used frequency shift method with 2.4 kHz tones standing in for ones, and 1.2 kHz tones were zeros. The bit length was equal (at 300 baud), so a one had 8 cycles and a zero had 4 cycles. There were other mundane details like a start bit, a minimum stop bit, and the fact that the least significant bit was first.
The real world makes these things iffy. Stretched tape, varying motor speeds, and tape dropouts can all change things. The format makes it possible to detect the tones and then feed the output to a UART that you might use for a serial port.
There were many schemes. The one in the video uses an op-amp to square up the signal to a digital output. The digital pulses feed to a pair of 555s made to re-trigger during fast input trains but not during slower input trains. If that doesn’t make sense, watch the video!
The KC standard shows up all over the place. We’ve even used it to hide
secret messages in our podcast
. | 69 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138529",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T15:40:10",
"content": "“Consumers weren’t likely to be interested in punch cards or paper tape…”Well a stack of punch cards in wrap could keep the coffee table level.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,516.438666 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/this-week-in-security-the-localhost-bypass-reflections-and-x/ | This Week In Security: The Localhost Bypass, Reflections, And X | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"LocalMess",
"lunchbox",
"This Week in Security",
"X"
] | Facebook and Yandex have been caught performing user-hostile tracking. This sort of makes today just another Friday, but this is a bit special. This time, it’s
Local Mess
. OK, it’s an attack with a dorky name, but very clever. The short explanation is that web sites can open connections to localhost. And on Android, apps can be listening to those ports, allowing web pages to talk to apps.
That may not sound too terrible, but there’s a couple things to be aware of. First, Android (and iOS) apps are sandboxed — intentionally making it difficult for one app to talk to another, except in ways approved by the OS maker. The browser is similarly sandboxed away from the apps. This is a security boundary, but it is especially an important security boundary when the user is in incognito mode.
The tracking Pixel is important to explain here. This is a snippet of code, that puts an invisible image on a website, and as a result allows the tracker to run JavaScript in your browser in the context of that site. Facebook is famous for this, but is not the only advertising service that tracks users in this way. If you’ve searched for an item on one site, and then suddenly been bombarded with ads for that item on other sites, you’ve been tracked by the pixel.
This is most useful when a user is logged in, but on a mobile device, the user is much more likely to be logged in on an app and not the browser. The constant pressure for more and better data led to a novel and completely unethical solution. On Android, applications with permission to access the Internet can listen on localhost (127.0.0.1) on unprivileged ports, those above 1024.
Facebook abused this quirk by opening a WebRTC connection to localhost, to one of the ports the Facebook app was listening on. This triggers an SDP connection to localhost, which starts by sending a STUN packet, a UDP tool for NAT traversal. Packed into that STUN packet is the contents of a Facebook Cookie, which the Facebook app happily forwards up to Facebook. The browser also sends that cookie to Facebook when loading the pixel, and boom Facebook knows what website you’re on. Even if you’re not logged in, or incognito mode is turned on.
Yandex has been doing something similar since 2017, though with a different, simpler mechanism. Rather than call localhost directly, Yandex just sets aside
yandexmetrica.com
for this purpose, with the domain pointing to
127.0.0.1
. This was just used to open an HTTP connection to the native Yandex apps, which passed the data up to Yandex over HTTPS. Meta apps were first seen using this trick in September 2024, though it’s very possible it was in use earlier.
Both companies have ceased since this report was released. What’s interesting is that this is a flagrant violation of GDPR and CCPA, and will likely lead to record-setting fines, at least for Facebook.
What’s your Number?
An experiment in which Google sites still worked with JavaScript disabled led to a fun discovery about
how to sidestep rate limiting and find any Google user’s phone number
. Google has deployed defensive solutions to prevent attackers from abusing endpoints like
accounts.google.com/signing/usernamerecovery
. That particular endpoint still works without JS, but also still detects more than a few attempts, and throws the captcha at anyone trying to brute-force it.
This is intended to work by JS in your browser performing a minor proof-of-work calculation, and then sends in a
bgRequest
token. On the no-JavaScript version of the site, that field instead was set to
js_disabled
. What happens if you simply take the valid token, and stuff it into your request? Profit! This unintended combination bypassed rate-limiting, and means a phone number was trivially discoverable from just a user’s first and last names. It was mitigated in just over a month, and [brutecat] earned a nice $5000 for the effort.
Catching Reflections
There’s a classic Active Directory attack, the reflection attack, where you can trick a server into sending you an authentication, and then deliver that authentication data directly back to the origin server. Back before 2008, this actually worked on AD servers.
The crew at RedTeam Pentesting brought this attack back in the form of doing it with Kerberos
.
It’s not a trivial attack, and just forcing a remote server to open an SMB connection to a location the attack controls is an impressive vulnerability. The trick is a hostname that includes the target name and a base64 encoded
CREDENTIAL_TARGET_INFORMATIONW
all inside the attacker’s valid hostname. This confuses the remote, triggering it to act as if it’s authenticating to itself. Forcing a Kerberos authentication instead of NTLM completes the attacker magic, though there’s one more mystery at play.
When the attack starts, the attacker has a low-privileged computer account. When it finishes, the access is at SYSTEM level on the target. It’s unclear exactly why, though the researchers theorize that a mitigation intended to prevent almost exactly this privilege escalation is the cause.
X And the Juicebox
X has rolled out a new end to end encrypted chat solution, XChat. It’s intended to be a significant upgrade from the previous iteration,
but not everyone is impressed
. Truly end to end encryption is extremely hard to roll out at scale, among other reasons, because users are terrible at managing cryptography keys. The solution generally is for the service provider to store the keys instead. But what is the point of end-to-end encryption when the company holds the keys? While there isn’t a complete solution for this problem, There is a very clever mitigation:
Juicebox
.
Juicebox lets users set a short PIN, uses that in the generation of the actual encryption key, breaks the key into parts to be held at different servers, and then promise to erase the key if the PIN is guessed incorrectly too many times. This is the solution X is using. Sounds great, right? There are two gotchas in that description. The first is the different servers: That’s only useful if those servers aren’t all run by the same company. And second, the promise to delete the key. That’s not cryptographically guaranteed.
There is some indication that X is running a pair of Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) as part of their Juicebox system, which significantly helps with both of those issues, but there just isn’t enough transparency into the system yet. For the time being, the consensus is that Signal is still the safest platform to use.
Bits and Bytes
We’re a bit light on Bits this week, so you’ll have to get by with
the report that Secure Boot attacks are publicly available
. It’s a firmware update tool from DT Research, and is signed by Microsoft’s UEFI keys. This tool contains a vulnerability that allows breaking out of it’s intended use, and running arbitrary code. This one has been patched, but there’s a second, similar problem in a Microsoft-signed IGEL kernel image, that allows running an arbitrary rootfs. This isn’t particularly a problem for us regular users, but the constant stream of compromised, signed UEFI boot images doesn’t bode well for the long term success of Secure Boot as a security measure. | 26 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138515",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T14:56:19",
"content": "The entire concept of WebSockets strikes me as a bad idea. I know it’s useful for some design patterns (especially evil ones) but that doesn’t make it a good idea. Being able to connect to localhost (or an... | 1,760,371,516.275286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/a-remote-controlled-usb-rubber-ducky-clone/ | A Remote-Controlled USB Rubber Ducky Clone | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"Science",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"atmega16u2",
"hak5",
"keystroke injection",
"penetration testing",
"rubber ducky"
] | Despite the repeated warnings of system administrators, IT personnel, and anyone moderately aware of operational security, there are still quite a few people who will gladly plug a mysterious flash drive into their computers to see what’s on it. Devices which take advantage of this well-known behavioral vulnerability have a long history, the most famous of which is Hak5’s USB Rubber Ducky. That emulates a USB input device to rapidly execute attacker-defined commands on the target computer.
The main disadvantage of these keystroke injection attacks, from the attacker’s point of view, is that they’re not particularly subtle. It’s usually fairly obvious when something starts typing thousands of words per minute on your computer, and the victim’s next move is probably a call to IT. This is where [Krzysztof Witek]’s open-source
Rubber Ducky clone
has an advantage: it uses a signal detected by a SYN480R1 RF receiver to trigger the deployment of its payload. This does require the penetration tester who uses this to be on the site of the attack, but unlike with an always-on or timer-delayed Rubber Ducky, the attacker can trigger the payload when the victim is distracted or away from the computer.
This project is based around the
ATmega16U2
, and runs a firmware based on microdevt, a C framework for embedded development which [Krzysztof] also wrote. The project includes a custom compiler for a reduced form of Hak5’s payload programming language, so at least some of the available DuckyScript programs should be compatible with this. All of the project’s files are available
on GitHub
.
Perhaps due to the simplicity of the underlying concept, we’ve seen a few
open source implementations
of
malicious input devices
. One was even built into
a USB cable
. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138474",
"author": "hjf",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T11:22:25",
"content": "I wonder if it works reliably for the author. in my experience these syn480 modules are just terrible. for some reason even the crappy LC tuned ones with a comparator will outperform them (and yes, I tuned bo... | 1,760,371,516.138364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/13/the-gba-console-you-never-knew-you-wanted/ | The GBA Console You Never Knew You Wanted | Tyler August | [
"Nintendo DS Hacks",
"Nintendo Game Boy Hacks"
] | [
"CRT TV",
"game console",
"GBA hack",
"nintendo DS lite"
] | Do you like Nintendo games? How about handhelds? Do you prefer the now-venerable Game Boy Advance (GBA) to more modern platforms, but wish your aging eyes could enjoy its content on a large CRT instead of a dinky LCD? If you answered yes to all those questions, you are exactly the type of person
[GouldFish on Games] made this custom console for
, and you should probably be friends.
The external appearance of this hack is slick: a 3D printed console with the contours of the GBA in that iconic purple, but with a cartridge bay door like an NES and a SNES controller port. It’s the GBA console Nintendo never made, sitting next to a period-appropriate CRT. Playing GBA game on a CRT with an SNES controller is already hacky; what makes it really hacky is the guts are yet another Nintendo system — the DS Lite.
Why a DS Lite? Two reasons: one, it is cheaper to get a busted DS Lite than an old GBA mainboard. Two,
as we covered before,
the DS Lite can do composite-out with a relatively cheap add-on board. [GouldFish] really is hacking on the shoulders of giants, and they acknowledge it in the video. Aside from the composite-out board, he also makes use of community knowledge on how to make the
DS Lite boot without screens or batteries.
Should you be interested in putting your own version of this console together,
[GouldFish] was kind enough to share
the STLs for the 3D printed enclosure, as well as the Gerber files for the custom PCB that interfaces with the SNES controller port.
We featured a
CRT mod for an original Game Boy before
, but this seems a lot more practical, if a lot less portable. [GouldFish] has no shortage of old titles and newer homebrew to chose from for this console, but they could always use more. We once featured a primer on
how to get into the GBA homebrew scene, if you want to make a game.
Thanks to [Kris] for the tip. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138448",
"author": "NFM",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T08:10:50",
"content": "What could be cool for a future revision would be to use pogo pins to make the interconnects between the boards, so they line up and make contact as the case is closed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,371,516.328538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/build-a-400-mhz-logic-analyzer-for-35/ | Build A 400 MHz Logic Analyzer For $35 | John Elliot V | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"logic analyzer",
"raspberry pi pico 2",
"TXU0104"
] | What do you do when you’re a starving student and you need a 400 MHz logic analyzer for your digital circuit investigations?
As [nanofix] shows in a recent video
, you find one that’s available as an open hardware project and build it yourself.
The project, aptly named
LogicAnalyzer
was developed by [Dr. Gusman] a few years back, and has
actually graced these pages in the past
. In the video below, [nanofix] concentrates on the mechanics of actually putting the board together with a focus on soldering. The back of the build is the
Raspberry Pi Pico 2
and the
TXU0104
level shifters.
If you’d like to follow along at home, all the build instructions and design files are available on GitHub. For your convenience the Gerber files have
been shared at PCBWay
Of course we have heaps of material here at Hackaday covering logic analyzers. If you’re interested in budget options check out
$13 Scope And Logic Analyzer Hits 18 Msps
or how to
build one using a ZX Spectrum
! If you’re just getting started with logic analyzers (or if you’re not sure why you should) check out
Logic Analyzers: Tapping Into Raspberry Pi Secrets
. | 15 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138438",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T06:36:02",
"content": "Thank you! Love the project.I guess now we can finally lay the good old Chinese Cypress CY7 based 24MHz (12MHz on a good day) logic analyser a good bye. It sure served me well",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,516.487792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/simple-open-source-photobioreactor/ | Simple Open Source Photobioreactor | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"algae",
"bioreactor",
"photobioreactor"
] | [Bhuvanmakes] says that he has the
simplest open source photobioreactor
. Is it? Since it is the only photobioreactor we are aware of, we’ll assume that it is. According to the post, other designs are either difficult to recreate since they require PC boards, sensors, and significant coding.
This project uses no microcontroller, so it has no coding. It also has no sensors. The device is essentially an acrylic tube with an air pump and some LEDs.
The base is 3D printed and contains very limited electronics. In addition to the normal construction, apparently, the cylinder has to be very clean before you introduce the bioreactant.
Of course, you also need something to bioreact, if that’s even a real word. The biomass of choice in this case was Scenedesmus algae. While photobioreactors are used in commercial settings where you need to grow something that requires light, like algae, this one appears to mostly be for decorative purposes. Sort of an aquarium for algae. Then again, maybe someone has some use for this. If that’s you, let us know what your plans are in the comments.
We’ve seen
a lantern repurposed into a bioreactor
. It doesn’t really have the photo part, but we’ve seen a
homebrew bioreactor for making penicillin
. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138390",
"author": "Thomas Rogers",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T02:15:56",
"content": "That’s really interesting but alas the poopification of the internet has made finding the mineral and vitamin requirements for algae kind of difficult to find. Like I search for “nutritional needs o... | 1,760,371,516.589025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/cots-components-combine-to-diy-solar-power-station/ | COTS Components Combine To DIY Solar Power Station | Tyler August | [
"Battery Hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"solar battery",
"solar inverter"
] | They’re marketed as “Solar Generators” or “Solar Power Stations” but what they are is a nice box with a battery, charge controller, and inverter inside. [DoItYourselfDad] on Youtube decided that since all of those parts are available separately,
he could put one together himself.
The project is a nice simple job for a weekend afternoon. (He claims 2 hours.) Because it’s all COTS components, it just a matter of wiring everything together, and sticking into a box. [DoItYourselfDad] walks his viewers through this process very clearly, including installing a shunt to monitor the battery. (This is the kind of video you could send to your brother-in-law in good conscience.)
Strictly speaking, he didn’t need the shunt, since his fancy LiFePo pack from TimeUSB has one built in with Bluetooth connectivity. Having a dedicated screen is nice, though, as is the ability to charge from wall power or solar, via the two different charge controllers [DoItYourselfDad] includes. If it were our power station, we’d be sure to put in a DC-DC
converter for USB-PD functionality,
but his use case must be different as he has a 120 V inverter as the only output. That’s the nice thing about doing it yourself, though: you can include all the features you want, and none that you don’t.
We’re not totally sure about his claim that the clear cargo box was chosen because he was inspired by
late-90s Macintosh computers,
but it’s a perfectly usable case, and the build quality is probably as good as the cheapest options on TEMU.
This project is simple, but it does the job. Have you made a more sophisticated battery box, or other more-impressive project? Don’t cast shade on [DoItYourselfDad]: cast light on your work by
letting us know about it
!. | 19 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138367",
"author": "TSW",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T23:23:46",
"content": "COTS components.Commercial – Off – The – Shelf",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138368",
"author": "brucedesertrat",
"timestamp": "2025... | 1,760,371,516.54336 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/the-billionth-repository-on-github-is-really-shitty/ | The Billionth Repository On GitHub Is Really Shitty | Jenny List | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"funny",
"github",
"poop emoji"
] | What’s the GitHub repository you have created that you think is of most note? Which one do you think of as your magnum opus, the one that you will be remembered by? Was it the CAD files and schematics of a device for ending world hunger, or perhaps it was software designed to end poverty? Spare a thought for [AasishPokhrel] then, for his latest repository is one that he’ll be remembered by for all the wrong reasons. The poor guy created a repository with a scatalogical name, no doubt to store random things, but had the misfortune
to inadvertently create the billionth repository on GitHub
.
At the time of writing,
the 💩 repository
sadly contains no commits. But he seems to have won an unexpectedly valuable piece of Internet real estate judging by the attention it’s received, and if we were him we’d be scrambling to fill it with whatever wisdom we wanted the world to see. A peek at his other repos suggests he’s busy learning JavaScript, and we wish him luck in that endeavor.
We think everyone will at some time or another have let loose some code into the wild perhaps with a comment they later regret, or a silly name that later comes back to haunt them. We know we have. So enjoy a giggle at his expense, but don’t give him a hard time. After all, this much entertainment should be rewarded. | 40 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138286",
"author": "Carl Breen",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T20:16:10",
"content": "I feel the energy, like a code comment that was never meant for production.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8138293",
"author": "Dave",
"t... | 1,760,371,516.662763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/2025-pet-hacks-contest-cat-at-the-door/ | 2025 Pet Hacks Contest: Cat At The Door | Matt Varian | [
"contests",
"home hacks"
] | [
"2025 Pet Hacks Contest",
"ble",
"LoRa",
"mmwave"
] | This Pet Hacks Contest entry from [Andrea] opens the door to a great collaboration of sensors to solve a problem. The
Cat At The Door
project’s name is a bit of a giveaway to its purpose, but this project has something for everyone, from radar to e-ink, LoRa to 3D printing. He wanted a sensor to watch the door his cats frequent and when one of his cats were detected have an alert sent to where he is in the house
There are several ways you can detect a cat, in this project [Andrea] went with mmWave radar, and this is ideal for sensing a cat as it allows the sensor to sit protected inside, it works day or night, and it doesn’t stop working should the cat stand still. In his project log he has a chapter going into what he did to dial in the settings on the LD2410C radar board.
How do you know if you’re detecting your cat, some other cat, a large squirrel, or a small child? It helps if you first give your cats a MAC address, in the form of a BLE tag. Once the radar detects presence of a suspected cat, the ESP32-S3 starts looking over Bluetooth, and if a known tag is found it will identify which cat or cats are outside waiting.
Once the known cat has been identified, it’s time to notify [Andrea] that his cat is waiting for his door opening abilities. To do this he selected an ESP32 board that includes a SX1262 LoRa module for communicating with the portable notification device. This battery powered device has a low power e-paper display showing you which cat, as well as an audio buzzer to help alert you.
To read more details about this project head over to the
GitHub page
to check out all the details. Including a very impressive 80 page step-by-step guide showing you step by step how to make your own. Also, be sure to check out the other entries into the
2025 Pet Hacks Contest
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138256",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T18:57:41",
"content": "That’s one well-trained cat butler! :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8138257",
"author": "Miles Archer",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T18:59:14... | 1,760,371,516.714446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/end-of-an-era-noaas-polar-sats-wind-down-operations/ | End Of An Era: NOAA’s Polar Sats Wind Down Operations | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Space"
] | [
"noaa",
"RTL-SDR",
"weather satellite"
] | Since October 1978, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has operated its fleet of Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) — the data from which has been used for a wide array of environmental monitoring applications, from weather forecasting to the detection of forest fires and volcanic eruptions. But technology marches on, and considering that even the youngest member of the fleet has been in orbit for 16 years,
NOAA has decided to retire the remaining operational POES satellites on June 16th
.
NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES)
Under normal circumstances, the retirement of weather satellites wouldn’t have a great impact on our community. But in this case, the satellites in question utilize the Automatic Picture Transmission (APT), Low-Rate Picture Transmission (LRPT), and High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) protocols, all of which can be received by affordable software defined radios (SDRs) such as the RTL-SDR and easily decoded using free and open source software.
As such, many a radio hobbyist has pointed their DIY antennas at these particular satellites and
pulled down stunning pictures of the Earth
. It’s the kind of thing that’s impressive enough to get new folks interested in experimenting with radio, and losing it would be a big blow to the hobby.
Luckily, it’s not
all
bad news. While one of the NOAA satellites slated for retirement is already down for good, at least two remaining birds should be broadcasting publicly accessible imagery for the foreseeable future.
Not For Operational Use
The story starts in January, when NOAA announced that it would soon stop actively maintaining the three remaining operational POES satellites: NOAA-15, NOAA-18, and NOAA-19. At the time, the agency said there were currently no plans to decommission the spacecraft, and that anything they transmitted back down to Earth should be considered “data of opportunity” rather than a reliable source of information.
