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https://hackaday.com/2024/12/15/wago-terminals-make-this-ham-radio-dipole-light-and-packable/ | Wago Terminals Make This Ham Radio Dipole Light And Packable | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"antenna",
"balun",
"dipole",
"ham",
"pota",
"QRP",
"SOTA",
"WAGO"
] | For the amateur radio operator with that on-the-go lifestyle, nothing is more important than having your gear as light and packable as possible. If you’re lugging even a modest setup out into the woods, every ounce counts, which is why we love projects like
this packable dipole antenna feedpoint
.
At its simplest, a dipole antenna is just two pieces of wire cut to a specific, frequency-dependent length connected to a feedline. In practical terms, though, complications arise, such as keeping common-mode currents off the feedline and providing sturdy mechanical support for the antenna to suspend it safely. [Ham Radio Dude]’s design handles both those requirements while staying as small and packable as possible. The design starts with a bifilar 1:1 current balun, which is wound on an FT82-43 ferrite toroid with 22 AWG magnet wire. One side of the balun is connected to a BNC connector while the other is connected to a pair of Wago splice connectors that are glued together. A loop of paracord for mechanical strain relief is added, and the whole thing gets covered in heat-shrink tubing. The antenna is deployed by attaching a feedline to the BNC, clipping quarter-wave wires into the Wago terminals, and hoisting the whole thing aloft. Full build details are in the video below.
People will no doubt be quick to point out that these Wago terminals are rated for a minimum of 18 AWG wire, making them inappropriate for use with fine magnet wire. True enough, but [Dude] was able to get continuity through the Wagos, so the minimum gauge is probably more of an electrical code thing. Still, you’ll want to be careful that the connections stay solid, and it might pay to look at
alternatives to the Wago brand
, too. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8073128",
"author": "Adam Melancon",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T19:17:44",
"content": "I love prototyping with Wago! I’ve used them for several ham radio projects.https://www.instagram.com/p/COEpFbajD9z/?img_index=1https://www.instagram.com/p/CaLjtParjDr/?img_index=1https://www.insta... | 1,760,371,700.167071 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/15/an-iphone-case-study/ | An IPhone Case Study | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"aluminum",
"cad",
"case",
"cnc",
"iphone",
"metal",
"mill",
"phone"
] | Way back in 2008, Apple unveiled the first unibody Macbook with a chassis milled out of a single block of aluminum. Before that, essentially all laptops, including those from Apple, were flimsy plastic screwed together haphazardly on various frames. The unibody construction, on the other hand, finally showed that it was possible to make laptops that were both lightweight and sturdy. Apple eventually began producing iPhones with this same design style, and with the right tools and a very accurate set of calipers it’s possible to not only piece together the required hardware to build an iPhone from the ground up
but also build a custom chassis for it entirely out of metal as well
.
The first part of the project that [Scotty] from [Strange Parts] needed to tackle was actually getting measurements of the internals. Calipers were not getting the entire job done so he used a flatbed scanner to take an image of the case, then milled off a layer and repeated the scan. From there he could start testing out his design. After an uncountable number of prototypes, going back to the CAD model and then back to the mill, he eventually settles into a design but not before breaking an iPhone’s worth of bits along the way. Particularly difficult are the recessed areas inside the phone, but eventually he’s able to get those hollowed out, all the screw holes tapped, and then all the parts needed to get a working iPhone set up inside this case.
[Scotty] has garnered some fame not just for his incredible skills at the precision mill,
but by demonstrating in incredible detail how smartphones can be user-serviceable or even built from scratch
. They certainly require more finesse than assembling an ATX desktop and can require some more specialized tools, but in the end they’re computers like any other.
For the most part
. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8073045",
"author": "SPACEstate1",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T15:04:52",
"content": "So much custom work holding.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8073075",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T16:26:37",
"content... | 1,760,371,700.541989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/15/esp8266-keeps-tabs-on-wood-stove-temperature/ | ESP8266 Keeps Tabs On Wood Stove Temperature | Tom Nardi | [
"home hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"chimney",
"esphome",
"heating",
"home-assistant",
"max6675",
"wood stove"
] | Wood heat offers unique advantages compared to more modern heating systems, especially in remote areas. But it also comes with its own challenges, namely, keeping the fire going at the optimum temperature. If it’s too cold you risk buildup in the chimney, but if you’ve got it stoked up more than necessary, you’ll end up burning through your wood faster.
To keep the fire in that sweet spot, [Jay] decided to
put an ESP8266 and a thermocouple to work
. Now, this might seem like an easy enough job at first, but things are complicated by the fact that the flue temperature above the stove lags considerably behind the temperature inside the stove. There’s also the fact that the top of the chimney will end up being much colder than the bottom.
Mounting the thermocouple in the flue pipe.
In an effort to get a more complete view of what’s happening, [Jay] plans on putting at least two thermocouples in the chimney. But as getting on the roof in December isn’t his idea of fun, for now, he’s starting with the lower one that’s mounted right above the stove. He popped a hole in the pipe to screw in a standard K-type probe, and tapped it a few times with the welder to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere.
From there, the thermocople connects to a MAX6675 amplifier, and then to the WeMos D1 Mini development board that’s been flashed with ESPHome. [Jay] provides the configuration file that will get the flue temperature into Home Assistant, as well as set up notifications for various temperature events. The whole thing goes into a 3D printed box, and gets mounted behind the stove.
This project is a great example on how you can get some real-world data into Home Assistant quickly and easily. In the future, [Jay] not only wants to add that second thermocouple, but also look into manipulating the stove’s air controls with a linear actuator. Here’s hoping we get an update as his woodstove learns some new tricks. | 37 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8073000",
"author": "ca_heckler",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T12:27:38",
"content": "The next obvious step is to get an actuator to control the influx of, and implement a PID to deal with the natural delay in the system – although it gets tricky as the control function will probably ch... | 1,760,371,700.256005 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/15/running-fusion-360-on-linux-with-wine/ | Running Fusion 360 On Linux With Wine | Maya Posch | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"Autodesk Fusion 360",
"linux desktop",
"wine"
] | One of the major reasons why using Linux on a desktop system is unsuitable for many is due to the lack of Linux support for many major applications, including Autodesk Fusion 360. Naturally, using Wine this should be easy in an ideal world, but realistically getting something like Fusion 360 set up and ready to log in with Wine will take some serious time. Fortunately [Steve Zabka]
created some shell scripts
to automate the process. As demonstrated by [Tech Dregs] on YouTube, this seems to
indeed work on a Fedora system
, with just a few glitches.
Among these glitches are some rendering artefacts like application controls remaining on the desktop after closing the application, in-application line rendering and [Tech Dregs] was unable to switch from the DirectX 9 renderer to the DirectX 11 one. Since Fusion 360 will soon
drop DirectX 9 and OpenGL
support, this would seem to be rather an important detail. The GitHub project seems to indicate that this should work, but [Tech Dregs] reported only getting a black screen after switching.
Clearly, using applications like Fusion 360 on Linux isn’t quite what you’d want to use for a production workflow in a commercial setting (even ignoring lack of Autodesk support), but it could be useful for students and others who’d like to not switch to Windows or MacOS just to use this kind of software for a course or hobbyist use. | 55 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072959",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T09:02:16",
"content": "Or you could just use FreeCAD.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8072960",
"author": "WereCatf",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T09:16:33",
... | 1,760,371,700.706275 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/14/a-portable-chainsaw-sawmill/ | A Portable Chainsaw Sawmill | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"chainsaw",
"forest",
"hand cart",
"lumber",
"mill",
"portable",
"Sawmill",
"Timber"
] | Unless you’re running a commercial logging operation, with specialized saws, log grapples, mills, transportation for the timber, and the skilled workers needed to run everything, it’s generally easier to bring a sawmill to the wood instead of taking the wood to the sawmill. Especially for a single person, something like a chainsaw mill is generally a much easier and cost effective way to harvest a small batch of timber into lumber. These chainsaw mills can still be fairly cumbersome though, but [izzy swan]
has a new design that fits an entire mill onto a hand cart for easy transportation in and out of a forest
.
The entire mill is built out of a sheet and a half of plywood, most of which is cut into strips and then assembled into box girders for the track. The remainder of plywood is machined on a CNC to create the carriage for the chainsaw to attach as well as a few other parts to fix the log in place. The carriage has a 4:1 reduction gear on it to winch the chainsaw along the length of the log which cuts the log into long boards. After the milling is complete, the entire mill can be disassembled and packed down onto its hand cart where it can be moved on to the next project fairly quickly.
For a portable mill, it boasts respectable performance as well. It can cut logs up to 11 feet in length and about 30 inches across depending on the type of chainsaw bar used, although [izzy swan] has a few improvements planned for the next prototypes that look to make more consistent, uniform cuts. Chainsaws are incredibly versatile tools to have on hand as well, we’ve seen them configured into
chop saws
,
mortisers
, and even
fixed to the end of a CNC machine
.
Thanks to [Keith] for the tip! | 25 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072930",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T06:44:15",
"content": "Truly an invention to jump-start civilization in case of a semi collapse",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8072956",
"author": "Tweepy",
... | 1,760,371,700.602543 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/14/might-morphin-antenna/ | Might Morphin’ Antenna | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"antenna",
"nitinol"
] | The shape of an antenna can make a big difference in its performance. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory have used shape memory alloy to construct an antenna that changes shape depending on the signals it is receiving. Nitinol, a common shape memory alloy made from nickel and titanium, is an obvious choice, but it’s not obvious how you’d make a shape-changing antenna out of nitinol wire. That changed when a mechanical engineer found a way to 3D print the substance. You can find a paper about the research online from
Applied Engineering Materials
.
In practice, the antenna is a double spiral made of nitinol. A channel contains a copper wire that can heat the antenna and, therefore, change its shape. Having a powered wire in the antenna can cause problems, so special designs route the signal away from the heating element. It looks like the antenna can assume a flat configuration or a spiral conic configuration.
Printing nitinol requires selective laser melting with argon gas, so you probably aren’t printing an antenna with your Ender 3 anytime soon. The process also required post processing and forming over a metal fixture, so there’s a bit to making it work.
We’ve seen
liquid metal antennas
that use a similar trick. We are always surprised we don’t see more
nitinol
in the wild. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072921",
"author": "a_do_z",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T05:03:53",
"content": "MightyMorphin’, maybe?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8073172",
"author": "Oscar Goldman",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T22:12:52",
"content":... | 1,760,371,700.309717 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/14/how-the-lost-mystery-pigment-maya-blue-got-recreated/ | How The Lost Mystery Pigment ‘Maya Blue’ Got Recreated | Donald Papp | [
"Art",
"Science"
] | [
"art",
"blue",
"maya",
"paint",
"pigment"
] | A distinct blue pigment reminiscent of turquoise or a clear sky was used by the ancient Maya to paint pottery, sculptures, clothing, murals, jewelry, and even human sacrifices. What makes it so interesting is not only its rich palette — ranging from bright turquoise to a dark greenish blue — but also its remarkable durability. Only a small number of blue pigments were created by ancient civilizations, and even among those Maya blue is unique. The secret of its creation was thought to be lost, until
ceramicist and artist [Luis May Ku] rediscovered it
.
Maya blue is not just a dye, nor a ground-up mineral like lapis lazuli. It is an unusual and highly durable organic-inorganic hybrid; the result of a complex chemical process that involves two colorants. Here is how it is made: Indigotin is a dye extracted from ch’oj, the Mayan name for a specific indigenous indigo plant. That extract is combined with a very specific type of clay. Heating the mixture in an oven both stabilizes it produces a second colorant: dehydroindigo. Together, this creates Maya blue.
Luis May Ku posing with Maya blue.
The road to rediscovery was not a simple one. While the chemical makeup and particulars of Maya blue had been known for decades, the nuts and bolts of actually
making
it, not to mention sourcing the correct materials, and determining the correct techniques, was a long road. [May] made progress by piecing together invaluable ancestral knowledge and finally cracked the code after a lot of time and effort and experimentation. He remembers the moment of watching a batch shift in color from a soft blue to a vibrant turquoise, and knew he had finally done it.
Before synthetic blue pigments arrived on the scene after the industrial revolution, blue was rare and highly valuable in Europe. The Spanish exploitation of the New World included controlling Maya blue until synthetic blue colorants arrived on the scene, after which Maya blue faded from common knowledge. [May]’s rediscovered formula marks the first time the world has seen genuine Maya blue made using its original formula and methods in almost two hundred years.
Maya blue is a technological wonder of the ancient world, and its rediscovery demonstrates the resilience and scientific value of ancestral knowledge as well as the ingenuity of those dedicated to reviving lost arts.
We’re reminded that paints and coatings have long been fertile ground for experimentation, and as an example we’ve seen the success people had in re-creating
an ultra-white paint that actually has a passive cooling effect
. | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072869",
"author": "𐂀 𐂅",
"timestamp": "2024-12-15T00:33:05",
"content": "“with traditional methods”, whereas making it using modern methods has been known about for a while (+ 20 years). I know this as I researched it as part of my STEM home education program for my kids, who ar... | 1,760,371,700.444722 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/13/chirality-could-kill-us-all-if-we-let-it/ | Chirality Could Kill Us All, If We Let It | Jenny List | [
"Science"
] | [
"chiraility",
"mirror life form",
"synthetic life form"
] | In our high school chemistry classes we all learn about chirality, the property of organic molecules in which two chemically identical molecules can have different structures that are mirror images of each other. This can lead to their exhibiting different properties, and one aspect of chirality is causing significant concerns in the field of synthetic biology. The prospect of so-called mirror organisms
is leading to calls from a group of prominent scientists for research in the field to be curtailed
due to the risks they would present.
Chirality is baked into all life; our DNA is formed of right-handed molecules while our proteins are left handed. The “mirror” organisms would reverse either or both of these, and could in theory be used to improve biochemical production processes. The concern is that these organisms would evade both the immune systems of all natural life forms, and any human defences such as antibiotics, thus posing an existential risk to life. It’s estimated that the capacity to produce such a life form lies more than a decade away, and the scientists wish to forestall that by starting the conversation early. They are calling for a halt to research likely to result in these organisms, and a commitment from funding bodies not to support such research.
Warnings of the dangers from scientific advances are as old as science itself, and it’s safe to say that many such prophecies have come from dubious sources and proved not to have a basis in fact. But this one, given the body of opinion behind it, is perhaps one that should be heeded.
Header: Original: Unknown Vector: — πϵρήλιο,
Public domain
. | 81 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072299",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-12-13T12:42:22",
"content": "Well, another thing could kill us…germ warfare, and yet here we are. Someone is eventually going to try. We just don’t take ‘no’ for answer to anything.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,371,700.825331 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/13/use-your-rtl-in-the-browser/ | Use Your RTL, In The Browser | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"html5",
"RTL-SDR",
"software-defined radio"
] | The web browser started life as a relatively simple hypertext reading application, but over the 30+ years since the first one displayed a simple CERN web page it has been extended to become the universal platform. It’s now powerful enough to run demanding applications, for example a full software-defined radio. [Jtarrio] proves this, with
an application to use an RTL-SDR, in HTML5
.
It’s a fork of
a previous Google-Chrome-only FM receiver
, using the HTML5 WebUSB API, and converted to TypeScript. You can
try it out for yourself
if you have a handy RTL dongle lying around, it provides an interface similar to the RTL apps you may be used to.
The Realtek digital TV chipset has been used as an SDR
for well over a decade now
, so we’re guessing most of you with an interest in radio will have one somewhere. The cheap ones are noisy and full of spurious peaks, but even so, they’re a bucket of fun. Now all that’s needed is the transmit equivalent using
a cheap VGA adapter
, and the whole radio equation could move into the browser. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072270",
"author": "richard didd",
"timestamp": "2024-12-13T10:01:46",
"content": "This is really cool.bung this on a Raspberry Pi with apache and host it",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8072360",
"author": "UnderSampled",
... | 1,760,371,700.379025 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/automated-rig-grows-big-beautiful-crystals-fast/ | Automated Rig Grows Big, Beautiful Crystals Fast | Dan Maloney | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"crystal",
"doubler",
"KDP",
"laser",
"potassium dihydrogen phosphate",
"saturated"
] | We haven’t seen [Les Wright] in a while, and with the release of his new video, we know why —
he’s been busy growing crystals
.
Now, that might seem confusing to anyone who has done the classic “Crystal Garden” trick with table salt and laundry bluing, or tried to get a bit of rock candy out of a supersaturated sugar solution. Sure, growing crystals takes time, but it’s not exactly hard work. But [Les] isn’t in the market for any old crystals. Rather, he needs super-sized, optically clear crystals of potassium dihydrogen phosphate, or KDP, which are useful as frequency doublers for lasers. [Les] has
detailed his need for KDP crystals before
and even grown some nice ones, but he wanted to step up his game and grow some real whoppers.
And boy, did he ever. Fair warning; the video below is long and has a lot of detail on crystal-growing theory, but it’s well worth it for anyone taking the plunge. [Les] ended up building an automated crystal lab, housing it in an old server enclosure for temperature and dust control. The crystals are grown on a custom-built armature that slowly rotates in a supersaturated solution of KDP which is carefully transitioned through a specific temperature profile under Arduino control. As a bonus, he programmed the rig to take photographs of the growing crystals at intervals; the resulting time-lapse sequences are as gorgeous as the crystals, one of which grew to 40 grams in only a week.
We’re keen to see how [Les] puts these crystals to work, and to learn exactly what a “Pockels Cell” is and why you’d want one. In the meantime, if you’re interested in how the crystals that make the whole world work are made, check out our
deep dive into silicon
.
Thanks to [Joseph Hopfield] for the tip. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072253",
"author": "Chemical Alina",
"timestamp": "2024-12-13T06:48:02",
"content": "It’s not KDP, it is KH2PO4.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8072257",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2024-12-13T07:41:50"... | 1,760,371,700.488997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/a-look-back-at-googles-2015-chromecast/ | A Look Back At Google’s 2015 Chromecast | Maya Posch | [
"google hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"chromecast",
"google",
"hdmi",
"streaming"
] | Google’s Chromecast was first released in 2013, with a more sophisticated follow-up in 2015, which saw itself joined by the Chromecast Audio dongle. The device went through an additional two hardware generations before the entire line of products was discontinued earlier this year in favor of Google TV.
Marvell’s Armada 88DE3006 dual-core Cortex-A7 powers the second-generation Chromecast. (Credit: Brian Dipert, EDN)
In addition to collecting each generation of Chromecast, [Brian Dipert] over at
EDN
looked back on this
second-generation dongle from 2015
while also digging into the guts of a well-used example that got picked up used.
While not having any of the fascinating legacy features of the 2nd-generation Ultra in his collection that came with the
Stadia gaming controller
, it defines basically everything that Chromecast dongles were about: a simple dongle with a HDMI & USB connector that you plugged into a display that you wanted to show streaming content on. The teardown is mostly similar to the
2015-era teardown by iFixit
, who incidentally decided not to assign any repairability score, for obvious reasons.
Most interesting about this second-generation Chromecast is that the hardware supported Bluetooth, but that this wasn’t enabled until a few years later, presumably to fix the wonky new device setup procedure that would be replaced with a new procedure via the Google Home app.
While Google’s attention has moved on to newer devices, the Chromecast isn’t dead — the dongles in the wild still work, and the protocol is supported by Google TV and many ‘smart’ appliances including TVs and multimedia receivers. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072261",
"author": "Noah",
"timestamp": "2024-12-13T08:38:25",
"content": "Still use mine to this day and still find it better than roku",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8072268",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2024-12... | 1,760,371,700.976815 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/british-spooks-issue-yearly-teaser/ | British Spooks Issue Yearly Teaser | Jenny List | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"christmas",
"GCHQ",
"puzzle"
] | As a British taxpayer it’s reassuring to know that over in Cheltenham there’s a big round building full of people dedicated to keeping us safe. GCHQ is the nation’s electronic spying centre, and just to show what a bunch of good eggs they are they release a puzzler every year to titillate the nation’s geeks.
2024’s edition is out if you fancy trying it
, so break out your proverbial thinking caps.
The puzzle comes in several stages each of which reveals a British landmark, and we’re told there’s a further set of puzzles hidden in the design of the card itself. We know that Hackaday readers possess fine minds, so you’ll all be raring to have a go.
Sadly GCHQ would for perfectly understandable reasons never let Hackaday in for a tour, but we’ve encountered some of their past work. First the
Colossus replica codebreaking computer
at Bletchley Park was the progenitor of the organisation, and then a few years ago when they
had an exhibition from their archive
in the London Science Museum. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072214",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2024-12-13T03:10:21",
"content": "NOT simple…and I cheated a bit. Lots of fun though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8072215",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2024-12-13... | 1,760,371,701.09085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/good-lighting-on-a-budget-with-cordless-tool-batteries/ | Good Lighting On A Budget With Cordless Tool Batteries | Dan Maloney | [
"Battery Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"dewalt",
"lighting",
"photography",
"video",
"videography"
] | It’s perhaps not fair, but even if you have the best idea for a compelling video, few things will make people switch off than poor lighting. Good light and plenty of it is the order of the day when it comes to video production, and luckily there are many affordable options out there. Affordable, that is, right up to the point where you need batteries for remote shoots, in which case you’d better be ready to open the purse strings.
When [Dane Kouttron] ran into the battery problem with his video lighting setup, he fought back with
these cheap and clever cordless tool battery pack adapters
. His lights were designed to use Sony NP-F mount batteries, which are pretty common in the photography trade but unforgivably expensive, at least for Sony-branded packs. Having access to 20 volt DeWalt battery packs, he combined an off-the-shelf battery adapter with a 3D printed mount that slips right onto the light. Luckily, the lights have a built-in DC-DC converter that accepts up to 40 volts, so connecting the battery through a protection diode was a pretty simple exercise. The battery pack just slots right in and keeps the lights running for portable shoots.
Of course, if you don’t already have DeWalt batteries on hand, it might just be cheaper to buy the Sony batteries and be done with it. Then again, there are battery adapters for pretty much every cordless tool brand out there, so you should be able to adapt the design. We’ve also seen
cross-brand battery adapters
which might prove useful, too. | 11 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072133",
"author": "ethyl",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T21:35:46",
"content": "Awesome writeup!I really liked how simple the process is. I have one of these light fixtures and was thinking of something similar. Seems really simple and straightforward. Awesome work!",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,371,701.030155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/the-disappearing-capacitor/ | The Disappearing Capacitor | Al Williams | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"bootstrapping",
"op amps",
"photodiode"
] | As part of a phosphorescence detector, [lcamtuf] has been working with photodiodes. The components, like all diodes, have some capacitance at the junction, and this can limit performance. That’s why [lcamtuf] turned to
bootstrapping
to make that parasitic capacitance almost disappear.
The technique appears in several Analog Devices datasheets that presents a mystery. An op amp circuit that would normally limit changes to about 52 kHz has an unusually-placed JFET and claims to boost the bandwidth to 350 kHz.
The JFET turns out to be in a voltage-follower configuration. The photodiode sees approximately the same voltage on both terminals, so the internal capacitor can’t charge and, therefore, doesn’t impose any limits on rate of change.
Of course, a better way to think of it is that tiny changes cause an immediate response to counteract them, and so the capacitor’s charging and discharging are kept to a minimum.
It really isn’t important that the capacitor is not charged, but rather that the capacitor doesn’t increase or decrease charge. This leads to a second design, which imposes a DC bias voltage on the diode but prevents any signal from causing the capacitor to change from its precharged value.
Photodiodes seem exotic, but honestly, all semiconductor diodes are photodiodes if you let the
light get to them
. It seems that
capacitors and op amps
are always at loggerheads. | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072117",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T20:10:40",
"content": "A similar issue applies to charge amplifiers used for measuring piezoelectric sensors. The piezo element generates a small charge, which leaks back through the device almost instantly. The other issue is the... | 1,760,371,701.549554 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/retrotechtacular-1980s-restoration-of-san-franciscos-cable-car-system/ | Retrotechtacular: 1980s Restoration Of San Francisco’s Cable Car System | Maya Posch | [
"History",
"Retrotechtacular",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"cable car",
"cable tram"
] | The cable car system of San Francisco is the last manually operated cable car system in the world, with three of the original twenty-three lines still operating today. With these systems being installed between 1873 and 1890, they were due major maintenance and upgrades by the time the 1980s and with it their 100th year of operation rolled around. This rebuilding and upgrading process was
recorded in a documentary
by a local SF television station, which makes for some fascinating viewing.
San Francisco cable car making its way through traffic. Early 20th century.
While the cars themselves were fairly straight-forward to restore, and the original grips that’d latch onto the cable didn’t need any changes. But there were upgrades to the lubrication used (originally pine tar), and the powerhouse (the ‘barn’) was completely gutted and rebuilt.
As opposed to a funicular system where the cars are permanently attached to the cable, a cable car system features a constantly moving cable that the cars can grip onto at will, with most of the wear and tear on the grip dies. Despite researchers at San Francisco State University (SFSU) investigating alternatives, the original metal grip dies were left in place, despite their 4-day replacement schedule.
Ultimately, the rails and related guides were all ripped out and replaced with new ones, with the rails thermite-welded in place, and the cars largely rebuilt from scratch. Although new technologies were used where available, the goal was to keep the look as close as possible to what it looked at the dawn of the 20th century. While more expensive than demolishing and scrapping the original buildings and rolling stock, this helped to keep the look that has made it a historical symbol when the upgraded system rolled back into action on June 21, 1984.
Decades later, this rebuilt cable car system is still running as smoothly as ever, thanks to these efforts. Although SF’s cable car system is reportedly mostly used by tourists, the technology has seen somewhat of a resurgence. Amidst a number of funicular systems, a true new cable car system can be found in the form of e.g. the
MiniMetro
system which fills the automated people mover niche.
Thanks to [JRD] for the tip. | 43 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071646",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T21:23:38",
"content": "I guess if it’s old, repair it, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071664",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,371,701.313805 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/floss-weekly-episode-813-turn-off-the-internet/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 813: Turn Off The Internet | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"Open Source AI",
"retro"
] | This week,
Jonathan Bennett
, Simon Phipps, and Aaron Newcomb chat about retrocomputing, Open Source AI, and … politics? How did that combination of topics come about? Watch to find out!
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 | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,701.589085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/its-remotely-ham-radio/ | It’s Remotely Ham Radio | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Network Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"FT8",
"ham radio"
] | Have you ever considered running your ham radio remotely? It has been feasible for years but not always easy. Recently, I realized that most of the pieces you need to get on the air remotely are commonplace, so I decided to take the plunge. I won’t give step-by-step instructions because your radio, computer setup, and goals are probably different from mine. But I will give you a general outline of what you can do.
I’m fortunate enough to have a sizeable freestanding shop in my backyard. When I had it built, I thought it was huge. Now, not so much. The little space is crammed with test equipment, soldering gear, laser cutters, drill presses, and 3D printers. I’ve been a ham for decades, but I didn’t have room for the radios, nor did I have an antenna up. But a few months ago, I made space, set some radios up, strung out a piece of wire, and got back on the air. I had so much fun I decided it was time to buy a new radio. But I didn’t want to have to go out to the shop (or the lab, as I like to call it) just to relax with some radio time.
Good News!
The good news is that this makes life easier for going remote. The lab has a good network connection back to the house and I don’t have to worry about my radio being open to the public Internet. I also don’t have to worry about the transmitter going rogue since, if it does, I can simply walk out the back door and turn it off.
On the other hand, you could probably operate the station from anywhere in the world you have a network connection. You can VPN back into the local network. I have the transmitter on a switch so Alexa or Google can turn it on and off. The radio and all the software have safeguards such as maximum transmit time timeouts and a feature to shut down transmitting if it loses a network connection. So, if you are brave enough and your local laws permit it, you could probably operate from anywhere.
One Way
Nowadays, having a computer connected to your radio is almost a requirement. Even my old radio could take commands over an RS232 port. The new rig, an Icom IC-7300, has a USB port, and it looks like both a serial port and a sound card.
That last bit is especially handy since you used to have to figure out how to cable between the rig and the computer’s sound card. Now the rig is the computer’s sound card — or, at least, one of them.
Why?
If you are a ham, you can probably skip ahead, but if you aren’t, you might wonder why you need a computer. Of course, some of it is just handy. You can keep your log and look up propagation or callsigns. But you don’t have to be connected to a radio to do that. It just makes it easier.
There are two reasons having the computer connected to the radio really pays off. First, you can send and receive digital signals using a sound card.
Digital signals include text like RTTY or PSK31 where you type messages to each other, pictures in the form of SSTV, or computer-to-computer modes like FT8. Some people experiment with digital voice modes. There are many other options.
The other thing a computer can do is control your radio. Sure, you can use the knobs and buttons, but a computer can control it, which, for remote access, is essential. It can also help when you want a program to, for example, look up a station you’ve heard, find its location, calculate the direction that station is relative to you, and move your antenna to point in that direction.
How?
The simplest way to create a remote station is just to use a remote desktop program to log into the computer at your station. For digital modes, that may even be the best way, but it means all the software runs on the station computer (which could be a Raspberry Pi, for example). It also means that the audio you want to hear or send has to traverse over the remote desktop software, and most of them will prioritize screen traffic over audio. Plus if either computer has an unusually large or small screen, it isn’t always a good experience.