However, things appeared to have changed by April when
NOAA sent out an update
with what seemed like conflicting information. The update said that delivery of all data from the satellites would be terminated on June 16th, and that any users should switch over to other sources. Taken at face value, this certainly sounded like the end of amateurs being able to receive images from these particular satellites.
This was enough of a concern for radio hobbyists that Carl Reinemann, who operates the SDR-focused website
USRadioguy.com
, reached out to NOAA’s Office of Satellite and Product Operations for clarification. It was explained that the intent of the notice was to inform the public that NOAA would no longer be using or disseminating any of the data collected by the POES satellites, not that they would stop transmitting data entirely.
Further, the APT, LRPT, and HRPT services were to remain active and operate as before. The only difference now would be that the agency couldn’t guarantee how long the data would be available. Should there be any errors or failures on the spacecraft, NOAA won’t address them. In official government parlance, from June 16th, the feeds from the satellites would be considered unsuitable for “operational use.”
In other words, NOAA-15, NOAA-18, and NOAA-19 are free to beam Earth images down to anyone who cares to listen, but when they stop working, they will very likely stop working for good.
NOAA-18’s Early Retirement
As it turns out, it wouldn’t take long before this new arrangement was put to the test. At the end of May, NOAA-15’s S-band radio suffered some sort of failure, causing its output power to drop from its normal 7 watts down to approximately 0.8 watts. This significantly degraded both the downlinked images and the telemetry coming from the spacecraft. This didn’t just make reception by hobbyists more difficult. Even NOAA’s ground stations were having trouble sifting through the noise to get any useful data. To make matters even worse, the failing radio was also the only one left onboard the spacecraft that could actually receive commands from the ground.
While the transmission power issue seemed intermittent, there was clearly something very wrong with the radio, and there was no backup unit to switch over to. Concerned that they might lose control of the satellite entirely, ground controllers quickly made the decision to decommission NOAA-18 on June 6th.
Due to their limited propulsion systems, the POES satellites are unable to de-orbit themselves. So the decommissioning process instead tries to render the spacecraft as inert as possible. This includes turning off all transmitters, venting any remaining propellant into space, and finally, disconnecting all of the batteries from their chargers so they will eventually go flat.
At first glance, this might seem like a rash decision. After all, it was just a glitchy transmitter. What does it matter if NOAA wasn’t planning on using any more data from the satellite in a week or two anyway? But the decision makes more sense when you consider the fate of earlier NOAA POES satellites.
Curse of the Big Four
When one satellite breaks up in orbit, it’s an anomaly. When a second one goes to pieces, it’s time to start looking for commonality between the events. But when four similar spacecraft all explode in the same way…it’s clear you’ve got a serious problem.
That’s precisely what happened with NOAA-16, NOAA-17, and two of their counterparts from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), DMSP F11, and DMSP F13, between 2015 and 2021. While it’s nearly impossible to come to a definitive conclusion about what happened to the vehicles, collectively referred to as the “Big Four” in the
NOAA-17 Break-up Engineering Investigation’s 2023 report
, the most likely cause is a violent rupture of the craft’s Ni-Cd battery pack due to extreme overcharging.
What’s interesting is that NOAA-16 and 17, as well as DMSP F11, had gone through the decommissioning process before their respective breakups. As mentioned earlier, the final phase of the deactivation process is the disconnection of all batteries from the charging system. The NOAA-17 investigation was unable to fully explain how the batteries on these spacecraft could have become overcharged in this state, but speculated it may be possible that some fault in the electrical system inadvertently allowed the batteries to be charged through what normally would have been a discharge path.
As such, there’s no guarantee that the now decommissioned NOAA-18 is actually safe from a design flaw that destroyed its two immediate predecessors. But considering the risk of
not
disconnecting the charge circuits on a spacecraft design that’s known to be prone to overcharging its batteries, it’s not hard to see why NOAA went ahead with the shutdown process while they still had the chance.
The Future of Satellite Sniffing
GOES-16 Image, Credit:
USRadioguy.com
While there are no immediate plans to decommission NOAA-15 and 19, it’s clear that the writing is on the wall. Especially considering the
issues NOAA-15 has had in the past
. These birds aren’t getting any younger, and eventually they’ll go dark, especially now that they’re no longer being actively managed.
So does that mean the end of DIY satellite imagery? Thankfully, no. While it’s true that NOAA-15 and 19 are the only two satellites still transmitting the analog APT protocol, the digital LRPT and HRPT protocols are currently in use by the
latest Russian weather satellites
. Meteor-M 2-3 was launched in June 2023, and Meteor-M 2-4 went up in February 2024, so both should be around for quite some time. In addition, at least four more satellites in the Meteor-M family are slated for launch by 2042.
So, between Russia’s Meteor fleet and the NOAA GOES satellites in geosynchronous orbit, hobbyists should still have plenty to point their antennas at in the coming years. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138249",
"author": "asheets",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T17:56:36",
"content": "That’s kinda a shame. What “other sources” should we be considering other than Meteor and GOES?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138254",
... | 1,760,371,516.86269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/learning-the-basics-of-astrophotography-editing/ | Learning The Basics Of Astrophotography Editing | Bryan Cockfield | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Space"
] | [
"astrophotography",
"editing",
"photoshop",
"siril"
] | Astrophotography isn’t easy. Even with good equipment, simply snapping a picture of the night sky won’t produce anything particularly impressive. You’ll likely just get a black void with a few pinpricks of light for your troubles. It takes some editing magic to create stunning images of the cosmos, and luckily
[Karl Perera] has a guide to help get you started
.
The guide demonstrates a number of editing techniques specifically geared to bring the extremely dim lights of the stars into view, using Photoshop and additionally a free software tool called Siril specifically designed for astrophotograpy needs. The first step on an image is to “stretch” it, essentially expanding the histogram by increasing the image’s contrast. A second technique called curve adjustment performs a similar procedure for smaller parts of the image. A number of other processes are performed as well, which reduce noise, sharpen details, and make sure the image is polished.
While the guide does show some features of non-free software like Photoshop, it’s not too hard to extrapolate these tasks into free software like Gimp. It’s an excellent primer for bringing out the best of your astrophotography skills once the pictures have been captured, though. And although astrophotography itself might have a reputation as being incredibly expensive just to capture those pictures in the first place, it can be much more accessible by using
this Pi-based setup as a starting point
. | 13 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138227",
"author": "Ken C",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T15:43:38",
"content": "What about using wavelet transform to extract obscure features from captured images?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138265",
"author": "TG"... | 1,760,371,516.807203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/crowdsourcing-sigint-ham-radio-at-war/ | Crowdsourcing SIGINT: Ham Radio At War | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Radio Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"cryptography",
"ham radio",
"world war II",
"wwii"
] | I often ask people: What’s the most important thing you need to have a successful fishing trip? I get a lot of different answers about bait, equipment, and boats. Some people tell me beer. But the best answer, in my opinion, is fish. Without fish, you are sure to come home empty-handed.
On a recent visit to Bletchley Park, I thought about this and how it relates to World War II codebreaking. All the computers and smart people in the world won’t help you decode messages if you don’t already have the messages. So while Alan Turing and the codebreakers at Bletchley are well-known, at least in our circles, fewer people know about Arkley View.
The problem was apparent to the British. The Axis powers were sending lots of radio traffic. It would take a literal army of radio operators to record it all. Colonel Adrian Simpson sent a report to the director of MI5 in 1938 explaining that the three listening stations were not enough. The proposal was to build a network of volunteers to handle radio traffic interception.
That was the start of the Radio Security Service (RSS), which started operating out of some unused cells at a prison in London. The volunteers? Experienced ham radio operators who used their own equipment, at first, with the particular goal of intercepting transmissions from enemy agents on home soil.
At the start of the war, ham operators had their transmitters impounded. However, they still had their receivers and, of course, could all read Morse code. Further, they were probably accustomed to pulling out Morse code messages under challenging radio conditions.
Over time, this volunteer army of hams would swell to about 1,500 members. The RSS also supplied some radio gear to help in the task. MI5 checked each potential member, and the local police would visit to ensure the applicant was trustworthy. Keep in mind that radio intercepts were also done by servicemen and women (especially women) although many of them were engaged in reporting on voice communication or military communications.
Early Days
The VIs (voluntary interceptors) were asked to record any station they couldn’t identify and submit a log that included the messages to the RSS.
Arkey View ([Aka2112]
CC-BY-SA-3.0
)
The hams of the RSS noticed that there were German signals that used standard ham radio codes (like Q signals and the prosign 73). However, these transmissions also used five-letter code groups, a practice forbidden to hams.
Thanks to a double agent, the RSS was able to decode the messages that were between agents in Europe and their Abwehr handlers back in Germany (the Abwehr was the German Secret Service) as well as Abwehr offices in foreign cities. Later messages contained Enigma-coded groups, as well.
Between the RSS team’s growth and the fear of bombing, the prison was traded for Arkley View, a large house near Barnet, north of London. Encoded messages went to Bletchley and, from there, to others up to Churchill. Soon, the RSS had orders to concentrate on the Abwehr and their SS rivals, the Sicherheitsdienst.
Change in Management
In 1941, MI6 decided that since the RSS was dealing with foreign radio traffic, they should be in charge, and thus RSS became SCU3 (Special Communications Unit 3).
There was fear that some operators might be taken away for normal military service, so some operators were inducted into the Army — sort of. They were put in uniform as part of the Royal Corps of Signals, but not required to do very much you’d expect from an Army recruit.
Those who worked at Arkley View would process logs from VIs and other radio operators to classify them and correlate them in cases where there were multiple logs. One operator might miss a few characters that could be found in a different log, for example.
Going 24/7
National HRO Receiver ([LuckyLouie]
CC-BY-SA-3.0
)
It soon became clear that the RSS needed full-time monitoring, so they built a number of Y stations with two National HRO receivers from America at each listening position. There were also direction-finding stations built in various locations to attempt to identify where a remote transmitter was.
Many of the direction finding operators came from VIs. The stations typically had four antennas in a directional array. When one of the central stations (the Y stations) picked up a signal, they would call direction finding stations using dedicated phone lines and send them the signal.
Map of the Y-stations (interactive map at the
Bletchley Park website
)
The operator would hear the phone signal in one ear and the radio signal in the other. Then, they would change the antenna pattern electrically until the signal went quiet, indicating the antenna was electrically pointing away from the signals.
The DF operator would hear this signal in one earpiece. They would then tune their radio receiver to the right frequency and match the signal from the main station in one ear to the signal from their receiver in the other ear. This made sure they were measuring the correct signal among the various other noise and interference. The DF operator would then take a bearing by rotating the dial on their radiogoniometer until the signal faded out. That indicated the antenna was pointing the wrong way which means you could deduce which way it should be pointing.
The central station could plot lines from three direction finding stations and tell the source of a transmission. Sort of. It wasn’t incredibly accurate, but it did help differentiate signals from different transmitters. Later, other types of direction-finding gear saw service, but the idea was still the same.
Interesting VIs
Most of the VIs, like most hams at the time, were men. But there were a few women, including Helena Crawley. She was encouraged to marry her husband Leslie, another VI, so they could be relocated to Orkney to copy radio traffic from Norway.
In 1941, a single VI was able to record an important message of 4,429 characters. He was bedridden from a landmine injury during the Great War. He operated from bed using mirrors and special control extensions. For his work, he receive the British Empire Medal and a personal letter of gratitude from Churchill.
Results
Because of the intercepts of the German spy agency’s communications, many potential German agents were known before they arrived in the UK. Of about 120 agents arriving, almost 30 were turned into double agents. Others were arrested and, possibly, executed.
By the end of the war, the RSS had decoded around a quarter of a million intercepts. It was very smart of MI5 to realize that it could leverage a large number of trained radio operators both to cover the country with receivers and to free up military stations for other uses.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic,
the FCC had a similar plan
.
The BBC did a documentary about the work the hams did during the war. You can watch it below. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138205",
"author": "Ali",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T14:20:15",
"content": "But the best answer, in my opinion, is fish. Without fish, you are sure to come home empty-handed.You can always stop at local supermarket and buy a fish, then you come at home satisfied.",
"parent_id": n... | 1,760,371,517.175579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/open-source-cad-in-the-browser/ | Open Source CAD In The Browser | Al Williams | [
"cnc hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"3d modeling",
"cad",
"webassembly"
] | Some people love tools in their browsers. Others hate them. We certainly do like to see just how far people can push the browser and version 0.6 of
CHILI3D
, a browser-based CAD program, certainly pushes.
If you click the link, you might want to find the top right corner to change the language (although a few messages stubbornly refuse to use English). From there, click New Document and you’ll see an impressive slate of features in the menus and toolbars.
The export button is one of those stubborn features. If you draw something and select export, you’ll see a dialog in Chinese. Translated it has the title: Select and a checkmark for “Determined” and a red X for “Cancelled.” If you select some things in the drawing and click the green checkmark, it will export a brep file. That file format is common with CAD programs, but you’ll need to convert, probably, if you want to 3D print your design.
The project’s
GitHub
repository shows an impressive slate of features, but also notes that things are changing as this is alpha software. The CAD kernel is a common one brought in via
WebAssembly
, so there shouldn’t be many simple bugs involving geometry.
We’ve seen a number of
browser-based tools
that do some kind of CAD.
CADmium
is a recent entry into the list. Or, stick with
OpenSCAD
. We sometimes go
low-tech for schematics
. | 43 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138159",
"author": "ramzi",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T11:17:21",
"content": "I wish we could see more AAA games in browser. No more wasting time downloading, no more wasting HDD space. Just open URL and play. This will be the future of gaming.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1... | 1,760,371,517.434537 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/diy-calibration-target-for-electron-microscopes/ | DIY Calibration Target For Electron Microscopes | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"electron microscope",
"gold",
"nanoparticles",
"scanning electron microscope"
] | It’s a problem that few of us will ever face, but if you ever have to calibrate your scanning electron microscope, you’ll need a resolution target with a high contrast under an electron beam. This requires an extremely small pattern of alternating high and low-density materials, which
[ProjectsInFlight] created in his latest video
by depositing gold nanoparticles on a silicon slide.
[ProjectsInFlight]’s scanning electron microscope came from a lab that discarded it as nonfunctional, and as we’ve
seen before
, he’s since been getting it back into working condition. When it was new, it could magnify 200,000 times and resolve features of 5.5 nm, and a resolution target with a range of feature sizes would indicate how high a magnification the microscope could still reach. [ProjectsInFlight] could also use the target to make before-and-after comparisons for his repairs, and to properly adjust the electron beam.
Since it’s easy to get very flat silicon wafers, [ProjectsInFlight] settled on these as the low-density portion of the target, and deposited a range of sizes of gold nanoparticles onto them as the high-density portion. To make the nanoparticles, he started by dissolving a small sample of gold in aqua regia to make chloroauric acid, then reduced this back to gold nanoparticles using sodium citrate. This gave particles in the 50-100 nanometer range, but [ProjectsInFlight] also needed some larger particles. This proved troublesome for a while, until he learned that he needed to cool the reaction temperature solution to near freezing before making the nanoparticles.
Using these particles, [ProjectsInFlight] was able to tune the astigmatism settings on the microscope’s electron beam so that it could clearly resolve the larger particles, and just barely see the smaller particles – quite an achievement considering that they’re under 100 nanometers across!
Electron microscopes are still a
pretty rare
build, but
not unheard-of
. If you ever find one
that’s broken
, it could be a
worthwhile investment
. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138214",
"author": "Interloper",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T14:57:06",
"content": "Is calibrate the right word here?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138277",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T19:45:35"... | 1,760,371,517.305085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/step-into-combat-robotics-with-project-svrn/ | Step Into Combat Robotics With Project SVRN! | Ian Bos | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"combat robot",
"robot platform"
] | We all love combat robotics for its creative problem solving; trying to fit drivetrains and weapon systems in a small and light package is never as simple as it appears to be. When you get to the real lightweights… throw everything you know out the window! [Shoverobotics] saw this as a barrier for getting into the 150g weight class, so he created the combat robotics platform named
Project SVRN
.
You want 4-wheel drive? It’s got it! Wedge or a Grabber? Of course! Anything else you can imagine? Feel free to add and modify the platform to your heart’s content! Controlled by a Malenki Nano, a receiver and motor controller combo board, the SVRN platform allows anyone to get into fairyweight fights with almost no experience.
With 4 N10 motors giving quick control, the platform acts as an excellent platform for various bot designs. Though the electronics and structure are rather simple, the most important and impressive part of Project SVRN is the detailed documentation for every part of building the bot. You can find and follow the documentation yourself from [Shoverobotics]’s
Printables page here
!
If you already know every type of coil found in your old Grav-Synthesized Vex-Flux from your Whatsamacallit this might not be needed for you, but many people trying to get into making need a ramp to shoot for the stars. For those needing more technical know-how in combat robotics, check out
Kitten Mittens
, a bot that uses its weapon for locomotion! | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138145",
"author": "Andrzej",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T10:11:33",
"content": "FYI, “maleńki” in Polish means tiny.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8138422",
"author": "KDawg",
"timestamp": "2025-06-13T04:01:33",
"co... | 1,760,371,517.046043 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/bipolar-uranium-extraction-from-seawater-with-ultra-low-cell-voltage/ | Bipolar Uranium Extraction From Seawater With Ultra-Low Cell Voltage | Maya Posch | [
"Science"
] | [
"electrochemistry",
"seawater",
"uranium",
"uranium mining"
] | As common as uranium is in the ground around us, the world’s oceans contain a thousand times more uranium (~4.5 billion tons) than can be mined today. This makes extracting uranium as well as other resources from seawater a very interesting proposition, albeit it one that requires finding a technological solution to not only filter out these highly diluted substances, but also do so in a way that’s economically viable. Now it seems that Chinese researchers have recently come
tantalizingly close
to achieving this goal.
The anode chemical reaction to extract uranium. (Credit: Wang et al., Nature Sustainability, 2025)
The used electrochemical method is
described in the paper
(
gift link
) by [Yanjing Wang] et al., as published in
Nature Sustainability
. The claimed recovery cost of up to 100% of the uranium in the seawater is approximately $83/kilogram, which would be much cheaper than previous methods and is within striking distance of current uranium
spot prices
at about $70 – 85.
Of course, the challenge is to scale up this lab-sized prototype into something more industrial-sized. What’s interesting about this low-voltage method is that the conversion of uranium oxide ions to solid uranium oxides occurs at both the anode and cathode unlike with previous electrochemical methods. The copper anode becomes part of the electrochemical process, with UO
2
deposited on the cathode and U
3
O
8
on the anode.
Among the reported performance statistics of this prototype are the ability to extract UO
2
2+
ions from an NaCl solution at concentrations ranging from 1 – 50 ppm. At 20 ppm and in the presence of Cl
–
ions (as is typical in seawater), the extraction rate was about 100%, compared to ~9.1% for the adsorption method. All of this required only a cell voltage of 0.6 V with 50 mA current, while being highly uranium-selective. Copper pollution of the water is also prevented, as the dissolved copper from the anode was found on the cathode after testing.
The process was tested on actual seawater (East & South China Sea), with ten hours of operation resulting in a recovery rate of 100% and 85.3% respectively. With potential electrode optimizations suggested by the authors, this extraction method might prove to be a viable way to not only recover uranium from seawater, but also at uranium mining facilities and more. | 52 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137819",
"author": "spiritplumber@gmail.com",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T12:46:38",
"content": "This can be used to recover uranium from cooling water used in NPPs instead of dumping it to rivers.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,517.268642 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/threaded-insert-press-is-100-3d-printed/ | Threaded Insert Press Is 100% 3D Printed | Tyler August | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d print",
"arbor press",
"heat set inserts",
"threaded insert"
] | Sometimes, when making a 3D printed object, plastic just isn’t enough. Probably the most common addition to our prints is the ubiquitous brass threaded inset, which has proven its worth time and again over the years in providing a secure screw attachment point with less hassle than a captive nut. Of course to insert these bits of machined brass, you need to press them in, and unless you’ve got a very good hand with a soldering iron it’s usually a good idea to use a press of some sort. [TimNummy] shows us that, ironically enough, making such a
press is perfectly doable using only printed parts
. Well, save for the soldering iron, of course.
He calls it the Superserter. Not only is it 100% printed plastic, but the entire design fits on a single 256 mm by 256 mm bed. In his case it was done on the Bambulab X1C, but it’s a common enough print bed size
and
can be printed without any supports. It’s even sized to fit the
popular Gridfinity standard
for a neat and tidy desk and handy bin placement for the inserts.
[TimNummy] clearly spent some time thinking about
design for 3D printed manufacturing
in order to create an assembly that does not need linear rails, sliders, or bearings as other press projects often do. The ironic thing is that if that same amount of effort went into other designs, it might eliminate the need for threaded inserts entirely.