While I’ve played with that, I elected to go a different way. I wanted the radio and computer to be more or less a terminal and run the software to do things on my computer back in the office or my laptop.
To do this, you need two things: a way to control the radio and a way to send and receive audio as though you were on the station PC.
Control
Rig control is the trickiest part because it depends on what radio you have. Many radio manufacturers supply their own software, but often community offerings are better. In my case, I used the
wfview
software which works will with Icom radios. However, there are many other options for both Icom and other radios.
I picked it because it knows how to speak remotely to another instance of itself and can expose a standard “
hamlib
” interface that many pieces of ham software use to control radios.
The basic setup for FT8
FT-8 and Audio
The audio setup is a bit trickier. If all you want to do is listen and talk, then wfview does fine all by itself. However, my goal was to be able to install software for FT8, PSK31, RTTY, and even digital voice. In this case, I’m using JTDX for FT8.
JTDX can control a radio over a hamlib network connection. That isn’t turned on in wfview by default, but it is easy to turn on and assign a port number. In theory, you could do this on the remote copy of wfview or the local copy, but I chose to do it on the local copy. That means JTDX talks to the radio on the local 127.0.0.1 IP address.
For the audio, I needed a way to pipe audio from the fake sound card provided by wfview to the input of JTDX. Luckily, I just wrote a Linux Fu post about that very topic. If you don’t mind rebuilding everything, you can make a single audio loopback, but I made two: one for the radio input and one for the radio output.
The PipeWire configuration for FT8
By using two that I create on system startup (for example, in the /etc/rc.local file or using systemd), the programs always have a “device” that they can connect to. Just don’t forget the loopback have to run under your user ID, not root. If you rely on plain PipeWire or PulseAudio to make the connections, you will have to rebuild the connections each time.
Note that radio-in and radio-out are always available (assuming you created them). So when the programs start up, they can find the pipe even if the other side of the pipe doesn’t exist yet. That makes it easy to keep everything connected. Instead of branching the radio output to the speakers, the monitor output of the pipe does the job.
Creating these loopback devices is simple:
pw-loopback -n radio-in -m '[FL FR]' --capture-props='media.class=Audio/Sink' --playback-props='media.class=Audio/Source'
pw-loopback -n radio-out -m '[FL FR]' --capture-props='media.class=Audio/Sink' --playback-props='media.class=Audio/Source'
If you want to know more, check out my
earlier post on PipeWire
.
If you use Windows, there are ways to do it there, too (including if you are running Linux on one side and Windows on the other). The
wfview audio configuration
page has some details. While they suggest VBAN for Windows, you can use it with
Linux
, too, although even if you have a mixed setup, you can always use the native Linux facilities.
On the Air
Does it work? It sure does, as you can see in the accompanying screenshot. The latency of the audio over the network is usually under 200 milliseconds, so that’s workable, although if you have a lot of delay, it might present a problem. I tried a VPN connection from a remote location, but I still had less than 400 milliseconds. For some reason, over a long period of time, the latency creeps up even on a local network, but restarting wfview seems to fix it.
Operating FT8 remotely
Since you won’t have my exact setup, I won’t go through the configuration, but clearly you’ll have to work out the connections for audio to each program. You may also experiment with different codecs — it will depend on your software.
Setting up a remote station isn’t nearly as hard as it used to be. Modern radios are easy to control over a network — some even have network jacks. Your home network is probably up to the task of shipping audio around, and there are solutions for piping audio between programs for Linux, Windows, or even both.
Keep in mind that while I did this with FT8, it works with voice or just about any other digital mode. You can even do CW, but — as far as I know — wfview won’t let you use a key. You’ll have to type your Morse code in. If you need a primer on
FT8
, we got you. If you prefer your remote control in the browser, this
might help you
. | 33 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071562",
"author": "Mark Topham",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T18:05:02",
"content": "I wish.Canadian rules reserve remote operation to Advanced.(And life keeps interfering with my studying / writing the test)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"c... | 1,760,371,701.39493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/amateur-radio-operators-detect-signals-from-voyager-1/ | Amateur Radio Operators Detect Signals From Voyager 1 | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"deep space",
"doppler shift",
"dwingeloo",
"ham radio",
"radio",
"Radio Telescope",
"telescope",
"Voyager 1"
] | At the time of its construction in the 1950s, the Dwingeloo Radio Observatory was the largest rotatable telescope in the world with a dish diameter of 25 meters. It was quickly overtaken in the rankings but was used by astronomers for decades until it slowly fell into disuse in the early 2000s. After a restoration project the telescope is now a national heritage site in the Netherlands where it is also available for use by radio amateurs.
Recently this group was able to receive signals from Voyager 1
.
Famously, Voyager 1 is the furthest manmade object from Earth, having been launched on a trajectory out of the solar system in 1977. As a result of distance and age, the signals it sends out are incredibly faint. The team first had to mount a new antenna to the dish, which was not originally designed for signals in this frequency which added to the challenge. They then needed to use orbital predictions of the spacecraft in order to target the telescope and also make the correct adjustments to the received signal given that there is significant Doppler shift now as well. But with that all out of the way, the team was successfully able to receive the Voyager 1 signal on this telescope.
Only a few telescopes in the world have ever been able to accomplish this feat, making it all the more impressive. Normally Voyager 1 is received using the Deep Space Network, a fleet of much larger dishes stationed around the world and designed for these frequencies. But this team is used to taking on unique challenges. They also
decoded the first ham radio station on the moon
and
made a radar image of the moon using LoRa
.
Dwingeloo telescope receives signals from Voyager 1 | 41 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071531",
"author": "sohere",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T16:49:31",
"content": "I believe that Daniel Estevez has detected voyager 1 with only a 6 meter dish. See pages 53 and 54 of this document:https://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/download/DSN/David%20Prutchi%20-%20Receiving%20Microwave%20... | 1,760,371,701.483354 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/the-hovercraft-revolution-and-finding-the-right-niche-for-a-technology/ | The Hovercraft Revolution And Finding The Right Niche For A Technology | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"hovercraft"
] | In the world of transportation, some technologies may seem to make everything else appear obsolete, whether it concerns airplanes, magnetic levitation or propelling vehicles and craft over a cushion of air. This too seemed to be the case with hovercraft when they exploded onto the scene in the 1950s and 1960s, seemingly providing the ideal solution for both commercial and military applications. Freed from the hindrances of needing a solid surface to travel upon, or a deep enough body of water to rest in, hovercraft gave all the impressions of combining the advantages of aircraft, ships and wheeled vehicles.
Yet even though for decades massive passenger and car-carrying hovercraft roared across busy waterways like the Channel between England & mainland Europe, they would quietly vanish again, along with their main competition in the form of super fast passenger catamarans. Along the English Channel the construction of the Channel Tunnel was a major factor here, along with economical considerations that meant a return to conventional ferries. Yet even though one might think that the age of hovercraft has ended before it ever truly began, the truth may be that hovercraft merely had to find its right niches after a boisterous youth.
An example of this can be
found in a recent BBC article
, which covers the British Griffon Hoverwork company, which notes more interest in new hovercraft than ever, as well as the continued military interest, and from rescue workers.
Why Hovercraft Were Terrible
Although we often think of hovercraft as something like something modern, they have been something that people have been
tinkering around with for hundreds of years
, much like airplanes, maglev and so on. These were all rather small-scale, however, and it took until the 20th century for some of the fundamentals to get worked out. The addition of the flexible skirt to contain the air in a so-called momentum curtain to raise the hovercraft further off the ground and add robustness when traveling over less gentle terrain proved fundamental, and within a few decades passenger behemoths were making their way across the English Channel, gently carried on cushions of air:
Yet not all was well. As can be ascertained by the above video, the noise levels were very high, and so was the fuel usage for these large hovercraft. The skirts ended up wearing down much faster than expected, resulting in a need for daily maintenance and replacement of skirt sections. By the 1990s catamaran ferries offered a similar experience as the clunky SR-N4s, while requiring much less maintenance. When the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994, the
writing was on the wall
for Britain’s passenger hovercraft.
Aérotrain I-80 upon delivery in 1969 (Source: Archives Association des Amis de Jean Bertin,
Wikimedia
)
Years before, the high fuel usage and a range of other issues had already ended the dream of
hovertrains
. These would have done much the same as maglev trains, only without the expensive tracks. Unfortunately these hovertrains uncovered another issue with the air cushion concept. Especially at higher velocities the loss of air from this cushion would increase significantly, while using the environmental air to keep the cushion on pressure becomes harder, not unlike with the air intakes of airplanes.
Ultimately these issues caught up, with the hovertrain’s swansong occurring in the 1970s with the
Aérotrain
I-80 and UTACV already. The world’s largest commercial hovercraft – the
SR.N4
– made its final trip in 2000 when its operator coasted on for a few more years with its catamaran ferries before closing up shop. These days the only way you can see these artefacts from the Age of Hover is in museums, with the GH-2007
Princess Anne
SR.N4 as the last remaining example of its kind at the
Hovercraft Museum
in Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire.
Recently the
Tim Traveller
YouTube channel went over to this museum to have a gander:
Why Hovercraft Are Great
Baien at the Port of Oita, 2023 (Credit: Pinkaba,
Wikimedia
, CC BY-SA 4.0)
So with that said, obviously hovercraft and its kin were all investigated, prodded & poked and found to be clearly wanting by the 1990s, before the whole idea was binned as clearly daft and bereft of reason. While this might be true for massive passenger hovercraft and hovertrains, the reality for other niches is far less bleak. Especially with the shift from the old-school, inefficient engines to modern-day engines, and more of a need for smaller craft.
Currently passenger hovercraft services are quite limited, with the Japanese city of Oita having a
hovercraft service
between the city center and the airport. Here hovercraft make sense as they are over twice as fast on the 33 kilometer route as the bus service. These hovercraft are built by British hovercraft company
Griffon Hoverwork
Ltd., as currently the only company building such craft in the world. Similarly, the Isle of Wight’s
Hovertravel
is a hovercraft passenger service between the island and the mainland, with two Griffon 12000TD hovercraft providing the fastest possible way for people (including many tourists) to travel. Hovertravel’s services are also chartered on occasion with events.
For these tourism-oriented applications the benefits of hovercraft are clear: they are the fastest way to travel especially across water (74 km/h for the 12000TD) and are rather flexible so that they can be used ad-hoc with events that do not have more than a patch of concrete or grass bordering the water. Noise levels with modern engines and with smaller craft are also significantly more manageable.
As addressed in the
earlier referenced BBC article
, there are three other niches where hovercraft have found a warm home. These include hobbyists who enjoy racing with small hovercraft, as well as rescuers who benefit from having a way to reach people no matter whether they’re stuck on a frozen pond, in a muddy area, in the middle of a swamp or somewhere else that’s hostile to any wheeled or tracked vehicle, never mind rescuers trying to reach someone by foot. Here the property of a hovercraft of not caring much about what exactly its air cushion is pushing against is incomparable and saves many lives.
To Land Where Nobody Has Landed Before
LCAC-55, a Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), maneuvers to enter the well deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3). (Credit:
US Navy
)
Naturally, the other niche where a hovercraft’s disregard for things like mud, wet sand and rocks is useful is when you are a (military) force trying to carry lots of people, gear and heavy equipment onshore, without such minor details like finding a friendly harbor getting in the way. Although the US Navy and Army had tried to use hovercraft in a more direct role before, such as the unsuccessful
SR.N5-derived PACV
in Vietnam, their best role was found to be as landing craft: the Landing Craft Air Cushion, or
LCAC
.
A total of 97 have been built of these LCACs since their introduction in 1986 and they see continuous use as transport of cargo and personnel from ship to shore, across beaches and so on. Due to increasing (weight) demands they are now slated to be replaced by the Ship-to-Shore Connector (
SSC
). These are very similar to the LCACs, but offer more capacity (~20 ton more), while offering improvements to the engines, the skirt design and a two-person cockpit with fly-by-wire joystick controls.
Similarly, the Chinese Navy (PLAN) also has an LCAC in service (the Jinsha II-class
type 726
), and both Russia and Hellenic Navy operate formerly
Soviet Zubr-class
LCACs, which is the largest currently active hovercraft. A few more Zubrs were constructed by Ukraine for both Greece and China, with the latter also building them under license as the Type 958 LCAC.
Happy Niche
Because physics and economics are relentless, hovercraft, maglev and catamarans never made us bid farewell to wheels, tracks, hulls and simple train tracks, but each of these have found their own happy niches to live in. Meanwhile economics change and so does our understanding of materials, propulsion methods and other factors that are relevant to these technologies as they compete with transportation methods that have been a part of human history for much longer already.
For now at least hovercraft seem to have found a couple of niches where their properties provide benefits that are unmatched, whether it’s in simply being the fastest way to move over water, mud and concrete all in one trip, or for the most fun to be had while racing over such a track, or for providing life-saving aid, or to carry heavy loads from ship-to-shore when said shore is muddy marshes, a beach or similar.
Even if we will never see the likes of the
Princess Anne
again crossing the Channel, the hovercraft is definitely here to stay. | 41 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071494",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T15:21:51",
"content": "Mine is full of eels, as is traditional.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8071662",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11... | 1,760,371,701.684228 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/unexpectedly-interesting-payphone-gives-up-its-secrets/ | Unexpectedly Interesting Payphone Gives Up Its Secrets | Dan Maloney | [
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"assembly",
"CDP1802",
"firmware",
"payphone",
"phone",
"phreaking",
"reverse engineering"
] | Reverse engineering a payphone doesn’t sound like a very interesting project, at least in the United States, where payphones were little more than ruggedized versions of residential phones with a coin mechanism attached. Phones in other parts of the world were far more interesting, though, as
this look at the mysteries of a payphone from Israel
reveals (in Hebrew;
English translation here
.)
This is a project [Inbar Raz] worked on quite a while ago, but only got around to writing up recently. The payphone in question was sourced from the usual surplus market channels, and appears to have been removed from service by Israeli telecommunications company Bezeq only shortly before he found it. It was in pretty good shape, and was even still locked tight, making some amateur locksmithing the first order of the day. The internals of the phone are surprisingly complex, with a motherboard that looks more like something from a PC. Date codes on the chips and through-hole construction date the device to the early- to mid-1990s.
With physical access gained, [Inbar] turned to the firmware. An Atmel flash chip seemed a good place to look, and indeed he was able to pull code off the chip. That’s where things took a turn thanks to the CPU the code was written for — the CDP1806, a later version of
the more popular but still fringe CDP1802
. This required [Inbar] to fall down the rabbit hole of writing a new processor definition file for Ghidra so that the firmware could be reverse-engineered. This got him to the point of understanding 1806 assembly well enough that he was able to re-flash the phone to print debugging messages on the built-in 16×2 LCD screen, which allowed him to figure out which routines were being called under various error conditions.
It doesn’t appear that [Inbar] ever completed the reverse engineering project, but as he points out, what does that even mean? He got inside, took a look around, and made the phone do some cool things it couldn’t do before, and in the process made things easier for anyone working with 1806 processors in Ghidra. That’s a pretty complete win in our books. | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071464",
"author": "Nick",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T13:09:10",
"content": "Idea: voip payphone with WiFi. A wireless pay phone.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8071467",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-12... | 1,760,371,701.733745 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/the-math-behind-the-music-of-the-80s/ | The Math Behind The Music Of The 80s | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"1980's",
"dx-7",
"dx7",
"instrument",
"music",
"synth",
"synth pop",
"synthesizer",
"yamaha"
] | Although there might have been other music produced or recorded in the 1980s, we may never know of its existence due to the cacophony of all of the various keytars, drum machines, and other synthesized music playing nonstop throughout the decade. There was perhaps no more responsible synthesizer than the Yamaha DX7 either; it nearly single-handedly ushered in the synth pop era. There had been other ways of producing similar sounds before but none were as unique as this keyboard,
and for ways beyond just its sound as [Kevin] describes in this write-up
.
Part of the reason the DX7 was so revolutionary was that it was among the first accessible synthesizers that was fully digital, meaning could play more than one note at a time since expensive analog circuitry didn’t need to be replicated for multiple keys. But it also generated its tones by using frequency modulation of sine waves in a way that allowed many signals to be combined to form different sounds. While most popular musicians of the 80s used one of the preset sounds of the synthesizer, it could produce an incredible range of diverse sounds if the musician was willing to dig a bit into the programming of this unique instrument.
There were of course other reasons this synthesizer took off. It was incredibly robust, allowing a musician to reliably carry it from show to show without much worry, and it also stood on the shoulders of giants since musicians had been experimenting with various other types of synthesizers for the previous few decades. And perhaps it was at the right place and time for the culture as well. For a look at the goings on inside the chip that powered the device,
[Ken Shirriff] did a deep dive into one a few years ago
. | 51 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071450",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T11:13:09",
"content": "While FM synthesis is digital, my original DX7 sounds very analog synth. I don’t know why. It has some smoothness and suddle noise that probably makes that way.The sounds produced by Dexed sound different, ... | 1,760,371,701.921485 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/the-6ghz-band-opens-in-the-us/ | The 6GHz Band Opens In The US | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"6ghz",
"fcc",
"license free",
"radio"
] | On December 11th, the FCC announced that the
band around 6GHz would be open
to “very low-power devices.” The new allocation shares space with other devices already using these frequencies. The release mentions a few limitations over the 350 MHz band (broken into two segments). First, the devices must use a contention-based protocol and implement transmit power control. The low-power devices may not be part of a fixed outdoor infrastructure.
The frequencies are 6.425-6.525 GHz, 6.875-7.125 GHz and the requirements are similar to those imposed on 802.11ax in the nearby
U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 bands
.
In her remarks, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, in part:
But powerful innovation in wireless does not only come from licensed spectrum. Unlicensed spectrum matters, too. In fact, our lives run on unlicensed spectrum. We use it for everything from connecting at work and home with Wi-Fi to supply chain management in warehouses and delivery trucks, from maximizing our workouts with fitness trackers and earbuds to making our homes smarter and more efficient.
I like to think of unlicensed spectrum as an invisible force in our economy. Wi-Fi alone will foster $769 billion in economic growth in 2024. That number is projected to rise 21 percent
in 2025 and as high as 67 percent by 2027 when the latest version of Wi-Fi will be in available in millions of devices.
. . .
We made it possible to access airwaves without licenses, to innovate without permission, and to develop low-power wireless technologies that
have changed the way we live and work.
Sounds like hacking to us. We remember when 6 GHz was nearly impossible to use, and hams building stuff using Gunn diodes to hit over 10 GHz was super edgy. Now,
there’s a lot going
on up there. It still isn’t
trivial to design
for frequencies that high. | 27 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8072023",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T17:05:02",
"content": "The FCC quote about WiFi is such a nonsense in my opinion.Because, 6 GHz doesn’t make it very far because of increasing distance damping of higher frequencies.So 6 GHz barely works through walls compared t... | 1,760,371,701.818468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/its-critical-dont-pile-up-your-fissionable-material/ | It’s Critical: Don’t Pile Up Your Fissionable Material | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Slider"
] | [
"demon core",
"fission",
"nuclear safety"
] | Nuclear fission is a powerful phenomenon. When the conditions are right, atomic nuclei split, releasing neutrons that then split other nuclei in an ongoing chain reaction that releases enormous amounts of energy. This is how nuclear weapons work. In a more stable and controlled fashion, it’s how our nuclear reactors work too.
However, these chain reactions can also happen accidentally—with terrifying results. Though rare, criticality incidents – events where an accidental self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurs – serve as sobering reminders of the immense and unwieldy forces we attempt to harness when playing with nuclear materials.
Too Much Already
Criticality in a large mass and with a neutron reflector. Credit:
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
A criticality incident is when a nuclear fission chain reaction is caused by accident. The cause is usually quite simple. When it comes to fissionable material, like radioactive isotopes of uranium, there is a certain critical mass at which a chain reaction will occur. At this point, the natural radioactive decay of the material will release enough neutrons such that one might strike and split another atom. This then releases further neutrons, which split more atoms, and the chain reaction continues.
Calling it critical mass is a simplified way of saying it. More realistically, the critical mass depends on more factors—the shape of the radioactive material plays a role, too. As does the presence of any neutron reflectors that could bounce neutrons back towards more atoms to split.
Long story short, if you put too much fissionable material in one place, you’re asking for trouble. If it gets to that critical point and the chain reaction starts, it’s going to release a ton of radiation in a split second.
The Slotin experiment is one of the most well-known criticality incidents. Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory
The most famous example of a criticality incident occurred when Louis Slotin was working with the Demon Core at Los Alamos back in 1946. The story has been told many a time, including
on these hallowed pages.
Start there if you’re curious, before we look at some more recent disasters.
America’s nuclear program hasn’t just had one awkward mistake like this. It’s had a few. One of the most serious criticality accidents in history occurred on December 30, 1958, once again at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Chemical operator Cecil Kelley was processing plutonium-containing liquids in a large mixing tank as per his regular duties.
The mixing tank which Kelley was operating was filled with a concentration of uranium 200 times higher than expected. Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory
The tank was used for recovering and reusing plutonium solutions from various experiments, and was expected at that time to contain less than 0.1 grams of plutonium per liter of solution. Unbeknownst to Kelley, the tank actually held a far greater quantity of plutonium—over 3 kilograms—due to improper transfers of waste materials to the tank. The fluid in the tank wasn’t homogenous, either—there was a denser layer of aqueous solution at the bottom, topped with a lighter layer of organic solution which contained more of the plutonium.
The tank was already close to a critical state at rest. When Kelley switched on the mixer inside, the blades formed a vortex, pushing the dense aqueous layer of fluid outwards. In turn, the more plutonium-rich organic fluid was drawn to the center of the vessel, where it promptly went critical.
As Kelley stood on a ladder viewing the mixing tank, there was a sudden bright flash of blue light. A huge surge of neutron and gamma radiation flooded the room, delivering Kelley a lethal dose in a split second.
His death was harrowing,
and he passed away just 35 hours after the accident. While investigations were undertaken into the matter, there has never been a public explanation for how the excessively high concentration of plutonium ended up in the tank.
When the mixer was turned on, the plutonium-rich layer of solution was brought closely together to the point where a criticality incident occurred. Credit:
KDS4444
, CC BY 3.0
Fast forward to 1999, when carelessness caused a similar incident
in Tokaimura, Japan
. At a uranium processing facility, technicians were tasked with preparing a batch of fuel. Official regulations mandated that a uranyl nitrate solution be stored in a buffer tank, and added to a precipitation tank in controlled increments. However,
as per a company operations manual
that was unapproved by regulators, technicians were mixing chemicals in stainless steel buckets instead, rather than using the buffer tank that was designed to prevent criticality incidents. The crew were pouring the liquid directly into the precipitation tank, which had a cylindrical geometry that was favorable for inducing criticality.
The tank soon ended up with over 16 kg of uranium inside, well over the 2.4 kg limit set by regulators. As the seventh bucket was added, the tank went critical with a bright blue flash. Radiation alarms wailed as neutron levels shot up to 15,000 times normal. Three technicians received extreme radiation doses with severe ill effects; two of the three later died. The facility was irradiated, with residents in surrounding areas having to evacuate in the immediate aftermath.
Much like the Los Alamos event, the cause of the problem was simple. The technicians simply combined too much fissile material in one place.
CRITICALITY (1969) is a British documentary on the danger of criticality incidents, and how to avoid them. If you work with nuclear materials, you’ve ideally been educated with something more up-to-date. Still, the basic physics was well-understood back then, and the lessons here largely ring true today.
If you see someone arranging nuclear materials like this for a quick photo, you’d be well advised to tell them to stop. Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Department of Energy
Los Alamos suffered an embarrassing incident in more recent times, too, though thankfully a near miss.
Back in 2011
, technicians had arranged a number of plutonium rods on a table in order to take a photo—the intent being to celebrate their successful production. A supervisor returning to the area noticed the close assembly of the rods and quickly instructed they be separated, lest a criticality incident occur. Disaster was averted before the dreaded blue flash occurred, but it was yet another harrowing example where fundamental safety rules around criticality had been ignored.
Lessons
So what can these unfortunate incidents teach us? Strict limits and controls on fissionable materials are key. Standard procedures that control the flow of fissionable material are important to achieve this. The Tokaimura incident showed how bypassing these protocols even briefly can be disastrous. Beyond that, it’s important that those working with these materials are cognicent of the risks at all times. Even something as simple as bringing together a few rods to take a photo could cause a major incident through carelessness.
But perhaps the biggest lesson is respecting the sheer power of fission itself. When a chain reaction starts, things go wrong fast. By the time the blue flash has told you something’s happened, it’s all too late. Radiation levels have spiked through the roof and the damage is done. There is no early warning sign in these cases. Proper procedure is the only real way to avoid disaster.
Fssion remains a fickle phenomenon that is not to be trifled with. When we do trifle with it, either by honest accident or gross negligence, the results can be swift and brutal. Each of these criticality incidents was a stern reminder to humanity to maintain the utmost vigilance and safeguards when working with fissionable materials. Failure to do so always ends up the same way. | 52 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071978",
"author": "Sok Puppette",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T15:22:04",
"content": "I guess I really should restack those boxes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071985",
"author": "craig",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T15:30... | 1,760,371,702.026748 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/ore-to-iron-in-a-few-seconds-new-chinese-process-will-revolutionise-smelting/ | Ore To Iron In A Few Seconds: New Chinese Process Will Revolutionise Smelting | Jenny List | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"flash ironmaking",
"iron smelting",
"smelting"
] | The process of ironmaking has relied for centuries on iron ore, an impure form of iron oxide, slowly being reduced to iron by carbon monoxide in a furnace. Whether that furnace is the charcoal fire of an Iron Age craftsman or a modern blast furnace, the fundamental process remains the same, even if the technology around it has been refined. Now details are emerging of
a new take on iron smelting from China
, which turns what has always been a slow and intensive process into one that only takes a few seconds. So-called flash ironmaking relies on the injection of a fine iron ore powder into a superheated furnace, with the reduction happening explosively and delivering a constant stream of molten iron.
Frustratingly there is little detail on how it works, with the primary source for the news coverage being a paywalled
South China Morning Post
article. The journal article alluded to has proved frustratingly difficult to find online, leaving us with a few questions as to how it all works. Is the reducing agent still carbon monoxide, for example, or do they use another one such as hydrogen? The interesting part from an economic perspective is that it’s said to work on lower-grade ores, opening up the prospect for the Chinese steelmakers relying less on imports. There’s no work though on how the process would deal with the inevitable slag such ore would create.
If any readers have journal access we’d be interested in some insight in the comments, and we’re sure this story will deliver fresh information over time. Having been
part of building a blast furnace of our own
in the past, it’s something we find interesting | 93 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071911",
"author": "Zai1208",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T12:38:15",
"content": "If any readers have journal access we’d be interested in some insight in the commentsNow you’ve sent me on a manhunt for information",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,702.247519 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/12/pico-logic-analyzer-gets-new-version/ | Pico Logic Analyzer Gets New Version | Al Williams | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"logic analyzer",
"pi pico"
] | [Happy Little Diodes] built a Pi Pico logic analyzer designed by [El Dr. Gusman] using the original design. But he recently had a chance to test the
newest version of the design
, which is a big upgrade. You can see his take on the new design in the video below.
The original design could sample 24 channels at 100 MHz and required two different PCBs. The new version uses a single board and can operate up to 400 MHz. There’s also a provision for chaining multiple boards together to get more channels. You can set the level shifters to use 5 V, 3.3 V, or an external voltage. Since [Happy] is working on a ZX Spectrum, the 5 V conversion is a necessity.
The code is on
GitHub
, although it warns you that version six — the one seen in the video — isn’t stable, so you might have to wait to make one on your own. The software looks impressive and there may be some effort to integrate with
Sigrok
.
If you missed our coverage of the earlier version, you can
still catch up
. Dead set on Sigrok support? [Pico-Coder] can
help you out
. | 27 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071886",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T11:00:56",
"content": "I am travelling so I cannot watch the video, but how does is the sampling rate reach 400MS/s? Is the creators overclocking the 133MHz ARM cores? I know RP2040 is dual core, so I wonder if they can/are “... | 1,760,371,702.311157 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/tiny-pong-big-ambitions-worlds-smallest-arcade/ | TinyPONG, Big Ambitions: World’s Smallest Arcade | Heidi Ulrich | [
"classic hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"arcade",
"arcade game",
"atari",
"guinness book of records",
"miniature",
"pong",
"record"
] | London, Ontario college student [Victoria Korhonen] has captured the attention of tech enthusiasts and miniaturization lovers with her creation of what might be
the world’s smallest arcade machine
. Standing just 64 mm tall, 26 mm wide, and 30 mm deep, this machine is a scaled-down marvel playing the classic Atari game
PONG
. While the record isn’t yet official—it takes about three months for Guinness to certify—it’s clear [Korhonen]’s creation embodies ingenuity and dedication.
[Korhonen], an electromechanical engineering student, took six months to design and build this micro arcade. Inspired by records within reach, she aimed to outdo the previous tiniest arcade machine by shaving off just a few millimeters During the project she faced repeated failures, but viewed each iteration as a step towards success. Her miniature machine isn’t just a gimmick; it’s fully functional, with every component—from paddle mechanics to coding—developed from scratch.
[Korhonen] is already eyeing new projects, including creating the smallest humanoid robot. She also plans to integrate her electromechanical expertise into her family’s escape room business. Her journey aligns with other hobbyist projects pushing the limits of miniaturization, such as
this credit card-sized
Tetris
clone
or
[Aliaksei Zholner]’s paper micro engines
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071882",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T10:43:56",
"content": "Nice, but does not beat the Lego brickhttps://hackaday.com/2022/12/20/more-detail-on-that-fantastic-lego-oled-brick/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071... | 1,760,371,702.352248 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/danger-klipper-fork-renamed-to-kalico/ | Danger-Klipper Fork Renamed To Kalico | Maya Posch | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"kalico",
"klipper"
] | Hobbyist 3D printers have traditionally run the open source Marlin and later Klipper firmware, but as some hobbyists push their printers to the limits, more capable and less conservative firmware was needed. This is why the aptly named ‘Danger-Klipper’ fork of the Klipper firmware comes with the motto ‘I should be able to light my printer on fire’. Because the goal of Danger-Klipper wasn’t literally to light printers on fire (barring unfortunate accidents), the project has now been
renamed to Kalico
by the developers, after the pirate Calico Jack to maintain the nautical theming.
The Kalico project logo.
Not only does the project get a new name, but also a cute new pirate-themed calico cat logo. Beyond these changes not much else is different, though
the documentation
is obviously now also at a new domain. As a Klipper fork just about any printer that can run Klipper should be able to run Kalico, though the focus is on Raspberry Pi 2, 3 or 4. The FAQ has some
more details
on what Kalico can run on. Obviously, Kalico makes for a great option if you are building your own customized 3D printer (or similar), and will
support
the typical web UIs like Fluidd, OctoPrint, etc.
For some of the differences between Klipper and Kalico, the
‘Danger Features’
section of the documentation provides an impression. Suffice it to say that Kalico is not the kind of firmware to hold your hand or provide guiderails, making it an option for advanced users for whom breaking things while pushing boundaries is just part of the hobby.
Thanks to [Vinny] for the tip. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071779",
"author": "LookAtDaShinyShiny",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T03:41:41",
"content": "‘Hobbyist 3D printers have traditionally run the open source Merlin* firmware’That should be Marlin, also keeping with the nautical theme :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,371,702.400105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/11/chaotic-system-cooks-meat-evenly/ | Chaotic System Cooks Meat Evenly | Bryan Cockfield | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"chaotic system",
"cooking",
"cookout",
"gyro",
"gyroscope",
"meat",
"roast",
"spit"
] | For better or worse, a lot of human technology is confined to fewer dimensions than the three we can theoretically move about in. Cars and trains only travel two dimensionally with limited exceptions, maps and books generally don’t take advantage of a third dimension, and most computer displays and even the chips that make them work are largely two-dimensional in nature. Most styles of cooking can only apply heat in a single dimension as well, but [Dane Kouttron] wanted to make sure the meat his cookouts took advantage of a truly three-dimensional cooking style
by adding a gyroscopic mechanism to the spit
.
The first thing that needed to be built were a series of concentric rings for each of the three axes of rotation. Metal tubes were shaped with a pipe bender and then welded into their final forms, with an annealing step to flatten the loops. From there, the rings are attached to each other with a series of offset bearings. The outer tube is mounted above the fire and a single motor spins this tube. Since no piece of meat is perfectly symmetrical (and could be offset on the interior ring a bit even if it were) enough chaos is introduced to the system that the meat is free to rotate in any direction, change direction at any time, and overall get cooked in a more uniform way than a traditional single-dimensional rotating spit.
As a proof of concept [Dane] hosted a cookout and made “gyro” sandwiches (even though the machine may technically be more akin to a gimbal), complete with small Greek flag decorative garnishes. It seems to have been a tremendous success as well. There are a few other novel ways we’ve seen of cooking food over the years, including
projects that cook with plasma
and
much more widely available methods that cook food efficiently using magnets, of a sort
. | 35 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071734",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-12-12T00:09:46",
"content": "Will the meat passenger go into a wormhole once it gets up to speed?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8axMaBL4uo(Contact1997)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,371,702.473704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/from-felt-to-fate-building-your-own-sorting-hat/ | From Felt To Fate: Building Your Own Sorting Hat | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"animatronic",
"ESP",
"ESP32",
"harry potter",
"HP",
"robot",
"sorting hat",
"sortinghat",
"Wizard"
] | Ever wondered how it feels to have the Sorting Hat decide your fate? [Will Dana] wanted to find out, so he conjured a bit of Hogwarts magic, and crafted
a fully animatronic Sorting Hat from scratch
. In the video below, he covers every step of bringing this magical purple marvel to life—from rapid joystick movements to the electronics behind it all.
The heart of the project is two 9g servos—one actuates the mouth, and the other controls the eyebrows—powered by an ESP32 microcontroller. Communication between two ESP32 boards ensures smooth operation via the ESP-NOW protocol, making this a wireless wonder. The design process involved using mechanical advantage to solve jittery servo movements, a trick that will resonate with anyone who’s fought with uncooperative motors.
If animatronics or themed projects excite you, Hackaday has covered similar builds, from a
DIY BB-8 droid
to
a robot fox
. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071491",
"author": "make piece not war",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T15:17:19",
"content": "Can it do a heap sort?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071495",
"author": "Will Dana",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T15:24:28",
"c... | 1,760,371,702.625547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/a-potential-exploit-with-the-ext-filesystem/ | A Potential Exploit With The Ext Filesystem | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"exploit",
"ext",
"extended filesystem",
"filesystem",
"linux"
] | The extended filesystem, otherwise known as ext, has been a fundamental part of Linux since before the 1.0 release in 1994. Currently the filesystem is on its fourth major revision, in use since its release in 2008 thanks to its stability, reliability, and backwards compatibility with the other ext filesystem versions. But with that much history there are bound to be a few issues cropping up here and there.
[Will] recently found an exploit with this filesystem that can cause a Linux kernel to immediately panic
when a manipulated USB drive is inserted into a computer.
[Will] discovered this quirk when investigating the intricacies of the filesystem for problems and other vulnerabilities. A tool called tune2fs, used for administering and modifying ext filesystems, includes the ability to pass certain commands to the Linux kernel when certain situations arise with the filesystem itself, including that the kernel should panic. One situation is that the ext filesystem itself becomes corrupted, which can then cause the kernel panic. Armed with this knowledge, a USB drive can be purposefully given a corrupted ext filesystem which, when plugged into a Linux machine, can cause the computer to shut down.
The post linked above goes into some discussion about how this exploit could be used maliciously to gain access to a Linux system, including rebooting computers where no access to a power button is otherwise enabled or making other changes to the system before needing a reboot to apply the changes. In general, though, it’s good to assume an attacker could take any route to gain access to a machine.
This exploit from a few years ago
, for example, allowed another Linux tool to be used to gain root access.
Thanks to [Timothy] for the tip! | 58 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071387",
"author": "Nathan",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T03:15:57",
"content": "To clarify, since it’s not clearly stated: is this a vulnerability with any system that uses ext, or do you need to have that utility installed and running in order to force a kernel panic?Seems to be that... | 1,760,371,702.586962 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/flying-drones-that-can-walk-and-jump-into-the-air-an-idea-with-legs/ | Flying Drones That Can Walk And Jump Into The Air: An Idea With Legs? | Maya Posch | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"bio-inspired",
"Bio-inspired Mechanics",
"drone"
] | When we look at how everyone’s favorite flying dinosaurs get around, we can see that although they use their wings a lot too, their legs are at least as important. Even waddling or hopping about somewhat ungainly on legs is more energy efficient than short flights, and taking off from the ground is helped by jumping into the air with a powerful leap from one’s legs. Based on this reasoning, a team of researchers set out to
give flying drones their own bird-inspired legs
, with their
findings published in
Nature
(
preprint
on ArXiv).
The prototype RAVEN (Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments) drone is capable of hopping, walking, jumping onto an obstacle and jumping for take-off. This allows the drone to get into the optimal position for take-off and store energy in its legs to give it a boost when it takes to the skies. As it turned out, having passive & flexible toes here was essential for stability when waddling around, while jumping tests showed that the RAVEN’s legs provided well over 90% of the required take-off speed.
During take-off experiments the drone was able to jump to an altitude of about 0.4 meters, which allows it to clear ground-based obstacles and makes any kind of ‘runway’ unnecessary. Much like with our avian dinosaur friends the laws of physics dictate that there are strong scaling limits, which is why a raven can use this technique, but a swan or similar still requires a bit of runway instead of jumping elegantly into the air for near-vertical take-off. For smaller flying drones this approach would however absolutely seem to have legs. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071385",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2024-12-11T02:33:50",
"content": "One way trips that’s good. Going places and coming back is worthwhile. Hopping around whilst there better.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071397"... | 1,760,371,702.674422 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/3d-printer-eliminates-the-printer-bed/ | 3D Printer Eliminates The Printer Bed | Bryan Cockfield | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer",
"environment",
"floor",
"mobile",
"robot",
"vacuum cleaner"
] | Anyone who has operated a 3D printer before, especially those new to using these specialized tools, has likely had problems with the print bed. The bed might not always be the correct temperature leading to problems with adhesion of the print, it could be uncalibrated or dirty or cause any number of other issues that ultimately lead to a failed print. Most of us work these problems out through trial and error and eventually get settled in, but
this novel 3D printer instead removes the bed itself and prints on whatever surface happens to be nearby
.
The printer is the product of [Daniel Campos Zamora] at the University of Washington and is called MobiPrint. It uses a fairly standard, commercially available 3D printer head but attaches it to the base of a modified robotic vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner is modified with open-source software that allows it to map its environment without the need for the manufacturer’s cloud services, which in turn lets the 3D printer print on whichever surface the robot finds in its travels. The goal isn’t necessarily to eliminate printer bed problems; a robot with this capability could have many more applications in the realm of accessibility or even, in the future, printing while on the move.
There were a few surprising discoveries along the way
which were mentioned in an IEEE Spectrum article
, as [Campos Zamora] found while testing various household surfaces that carpet is surprisingly good at adhering to these prints and almost can’t be unstuck from the prints made on it.
There are a few other 3D printers out there that we’ve seen that are incredibly mobile
, but none that allow interacting with their environment in quite this way. | 28 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071315",
"author": "jade",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T21:10:06",
"content": "A while ago I saw a variant of this (can’t find it atm) that used polar kinematics and was able to wall itself in. This isn’t the printer, but it’s similar:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3UO8UuvhM4",
"... | 1,760,371,702.739617 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/trying-to-shatter-the-worlds-fastest-rc-car-record/ | Trying To Shatter The World’s Fastest RC Car Record | Maya Posch | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"drone fpv",
"FPV",
"R/C car",
"world record"
] | The RC car is controlled via an FPV setup. (Credit: Luke Bell, YouTube)
Fresh off a world record for the fastest quadcopter, [Luke Bell] decided to try his luck with something more own to earth, namely trying to tackle the
world record for the fastest RC car
, with the current record set at 360 km/h. Starting off with a first attempt in what will be a video series, the obvious approach seems to be to get some really powerful electric motors, a streamlined body and a disused runway to send said RC car hurtling along towards that golden medal. Of course, if it was that easy, others would have done it already.
With the quadcopter record of nearly 500 km/h which
we covered previously
, the challenge was in a way easier, as other than air resistance and accidental lithobraking there are no worries about ground texture, tire wear or boundary layer aerodynamics. In comparison, the RC car has to contend with all of these, with the runway’s rough tarmac surface being just one of the issues, along with making sure that the wheels would hold up to the required rotation speed. For the wheels you got options like foam, hard rubber, etc., all with their own advantages and disadvantages, mostly in terms of grip and reliability.
So far speeds of over 200 km/h are easy enough to do, with foam wheels being the preferred option. To push the RC car to 300 km/h and beyond, a lot more experimentation and trial runs will have to be performed. Pending are changes to the aerodynamic design with features also commonly seen in F1 race cars such as downforce spoilers, diffusers and other tricks which should prevent the RC car from (briefly) becoming an RC airplane. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071301",
"author": "DerAxeman",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T20:41:33",
"content": "I wonder how he is going to claim its official? Does he hire a surveyor to measure the course and a certified timing specialist? Or is he just going to say trust my gps from Adafruit?",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,371,702.799396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/2025-hackaday-europe-cfp-we-want-you/ | 2025 Hackaday Europe CFP: We Want You! | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"News"
] | [
"2025 Hackaday Europe",
"berlin",
"hackaday europe"
] | Hackaday’s Supercon is still warm in our hearts, and the snow is just now starting to fall, but we’re already looking forward to Spring. Or at least to Hackaday Europe, which will be taking place March 15th and 16th in Berlin, Germany.
Tickets aren’t on sale yet, but we know a way that you can get in for free.
Call for Participation
What makes Hackaday Europe special? Well, it’s you! We’re excited to announce that
we’re opening up our call for talks right now
, and we can’t wait to hear what you have to say. Speakers of course get in free, but the real reason that you want to present is whom you’re presenting to.
The Hackaday audience is interested, inquisitive, and friendly. If you have a tale of hardware, firmware, or software derring-do that would only really go over with a Hackaday crowd, this is your chance. We have slots open for shorter 20-minute talks as well as longer 40-minute ones, so whether you’ve got a quick hack or you want to take a deep dive, we’ve got you covered. We especially love to hear from new voices, so if you’ve never given a talk about your projects before, we’d really encourage you to apply!
Here is last year’s lineup
, if you’re wondering what goes on, and if your talk would fit in.
Hackaday Europe, the Badge, and the SAOs
If you’re not familiar with Hackaday Europe, it’s a gathering of 350 folks for a ridiculously fun weekend of talks, badge hacking, music, and everything else that goes with it. Saturday the 15th is the big day, and Sunday is a half-day of brunch, lightning talks, and showing off the badge hacks from the day before. And if you’re in town on Friday the 14th, we’ll be going out in the evening for drinks and dinner, location TBA.
We’ll be re-spinning
the 2024 Supercon SAO badge
, which was all about the
Supercon Add-Ons
. (Can anyone think up a Hackaday-Europe-themed backronym: “Spree Add Ons”?) The badge was an inspiration for many stateside Supercon attendees to
dip their toes into the warm waters of small badgelet designs
, and we’re hoping to bring the same to the Continent. Additionally, there are two prototyping “petals” that you can hack on during the event, even if you didn’t make anything beforehand. And of course, there’s always hacking the firmware.
But wait, there’s more! We also
ran a contest for pre-Supercon SAO designs
, and the
top three
four selected designs will be in your schwag bags at Hackaday Europe. Yes, this means that every attendee will be receiving a functional plug-in multimeter, etch-a-sketch, and blinky wavy-arm-art-thing. These are among the most creative and fun SAOs that we’ve ever seen, and now you too can have one!
See you There!
Again, tickets aren’t on sale yet, but we’re opening the green-room door to those who want to present first. Take the next few weeks to firm up an outline and
get your talk proposal in to us before January 14th
. We can’t wait to see what you’re up to! | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071350",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T22:47:20",
"content": "Just wondering, is Berlin your home, Elliot?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8071355",
"author": "BT",
... | 1,760,371,702.849037 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/creating-a-radiation-king-radio-in-the-real-world/ | Creating A Radiation King Radio In The Real World | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"Fallout",
"radiation king",
"radio",
"raspberry pi"
] | If you’re a fan of the
Fallout
series of games, you’ve probably come across a Radiation King radio before. In the game, that is, they don’t exist in real life.
Which is precisely why [zapwizard] built one!
Externally, the design faithfully recreates the mid-century design of the Radiation King. It’s got the louvered venting on the front panel, the chunky knobs, and a lovely analog needle dial, too. Inside, it’s got a Raspberry Pi Zero which is charged with running the show and dealing with audio playback. It’s paired with a Pi Pico, which handles other interface tasks.
It might seem simple, but the details are what really make this thing shine. It doesn’t just play music, it runs a series of simulated radio stations which you can “tune into” using the radio dial. [zapwizard dives into how it all works—from the air core motor behind the simulated tuning dial, to the mixing of music and simulated static. It’s really worth digging into if you like building retro-styled equipment that feels more like the real thing.
It’s not just a prop—it’s a fully-functional item from the
Fallout
universe, made manifest.
You know how much we love those
. If you’re cooking up your own post-apocalyptic hacks, fictional or non-fictional, don’t hesitate to
let us know. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071251",
"author": "Eric Mockler",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T17:06:59",
"content": "I have a Stromberg-Carlson from like 1948 that looks a lot like that, glows in the front and actually pulls in a couple stations. Except mine is real beige bakelite, and looks more fall-outy than th... | 1,760,371,702.905969 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/disc-filmwhen-kodak-pushed-convenience-too-far/ | Disc Film,When Kodak Pushed Convenience Too Far | Jenny List | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"Original Art"
] | [
"camera",
"disc camera",
"film camera",
"kodak"
] | Having a penchant for cheap second-hand cameras can lead to all manner of interesting equipment. You never know what the next second-hand store will provide, and thus everything from good quality rangefinders an SLRs to handheld snapshot cameras can be yours for what is often a very acceptable price. Most old cameras can use modern film in some way, wither directly or through some manner of adapter, but there is one format that has no modern equivalent and for which refilling a cartridge might be difficult. I’m talking about Kodak’s Disc, the super-compact and convenient snapshot cameras which were their Next Big Thing in the early 1980s. In finding out its history and ultimate fate, I’m surprised to find that it introduced some photographic technologies we all still use today.
Easy Photography For The 1980s
Since their inception, Kodak specialised in easy-to-use consumer cameras and films. While almost all the film formats you can think of were created by the company, their quest was always for a super-convenient product which didn’t require any fiddling about to take photographs. By the 1960s this had given us all-in-one cartridge films and cameras such as the Instamatic series, but their enclosed rolls of conventional film made them bulkier than required. The new camera and film system for the 1980s would replace roll film entirely, replacing it with a disc of film that would be rotated between shots to line up the lens on an new unexposed part of its surface. Thus the film cartridge would be compact and thinner than any other, and the cameras could be smaller, thinner, and lighter too. The Disc format was launched in 1982, and
the glossy TV adverts
extolled both the svelteness of the cameras and the advanced technology they contained.
The Disc cartridge, with Fuji “HR” planar crystal film.
The film disc is about 65mm in diameter, with sixteen 10x8mm exposures spaced at every 24 degrees of rotation round its edge. It has a much thicker acetate backing than the more flexible roll film, with a set of sprocket-hole-like cutouts round its edge and a moulded plastic centre boss. The cassette is quite complex, having a protective low friction layer and a vacuum-formed lightproof film window cover and disc advancer inside the two injection moulded halves. Meanwhile the image size is significantly smaller than that of the 16mm 110 cartridge film or a 35mm frame, meaning that Disc films were the first to be released with Kodak’s new higher-resolution tabular grain emulsion. This film had the silver halide crystals aligned flat on the substrate, reducing light scattering.
Turning to the camera, for teardown purposes here we have a battered old Kodak 4000. This was the slightly fancier of the disc cameras at launch, but now they can easily be found for pennies in thrift stores. Opening it up is a case of gently easing the aluminum front panel away from the body, revealing all the internals. Once inside the camera, everything is automatic. On the left is the xenon flash tube, the flash capacitor, and a pair of Matsushita lithium batteries, in the middle the circuit board covered by a high voltage warning sticker, and on the right are the mechanical parts. If you teardown one of these for yourself, you’ll want to disconnect the battery as we did, and discharge that flash capacitor. Even four-decade-old lithium batteries can hold enough capacity to charge it, and at 200 volts it packs a punch.
A Lot Of Complexity For A Simple Product
This thing is a lot more complex than the 126 cameras it replaced.
Carefully unsoldering the connections and lifting the board from the camera, we find a mixture of through-hole and surface-mount parts. The flash circuit is conventional, a small single transistor inverter that’s responsible for the “Wheeee” sound you hear when cameras of that era are turned on. The rest of the circuit is interesting, because all the control and light metering circuitry is driven by an integrated circuit. Marked “ACP 152”, it has no makers mark other than stating it was manufactured in Malaysia, and all manner of online searches on the part number reveal nothing. If this camera had been made in 2002 it would certainly be a microcontroller, but in 1982 such a conclusion would be much less likely and would certainly have been central to their marketing if present. Looking at its support components I see no clock circuit or other likely microcontroller ancillaries, so my best guess is it’s an ASIC containing analogue and logic circuitry, forming part of a simple state machine along with the electromechanical cam arrangement in the mechanism.
On the right a small motor turns a wheel (the blue plastic part in the photographs) with that selection of cams that open the window in the film cartridge and cock the shutter, for which the release is electronic via a small electromagnet. One of the functions is to push up a pin which lifts part of the film window cover clear of its locking protrusion, allowing the film to be advanced and the window opened. The lens doesn’t look special but in fact it’s the part which has most relevance to some of the cameras you’ll use today, because it’s the first mass-produced aspherical plastic lens. To deliver as sharp an image as possible on the smaller negative they needed a lens which would minimise aberations, and given the compact size of the camera they couldn’t have a multi-element lens that poked out of the front. This was the solution, and it’s a technology that has had a massive effect on miniature cameras ever since.
Where They Pushed Convenience Too Far
Looking for the first time at the workings of a Disc camera then, it’s a beautiful piece of miniaturisation, but it’s undeniably a complex mechanism when compared to the Instamatic 126 cameras it replaced or the 35mm compact cameras which competed with it. The specialist electronics, the electronic shutter release, and all those mechanical parts are impressive, but there’s a lot in there for a consumer snapshot camera. In doing this teardown we start for the first time to gain an inkling of why the disc format never achieved the success Kodak evidently hoped for it, though it’s when we consider a typical Disc photo that the real reason for its failure emerges.
The size of the negative is especially obvious when looking at a developed film. D. Meyer,
CC BY-SA 3.0
.
The Disc’s tiny negative, when combined with the high-resolution film, gave a good quality image. But in those days when photographic prints were the medium through which people consumed their pictures, it was a this smaller negative which led to lower quality enlargements. To solve this problem Kodak sold a complete printing package to laboratories with an enlarger system specifically for Disc film, but many laboratories chose to use their existing equipment instead. The result was that the new cameras often generated disappointing-quality prints. By comparison a 35mm snapshot camera gave a much higher quality and had 36 pictures on a roll of film, so for all its sophistication and innovation the Disc format was not a success. By the 1990s the cameras were gone, and the film followed some time around the millennium. Kodak would try one last shot at ultimate film convenience in the mid 1990s with the Advanced Photo System, but by then the digital camera revolution was well under way.
Looking at the Disc camera here in 2024, it’s clearly a well designed item both mechanically and aesthetically. I have three of them on my bench, they still look sleek, and amazingly those four-decade-old lithium batteries still have enough power to run them. With hindsight it’s easy to say that its shortcomings should have been obvious, but I remember at the time they were seen as futuristic and the way forward. I didn’t buy one though, perhaps it says it all that they were way outside pocket-money prices. Maybe the real insight comes in using Disc to explain why Kodak are now a shadow of their former self; when the reason for extreme convenience in film photography was eclipsed by digital cameras they had nothing else to offer. | 48 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071204",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T15:04:40",
"content": "I never had a disc camera. My daughter had an APS and I had a 126, but I quickly realised that the cost per image was lower with 35mm, so I went to that, with an Olympus point & shoot. Kodak was all... | 1,760,371,703.262152 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/updated-mouse-ring-does-it-with-a-joystick/ | Updated Mouse Ring Does It With A Joystick | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"computer mouse",
"hid",
"mouse",
"mouse ring",
"nRF52840",
"Seeed Xiao nrf52840"
] | Have you ever wished for easy mouse controls to go along with your VR headset experience? Or maybe you just want a cooler way to mouse in general. In any case, look no further than [rafgaj78]’s Bluetooth
Mouse Ring project
.
This is version two, which of course comes with several improvements over
version one
. The biggest change is from tactile buttons to a joystick input. [rafgaj78] also did away with the power switch, using deep-sleep mode instead. Version two is easier to assemble and offers improved ergonomics, as well as a range of ring sizes.
Like the first version, this ring runs on a Seeed Xiao nRF52840 and is programmed in CircuitPython. There are two modes to choose from. In one mode, the joystick does left and right mouse click and wheel up and down, while the push action recovers the micro from deep sleep. In the other mode, the joystick axis is a mouse pointer mover, and you push down to left click.
We really like this sleek design, and [rafgaj78] has great instructions if you want to build your own.
This isn’t the first cool mouse ring we’ve seen
, and it certainly won’t be the last. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071195",
"author": "Elstar",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T14:33:51",
"content": "I would have instead used the Seeed Xiao Sense and taken advantage of it’s built-in accelerometer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071198",
"auth... | 1,760,371,703.00655 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/10/an-engineers-perspective-on-baking-gingerbread-houses/ | An Engineer’s Perspective On Baking Gingerbread Houses | Heidi Ulrich | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"cad",
"freecad",
"gingerbread",
"holiday",
"optical illusion",
"trompe l'oeil",
"true perspective"
] | If you’ve ever wanted to merge the worlds of holiday cheer and clever geometry,
[Kris Wilk]’s gingerbread house hack
is your ultimate inspiration. Shared in a mesmerising video, [Wilk] showcases his 2024 entry for his neighborhood’s gingerbread house contest. Designed in FreeCAD and baked to perfection, this is no ordinary holiday treat. His pièce de résistance was a brilliant trompe l’oeil effect, visible only from one carefully calculated angle. Skip to the last twenty seconds of the video to wrap your head around how it actually looks.
[Wilk] used FreeCAD’s hidden
true perspective projection
function—a rarity in CAD software. This feature allowed him to calculate the perfect forced perspective, essential for crafting the optical illusion. The supporting structures were printed on a Prusa MK4, while the gingerbread itself was baked at home. Precision photography captured the final reveal, adding a professional touch to this homemade masterpiece. [Wilk]’s meticulous process highlights how accessible tools and a sprinkle of curiosity can push creative boundaries.
For those itching to experiment with optical illusions, this bakery battle is only the beginning. Why not build a similar one inside out? Or construct a gingerbread man in the same way? Fire up the oven, bend your mind, and challenge your CAD skills! | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071140",
"author": "H Hack",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T11:14:00",
"content": "Everything about this is wonderful. Concentrated into a 2 minute video. This could easily have been a 30 minute video which I’d never had watched.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,703.052745 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/a-simple-robot-for-learning-about-robotics/ | A Simple Robot For Learning About Robotics | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"bug",
"robot",
"small robot"
] | Robots are super interesting, but you probably shouldn’t start learning about them with a full-sized industrial SCARA arm or anything. Better to learn with something smaller and simpler to understand.
This simple Arduino-powered robot is called Bug
, and it aims to be just that.
The design comes to us from [Joshua Stanley]. It’s based around the ubiquitous Arduino Uno, paired with a motor control and I/O shield for more connectivity. The robot uses treads for locomotion—each side has two wheels wrapped in a belt for grip. The robot has a small DC gearmotor driving each belt so it can be driven forwards, backwards, and steered differentially. To perceive the world, it uses an off-the-shelf ultrasonic transceiver module, and an NRF24L01 module for remote control. All this is wrapped up in a basic 3D-printed housing that positions the ultrasonic modules effectively as “eyes” which is kind of cute, all in all.
Despite its small size and simple construction, Bug gets around perfectly well in testing on an outdoor footpath. It even has enough torque to flip itself up at full throttle. For now, [Joshua] notes it’s a glorified remote control car, but he plans to expand it further with more functionality going forward.
We see lots of educational robots around these parts,
like this nifty little robot arm
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Jan-Willem for the tip!] | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071083",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T06:30:42",
"content": "“We see lots of educational robots around these parts, like this nifty little robot arm.”That’s a classic. Back in the 1980s, Fischertechnik (not fisher price) had made such robot arms in my country.There ... | 1,760,371,703.420307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/smartphone-runs-home-server/ | Smartphone Runs Home Server | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"battery management system",
"docker",
"linux",
"oneplus 6t",
"postmarketos",
"server"
] | It’s one of the great tragedies of our technological era. Smartphones that feature an incredible amount of computational power compared to computers the past, are largely locked down by carriers or manufacturers, dooming them to performing trivial tasks far below their true capabilities.
But there is hope.
In part one of this build
, a OnePlus 6T is stripped of its Android operating system in favor of postmarketOS, a Linux distribution based on Alpine designed for a number of Android phones and tablets as well as some Linux-only handhelds. The guide also demonstrates how to remove the battery and use a modified USB-C cable to essentially trick the battery management system into powering up the phone anyway.
The second part of the project
dives into the software side, getting the Linux system up and running before installing Docker and whichever Docker containers the user needs.
There are a few downsides to running a server from a smartphone. Although there’s plenty of processing power available for a wide range of applications, most phones won’t have Ethernet support out-of-the-box which forces the use of WiFi. There’s also limited storage options available, so a large NAS system may be out of reach. But for something like a home automation system or a music streaming server this could put plenty of older devices to work again. And if you don’t want to hunt for an Android phone that isn’t completely hobbled out-of-the box
you might want to try a phone that’s Linux-based from the get-go
instead.