If you haven’t delved into the world of threaded inserts, we put up a
how-to-guide a few years ago
. If you’re wondering if you can get away with just printing threads, the answer is “maybe”– we
highlighted a video comparing printed threads with different inserts a while back
to get you started thinking about the design limitations there. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137769",
"author": "Mindaugas",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T08:45:00",
"content": "I have pressed thousands of inserts with basic soldering iron by hand – they usually self-center without any deviation. Positioning the part under these presses looks like a nightmare, if the part is no... | 1,760,371,517.355126 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/back-to-the-future-lunchbox-cyberdeck/ | Back To The FutureLunchbox Cyberdeck | John Elliot V | [
"Art",
"computer hacks",
"hardware",
"Raspberry Pi",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"back to the future"
] | Our hacker [Valve Child] wrote in to let us know about his
Back to the Future
lunchbox cyberdeck
.
Great Scott! This is so awesome. We’re not sure what we should say, or where we should begin. A lot of you wouldn’t have been there, on July 3rd, 1985, nearly forty years ago. But we were there. Oh yes, we were there. On that day the movie
Back to the Future
was released, along with the hit song from its soundtrack:
Huey Lewis & The News – The Power Of Love
.
For the last forty years
Back to the Future
has been inspiring nerds and hackers everywhere with its themes of time-travel and technology. If you know what to look for you will find references to the movie throughout nerd culture. The OUTATIME number plate behind Dave Jones in the EEVblog videos?
Back to the Future
. The Flux Capacitor
for sale
at the Australian electronics store Jaycar?
Back to the Future
. The EEVblog
121GW Multimeter
?
Back to the Future
. But it’s not just those kooky Australians, it’s all over the place including Rick and Morty, The Big Bang Theory, Ready Player One, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Futurama, Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, LEGO Dimensions, and more.
As [Valve Child] explains he has built this cyberdeck for use on his work bench from a lunchbox gifted to him by his children last Christmas. His cyberdeck is based on the Raspberry Pi 5 and includes a cool looking and completely unnecessary water cooling system, a flux capacitor which houses the power supply, voltage and current meters, an OLED display for temperature and other telemetry, a bunch of lighting for that futuristic aesthetic, and a Bluetooth boombox for 80’s flair. Click through to
watch the video demonstration
of this delightfully detailed cyberdeck and if you want check out the
extra photos
too.
We ran a search for “
Back to the Future
” in the Hackaday archives and found 73 articles that mentioned the movie! Over the years we’ve riffed on
hoverboards
,
calculator watches
, the
DeLorean
, and the slick
Mr. Fusion
unit; and long may we continue. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137815",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T12:27:47",
"content": "Clearly from the future. Blue LEDs hadn’t been invented then.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8137888",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,371,519.019219 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/what-marie-curie-left-behind/ | What Marie Curie Left Behind | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"Curie",
"polonium",
"radium"
] | It is a good bet that if most scientists and engineers were honest, they would most like to leave something behind that future generations would remember. While Marie Curie met that standard — she was the first woman to win the Nobel prize because of her work with radioactivity, and a unit of radioactivity (yes, we know — not the SI unit) is a Curie. However, Curie also left something else behind inadvertently: radioactive residue. As the BBC explains,
science detectives are retracing her steps and facing some difficult decisions about what to do with contaminated historical artifacts
.
Marie was born in Poland and worked in Paris. Much of the lab she shared with her husband is contaminated with radioactive material transferred by the Curies’ handling of things like radium with their bare hands.
Some of the traces have been known for years, including some on the lab notebooks the two scientists shared. However, they are still finding contamination, including at her family home, presumably brought in from the lab.
There is some debate about whether all the contamination is actually from Marie. Her daughter, Irène, also used the office. The entire story starts when Marie realized that radioactive pitchblende contained uranium and thorium, but was more radioactive than those two elements when they were extracted. The plan was to extract all the uranium and thorium from a sample, leaving this mystery element.
It was a solid plan, but working in a store room and, later, a shed with no ventilation and handling materials bare-handed wasn’t a great idea. They did isolate two elements: polonium (named after Marie’s birth country) and radium. Research eventually proved fatal as Marie succumbed to leukemia, probably due to other work she did with X-rays. She and her husband are now in Paris’ Pantheon, in lead-lined coffins, just in case.
If you want a quick video tour of the museum, [Sem Wonders] has a video you can see, below. If you didn’t know about
the Curie’s scientist daughter
, we can help you with that. Meanwhile, you shouldn’t be
drinking radium
. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137680",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T02:07:19",
"content": "She won two Nobels, in different years, for Physics and Chemistry.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8137779",
"author": "Stephen",
"ti... | 1,760,371,519.271377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/using-a-videocard-as-a-computer-enclosure/ | Using A Videocard As A Computer Enclosure | Maya Posch | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"sleeper pc",
"VideoCard"
] | The CherryTree-modded card next to the original RTX 2070 GPU. (Credit: Gamers Nexus)
In the olden days of the 1990s and early 2000s, PCs were big and videocards were small-ish add-in boards that blended in with other ISA, PCI and AGP cards. These days, however, videocards are big and computers are increasingly smaller. That’s why US-based CherryTree Computers did what everyone has been joking about, and installed a PC inside a GPU, with [Gamers Nexus]
having the honors of poking at
the creatively titled
GeeFarce 5027POS
Micro Computer
.
As CherryTree
describes it
on their website, this one-off build was the result of a joke about how GPUs nowadays are more expensive than the rest of the PC combined. Thus they did what any reasonable person would do and put an Asus NUC 13 with a 13th gen Core i7, 64 GB of and 2 TB of NVMe storage inside an (already dead) Asus Aorus RTX 2070 GPU.
In the [Gamers Nexus] video we can see that it’s definitely a quick-and-dirty build, with plenty of heatshrink and wires running everywhere in addition to the chopped off original heatsink. That said, from a few meter away it still looks like a GPU, can be installed like a GPU (but the PCIe connector does nothing) and is in the end a NUC PC inside a GPU shell that you can put a couple of inside a PC case.
Presumably the next project we’ll see in this vein will see a full-blown x86 system grafted inside a still functioning GPU, which would truly make the ‘install the PC inside the GPU’ meme a reality. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137659",
"author": "J. Peterson",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T00:17:36",
"content": "The irony is a modern GPU is just nine chips (GPU + VRAM). All the rest of the bulk is power and heat management.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": ... | 1,760,371,519.162332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/two-bits-four-bits-a-twelve-bit-oscilloscope/ | Two Bits, Four Bits, A Twelve-bit Oscilloscope | Al Williams | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"digital Oscilloscope",
"oscilloscope"
] | Until recently, hobby-grade digital oscilloscopes were mostly, at most, 8-bit sampling. However, newer devices offer 12-bit conversion. Does it matter? Depends. [Kiss Analog] shows
where a 12-bit scope may outperform an 8-bit one
.
It may seem obvious, of course. When you store data in 8-bit resolution and zoom in on it, you simply have less resolution. However, seeing the difference on real data is enlightening.
To perform the test, he used three scopes to freeze on a fairly benign wave. Then he cranked up the vertical scale and zoomed in horizontally. The 8-bit scopes reveal a jagged line where the digitizer is off randomly by a bit or so. The 12-bit was able to zoom in on a smooth waveform.
Of course, if you set the scope to zoom in in real time, you don’t have that problem as much, because you divide a smaller range by 256 (the number of slices in 8 bits). However, if you have that once-in-a-blue-moon waveform captured, you might appreciate not having to try to capture it again with different settings.
A scope doesn’t have to be
physically large to do a 12-bit sample
. Digital sampling for scopes
has come a long way
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137731",
"author": "Charles Springer",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T05:21:03",
"content": "I would expect the place 12 bits will shine, other than just being nicer to look at, is in any scope that does some DSP. It should drastic reduce sampling artifacts and aliases. Among them is the... | 1,760,371,519.058241 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/generating-plasma-with-a-hand-cranked-generator/ | Generating Plasma With A Hand-Cranked Generator | Maya Posch | [
"High Voltage"
] | [
"electrical generator",
"plasma",
"voltage multiplier"
] | Everyone loves to play with electricity and plasma, and
[Hyperspace Pirate] is no exception
. Inspired by a couple of 40×20 N52 neodymium magnets he had kicking around, he decided to put together a hand-cranked generator and use it to generate plasma with. Because that’s the kind of fun afternoon projects that enrich our lives, and who doesn’t want some Premium Fire™ to enrich their lives?
The generator itself is mostly 3D printed, with the magnets producing current in eight copper coils as they spin past. Courtesy of the 4.5:1 gear on the crank side, it actually spins at over 1,000 RPM with fairly low effort when unloaded, albeit due to the omission of iron cores in the coils. This due to otherwise the very strong magnets likely cogging the generator to the point where starting to turn it by hand would become practically impossible.
Despite this, the generator produces over a kilovolt with the 14,700 turns of 38 AWG copper wire, which is enough for the voltage multiplier and electrodes in the vacuum chamber, which were laid out as follows:
Circuit for the plasma-generating circuit with a vacuum chamber & hand-cranked generator. (Credit: Hyperspace Pirate, YouTube)
Some of our esteemed readers may be reminded of arc lighters which are all the rage these days, and this is basically the hand-cranked, up-scaled version of that. Aside from the benefits of having a portable super-arc lighter that doesn’t require batteries, the generator part could be useful in general for survival situations. Outside of a vacuum chamber the voltage required to ionize the air becomes higher, but since you generally don’t need a multi-centimeter arc to ignite some tinder, this contraption should be more than sufficient to light things on fire, as well as any stray neon signs you may come across.
If you’re looking for an easier way to provide some high-voltage excitement, automotive ignition coils can be
pushed into service with little more than a 555 timer
, and if you can get your hands on a flyback transformer from a CRT,
firing them up is even easier
. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137537",
"author": "Caden",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T18:44:42",
"content": "A microwave oven transformer can also be plugged directly into the wall, but it’s considerably more dangerous with 2 kV at 1-2 Amps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,519.444763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/hacking-t-cells-to-treat-celiac-disease/ | Hacking T Cells To Treat Celiac Disease | Navarre Bartz | [
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"autoimmune disease",
"autoimmunity",
"Disease",
"immune system",
"medical hacks"
] | As there is no cure for celiac disease, people must stick to a gluten free diet to remain symptom-free. While this has become easier in recent years, scientists have found some
promising results in mice
for disabling the disease. [via
ScienceAlert
]
Since celiac is an auto-immune disorder, finding ways to alter the immune response to gluten is one area of investigation to alleviate the symptoms of the disease. Using a so-called “inverse vaccine,” researchers “engineered regulatory T cells (eT
regs
) modified to orthotopically express T cell receptors specific to gluten peptides could quiet gluten-reactive effector T cells.”
The reason these are called “inverse vaccines” is that, unlike a traditional vaccine that turns up the immune response to a given stimuli, this does the opposite. When the scientists tried the technique with transgenic mice, the mice exhibited resistance to the typical effects of the target gluten antigen and a related type on the digestive system. As with much research, there is still a lot of work to do, including testing resistance to other types of gluten and whether there are still long-term deleterious effects on true celiac digestive systems as the transgenic mice only had HLA-DQ2.5 reactivity.
If this sounds vaguely familiar, we covered
“inverse vaccines”
in more detail previously. | 15 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138080",
"author": "LookAtDaShinyShiny",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T03:23:53",
"content": "Now they need to start looking at crohns/colitis T-cells, would be good to see some movement on that (pun definitely intended!!)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,519.209469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/compound-press-bends-punches-and-cuts-using-3d-printed-plastic/ | Compound Press Bends, Punches And Cuts Using 3D Printed Plastic | Tyler August | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"arbor press",
"compound die",
"manufacturing",
"sheet metal",
"stamping"
] | It’s not quite “bend, fold or mutilate” but this project comes close– it actually
manufactures a spring clip
for [Super Valid Designs] PETAL light system. In the video (embedded below) you’ll see why this tool was needed: by-hand manufacturing worked for the prototype, but really would not scale.
Two examples of the spring in question, embedded in the 3D printed light socket. There’s another pair you can’t see.
The lights themselves
might be worthy of a post
, being a modular, open source DMX stage lighting rig. Today though we’re looking at how they are manufactured– specifically how one part is manufactured. With these PETAL lights, the lights slot into a base station, which obviously requires a connection of some sort. [Super Valid Designs] opted for a spring connector, which is super valid.
It’s also a pain to work by hand: spring steel needed to be cut to length, hole punched, and bent into the specific shape required. The hand-made springs always needed adjustment after assembly, too, which is no good when people are giving you money for objects. Even when using a tent-pole spring that comes halfway to meeting their requirements, [Super Valid Designs] was not happy with the workflow.
Enter the press: 3D Printed dies rest inside a spring-loaded housing, performing the required bends. Indeed, they were able to improve the shape of the design thanks to the precision afforded by the die. The cutting step happens concurrently, with the head of a pair of tin snips mounted to the jig, and a punch finishes it off. All of this is actuated with a cheap, bog simple , hand-operated arbor press. What had been tedious minutes of work is reduced to but a moment of lever-pushing.
It great story about scaling and manufacturing that may hopefully inspire others in their projects. Perhaps with further optimization and automation, [Super Valid Designs] may find himself in the market for a
modular conveyor belt design.
While this process remains fundamentally manual, we have seen automation in maker-type businesses before, like this
coaster-slinging CNC setup
. Of course automation doesn’t have to be part of a business model; sometimes it’s nice just to skip a tedious bunch of steps,
like when building a star lamp. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138072",
"author": "Hales",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T02:19:50",
"content": "Beautiful and detailed video.I wonder what the tent peg springs are made out of? Would they just be a plated mild steel or something fancier?I’d love to be able to make my own arbitrary spring contacts, th... | 1,760,371,519.110224 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/randomly-generating-atari-games/ | Randomly Generating Atari Games | Al Williams | [
"Games",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"atari 2600"
] | They say that if you let a million monkeys type on a million typewriters, they will eventually write the works of Shakespeare. While not quite the same thing [bbenchoff] (why does that sound familiar?), spent some computing cycles to generate random data and, via heuristics, find
valid Atari 2600 “games” in the data
.
As you might expect, the games aren’t going to be things you want to play all day long. In fact, they are more like demos. However, there are a number of interesting programs, considering they were just randomly generated.
Part of the reason this works is that the Atari has a fairly simple 6502-based CPU, so it is straightforward to evaluate the code, and a complete game fits in 4 K. Still, that means there are, according to [Brian], 10
10159
possible ROMs. Compare that to about 10
80
protons in the visible universe, and you start to see the scale of the problem.
To cut down the problem, you need some heuristics you can infer from actual games. For one thing, at least 75% of the first 1K of a ROM should be valid opcodes. It is also easy to identify code that writes to the TV and other I/O devices. Obviously, a program with no I/O isn’t going to be an interesting one.
Some of the heuristics deal with reducing the search space. For example, a valid ROM will have a reset vector in the last two bytes, so it is possible to generate random data and then apply the small number of legal reset vectors.
Why? Do you really need a reason? If you don’t have a 2600 handy, do like [Brian] and use
an emulator
. We wonder if the setup would ever recreate
Tarzan
? | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138013",
"author": "a_do_z",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T21:17:19",
"content": "I wonder how results of this effort would compare on a more traditional “computer”. The 2600 TIA – Television Interface Adapter (video generator chip) is a bit of a unique animal having no buffer memory an... | 1,760,371,519.393968 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/floss-weekly-episode-836-beeps-and-boops-with-meshtastic/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 836: Beeps And Boops With Meshtastic | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"Meshtastic"
] | This week
Jonathan
and
Aaron
chat with
Ben Meadors
and
Garth Vander Houwen
about Meshtastic! What’s changed since we talked to them last, where is the project going, and what’s coming next? Listen to find out!
https://meshtastic.org/
https://flasher.meshtastic.org/
https://meshtastic.com/
Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show right on
our YouTube Channel
? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us!
Take a look at the schedule here
.
Direct Download
in DRM-free MP3.
If you’d rather read along,
here’s the transcript for this week’s episode
.
Places to follow the FLOSS Weekly Podcast:
Spotify
RSS
Theme music: “Newer Wave” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under
Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8138199",
"author": "Matthias",
"timestamp": "2025-06-12T13:55:32",
"content": "This transcript seem to be broken / empty?https://flossweekly.libsyn.com/site/category/episode-836-transcript",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8138... | 1,760,371,518.965735 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/network-infrastructure-and-demon-slaying-virtualization-expands-what-a-desktop-can-do/ | Network Infrastructure And Demon-Slaying: Virtualization Expands What A Desktop Can Do | Bryan Cockfield | [
"computer hacks",
"Slider",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"containerization",
"proxmox",
"virtual machine",
"virtualization"
] | The original
DOOM
is famously portable — any computer made within at least the last two decades, including those in printers, heart monitors, passenger vehicles, and routers is almost guaranteed to have a port of the iconic 1993 shooter. The more modern iterations in the series are a little trickier to port, though. Multi-core processors, discrete graphics cards, and gigabytes of memory are generally needed, and it’ll be a long time before something like an off-the-shelf router has all of these components.
But with a specialized distribution of Debian Linux called Proxmox and a healthy amount of configuration it’s possible to flip this idea on its head: getting a desktop computer capable of playing modern video games to take over the network infrastructure for a LAN instead, all with minimal impact to the overall desktop experience. In effect, it’s possible to have a router that can not only play
DOOM
but play 2020’s
DOOM Eternal
, likely with hardware most of us already have on hand.
The key that makes a setup like this work is virtualization. Although
modern software makes it seem otherwise
, not every piece of software needs an eight-core processor and 32 GB of memory. With that in mind, virtualization software splits modern multi-core processors into groups which can act as if they are independent computers. These virtual computers or virtual machines (VMs) can directly utilize not only groups or single processor cores independently, but reserved portions of memory as well as other hardware like peripherals and disk drives.
Proxmox itself is a version of Debian with a number of tools available that streamline this process, and it installs on PCs in essentially the same way as any other Linux distribution would. Once installed, tools like LXC for containerization, KVM for full-fledged virtual machines, and an intuitive web interface are easily accessed by the user to allow containers and VMs to be quickly set up, deployed, backed up, removed, and even sent to other Proxmox installations.
Desktop to Server
The hardware I’m using for Proxmox is one of two desktop computers that I put together
shortly after writing this article
. Originally this one was set up as a gaming rig and general-purpose desktop computer running Debian, but with its hardware slowly aging and my router not getting a software update for the last half decade I thought I would just relegate the over-powered ninth-generation Intel Core i7 with 32 GB of RAM to run the OPNsense router operating system on bare metal, while building a more modern desktop to replace it. This was both expensive not only in actual cost but in computer resources as well, so I began investigating ways that I could more efficiently use this aging desktop’s resources. This is where Proxmox comes in.
By installing Proxmox and then allocating four of my eight cores to an OPNsense virtual machine, in theory the desktop could function as a router while having resources leftover for other uses, like demon-slaying. Luckily my motherboard already has two network interfaces, so the connection to a modem and the second out to a LAN could both be accommodated without needing to purchase and install more hardware. But this is where Proxmox’s virtualization tools start to shine. Not only can processor cores and chunks of memory be passed through to VMs directly, but other hardware can be sectioned off and passed through as well.
So I assigned one network card to pass straight through to OPNsense, which connects to my modem and receives an IP address from my ISP like a normal router would. The other network interface stays with the Proxmox host, where it is assigned to an internal network bridge where other VMs get network access. With this setup, all VMs and containers I create on the Proxmox machine can access the LAN through the bridge, and since the second networking card is assigned to this bridge as well, any other physical machines (including my WiFi access point) can access this LAN too.
Not All VMs are Equal
Another excellent virtualization feature that Proxmox makes easily accessible is the idea of “CPU units”. In my setup, having four cores available for a router might seem like overkill, and indeed it is until my network gets fully upgraded to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Until then, it might seem like these cores are wasted.
However, using CPU units the Proxmox host can assign unused or underutilized cores to other machines on the fly. This also lets a user “over-assign” cores, while the CPU units value acts as a sort of priority list. My ninth-generation Intel Core i7 has eight cores, so in this simple setup I can assign four cores to OPNsense with a very high value for CPU units and then assign six cores to a Debian 12 VM with a lower CPU unit value. This scheduling trick makes it seem as though my eight-core machine is actually a ten-core machine, where the Debian 12 VM can use all six cores unless the OPNsense VM needs them. However, this won’t get around the physical eight-core reality where doing something like playing a resource-intense video game while there’s a large network load, and this reassignment of cores back to the router’s VM could certainly impact performance in-game.
A list of VMs and containers running on Proxmox making up a large portion of my LAN, as well as storage options for my datacenter.