Thanks to [JohnU] for the tip! | 21 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8071067",
"author": "LookAtDaShinyShiny",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T04:44:45",
"content": "pass the butter?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7HmltUWXgs",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8071080",
"author": "Velli",
"timestam... | 1,760,371,703.323214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/playstation-motherboard-sanded-and-scanned-but-theres-more-to-do/ | PlayStation Motherboard Sanded And Scanned, But There’s More To Do | Lewin Day | [
"Playstation Hacks"
] | [
"motherboard",
"playstation",
"reverse engineering"
] | If you want to reverse engineer the boards in a modern console, you’d better have a lab, a lot of fancy gear, and a good few months to dedicate to the task. The humble PlayStation, on the other hand, is more accessible in this regard.
[Lawrence Brode] pulled one apart and started documenting it
as part of a grander quest for console understanding.
[Lawrence’s] ultimate goal is to create a portable PlayStation using original hardware. That is, rather than cannibalizing an existing console, he wants to build an original portable from scratch. He needed to understand the PlayStation to recreate it, so he started by analyzing the original hardware.
The first part of [Lawrence’s] quest was to try and reverse engineer the PlayStation motherboard itself. The 1990s console has the benefit of only using a two-layer PCB, meaning it’s far easier to trace out than more modern multi-layer designs. [Lawrence] started with a damaged console, pulled out the motherboard, and stripped off all the components. He then cleaned the board, scanned it, and then sandblasted it to remove the solder mask.
He’s begun the work of tracing out signals, and next on the agenda is to create a new custom PCB that’s compatible with the original PlayStation hardware. You can grab his work
via GitHub
if you’re interested. [Lawrence] is also excited about the possibilities of grabbing the 24-bit RGB signal heading into the GPU and using it for an HDMI output conversion in the future.
It’s always an exciting time in the PlayStation community;
we see lots of great hacks on the regular
. If you’re cooking up your own, don’t hesitate to
drop us a line! | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070989",
"author": "ITman496",
"timestamp": "2024-12-10T00:08:16",
"content": "I remember seeing someone do this already in the past?https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/an-attempt-to-recreate-the-ps2-pcb.4786/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,703.373486 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/raspberry-pi-500-and-the-case-of-the-missing-m-2-slot/ | Raspberry Pi 500 And The Case Of The Missing M.2 Slot | Maya Posch | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Teardown"
] | [
"BCM2712",
"M.2",
"raspberry pi 500"
] | Raspberry Pi just dropped the new Raspberry Pi 500, which like its predecessor puts the similarly named SBC into a keyboard. In a
detailed review
and
teardown video
, [Jeff Geerling] goes over all the details, and what there is to like and not like about this new product.
The new Raspberry Pi 500 with the new Raspberry Pi Monitor. (Credit: Jeff Geerling)
Most of the changes relative to the RP400 are as expected, with the change to the same BCM2712 SoC as on the Raspberry Pi 5, while doubling the RAM to 8 GB and of course you get the soft power button. As [Jeff] discovers with the teardown, the odd thing is that the RP500 PCB has the footprints for an M.2 slot, as seen on the above image, but none of the components are populated.
Naturally, [Jeff] ordered up some parts off Digikey to populate these footprints, but without luck. After asking Raspberry Pi, he was told that these footprints as well as those for a PoE feature are there for ‘flexibility to reuse the PCB in other contexts’. Sadly, it seems that these unpopulated parts of the board will have to remain just that, with no M.2 NVMe slot option built-in. With the price bump to $90 from the RP400’s $70 you’ll have to do your own math on whether the better SoC and more RAM is worth it.
In addition to the RP500 itself, [Jeff] also looks at the newly launched
Raspberry Pi Monitor
, a 15.6″ IPS display for $100. This unit comes with built-in speakers and VESA mount, but as [Jeff] notes in his review, using this VESA mount also means that you’re blocking all the ports, so you have to take the monitor off said VESA mount if you want to plug in or out any cables. | 78 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070911",
"author": "Grawp",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T21:28:49",
"content": "Honestly what is the problem with connecting SSD disk via USB? Typical 20eur disk frame can easily max out whole USB3 5Gpbs connection and supports TRIM & stuff in Linux without any kernel hacks. Just don’t... | 1,760,371,703.638489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/silicon-carbide-may-replace-zirconium-alloys-for-nuclear-fuel-rod-cladding/ | Silicon Carbide May Replace Zirconium Alloys For Nuclear Fuel Rod Cladding | Maya Posch | [
"Science"
] | [
"nuclear fuel",
"silicon carbide"
] | Since the construction of the first commercial light water nuclear power plants (LWR) the design of their fuel rods hasn’t changed significantly. Mechanically robust and corrosion-resistant zirconium alloy (zircalloy) tubes are filled with ceramic fuel pellets, which get assembled into fuel assemblies for loading into the reactor.
A 12′ SiGa fuel assembly, demonstrating the ability to scale to full-sized fuel rods. (Credit: DoE)
Now it seems that silicon carbide (SiC) may soon replace the traditional zirconium alloy
with General Atomics’ SiGa fuel cladding
, which has
been tested over the past 120 days
in the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This completes the first of a series of tests before SiGa is approved for commercial use.
One of the main advantages of
SiC
over zircalloy is better resistance to high temperatures — during testing with temperatures well above those experienced with normal operating conditions, the zircalloy rods would burst while the SiC ones remained intact (as in the embedded video). Although normally SiC is quite brittle and unsuitable for such structures, SiGa uses a SiC fiber composite, which allows it to be used in this structural fashion.
Although this development is primarily part of the Department of Energy’s Accident Tolerant Fuel Program and its focus on melt-down proof fuel, the switch to SiC could also solve a major issue with zirconium, being its use as a catalyst with hydrogen formation when exposed to steam. Although with e.g. Fukushima Daiichi’s triple meltdown the zircalloy fuel rods were partially destroyed, it was the formation of hydrogen gas inside the reactor vessels and the hydrogen explosions during venting which worsened what should have been
a simple meltdown into something significantly worse
. | 27 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070594",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T03:29:14",
"content": "In other news: I may replace Tylor Swift as the highest grossing musical tour.Le Lepetomane reborn!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070595",
... | 1,760,371,703.498597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/hackaday-links-december-8-2024/ | Hackaday Links: December 8, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"5-1/4\"",
"ASML",
"compliance",
"curl",
"doxxing",
"eu",
"festo",
"floppies",
"GPSR",
"hackaday links",
"lego",
"libcurl",
"ms-dos",
"Pneumatics",
"regulations",
"safety",
"san francisco",
"Thunderstruck"
] | For some reason, we never tire of stories highlighting critical infrastructure that’s running outdated software, and all the better if it’s running on outdated hardware. So when we learned that
part of the San Francisco transit system still runs on 5-1/4″ floppies
, we sat up and took notice. The article is a bit stingy with the technical details, but the gist is that the Automatic Train Control System was installed in the Market Street subway station in 1998 and uses three floppy drives to load DOS and the associated custom software. If memory serves, MS-DOS as a standalone OS was pretty much done by about 1995 — Windows 95, right? — so the system was either obsolete before it was even installed, or the 1998 instance was an upgrade of an earlier system. Either way, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) says that the 1998 system due to be replaced originally had a 25-year lifespan, so they’re more or less on schedule. Replacement won’t be cheap, though; Hitachi Rail, the same outfit that builds systems that control things like the bullet train in Japan, is doing the job for the low, low price of $212 million.
We don’t know who needs to here this, but we got a tip from Clem Mayer about upcoming changes to EU regulations that might affect the maker community. It concerns the General Product Safety Regulations, or GPSR, which appears to be an extension of current rules that will impose additional compliance burdens on anyone selling products to the EU market on online marketplaces. We won’t pretend to know the intricacies of GPSR, or even the basics, but
Smander.com has a brief summary of the rules
and how best to comply, which seems to amount to retaining the services of a company to take care of the compliance paperwork. We also took a look at
the official EU information page for GPSR
, which is pretty thin on information but at least it’s a primary source. If you’re selling kits or other products into the EU market, chances are good that you’re going to need to figure this out, and soon — seems like the rules go into effect December 13th.
You’ve got to feel for the authors of open-source software. As if developing, maintaining, and supporting the software that keeps the Internet running wasn’t a thankless enough job, you can actually get
doxxed by your own creation
. A case in point is Daniel Stenberg, the original author and lead developer on curl and libcurl. His name and email address are often found in the documentation for products using his software, so frustrated users who find his contact information tend to reach out to him after being ignored by the product’s support team. It seems annoying, and we sympathize with Daniel and others like him, but then again, it’s a measure of your impact that your contact information is literally everywhere.
If you’re in the market for a unique gift for the geek in your life and have an extra $230 to spread around, check out t
his custom Lego kit of the ASML TWINSCAN EXE:500 extreme UV lithography machine
. Actually, strike that; now that we look at the specs, this kit is tiny. It’s only 851 pieces and 13.9″ (35 cm) wide when assembled, and isn’t exactly a richly detailed piece. Sure, Lego kits are fun, but there seem to be much better choices out there; we had a blast putting together the Apollo 11 Lunar Module
Eagle
kit a few years back, and that was only about $70.
And finally, Festo fans will want to check out
this literal air guitar
from the automation company’s “Experience Center” in Lupfig, Switzerland. Festo engineers bedazzled an acoustic guitar with pneumatic cylinders and control valves and programmed the system to pluck out the intro riff from AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” It’s actually pretty good, and we especially appreciate the pneumatic party whistle that chips in from time to time. There’s a missed opportunity here, though; we really expected a pneumatic cylinder to do the characteristic double rap on the body of the guitar when you get to the “Thun-der!” part. Too bad — maybe for version two. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070567",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T00:31:28",
"content": "So would the Air Guitar be considered a stringed instrument or a wind instrument? Also, SF, it’s called a a GOTEK.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,703.749852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/pedaling-your-mobile-web-server-across-the-globe/ | Pedaling Your Mobile Web Server Across The Globe | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"bike",
"cycling",
"hosting",
"ipv4",
"IPv6",
"mini web server",
"raspberry pi",
"ssh",
"vps",
"web server"
] | We tinkerers often have ideas we know are crazy, and we make them up in the most bizarre places, too. For example, just imagine hosting a website while pedaling across the world—who would (not) want that? Meet [Jelle Reith], a tinkerer on an epic cycling adventure,
whose bicycle doubles as a mobile web server
. [Jelle]’s project,
jelle.bike
, will from the 6th of December on showcase what he’s seeing in real time, powered by ingenuity and his hub dynamo. If you read this far, you’ll probably guess: this hack is done by a Dutchman. You couldn’t be more right.
At the heart of [Jelle]’s setup is a Raspberry Pi 4 in a watertight enclosure. The tiny powerhouse runs off energy generated by a Forumslader V3, a clever AC-to-DC converter optimized for bike dynamos. The Pi gets internet access via [Jelle]’s phone hotspot, but hosting a site over cellular networks isn’t as simple as it sounds. With no static IP available, [Jelle] routes web traffic through a VPS using an SSH tunnel. This crafty solution—
expanded upon by Jeff Geerling
—ensures seamless access to the site, even overcoming IPv6 quirks.
The system’s efficiency and modularity exemplify maker spirit: harnessing everyday tools to achieve the extraordinary. For more details, including a parts list and schematics, check out [Jelle]’s Hackaday.io project page. | 11 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070524",
"author": "alialiali",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T22:09:50",
"content": "I hope the bottom of the page says “It took 2m to serve you this page” instead of the usual render time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070555"... | 1,760,371,703.692785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/new-tullomer-filament-claims-to-beat-peek-aluminium-and-steel/ | New Tullomer Filament Claims To Beat PEEK | Maya Posch | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printer filament",
"FDM"
] | Recently a company called Z-Polymers introduced its new Tullomer FDM filament that comes with a lofty bullet list of purported properties that should give materials like steel, aluminium, and various polymers a run for their money. Even better is that it is compatible with far lower specification FDM printers than e.g. PEEK. Intrigued, the folks over at
All3DP
figured that they
should get some hands-on information on this filament
and what’s it like to print with in one of the
officially sanctioned
Bambu Lab printers: these being the X1C & X1CE with manufacturer-provided profiles.
The world of engineering-grade FDM filaments has existed for decades, with for example
PEEK
(polyether ether ketone) having been around since the early 1980s, but these require much higher temperatures for the extruder (360+℃) and chamber (~90℃) than Tullomer, which is much closer (300℃, 50℃) to a typical high-performance filament like ABS, while also omitting the typical post-process annealing of PEEK. This assumes that Tullomer can match those claimed specifications, of course.
One of the current users of Tullomer is Erdos Miller, an engineering firm with a focus on the gas and oil industry. They’re using it for printing parts (calibration tooling) that used to be printed in filaments like carbon fiber-reinforced nylon (CF-PA) or PEEK, but they’re now looking at using Tullomer for replacing CF-PA and machined PEEK parts elsewhere too.
It’s still early days for this new polymer, of course, and we don’t have a lot of information beyond the rather sparse datasheet, but if you already have a capable printer, a single 1 kg spool of Tullomer is a mere $500, which is often much less or about the same as PEEK spools, without the requirement for a rather beefy industrial-strength FDM printer. | 43 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070488",
"author": "mgsouth",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T18:58:55",
"content": "Note that the All3DP piece looks to be sponsored content or other Marketting arranged materiel. Probably not independent, but still seems useful and informative. Just a notch below technology-overview art... | 1,760,371,703.840985 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/tiny-nfc-powered-keychain-thermometer/ | Tiny NFC-Powered Keychain Thermometer | Heidi Ulrich | [
"ATtiny Hacks",
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"attiny1626",
"keychain",
"microcontroller",
"NFC",
"temperature",
"thermometer",
"wearable"
] | What if your keychain could tell you the temperature, all while staying battery-free? That’s the essence of this
innovative keychain ‘NFC_temp’ by [bjorn]
. This nifty gadget harnesses energy from an NFC field—like the one created by your smartphone—to power itself just long enough to take a precise temperature reading. Using components like an ATTiny1626 microcontroller, a TMP117 thermometer, and an RF430CL330H NFC IC, NFC_temp cleverly stores harvested power in a capacitor to function autonomously.
The most impressive part? This palm-sized device (18×40 mm) uses a self-designed 13.56 MHz antenna to draw energy from NFC readers. The temperature is then displayed on the reader, with an impressive accuracy of ±0.1 °C. Creator [bjorn] even shared challenges, like switching from an analog sensor due to voltage instability, which ultimately led to his choice of the TMP117. Android phones work best with the tag, while iOS devices require a bit more angling for reliable detection.
Projects like NFC_temp underscore the creativity within open source. It’s a brilliant nod to the future of passive, wireless, energy-efficient designs. Since many of us will all be spending a lot of time around the Christmas tree this month, why not fit it in a bauble? | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070449",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T17:19:02",
"content": "I would buy one of these if it was a product.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070468",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T18:2... | 1,760,371,703.886039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/the-audiophile-carrot/ | The Audiophile Carrot | Jenny List | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"\"audiophiles\"",
"audio",
"carrot"
] | The widely quoted carrot factoid that the vegetable’s orange colour is the result of patriotic Dutch farmers breeding them that way may be an urban myth, but it’s certainly true that they can pass an audio signal in a time of need. [Julian Krause]
follows up on a Reddit meme of a carrot being used to join two phono plugs
, and appears to find the organic interconnect to be of good quality.
We had to admit a second look at a calendar to be sure that it’s not April 1st, but while his manner is slightly tongue in cheek it seems he’s really characterising the audio performance of a carrot. What he finds is a bit of attenuation, some bass cut, and an intrusion of RF interference pickup, but surprisingly, not a bad distortion figure.
Of course, we’re guessing the real point of the exercise is to poke fun at the world of excessive hi-fi equipment, something we’ve been
only too glad to have a go at ourselves
from time to time. But if the tests are to be taken at face value it seems that in a pinch, a carrot will do as a means to hook together line level audio cables, no doubt lending a sweet and crunchy overtone to the result. The video is below the break, for your entertainment. | 31 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070371",
"author": "UnderSampled",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T12:27:19",
"content": "Better save that video — it might get a copyright strike!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070477",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp... | 1,760,371,703.958327 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/wasm-4-retro-game-dev-right-in-your-browser/ | WASM-4: Retro Game Dev Right In Your Browser | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Games",
"Software Development"
] | [
"browser",
"game",
"game jam",
"gaming",
"platform independant",
"retro",
"wasm",
"web assembly",
"webassembly"
] | Have you ever dreamt of developing games that run on practically anything, from a modern browser to a microcontroller? Enter
WASM-4
, a minimalist fantasy console where constraints spark creativity. Unlike intimidating behemoths like Unity, WASM-4’s stripped-back specs challenge you to craft games within its 160×160 pixel display, four color palette, and 64 KB memory. Yes, you’ll curse at times, but as every tinkerer knows, limitations are the ultimate muse.
Born from the
WebAssembly
ecosystem, this console accepts “cartridges” in .wasm format. Any language that compiles to WebAssembly—be it Rust, Go, or AssemblyScript—can build games for it. The console’s emphasis on portability, with plans for microcontroller support, positions it as a playground for minimalist game developers. Multiplayer support? Check. Retro vibes? Double-check.
Entries from a 2022’s WASM-4 Game Jam showcase this quirky console’s charm. From pixel-perfect platformers to byte-sized RPGs, the creativity is staggering. One standout, “WasmAsteroids,” demonstrated real-time online multiplayer within these confines—proof that you don’t need sprawling engines to achieve cutting-edge design. This isn’t just about coding—it’s about coding smart. WASM-4 forces you to think like a retro engineer while indulging in modern convenience.
WASM-4 is a playground for anyone craving pure, unadulterated experimentation. Whether you’re a seasoned programmer or curious hobbyist, this console has the tools to spark something great. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070354",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T10:46:04",
"content": "“Any language that compiles to WebAssembly—be it Rust, Go, or AssemblyScript—can build games for it.”Was it on purpose C and C++ was not mentioned here?The webpage says “Use any programming language, as lon... | 1,760,371,704.066435 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/do-3d-printers-dream-of-lego-sheep/ | Do 3D Printers Dream Of LEGO Sheep? | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Parts",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed lego",
"3d printer",
"3d scanner",
"3d scanning",
"CR-Scan",
"CR-Scan Otter",
"lego"
] | Imagine the power to clone your favorite LEGO piece—not just any piece, but let’s say, one that costs €50 second-hand. [Balazs] from RacingBrick posed this exact question: can a 3D scanner recreate LEGO pieces at home? Armed with Creality’s CR-Scan Otter, he set out
to duplicate a humble DUPLO sheep
and, of course, tackle the holy grail of LEGO collectibles: the rare LEGO goat.
The CR-Scan Otter is a neat gadget for hobbyists, capable of capturing objects as small as a LEGO piece. While the scanner proved adept with larger, blocky pieces, reflective LEGO plastic posed challenges, requiring multiple scans for detailed accuracy. With clever use of 3D printed tracking points, even the elusive goat came to life—albeit with imperfections. The process highlighted both the potential and the limitations of replicating tiny, complex shapes. From multi-colored DUPLO sheep to metallic green dinosaur jaws, [Balazs]’s experiments show how scanners can fuel customization for non-commercial purposes.
For those itching to enhance or replace their builds, this project is inspiring but practical advice remains: cloning LEGO pieces with a scanner is fun but far from plug-and-play. Check out [Balazs]’s exploration below for the full geeky details and inspiration. | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070902",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T21:02:16",
"content": "Now, are those designs covered by copyright?And I do hope he named that cloned sheep “Dolly”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8070917",
"author": "O... | 1,760,371,704.02022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-funny-keyboard/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Funny Keyboard | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"3.5\" floppy disk",
"ASCII keyboard",
"comic book",
"Defi typewriter",
"Don Lancaster",
"floppy disk",
"folding keyboard",
"Lancaster keyboard",
"macro keyboard",
"marshmallow keycaps"
] | What’s the most important keyboard macro you know? Honestly, it’s probably Ctrl-S. But do you use that one often enough? Chances are, you do not. What you need is
a giant, dedicated Save keyboard that looks like a floppy disk
.
Image by [Makestreme] via
Hackaday.IO
[Makestreme] recently started creating YouTube videos, but wasn’t pressing Save often enough. Couple that with editing software that crashes, and the result is hours of lost work.
Just like you’d expect, pressing the floppy icon triggers Ctrl-S when connected over USB-C. Internally, it’s a Seeeduino Xiao, a push button, and some wires.
The floppy disk itself is made of foam board, and everything is encased in a picture frame. If you want to make one for yourself, [Makestreme] has some great instructions over on IO.
Folding Keyboard Working After Five Hours of Debugging
Wishing for something compact and foldable, [sushiiiiiiiiiiiiii] created
this seemingly nameless wonder
that sort of resembles a concertina. The initial idea was to have both halves separate and make the thumb cluster unfold, but the making the linkage work correctly turned out to be a nightmare.
Image by [sushiiiiiiiiiiiiii] via
reddit
Internally, this keyboard sports a pair of SuperMini nRF52840s plus a third one to make into a dongle. Those switches are Kailh Deep Sea Tactile Whales, which are silent, low-profile numbers.
They are topped with beautiful KLP Lamé keycaps I’d really like to touch that [sushiiiiiiiiiiiiii] had printed through JLC. It runs on six IKEA LADDA Ni-MH AAA cells [sushiiiiiiiiiiiiii] had laying around that the integrated Li-ion charger “shouldn’t explode” based on
research
.
Programming was a different kind of nightmare. [sushiiiiiiiiiiiiii] went through the ZMK setup, but the thing just would not show up on any Bluetooth device. After several hours of checking absolutely everything, [sushiiiiiiiiiiiiii] went back to the guide and discovered the programmer’s bane — an errant space after a comma that screwed everything up. The next version will have a reworked hinge and be less wobbly.
The Centerfold: A Little Comic Relief
Image by [xfactorxsuh] via
reddit
Yes, this is an actual keyboard with actual keycaps
. Although it would probably give most people a headache after a while, this setup is pretty darn cool. As you can see in the pictures, [xfactorxsuh] covered an existing keyboard of unknown-to-me make and model with masking tape and then went to town with a fine-tipped black marker. This was done to match the PBT comic book keycaps, which actually come that way from Ali.
Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad?
Send me a picture
along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!
Historical Clackers: Defi-ing Typical Typewriter Prices
Image via
The Antikey Chop
First and foremost: although it looks nice, the reason why this Defi is screwed to a metal base is unknown.
This typewriter came standard with a wood base and cost a mere $25 in the early 1900s
, whereas most machines were more like $60-$100. A metal base would probably have made it cost more.
The Defi was built with a three-row, 84-character keyboard bearing two Shifts, presumably one for upper case, and the other for figures and symbols. From here, it looks as though every key has a second function, which gives it a really nice balance between usability and portability.
One of the most interesting bits to me is the semi-circular type element, which looks like one of those old rocking desk ink blotter things. Speaking of ink, the Defi used a ribbon spool. The whole thing was only a foot square and five inches tall, weighing about nine pounds total, presumably with the wood base.
ICYMI: the Lancaster ASCII keyboard Clacks Again
If you want a cool keyboard in 2024, you’re probably gonna have to build it yourself. And if you wanted a cool keyboard fifty years ago, you definitely had to build it yourself.
Image by [Artem Kalinchuk] via
GitHub
But much like today, help was out there in the form of magazines. One such publication, the February 1973 issue of
Radio Electronics
in fact, had [Don Lancaster]’s plans for an ASCII keyboard that went along with a “TV Typewriter”.
[Artem Kalinchuk] wanted to recreate this famous keyboard,
and he did, twice
. One PCB is true to the original key switches, and the other, more practical version is made for the MX footprint.
Both are up on GitHub if you’re interested
.
While the board itself is nice, you would also need the ASCII encoder board, which is fairly simple with a few ICs, diodes, and a couple of transistors. I really love the look of this keyboard, and although far more practical, it would be a shame to cover up all that beautiful wiring. Perhaps clear acrylic is in order?
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards?
Help me out by sending in a link or two
. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to
email me directly
. | 19 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070857",
"author": "jbx",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T19:00:38",
"content": "When using any browser, use Alt+F4 to save any important data on the server ;-)You may also use Ctrl+w.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070870",
... | 1,760,371,706.10202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/electric-bike-uses-no-electronics-weird-motor/ | Electric Bike Uses No Electronics, Weird Motor | Lewin Day | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bike",
"motor",
"reed switch motor"
] | E-bikes combine a bicycle with a big lithium battery, a speed controller, and a motor. What you get from that combination is simple, efficient transportation. [Tom Stanton] wanted to build an e-bike himself,
but he did it
without
any of the fancy electronic components.
But the real gem? The weird janky motor he built to run it.
The concept is simple. An e-bike is
electric,
in that it has an electric motor and a source of electric power. However, [Tom] intended to eliminate the
electronic
parts—the speed controller, any battery balancing hardware, and the like. Just think no transistors and microchips and you’ve got the right idea. Basically, [Tom] just built an e-bike with motor weak enough that it doesn’t need any fancy throttle control. He can just turn the motor hard on or off with a switch.
The bike is built around a reed switch motor. This uses magnets on a rotor, which interact with a reed switch to time pulses of electricity to coils which drive the motor. [Tom] wound the coils and built the motor from scratch using 3D printed components. The project quickly ran into problems as the reed switch began to suffer degradation from arcing, which [Tom] solved with some innovative tungsten contacts.
Controlling the bike is pretty simple—there’s just a switch connecting a capacitor bank to the motor to provide power on command. No electronics! However, [Tom] has also neatly set up the motor to charge a bank of supercapacitors when coasting downhill. In this regard, the bike can store power on a descent and then use it for a boost when required later on. Between the weird motor and the weedy capacitor bank, it doesn’t do much, but it does work.
If he’s looking for a more potent power source, perhaps the answer is already out on the street —
in the form of a battery pack salvaged from the cells in discarded vapes
. | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070819",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T17:23:31",
"content": "Wait hold on… He FILED grooves in the tungsten rods? Did he…get these tungstens on…… Amazon?Interesting choice of commutation too, maybe I should shut my mouth and make my own YouTube video with the ol’ ca... | 1,760,371,706.036922 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/finally-putting-the-rk1-through-its-paces/ | Finally Putting The RK1 Through Its Paces | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Featured",
"News",
"Reviews",
"Slider"
] | [
"RK1",
"Rockchip",
"Turing Pi"
] | The good folks at Turing Pi sent me a trio of
RK1 modules
to put through their paces, to go along with the single unit I bought myself. And the TLDR, if you need some real ARM processing power, and don’t want to spend an enterprise budget, a Turing Pi 2 filled with RK1s is a pretty compelling solution. And the catch? It’s sporting the Rockchip RK3588 processor, which means there are challenges with kernel support.
For those in the audience that haven’t been following the
Turing Pi project
, let’s recap. The Turing Pi 1 was a mini ITX carrier board for the original Raspberry Pi compute module, boasting 7 nodes connected with onboard Gigabit.
That obviously wasn’t enough power, and once Raspberry Pi released the CM4, the Turing Pi 2 was conceived, boasting 4 slots compatible with the Nvidia Jetson compute units, as well as the Raspberry Pi CM4 with a minimal adapter.
We even covered it
shortly after the Kickstarter. And now we have the RK1, which is an 8-core RK3588 slapped on a minimal board, pin compatible with the Nvidia Jetson boards.
The story about Linux
Now, it has been a while since Turing sent me these devices. The main reason is that Linux support was broken in a couple of important ways. I’ve spent many hours over the last six months trying to debug these issues, and was really quite excited when I could finally boot the stock installers of Fedora 41, Ubuntu 24.10, and latest OpenSuse Tumbleweed on the RK1. The most notable issue is that mainline Linux completely failed to see the NVMe drive at boot, due to a pinmux issue that might finally get officially fixed in 6.13 or a 6.12 point release. This issue could be worked around with a custom Device Tree Binary (DTB), but it is a fiddly installation process. And the second issue was related: Using this hacked DTB only ever worked for the 32 GB ram model. These two issues really made a proper review very difficult.
You may be checking your Kernel calendar, and noting that right now, we just got the 6.12 release. Did that include the fix? Not yet. Here’s where we get to dive briefly into the ARM UEFI boot process. The
Device Tree
is the data structure that the kernel uses to find and initialize the hardware on the board. The 6.12 kernel is otherwise in pretty good shape for using the RK1 as a compute unit. It just has some DTB problems.
The important note is that for UEFI booting, the bootloader provides the DTB. U-boot copies that binary tree into memory, and hands the kernel a pointer to it during boot. The new development is that
the semi-official Ubuntu 24.10 image
finally has the patched DTB with the corrected pinmux. This arrangement also takes care of the 16GB boot failure. That meant that we could use the Turing Pi 2’s web interface to upload the Ubuntu 24.10 image, which includes U-Boot, log in to that install, and then use
dd
to write a disk image to the NVMe. That was a huge step forward, but it was still not ideal for a couple reasons. First, it’s a pain to install a Linux image just to be to install a Linux image. And second, not every distro releases an image that’s appropriate to simply copy onto the target drive.