Of course, if I’m going to install
DOOM Eternal
on my Debian 12 VM, it’s going to need a graphics card and some peripherals as well. Passing through USB devices like a mouse and keyboard is straightforward. Passing through a graphics card isn’t much different, with some caveats.
The motherboard, chipset, and processor must support
IOMMU
to start. From there, hardware that’s passed through to a VM won’t be available to anything else including the host, so with the graphics card assigned to a VM, the display for the host won’t be available anymore. This can be a problem if something goes wrong with the Proxmox machine and the network at the same time (not out of the question since the router is running in Proxmox too), rendering both the display and the web UI unavailable simultaneously.
To mitigate this, I went into the UEFI settings for the motherboard and set the default display to the integrated Intel graphics card on the i7. When Proxmox boots it’ll grab the integrated graphics card, saving the powerful Radeon card for whichever VM needs it.
At this point I’ve solved my initial set of problems, and effectively have a router that can also play many modern PC games. Most importantly, I haven’t actually spent any money at this point either. But with the ability to over-assign processor cores as well as arbitrarily passing through bits of the computer to various VMs, there’s plenty more that I found for this machine to do besides these two tasks.
Containerized Applications
The ninth-gen Intel isn’t the only machine I have from this era. I also have an eighth-generation machine (
with the IME disabled
) that had been performing some server duties for me, including network-attached storage (NAS) and media streaming, as well as monitoring an IP security camera system. With my more powerful desktop ready for more VMs I slowly started migrating these services over to Proxmox, freeing the eighth-gen machine for bare-metal tasks largely related to gaming and media. The first thing to migrate was my NAS. Rather than have Debian manage a RAID array and share it over the network on its own, I used Proxmox to spin up a TrueNAS Scale VM. TrueNAS has the benefit of using ZFS as a filesystem, a much more robust setup than the standard ext4 filesystem I use in most of my other Linux installations. I installed two drives in the Proxmox machine, passed them through to this new VM, and then set up my new NAS with a mirrored configuration, making this NAS even more robust than it previously was under Debian.
The next thing to move over were some of my containerized applications. Proxmox doesn’t only support VMs, it has the ability to spin up LXC containers as well. Containers are similar to VMs in that the software they run is isolated from the rest of the machine, but instead of running their own operating system they share the host’s kernel, taking up much less system resources. Proxmox still allows containers to be assigned processor cores and uses the CPU unit priority system as well, so for high-availability containers like Pihole I can assign the same number of CPU units as my OPNsense VM, but for my LXC container running Jelu (book tracking), Navidrome (streaming music), and Vikunja (task lists), I can assign a lower CPU unit value as well as only one or two cores.
The final containerized application I use is Zoneminder, which keeps an eye on a few security cameras at my house. It needs a bit more system resources than any of these other two, and it also gets its own hard drive assigned for storing recordings. Unlike TrueNAS, though, the hard drive isn’t passed through but rather the container mounts a partition that the Proxmox host retains ultimate control over. This allows other containers to see and use it as well.
A summary of my Proxmox installation’s resource utilization. Even with cores over-assigned, it rarely breaks a sweat unless gaming or transferring large files over the LAN.
At this point my Proxmox setup has gotten quite complex for a layperson such as myself, with a hardware or system failure meaning that not only would I lose my desktop computer but also essentially all of my home’s network infrastructure and potentially all of my data as well. But Proxmox also makes keeping backups easy, a system that has saved me many times.
For example, OPNsense once inexplicably failed to boot, and another time a kernel update in TrueNAS Scale caused it to kernel panic on boot. In both cases I was able to simply revert to a prior backup. I have backups scheduled for all of my VMs and containers once a week, and this has saved me many headaches. Of course, it’s handy to have a second computer or external drive for backups, as you wouldn’t want to store them on your virtualized NAS which might end up being the very thing you need to restore.
I do have one final VM to mention too, which is a Windows 10 installation. I essentially spun this up because I was having an impossibly difficult time getting my original version of
Starcraft
running in Debian and thought that it might be easier on a Windows machine. Proxmox makes it extremely easy to assign a few processor cores and some memory and test something like this out, and it turned to work out incredibly well.
So well, in fact, that I also installed
BOINC
in the Windows VM and now generally leave this running all the time to take advantage of any underutilized cores on this machine for the greater good when they’re not otherwise in use. BOINC is also notoriously difficult to get running in Debian, especially for those using non-Nvidia GPUs, so at least while Windows 10 is still supported I’ll probably keep this setup going for the long term.
Room for Improvement
There are a few downsides to a Proxmox installation, though. As I mentioned previously, it’s probably not the best practice to keep backups on the same hardware, so if it’s your only physical computer then that’ll take some extra thought. I’ve also had considerable difficulty passing an optical drive through to VMs, which is not nearly as straightforward as passing through other hardware types for reasons which escape me. Additionally, some software doesn’t take well to running on virtualized hardware at all. In the past I have experimented with XMR mining software as a way to benchmark hardware capabilities, and although I never let it run nearly long enough to ever actually mine anything it absolutely will not run at all in a virtualized environment. There are certainly other pieces of software that are similar.
I also had a problem that took a while to solve regarding memory use. Memory can be over-assigned like processor cores, but an important note is that if Proxmox is using ZFS for its storage, as mine does, the host OS will use up an incredibly large amount of memory. In my case, file transfers to or from my TrueNAS VM were causing out-of-memory issues on some of my other VMs, leading to their abrupt termination. I still don’t fully understand this problem and as such it took a bit of time to solve, but I eventually both limited the memory the host was able to use for ZFS as well as doubled the physical memory to 64 GB. This had the downstream effect of improving the performance of my other VMs and containers as well, so it was a win-win at a very minimal cost.
The major downside for most, though, will be gaming. While it’s fully possible to run a respectable gaming rig with a setup similar to mine and play essentially any modern game available, this is only going to work out if none of those games use kernel-level anticheat.
Valorant
,
Fortnite
, and
Call of Duty
are all examples that are likely to either not run at all on a virtualized computer or to get an account flagged for cheating.
There are a number of problems with kernel-level anti-cheat including arguments that they are types of rootkits, that they are attempts to stifle Linux gaming, and that they’re lazy solutions to problems that could easily be solved in other ways, but the fact remains that these games will have to be played on bare metal. Personally I’d just as soon not play them at all for any and all of these reasons, even on non-virtualized machines.
Beat On, Against the Current
The only other thing worth noting is that while Proxmox is free and open-source, there are paid enterprise subscription options available, and it is a bit annoying about reminding the user that this option is available. But that’s minor in the grand scheme of things. For me, the benefits far outweigh these downsides. In fact, I’ve found that using Proxmox has reinvigorated my PC hobby in a new way.
While restoring old Apple laptops is one thing
, Proxmox has given me a much deeper understanding of computing hardware in general, as well as made it easy to experiment and fiddle with different pieces of software without worrying that I’ll break my entire system. In a very real way it feels like if I want a new computer, it lets me simply create a virtual one that I am free to experiment with and then throw away if I wish. It also makes fixing mistakes easy. Additionally, most things running on my Proxmox install are more stable, more secure, and make more efficient use of system resources.
It’s saved me a ton of money since I nether had to buy individual machines like routers or a NAS and its drives too, nor have I had to build a brand new gaming computer. In fact, the only money I spent on this was an arguably optional 32 GB memory upgrade, which is pennies compared to having to build a brand new desktop. With all that in mind, I’d recommend experimenting with Proxmox for anyone with a computer or similarly flagging interest in their PC in general, especially if they still occasionally want to rip and tear. | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137952",
"author": "ALX_skater",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T17:21:56",
"content": "What about using it to run Minecraft? Can it deal with 4-5 players at once? Minecraft is a good game for brain development because it stimulates imagination and constructive thinking.",
"parent_id... | 1,760,371,519.335458 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/this-relay-computer-has-magnetic-tape-storage/ | This Relay Computer Has Magnetic Tape Storage | Jenny List | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"relay computer",
"tape storage"
] | Magnetic tape storage is something many of us will associate with 8-bit microcomputers or 1960s mainframe computers, but it still has a place in the modern data center for long-term backups. It’s likely not to be the first storage tech that would spring to mind when considering a relay computer, but that’s just what [DiPDoT] has done
by giving his machine tape storage
.
We like this hack, in particular because it’s synchronous. Where the cassette storage of old just had the data stream, this one uses both channels of a stereo cassette deck, one for clock and the other data. It’s encoded as a sequence of tones, which are amplified at playback (by a tube amp, of course) to drive a rectifier which fires the relay.
On the record side the tones are made by an Arduino, something which we fully understand but at the same time can’t help wondering whether something electromechanical could be used instead. Either way, it works well enough to fill a relay shift register with each byte, which can then be transferred to the memory. It’s detailed in a series of videos, the first of which we’ve paced below the break.
If you want more cassette tape goodness, while this may be the slowest,
someone else is making a much faster cassette interface
. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137889",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T15:35:53",
"content": "“Magnetic tape storage is something many of us will associate with 8-bit microcomputers or 1960s mainframe computers, but it still has a place in the modern data center for long-term backups.”Something l... | 1,760,371,519.51999 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/11/reconductoring-building-tomorrows-grid-today/ | Reconductoring: Building Tomorrow’s Grid Today | Dan Maloney | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"ACSR",
"aluminum",
"ampacity",
"capacity",
"conductor",
"grid",
"infrastructure",
"trapezoidal"
] | What happens when you build the largest machine in the world, but it’s still not big enough? That’s the situation the North American transmission system, the grid that connects power plants to substations and the distribution system, and which by some measures is the largest machine ever constructed, finds itself in right now. After more than a century of build-out, the towers and wires that stitch together a continent-sized grid aren’t up to the task they were designed for, and that’s a huge problem for a society with a seemingly insatiable need for more electricity.
There are plenty of reasons for this burgeoning demand, including the rapid growth of data centers to support AI and other cloud services and the move to wind and solar energy as the push to decarbonize the grid proceeds. The former introduces massive new loads to the grid with millions of hungry little GPUs, while the latter increases the supply side, as wind and solar plants are often located out of reach of existing transmission lines. Add in the anticipated expansion of the manufacturing base as industry seeks to re-home factories, and the scale of the potential problem only grows.
The bottom line to all this is that the grid needs to grow to support all this growth, and while there is often no other solution than building new transmission lines, that’s not always feasible. Even when it is, the process can take decades. What’s needed is a quick win, a way to increase the capacity of the existing infrastructure without having to build new lines from the ground up. That’s exactly what reconductoring promises, and the way it gets there presents some interesting engineering challenges and opportunities.
Bare Metal
Copper is probably the first material that comes to mind when thinking about electrical conductors. Copper is the best conductor of electricity after silver, it’s commonly available and relatively easy to extract, and it has all the physical characteristics, such as ductility and tensile strength, that make it easy to form into wire. Copper has become the go-to material for wiring residential and commercial structures, and even in industrial installations, copper wiring is a mainstay.
However, despite its advantages behind the meter, copper is rarely, if ever, used for overhead wiring in transmission and distribution systems. Instead, aluminum is favored for these systems, mainly due to its lower cost compared to the equivalent copper conductor. There’s also the factor of weight; copper is much denser than aluminum, so a transmission system built on copper wires would have to use much sturdier towers and poles to loft the wires. Copper is also much more subject to corrosion than aluminum, an important consideration for wires that will be exposed to the elements for decades.
ACSR (left) has a seven-strand steel core surrounded by 26 aluminum conductors in two layers. ACCC has three layers of trapezoidal wire wrapped around a composite carbon fiber core. Note the vastly denser packing ratio in the ACCC. Source:
Dave Bryant
, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Aluminum has its downsides, of course. Pure aluminum is only about 61% as conductive as copper, meaning that conductors need to have a larger circular area to carry the same amount of current as a copper cable. Aluminum also has only about half the tensile strength of copper, which would seem to be a problem for wires strung between poles or towers under a lot of tension. However, the greater diameter of aluminum conductors tends to make up for that lack of strength, as does the fact that most aluminum conductors in the transmission system are of composite construction.
The vast majority of the wires in the North American transmission system are composites of aluminum and steel known as ACSR, or aluminum conductor steel-reinforced. ACSR is made by wrapping high-purity aluminum wires around a core of galvanized steel wires. The core can be a single steel wire, but more commonly it’s made from seven strands, six wrapped around a single central wire; especially large ACSR might have a 19-wire core. The core wires are classified by their tensile strength and the thickness of their zinc coating, which determines how corrosion-resistant the core will be.
In standard ACSR, both the steel core and the aluminum outer strands are round in cross-section. Each layer of the cable is twisted in the opposite direction from the previous layer. Alternating the twist of each layer ensures that the finished cable doesn’t have a tendency to coil and kink during installation. In North America, all ACSR is constructed so that the outside layer has a right-hand lay.
ACSR is manufactured by machines called spinning or stranding machines, which have large cylindrical bodies that can carry up to 36 spools of aluminum wire. The wires are fed from the spools into circular spinning plates that collate the wires and spin them around the steel core fed through the center of the machine. The output of one spinning frame can be spooled up as finished ACSR or, if more layers are needed, can pass directly into another spinning frame for another layer of aluminum, in the opposite direction, of course.
Fiber to the Core
While ACSR is the backbone of the grid, it’s not the only show in town. There’s an entire beastiary of initialisms based on the materials and methods used to build composite cables. ACSS, or aluminum conductor steel-supported, is similar to ACSR but uses more steel in the core and is completely supported by the steel, as opposed to ACSR where the load is split between the steel and the aluminum. AAAC, or all-aluminum alloy conductor, has no steel in it at all, instead relying on high-strength aluminum alloys for the necessary tensile strength. AAAC has the advantage of being very lightweight as well as being much more resistant to core corrosion than ACSR.
Another approach to reducing core corrosion for aluminum-clad conductors is to switch to composite cores. These are known by various trade names, such as ACCC (aluminum conductor composite core) or ACCR (aluminum conductor composite reinforced). In general, these cables are known as HTLS, which stands for high-temperature, low-sag. They deliver on these twin promises by replacing the traditional steel core with a composite material such as carbon fiber, or in the case of ACCR, a fiber-reinforced metal matrix.
The point of composite cores is to provide the conductor with the necessary tensile strength and lower thermal expansion coefficient, so that heating due to loading and environmental conditions causes the cable to sag less. Controlling sag is critical to cable capacity; the less likely a cable is to sag when heated, the more load it can carry. Additionally, composite cores can have a smaller cross-sectional area than a steel core with the same tensile strength, leaving room for more aluminum in the outer layers while maintaining the same overall conductor diameter. And of course, more aluminum means these advanced conductors can carry more current.
Another way to increase the capacity in advanced conductors is by switching to trapezoidal wires. Traditional ACSR with round wires in the core and conductor layers has a significant amount of dielectric space trapped within the conductor, which contributes nothing to the cable’s current-carrying capacity. Filling those internal voids with aluminum is accomplished by wrapping round composite cores with aluminum wires that have a trapezoidal cross-section to pack tightly against each other. This greatly reduces the dielectric space trapped within a conductor, increasing its ampacity within the same overall diameter.
Unfortunately, trapezoidal aluminum conductors are much harder to manufacture than traditional round wires. While creating the trapezoids isn’t that much harder than drawing round aluminum wire — it really just requires switching to a different die — dealing with non-round wire is more of a challenge. Care must be taken not to twist the wire while it’s being rolled onto its spools, as well as when wrapping the wire onto the core. Also, the different layers of aluminum in the cable require different trapezoidal shapes, lest dielectric voids be introduced. The twist of the different layers of aluminum has to be controlled, too, just as with round wires. Trapezoidal wires can also complicate things for linemen in the field in terms of splicing and terminating cables, although most utilities and cable construction companies have invested in specialized tooling for advanced conductors.
Same Towers, Better Wires
The grid is what it is today in large part because of decisions made a hundred or more years ago, many of which had little to do with engineering. Power plants were located where it made sense to build them relative to the cities and towns they would serve and the availability of the fuel that would power them, while the transmission lines that move bulk power were built where it was possible to obtain rights-of-way. These decisions shaped the physical footprint of the grid, and except in cases where enough forethought was employed to secure rights-of-way generous enough to allow for expansion of the physical plant, that footprint is pretty much what engineers have to work with today.
Increasing the amount of power that can be moved within that limited footprint is what reconductoring is all about. Generally, reconductoring is pretty much what it sounds like: replacing the conductors on existing support structures with advanced conductors. There are certainly cases where reconductoring alone won’t do, such as when new solar or wind plants are built without existing transmission lines to connect them to the system. In those cases, little can be done except to build a new transmission line. And even where reconductoring can be done, it’s not cheap; it can cost 20% more per mile than building new towers on new rights-of-way. But reconductoring is much, much faster than building new lines. A typical reconductoring project can be completed in 18 to 36 months, as compared to the 5 to 15
years
needed to build a new line, thanks to all the regulatory and legal challenges involved in obtaining the property to build the structures on. Reconductoring usually faces fewer of these challenges, since rights-of-way on existing lines were established long ago.
The exact methods of reconductoring depend on the specifics of the transmission line, but in general, reconductoring starts with a thorough engineering evaluation of the support structures. Since most advanced conductors are the same weight per unit length as the ACSR they’ll be replacing, loads on the towers should be about the same. But it’s prudent to make sure, and a field inspection of the towers on the line is needed to make sure they’re up to snuff. A careful analysis of the design capacity of the new line is also performed before the project goes through the permitting process. Reconductoring is generally performed on de-energized lines, which means loads have to be temporarily shifted to other lines, requiring careful coordination between utilities and transmission operators.
Once the preliminaries are in place, work begins. Despite how it may appear, most transmission lines are not one long cable per phase that spans dozens of towers across the countryside. Rather, most lines span just a few towers before dead-ending into insulators that use jumpers to carry current across to the next span of cable. This makes reconductoring largely a tower-by-tower affair, which somewhat simplifies the process, especially in terms of maintaining the tension on the towers while the conductors are swapped. Portable tensioning machines are used for that job, as well as for setting the proper tension in the new cable, which determines the sag for that span.
The tooling and methods used to connect advanced conductors to fixtures like midline splices or dead-end adapters are similar to those used for traditional ACSR construction, with allowances made for the switch to composite cores from steel. Hydraulic crimping tools do most of the work of forming a solid mechanical connection between the fixture and the core, and then to the outer aluminum conductors. A collet is also inserted over the core before it’s crimped, to provide additional mechanical strength against pullout.
Is all this extra work to manufacture and deploy advanced conductors worth it? In most cases, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Advanced conductors can often carry twice the current as traditional ACSR or ACCC conductors of the same diameter. To take things even further, advanced AECC, or aluminum-encapsulated carbon core conductors, which use pretensioned carbon fiber cores covered by trapezoidal annealed aluminum conductors, can often triple the ampacity of equivalent-diameter ACSR.
Doubling or trebling the capacity of a line without the need to obtain new rights-of-way or build new structures is a huge win, even when the additional expense is factored in. And given that an estimated 98% of the existing transmission lines in North America are candidates for reconductoring, you can expect to see a lot of activity under your local power lines in the years to come. | 65 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137855",
"author": "baltar",
"timestamp": "2025-06-11T14:18:03",
"content": "If the current is limiting factor due to heat why not increase voltage to millions of billiards of volts?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8137870",
... | 1,760,371,519.899141 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/supercon-2024-repurposing-esp32-based-commercial-products/ | Supercon 2024: Repurposing ESP32 Based Commercial Products | Lewin Day | [
"cons",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"2024 Hackaday Superconference",
"commercial products",
"embedded hardware",
"ESP32",
"firmware"
] | It’s easy to think of commercial products as black boxes, built with proprietary hardware that’s locked down from the factory. However, that’s not always the case. A great many companies are now turning out commercial products that rely on the very same microcontrollers that hackers and makers use on the regular, making them far more accessible for the end user to peek inside and poke around a bit.
Jim Scarletta has been doing just that with a wide variety of off-the-shelf gear. He came down to the 2024 Hackaday Superconference to tell us all about how
you can repurpose ESP32-based commercial products.
Drop It Like It’s Hot
Jim starts off this talk by explaining just why the ESP32 is so popular. Long story short, it’s a powerful and highly capable microcontroller that can talk WiFi and Bluetooth out of the box and costs just a few bucks even in small quantities. That makes it the perfect platform for all kinds of modern hardware that might want to interact with smartphones, the Internet, or home networks at some point or other. It’s even got hardware accelerated cryptography built-in. It’s essentially a one-stop shop for building something connected.
Jim notes that while some commercial ESP32-based products are easy to disassemble and work with, others can be much harder to get into. He had particular trouble with some variants of a smartbulb that differed inside from what he’d expected.
You might ask why you’d want to repurpose a commercial product that has an ESP32 in it, when even fully-built devboards are relatively cheap. “It’s fun!” explains Jim. Beyond that, he notes there are other reasons, too.
You might like re-configuring a commercial product that doesn’t
quite
do what you want, or you might want to restore functionality to a device that has been deactivated or is no longer supported by its original manufacturer. You can even take a device with known security vulnerabilities and patch them or rebuild them with a firmware that isn’t so horridly dangerous.
It’s also a great way to reuse hardware and stop it becoming e-waste. Commercial hardware often comes with great enclosures, knobs, buttons, and screens that are far nicer than what most of us can whip up in our home labs. Repurposing a commercial product to do something else can be a really neat way to build a polished project.
While we often think of Apple’s ecosystem as a closed shop, Jim explains that you can actually get ESP32 hardware hooked up with HomeKit if you know what you’re doing.
Jim then explains how best to pursue your goal of repurposing a commercial product based on the ESP32. He suggests starting with an ESP32 devboard to learn the platform and how it works. He also recommends researching the product’s specifications so you can figure out what it’s got and how it all works.
Once you’ve got into the thing, you can start experimenting to create your hacked prototype device, but there’s one more thing he reckons you should be thinking about. It’s important to have a security plan from the beginning. If you’re building a connected device, you need to make sure you’re not putting something vulnerable on your home network that could leave you exposed.
You also need to think about physical safety. A lot of ESP32 devices run on mains power—smart bulbs, appliances, and the like. You need to know what you’re doing and observe the proper safety precautions before you go tinkering with anything that plugs into the hot wires coming out of the wall. It’s outside the scope of Jim’s talk to cover this in detail, but you’re well advised to do the reading and learn from those more experienced before you get involved with mains-powered gear.
Jim uses the Shelly as a great example of a commercial ESP32-based product. Credit:
via eBay
The rest of Jim’s talk covers the practical details of working with the ESP32. He notes that it’s important to think about GPIO pin statuses at startup, and to ensure you’re not mixing up 5 V and 3.3 V signals, which is an easy way to release some of that precious Magic Smoke.
He also outlines the value of using tools like QEMU and Wokwi for emulation, in addition to having a simple devboard for development purposes. He explores a wide range of other topics that may be relevant to your hacking journey—using JTAG for debugging, working with Apple HomeKit, and even the basics of working with SSL and cryptography. And, naturally, he shows off some real ESP32-based products that you can go out and buy and start tinkering with right away!
Jim’s talk was one of the longer ones, and absolutely jam packed with information at that. No surprise given the topic is such a rich one. We’re blessed these days that companies are turning out all sorts of hackable devices using the popular ESP32 at their heart. They’re ripe for all kinds of tinkering; you just need to be willing to dive in, poke around, and do what you want with them! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137579",
"author": "Justin",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T20:13:30",
"content": "Jim’s talk was one of the longer ones, and absolutely jam packed with information at that. Should have been “Jim packed”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,371,519.602271 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/skyroof-a-new-satellite-tracker-for-hams/ | SkyRoof, A New Satellite Tracker For Hams | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"Doppler",
"ham radio",
"repeater",
"satellite",
"skyroof",
"uhf",
"VHF"
] | Communicating with space-based ham radio satellites might sound like it’s something that takes a lot of money, but in reality it’s one of the more accessible aspects of the hobby. Generally all that’s needed is a five-watt handheld transceiver and a directional antenna. Like most things in the ham radio world, though, it takes a certain amount of skill which can’t be easily purchased. Most hams using satellites like these will rely on some software to help track them,
which is where this new program from [Alex Shovkoplyas] comes in.
The open source application is called SkyRoof and provides a number of layers of information about satellites aggregated into a single information feed. A waterfall diagram is central to the display, with not only the satellite communications shown on the plot but information about the satellites themselves. From there the user can choose between a number of other layers of information about the satellites including their current paths, future path prediction, and a few different ways of displaying all of this information. The software also interfaces with radios via CAT control, and can even automatically correct for the Doppler shift that is so often found in satellite radio communications.
For any ham actively engaged in satellite tracking or space-based repeater communications, this tool is certainly worth trying out. Unfortunately, it’s only available for Windows currently. For those not looking to operate under Microsoft’s thumb,
projects such as DragonOS do a good job
of collecting up the must-have Linux programs for hams and other radio enthusiasts. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137509",
"author": "CJay",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T17:35:14",
"content": "Well that looks useful, downloaded and installed on a spare machine.Bit of a surprise when it talked to me though",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8137... | 1,760,371,519.794573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/is-the-atomic-outboard-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/ | Is The Atomic Outboard An Idea Whose Time Has Come? | Tyler August | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"cargo ship",
"general electric",
"nuclear power",
"nuclear propulsion"
] | Everyone these days wants to talk about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) when it comes to nuclear power. The industry seems to have pinned its hopes for a ‘nuclear renaissance’ on the exciting new concept. Exciting as it may be, it is not exactly new: small reactors date back to the heyday of the atomic era. There were a few prototypes, and a lot more paper projects that are easy to sneer at today. One in particular caught our eye,
in a write-up from Steve Wientz
, that is described as an atomic outboard motor.
It started as an outgrowth from General Electric’s 1950s work on airborne nuclear reactors. GE’s proposal just screams “1950s” — a refractory, air-cooled reactor serving as the heat source for a large turboprop engine. Yes, complete with open-loop cooling. Those obviously didn’t fly (pun intended, as always) but to try and recoup some of their investment GE proposed a slew of applications for this small, reactor-driven gas turbine. Rather than continue to push the idea of connecting it to a turboprop and
spew potentially-radioactive exhaust directly into the atmosphere
, GE proposed podding up the reactor with a closed-cycle gas turbine into one small, hermetically sealed-module.
Bolt-On Nuclear Power
There were two variants of a sealed reactor/turbine module proposed by GE: the 601A, which would connect the turbine to an electric generator, and 601B, which would connect it to a gearbox and bronze propeller for use as a marine propulsion pod. While virtually no information seems to have survived about 601A, which was likely aimed at the US Army, the marine propulsion pod is fairly well documented in comparison in GE-ANP 910: Application Studies,
which was reviewed by Mark at
Atomic Skies
. There are many applications in this document; 601 is the only one a modern reader might come close to calling sane.
Cutaway diagram of the General Electric 601B
The pod would be slung under a ship or submarine, much like the
steerable electric azimuth thrusters
popular on modern cruise ships and cargo vessels. Unlike them, this pod would not require any electrical plant onboard ship, freeing up an immense amount of internal volume. It would almost certainly have been fixed in orientation, at least if it had been built in 1961. Now that such thrusters are proven technology though, there’s no reason an atomic version couldn’t be put on a swivel.
A modern electric azimuth thruster.
Two sizes were discussed, a larger pod 60″ in diameter and 360″ long (1.5 m by 9.1 m) that would have weighed 45,000 lbs (20 metric tonnes) and output 15,000 shp (shaft horse power, equivalent to 11 MW). The runtime would have been 5000 hours on 450 lbs (204 kg) of enriched uranium. This is actually comparable to the shaft power of a large modern thruster.
There was also a smaller, 45″ diameter version that would produce only 3750 shp (2796 kW) over the same runtime. In both, the working gas of the turbines would have been neon, probably to minimize the redesign required of the original air-breathing turbine.
Steve seems to think that this podded arrangement would create drag that would prove fatally noisy for a warship, but the
Spanish Navy seems to disagree, given that they’re putting azimuth thrusters under their flagship.
A submarine might be another issue, but we’ll leave that to the experts. The bigger problem with using these on a warship is the low power for military applications. The
contemporary Farragut-class destroyers
made 85,000 shp (63 MW) with their steam turbines, so the two-pod ship in the illustration must be both rather small and rather slow.
Concept Art of 601B propulsion pods under a naval vessel, art by General Electric
Of course putting the reactors outside the hull of the ship also makes them very vulnerable to damage. In the 1950s, it might have seemed acceptable that a reactor damaged in battle could simply be dumped onto the seafloor. Nowadays, regulators would likely take a dimmer view of just dropping hundreds of pounds of uranium and tonnes of irradiated metal into the open ocean.
Civilian Applications
Rather than warships, this sort of small, modular reactor sounds perfect for the new
fleet of nuclear cargo ships the UN is pushing for
to combat climate change. The
International Maritime Organization’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050
is just not going to happen without nuclear power or a complete rethink of our shipping infrastructure. Most of the planning right now seems to center on next-generation small modular reactors: everything from pebble-bed to thorium. This Cold War relic of an idea has a few advantages, though.
Need to refuel? Swap pods. Mechanical problems? Swap pods. The ship and its nuclear power plant are wholly separate, which ought to please regulators and insurers. Converting a ship to use azimuth thrusters is a known factor, and not a huge job in dry dock. There are a great many ships afloat today that will need new engines anyway if they aren’t to be scrapped early and the shipping sector is to meet its ambitious emissions targets. Pulling out their original power plants and popping ‘atomic outboards’ underneath might be the easiest possible solution.
The
Sevmorput
is currently the
only operational nuclear merchant ship
in the world. To meet emissions goals, we’ll need more.
Sure, there are disadvantages to dusting off this hack — and we think a good case can be made that turning a turboprop into a ship-sized outboard ought to qualify as a ‘hack’. For one thing, 5000 hours before refueling isn’t very long. Most commercial cargo ships can cruise at least that long in a single season. But if swapping the pods can be done in-harbor and not in dry dock, that doesn’t seem like an insurmountable obstacle. Besides, there’s no reason to stay 100% faithful to a decades-old design; more fuel capacity is possible.
For another, most of the shielding on these things would have been provided by seawater by design, which is going to make handling the pods out of water an interesting experience. You certainly would not want to see a ship equipped with these pods capsize. Not close up, anyway.
Rather than pass judgement, we ask if General Electric’s “atomic outboard” was just way ahead of its time. What do you think? | 48 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137441",
"author": "macsimki",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T14:44:34",
"content": "No. nobody wants to talk about something with the words smart and reactor in it. where the “smart” part is arguably more dangrous that the “reactor” part. Its in the engineering departement of the chemic... | 1,760,371,520.354474 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/the-ongoing-bcachefs-filesystem-stability-controversy/ | The Ongoing BcacheFS Filesystem Stability Controversy | Maya Posch | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Original Art"
] | [
"bcache",
"BcacheFS",
"filesystem"
] | In a saga that brings to mind the hype and incidents with ReiserFS, [SavvyNik]
takes us through
the latest data corruption bug report and developer updates regarding the BcacheFS filesystem in the Linux kernel. Based on the
bcache
(block cache) cache mechanism in the Linux kernel, its author [Kent Overstreet] developed it into what is now known as BcacheFS, with it being announced in 2015 and subsequently merged into the Linux kernel (6.7) in early 2024. As a modern copy-on-write (COW) filesystem along the lines of ZFS and btfs, it was supposed to compete directly with these filesystems.
Despite this, it has become clear that BcacheFS is rather unstable, with frequent and extensive patches being submitted to the point where [Linus Torvalds] in August of last year
pushed back
against it, as well as expressing regret for merging BcacheFS into mainline Linux. As covered in the video, [Kent] has pushed users reporting issues to upgrade to the latest Linux kernel to get critical fixes, which really reinforces the notion that BcacheFS is at best an experimental Alpha-level filesystem implementation and should probably not be used with important data or systems.
Although one can speculate on the reasons for BcacheFS spiraling out of control like this, ultimately if you want a reliable COW filesystem in Linux, you are best off using btrfs or ZFS. Of course, regardless of which filesystem you use, always make multiple backups, test them regularly and stay away from shiny new things on production systems. | 58 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137371",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T11:30:51",
"content": "ext4 FTW. My PC has suffered several hard turn offs over the years (until I wisened up and bought a UPS). ext4 has been very robust, never corrupting even a single file, and repaired everything after bo... | 1,760,371,520.206704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/10/repairing-vintage-sony-luggable-calculators/ | Repairing Vintage Sony Luggable Calculators | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing",
"Teardown"
] | [
"calculator",
"sobax",
"sony"
] | You might wonder why you’d repair a calculator when you can pick up a new one for a buck.
[Tech Tangents] though has some old Sony calculators that used Nixie tubes
, including one from the 1960s. Two of his recent finds of Sony SOBAX calculators need repair, and we think you’ll agree that restoring these historical calculators is well worth the effort. Does your calculator have a carrying handle? We didn’t think so. Check out the video below to see what that looks like.
The devices don’t even use modern ICs. Inside, there are modules of discrete parts encapsulated in epoxy. There isn’t even RAM inside, but there is a delay line memory, although it is marked “unrepairable.”
There is some interesting history about this line of calculators, and the video covers that. Apparently, the whole line of early calculators grew out of an engineer’s personal project to use transistors that were scrapped because they didn’t meet the specifications for whatever application that used them.
The handle isn’t just cosmetic. You could get an external battery pack if you really wanted a very heavy — about 14 pounds (6.3 kilograms) — and large portable calculator. We are sure the $1,000 retail price tag didn’t include a battery.
These machines are beautiful, and it is fun to see the construction of these old devices. You might think our
favorite calculator is based on Star Trek
. As much as we do like that, we still think the HP-41C might be the best calculator ever made,
even in emulation
. | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,520.062858 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/building-an-assembly-line-for-origami-pigeons/ | Building An Assembly Line For Origami Pigeons | John Elliot V | [
"Art",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"assembly line",
"origami"
] | When it comes to hacks, the best ones go to extremes. Either beautiful in their simplicity, or magnificent in their excess. And, well, today’s hack is the latter:
excessive
. [HTX Studio]
built an assembly line for origami pigeons
!
One can imagine the planning process went something like this:
Make origami pigeon assembly line
?
Profit
But whatever the motivation, this is an impressive and obviously very well engineered machine. Even the lighting is well considered. It’s almost as if it were made for show…
Now, any self-respecting nerd should know the difference between throughput and latency. From what we could glean from the video, the latency through this assembly line is in the order of 50 seconds. Conservatively it could probably have say 5 birds in progress at a time. So let’s say every 10 seconds we have one origami pigeon off the assembly line. This is a machine and not a person so it can operate twenty four hours a day, save downtime for repairs and maintenance, call it 20 hours per day. We could probably expect more than 7,000 paper pigeons out of this machine every day. Let’s hope they’ve got a buyer lined up for all these birds.
If you’re interested in assembly lines maybe we could interest you in a
6DOF robotic arm
, or if the origami is what caught your eye, check out the
illuminating
,
tubular
, or
self-folding
kind! | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137249",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T05:05:31",
"content": "Based on the video comments, they’re not planning to sell these but to give away to their followers (apparently on some other platform than YouTube).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,520.110307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/saving-green-books-from-poison-paranoia/ | Saving Green Books From Poison Paranoia | Tyler August | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"antique books",
"arsenic",
"conservation",
"spectroscopy"
] | You probably do not need us to tell you that Arsenic is not healthy stuff. This wasn’t always such common knowledge, as for a time in the 19th century a chemical variously known as Paris or Emerald Green, but known to chemists as copper(II) acetoarsenite was a very popular green pigment. While this pigment is obviously not deadly on-contact, given that it’s taken 200 years to raise the alarm about these books (and it used to be used in candy (!)), arsenic is really not something you want in your system. Libraries around the world have been quarantining vintage green books ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶b̶i̶b̶l̶i̶o̶p̶h̶i̶l̶i̶es ̶m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶e̶m̶p̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ out of an abundance of caution, but researchers at The University of St. Andrews have
found a cheaper method to detect the poison pigment
than XRF or Raman Spectroscopy previously employed.
The hack is simple, and in retrospect, rather obvious: using a a hand-held vis-IR spectrometer normally used by geologists for mineral ID, they analyzed the spectrum of the compound on book covers. (As an aside, Emerald Green is similar in both arsenic content and color to the mineral conichalcite, which you also should not lick.) The striking green colour obviously has a strong response in the green range of the spectrum, but other green pigments can as well. A second band in the near-infrared clinches the identification.
A custom solution was then developed, which sadly does not seem to have been documented as of yet. From the press release it sounds like they are using LEDs and photodetectors
for color detection
in the green and IR at least, but there might be more to it, like a hacked version of
common colour sensors
that put filters on the photodetectors.
While toxic books will still remain under lock and key, the hope is that with quick and easy identification tens of thousands of currently-quarantined texts that use safer green pigments can be returned to circulation.
Tip of the hat to [Jamie] for the tip off,
via the BBC
. | 35 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137216",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T02:25:07",
"content": "“Scheele’s Green” was a bit earlier then “Paris green” It was popular in wallpaper, as it kept the bugs out of your house. Apparently it was also used for clothing and kid’s toys.https://en.wikipedia.org/... | 1,760,371,520.426058 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/a-modern-take-on-iconic-industrial-design/ | A Modern Take On Iconic Industrial Design | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"digital audio hacks"
] | [
"Braun",
"industrial design",
"internet radio",
"music player"
] | The Functionalist design philosophy that Dieter Rams brought to Braun from the 50s to the 90s still inspires the look of a few devices, including Apple’s iPod, Teenage Engineer’s synthesizers and recorders – and [2dom]’s
IR7 streaming radio
.
The streaming radio was inspired by Braun’s portable radios, particularly the SK2, TP1, and the T3 pocket radio. [2dom] started with the T3’s circular pattern of holes and experimented with several variations, finally settling on a cylindrical shape with a central display; a prototype with a low-power monochrome rectangular display was eventually rejected in favor of a circular LCD. The housing consists of four 3D-printed components: an upper and lower shell, a resonator for the speaker, and a knob for a rotary encoder.
Electronics-wise, an ESP32 handles the computing requirements, while the LCD and rotary encoder provide a user interface. For audio, it uses a VS1053 MP3 decoder, PAM8403 amplifier, and a wideband speaker, with an audio isolation transformer to clean up the audio. To reduce power consumption, a MOSFET cuts power to the peripheral components whenever the device is in sleep mode. The full design is available
on GitHub
.
The end result of this effort is a quite authentic-looking 21st-century adaptation of Rams’s original designs. If you’re interested in more Braun designs, check out
this replica
of one of their desk fans. We’ve also seen a restoration of one of Braun’s larger radios,
the TS2
. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137187",
"author": "djul",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T01:22:48",
"content": "That’s a beautiful build. Well done.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8137521",
"author": "2dom",
"timestamp": "2025-06-10T18:06:56",
... | 1,760,371,520.260972 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/run-a-lawnmower-on-diesel-with-hot-bulb-hack/ | Run A Lawnmower On Diesel With Hot Bulb Hack | Tyler August | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"hot bulb engine",
"internal combustion engine",
"two-stroke"
] | If you’re into automotive hacks and don’t watch [Robot Cantina], you are missing out. This hack has [Jimbo] taking a break from automotive hacking to butcher a poor, innocent Tecumseh lawnmower to run diesel fuel (or anything else) by
converting the motor into a hot bulb engine
. (Video embedded below.)
The secret is a long stack of anti-fouling adapters, which are essentially extension tubes that move the spark plug out of the combustion chamber to keep it from getting crudded up in an engine that’s burning too much oil. In this case, burning is what’s happening inside the anti-fouling adapters: by stacking seven of them, [Robot Cantina] is able to create a hot-bulb– volume that stays hot enough between strokes to induce spontaneous combustion of the fuel-air mix.
Hot-bulb engines
were popular for certain tractors (the Lanz Bulldog being the most famous) and stationary engines from the late 19th century until Rudolf Diesel’s eponymous invention drove them out of their niche completely sometime after WWII.
Traditionally, a torch would have been used to heat the hot bulb, but here [Jimbo] starts the engine on gasoline with a spark plug at the end of the stack, and disconnect the spark once the hot bulb has warmed sufficiently. Given how rough the engine runs before the ersatz hot bulb heats up enough for spontaneous combustion, tradition seems like the way to go. Even once heated up, the “chaos in the combustion chamber” (probably knocking) is enough to pop the (now disconnected) spark plug from the end of the stack of adapters at one point.
While shockingly an inspection revealed no obvious damage to the engine after the first day’s experiments, this is probably not a hack you would want to use on a motor you intended to keep — or run for very long, for that matter. Practical or not, it is fascinating to know you can go back in time to the hot-bulb era with such a simple modification. Watching this motor pop and snarl while drinking down diesel fuel, acetone, or 190 proof alcohol is a bit like watching the proverbial dancing bear: the point is not how well it dances, but that it can dance at all. If you can’t get enough of it, they made a
second video that features further fuel-testing fun, and even a mowing montage.