The intended solution is UEFI boot that supports booting from a USB ISO. That, unfortunately, didn’t work. U-boot pulls its DTB definitions from the Linux Kernel itself, and while [Josh]’s image did have a few patches on top of the kernel’s RK1 DTB, it didn’t have a working DTB. U-boot needed not only a DTB patch, but also a patch to its own USB support, as the RK1 has a nifty trick where the USB port can be a host, device or OTG port. U-boot doesn’t really know what to do with this, and for UEFI boot, it needs to be explicitly set to host mode. All that work resulted in
this flashable u-boot image
. You can flash it from the web interface to an RK1, and it actually finally works to do UEFI boot on MMC, USB, and NVMe. Tested with Fedora 41, Ubuntu 24.10, and latest Tumbleweed.
So how did it turn out?
Finally, we can start with benchmarks. I ran
a set of tests using the Phoronix test suite
. The Pi4 is running off an SD card, and the Pi5 and RK1 results labeled “nvme” are all running off the same model of Crucial P3 NVMe.
There is a wildcard here I didn’t control for. The RK3588 is eight cores, but four A76, and four A55. So for single-threaded tests, it may be that the benchmark didn’t actually run on the most performant core. The other distinction here is that the “rk1-mainline” results is from running an Ubuntu 22.04 install with the vanilla 6.7.0 kernel, while the rk1-rok tests are from running the same Ubuntu release, but with the Rokchip kernel. Due to the issues I ran into with Linux installs, noted above, these benchmarks are a little stale.
The Pi4 is really showing its age here, and the fact that the Pi4 can only run off an SD card definitely doesn’t help compilation times. The Pi5, running off the NVMe, makes a good showing, but the RK1 is about 80% faster in this particular test. And that’s generally what I found across the board, with the RK1 performing generally between 50% and 100% faster than the Pi5.
That advantage seems to boil down to the RK1’s 8 cores, as opposed to the 4 cores in the Pi5. Tests like the timed Eigen compile showed the Pi5 and rk1 absolutely trading blows. And in the TSCP chess program, the Pi5 actually manages to eke out a win, again on a very single-core sort of workload.
So, each RK1 gives you 8 cores and up to 32 Gigabytes of ram. And thanks to the PCIe x3 lanes available, and the NVMe slots on the bottom of the Turing Pi 2, plenty of NVMe storage. Four of those in a mini-itx form factor might just be a compelling bundle of compute.
How to Get Going
One of the neat features of the Turing Pi 2 is that the baseboard itself is a Linux machine, so you can ssh into the baseboard, and access the serial ports of the individual blades. While writing this, I’m working with slot two, which is /dev/ttyS1,
based on the TP2 documentation
. The command to monitor and interact is
picocom /dev/ttyS3 -b115200
.
The other useful tool here is the web interface. In there we can toggle power on and off, as well as flash an image to the MMC of individual nodes. Grab
the .bin I generated
, flash it to the RK1’s MMC, and then boot from an ISO burned to DVD or a flash drive. Use the minicom command to access the serial interface, and do the install configuration over serial.
If you have a Linux install on both the MMC and NVMe, it’s useful to know how to boot off the emmc again. From that picocom terminal, interrupt u-boot, and set the target back to just the mmc:
setenv boot_targets mmc0
boot
And there you have it. This process should work for most Linux distros that have an Arm64 ISO that can boot using UEFI, running the 6.7 kernel or newer, but ideally at least a 6.11 kernel.
Into the Future
Officially, when it comes to distro options, there’s good news and bad news. Officially, you can run whatever distro you want, so long as it’s Ubuntu. The better news, support for the RK3588 is making progress in the upstream kernel. It’s decent enough that some of the benchmarks above were run with 6.7.0. 6.11, the kernel that comes with Fedora 41 is even better shape. Some HDMI work is slated to land in 6.13, along with the DTB fix.
The NPU unit, an AI accelerator built in to the chip, has an open source driver, and
patches have been submitted
. As far as I can tell, these have not landed upstream in the kernel yet, but work has continued since then.
The bad news is that [Josh Riek], the maintainer of the Ubuntu-Rockchip image,
has taken a leave of absence from the project
, putting the premier Linux image for Rockchip devices in serious limbo. And this is where we come to the biggest reason why you might not want to use the RK1. Rockchip has sadly followed the pattern of many other hardware vendors in the embedded world, and provided very little support to the community trying to maintain the software for their devices. The RK3588 launched back in 2022, and it’s still not fully supported in the Kernel. That’s not to say that Rockchip has been completely remiss. There are four Linux kernel maintainers with
@rock-chips.com
email addresses. But one of [Josh]’s complaints was that the whole project was on him, and Rockchip refused to even have a conversation about supporting the project.
The Conclusion
OK, so the RK1 has some impressive capabilities, and while the compatibility story isn’t perfect, it’s much better than it was, with even more coming. But what’s the real use-case for these things? What problem does a quartet of RK1 boards in a Turing Pi 2 solve, that a conventional desktop doesn’t? When I started writing this article, the answer was running Github actions on actual ARM hardware. And while
Github beat us to it
, now offering ARM64 runners for Github actions, those runners are considered “large” runners, and not available on the Github free tier.
Even after the ARM64 runners roll out to everyone, is there still a use case for hosting your own runners? Github runners aren’t known for their blazing speed, and a big part of that is the fact that Github runs everything inside virtual machines. An organization is also limited to a max of 20 Github supplied runners. If you have a relatively secure way to run your workflow on real hardware like the RK1, the speedup might be worth it. I look forward to future coverage on this topic.
There are, obviously, some other things you might want to do with RK1 devices. It has plenty of horsepower to run web services, host builds, run Docker images, and more. The RK1 is basically powerful enough for anything compute you want to do.
So what do we think about the RK1? It’s certainly not the only way to get your hands on the RK3588 ARM processor. It is, however, the only way I know of to put four of them in a single mini-ITX form factor. The support isn’t quite as well developed as we’d like to see, but it does result in a usable system, with a lot of ARM horsepower in a small package. There are developers working on the system, so the situation there is looking to improve. I have a pair of RK1s in active use doing GitHub CI runs. | 15 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070814",
"author": "macsimski",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T17:12:58",
"content": "maybe insert a break somewhere?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070892",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"times... | 1,760,371,705.970109 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/robot-rodents-how-ai-learned-to-squeak-and-play/ | Robot Rodents: How AI Learned To Squeak And Play | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"ai",
"animatronic",
"artificial intelligence",
"lab rat",
"rat",
"robot",
"robot rat",
"rodent",
"SMEO"
] | In an astonishing blend of robotics and nature,
SMEO—a robot rat designed by researchers in China and Germany
— is fooling real rats into treating it like one of their own.
What sets SMEO apart is its rat-like adaptability. Equipped with a flexible spine, realistic forelimbs, and AI-driven behavior patterns, it doesn’t just mimic a rat — it learns and evolves through interaction. Researchers used video data to train SMEO to “think” like a rat, convincing its living counterparts to play, cower, or even engage in social nuzzling. This degree of mimicry could make SMEO a valuable tool for studying animal behavior ethically, minimizing stress on live animals by replacing some real-world interactions.
For builders and robotics enthusiasts, SMEO is a reminder that robotics can push boundaries while fostering a more compassionate future. Many have reservations about keeping intelligent creatures in confined cages or using them in experiments, so imagine applying this tech to non-invasive studies or even wildlife conservation. In a world where robotic dogs, bees, and even schools of fish have come to life, this animatronic rat sounds like an addition worth further exploring. SMEO’s development could, ironically, pave the way for reducing reliance on animal testing. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070738",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T13:06:55",
"content": "You like Terminators?Because that’s how you get Terminators.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070760",
"author"... | 1,760,371,705.811919 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/09/debugging-the-ue1-paper-tape-reader-and-amplification-circuit/ | Debugging The UE1 Paper Tape Reader And Amplification Circuit | Maya Posch | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"paper tape",
"troubleshooting",
"tube computer"
] | The tape reader and amplifiers mounted with the other UE1 modules. (Credit: David Lovett, YouTube)
After recently putting together the paper tape reader for his custom tube-based UE1 computer, [David Lovett] did get squiggles on the outputs, but not quite the right ones. In the
most recent video
, these issues are addressed one by one, so that this part of the UE1 1-bit computer can be called ‘done’. Starting off the list of issues were the odd readings from the photodiodes, which turned out to be due to the diodes being misaligned and a dodgy solder joint. This allowed [David] to move on to building the (obviously 6AU6 tube-based) amplifier for the photodiode output signals.
Much like the Bendix G-15’s tape reader
which served as inspiration
, this also meant adding potentiometers to adjust the gain. For the clock signal on the tape, a clock recovery PCB was needed, which should provide the UE1 computer system with both the clocks and the input data.
Using the potentiometers on the amplification board, the output signals can be adjusted at will to give the cleanest possible signal to the rest of the system, which theoretically means that as soon as [David] adds the permanent wiring and a few utility boards to allow the code to manipulate the tape reader (e.g. halt) as well as manual inputs. The UE1 computer system is thus being pretty close to running off tape by itself for the first time and with it being ‘complete’. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070705",
"author": "hjf",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T11:32:44",
"content": "I love how the clock signal handled in paper tape. instead of having some sort of delay circuit to make sure the data lines have settled, the paper tape simply has smaller holes for the clock signal. this gua... | 1,760,371,705.912244 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/08/magic-eye-images-in-your-spreadsheet/ | Magic Eye Images In Your Spreadsheet | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"excel",
"magic eye",
"spreadsheet"
] | Ah, the 1990s. It was a simpler time, when the web was going to be democratic and decentralised, you could connect your Windows 95 PC to the internet without worrying much about it being compromised, and freely download those rave music MP3s. Perhaps you had a Global Hypercolor T-shirt and spent a summer looking like the sweaty idiot you were, and it’s certain you desperately squinted at a magic eye image in a newspaper (remember newspapers?) trying to see the elephant or whatever it was. If you’d like to relive that experience, then [Dave Richeson]
has a magic eye image generator for Microsoft Excel
.
Unfortunately a proportion of the population
including your scribe
lack the ability to see these images, a seemingly noise-like pattern of dots on the page computationally generated to fool the visual processing portion of your brain to generate a 3D image. The Excel sheet allows you to create the images, but perhaps most interesting is the explanation of the phenomenon and mathematics which go along with it. Along with a set of test images depicting mathematical subjects, it’s definitely worth a look.
You can download a template and follow the instructions, and from very limited testing here we can see that LibreOffice doesn’t turn its nose up at it, either. Give it a go, and learn afresh the annoyance of trying to unfocus your eyes. | 56 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070613",
"author": "LambdaMikel",
"timestamp": "2024-12-09T06:26:08",
"content": "I was wondering what that was, but it turns out you cut off the upper part of the “x” from the image:https://divisbyzero.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/x.pngThanks for the trip down memory lane, I own... | 1,760,371,706.196633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/cheap-fpga-pcie-development/ | Cheap FPGA PCIe Development | Al Williams | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"fpga",
"PCIe"
] | Typically, if you want to build an FPGA project inside a PC, you’d need a fairly expensive development board that plugs into the bus. However, [CircuitValley] found some IBM RS-485 boards that are little more than a PCIe board with an Intel FPGA onboard. These are widely avaiable on the surplus market for around $20 shipped. He’s been
documenting how to use them
.
The FPGA onboard is a Cyclone IV with about 21,000 logic elements and a little over 750 kbits of memory. The board itself has configuration memory, power management, and a few connectors. The JTAG header is unpopulated, but the footprint is there. You simply need to supply a surface-mount pin header and an external JTAG probe, and you can program. Even if you aren’t interested in using an FPGA board, the reverse engineer steps are fun to watch.
The situation reminds us a little of the RTL-SDR — when a device uses a programmable device to perform nearly all of its functions, it is subject to your reprogramming. What would you do with a custom PCIe card? You tell us. Need a
refresher on the bus
? We can help. Thinking of building some sort of FPGA accelerator? Maybe try
RIFFA
. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070335",
"author": "Neverm|nd",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T08:35:17",
"content": "This is pretty cool.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8070337",
"author": "Dodo",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T08:53:56",
"content": "Supris... | 1,760,371,705.649351 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/a-look-inside-ikeas-vallhorn-motion-sensor-teardown/ | A Look Inside IKEA’s Vallhorn Motion Sensor Teardown | Jenny List | [
"home hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"ikea",
"pir",
"zigbee"
] | A good source of hackable home automation parts has come for a while in the form of inexpensive modules offered by large retailers such as Lidl, or IKEA. They’re readily available and easy to play with, they work with open source hubs, so what’s not to like! As an example, [Circuit Valley] has
an IKEA Vallhorn motion sensor for a teardown
, it’s as you might expect, a passive infrared sensor (PIR) sensor coupled with a Zigbee interface.
Inside the ultrasonic welded case is a small PCB and a Fresnel lens on the inside of the top cover, and a small PCB for the electronics. We applaud the use of a Swiss Army knife can opener as a spudger. The interesting part comes in identifying the individual components: the Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 SoC is easy enough, but another mystery 8-pin chip is more elusive. The part number suggests an Analog Devices op-amp for signal conditioning the PIR output, but the pinout seems not to support it and from here we think it’s too expensive a part for a budget item like this.
There’s a handy header for talking to the SoC, which we’d love to report is open and ready to be hacked, but we’re not getting too optimistic. Even if not hackable though, we’re guessing many of you find uses for these things. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070298",
"author": "Felix Domestica",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T03:39:42",
"content": "Brief note: Simple single-sensor IR motion detectors do not play well with mini split heat pump systems. They trigger on the moving plume of warmed air. A real ir camera and image processing might... | 1,760,371,706.259427 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/microchess-remembered/ | MicrochessRemembered | Al Williams | [
"Interviews",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"chess",
"kim-1",
"Microchess",
"peter jennings"
] | Playing chess has always been a bellwether for computers. The game isn’t trivial, but the rules are managably simple. However, the game is too complex to be easily solved entirely, so you have to use tricky software to play a credible game. Big computers do have an advantage, of course. But
Microchess
— arguably the first commercial game for home computers — was able to play on tiny machines like the Kim-1.
[Joachim Froholt] interviewed [Peter Jennings]
— the man behind
Microchess
to learn the whole story of its creation.
In 1960, [Jennings] was ten years old and had to persuade the local librarian to let him read adult books on electronics and computers. Five years later, a ham radio teletype and some circuitry helped him practice chess openings and was the first of many chess-playing machines he’d build or program.
Microchess
itself took six months of painstaking programming, entering hex codes into the computer. Word leaked out from a user’s group meeting (where
Microchess
beat a human player), and [Jennings] was swamped with requests for the program. In late 1976, the program was offered for sale as a teletype listing or, for an extra $3, a cassette tape.
The program went on to be very successful and moved to other platforms.
Commodore even made a special dedicated device
based on the Kim-1 to play
Microchess
, a piece of hardware unique enough that
[Michael Gardi] honored it with one of his phenomenal replicas
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070282",
"author": "Mike Burke",
"timestamp": "2024-12-08T02:11:18",
"content": "I remember Microchess. I thought it was pretty cool considering the limits of the Kim-1 and Commodore systems at the time.I was in Alaska (I had the first store selling Apple II and Commodore PET syste... | 1,760,371,705.859286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/the-25000-tom-evans-pre-amp-repair-and-a-copyright-strike/ | The £25,000 Tom Evans Pre-Amp Repair And A Copyright Strike | Maya Posch | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"copyright",
"pre-amp"
] | We were recently notified by a reader that [Tom Evans] had filed a copyright claim against [Mark]’s repair video on his
Mend it Mark
YouTube channel, taking down said repair video as well as [Mark]’s delightful commentary. In a
new video, [Mark] comments
on this takedown and the implications. The biggest question is what exactly was copyrighted in the original video, which was tough because YouTube refused to pass on [Mark]’s questions or provide further details.
In this new video the entire repair is summarized once again using props instead of the actual pre-amp, which you can still catch a glimpse of in
our earlier coverage
of the repair. To summarize, there was one bad tantalum capacitor that caused issues for one channel, and the insides of this twenty-five thousand quid pre-amp looks like an artistic interpretation of a Jenga tower using PCBs. We hope that this new video does stay safe from further copyright strikes from an oddly vengeful manufacturer after said manufacturer event sent the defective unit to [Mark] for a repair challenge.
Since this purportedly ‘audiophile-level’ pre-amplifier uses no special circuits or filtering – just carefully matched opamps – this is one of those copyright strike cases that leave you scratching your head. | 103 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070216",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T21:18:27",
"content": "Not receiving a decent explanation for their takedown is pure G@@gle.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070239",
... | 1,760,371,706.415791 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/liquid-metal-ion-thrusters-arent-easy/ | Liquid Metal Ion Thrusters Aren’t Easy | Dan Maloney | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"Galinstan",
"gallium",
"high voltage",
"ion",
"ion engine",
"liquid metal",
"plasma",
"thruster"
] | What do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing
[Zachary Tong]’s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters
, we see that they seem to have a lot more in common than we’d initially thought.
As you’d expect with such a project, there were a lot of false starts and dead ends. [Zach] started with a porous-emitter array design, which uses a sintered glass plate with an array of tiny cones machined into it. The cones are coated in a liquid metal — [Zach] used Galinstan, an alloy of gallium, indium, and tin — and an high voltage is applied between the liquid metal and an extraction electrode. Ideally, the intense electric field causes the metal to ionize at the ultra-sharp tips of the cones and fling off toward the extraction electrode and into the vacuum beyond, generating thrust.
Getting that working was very difficult, enough so that [Zach] gave up and switched to a slot thruster design. This was easier to machine, but alas, no easier to make work. The main problem was taming the high-voltage end of things, which seemed to find more ways to produce unwanted arcs than the desired thrust. This prompted a switch to a capillary emitter design, which uses a fine glass capillary tube to contain the liquid metal. This showed far more promise and allowed [Zach] to infer a thrust by measuring the tiny current created by the ejected ions. At 11.8 μN, it’s not much, but it’s something, and that’s the thing with ion thrusters — over time, they’re very efficient.
To be sure, [Zach]’s efforts here didn’t result in a practical ion thruster, but that wasn’t the point. We suspect the idea here was to explore the real-world applications for his interests in topics like
electron beam lithography
and
microfabrication
, and in that, we think he did a bang-up job with this project. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070192",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T18:48:53",
"content": "Thrust is an interesting figure to have, but was the specific impulse measured? That’s the important metric for an ion engine",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,371,706.462089 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/tis-the-season/ | Tis The Season | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Holiday Hacks",
"LED Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"addressable leds",
"diy",
"holidays",
"newsletter",
"presents"
] | ’Tis the season for soldering! At least at my house. My son and I made some fairly LED-laden gifts for the immediate relatives last year, and he’s got the blinky bug. We were brainstorming what we could make this year, and his response was “I don’t care, but it needs to have lots of LEDs”.
It’s also the season for reverse engineering, apparently, because we’re using a string of WS2812-alike “
fairy lights
”. These are actually really neat, they look good and are relatively cheap. It’s a string of RGB LEDs with drivers, each dipped in epoxy, and run on a common three-enameled-wire bus. Unlike WS2812s, which pass the data on to the next unit in the line and then display them with a latching pulse at the end of a sequence, these LED drivers seem to count how many RGB packets have been sent down the wire, and only respond to their own number.
This means that if you cut up a string of 200 LEDs, it behaves like a string of 200 WS2812s. But if you cut say 10 LEDs off the string, where you cut them matters. If you cut it off the front of the string, you only have to send 10 color packets. If you cut them off the other end, you need to send 290 dummy packets before they even start listening. Bizarre, but ’tis the season for bizarre hacks.
And finally, ’tis the season for first steps into “software architecture”. Which is to say that my son is appreciating functions for the first time in his life. Controlling one LED is easy, but making a light show is about two more abstraction layers on top of that. We’ve been having fun making them dim, twinkle, and chase so far. We only have two more weekends, though, and we don’t have a final light show figured out yet, but after all, ’tis the season for last minute present hacking.
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
the web version of the newsletter
.
Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning?
You should sign up
! | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070148",
"author": "QBFreak",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T15:49:47",
"content": "I tried to get a set of WS2812 compatible fairy lights to decorate something for my mother. Previous years I used non-RGB multi-colored fairy lights and they just weren’t quite what we wanted. I was quite... | 1,760,371,706.707339 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/printing-in-multi-material-use-these-filament-combos/ | Printing In Multi-material? Use These Filament Combos | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"abs",
"asa",
"flex",
"Metamaterial",
"multi-material",
"PETG",
"PLA",
"support material"
] | If one has a multi-material printer there are more options than simply printing in different colors of the same filament.
[Thomas Sanladerer] explores combinations of different filaments
in a fantastic article that covers not just which materials make good removable support interfaces, but also which ones stick to each other well enough together to make a multi-material print feasible. He tested an array of PLA, PETG, ASA, ABS, and Flex filaments with each in both top (printed object) and bottom (support) roles.
A zero-clearance support where the object prints directly on the support structure can result in a very clean bottom surface. But only if the support can be removed easily.
People had already discovered that
PETG and PLA make pretty good support for each other
. [Thomas] expands on this to demonstrate that PLA doesn’t really stick very well to anything but itself, and PETG by contrast sticks really well to just about anything
other than
PLA.
One mild surprise was that flexible filament conforms very well to PLA, but doesn’t truly stick to it. Flex can be peeled away from PLA without too much trouble, leaving a very nice finish. That means using flex filament as a zero-clearance support interface — that is to say, the layer between the support structure and the PLA print — seems like it has potential.
Flex and PETG by contrast pretty much permanently weld themselves together, which means that making something like a box out of PETG with a little living hinge section out of flex would be doable without adhesives or fasteners. Ditto for giving a PETG object a grippy base. [Thomas] notes that flexible filaments all have different formulations, but broadly speaking they behave similarly enough in terms of what they stick to.
[Thomas] leaves us with some tips that are worth keeping in mind when it comes to supported models. One is that supports can leave tiny bits of material on the model, so try to use same or similar colors for both support and model so there’s no visual blemish. Another tip is that PLA softens slightly in hot water, so if PLA supports are clinging stubbornly to a model printed in a higher-temperature material like PETG or ABS/ASA, use some hot water to make the job a little easier. The PLA will soften first, giving you an edge. Give the video below a watch to see for yourself how the combinations act. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070100",
"author": "Christopher Dubea",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T13:08:55",
"content": "As there is a Bambu Labs P1S with AMS under the Christmas tree right now, this is handy information.Thanks",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,706.76125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/the-6809-8-bit-microcomputer-a-father-son-odyssey/ | The 6809 8-Bit Microcomputer: A Father-Son Odyssey | Heidi Ulrich | [
"classic hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6809",
"8 bit",
"KiCAD",
"micro-lind",
"microcomputer",
"motorola 6809",
"retrocomputing",
"µLind"
] | If you’re nostalgic for the golden age of microprocessors and dream of building your own computer, this story might spark your imagination. [Eric Lind], passionate retro enthusiast and his 14-year-old son, embarked on a mission to
craft a microcomputer from scratch
, centred around the exotic Motorola 6809 chip: the µLind.
What sets this project apart is its ambition: bridging retro computing with modern enhancements. Starting with just a 6809 and some basic peripherals, the men designed a multi-stage roadmap to realize their dream. Each stage brought new challenges: debugging an address decoder, reworking memory management, and evolving glue logic into programmable GAL chips. Fascinatingly, the project isn’t just about nostalgia—it’s a playground for exploring multitasking operating systems and pushing the boundaries of 8-bit computing.
Their creativity shines in solutions like a C64-compatible joystick port, add-on expansion cards, and a memory overkill of 1MB RAM. With every setback—a missing pull-up resistor or a misrouted IRQ signal—their determination grew stronger. By combining old-school know-how with modern tools like KiCad, they’ve created something that is both personal and profoundly inspiring.
[Eric]’s hope and goal is to establish a community of people that want to expand beyond the traditional Z80 and 6502 based SBC’s. Interested? Read
[Eric]’s project log on Hackaday.io
and start crafting! | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069895",
"author": "Wallace Ronald Delvaux",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T20:51:58",
"content": "8 bit/ 16bit!! look it up!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8069914",
"author": "Mitch",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T21:34:41",
... | 1,760,371,707.027545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/this-week-in-security-national-backdoors-web3-backdoors-and-nearest-neighbor-wifi/ | This Week In Security: National Backdoors, Web3 Backdoors, And Nearest Neighbor WiFi | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"Backdoors",
"Nearest Neighbors",
"Solana",
"This Week in Security"
] | Maybe those backdoors weren’t such a great idea. Several US Telecom networks
have been compromised by a foreign actor
, likely China’s Salt Typhoon, and it looks like one of the vectors of compromise is the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) systems that allow for automatic wiretapping at government request.
[Jeff Greene], a government official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has advised that end-user encryption is the way to maintain safe communications. This moment should forever be the touchstone we call upon when discussing ideas like mandated encryption backdoors and even the entire idea of automated wiretapping systems like CALEA. He went on to make a rather startling statement:
I think it would be impossible for us to predict a time frame on when we’ll have full eviction
There are obviously lots of unanswered questions, but with statements like this from CISA, this seems to be an extremely serious compromise. CALEA has been extended to Internet data, and earlier reports suggest that attackers have access to Internet traffic as a result. This leaves the US telecom infrastructure in a precarious position where any given telephone call, text message, or data packet may be intercepted by an overseas attacker. And the FCC isn’t exactly inspiring us with confidence as to its “decisive steps” to fix things.
We are taking decisive steps to address vulnerabilities in telecommunications networks following the Salt Typhoon cyberattack.
pic.twitter.com/FLGCe9pS1I
— The FCC (@FCC)
December 5, 2024
In a sense, nothing has really changed: We’re each ultimately responsible for our own security, and if anything is truly sensitive, it needs auditable encryption that doesn’t have any backdoors. The Salt Typhoon national breach has just serves as a painful reminder of the fact.
AI Fuzzing
There’s yet another researcher
thinking about LLM guided fuzzing
. This time, it’s looking for HTTP/S endpoints on a public site. The idea here is that you can crawl a domain and collect every link to build a URL map of the site — but that list is likely incomplete. There may be an administrative page, undocumented API endpoints, or even unintended .git files. Finding those endpoints is a useful step to finding vulnerabilities. Brainstorm is a new tool Open Source tool that uses AI to find non-obvious URLs.
There are a couple of interesting metrics to measure how well endpoint discovery is done. The most straightforward is how many endpoints are found for a given site. The other is the ratio of requests to discovered. And while this is just a sample size of one on a test site, brainstorm found 10 hidden endpoints with only 328 requests. Impressive!
Fuzzing Android
And while we’re talking about fuzzing, let’s cover a part of Android that is sometimes forgotten about. Lots of apps are written for Java, but Android has a Native Development Kit, the NDK, that’s very useful for using existing C/C++ code in Android apps. And as the NDK is powerful, complicated, and not as widely used,
it’s a prime target for finding issues
.
This first article by Conviso doesn’t actually cover any vulnerabilities, though it’s fairly strongly hinted that there were bugs found. Instead, this is a great start on how to set up a fuzzing solution with the afl++ fuzzer, looking for issues in the NDK and native code. We’re looking forward to
more posts in this series
.
Breaking out of the VRChat Matrix
VRChat is an interesting experience. It’s nominally a game intended for VR interactions in virtual worlds. There’s a large element of the game that’s just wandering around the virtual worlds, many of them being homages to other games or movies. That fact was not lost on the creators behind VRChat, who created the Udon scripting engine to expose lots of functionality, including access to some APIs of Unity, the underlying game engine. And that’s interesting because little quirks in Unity APIs may not be vulnerabilities in themselves, but exposing those APIs to potentially untrusted code
might become a problem
.
The problem here is the Unity functions for applying textures to objects. Texture sizes are 64-bit unsigned integers, but internally, those values get mapped onto a 32-bit integer for an intermediary step. The value overflows, writing to the texture writes past the end of a buffer, and suddenly, we have a read/write primitive. Then, a slight detour through the Steam overlay library gets us arbitrary shellcode execution, and we’ve escaped the VR Matrix.
Nearest WiFi Neighbor
Modern WiFi security is split roughly between PSK and Enterprise, where PSK is a Pre-Shared Key, and Enterprise is a scheme using individual usernames and individual authentication. One form that authentication can take is a simple username/password pair. An advanced threat actor believed to be APT28 out of Russia,
developed and deployed an impressive attack campaign
that took advantage of the username/password authentication of WiFi networks in a very unique and creative way.
This was the Nearest Neighbor attack, and to understand it, we first have to talk about credential stuffing. It’s reasonably easy to generate a list of users’ email addresses at a target business. That list can be combined with a list of potential passwords from breaches and all the most promising combinations used to attempt to log in to public services. This is the basis of credential stuffing, and it’s been used in multiple breaches over the last few years. One of the sure-fire safeguards against stiffing is multi-factor authentication. Even if a password is correct, it still doesn’t get you into the service because 2FA.
The kicker is that Enterprise WiFi doesn’t do 2FA. If a single user account is used for both accounts, then verifying the user account gets you a valid WiFi sign-on. Then, part two of Nearest Neighbor is how hackers in Russia actually used those credentials against an unnamed US organization.
This is where the name comes from. The approach was to first hack the nearest neighbor, move laterally until you find an Ethernet-connected machine that also has a WiFi card, and use the purloined credentials to hop the gap into the target’s network. Check the link for more details. The actual target has not been revealed, and it may be quite some time before we learn who exactly was breached by this new, creative technique.