We’ve featured other [Robot Cantina] hacks that were arguably more practical, like hacking an
old Saturn’s ECU to allow for Honda Insight-style lean burning
or this
DIY dynomometer for similarly small engines
. | 27 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137077",
"author": "ChipMaster",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T20:57:21",
"content": "Just want to say that Tecumseh is an engine not a lawn mower. Neither Briggs nor Tecumseh make lawn mowers.Terminology aside this is fascinating…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,371,520.534853 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/2025-pet-hacks-contest-fort-bawks-is-guarded-by-object-detection/ | 2025 Pet Hacks Contest: Fort Bawks Is Guarded By Object Detection | Tyler August | [
"contests",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"2025 Pet Hacks Contest",
"chicken coop",
"object detection",
"rasberry pi",
"smart home",
"webcam"
] | One of the difficult things about raising chickens is that you aren’t the only thing that finds them tasty. Foxes, raccoons, hawks — if it can eat meat, it probably wants a bite of your flock. [donutsorelse] wanted to protect his flock and to be able to know when predators were about without staying up all night next to the hen-house. What to do but
outsource the role of Chicken Guardian to a Raspberry pi?
Object detection is done using a YOLOv8 model trained on images of the various predators local to [donutorelse]. The model is running on a Raspberry Pi and getting images from a standard webcam. Since the webcam has no low-light capability, the system also has a motion-activated light that’s arguably goes a long way towards spooking predators away itself. To help with the spooking, a speaker module plays specific sound files for each detected predator — presumably different sounds might work better at scaring off different predators.
If that doesn’t work, the system phones home to activate a siren inside [donutorelse]’s house, using a Blues Wireless Notecarrier F as a cellular USB modem. The siren is just a dumb unit; activation is handled via a TP-Link smart plug that’s hooked into [donutorelse]’s custom smart home setup. Presumably the siren cues [donutorelse] to take action against the predator assault on the chickens.
Weirdly enough, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an
AI-enabled chicken coop
, but it is the first one to make into our ongoing challenge, which incidentally wraps up today. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8137063",
"author": "scott_tx",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T20:34:30",
"content": "I called my chicken coop ‘Fort Klux”. It had an arduino controlled door which I’ll never share on hackaday since it was such a mess of wires.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,520.469377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/information-density-microfilm-and-microfiche/ | Information Density: Microfilm And Microfiche | Al Williams | [
"Engineering",
"History",
"Slider"
] | [
"microfiche",
"microfilm",
"microform"
] | Today, we think nothing of sticking thousands of pages of documents on a tiny SD card, or just pushing it out to some cloud service. But for decades, this wasn’t possible. Yet companies still generated huge piles of paper. What could be done? The short answer is: microfilm.
However, the long answer is quite a bit more complicated. Microfilm is, technically, a common case of the more generic microform. A microform is a photographically reduced document on film. A bunch of pages on a reel of film is microfilm. If it is on a flat card — usually the size of an index card — that’s microfiche. On top of that, there were a few other incidental formats. Aperture cards were computer punch cards with a bit of microfilm included. Microcards were like microfiche, but printed on cardboard instead of film.
In its heyday, people used specialized cameras, some made to read fanfold computer printer paper, to create microfilm. There were also computer output devices that could create microfilm directly.
How Did That Happen?
Although microfilm really caught on in the mid-20th century, it is much older than that. John Benjamin Dancer appears to have been the first to reduce documents by about 160:1 using daguerreotypes in 1839. He also used wet collodion plates later, but didn’t see any real point to the work.
However, two astronomers, James Glaisher and John Herschel, did see the value of the technology in the early 1850s. By 1870, carrier pigeons were carrying newspaper pages by microfilm into blockaded Paris during the Franco-Prussian War’s Siege of Paris, thanks to René Dagron. During the relatively short conflict, about 115,000 messages had flown by pigeon.
The technology languished for a while, although Reginald A. Fessenden did suggest in 1896 that engineering documents would be a good thing to microfilm, proposing 150 million words in a square inch of film. In fact, nearly a century later, many electronic vendors made their databooks and application notes available on microfiche.
However, it would be 1920 before we see “modern” microfilm usage. The Checkograph, a device patented in 1925 by George McCarthy (with a
US Patent
in 1930), let banks store cancelled checks on film. Kodak acquired the device in 1928 and rebranded it Recordak.
As you might expect, big libraries jumped right in. Starting in the late 1920s, libraries including the British Library and the Library of Congress adopted microforms. Kodak started filming The New York Times for distribution, while Harvard University Library started filming foreign newspapers in 1938.
While most uses of microfilm are made to save storage space, it can also help save space for carrying mail, as
the military did during World War II
.
Alternatives
The Fiske-o-scope. From
Scientific American, 1922
There were many less-than-successful attempts to bring microfilm into the hands of readers. Retired Navy Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske created the Fiske-O-Scope. The earliest designs had two eyepieces, but they eventually evolved into a single-eye viewing scope. A roller shifted the eyepiece along the reading material, which, initially, were long sheets of paper. Eventually, the Fiske-O-Scope changed to film.
You can see the Admiral using his device, along with some reading material in the accompanying figure. Although the experience of reading with the Fiske-O-Scope may have left something to be desired, the concept itself was clearly well ahead of its time. Ultimately, it promised to let the user carry their personal library around with them — an idea that arguably wouldn’t truly be realized until the birth of the modern e-reader.
Like many great ideas, there wasn’t a single point where the perfect machine appeared. It was more of a slow ooze. There was clearly a need to compress stored documents. It just needed the right equipment.
Equipment and Film
Early microforms were projected with conventional equipment like a magic lantern or eyeballed with a magnifier. However, modern readers generally project onto the rear of a glass screen. More expensive ones could even print what was on the screen using a photocopier-like mechanism.
The University of Arizona has a video showing how to use a classic reader, which you can watch below. Their fancy reader can handle both microfilm and microfiche.
The Hoover Institution Library has a moderately recent video about using their super-modern microfilm reader if you would like to have a peek at how to use one. Note this one uses a computer, so the experience isn’t as authentic as using an old 1960s reader.
Film reels tend to be either 16 mm or 35 mm, and some machines could do either. Typically, 35 mm microfilm was the order of the day for large-format scans. Letter-sized material commonly went on 16 mm film. Sometimes the film was on an open reel. Other times, it would be in a cartridge. There were M-type cartridges and ANSI cartridges (and probably others).
Either way, the film could have a single image per frame (simplex) or two images, such as the front and back of a document, per frame. That’s a duplex microfilm.
Some systems used “blips” at the edge of the film to mark when an image starts so that all the pages don’t have to be the same size. Nice machines could count the blips so if someone told you look on “roll 295, frame 952,” you could load the right roll, set the counter to 952, and let the machine fast forward, counting blips, until the counter went to zero and the machine stopped.
Super fancy machines used a double blip to mark the start of a document. This allows you to refer to “roll 295, document 3, frame 80” or — more commonly — to tell the machine to skip to the next document.
Microfiche cards varied somewhat, but were normally very close to 4×6 inches. Jacket versions held strips of film, but specially-made microfiche cards might be just a single sheet of film.
Computer Output Microfilm
The easiest way to create microforms, though, was to have the computer do it directly. Early models displayed data on a CRT, so a camera could snap a picture. By 1977, though, you could get machines that used a laser to directly write on the output medium. COM — Computer Output Microfilm (or Microform) — was widely used, although some mainframe computers sent tapes to service companies to actually make the microfilm.
Kodak Komstar microfiche “printer” (image
CC-BY-4.0
by [CERN PhotoLab]
Oddly enough, although most mainframes of the era were IBM, they didn’t produce a COM machine. They did make two attempts. In the late 1950s, they developed a tube-based device based on several specialized CRTs. They didn’t market it, but a single unit made it to the Social Security Administration.
IBM’s second attempt at COM was the
IBM 1360
, but it ultimately didn’t take off, either. It wasn’t exactly a COM output device but a way to store a whopping 128 GB on photographic film cards. There were only six made.
The biggest producer of COM output devices was probably
Stromberg Carlson
. Kodak was another big name. The Komstar series was made to connect to IBM computers as if they were actual printers. There was also a model made to connect to a magnetic tape drive. These were made well into the 1990s.
Microfilm Today
Most things today are in digital form and a great deal of old microform records are now in digital form, too. However, there was such a flood of microforms that there are still records that you need to find a reader to see them.
The Internet Archive
, as you might expect, digitizes a lot of microform documents and, if you are watching at the right time, you can look over their shoulder while they do it.
Of course, in addition to military mail, extreme microfilm works for
spies
, too. If you find a cache of microfiche cards, you can always
build your own reader
. | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136979",
"author": "boondaburrah",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T17:20:47",
"content": "I remember using laser film recorders in high school to output documents at some 6000 dpi onto negatives that would then be contact printed onto plates for the printing press. Absolutely insane the l... | 1,760,371,520.598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/turning-up-the-heat-on-ht-plas-marketing/ | Turning Up The Heat On HT-PLA’s Marketing | Tyler August | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d print",
"3d printer filament",
"HT-PLA",
"materials testing"
] | PLA is probably the most-printed filament on the market these days, and is there any wonder? It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it doesn’t poison you (as quickly as its competitors, anyway). What it doesn’t do very well is take the heat. Polymaker’s new HT-PLA formulation promises to solve that, and
[My Tech Fun] put those claims to the test in a recent video
.
Polymaker claims its HT-PLA is heat-stable up-to 150 C, but still prints as easily as standard PLA at up to 300 mm/s. By “heat stable” they mean able to maintain dimensions and form at that temperature when not under any load, save perhaps its own weight. If you need high-temp mechanical properties, they also offer a glass-fiber infused HT-PLA-GF that they claim is heat resistant up to 110 C (that is, able to withstand load at that temperature) which is hard to sneeze at, considering you you could print it on a stock Ender so long as you tossed a hardened nozzle on it.
Now it’s not a free lunch: to get the very best results, you do need to anneal the parts, which can introduce shrinkage and warping in HT-PLA, but that’s where HT-PLA-GF shines. If you want to see the results of the tests you can
jump to 19:27 in the video
, but the short version is that this is mechanically like PLA and can take the heat.
The verdict? If you like printing PLA and want to shove something in a hot car, you might want to try HT-PLA. Otherwise, it’s just like PLA. It prints like PLA, it looks like PLA, and when cold it behaves mechanically like PLA, which we suppose was rather what Polymaker was going for. There is no word yet on whether the additives that make it high-temp
increase off-gassing or toxicity
but since this stuff prints like PLA and can stand a little airflow,
it should be easy to ventilate
, which might make for
fewer trade-offs when building an enclosure.
What do you think, will you be trying HT-PLA anytime soon? Let us know in the comments. | 28 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136924",
"author": "Joseph A Larson",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T15:38:51",
"content": "It’s currently out of stock, so I guess that means a lot of people are trying it out.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8137285",
"au... | 1,760,371,520.666658 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/feline-genetics-and-why-orange-cats-are-the-most-special/ | Feline Genetics And Why Orange Cats Are The Most Special | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"cats",
"fur",
"genetic mutation",
"genetics"
] | Recently, butlers to orange-colored cats got a bit of a shock when reading the news, as headlines began to call out their fuzzy feline friends as ‘freaks of nature’ and using similarly uncouth terms. Despite the name-calling, the actual reason for this flurry of feline fascination was more benign — with two teams of scientists
independently figuring out the reason
why some cats have fur that is orange. Tracking down the reason for this turned out to be far more complicated than assumed, with the fact that about 80% of orange cats are male being only the tip of the cat-shaped iceberg.
It was known to be an X chromosome-linked mutation, but rather than the fur coloring being affected directly, instead the mechanism was deduced to be a suppression of the black-brownish pigmentation (eumelanin) in favor of the orange coloration (pheomelanin). Finding the exact locus of the responsible ‘O gene’ (for orange) in the cat genome has been the challenge for years, which turned out to be a mutation related to the X-linked
ARHGAP36
gene, whose altered expression results in the suppression of many melanogenesis genes.
Interestingly, this particular mutation appears to be of a singular origin that apparently persisted over millennia courtesy of the domestication of humans (
H. sapiens
) by
Felis catus
.
Furry Patterns
Although
F. catus
doesn’t have the wide variety of phenotypes that everyone’s favorite canid companions
(
Canis familiaris
)
got subjected to after the first grey wolves got cozy with
H. sapiens
, there is still significant variety among cats. Most of this variety is seen in the fur, with characteristics including coloration, curliness and length varying quite significantly.
European wildcat (
F. silvestris
). (Credit: Alena Houšková,
Wikimedia
)
The
underlying genetics
are
relatively straightforward
despite the pretty wild number of possible phenotypes. Here we should mind the cautionary note that some phenotypes are the result of inbreeding of recessive genetic defects, such as the
hr
mutation in the
KRT71
(keratin) gene that prevents hair follicles from forming, as found in the so-called
Sphynx cats
. Due to the amount of inbreeding required to maintain these recessive mutations, such breeds suffer many
health issues
and a shortened lifespan. Here we will thus only look at healthy
F. catus
genetics without such inbreeding baggage.
F. catus
has the African wildcat (
F. lybica
) as its direct ancestor, with the European wildcat (
F. silvestris
) being the other divergent branch. Interestingly,
F. silvestris
seems to
resist
domestication more than
F. lybica
, with the latter being the cat species that the Ancient Egyptians would have kept around. All of these have similar genetics, and thus the wildcats give a good idea of what a ‘wild’ phenotype range looks like. Of note is that these wildcats are generally not orange, unlike many of their brethren in the
Pantherinae
sub-family of
Felidae
, like tigers and lions, which is another kettle of genetic fish.
Hair length is determined by the
FGF5
gene, which much like in
H. sapiens
determines for how long a hair grows before it enters the catagen (regression) phase. In e.g. Norwegian Forest Cats as well as Maine Coons the growth cycle is much longer, which gets these breeds a thicker coat, which normally consists out of the typical down, awn and guard hairs.
Fur color is solely determined by melanin, specially the dark & brown eumelanin along with the yellow-reddish pheomelanin, with the amount or absence of each determining the final color. As far as patterns go, it’s likely that the
‘tabby’ coat pattern
originates in wildcats, with naturally bred
F. catus
(‘non-pedigree’) often displaying this pattern.
In order for an orange, generally called ‘red’ or ‘ginger’, coat color to appear, there would thus have be a severe decrease in eumelanin production, with pheomelanin being primarily present. This is effectively the same as in
H. sapiens
and the ‘ginger’ phenotype with reddish hair and lack of eumelanin pigmentation in the skin.
The problem for genetic scientists was that they did not know exactly why the eumelanin production was being suppressed in favor of pheomelanin, with researchers finally sufficiently narrowing down the location on the X-chromosome through comparative analysis between
F. catus
DNA to pin-point the location and from there understand the mechanics.
Deleted
Summary of study findings by Hidehiro Toh et al., Current Biology, 2025
Both the study by
Hidehiro Toh et al.
and the study by
C.B. Kaelin et al.
(
BioRxiv
) came to the same conclusion, namely that a 5 – 5.1 kilobase (kb) section had been deleted which resulted in a significantly higher expression of
ARHGAP36
(Rho GTPase Activating Protein 36). This is likely because the deleted section that normally precedes
ARHGAP36
inhibits the expression of this gene.
Normally the production of eumelanin is activated via the following pathway in melanocytes:
Melanocortin 1 receptor (Mc1r)
cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)
protein kinase A (PKA)
In the case of eumelanin suppression, the affected cats still have this pathway intact, but the increased expression of
ARHGAP36
leads to reduced levels of the PKA catalytic subunit (PKA
c
), thus interrupting this pathway at the final step and preventing the production of eumelanin.
Impact of increased ARHGAP36 expression on melanocyte gene expression. (Credit: Hidehiro Toh et al., Current Biology, 2025)
Although melanin is commonly associated with hair and skin coloring, these neural crest-derived melanocytes have more roles and are considered part of the body’s immune system. Neuromelanin, for example, is a form of melanin that is produced in the brain, though with an unknown function. The
ARHGAP36
gene is strongly expressed in neuro-endocrinological tissues, which conceivably may imply a significant role for the normal functioning of melanocytes in this context.
In the case of hair & skin pigmentation, the effect is as we can observe rather striking, with mixed negative and positive health effects based on the effective change in gene expression. Fortunately a drop in IQ is not among the negative outcomes, despite the slander often hurled at orange-coated cats.
Randomly Tortoise
A cat with calico coat pattern. (Credit: Ksmith4f,
Wikimedia
)
The two coat patterns most commonly associated with this orange mutation without being purely orange are the tortoiseshell and calico patterns, which are effectively the same except with white (no pigment, courtesy of the
KIT
gene) present with the latter. This kind of coat pattern is caused by the random inactivation of either of the two X chromosomes in female cats (X-inactivation), where just one of the X chromosomes has the
ARHGAP36
mutation.
A female cat can have this mutation on both X chromosomes, but this is far less likely, thus explaining why most orange cats are male, and why calico and tortoiseshell cats are overwhelmingly female.
Although male cats can have a calico or tortoiseshell pattern, this is because they have a genetic (intersex) condition like Klinefelter syndrome (XXY), or chimerism (merged cell lines from two distinct embryos). This rare confluence of factors makes such coat patterns with male cats very rare, at less than one percent.
Most Special of All
From what we can determine based on historical writings and art, and on the similarity of these deletions near the
ARHGAP36
gene, this is a mutation that occurred likely once thousands of years ago, and has persisted in
F. catus
populations ever since. Even if similar mutations were to have occurred in wildcat populations, they are likely to have been heavily selected against. European wildcats are however known to interbreed with feral
F. catus
, which may introduce such mutations in those populations.
Ultimately these findings mean that orange cats as well as calicos and tortoiseshells are the result of a very special moment in history, when
H. sapiens
and
F. lybica
met up and the former saw fit to preserve one of the most unique phenotypes that truly define
F. catus
as the wildcat who came to conquer our homes and our hearts. | 43 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136891",
"author": "jenningsthecat",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T14:27:42",
"content": "Is it just me, or does this sound like it might have a human counterpart? I wonder if fair-skinned, be-freckled red-heads are the result of a similar genetic anomaly.",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,371,520.894788 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/texas-right-to-repair-bill-is-a-signature-away-from-becoming-law/ | Texas’ Right To Repair Bill Is A Signature Away From Becoming Law | Maya Posch | [
"News",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"right to repair",
"Texas"
] | In what could be a big step forward for consumer rights, the Texas Senate
recently unanimously voted
to pass
HB 2963
, which references the “Diagnosis, maintenance, and repair of certain digital electronic equipment”. If signed by the governor, this would make Texas the ninth US state to enact such a law, and the seventh pertaining to consumer electronics. Interestingly, this bill saw anti-parts pairing language added, which is something that got
stripped from the Oregon bill
.
Much like other Right to Repair bills, HB 2963 would require manufacturers to make spare parts, documentation and repair tools available to both consumers and independent repair shops. If signed, the act would take effect in September of 2026. Included in the bill are provisions to prevent overcharging for the provided parts and documentation.
As for how useful this is going to be for consumers,
[Louis Rossmann] had a read of the bill
and gave his typically eloquent thoughts. The tl;dw is that while there is a lot of stuff to like, this bill leaves open potentially massive loopholes (e.g. assemblies vs parts), while also carving out massive exemptions, which leaves owners of game consoles, boats, cars, tractors, home appliances, etc. stranded with no new options. | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136825",
"author": "Chr Elz",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T12:15:49",
"content": "Hopefully it turns out better than the New York State R2R bill that looked great, passed the State House nearly unanimously with total bipartisan support, and then was completely nerfed at the last minute... | 1,760,371,520.718589 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/09/nintendo-switch-2-teardown-lets-a-go/ | Nintendo Switch 2 Teardown, Let’s A-Go! | Drew Littrell | [
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"games console",
"handheld",
"nintendo",
"teardown"
] | A new console challenger has appeared, and it goes by the name Nintendo Switch 2. The company’s latest iteration of the home console portable hybrid initially showed promise by featuring a large 1080p display, though very little official footage of the handheld existed prior to the device’s global release last week. However, thanks to a teardown video from [TronicsFix],
we’ve got a little more insight into the hardware
.
The technical specifications of this new console have been speculated on for the last handful of years. We now know NVIDIA is again providing the main silicon in the form of a custom 8x ARM Cortex A78C processor. Keeping the system powered is a 5220 mAh lithium ion battery that according to [TronicsFix] is held in with some seriously strong adhesive.
On the plus side for repairability, the onboard microphone and headphone jack are each attached by their own ribbon cable to the motherboard. The magnetic controller interfaces are also modular in design as they may one day prove to be a point of failure from repeated detachment. Speaking of which,
[TronicsFix] also took apart the new version of the Joy-Con controller
that ships with the system.
Arguably the biggest pain point for owners of the original Nintendo Switch was the reliability of the analog sticks on the diminutive controllers. There were widespread reports of “stick drift” that caused players to lose control as onscreen avatars would lazily move in one direction without player input. For the Switch 2, the Joy-Con controllers feature roughly the same number of dome switch buttons as well as haptic feedback motors. The analog sticks are larger in size on the outside, but feature the same general wiper/resistor design of the original. Many will cry foul of the continued use of conventional analog stick design in favor of hall effect sensors, but only time will tell if the Nintendo Switch 2 will repeat history. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136769",
"author": "mini",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T10:08:44",
"content": "Anyone know if there are nice, high-res boardshots anywhere out there?Youtube videos are too compressed to make out anything.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"commen... | 1,760,371,520.951814 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/garden-hose-gets-laminar-flow/ | Garden Hose Gets Laminar Flow | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"garden hose",
"laminar",
"laminar flow"
] | We aren’t sure if [Joshua Bellamy] is serious that he wants a laminar flow to water his plants, but there are many places where having a smooth and predictable flow of water is useful or even essential. With his 3D printed adapter, you can
produce laminar flow from any garden hose.
If you haven’t heard the term before, laminar flow is to water what a laser is to light. The water moves in parallel tracks with minimal mixing and turbulence. Ensuring laminar flow is often critical to precise flow metering, for example.
This isn’t [Joshua]’s first attempt. He has made a nozzle like this before, but it required a lot of assembly (“more fiddly bits than a Swedish flat-pack sofa” according to the post). Depending on the version, you’ll need various bits of extra hardware in addition to the 3D printed parts. Some versions have drop-in nuts and even an LED. Fiberglass insulation at the inlet diffuses turbulence, and some manual work on the output provided better results. When everything is working, the output of the hose should look like a glass rod, as you can see in the video below.
Air can also have laminar or non-laminar flow.
Laminar air flow in a laser cutter’s air assist
can make a big difference. If you don’t fancy 3D printing, you could save
some drinking straws
from your last few hundred trips to the local fast food emporium. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136681",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T05:15:30",
"content": "I love laminar flow water contraptions. For decades I didn’t know what the “leaping fountains” were I’d seen at EPCOT many many years prior. Garden hoses are a convenient water pump, but have long been cons... | 1,760,371,521.004816 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/wireless-power-makes-for-cable-free-desk/ | Wireless Power Makes For Cable-Free Desk | Tyler August | [
"computer hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"diy perks",
"frameworks",
"power over wireless",
"Wireless power"
] | Some people hate cables with a passion; others are agnostic and prefer cabled peripherals to having to stop and charge their mouse. [Matt] from
DIYPerks
has the best of both worlds
with this wireless-powered, no-cable desk setup.
The secret is embedded within the plywood desk:
an evaluation kit from Etherdyne Technologies, Inc
consisting of a 100 W RF power supply and its associated power antenna looping around the desktop edge. The mechanism is similar to the inductive charging often seen on phones nowadays, but at higher frequency and larger scale, enabling power to be transmitted several feet (at least a meter) above the desktop.
The range is impressive (this isn’t the maximum), but the efficiency is not advertised.
The kit from ETI contained several PCB-coil receivers, which [Matt] built into a number of devices, including a lamp, heated cup, microphone, speakers, his mouse, keyboard, and even a custom base to run his monitor, which really shows the power these things can pull.
The microphone is a non-Bluetooth RF unit lovingly modified to studio quality, at least as far as we can tell on laptop speakers through YouTube’s compression. The speakers use a pair of Bluetooth modules to negotiate stereo sound while staying in sync. And before you ask “what about signal for the monitor?”– we have to inform you that was taken care of too, via a wireless HDMI dongle. Check it out in the video below.
Of course the elephant in the room here is power usage — there’s a 10 W base draw, and probably a big hit to efficiency vs cabled-everything– but we figure he gets partway to a pass on that by using a Frameworks mainboard instead desktop hardware. Indeed, a full analysis might show that the transmission efficiency of this system is no worse than the power to charge/discharge inefficiencies in a more conventional battery powered wireless setup.
While no wires is pretty clean, we’re not sure this beats the
totally-hidden-in-the-desk PC
[Matt] built last year in terms of minimalist aesthetic. That Frameworks mainboard also likely lacks the power of his
triple-screen luggable,
but this was still an entertaining build. | 33 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136647",
"author": "s",
"timestamp": "2025-06-09T03:29:26",
"content": "this is one of those glitzy/glamorous channels that i really can’t stand. he’s always light on specifics, and heavy on the appearance aspect. his last build with the ‘wireless surround sound’, i bought the ... | 1,760,371,521.42906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/hackaday-links-june-8-2025/ | Hackaday Links: June 8, 2025 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links"
] | [
"5090 RTX",
"Andromeda",
"counterfeit",
"D2W",
"dip",
"dog",
"emergent AI",
"Galaxy",
"hackaday links",
"milky way",
"NVIDIA",
"packaging",
"qfn",
"QFP",
"robot dog",
"robotics",
"supply chain",
"Temu",
"unitree",
"W2W"
] | When purchasing high-end gear, it’s not uncommon for manufacturers to include a little swag in the box. It makes the customer feel a bit better about the amount of money that just left their wallet, and it’s a great way for the manufacturer to build some brand loyalty and perhaps even get their logo out into the public. What’s not expected, though, is for
the swag to be the only thing in the box
. That’s what a Redditor reported after a recent purchase of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, a GPU that lists for $1,999 but is so in-demand that it’s unobtainium at anything south of $2,600. When the factory-sealed box was opened, the Redditor found it stuffed with two cheap backpacks instead of the card. To add insult to injury, the bags didn’t even sport an Nvidia logo.
The purchase was made at a Micro Center in Santa Clara, California, and an investigation by the store revealed 31 other cards had been similarly tampered with, although no word on what they contained in lieu of the intended hardware. The fact that the boxes were apparently sealed at the factory with authentic anti-tamper tape seems to suggest the substitutions happened very high in the supply chain, possibly even at the end of the assembly line. It’s a little hard to imagine how a factory worker was able to smuggle 32 high-end graphics cards out of the building, so maybe the crime occurred lower down in the supply chain by someone with access to factory seals. Either way, the thief or thieves ended up with almost $100,000 worth of hardware, and with that kind of incentive, this kind of thing will likely happen again. Keep your wits about you when you make a purchase like this.
Good news, everyone — it seems
the Milky Way galaxy isn’t necessarily going to collide with the Andromeda galaxy
after all. That the two galactic neighbors would one day merge into a single chaotic gemisch of stars was once taken as canon, but new data from Hubble and Gaia reduce the odds of a collision to fifty-fifty over the next ten billion years. What changed? Apparently, it has to do with some of our other neighbors in this little corner of the universe, like the Large Magellanic Cloud and the M33 satellite galaxy. It seems that early calculations didn’t take the mass of these objects into account, so when you add them into the equation, it’s a toss-up as to what’s going to happen. Not that it’s going to matter much to Earth, which by then will be just a tiny blob of plasma orbiting within old Sol, hideously bloated to red giant status and well on its way to retirement as a white dwarf. So there’s that.
A few weeks ago, we mentioned an
epic humanoid robot freakout
that was making the rounds on social media. The bot, a Unitree H1, started flailing its arms uncontrollably while hanging from a test stand, seriously endangering the engineers nearby. The line of the meltdown was that this was some sort of AI tantrum, and that the robot was simply lashing out at the injustices its creators no doubt inflicted upon it. Unsurprisingly,
that’s not even close to what happened
, and the root cause has a much simpler engineering explanation. According to unnamed robotics experts, the problem stemmed from the tether used to suspend the robot from the test frame. The robot’s sensor mistook the force of the tether as constant acceleration in the -Z axis. In other words, the robot thought it was falling, which caused its balance algorithms to try to compensate by moving its arms and legs, which caused more force on the tether. That led to a positive feedback loop and the freakout we witnessed. It seems plausible, and it’s certainly a simpler explanation than a sudden emergent AI attitude problem.
Speaking of robots, if you’ve got a spare $50 burning a hole in your pocket, there are probably worse ways to spend it than on
this inexplicable robot dog
from Temu. Clearly based on a famous and much more expensive robot dog, Temu’s “FIRES BULLETS PET,” as the label on the box calls it, does a lot of things its big brother can’t do out of the box. It has a turret on its back that’s supposed to launch “water pellets” across the room, but does little more than weakly extrude water-soaked gel capsules. It’s also got a dance mode with moves that look like what a dog does when it has an unreachable itch, plus a disappointing “urinate” mode, which given the water-pellets thing would seem to have potential; alas, the dog just lifts a leg and plays recorded sounds of tinkling. Honestly,
Reeves did it better
, but for fifty bucks, what can you expect?
And finally, we stumbled across
this fantastic primer on advanced semiconductor packaging
. It covers the entire history of chip packaging, starting with the venerable DIP and going right through the mind-blowing complexity of hybrid bonding processes like die-to-wafer and wafer-to-wafer. Some methods are capable of 10 million interconnections per square millimeter; let that one sink in a bit. We found this article in
this week’s
The Analog
newsletter
, which we’ve said before is a must-subscribe. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136617",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T23:14:42",
"content": "On the stolen graphics cards:For high-end items at very high risk of being stolen “in the supply chain” there needs to be more than a single holgraphic seal. Additional seals wih signed messages that inclu... | 1,760,371,521.354674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/bringing-a-father-ted-joke-to-life/ | Bringing AFather TedJoke To Life | Matt Varian | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"adhesive tape",
"ESP8266",
"props"
] | Inspired by a gag from a mid-90s sitcom
Father Ted
,
[Stephen] decided to create his own talking tape dispenser
.
This project is a actually a follow-up to the first version of the dispenser he built back in 2022, and [Stephen] has documented the process thoroughly for anyone wanting to build their own. In the first version, he modified a tape dispenser to house a Raspberry Pi, enabling voice functionality. In the new version, he replaced the Raspberry Pi with a cheaper ESP8266 and designed an entirely 3D printed dispenser that looks closer to the screen-used version.
A clever change was replacing the rotary encoder with a custom encoder embedded in the printed parts. Using a photodiode and an LED, it measures the tape pulled from the spool. As you pull the tape, the encoder calculates the length and announces it through the speaker, just like in the show.
If you’re into prop recreations like this, be sure to check out the
winners of our 2022 Sci-Fi Contest
. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136600",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T20:52:53",
"content": "Yep I’m gonna have to have me one of those",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8136606",
"author": "FiSul",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T21:21:21",
"c... | 1,760,371,521.057943 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/simple-triggering-for-saleae-logic-analyzers/ | Simple Triggering For Saleae Logic Analyzers | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"Software Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"logic analyser",
"saleae",
"saleae logic",
"triggering"
] | Saleae logic analyzers seem to have it all: good sampling rates, convenient protocol decoding, and plenty of channels – but not a good way to set rising or falling-edge triggering. [James] found this rather inconvenient when debugging embedded devices, and
shared a workaround that replicates these simple triggering modes
.
Crucially, the logic analyzer’s software has a repeated triggering mode that fires when the protocol decoder detects a preset value. [James] used a clever trick to turn this into a rising-edge trigger: he set up a simple parallel analyzer, and set the signal in question as both the sampled channel and the clock signal. Since he wanted to detect the rising edge, he set the clock mode accordingly. Next, he loaded the simple parallel decoder’s trigger configuration and set it to detect a value of one, the value of a high signal. When he ran the simple parallel trigger, every rising edge of the input signal would trigger the clock to check for a high value on the line, in turn triggering the analyzer.
It’s also possible to set up a falling-edge trigger by selecting the falling-edge clock mode and setting the trigger mode to detect a value of zero. Setting up more complex triggers involving multiple channels is as simple as calculating the hexadecimal value of the desired state and setting the parallel decoder to trigger on that value. For example, if you want to trigger when one input is low and another is high, you can set the decoder to trigger on a value or one or two, depending on which order the inputs come in.
If all this makes you interested in Saleae logic analyzers, we’ve seen them used for everything from
floppy disk preservation
to
signal generation
. We’ve even
reviewed their earliest model back in 2009
. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136596",
"author": "Devan",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T20:25:05",
"content": "The article summary here is a bit confusing – the video in question is a workaround to replicate the “normal” trigger setting of an oscilloscope, where it will capture and replace the existing capture on sc... | 1,760,371,521.099531 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/piano-doorbell-adds-music-to-your-home/ | Piano Doorbell Adds Music To Your Home | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"doorbell",
"ESP32",
"piano"
] | Regular ding-dong doorbells are fun and all, but it can be nice to put something a little more special by your front door. To that end, [Arpan Mondal] built this neat little piano doorbell
to make visiting his home just a touch more fun.
The heart of the build is an ESP32 microcontroller. It’s responsible for reading the state of five 3D printed piano keys: three white, two black. It’s nowhere near a full octave, but for a doorbell, it’s enough. When a key is pressed, the ESP32 plays a short audio sample embedded within the program code itself. This is done with the help of a PAM8403 audio amplifier module, which jacks up the output to drive the doorbell speaker loud enough to be heard throughout the home. It’s not exactly studio quality audio, but for a doorbell, it sounds pretty solid.
If you’re looking for a fun and easy build to make your home just a little bit more whimsical, it’s hard to beat something like this. Your musical friends will love it—they might even develop an intro riff of their very own. We’ve featured
some other fun doorbell builds before, too
—the best of which are
the Halloween projects. | 16 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136516",
"author": "X-MarX-THX-SpXt",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T14:11:45",
"content": "I can’t play Funky Town on it! So i have to stick with my number pad. :(Would be nice to make one tho. My childhood dream (to be like Pee Wee) will continue to be a dream for a bit more.",
"pa... | 1,760,371,521.234736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/a-close-look-at-the-mitxela-precision-clock-mk-iv/ | A Close Look At The Mitxela Precision Clock Mk IV | John Elliot V | [
"clock hacks",
"gps hacks",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"gps",
"precision clock",
"precision time-keeping"
] | Over on his secondary YouTube channel, [Jeff Geerling] recently
demoed the new Mitxela Precision Clock Mk IV
.
This clock uses GPS to get the current time, but also your location so it can figure out what time zone you’re in and which daylight savings time might apply. On the back a blinking diode announces the arrival of each second. A temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) is employed for accurate time-keeping.
The clock can be folded in half, thereby doubling as a clapperboard for movie makers. The dimming system is analog, not pulse width modulation (PWM), which means no visible flashing artifacts when recording. It is highly configurable and has USB connectivity. And it has not one but
two
ARM microcontrollers, an ARM STM32L476, and an ARM STM32L010. If you’re interested, you can
pick one up for yourself from [Mitxela]’s shop
.
Toward the end of his video [Jeff] does some navel gazing, thinking about what might be required if future versions of the clock wanted to get down into precision at the nanosecond level. Do you arrange it so the light arrives at the viewer’s eyeball at the right time? Or do you update it on the clock at the right time and let the viewer know about it after a minuscule delay? Philosophical preponderances for another day!
We should add that we’ve seen plenty of cool stuff from [Mitxela] before, including
the Euroknob
and
these soldering tweezers
. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136476",
"author": "TimeLord",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T11:20:56",
"content": "Time is an illusion …. Lunchtime doubly so",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8136523",
"author": "dremu",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T1... | 1,760,371,521.297023 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/wave-drive-made-with-3d-printed-parts/ | Wave Drive Made With 3D Printed Parts | Lewin Day | [
"Parts"
] | [
"gear drive",
"gearbox",
"wave drive"
] | You can get just about any gear reduction you want using conventional gears. But when you need to get a certain reduction in a very small space with minimal to no backlash, you might find a wave drive very useful.
[Mishin Machine] shows us how to build one with (mostly) 3D printed components.
The video does a great job of explaining the basics of the design. Right off the bat, we’ll say this one isn’t fully printed—it relies on off-the-shelf steel ball bearings. It’s easy to understand why. When you need strong, smooth-rolling parts, it’s hard to print competitive spheres in plastic at home. Plastic BBs will work too, though, as will various off-the-shelf cylindrical rollers. The rest is mostly 3D printed, so with the right design, you can whip up a wave drive to suit whatever packaging requirements you might have.
Combined with a stepper motor and the right off-the-shelf parts, you can build a high-reduction gearbox that can withstand high torque and should have reasonable longevity despite being assembled with many printed components.
We’ve seen other
interesting gear reductions before, too
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136466",
"author": "jpa",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T09:59:10",
"content": "Less parts than cycloidal drive, that’s nice. The efficiency is probably not great due to the rolling resistance of the rollers, but for many applications that doesn’t matter.As with any 3D printed gearbox it... | 1,760,371,521.473425 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/scratch-built-electric-boat-shows-off-surprising-speed/ | Scratch-built Electric Boat Shows Off Surprising Speed | Bryan Cockfield | [
"green hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"custom hull",
"electric",
"solar panel",
"speedboat"
] | Electric cars are everywhere these days, but what about boats? Looking to go green on the water,
[NASAT] put together this impressively nimble boat
propelled by a pair of brushless motors.
The boat itself has a completely custom-built hull, using plywood as a mold for the ultimate fiberglass body. It’s a catamaran-like shape that seems to allow it to get on plane fairly easily, increasing its ultimate speed compared to a displacement hull. It gets up to that speed with two electric motors totaling 4 kW, mated to a belt-driven drivetrain spinning a fairly standard prop. Power is provided by a large battery, and the solar panel at the top can provide not only shade for the operator, but 300 W to charge the battery when the motors are not being used.
With the finishing touches put on, the small single-seat boat effortlessly powers around the water with many of the same benefits of an electric car: low noise, low pollution, a quiet ride, and a surprisingly quick feel. Electrification has come for other boats as well, like
this sailing catamaran converted to electric-only
. Even some commercial boats have
begun to take the plunge
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136437",
"author": "Cody",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T06:37:57",
"content": "I don’t think I’ve seen anyone run two motors in parallel from a single ESC before. I’m rather surprised that works at all since the ESC needs to sense back EMF from the motor to know when to switch.",
"... | 1,760,371,521.545258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/building-a-cyberpunk-modular-keyboard/ | Building A Cyberpunk Modular Keyboard | Lewin Day | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"keyboard",
"keys",
"split keyboard"
] | Perhaps you have a tilt towards glowing cyberpunk peripherals. Perhaps you’ve been hunting for a keyboard that you can position perfectly to suit both your left and right hands. In that case,
you might just like this nifty design from [Modern Hobbyist].
The first thing you’ll note is the split design, which allows each half of the keyboard to be placed optimally for each arm’s comfort. They’re linked with a cable, which allows the STM32 microcontroller to read the keys on both sides and then spit out the right stuff upstream over its USB-C connection. The microcontroller is also in charge of running the per-key LED lighting and the LCD screens on each half.
The board owes its sleek and slim design at least in part to using Kailh Choc low-profile switches. They plug in to hotswap compatible sockets so the switches can easily be changed if desired. Keycaps are blank off-the-shelf parts because this is a keyboard for those who aren’t afraid to spend the time establishing the right muscle memory. It might take some adaptation if you’re not used to the staggered columnar layout. However, the LCD screens can display a keymap if you need a little help now and then.
We’ve seen a lot of great split keyboards over the years,
including one amusing design made by hacking an existing keyboard in half with a saw
. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136408",
"author": "KDawg",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T03:49:00",
"content": "I think its very nice and its of good build quality, but what makes it cyberpunk? its never mentioned on the website or video… cause the thumbnail yused a font slightly similar to the video game?",
"par... | 1,760,371,521.641211 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/single-tube-sdr-is-a-delightful-mix-of-old-and-new/ | Single Tube SDR Is A Delightful Mix Of Old And New | Tyler August | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"6J1",
"sdr",
"software define radio",
"tube radio",
"vacuum tube"
] | Software Defined Radio (SDR) is the big thing these days, and why not? A single computer can get rid of a room full of boat anchors, and give you better signal discrimination than all but the best kit. Any SDR project needs an RF receiver, and in this project [mircemk] used a
single 6J1 vaccum tube to produce an SSB SDR that
combines the best of old and new.
Single-tube radios are a classic hack, and where a lot of hams got started back in the day, but there is a reason more complicated circuits tend to be used. On the other hand, if you can throw a PC worth of signal processing at the output, it looks like you can get a very sensitive and selective single-sideband (SSB) receiver.
The 6J1 tube is convenient, since it can run on only 6 V (or down to 3.7 as [mircemk] demonstrates). Here it is used as a mixer, with the oscillator signal injected via the screen grid. Aside from that, the simple circuit consists of a receiving coil, a few resistors and a variable capacitor. How well does it work? Quite well, when paired with a PC; you can judge for yourself in the video embedded below.