$150,000+ Gone
Solana runs a blockchain platform, primarily doing web3 and smart contracts. To make those products work, Solana publishes solana-web3.js on npm. This week, that library was compromised, and a
pair of malicious versions were uploaded
. The exact timing was December 2, from 1520 and 2025 UTC.
The malicious package was a simple key stealer, obviously
aimed at compromising wallets
of any developers or other use cases where the code has access to those keys. The value of the stolen cryptocurrency currently sits between $150,000 and $200,000.
Bits and Bytes
Don’t trust the Webcam LED
. Many webcams have a light to indicate when they are capturing images. This is your periodic reminder: that LED is just connected to a GPIO, and isn’t necessarily trustworthy. The Lights Out attack re-flashes the webcam’s firmware, giving arbitrary control over that LED.
Scareware has long been a problem, and it’s been around on mobile for quite a while now, but this was a new trick to me:
a full screen image that mimics a broken screen
. Now this one is really leaning into the
scare
element, and the prompt drawn over the “broken” screen quickly gives the trick away.
VPN appliances are built to keep unauthorized users out, but what happens when a user tries to connect to a malicious VPN? For many clients, the results aren’t pretty. And now, to better explore those potential issues,
AmberWolf has released NachoVPN
. (Love the pun.) The tool is open source, and
available on Github
.
And finally, if you want to brush up on your OAuth2 understanding, there’s a new project that may be for you:
OAuth Labs
. This is a series of simulated challenges where you can exploit vulnerable OAuth implementations. The challenges are self-hosted as Docker runners. Let us know if you decide to take on the challenge! | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069815",
"author": "limroh",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T15:28:10",
"content": "Don’t trust the Webcam LED.Heh, I’ve got an ancient but still working “Logitech QuickCam 3000 Pro” and at some point I added a DPST switch (double pole single throw) inside the spherical case to disconnect... | 1,760,371,707.087324 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/hacked-ultrasonic-sensors-let-you-see-with-sound/ | Hacked Ultrasonic Sensors Let You See With Sound | Dan Maloney | [
"Parts",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"dish",
"downsampling",
"ESP32",
"HC-SR04",
"PCM1808",
"radar",
"sonar",
"ultrasonic"
] | If you want to play with radar — and who could blame you — you can pretty easily get your hands on something like the automotive radar sensors used for collision avoidance and lane detection. But the “R” in radar still stands for “Radio,” and RF projects are always fraught, especially at microwave frequencies. What’s the radar enthusiast to do?
While it’s not radar, subbing in ultrasonic sensors is how [Dzl] built this
sonar imaging system
using a lot of radar principles. Initial experiments centered around the ubiquitous dual-transducer ultrasonic modules used in all sorts of ranging and detection project, with some slight modifications to tap into the received audio signal rather than just using the digital output of the sensor. An ESP32 and a 24-bit ADC were used to capture the echo signal, and a series of filters were implemented in code to clean up the audio and quantify the returns. [Dzl] also added a downsampling routine to bring the transmitted pings and resultant echoes down in the human-audible range; they sound more like honks than pings, but it’s still pretty cool.
To make the simple range sensor more radar-like, [Dzl] needed to narrow the beamwidth of the sensor and make the whole thing steerable. That required a switch to an automotive backup sensor, which uses a single transducer, and a 3D printed parabolic dish reflector that looks very much like a satellite TV dish. With this assembly stuck on a stepper motor to swivel it back and forth, [Dzl] was able to get pretty good images showing clear reflections of objects in the lab.
If you want to start seeing with sound, [Dzl]’s write-up has all the details you’ll need. If real radar is still your thing, though,
we’ve got something for that too
.
Thanks to [Vanessa] for the tip. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069833",
"author": "Andy",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T16:39:14",
"content": "Love the satellite dish – it sure works well too. I wonder for the future if there’s an analog “angle” to go at this, using a much higher frequency sound signal and an analog heterodyne to bring the sample ... | 1,760,371,706.883358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/non-planar-fuzzy-skin-textures-improved-plus-a-paint-on-interface/ | Non-Planar Fuzzy Skin Textures Improved, Plus A Paint-On Interface | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"Bambu",
"fuzzy skin",
"non-planar",
"Orca",
"post-processing",
"prusa",
"slicer",
"texture"
] | If you’ve wanted to get in on the “fuzzy skin” action with 3D printing but held off because you didn’t want to fiddle with slicer post-processing, you need to check out the
paint-on fuzzy skin generator
detailed in the video below.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure, fuzzy skin is a texture that can be applied to the outer layers of a 3D print to add a little visual interest and make layer lines a little less obvious. Most slicers have it as an option, but limit the wiggling action of the print head needed to achieve it to the XY plane. Recently,
[TenTech] released post-processing scripts
for three popular slicers that enable non-planar fuzzy skin by wiggling the print head in the Z-axis, allowing you to texture upward-facing surfaces.
The first half of the video below goes through [TenTech]’s updates to that work that resulted in a single script that can be used with any of the slicers. That’s a pretty neat trick by itself, but not content to rest on his laurels, he decided to make applying a fuzzy skin texture to any aspect of a print easier through a WYSIWYG tool. All you have to do is open the slicer’s multi-material view and paint the areas of the print you want fuzzed. The demo print in the video is a hand grip with fuzzy skin applied to the surfaces that the fingers and palm will touch, along with a little bit on the top for good measure. The print looks fantastic with the texture, and we can see all sorts of possibilities for something like this.
Thanks for the tip, [John]. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069768",
"author": "Tomek",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T13:04:26",
"content": "Great job! Thank you",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8069794",
"author": "Benjamin Goldberg",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T14:05:56",
"content"... | 1,760,371,706.648096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/a-hundred-year-old-solid-state-amplifier/ | A Hundred Year Old Solid State Amplifier | Jenny List | [
"classic hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"carbon microphone",
"carbon microphone amplifier",
"crystal set"
] | Conventional wisdom has it that the solid state era in electronics began in 1948 with the invention of the transistor, or if you wish to split hairs, with the 1930s invention by the Russian [Oleg Losev] of an early form of tunnel diode. But there’s an earlier amplifier technology that used a solid state circuit which is largely forgotten, and [AWA Communication Technologies Museum]
has featured it in a new video.
We’re talking of course about the carbon microphone amplifier, a piece of telephone technology which made its way into consumer electronics.
The carbon microphone is a container of loosely packed carbon granules acted upon by a diaphragm. Vibrations from sound compress and decompress the granules, changing the electrical resistance of the carbon. It was the standard microphone used in telephone handsets for most of the twentieth century. Being a resistor it can be placed in a potential divider circuit that produces some significant voltage swings, so when the vibrations come from a high-impedance earpiece it can make an amplifier. It’s not a very good amplifier, it has lousy bandwidth, distortion, and noise characteristics, but it was just about good enough to be paired with a 1920s crystal set. In the video below the break we see a variety of the devices, and even hear them in action sounding very tinny indeed. At the time it must have seemed miraculous to be at the forefront of the new technology though, and we can’t help admiring some of the construction intricacies.
Carbon microphone amplifiers may be rare today, but for all that
we’ve touched on them before
. | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069698",
"author": "Nathan",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T06:20:11",
"content": "Is this really solid state? Like it relies on mechanical compression of particulate to work.Isn’t a vacuum tube just about as solid state?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,706.825117 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/unconventional-oil-production-all-you-need-to-know/ | Unconventional Oil Production, All You Need To Know | Jenny List | [
"Interest"
] | [
"Fracking",
"gas",
"hydraulic fracking",
"oil"
] | It’s fair to say that climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing our planet, and while much attention is directed towards solutions to the problems it presents, perhaps there’s less attention given to the the other side of the equation in the hydrocarbon industry. For example we all think we know something about hydraulic fracking wells, but how much do we really know?
[John Thurmond] is a geologist who has recently completed a long career in the oil industry, and he gave
an informative talk on the matter
at the summer’s EMF Camp in the UK. It makes for an interesting watch, as he leads the viewer through the process in detail, before discussing what should and shouldn’t cause worry.
We learn that fracking has two parts: first the hydraulic fracking itself, and then the re-injection of the toxic fracking well water released from underground along with the oil or gas. It seems the water released from the rocks a 10,000 ft depth contains all manner of toxic and even radioactive compounds, and the usual means of disposal is to inject it back into the ground at a much lower depth. He makes the point that while the hazards associated with the fracking are low, those of the re-injection are high.
The talk finishes up with perhaps the most interesting point, by looking at the nature of opposition to fracking, or indeed any other controversial development. Such things are inevitably surrounded by a swirling mess of half-truths, and his point is that identifying those easily deflected as not true is key to understanding the whole thing. It’s presented from an expert and factual perspective that’s so often lacking in this arena, and thus we think it’s worth a watch. | 48 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069675",
"author": "The Mighty Buzzard",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T03:51:16",
"content": "A wee bit over the top with that troll. You need to refine your technique and start considering your audience.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_i... | 1,760,371,707.893817 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/gray-matter-on-a-chip-building-an-artificial-brain-with-luminol/ | Gray Matter On A Chip: Building An Artificial Brain With Luminol | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"artificial brain",
"brain",
"gray matter",
"human brain",
"luminol",
"microfluidic",
"reaction",
"robotic hand"
] | Ever wondered if you could build a robot controlled by chemical reactions?
[Marb] explores this wild concept in his video
, merging chemistry and robotics in a way that feels straight out of sci-fi. From glowing luminol reactions to creating artificial logic gates, [Marb]—a self-proclaimed tinkerer—takes us step-by-step through crafting the building blocks for what might be the simplest form of a chemical brain.
In this video, the possibilities of an artificial chemical brain take centre stage. It starts with chemical reactions, including a fascinating luminol-based clock reaction that acts as a timer. Then, a bionic robot hand makes its debut, complete with a customised interface bridging the chemical and robotic worlds. The highlight? Watching that robotic hand respond to chemical reactions!
The project relies on a “lab-on-a-chip” approach, where microfluidics streamline the processes. Luminol isn’t just for forensic TV shows anymore—it’s the star of this experiment, with resources like
this detailed explanation
breaking down the chemistry. For further reading,
New Scientist has you covered
.
We’ve had interesting articles on
mapping the human brain
before, one on
how exactly brains might work
, or even
the design of a tiny robot brain
. Food for thought, or in other words: stirring the gray matter. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069710",
"author": "Markus Bindhammer",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T08:21:04",
"content": "The “New Scientist” link also leads to the luminol oscillator paper. The correct link is as follows:https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931950-100-why-creating-a-chemical-brain-will-be-how-... | 1,760,371,707.189288 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/flatmac-building-the-1980s-apple-ipad-concept/ | FlatMac: Building The 1980’s Apple IPad Concept | Maya Posch | [
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"apple",
"floppy drive",
"reproduction"
] | The Apple FlatMac was one of those 1980s concepts by designer [Hartmut Esslingers] that remained just a concept with no more than some physical prototypes created. That is, until [Kevin Noki] came across it in an Apple design book and contacted [Hartmut] to ask whether he would be okay with providing detailed measurements so that
he could create his own
.
Inside the 3D printed enclosure is a Raspberry Pi 4 running an appropriately emulated Macintosh, with a few modern features on the I/O side, including HDMI and USB. Ironically, the screen is from a 3rd generation iPad, which [Kevin] bought broken on EBay. There’s also an internal floppy drive that’s had its eject mechanism cleverly motorized, along with a modified USB battery bank that should keep the whole show running for about an hour. The enclosure itself is carefully glued, painted and sculpted to make it look as close to the original design as possible, which includes custom keycaps for the mechanical switches.
As far as DIY projects go, this one is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it’s fascinating to contrast this kind of project that’s possible for any determined hobbyist with the effort it would have taken forty years ago. The only question that’s left is whether or not the FlatMac would have actually been a practical system if it had made it to production. Although the keyboard seems decent, the ergonomics feel somewhat questionable compared to something more laptop-like.
Thanks to [Daniel Doran] for the tip. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070057",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T09:09:35",
"content": "“The only question that’s left is whether or not the FlatMac would have actually been a practical system if it had made it to production.”It’s fine unless you’re holding it wrong.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,707.142268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/3d-printed-extensions-make-hole-measurement-easier/ | 3D Printed Caliper Extensions Make Hole Measurement Easier | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"caliper",
"center-to-center",
"hole",
"layout",
"measurement"
] | If there’s anything more frustrating than mounting holes that don’t line up with the thing you’re mounting, we don’t know what it could be. You measure as carefully as possible, you drill the holes, and yet at least one hole ends up being
just
out of place. Sometimes you can fudge it, but other times you’ve got to start over again. It’s maddening.
Getting solid measurements of the distance between holes would help, which is where
these neat snap-on attachments for digital calipers
come in. [Chris Long] came up with the 3D printed tools to make this common shop task a little easier, and they look promising. The extensions have cone-shaped tips that align perfectly with the inside edge of the caliper jaws, which lines the jaws up with the center of each hole. You read the center-to-center distance directly off the caliper display, easy peasy.
Of course, there’s also
the old machinist’s trick
(last item) about zeroing out the calipers after reading the diameter of one of the holes and then measuring the outside-to-outside distance between the two holes. That works great when you’ve got plenty of clearance, but the shorter inside jaws might make measuring something like a populated PCB with this method tricky. For the price of a little filament and some print time, these might be just the tool to get you out of a bind. | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8070029",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T06:09:49",
"content": "Very nice, a simple and effective hack",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8070045",
"author": "Alyx",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T08:38:26",
... | 1,760,371,707.288382 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/antenna-measurement-in-theory-and-practice/ | Antenna Measurement In Theory And Practice | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"4nec2",
"antenna",
"NEC",
"vna"
] | If you want to analyze an antenna, you can
use simulation software or you can build an antenna
and make measurements. [All Electroncs Channel] does both and show you how you can do it, too, in the video below.
The antenna in question is a loop antenna. He uses a professional VNA (Vector Network Analyzer) but you could get away with a hobby-grade VNA, too. The software for simulation is
4NEC2
.
The VNA shows the electrical characteristics of the antenna, which is one of the things you can pull from the simulation software. You can also get a lot of other information. You’d need to use a field strength meter or something similar to get some of the other information in the real world.
The antenna simulation software is a powerful engine and 4NEC2 gives you an easy way to use it with a GUI. You can see all the graphs and plots easily, too. Unfortunately, it is Windows software, but we hear it will run
under Wine
.
The practical measurement is a little different from the simulation, often because the simulation is perfect and the real antenna has non-ideal elements. [Grégory] points out that changing simulation parameters is a great way to develop intuition about — in this case — antennas.
Want to dive into
antennas
? We can help with that. Or, you can start with a
simple explanation
. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069991",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-12-07T03:31:56",
"content": "“In Theory, Theory and Practice are the same.In Practice, they are not!”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8070028",
... | 1,760,371,707.333926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/retro-computer-goes-back-to-the-1950s/ | Retro Computer Goes Back To The 1950s | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"8 bit",
"architecture",
"ibm 700",
"power",
"retrocomputing",
"tubes",
"vacuum tubes"
] | When thinking of retrocomputing, many of us will imagine machines such as the Commodore 64 or Apple II. These computers were very popular and have plenty of parts and documentation available. Fewer will go back to the Intel 8008 or even 4004 era which were the first integrated circuit chips commercially available. But before even those transistor-based computers is a retrocomputing era rarely touched on: the era of programmable vacuum tube machines.
[Mike] has gone back to the 1950s with this computer which uses vacuum tubes instead of transistors
.
The computer has an eight-bit architecture and features most of the components of any modern transistor-based computer of similar computational ability. Memory, I/O, an arithmetic logic unit including a carry bit that allows it to do 16-bit arithmetic, are all implemented using 6N3P dual triode tubes that date to the 50s and 60s and would have been used in similar computers like the IBM 700. All of this drives a flight simulator program or a Fibonacci number generator, demonstrating its general purpose computing capabilities.
Of course, tubes were generally phased out in favor of transistors largely due to their power and space requirements; [Mike] needs a stepladder to maintain this computer as well as around ten minutes each time he starts it up to allow the tubes to warm up, with each module needing over three amps of current each. It’s a hugely impressive build and we’d recommend checking out the video linked below to get more details on its operation. If you’re looking for something a little more accessible to get into the world of vacuum tubes,
this single-board tube computer fits the bill
. | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069809",
"author": "Bo-Erik Sandholm",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T15:05:12",
"content": "I had a mentor in the beginnon of the seventies who had worked with a tube based swedish computer financed by Wennergren.For a short while it was the world’s fastest, but a few months later it wa... | 1,760,371,707.398161 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/vnas-and-crystals/ | VNAs And Crystals | Al Williams | [
"Parts",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"crystal",
"oscillator",
"vna"
] | Oscillators may use crystals as precise tuned circuits. If you have a vector network analyzer (VNA) — or even some basic test equipment — you can use it to learn the
parameters of a crystal
. [All Electronics Channel] has the details, and you can see how in the video below.
There was a time when a VNA was an exotic piece of gear, but these days they are relatively common. Crystal parameters are important because crystals have a series resonance and a parallel resonance and they are not at the same frequency. You also may need to know how much loading capacitance you have to supply to get the crystal at the right frequency.
Sometimes, you want to pull the crystal frequency, and the parameters will help you figure that out, too. It can also help if you have a crystal specified as series in a parallel-mode oscillator or vice versa.
If you don’t have a VNA, you can use a tracking signal generator, as [Grégory] shows towards the middle of the video. The quality of a tuned circuit depends on the
Q factor
, and crystals have a very high Q factor.
We did
something similar
in 2018. The other way to
pull a crystal frequency
is a bit extreme. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069939",
"author": "Mayday",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T22:46:20",
"content": "This was a pretty cool watch from a new hardware engineer viewpoint with an electronics lab that looks like a starter version of his. I wish he had gone more in depth about how to perform the S21 measureme... | 1,760,371,707.796729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/ampere-ws-1-the-other-apl-portable-computer/ | Ampere WS-1: The Other APL Portable Computer | Maya Posch | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"Ampere WS-1",
"APL"
] | When thinking of home computers and their portable kin it’s easy to assume that all of them provided BASIC as their interpreter, but for a while APL also played a role. The most quaint APL portable system here might be the
Ampere WS-1, called the BIG.APL
. Released in Japan in November of 1985, it was a very modern Motorola M68000-based portable with fascinating styling and many expansion options. Yet amidst an onslaught of BASIC-based microcomputers and IBM’s slow retreat out of the APL-based luggables market with its
IBM 5110
, an APL-only portable in 1985 was a daring choice.
Rather than offering both APL and BASIC as IBM’s offerings had, the
WS-1
offered only APL, with a custom operating system (called Big.DOS) which also provided a limited a form of multi-tasking involving a back- and foreground task. Running off rechargeable NiCd batteries it could power the system for eight hours, including the 25 x 80 character LCD screen and the built-in microcassette storage.
Although never released in the US, it was sold in Japan, Australia and the UK, as can be seen from the advertisements on the above linked
Computer Ads from the Past
article. Clearly the WS-1 never made that much of a splash, but its manufacturer seems to be still around today, which implies that it wasn’t a total bust. You also got to admit that the design is very unique, which is one of the reasons why this system has become a collector’s item today. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069875",
"author": "a_do_z",
"timestamp": "2024-12-06T19:18:54",
"content": "“APL (named after the book A Programming Language)[3] is a programming language developed in the 1960s by Kenneth E. Iverson. Its central datatype is the multidimensional array.”https://en.m.wikipedia.org/... | 1,760,371,707.657222 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/06/hackaday-podcast-episode-299-beaming-consciousness-understanding-holograms-and-dogfooding-ipv6/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 299: Beaming Consciousness, Understanding Holograms, And Dogfooding IPv6 | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | On this episode of the Hackaday Podcast, Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi talk about the optical witchcraft behind holograms, the finer points of designing 3D printable threads, and the challenges of switching your local network over to IPv6. They’ll also cover how a clever software patch improves the graphics in a flight simulator from the 1990s, and why spacecraft flying into orbit powered by the SABRE engine is going to remain a dream for now.
From there you’ll hear about a reproduction VW gas gauge that works better than the real thing, custom ball screws, and the latest and greatest in homebrew battery charging. Finally, they’ll cap the episode off by exploring the conundrum that’s heating up London’s Underground, and diving into the (mostly) fictional history of teleportation.
Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Direct Download Link
Episode 299 Show Notes:
News:
Hackaday Europe returns to Berlin on March 14th to the 16th! Details follow next week.
What’s that Sound?
Think you know that sound?
Fill out the form for a chance to win
!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Holograms: The Art Of Recording Wavefronts
Runway-to-Space No More, Reaction Engines Cease Trading
Air-Breathing Rocket Engine Promises Future Space Planes
Single-Stage-to-Orbit: The Launch Technology We Wish Was Real
3D Printing Threaded Replacements
Bottle Cap Thread Calculator
Bottle Neck Types
ISBT Threadspecs®
Unique 3D Printer Has A Print Head With A Twist
RotBot Adds An Extra Dimension To 3D Printing
3D Printing 90° Overhangs With Non-Planar Slicing
A Month Without IPV4 Is Like A Month Without…
Cranking Up The Detail In A Flight Simulator From 1992
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Gas Gauge Upgrade Keeps VW Restoration Classy
Exercise Wheel Tracker Confirms Suspicions About Cats
Rolling Your Own Ball Screws
Tom’s Picks:
Saving A Samsung TV From The Dreaded Boot Loop
OSHW Battery Tester Aims To Help Tame Lithium Cells
The Automatic Battery Charger You Never Knew You Needed
Can’t-Miss Articles:
The London Underground Is Too Hot, But It’s Not An Easy Fix
A Brief History Of Teleportation | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,707.594562 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/how-corroded-can-a-motherboard-be/ | How Corroded Can A Motherboard Be? | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"386",
"motherboard"
] | We will admit it. If we found a 386 motherboard as badly corroded as the one [Bits und Bolts] did, we would trash it—not
him, though
. In fact, we were surprised when he showed it and said he had already removed most of it in vinegar. You can check the board out in the video below.
There was still a lot of work to do on both the front and back of the board. The motherboard was a Biostar and while it isn’t as dense as a modern board, it still had plenty of surface mount parts jammed in.
One challenge was that fixing corroded vias could break connections with traces on inner layers of the multi-layer PCB. It was important to try to find out where things were going in case it was going to need some wiring repair after some of the other repairs.
Even after cleaning and resoldering, there were some bad components — notably some tantalum capacitors. With those replaced, the board came up as you’d expect. It is worth listening to the maniacal laughter of satisfaction at about the 53-minute mark when the board booted up. We get it.
The 386 is simple enough that you could do your
own motherboard
. Otherwise, you might expect to have to provide
some TLC
. | 9 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069638",
"author": "KDawg",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T22:57:25",
"content": "eh just dip the whole thing into a solder pot, it will be fine",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8069661",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024... | 1,760,371,707.705901 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-folding-keyboard-mod/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Folding Keyboard Mod | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"bluetooth keyboard",
"cyberdeck",
"dactyl manuform",
"DIY mouse",
"ergnomic cyberdeck",
"folding keyboard",
"PDA keyboard",
"split keyboard",
"touchscreen mouse"
] | Let’s face it, failed Kickstarters are no good. But they
can
spark good things, like real versions of technologies that might have actually been faked for the platform.
A touchscreen mouse, for instance, with shortcuts that can be programmed for various applications
.
Image by [Sam Baker] via
Hackaday.IO
This story is one of scope creep, as [Sam Baker] says in the project details. At first, he thought he could just basically duct tape a touchscreen with shortcuts to an existing mouse. A couple of mouse teardowns later, [Sam] arrived at the conclusion that things would not be so simple.
After some digging around, [Sam] found a repository where someone created a way to communicate with the ADNS-5050 optical sensor, so [Sam] started by creating a breakout board for this sensor. By combining that with an ESP32 dev board and a touchscreen, [Sam] had his shortcut mouse.
Does it work? Yes. Is it useful? Well, yes. And also no. The beauty part of using a regular mouse is that you don’t have to look down at it to know where the buttons are. In the future, [Sam] would like to implement some kind of buttons for tactility. In the meantime, haptic feedback could be nice.
Converting (Another!) Folding Keyboard Into Bluetooth
There is a ton of neat old technology out there, and not all of it has to end up as e-waste.
You might remember this post
about a cool old folding keyboard converted to Bluetooth for use with phones and tablets.
Image by [Xinming Chen] via
GitHub
[Xinming Chen] wrote in to alert me that not only are there
other
folding keyboards that were made for PDA devices back when, namely the G750;
he has converted these to Bluetooth as well
.
There were a bunch of different models sold under various names, but [Xinming] says as long as the keyboard looks the same, it should work with his adapter. The biggest difference is that the G750 itself uses inverted TTL for the RX line, while other models do not.
The really amazing part of this is the actual build itself, which fits in the smaller-than-a-Shuffle footprint of the original PDA connector. Naturally, [Xinming] had to roll his own PCB, which is based on the CH582F microcontroller. But another awesome bit is the micro-switch, which turns on the Bluetooth module when the keyboard is unfolded, and off when it is pushed back together. The whole deal is a really slick maneuver that you should check out in the demo video below.
Whether you build or
buy
one of these adapters, you don’t have to limit yourself to one device: the CH582F can support up to four hosts as well as the USB connection, so feel free to use it like a KVM switch. Awesome!
The Centerfold: Peep This Beautiful Beast!
Image via
Bili Bili
So I was trawling reddit and
came across someone asking for the 3D models for these hand rests
. I was of course myself more interested in the keyboard, which is a
6×6 dactyl manuform
(
translated
) with an extended num pad in between. That’s quite a few keys, innit? 38 keys per half plus the center beast at 30; I assume the black things are knobs. On a personal note, as much as I like the dactyl and even tried to build one, the dactyl manuform’s thumb cluster just looks uncomfortable to my small hands.
Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad?
Send me a picture
along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!
Historical Clackers: the Lasar
Just like any burgeoning, lucrative industry, many entered the typewriter game, but few actually won.
Among history’s many forgotten typewriters and the men who made them is the Lasar
, made between 1890-1892 by the Godfrey Henry Lasar of St. Louis, MO.
Image via
the Antikey Chop
Lasar held an impressive number of patents for various typewriter elements, including one for a “telegraph transmitter”. For the Lasar itself, he received a whopping 17 patents in a single day — November 19, 1889.
For all of Lasar’s innovation, his company did almost no marketing, which may have attributed to its downfall. Fortunately, several ads were published by the St. Louis Typewriter exchange. Unfortunately, most of them ran after the company went out of business.
The Lasar sold for $75, which comes out to over $2500 in 2024 money. This is about smack dab in the middle of the average cost for a typewriter at the time, however.
One of the reasons it may have failed is because it only typed uppercase, but every other guy’s machine did lowercase, too. One of Lasar’s Lasar patents is for a shift mechanism, but he didn’t implement it. It is thought that the Lasar was always meant to be a telegraph typewriter, and was even advertised as “the Best Machine for Telegraph Work”. The world may never know.
ICYMI: the Case For the Vecdec Cyberdeck
Image by [svenscore] via
GitHub
As awesome as cyberdecks are to behold, many of them just aren’t that useful. It’s a shame, really. But
[svenscore]’s Versatile Ergonomic Computing device
, or vecdec, is different.
Hackaday’s own [Tom Nardi] spotted this bad boy at JawnCon 0x1, where it was being used in place of a laptop. This build was born when [svenscore] caught the split keyboard bug and couldn’t reconcile going back to a rectangle on the go. Totally understandable!
Despite its sleek form factor, this Raspberry Pi 4-powered cyberdeck has a few surprises. One is the built-in LoRa radio for doing Meshtastic wherever. The other is a pair of gesture sensors that let you fly through documents with a wave of your hand like you’re in
Minority Report
(2002) or something. If you ask me, this interface should be standard on every cyberdeck going forward.
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards?
Help me out by sending in a link or two
. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to
email me directly
. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069632",
"author": "macsimski",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T22:21:19",
"content": "the biggest problem is that you cannot rest your fingers when idle. once the apple mouse even had adjustable click stiffness, but most of the mice i’ve used have way too weak a spring inside so my finge... | 1,760,371,707.75188 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/a-brief-history-of-teleportation/ | A Brief History Of Teleportation | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"science fiction",
"teleportation",
"transporters"
] | OK, I know. We don’t have practical teleportation. But that hasn’t stopped generations of science fiction authors and movie makers from building stories around it. If you ask most ordinary people, they’d tell you the idea originated with the Star Trek transporter, but that’s far from the truth. So when did people start thinking about teleporting?
Ground Rules
Maybe it isn’t fair, but I will draw the line at magic or unexplained teleportation. So “The Tempest”, for example, doesn’t use technology but magic. To get to Barsoom, John Carter wished or slept to teleport to Mars. So, while technology might seem like magic, we’re focusing on stories where some kind of machine can send something — usually people — to somewhere else.
Of course, there’s a fine line between pure magic and pure technology where they overlap. For example, in the opera “Der Ring des Nibelungen”, a magic helmet gives people powers, including that of teleportation. While you could argue that Tarnhelm — the name of the magic helmet — was a technological artifact, it is still explained by magic, not science.