We’ve featured a lot of [mircemk]’s projects over the years, like
this handsome OLED VU meter
, or this
frequency analyzer with a VFD
and even
a virtual pinball cabinet made from scraps
, among many others. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136517",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2025-06-08T14:15:24",
"content": "+16J1 is American description for EF95 (EU)/6AK5 (RUS).The EF95 needs 35v (?) anode voltage to properly work without tricks.A miniatur electron tube that natively works with 12v anode voltage is EF98, for ... | 1,760,371,521.595303 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/lets-buy-commodore-well-somebody-is/ | Let’s Buy Commodore! Well, Somebody Is. | Jenny List | [
"News",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"brand",
"commodore",
"commodore 64"
] | When a man wearing an Atari T-shirt tells you he’s buying Commodore it sounds like the plot for an improbable 1980s movie in which Nolan Bushnell and Jack Tramiel do battle before a neon synthwave sunset to a pulsating chiptune soundtrack. But here on the screen there’s that guy doing just that, It’s [Retro Recipes], and in the video below
he’s assembling a licensing deal for the Commodore brand portfolio
from the distant descendant of the Commodore of old.
It’s a fascinating story and we commend him for tracing a path through the mess that unfolded for Commodore in the 1990s. We tried the same research path with a friend a few years ago and ended up with an anonymous Dutch paper company that wouldn’t answer our calls, so we’re impressed. In conjunction with several other players in the Commodore retrocomputing world he’s trying to assemble a favourable percentage deal for manufacturers of new parts, computers, and other goodies, and we’re pleased to see that it’s for the smaller player as much as for the industry giant.
When looking at a story like this though, it’s important not to let your view become clouded by those rose tinted glasses. While it’s great that we’re likely to see a bunch of new Commodore-branded Commodore 64s and parts, there are many pitfalls in taking it beyond that. We’ve seen the Commodore logo on too many regrettable licensed products in the past, and we fear it might be too tempting for it to end up on yet another disappointing all-in-one video game or just another budget PC. If something new comes out under the Commodore brand we’d like it to be
really
special, exploiting new ground in the way the Amiga did back in the day. We can hope, because the alternative
has dragged other famous brands through the mud
in recent years.
If you want an insight into the roots of the original Commodore’s demise,
have a read of our Hackaday colleague [Bil Herd]’s autobiography
.
Header: Evan-Amos,
Public domain
. | 63 | 22 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136333",
"author": "Jii",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T21:25:16",
"content": "This is exciting. I would really like to see Commodore brand being in good hands and producing something worthwhile again.I have had the wild dream of stumbling in the Commodore IP in some weird auction and b... | 1,760,371,522.004998 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/chatgpt-patched-a-bios-binary-and-it-worked/ | ChatGPT Patched A BIOS Binary, And It Worked | John Elliot V | [
"Android Hacks",
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"binary",
"bios",
"ChatGPT",
"Factory Reset Protection",
"FRP",
"Panasonic Toughpad FZ-A2"
] | [devicemodder] wrote in to let us know they
managed to install Linux Mint on their FRP-locked Panasonic Toughpad FZ-A2
.
Android devices such as the FZ-A2 can be locked with Factory Reset Protection (FRP). The FRP limits what you can do with a device, tying it to a user account. On the surface that’s a good thing for consumers as it disincentivizes stealing. Unfortunately, when combined with SecureBoot, it also means you can’t just install whatever software you want on your hardware. [devicemodder] managed to get Linux Mint running on their FZ-A2, which is a notable achievement by itself, but even more remarkable is how it was done.
So how did [devicemodder] get around this limitation? The first step was to dump the BIOS using a CH341A-based programmer. From there, the image was uploaded to ChatGPT along with a request to disable SecureBoot. The resulting file was flashed back onto the FZ-A2, and all available fingers were crossed.
And… it worked!
ChatGPT modified the BIOS
enough that the Linux Mint installer could be booted from a flash drive. There are a bunch of bugs and issues to work through but in principle we have just seen AI capable enough to successfully patch a binary dump of BIOS code, which, for the record, is kind of hard to do. We’re not sure what all of this might portend.
So is uploading binaries to ChatGPT with requests for mods
vibe coding
? Or should we invent a new term for this type of hack? | 107 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136268",
"author": "Eric R Mockler",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T17:06:12",
"content": "I did this on a Sony Vaio to enable VTD, and it was scary. But it worked. Then I could run ESXi under Vmware Workstation.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,371,521.817162 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/microsoft-looking-to-enforce-usb-c-features-through-whcp/ | Microsoft Looking To Enforce USB-C Features Through WHCP | Maya Posch | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"microsoft",
"USB C"
] | As much as people love USB-C, there’s one massive flaw that becomes very obvious the moment you look at the ports on any computer. This being that there’s no (standardized) way to tell what any of those ports do. Some may do display out (Alt-Mode), some may allow for charging, but it remains mostly a matter of praying to the hardware gods. According to a recent blog post, this is where Microsoft will
seek to enforce a USB-C feature set
on all (mobile) computers compliant with its Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (
WHCP
).
This also comes after years of the USB Implementers Forum, re-branding the USB specifications, with the most recent iteration thankfully using the bandwidth (in Gbps) as specifier (meaning no ‘USB PlaidSpeed’, sadly). Claiming to follow this end-user friendly spirit, the Microsoft blog post goes on to a minimum set of features that USB-C ports should have, as detailed in the above table.
Most notable is probably that PC charging support is required, as is support for at least one external display. As for the negatives, this seems to only apply to laptops, and no actual charging requirements are set (USB-PD voltages, wattage, etc.), so what the actual impact of this will be remains to be seen.
One thing remains certain, however, and that is that by trying to
make USB-C the One True Connector for literally everything
, there will always remain cases where end-user expectations remain unfulfilled. | 36 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136234",
"author": "Ken C",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T14:46:16",
"content": "Why not make something likeUSB PowerDuo Prowhere one cable (all wires, including shield) is used to supply N-voltage and another is used for L-voltage to voltage converter inside the device. This way it sho... | 1,760,371,522.078698 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/when-wireless-midi-has-latency-a-hardwired-solution-saves-the-day/ | When Wireless MIDI Has Latency, A Hardwired Solution Saves The Day | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"ESP32",
"latency",
"midi",
"music",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | [Moby Pixel] wanted to build a fun MIDI controller. In the end, he didn’t build it just once, but twice—with the aim of finding out which microcontroller was most fit for this musical purpose. Pitted against each other?
The ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico.
The MIDI controller itself is quite fetching. It’s built with a 4 x 4 array of arcade buttons to act as triggers for MIDI notes or events. They’re assembled in a nice wooden case with a lovely graphic wrap on it. The buttons themselves are wired to a microcontroller, which is then responsible for sending MIDI data to other devices.
At this point, the project diverges. Originally, [Moby Pixel] set the device up to work with an ESP32 using wireless MIDI over Bluetooth. However, he soon found a problem. Musical performance is all about timing, and the ESP32 setup was struggling with intermittent latency spikes that would ruin the performance. Enter the Raspberry Pi Pico using MIDI over USB. The hardwired solution eliminated the latency problems and made the controller far more satisfying to use.
There may be solutions to the latency issue with the wireless ESP32 setup, be they in code, hardware configuration, or otherwise. But if you want to play with the most accuracy and the minimum fuss, you’ll probably prefer the hardwired setup.
Latency is a vibe killer in music as we’ve explored previously
. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136203",
"author": "Gösta",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T11:57:20",
"content": "Beautiful build :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8136206",
"author": "TerryMatthews",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T12:22:33",
"content": "Wo... | 1,760,371,522.131203 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/07/printed-focus-control-for-pro-style-cinematography/ | Printed Focus Control For Pro Style Cinematography | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"3D printed parts",
"focus puller",
"stepper motor"
] | When you watch a movie and see those perfect focus switches or zooms, the chances are you’re not seeing the result of the cameraman or focus operator manually moving the lens controls. Instead, they will have been planned and programmed in advance and executed by a motor. If you take a close look at many lenses you’ll see a ring that’s more than just extra knurling, it’s a gear wheel for this purpose. Want to experiment with this technique without buying professional grade accessories? [l0u0k0e] has you covered with
a 3D printable focus zoom motor accessory
.
The motor behind it all is a geared stepper motor, and there are a set of printed parts to complete the model. It’s recommended to use PETG, and nylon for the gears, but it would work in PLA with a shorter life. It’s designed to work with the standard 15 mm tube you’ll find on many camera rigs, and while you can write your own Arduino sketches to control it if you wish, we’re given instructions for hooking it up to existing focus drivers.
The model is on Printables
, should you wish to try.
This is by no means the first focus puller we’ve seen, in fact
you can even use LEGO. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136163",
"author": "Saren Tasciyan",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T08:20:08",
"content": "I wanted to do this not for focus but for Zoom. My lenses have motorized focus control, which is common. What is not so common is motorized zoom control. I guess, I can simply adapt this for that."... | 1,760,371,522.184582 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/06/3d-pen-used-to-build-cleaning-robot-that-picks-up-socks/ | 3D Pen Used To Build Cleaning Robot That Picks Up Socks | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3D pen",
"robot",
"socks"
] | Your average 3D printer is just a nozzle shooting out hot plastic while being moved around by a precise robotic mechanism. There’s nothing stopping you replacing the robot and moving around the plastic-squirting nozzle yourself.
That’s precisely what [3D Sanago] did to produce this cute little robot.
The beginning of the video sets the tone. “First we create the base that will become the robot vacuum’s body,” explains [3D Sanago]. “I quickly and precisely make a 15 x 15 cm square almost as if I were a 3D printer.” It’s tedious and tiring to move the 3D printing pen through the motions to build simple parts, but that’s the whole gimmick here. What’s wild is how good the results are. With the right post-processing techniques using an iron, [3D Sanago] is able to produce quite attractive plastic parts that almost justify the huge time investment.
The robot itself works in a fairly straightforward fashion. It’s got four gear motors driving four omniwheels, which let it pan around in all directions with ease. They’re under command of an Arduino Uno paired with a multi-channel motor driver board. The robot also has a servo-controlled arm for moving small objects. The robot lacks autonomy. Instead, [3D Sanago] gave it a wireless module so it could be commanded with a PS4 controller. Despite being referred to as a “robot vacuum,” it’s more of a general “cleaning robot” since it only has an arm to move objects, with no actual vacuum hardware. It’s prime use? Picking up socks.
We’ve seen [3D Sanago]’s fine work before, too
. Video after the break. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136148",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T05:05:17",
"content": "Using this robot seems a lot slower than picking up the socks yourself, with your hands. Also a lot more fun!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8136173"... | 1,760,371,522.232794 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/06/the-bellmac-32-cpu-what/ | The Bellmac-32 CPU — What? | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"att",
"bell labs",
"bellmac-32"
] | If you have never heard of the
Bellmac-32
, you aren’t alone. But it is a good bet that most, if not all, of the CPUs in your devices today use technology pioneered by this early 32-bit CPU. The chip was honored with the IEEE Milestone award, and [Willie Jones] explains why in a recent post in Spectrum.
The chip dates from the late 1970s. AT&T’s Bell Labs had a virtual monopoly on phones in the United States, but that was changing, and the government was pressing for divestiture. However, regulators finally allowed Bell to enter the computing market. There was only one problem: everyone else had a huge head start.
There was only one thing to do. There was no point in trying to catch the leaders. Bell decided to leap ahead of the pack. In a time when 8-bit processors were the norm and there were nascent 16-bit processors, they produced a 32-bit processor that ran at a — for the time — snappy 2 MHz.
At the time (1978), most chips used PMOS or NMOS transistors, but Bellmac-32 used CMOS and was made to host compiled C programs. Problems with CMOS were often addressed using dynamic logic, but Bell used a different technique,
domino logic
, to meet their goals.
Domino logic lets devices cascade like falling dominoes in between clock pulses. By 1980, the device reached 2 MHz, and a second generation could reach speeds of up to 9 MHz. For contrast, the Intel 8088 from 1981 ran at 4.77 MHz and handled, at most, half the data in a given time period as the Bellmac-32. Of course, the 68000 was out a year earlier, but you could argue it was a 16-bit CPU, despite some 32-bit features.
It is fun to imagine what life would be like today if we had fast 32-bit Unix machines widely available in the early 1980s. History has shown that many of Bellmac’s decisions were correct. CMOS was the future. Many of the design and testing techniques would go on to become standard operating procedure across the industry. But, as for the Bellmac-32, it didn’t really get the attention it deserved. It did go on in the AT&T 3B computers as the WE 32×00 family of CPUs.
You can check out a 1982 promo video about the CPU below, which also explains domino logic.
Instruction sets
have changed a bit since then. You can see a
68000 and 8086 face off
, and imagine how the Bellmac would have done in comparison. | 34 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136118",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T02:27:13",
"content": "That line about “we don’t have to, we’re the phone company” would make Microsoft look tame.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8136120",
"aut... | 1,760,371,522.303027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/06/freeze-drying-for-improved-metal-printing/ | Freeze-drying For Improved Metal Printing | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed metal",
"3d printing metal",
"casting",
"metal 3d printer",
"sintering"
] | For all the remarkable improvements we’ve seen in desktop 3D printers, metal printers have tended to stay out of reach for hackers, mostly because they usually rely on precise and expensive laser systems. This makes it all the more refreshing to see [Dan Gelbart]’s
demonstration
of Rapidia’s cast-to-sinter method, which goes from SLA prints to ceramic or metal models.
The process began by printing the model in resin, scaled up by 19% to account for shrinkage. [Dan] then used the resin print to make a mold out of silicone rubber, after first painting the model to keep chemicals from the resin from inhibiting the silicone’s polymerization. Once the silicone had set, he cut the original model out of the mold and prepared the mold for pouring. He made a slurry out of metal powder and a water-based binder and poured this into the mold, then froze the mold and its contents at -40 ℃. The resulting mixture of metal powder and ice forms a composite much stronger than pure ice, from which [Dan] was able to forcefully peel back the silicone mold without damaging the part. Next, the still-frozen part was freeze-dried for twenty hours, then finally treated in a vacuum sintering oven for twelve hours to make the final part. The video below the break shows the process.
A significant advantage of this method is that it can produce parts with much higher resolution and better surface finish than other methods. The silicone mold is precise enough that the final print’s quality is mostly determined by the fineness of the metal powder used, and it’s easy to reach micron-scale resolution. The most expensive part of the process is the vacuum sintering furnace, but [Dan] notes that if you only want ceramic and not metal parts, a much cheaper ceramic sintering oven will work better.
We’ve seen
sintering-based
metal printers
a few times
before, as well
a few
more
esoteric methods
. We’ve also covered a few of [Dan]’s previous videos on
mechanical prototyping methods
and building a
precision CNC lathe
.
Thanks to [Eric R Mockler] for the tip! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136095",
"author": "localroger",
"timestamp": "2025-06-06T23:22:36",
"content": "It’s kind of strange to see “19% shrinkage” and “precision” in the same description.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8136106",
"author":... | 1,760,371,522.348078 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/06/a-flip-clock-becomes-a-flip-timer/ | A Flip Clock Becomes A Flip Timer | Navarre Bartz | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"dina Amin",
"flip clock",
"simone giertz"
] | Sometimes it’s nice to have a widget to do a single task and avoid getting distracted by the supposed simplicity of doing it with an app on a smartphone. [Dina Amin] built a
timer from an old flip clock
to stay focused.
Starting with a disassembly of the flip clocks she found at a flea market with [Simone Giertz], [Amin] decided to change the twenty four hour mechanism to a twenty four minute one which was similar to the amount of time she was already using for several different practices. Since she’s an expert in animation, she planned on turning a set of CT scans into the animation that would play on the section that had previously been the minutes of the clock.
As much of the original clock’s components were damaged, and [Amin] didn’t have a chance to learn clockmaking from scratch in a week, she tried a few different drive mechanisms for the build. The drum from an air fryer timer driven with an electric motor fit the bill, but off enough from proper minutes that [Amin] switched from numerals to a yellow circle that fills in as it approaches the satisfying ding of completion.
If you want to see
Simone’s Moon flip clock
we’ve covered that project too. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8136145",
"author": "Joshua Williams",
"timestamp": "2025-06-07T04:25:47",
"content": "This is fantastic, I love seeing other people’s bins of harvested electronics and the creative reuse of otherwise ‘dead’ objects. Thanks for sharing this!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,522.38969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/05/a-flashlight-of-fire-and-ice/ | A Flashlight Of Fire And Ice | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"peltier module",
"SeeBeck Effect",
"thermocouple"
] | [Daniel Salião Ferreira] may or may not be a Game of Thrones fan, but he does have a fun demo of the Seebeck effect in the form of a
flashlight powered by fire and ice
. The basic idea is to use a thermocouple, but — in this case — he uses a Peltier effect cooler.
The Peltier and Seebeck effects are two sides of the same coin: the Peltier effect creates heating and cooling when current flows through a thermoelectric material. In contrast, the Seebeck effect generates a voltage when there is a temperature gradient. While thermocouples do produce voltage this way, they usually have much lower power output and are useless as heat pumps.
Thermoelectric heat pumps — Peltier devices — use semiconductors, which allow them to reach higher temperature differences when used as a heat pump, and also perform better than a conventional metal thermocouple in reverse operation.
Generating power from
waste heat is nothing new
. Is it harder to do this with thermocouples?
Yes
. Yes, it is. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8135839",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2025-06-06T02:32:10",
"content": "are useless as heat pumpsAll those $20 mini fridge seems to be selling very well",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8135850",
"author": "Marty",
... | 1,760,371,522.440154 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/05/building-an-analog-echo-plate/ | Building An Analog Echo Plate | Lewin Day | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"plate reverb",
"reverb",
"reverb plate"
] | These days, when you think reverb, you probably think about a guitar pedal or a plugin in your audio software. But you can also create reverb with a big metal plate and the right supporting electronics.
[Tully] from [The Tul Studio] shows us how.
Basically, if you’ve ever smacked a big sheet of metal and heard the thunderous, rippling sound it makes, you already understand the concept here. To turn it into a studio effect, you use transducers to deliver the sound into the plate of metal, and then microphones to pick it back up again at some other point on the plate. Since the sound takes time to travel through the plate, you get a reverb effect.
[The Tul Studio] used a huge cold-rolled steel plate, standing one meter wide and two meters tall. The plate itself is hung from picture chain, which is strong enough to carry its weight. Old car tweeters are repurposed to act as pickups, while a larger speaker is used to drive sound into the plate. “The key to making it sound not like a tin can is the actual EQ and the electronics,” [Tully] explains, providing resources for this purposes.
We love lots of
lovely reverbing things
around these parts;
oddball delays, too
! Video after the break. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8135789",
"author": "Rune",
"timestamp": "2025-06-05T23:15:54",
"content": "A digital echo plate would be more impressive",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8135792",
"author": "SteveS",
"timestamp": "2025-06-05T2... | 1,760,371,522.529095 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/05/turning-the-pluto-sdr-into-a-network-analyzer/ | Turning The Pluto SDR Into A Network Analyzer | Aaron Beckendorf | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"Network analyzer",
"pluto sdr",
"software defined"
] | Usually when we see a project using a software-defined radio (SDR), the SDR’s inputs and outputs are connected to antennae, but [FromConceptToCircuit]’s project connected an ADALM-Pluto SDR to an RF bridge and a few passive components to make a surprisingly effective
network analyzer
(
part two
of the video).
The network analyzer measures two properties of the circuit to which it is connected: return loss (S11) and insertion gain or loss (S21). To measure S21, the SDR feeds a series of tones to the device under test, and reads the device’s output from one of the SDR’s inputs. By comparing the amplitude of the input to the device’s output, a Python program can calculate S21 over the range of tested frequencies. To find S11, [FromConceptToCircuit] put an RF bridge in line with the device being tested and connected the bridge’s output to the SDR’s second input. This allowed the program to calculate the device’s impedance, and from that S11.
The RF bridge and other components introduce some inaccuracies to the measurements, so before making any other measurements, the system is calibrated with both a through connection and an open circuit in place of the tested device. The RF bridge’s directivity was the biggest limiting factor; transfer back from the bridge’s output line caused the reflection under load to exceed the reflection of an open circuit in some frequency ranges, at which point the analyzer couldn’t accurately operate.
[FromConceptToCircuit] was eventually able to make measurements throughout most of the 0.1-3 GHz range with a dynamic range of at least 10 dB, and expects a more directive RF bridge to give even better results. If you’d like to repeat the experiment, he’s made his Python program available
on GitHub
.
We’ve previously seen [FromConceptToCircuit] use the Pluto SDR to make
a spectrum analyzer
. We’ve also featured a
guide to the Pluto
, covered a project that improved its
frequency stability
, and seen it used to
transmit video
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8135952",
"author": "Artur",
"timestamp": "2025-06-06T10:38:44",
"content": "This is scalar analyser.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,371,522.590255 |
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