Some systems need a transmitter and a receiver. Sometimes, you only need the transmitter. Sometimes, you can only teleport within a limited range, but other make-believe systems can transport an entire starship across the galaxy.
Early Teleporters
The Man without a Body
is a story from 1877 in which a scientist is able to transmit a cat via a telegraph wire. Encouraged, he attempts the same feat with himself, but the battery dies in the middle, leaving him with a disembodied head. The ending is decidedly devoid of science, but the story is possibly the earliest one with a machine sending matter across a distance.
Then there was “
To Venus in Five Seconds.
” A woman lures the hero into a room with a machine, and presumably, in five seconds, the room opens up to Venus. Sure, today, we know that Venus would kill you, but in 1897, it made for a grand adventure.
A Bit More Modern
Arthur C. Clarke’s “Travel by Wire” appeared in 1937. In fact, this was his first published story that he later didn’t think was very good. The machine was a “radio-transporter” that perhaps foreshadowed the Star Trek transporter. I’ve heard that Clarke and Roddenberry were friends, so maybe this was the inspiration for Star Trek.
The 1939 serial “Buck Rogers” showed a teleportation device (check out the
13 minute mark
in the video below). Who needs elevators?
Speaking of Buck Rogers, the 1953 parody “Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century” had evaporators, which were essentially teleportation booths.
Van Vogt’s “The World of Null-A ” featured teleportation in 1945, although the story takes place in the year 2580. Asimov’s “It’s Such a Beautiful Day” from 1945 used “Doors” to move people around in the year 2117. In the end, some people rediscover the joy of a walk outdoors.
The 1950 serial “
Atom Man vs. Superman
” used a teleportation machine. Of course, Superman didn’t have it. Lex Luthor used it to make people disappear and reassembled them in a different place (see around the 5 minute mark).
In the second half of the 20th century, teleporters were commonplace in speculative fiction. Alfred Bester wrote about them in the 1956 novel
“The Stars My Destination”
. Heinlein’s “Tunnel in the Sky” was out a year earlier and stranded some students led by Rod Walker via teleportation.
Of course, many stories depend on teleporters not working very well. “The Fly” (which later became several movies) involved a scientist attempting to perfect teleportation getting mixed up with a housefly. He originally tries to teleport a cat, which I presume was a nod to “The Man Without a Body.”
Then Came…
Of course, Star Trek made the transporter a household name. Gene Roddenberry and his crew didn’t develop the concept out of some future vision. They just couldn’t figure out a cheaper way to show Captain Kirk and friends arriving on a different planet every week.
One thing that was very impressive about the Enterprise transporter is that it didn’t need a receiver. You just “beamed” people to their destination. Of course, each version of Star Trek had their own unique look and sound — sometimes more than one, as you can see in the video below.
The Physics
Of course, we don’t know how to do any sort of teleportation, but you can think about some of the limitations. Most of these devices imply that they take you (or whatever you are beaming) apart and send your actual physical substance to reconstitute at the other side. There are a few imagined systems (like the one on Dark Matter from 2015) that make a copy of you and destroy it, but that’s another problem (see The Philosophy below).
Scanning an entire body at an atomic resolution would be pretty hard. Tearing all those atoms apart, maybe even to subatomic particles, would take a lot of energy. Putting them back correctly would take even more. I’ve read estimates that the amount of data involved in such a scan would be about 10
31
bytes of data, although that is, of course, an estimate.
Then there are the practical issues. You can’t just get the passenger unless you want them to appear at the destination naked, so you better scan a little further out. What happens to the vacuum left when they disappear? Do you get a thunderclap of air rushing in? Do you exchange it with the air at the destination?
Speaking of the destination, you have to conserve energy over this process. So, if you beam from a location moving faster compared to the target, where does the energy go? When you come back, where does the extra energy come from?
That’s not to say there’s no way to do these things, just it is harder than it looks at first glance. But plenty of things we do routinely today would seem impossible in 1900. Put a phone in everyone’s pocket? Bah! That would never happen. Except it did.
The Philosophy
The real problem isn’t one of technology but one of philosophy. The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment proposed by the ancient Greek Plutarch. The idea is simple: Suppose there is a ship that was involved in a famous battle, and tourists visit it. Over the years, some of the wood on the ship rots, so carpenters replace the damaged parts. Over enough years, all the original wood is gone. None of the parts belong to the ship that fought in the battle. Is it the same ship?
The transporter suffers from the same problem (a point I made in “
Last Men Standing
” where a small group of humans resisted transporter technology). If you rip a person apart, did you kill them? If you put them back together, is it the same person? Or is it a new person who thinks they are the old person?
I’m not sure how you ever answer that question definitely. If someone proposed that when you sleep, you die, and a new person wakes up every morning with all your memories, you’d have a hard time refuting it. But you feel like you don’t die every night. But, then again, that’s exactly how you would feel if it were true.
One key would be if the transporter could create copies of people. Star Trek itself dabbled in this, with the transporter creating good and bad Kirk, for example. Forgetting where the extra mass went, though, it was clear that they were not copies but splits of a single original.
This follows with Thomas Hobbes’ extension of the Ship of Theseus paradox. Suppose as carpenters replaced all the parts of the original ship, they saved the pieces and used them to build a new ship. Is it now the original? It seems like if a transporter can make a full copy of you (even if it isn’t allowed to), then what is coming out at the receiver is not an original but a copy. That has major implications for what it means to be conscious and other uncomfortable topics.
Meanwhile…
I’m going to elect to not think about these things. Instead, I’m going to go enjoy more science fiction with teleportation technology in it.
While teleportation seems impossible,
Dr. Hamming
would encourage you to work on it, I think. Then again, maybe you could just
teleport virtually
. | 88 | 34 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069452",
"author": "Pat",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T15:18:31",
"content": "“The transporter suffers from the same problem”It’s not the same problem, though. Humansalready havethe Ship of Theseus problem – it’s not like the atoms in your body are the same as when you were born or any... | 1,760,371,708.081235 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/cranking-up-the-detail-in-a-flight-simulator-from-1992/ | Cranking Up The Detail In A Flight Simulator From 1992 | Tom Nardi | [
"Games",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"debugger",
"dosbox",
"flight simulator",
"hex editor",
"patch"
] | Nostalgia is a funny thing. If you experienced the early days of video games in the 1980s and 90s, there’s a good chance you remember those games looking a whole lot better than they actually did. But in reality, the difference between 2023’s
Tears of the Kingdom
and the original
Legend of Zelda
is so vast that it can be hard to reconcile the fact that they’re both in the same medium. Of course, that doesn’t mean change the way playing those old games actually makes you feel. If only there was some way to wave a magic wand and improve the graphics of those old titles…
Well, if you consider Ghidra and a hex editor to be magic wands in our community, making that wish come true might be more realistic than you think.
As [Alberto Marnetto] explains in a recent blog post
, decompiling
Stunt Island
and poking around at the code allows one to improve the graphical detail level in the flight simulator by approximately 800%. In fact, it’s possible to go even higher, though at some point the game simply becomes unplayable.
The same hack also allows ground details to be turned off.
Even if this is the first time you’ve ever heard of this particular 1992 flying game from Disney, the write-up is a fascinating read and contains some practical tips for reverse engineering and debugging older software from within the confines of DOSBox. By strategically setting break points, [Alberto] was able to follow the logic that reads the desired graphical detail level from the configuration file, all the way up to the point where it influences the actual rendering engine.
It turns out the detail level variable was capped off, but by studying the way the engine used that variable to modify other parameters, he was able to tweak the math from the other side of the equation and go beyond the game’s intended 100% detail level.
Looking at the side by side comparison with modern eyes…even the tweaked version of the game leaves a lot to be desired. But there’s only so far you can push the engine, especially given the limited resolution it’s able to run at. But there’s no question that the patch [Alberto] has developed greatly improves the density of objects (buildings, trees, etc) on the ground. The video below shows off the patched game running at full-tilt to give you an idea of what it looks like in motion.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an enthusiastic fan patching new capabilities into their favorite retro game.
From the upgrades made to
Mortal Kombat Arcade Edition
to the incredible work
[Sebastian Mihai] put into creating a custom expansion to
Knights of the Round
, you’d be wise not to underestimate what a dedicated gamer can pull off with a hex editor.
Thanks to [adistuder] on the
Hackaday Discord server
for the tip. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069406",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T12:53:39",
"content": "I remember playing Flight Simulator on a PC XT. Also on a DG/One. The original, not sure if it was Sublogic or Microsoft, but I do remember the Sublogic name on it. DG used it as a compatibility tes... | 1,760,371,708.220223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/05/exercise-wheel-tracker-confirms-suspicions-about-cats/ | Exercise Wheel Tracker Confirms Suspicions About Cats | Dan Maloney | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"cat",
"ESP32",
"exercise",
"feline",
"M5Stack",
"OpenSearch",
"zoomies"
] | What do cats get up to in the 30 minutes or so a day that they’re awake? Being jerks, at least in our experience. But like many hackers, [Brent] wanted to quantify the activity of his cat, and
this instrumented cat exercise wheel
was the result.
To pull this off, [Brent] used what he had on hand, which was an M5Stack ESP32 module, a magnetic reed switch, and of course, the cat exercise wheel [Luna] seemed to be in the habit of using at about 4:00 AM daily. The wheel was adorned with a couple of neodymium magnets to trip the reed switch twice per revolution, with the pulse stream measured on one of the GPIOs. The code does a little debouncing of the switch and calculates the cat’s time and distance stats, uploading the data to
OpenSearch
for analysis and visualization. [Brent] kindly includes the code and the OpenSearch setup in case you want to duplicate this project.
As for results, they’re pretty consistent with what we’ve seen with
similar cat-tracking efforts
. A histogram of [Luna]’s activity shows that she does indeed hop on the wheel at oh-dark-thirty every day, no doubt in an effort to assassinate [Brent] via sleep deprivation. There’s also another burst of “zoomies” around 6:00 PM. But the rest of the day? Pretty much sleeping. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069381",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T10:30:00",
"content": "Cats are the true urban person pet. Look they even use treadmills to get their exercise.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8069426",
"autho... | 1,760,371,708.278167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/gas-gauge-upgrade-keeps-vw-restoration-classy/ | Gas Gauge Upgrade Keeps VW Restoration Classy | Dan Maloney | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"fuel gas",
"gauge",
"petrol",
"sender",
"servo",
"volkswagen",
"vw"
] | Getting every detail perfectly right is often the goal in automotive restorations, and some people will go to amazing lengths to make sure the car looks and acts just like it did when it rolled off the dealer’s lot all those decades ago. That ethos can be pushed a little too far, though, especially with practical matters like knowing how much gas is left in the tank. Get that wrong and you’ll be walking.
Unwilling to risk that cruel fate with his restoration of 1978 Volkswagen Bus, [Pegork] came up with
a replacement fuel gauge
that looks identical to the original meter, but actually works. The gas gauges on ’60s and ’70s VWs were notoriously finicky, and when they bothered to work at all they were often wildly inaccurate. The problem was usually not with the sender unit in the tank, but the gauge in the dash, which used a bimetallic strip heated by a small coil of wire to deflect a needle. [Pegor]’s “SmoothBus” modification replaces the mechanical movement with a micro servo to move the needle. The variable voltage coming back from the fuel sender is scaled through a voltage divider and read by an analog input on an ATtiny85, which does a little algorithmic smoothing to make sure the needle doesn’t jump around too much. A really nice addition is an LED low fuel indicator, a feature that would have saved us many walks to the gas station back in our VW days. Except for the extra light, the restored gauge looks completely stock, and it works far better than the original.
Hats off to [Pregor] for this fantastic restomod.
As we’ve noted before
, classic VWs are perhaps the most hackable of cars, and we applaud any effort to keep these quirky cars going. | 49 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069349",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T07:38:15",
"content": "The problem was usually not with the sender unit in the tank, but the gauge in the dash, which used a bimetallic strip heated by a small coil of wire to deflect a needle.” These things don’t normally break, ... | 1,760,371,708.365843 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/longchat-for-ham-radio/ | LongChat For Ham Radio | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"ham radio",
"longchat"
] | There was a time when ham radio operators were known for having long conversations over the radio — rag chewing, as they called it. A new program,
LongChat
, is a new entry into the ham radio software world that could bring chatting back to ham radio. [Tech Minds] has a video covering it (and using it), which you can see below.
While some people do talk using microphones or Morse code keys, there are a lot of digital modes now. Some, like RTTY or PSK31, can support conversations, but the more popular ones, like FT-8, are very stripped down. Your computer exchanges basic information with the other station’s computer, and that’s it.
The LongChat program is very new, and we were sad to see it is only for Windows so far. It also isn’t open source, so we aren’t sure if other platforms will get any love.
Like other modern modes, it uses forward error correction and can operate in as little as 300 Hz of bandwidth. Subtracting overhead, you can expect to send 40 bits per second which is about five characters per second. This isn’t for file transfer, but for leisurely chats.
The software is from [Oguz] (TA2STO), a ham from Türkiye. His video about the software is the second video below. The original intent was to allow sensors to send data long distances on very low power.
Of course, new modes like this are only useful if people start using them and can find each other. For now, you’d probably have to do like [Tech Minds] and try it out with a friend.
If you’d rather get started with
FT8
first, we can help you out. For better or worse,
ham radio and computers
are inextricably married. | 40 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069311",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T03:35:23",
"content": "When it comes to using a slow digital mode for more than a simple “hello”/”contact,” I would prefer something based on Morse code so a trained listener copy it without a computer. One possible way of doing... | 1,760,371,708.445227 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/rolling-your-own-ball-screws/ | Rolling Your Own Ball Screws | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"ball screw",
"cnc",
"lead screw",
"machining",
"mechatronics",
"recirculating"
] | We’ve got mixed feelings about
a new video from [AndysMachines] that details how he makes custom ball screws
. On the one hand, there’s almost zero chance that we’ll ever have an opportunity to put this information to practical use. But on the other hand, the video gives a fantastic look at the inner workings and design considerations for ball screws, which is worth the price of admission alone
The story behind these ball screws is that [Andy] is apparently in cahoots with SkyNet and is building a T-800 Terminator of his own. Whatever, we don’t judge, but the build requires a short-throw linear drive mechanism that can be back-driven, specs that argue for a ball screw. [Andy] goes through the challenges of building such a thing, which mainly involve creating threads with a deep profile and wide pitch. The screw itself wasn’t too hard to cut, although there were some interesting practical details in the thread profile that we’d never heard of before.
The mating nut was another. Rather than try to cut deep internal threads, [Andy] took a sort of “open-face sandwich” approach, creating half-nuts in a single piece of brass using a CNC machine and a ball-nose mill. The threads were completed by cutting the two halves apart and bolting them together — very clever! [Andy] also showed how the balls recirculate in the nut through channels cut into one of the half-nuts.
Whether the results were worth the effort is up to [Andy], but we were just glad to be along for the ride. And if you want a little more detail on lead screws and ball screws, we’ve got
just the article for that
. | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069275",
"author": "H Hack",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T00:19:38",
"content": "I’m definitely going to follow this. Ball screws are crazy expensive. A bit cheaper if ordered straight from China, but have heard too many horror stories about people receiving them bent.",
"parent_id... | 1,760,371,708.640174 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/runway-to-space-no-more-reaction-engines-cease-trading/ | Runway-to-Space No More, Reaction Engines Cease Trading | Jenny List | [
"News"
] | [
"Reaction Engines",
"sabre",
"spaceplane"
] | It’s not often that the passing of a medium sized company on an industrial estate on a damp and soggy former airfield in southern England is worthy of a Hackaday mention, but
the news of hypersonic propulsion company Reaction Engines ceasing trading a few weeks ago
is one of those moments that causes a second look. Their advanced engine technology may have taken decades to reach the point of sustainable testing, but it held the promise of one day delivering true spaceplanes able to take off from a runway and fly to the edge of the atmosphere before continuing to orbit. It seems their demise is due to a failure to secure more funding.
We’ve written about their work
more than once in the past, of their hybrid engines and the development of the advanced cooling system required to deliver air to a jet engine working at extreme speeds. The rights to this tech will no doubt survive the company, and given that its origins lie in a previously canceled British Aerospace project it’s not impossible that it might return. The dream of a short flight from London to Sydney may be on hold for now then.
Writing this from the UK there’s a slight air of sadness about this news, but given that
it’s not the first time a British space effort has failed
, we should be used to it by now.
Header: Science Museum London / Science and Society Picture Library,
CC BY-SA 2.0 | 49 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069240",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T21:35:41",
"content": "In the current climate it seems bonkers to me they couldn’t manage to get military funding from some allied nation or defence company, as those engines are far enough along in development by all reports... | 1,760,371,708.577168 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/floss-weekly-episode-812-firefox-and-the-future/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 812: Firefox And The Future | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"firefox",
"FLOSS Weekly"
] | This week,
Jonathan Bennett
and
David Ruggles
chat with
Sylvestre
and
Brian
about Firefox! What’s up in the browser world, what’s coming, and what’s the new feature for Firefox on mobile that has Jonathan so excited? Watch to find out!
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/
https://briangrinstead.com/blog/firefox-webcomponents/
https://browserbench.org/announcements/speedometer3/
Subscribe to catch the show live, and come to Hackaday for the rest of the story!
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 | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069217",
"author": "Lord Kimbote",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T20:40:33",
"content": "Gosh I miss Netscape.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8069234",
"author": "Oliver",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T21:18:38",
... | 1,760,371,708.493416 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/hack-on-self-headphone-friend/ | Hack On Self: Headphone Friend | Arya Voronova | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"audio",
"dac",
"hack",
"Pi",
"productivity"
] | In the last two articles, I talked about two systems relying on audio notifications. The first one is the
Alt-Tab annihilator
system – a system making use of my window monitoring code to angrily beep at me when I’m getting distracted. The other is
the crash prevention system
– a small script that helps me avoid an annoying failure mode where I run out of energy before getting myself comfortable for it.
I’ve been appreciating these two systems quite a bit – not only are they at my fingertips, they’re also pretty effective. To this day, I currently use these two systems to help me stay focused as I hack on my own projects or write articles, and they are definitely a mainstay in my self-hacking arsenal.
There is a particular thing I’ve noticed – audio notifications help a fair bit in a way that phone or desktop notifications never would, and, now I have a framework to produce them – in a way that calls for a purpose-tailored device. It’s just wireless headphones, Pi-powered, connected through WiFi, and a library to produce sounds on my computer, but it turns out I can squeeze out a lot out of this simple combination.
Here’s a pocketable device I’ve developed, using off-the-shelf hardware – an audio receiver/transmitter with extra IO, paired to my laptop. And, here’s how I make use of this device’s capabilities to the fullest.
Audio Output
In the “
producing sound out of a Pi
” article, I’ve mentioned USB-C 3.5mm soundcards. You can use them with a USB-C host port, and you don’t even need any sort of resistors for that – the soundcard doesn’t try and detect state of the CC pin, and why would it, anyway? Get VBUS, GND, D+, and D-, and you got yourself an audio card with high quality output.
I’ve also talked about
the Roc toolkit
– it’s a system for transferring audio over a network connection, whether LAN or WAN. It requires Linux/Mac/Android, so it fits wonderfully in my Windows-less ecosystem. I’ve been using it for years, on this kind of devices, and my friends use it with Android phones. Whenever I meet up IRL with some of my friends, at times, we might use a Roc sender on someone’s laptop to stream music or some YouTube video into everyone’s headphones at the same time.
This $10 Apple USB soundcard has been instrumental in many of my Pi audio projects – it’s just that good
A Roc receiver works wonderfully on a Pi Zero. It only made sense to marry Roc, a USB-C soundcard, and a Pi – they work wonders together. Here’s a script you can run on the Pi, coupled with an audio service, and the repo contains all the laptop-side commands you could need. You don’t need to install Pulseaudio for it or anything of the sort – it uses an Alsa card number, so as long as that remains static (very likely on a pocket system), you got it.
On the laptop side, I use
pavucontrol
to switch audio outputs – if your OS uses Pipewire, you can still use
pavucontrol
, and, you can also use
qpwgraph
if you ever want to route audio in a very specific way. It’s like Bluetooth headphones, except they work over WiFi, which avoids Bluetooth software nuances, antenna sharing issues, annoying pairing and battery level noises, audio quality limitations, and relatively short range, not to mention all the features I can add myself. And, the battery also works throughout the entire day – no need to take the headphones off to top them up every now and then, charging the device overnight is sufficient.
Bring The Sound Everywhere
What does this device let me do? First off, I can listen to music or videos even if I get up from my computer and go to a different room. This alone frees up a hefty amount of executive function – it’s way easier to get up from the desk and go cook some food while I am watching a video or a livestream, it just keeps playing in my ears all throughout, so I don’t have to feel like I’m missing out on something!
With Tailscale, or any other personal VPN accessible from the outside, I could also take this pocket device outside on a walk or cycling trip, connected to my phone in mobile hotspot mode, and listen through a queue of videos I was long planning to watch. Roc also let me pass the headset microphone back to my computer – which, I often use to have Discord calls with friends while going around the house and doing cleaning or other chores.
Sandwich together with a few printed spacers – external shell to be designed soon
All the power parts needed – a TP4056 charger, a 5V step-up, and a simple power path
A much-needed mod for any Pi – making the holes M3 so it’s easier to get screws
Another worthwhile addition is audio notifications, and the alt-tab annihilator audio library helps a fair bit. I already get audio notifications from some browser tabs, so I can get little beeps when someone from a select group of friends of mine messages me, and you could easily make a utility like
beep
to let yourself know when long-running shell scripts finish. Not to mention that you could definitely port a
“beep every X minutes”
script to it!
Now, you might notice – this device is output-only, and most of the tasks above could use some input capabilities. For instance, remote audio streaming could use volume control and media seek/switching – all the more so when I’m listening to my laptop’s audio while being ten kilometers away. I’m not a fan of voice commands, though you could definitely use those – for me, the headset’s single button was more than enough.
One Button For All Seasons
The USB-C soundcard has a USB HID endpoint, and it produces keypress events (for the PLAYPAUSE keycode) when I press the button – what’s more, it even keeps track of when the button is pressed and when it’s released! I’ve been working with HID devices a fair bit now – perhaps, I could extract multiple features out of that single button.
With just one button, you can make wireless multi-functional controls for anything you want
The main problem was, while the headset is connected to a Pi Zero in my pocket, the HID device is completely unused – it’s a CLI distribution of Raspbian, after all, no software would care for those keypresses. This wasn’t hard to fix – there’s two crucial elements to a HID device, first one is the descriptor, and another one is the report. Forward these aspects over the network using
rawhid
and
uhid
respectively , and you can have your device work natively over the network. I wrote a client-server application, ran the server on the pocket Pi, client on my laptop, and now I could use the headset button seamlessly as if the USB-C soundcard were connected to my laptop directly.
Now, I could pause or resume music of videos wherever I needed. I also hardcoded a feature into the server – restart the Roc streaming service once the HID device is connected, and restart it again once the device is unplugged. The Roc commandline receiver doesn’t exit on its own when an audio device disappears, instead, consuming 100% of the CPU, and it doesn’t restart by itself when the audio device disappears, either. Both of these problems were easy to solve as an aside of the HID forwarding server.
The single purpose of this button was a problem, though – not even volume controls would work. What can you do with a single button? A lot – if you can distinguish button press from a button release, and this soundcard sure can. If you’ve ever controlled your phone using headset button double presses or long presses, rejoice – reimplementing that is trivial; not that a three-button headset isn’t a more comfortable option still. I wrote a script distinguishing press length, and assigned different callbacks to different sequences.
From here, I can do a double click of the button, or a long press, or a long press followed by a double click, or long-short-long press – map different actions to different combinations and off we go. So far, I use it for volume control, seeking and pausing/resuming media, and poking some of my other self-hacking scripts remotely – but you can add features seamlessly, like running scripts of your choosing, reading out your desktop notifications through text-to-speech, setting timers, making notes of specific events in your life, or even combining it with the on-headset mic to record audio notes as you go.
Headphone Friend
All you need – a Pi Zero W, a power management board, and a USB-C host socket (no CC resistors, even!)
At this point, I have a pocket audio receiver device tied into my laptop over the local network, and, just as easily, Internet. While using it, it’s as inobtrusive as a pair of headphones paired to a wireless receiver, except that every single feature is used to the max. From a constant stream of audio, be it videos and music to notifications, to controlling my laptop remotely, this device is an augment like no other, codename’d “headphone friend” among my friends.
There’s another fun futuristic aspect to this build. With minimal modifications, it’s the kind of device I can take out of my pocket, connect to a USB-serial or USB-Ethernet adapter, wire it into a network switch in a rack, and then sit ten meters away from it on a comfy couch, reconfiguring the switch through its serial port. Or, I can hook this device onto a robot riding around, and collect telemetry through its debug port. Pair your Pi with a battery and a USB-C soundcard, and, you too can benefit from such a device – or accidentally build an even cooler platform while at it, after all, that’s how it worked out for me. | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069363",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2024-12-05T08:23:50",
"content": "Somehow the usb-to-audio-jack adapter looks a little odd in so many ways…Can somebody explain to me (again) why this is progress and for whom exactly?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,371,708.685762 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/did-you-know-yosys-knows-vhdl-too/ | Did You Know YoSys Knows VHDL Too? | Elliot Williams | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"fpga",
"verilog",
"vhdl",
"yosys"
] | We’ve been fans of the Yosys / Nextpnr open-source FPGA toolchain for a long while now, and like [Michael] we had no idea that their
oss-cad-suite
installer
sets up everything so that you can write in Verilog or VHDL
, your choice. Very cool!
Verilog and VHDL are kind of like the C and ADA of the FPGA world. Verilog will seem familiar to you if you’re used to writing code for computers. For instance, it will turn integer variables into wires that carry the binary values for you. VHDL code looks odd from a software programmer’s perspective because it’s closer to the hardware and strongly typed: an 8-bit integer isn’t the same as eight wires in VHDL. VHDL is a bigger jump if you have software in your brain, but it’s also a lot closer to describing how the hardware actually works.
We learned Verilog, because it’s what Yosys supported. But thanks to
GHDL
, a VHDL analyzer and synthesizer, and the
yosys-ghdl-plugin
, you can write your logic in VHDL too. Does this put an end to the FPGA-language holy wars? Thanks, Yosys.
[Michael] points out that this isn’t really news, because the
oss-cad-suite
install has been doing this for a while now, but like him, it was news to us, and we thought we’d share it with you all.
Want to get started with FPGAs and the open-source toolchain? Our own [Al Williams] wrote up a nice
FPGA Boot Camp
series that’ll take you from bits to blinking in no time. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069161",
"author": "fiddlingjunky",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T17:54:50",
"content": "Digikey’s introduction to FPGA is what I used to get started, though I’m sure Al’s boot camp is great, and the video nature of Digikey’s stuff did make referencing it difficult at times (and IIRC he... | 1,760,371,708.731254 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/the-london-underground-is-too-hot-but-its-not-an-easy-fix/ | The London Underground Is Too Hot, But It’s Not An Easy Fix | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"air conditioning",
"heat",
"heating",
"London Underground",
"the tube",
"train",
"trains",
"transit",
"travel"
] | The London Underground is an iconic piece of Victorian era engineering. What started in 1863 quickly became a core piece of infrastructure that would define the modern character of the British capital. It’s grown and changed immensely in the many years that have passed. Sadly, increasing patronage and more trains have created problems that the original designers never envisaged.
Deep in those London tunnels lies an engineering challenge. The Tube is literally cooking itself. Every day, millions of commuters descend into a network of tunnels that have been absorbing heat since the reign of Queen Victoria. Those clay-lined tubes have been soaking up excess thermal energy like a giant underground radiator, and now they’re giving it back with interest. The tunnels are simply too hot, and cooling them down is inordinately difficult.
The Perfect Storm of Thermal Chaos
The Tube’s heat problem isn’t just about one thing gone wrong – it’s about everything gone wrong at once. When Victorian engineers designed these tunnels, cooling wasn’t a major consideration. The tight, compact tunnels were built deep, nestled in the clay beneath London. In the early days, temperatures in the Underground were considered comfortably low.
“The Underground’s the only spot for comfort when the days are hot; it is cooler below.” – London Underground poster, 1926
Originally, the clay surrounding the tunnels sat at around 14°C, acting as a heat sink for the network. However, over the years, with more trains coming and going and more heat pouring in, the temperature has risen. It now typically sits anywhere from 19° to 26 °C. That’s just the earth around the tunnels, though. Air temperatures are worse—hitting as high as 47°C
during a 2006 heatwave
. The problem has been
a continual bugbear
of the beloved Tube, with concerns that future heatwaves could see temperatures rise ever higher.
Victoria and Central have been the hottest lines in recent years, according to TfL data.
The problem varies depending on which part of the Tube you’re on; some lines are worse than others. The Central Line is worthy of the nickname
“The Central Heat Line”
, with temperatures historically reaching 35°C. That’s not just uncomfortable – it’s approaching the limit of what the human body
can handle efficiently
. Much of this is due to the tunnel’s design. Opened in 1900, it featured two compact tunnels buried over 20 meters underground with minimal space for ventilation. It’s one of the so-called “deep-level” lines on the Underground network. Meanwhile, the Victoria line hit 31°C at its peak in 2023, and actually overtook the Central line as the hottest line, recording an average temperature of 28°C last year. Contrast that with the newer Jubilee line, which recorded an average temperature of just 22°C—far more comfortable.
To understand the problem, we need to know where the heat is coming from. A breakdown of heat sources was provided by
Rail Engineering
in 2007. Trains using their brakes, converting kinetic energy to heat, contributed 38% of the total heat input to the underground. The rest was put down to mechanical sources (22%) and the drivetrain (16%)—because those big electric motors get hot in operation.
As we wrap up for cooler temperatures outside, remember to remove coats whilst travelling to prevent overheating. 🧥
— TfL (@TfL)
November 6, 2018
TfL at times has to remind customers that the Underground is warm even when it’s cold outside.
The rest of the heat came from a variety of sources, with train auxiliary equipment and tunnel support systems making up 13% and 4% respectively. The human factor can’t be ignored—each passenger is basically a 100-watt heater on legs. Multiply that by the millions of commuters that pass through each day, and you can see the scale of the problem. Indeed, passengers contributed the final 7% of heat generation in the Tube system. Of all the heat generated in the Tube, 79% passed into the tunnel walls, with 11% going into the tunnel itself. The remainder—just 10%—was removed via ventilation.
While the Tube had been slowly getting hotter for some time, the problem really started coming to a head in the mid-2000s, particularly when the European heatwave hit in 2006. Solutions were demanded, but the Underground wasn’t going to make it easy. The oldest parts of the network presented the greatest challenges, with precious little space to fit additional equipment for cooling. Many lines were simply too tight to allow for air conditioners to be retrofitted to existing trains, for example. Even if they were fitted, there would be a further problem of how to remove the additional waste heat generated from the tunnels, which were already too tight to ventilate effectively.
Victoria Station has had plenty of attention in recent decades, with TfL installing new cooling systems. Credit:
Oxyman, GNU Free Documentation License
The quagmire had even prompted then-Mayor Ken Livingstone to put forth a £100,000 bounty for anyone that could solve the problem. However, it went unawarded.
Despite over 3,500 proposals
, the Underground authorities found only unworkable or unaffordable solutions, or ones they were already considering.
As you might expect, the problem hasn’t just gone away. Indeed, British media have begun regularly putting out articles
on the hottest tube lines each year,
as well as updates on what is to be done. Looking ahead, climate change is only going to make this underground sauna more challenging to manage. TfL’s engineers are in a race against time and physics, trying to cool a system that was never designed to be cooled.
Transport for London’s engineers haven’t taking this lying down, however. In recent decades, they’ve thrown a range of complicated solutions at this difficult problem. Victoria Station saw major upgrades, with the successful trial of a groundwater-based cooling system and heavily-upgraded ventilation. On the toasty Central line, engineers realized there was an additional heat input into the system. Trains travelled above ground for part of their route, which would see them heat up in the sun and then bring that energy underground. Countermeasures included installing reflective material on train roofs and solar-reducing films on the windows.
Trials of a new panel-based cooling system have also taken place in recent years at
the disused Holborn station
, with TfL
considering a rollout to various stations
after successful trials. The system involves circulating cold water through a curved metal structure. Air is chilled by blowing it through the curved panels and into the station. The system is designed specifically to operate in stations on the deep parts of the Tube network, with an eye to keeping maintenance and operation of the system as practical as possible.
Subsurface lines have been running S-Stock trains, which feature full air conditioning to keep passengers comfortable. Credit: (c) Transport for London
Some Tube lines have been lucky enough to get air-conditioned trains, too. These can be found on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines. The modern S-Stock trains run largely on the less-deep sub-surface Tube lines, where it’s possible to easily deal with the hot exhaust of the air conditioning systems. These trains also have regenerative brakes, which turn some kinetic energy back into electricity to feed into the tube network. This cuts the amount of kinetic energy turned into heat, which aids in keeping the network cooler.
The Picadilly line is due to gain air conditioning in 2025, when it abandons its 1973 Stock trains for newer models. Other lines will have to wait longer. Central Line is slated to receive new air-conditioned trains in early 2030, which will replace the aging 1992 Stock models operating on that line. Bakerloo, Waterloo and City, and Jubilee lines are slated to receive upgraded trains “within the next 20 years” according to a Transport for London statement
late last year.
The Picadilly line will see its aging trains replaced with newer air-conditioned models starting in 2025.
Air conditioned trains will help to some degree by cooling passengers on the move. However, those air conditioners will necessarily pump heat out of carriages and straight into the tunnels the trains are travelling through, plus some waste heat to boot. That heat will have to be dealt with one way or another, lest the network heat up further. There’s also the problem that passengers on platforms will still be exposed to high temperatures. Ultimately, both the stations and the trains need to be brought down to reasonable temperature levels. Ideally, the tunnels would be, too, in order to protect any customers that get stuck in a tunnel on a broken-down service. TfL also needs to find a way to bring temperatures under control if it wants to increase services. More trains means more heat going into the system—so it’s important to find a way to pull more heat out, too.
Overall, the problem is still a long way from being solved. The fact is that the London Underground has 11 lines, 272 stations, and more than 4,000 trains. Upgrading all of those at once simply isn’t economically viable. Instead, it appears that Transport for London will keep chipping away at the issue, bit by bit, over the years to come. Ideally, this will outpace any increases in average temperatures brought on by our seemingly-ever-hotter climate. For now, London’s commuters will continue their daily descent into one of the world’s most interesting thermal management case studies. Just remember to bring a bottle of water and some breathable clothing– you’re going to need it. | 91 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069071",
"author": "CJay",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T15:11:21",
"content": "Kinda thinking they’re missing a trick here and wondering if they could cool the tunnels by recycling the heat to re-sell to businesses, homes etc. that are local to the lines…",
"parent_id": null,
"... | 1,760,371,708.942292 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/sniffing-around-inside-a-thinkpad-battery/ | Sniffing Around Inside A ThinkPad Battery | Tom Nardi | [
"Battery Hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"battery pack",
"i2c",
"SMBbus",
"sniffing"
] | For most people, a battery pack that’s misbehaving simply means it’s time to get a new battery. But when the battery in their ThinkPad wasn’t able to muster up more than 20 minutes of runtime,
[Shrinath Nimare] saw an opportunity to dig deeper and do a bit of investigating
.
The problem seemed to be that the battery pack was reporting that it was 100% charged at just 11.7 V instead of the correct 12.3 V. As it turns out, that 11.7 V figure is only slightly above what the battery should be when its run flat — so in reality, the battery was never actually getting a charge and would report that it was dead after just a few minutes of use. But why?
With a logic analyzer attached to the pins of the battery, [Shrinath] set out to sniff its communications with the ThinkPad. Even if it wouldn’t lead to fixing the battery pack, the information obtained would potentially be useful for other projects, such as creating a custom high-capacity LiFePO4 pack down the line.
With the pack opened, [Shrinath] determined that a 51F51 BMS IC was running the show. The battery communicates with the host computer over SMBus, which is very similar to I2C. In fact, they’re so similar that [Shrinath] was able to use the I2C decoder in sigrok to break out the read and write commands and compare them to a PDF of the Smart Battery Data Specification.
Using the I2C decoder to read SMBus messages.
With a few captures in hand, [Shrinath] made some good progress in decoding what the two devices are saying to each other. For example, when the computer sent the command
0x15
, the battery correctly responded with the desired charge voltage of 12.3 V. The command
0x18
was then given, which the specification says should cause the battery to report its capacity. Here again, valid data was returned, confirming that [Shrinath] was on the right path.
Even though it’s still early in the investigation, [Shrinath] had enough trouble finding practical examples of sniffing SMBus data that they thought it would be worth uploading their captures and notes to Hackaday.io. Hopefully further poking will show if the battery can be revived, but even if not, we’re always glad to see when hackers are willing to document their exploits for the benefit of the community.
This actually isn’t the first time we’ve heard of somebody snooping on their ThinkPad battery — back in 2020, we covered [Alexander Parent]’s efforts to create an
open source battery pack for the T420 based on the ATtiny85
. | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069014",
"author": "Dodo",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T12:12:52",
"content": "Isn’t the charger circuit in the laptop broken? This is very common for ThinkPads",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8069235",
"author": "Săndel"... | 1,760,371,709.009903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/04/fluke-meter-fails-with-a-simple-problem/ | Fluke Meter Fails With A Simple Problem | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"fluke",
"multimeter"
] | [TheHWcave] found a Fluke 27 multimeter that looked like it had had quite a rough life. At first, the display flashed an overload indicator until he gave it a good smack—or, as he likes to call it, percussive maintenance. Even then, it would not give good readings, so it was
time to open it up
.
The display did work, so the obvious theory was something wrong with the analog board. Removing the shields showed what looked like a normal enough PCB. Or at least, the components looked fine. But on the solder side of the board, there was some corrosion on two contacts, so some careful cleaning and resoldering fixed the meter to be as good as new on at least some scales.
Tracing the pins, the corrosion put a resistor between two pins of an op-amp. The only remaining problem was the milliamp scale, but that was a simple blown fuse in the line. Since it was working, it was worth some time to clean up the ugly exterior, which is only cosmetic but still worth a little effort. He left the plastic case cracked and beaten, but he put a lot of effort into clearing up the display window.
You might wonder why you’d fix a meter when you can get one so cheap. However, these name-brand meters are high-quality and new, quite expensive. Even
older ones
can be worth the effort. While you usually don’t need an X-ray machine to fix something like this,
it can’t hurt
. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8069041",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T14:03:24",
"content": "If it works, it’s a Fluke!B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8069053",
"author": "Joseph Eoff",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,371,709.063829 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/fail-of-the-week-the-smd-crystal-radio-that-wasnt/ | Fail Of The Week: The SMD Crystal Radio That Wasn’t | Dan Maloney | [
"Fail of the Week"
] | [
"coil",
"crystal radio",
"detector",
"inductor",
"smd",
"surface mount"
] | The crystal radio is a time-honored build that sadly doesn’t get much traction anymore. Once a rite of passage for electronics hobbyists, the classic coil-on-an-oatmeal-carton and cat’s whisker design just isn’t that easy to pull off anymore, mainly because the BOM isn’t really something that you can just whistle up from DigiKey or Mouser.
Or is it? To push the crystal radio into the future a bit, [tsbrownie] tried to
design a receiver around standard surface-mount inductors
, and spoiler alert — it didn’t go so well. His starting point was a design using a hand-wound air-core coil, a germanium diode for a detector, and a variable capacitor that was probably scrapped from an old radio. The coil had three sections, so [tsbrownie] first estimated the inductance of each section and sourced some surface-mount inductors that were as close as possible to their values. This required putting standard value inductors in series and soldering taps into the correct places, but at best the SMD coil was only an approximation of the original air-core coil. Plugging the replacement coil into the crystal radio circuit was unsatisfying, to say the least. Only one AM station was heard, and then only barely. A few tweaks to the SMD coil improved the sensitivity of the receiver a bit, but still only brought in one very local station.
[tsbrownie] chalked up the failure to the lower efficiency of SMD inductors, but we’re not so sure about that.
If memory serves
, the windings in an SMD inductor are usually wrapped around a core that sits perpendicular to the PCB. If that’s true, then perhaps stacking the inductors rather than connecting them end-to-end would have worked better. We’d try that now if only we had one of those nice old variable caps. Still, hats off to [tsbrownie] for at least giving it a go.
Note: Right after we wrote this, a follow-up video popped up in our feed where [tsbrownie] tried exactly the modification we suggested, and it certainly improves performance, but in a weird way. The video is included below if you want to see the details. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068936",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T06:11:11",
"content": "Long wave lenght -> use big parts, coils with a big Q, wires not being too short, components not too close to each others.Short wave lenght -> miniaturization welcomed, use small parts, short wires, but ma... | 1,760,371,709.121202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/a-month-without-ipv4-is-like-a-month-without/ | A Month Without IPV4 Is Like A Month Without… | Al Williams | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"IPv6",
"networking",
"tcp/ip"
] | Recently, there was a Mastodon post from [nixCraft] challenging people to drop their NAT routers for the month of November and use only IPv6. What would it be like to experience “No NAT November?” [Alex Haydock] decided to
find out
.
What did he learn? You’d imagine he’d either wholeheartedly embrace IPv6 or stagger back in and warn everyone not to mess with their configuration. Instead, he recommends you go IPv6 mostly. He notes he is only talking about a home network, not necessarily networks for a big company or an Internet carrier. That’s a different topic.
IPv6 has been around since 1998, but it has been
slow to catch on
. However, OS support seems universal at this point. [Alex] was able to easily switch on IPv6 only using Windows, macOS, and several Linux flavors. He didn’t use any Android devices, but they should be OK. His iOS phones were fine.
Where he did have problems was with embedded devices like the Nintendo Switch and a Steam Deck — surprising, since the Steam Deck uses Linux. Actually, the Steam device does support IPV6, it just thinks that if it doesn’t have an IPv4 network, the network must be down.
Some home networking gear also required IPv4 addresses to use their management interfaces. That’s especially funny since the devices clearly know about IPv6. They just don’t serve web pages over their IPv6 address.
Unfortunately, there are many websites that do not have IPV6 servers. That’s not as rare as you might think and [Alex] points out offenders like GitHub, Reddit, Discord, and Steam. No IPv4, no access to those and many other sites.
So despite being No NAT November, it was necessary to set up a NAT64 gateway to read IPv4-only websites. However, unlike normal IPv4 NAT (NAT44), you can use a NAT64 gateway anywhere on the network. [Alex’s] ISP hosts a NAT64 and DNS64 instance and that solved his problem.
The post goes on about other specific cases — if you’ve ever even thought about IPv6, it is worth a read. Switching over? Probably not yet, but as [Alex] points out, with a little work and perseverance, it is possible.
In addition to our earlier coverage of why
IPv6 isn’t more popular
, we’ve also made the arguments about
why it should be
. | 91 | 28 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068896",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T03:43:23",
"content": "“IPv6 has been around since 1998, but it has been slow to catch on. However, OS support seems universal at this point.”DOS, including FreeDOS is still on TCP/IP v4.Links, Lynx/DOSLynx, Dillo, Arachne, Micr... | 1,760,371,709.338206 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/3d-printing-threaded-replacements/ | 3D Printing Threaded Replacements | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"threads"
] | Printing an object with threads is nothing new. If you know the specifications on the other thread or you are in control of it, no problem. But [Shop Therapy] wanted to print parts that mate with
an existing unknown thread
. Out come the calipers.
The first measurement is the height. He rounded that up in the video but mentioned in the comments that it should really be a little smaller so that it seats properly.
After that, he measures the pitch and the major diameter. Next, of course, is the minor diameter. The pitch is related to the spacing of the threads, the major diameter is the diameter of the outside part of the threads, and the minor diameter is the neck without threads.
Next, he’s off to Fusion 360 to design the matching cap. Of course, you could use whatever 3D CAD software you like. Fusion does have some nice thread-related operations, and while it isn’t exactly free, you can get licenses for personal use with no difficulty.
Printing threads has its
ups and downs
. We prefer
embedding metal threads
into our prints. | 20 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068861",
"author": "QBFreak",
"timestamp": "2024-12-04T00:14:28",
"content": "I’m surprised the “related” article at the bottom wasn’thttps://hackaday.com/2020/07/12/learn-the-secrets-of-matching-bottle-cap-threads-to-one-another/But maybe that was too close to the current article?... | 1,760,371,709.443812 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/car-radio-chip-goes-into-diy-build/ | Car Radio Chip Goes Into DIY Build | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"kit",
"sdr",
"shortwave radio"
] | [Sjef Verhoeven] still loves radio and enjoys the challenge of listening to radio signals from far away. He wanted to build his own radio and turned to the TEF6686 chip, a device often found in car radios. It is known to be very sensitive and seemed perfect for pulling in weak signals. So [Sjef] built this
DIY radio
and shares the details in this recent Spectrum post.
Unlike older radio-on-chip devices, the TEF6686 is a DSP, which, according to the post, is part of the reason it is ultrasensitive. Even though it is made for car radios, the device is versatile and can pick up shortwave as well as the usual broadcast bands, with the right configuration.
Initially, [Sjef] wanted to design his own tuner but rapidly found inexpensive modules. These had shielding and through-hole pins, making it much easier to deploy a radio using the chip. The modules run around $25 or less.
The rest of the project centers around an ESP32 and an OLED display, along with switches and encoders. The device requires a host to upload its firmware, so a device with a lot of flash memory was a must. The host must also store fonts for the OLED, and [Sjef] even included a database of ham radio callsigns so that when receiving a North American station, you can instantly see which state or province the station is probably in.
If you want to build a duplicate of this radio, all the details are on
GitHub
. You can also find kit versions.
If you want to build your own shortwave radio, you
could spend more
. Or,
break out a breadboard
, if you prefer. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068830",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-12-03T22:15:33",
"content": "FYI, The chip is less than $9 at Digi-Keyhttps://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/rf-receivers/870?s=N4IgjCBcoLQdIDGUBmBDANgZwKYBoQB7KAbRAFYA2ADhAF0BfAmAJilGUgBcAnAV3xFSFegzF... | 1,760,371,709.387615 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/chess-what-one-more-pi-powered-board/ | Chess What: One More Pi-Powered Board | Heidi Ulrich | [
"classic hacks",
"Games"
] | [
"chess",
"chess board",
"chess robot",
"ChessBoard",
"linear actuator",
"Pi",
"raspberry pi"
] | Chess is timeless, but automating it? That’s where the real magic begins. Enter
[Tamerlan Goglichidze]’s Pi Board
, an automated chess system that blends modern tech with age-old strategy. Inspired by
Harry Potter’s
moving chessboard and the commercial Square Off board, [Tamerlan] re-imagines the concept using a Raspberry Pi, stepper motors, and some clever engineering. It’s not just about moving pieces — it’s about doing so with precision and flair.
At its core, the Pi Board employs an XY stepper motor grid coupled with magnets to glide chess pieces across the board. While electromagnets seemed like a promising start, [Tamerlan] found them impractical due to overheating and polarity-switching issues. Enter servo linear actuators: efficient, precise, and perfect for the job.
But the innovation doesn’t stop there. A custom algorithm maps the 8×8 chess grid, allowing motors to track positions dynamically—no tedious resets required. Knight movements and castling? Handled with creative coding that keeps gameplay seamless. [Tamerlan] explains it all in his sleekly designed build log.
Though it hasn’t been long since we featured a
Pi-powered LED chess board
, we feel that [Tamerlan]’s build stands out for its ingenuity and optimization. For those still curious, we have a treasure trove of
over fifty chess-themed articles
from the last decade. So snuggle up during these cold winter months and read up on these evergreens! | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068818",
"author": "Bobtato",
"timestamp": "2024-12-03T21:16:47",
"content": "I was hoping for the same thing I always hope for with these builds, namely a bank of capacitors to fire captured pieces clean through the upstairs apartment.But if you can forgive that disappointment, it... | 1,760,371,709.485358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/holograms-the-art-of-recording-wavefronts/ | Holograms: The Art Of Recording Wavefronts | Maya Posch | [
"Laser Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"hologram",
"Holography"
] | The difference between holography and photography can be summarized perhaps most succinctly as the difference between recording the effect photons have on a surface, versus recording the wavefront which is responsible for allowing photographs to be created in the first place. Since the whole idea of ‘visible light’ pertains to a small fragment of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, and thus what we are perceiving with our eyes is simply the result of this EM radiation interacting with objects in the scene and interfering with each other, it logically follows that if we can freeze this EM pattern (i.e. the wavefront) in time, we can then repeat this particular pattern ad infinitum.
Close-up of the wavefront pattern recorded on the holographic film (Credit: 3Blue1Brown, YouTube)
In a
recent video by [3Blue1Brown]
, this process of recording the
wavefront
with holography is examined in detail, accompanied by the usual delightful visualizations that accompany the videos on [3Blue1Brown]’s channel. The type of hologram that is created in the video is the simplest type, called a transmission hologram, as it requires a laser light to illuminate the holographic film from behind to recreate the scene. This contrasts with a white light reflection hologram, which can be observed with regular daylight illumination from the front, and which is the type that people are probably most familiar with.
The main challenge is, perhaps unsurprisingly, how to record the wavefront. This is where the laser used with recording comes into play, as it forms the reference wave with which the waves originating from the scene interact, which allows for the holographic film to record the latter. The full recording setup also has to compensate for polarization issues, and the exposure time is measured in minutes, so it is very sensitive to any changes. This is very much like early photography, where monochromatic film took minutes to expose. The physics here are significant more complex, of course, which the video tries to gently guide the viewer through.
Also demonstrated in the video is how each part of the exposed holographic film contains enough of the wavefront that cutting out a section of it still shows the entire scene, which when you think of how wavefronts work is quite intuitive. Although we’re still not quite in the ‘portable color holocamera’ phase of holography today, it’s quite possible that holography and
hologram-based displays
will become the standard in the future. | 22 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068797",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2024-12-03T20:30:01",
"content": "That video is just pure gold.Not to speak about the project itself which is mindblowing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8068804",
"author": ... | 1,760,371,709.551063 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/scratch-and-sniff-stickers-and-the-gas-panic-of-87/ | Scratch And Sniff Stickers And The Gas Panic Of ’87 | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"gas",
"gas leak",
"microencapsulation",
"scratch and sniff"
] | Ever wonder how those scratch and sniff stickers manage to pack a punch of aroma into what looks like ordinary paper? The technology behind it is deceptively clever, and has been used everywhere from children’s books to compact discs.
Most Scratch and Sniff stickers are simple nose-based novelties, though they’ve seen other uses as diagnostic tools, too. As Baltimore Gas and Electric discovered in 1987, though, these stickers can also cause a whole lot of hullabaloo. Let’s explore how this nifty technology works, and how it can go—somewhat amusingly—wrong.
The Science
3M developed the scratch and sniff technology in the 1960s. It quickly gained iconic status in the decades that followed. via
eBay
At its heart, scratch and sniff technology involves the microencapsulation of tiny smellable particles, which are then impregnated into stickers or other paper products. Microscopic amounts of aromatic materiale are trapped inside gelatin or plastic capsules, and then stuck to paper. When you scratch the surface, these capsules rupture, releasing their aromatic cargo into the air. It’s an elegant feat of materials engineering, originally developed by Gale W. Matson. Working at 3M in the 1960s, he’d been intending to create a new kind of carbonless copy paper.
Scratch and Sniff stickers soon became a popular novelty in the 1970s. The catchy name was perfect—it told you everything you need to know. A children’s book named
Little Bunny Follows His Nose
was one of the first widespread applications. Released in 1971, it was entirely based around the whole scratch and sniff concept. Children could read along and scratch various illustrations of peaches, roses and pine needles to see what they smelled like. The book was
reprinted multiple times
, remaining in publication for over three decades.
Other popular media soon followed. Pop rock band The Raspberries put a scratch and sniff sticker on their album cover in 1972. Director John Waters would go on to release his 1981 film
Polyester
with an accompanying “Odorama” card, which featured multiple smells for viewers to sniff during the movie. The concept still resurfaces occasionally, though the gimmick is now well-worn. In 2010, Katy Perry’s
Teenage Dream
album smelled like cotton candy thanks to a scratch-and-sniff treatment on the Deluxe Edition, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard put a similar touch on 2017’s
Flying Microtonal Banana
.
Best Intentions
Gas safety education is one of the most common uses of scratch and sniff technology today. via
National Energy Foundation
Could scratch and sniff technology be put to more serious and noble uses? Enter Baltimore Gas and Electric Company.
In 1987
, the energy company had found the perfect way to educate customers about gas safety. The plan was foolproof—mail out 300,000 brochures with a scratch and sniff panel that would familiarize customers with the distinctive rotten-egg smell of mercaptan. That’s the sulfur compound added to natural gas to make leaks more easily detectable.
The brochures featured a red flame impregnated with scratch and sniff material. “Scratch this flame with your fingernail,” read the mailer. “Sniff it. . . . Let your family sniff it and be sure everyone recognizes the odor.”
The mailers were sent out with the best of intentions, in the pursuit of education and public safety. Unfortunately, the problem soon became apparent. Paper envelopes aren’t exactly hermetically sealed, and the stickers used were simply far too potent. The microencapsulated mercaptan scent was floating out of the envelopes before anyone could even get to the scratching part. Soon, the smell of gas was wafting out of these brochures all across Baltimore.
BG&E uses a scratch and sniff element in its modern gas safety brochures. They’ve found a way to refine the technique to cause less trouble. via
BG&E
The result was exactly what you’d expect when 300,000 pieces of mail start simulating gas leaks all over town. Fire departments across the city were fielding a deluge of calls from concerned citizens who thought their houses were about to explode. Many hadn’t opened their mailers—they’d simply detected the smell and rang in the alarm.
The
LA Times
caught the story, and reported that Baltimore firefighters had responded to “at least half a dozen false alarms.” Officials noted that one call was attended by 27 firefighters and 8 pieces of equipment, all over a poorly-thought-out brochure. “I finally went up to this BG&E bill on the table, and the odor was so strong, you only had to be in the vicinity of it,” fire Capt. Raymond Devilbiss told the
LA Times.
Spokesman for Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, John Metzger, would later describe the faux pas as “somewhat of an embarrassment.” The company quickly withdrew the remaining brochures, but the damage was done. They’d successfully demonstrated that their gas detection additive worked perfectly – perhaps a little too perfectly.
Funnily enough, this incident didn’t discourage other utilities from trying the same thing.
Promo Printing Group
in Florida produces a range of mercaptan scratch and sniff cards for various cities and gas utilities. You can get them from the
National Energy Foundation
, too. Utilities are still mailing them out, as well, and there’s at
some anecdotal evidence
on Reddit that this actually helped someone catch a gas leak in their own neighborhood.
via
Reddit
The problem in the Baltimore case seems to be that the scratch and sniff stickers were simply too potent, or were otherwise releasing their scent when they shouldn’t have been. The incident serves as a reminder that even the simplest ideas can have unexpected consequences, especially when you’re literally mailing out thousands of artificial gas leaks. It’s a cautionary tale about the importance of exploring all possible failure modes–even the ones that seem absurd at first glance.
In the end, Baltimore Gas and Electric learned a valuable lesson about the potency of microencapsulation technology, and fire departments across Baltimore got some unexpected drill practice. As for the residents? They certainly didn’t forget what a gas leak smells like anytime soon. Indeed, though, the education campaign might have been pointless for some—the false alarm suggests many residents already knew the aroma quite well! | 41 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068718",
"author": "Weasel",
"timestamp": "2024-12-03T15:42:30",
"content": "Man i remember these stickers, didnt knew this stuff was still around. Some of them purposefully smelled so bad it made you sick.Oh the many times we put one under the teachers desk seconds before he/she c... | 1,760,371,709.636385 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/12/03/oshw-battery-tester-aims-to-help-tame-lithium-cells/ | OSHW Battery Tester Aims To Help Tame Lithium Cells | Tom Nardi | [
"Battery Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"battery charger",
"battery tester",
"li-po",
"Lithium-ion battery"
] | It’s no exaggeration to say that the development of cheap rechargeable lithium-ion batteries has changed the world. Enabling everything from smartphones to electric cars, their ability to pack an incredible amount of energy into a lightweight package has been absolutely transformative over the last several decades. But like all technologies, there are downsides to consider — specifically, the need for careful monitoring during charging and discharging.
As hardware hackers, we naturally want to harness this technology for our own purposes. But many are uncomfortable about dealing with these high-powered batteries, especially when they’ve been salvaged or come from some otherwise questionable origin. Which is precisely what the
Smart Multipurpose Battery Tester from [Open Green Energy]
is hoping to address.
Based on community feedback, this latest version of the tester focuses primarily on the convenient 18650 cell — these are easily sourced from old battery packs, and the first step in reusing them in your own projects is determining how much life they still have left. By charging the battery up to the target voltage and then discharging it down to safe minimum, the tester is able to calculate its capacity.
It can also measure the cell’s internal resistance (IR), which can be a useful metric to compare cell health. Generally speaking, the lower the IR, the better condition the battery is likely to be in. That said, there’s really no magic number you’re looking for — a cell with a high IR could still do useful work in a less demanding application, such as powering a remote sensor.
If you’re not using 18650s, don’t worry. There’s a JST connector on the side of the device where you can connect other types of cells, such as the common “pouch” style batteries.
The open source hardware (OSHW) device is controlled by the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3, which has been combined with the LP4060 charger IC and a AP6685 for battery protection. The user interface is implemented on the common 0.96 inch 128X64 OLED, with three buttons for navigation. The documentation and circuit schematics are particularly nice, and even if you’re not looking to build one of these testers yourself, there’s a good chance you could lift the circuit for a particular sub-system for your own purposes.
Of course, testing and charging these cells is only part of the solution. If you want to safely use lithium-ion batteries in your own home-built devices, there’s a few things you’ll need to learn about. Luckily,
[Arya Voronova] has been working on a series of posts
that covers how hackers can put this incredible technology to work. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8068664",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-12-03T13:29:48",
"content": "All this (rightful) concern over internal resistance and its measurement, but we almost never see a proper 4-wire Kelvin connection to measure it.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-terminal_sensingI know why... | 1,760,371,709.723782 |
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