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https://hackaday.com/2024/11/01/this-week-in-security-playing-tag-hacking-cameras-and-more/ | This Week In Security: Playing Tag, Hacking Cameras, And More | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"LLM",
"quantum",
"This Week in Security"
] | Wired
has a fascinating story this week
, about the length Sophos has gone to for the last 5 years, to track down a group of malicious but clever security researchers that were continually discovering vulnerabilities and then using those findings to attack real-world targets.
Sophos believes this adversary
to be overlapping Chinese groups known as APT31, APT41, and Volt Typhoon.
The story is actually refreshing in its honesty, with Sophos freely admitting that their products, and security products from multiple other vendors have been caught in the crosshairs of these attacks. And indeed, we’ve covered stories about these vulnerabilities over the past weeks and months right here on this column. The sneaky truth is that many of these security products actually have pretty severe security problems.
The issues at Sophos started with an infection of an informational computer at a subsidiary office. They believe this was an information gathering exercise, that was a precursor to the widespread campaign. That campaign used multiple 0-days to crack “tens of thousands of firewalls around the world”. Sophos rolled out fixes for those 0-days, and included just a bit of extra logging as an undocumented feature. That logging paid off, as Sophos’ team of researchers soon identified an early signal among the telemetry. This wasn’t merely the first device to be attacked, but was actually a test device used to develop the attack. The game was on.
Sophos managed to deploy it’s own spyware to these test devices, to stealthily keep an eye on this clever opponent. This even thwarted a later attack before it could really start. Among the interesting observations was a bootkit infection on one of these firewalls. This wasn’t ever found in the wild, but the very nature of such an attack makes it hard to discover.
There’s one more interesting wrinkle to this story. In at least one case, Sophos received the 0-day vulnerability used in an attack through their bug bounty program, right after the wave of attacks was launched. The timing, combined with the Chinese IP Address makes it pretty clear this was more than a coincidence. This might be a Chinese hacker making a bit of extra cash on the side. It’s also reminiscent of
the Chinese law
requiring companies to disclose vulnerabilities to the Chinese government.
PTA 0-Day
GreyNoise runs a honeypot and an AI threat detection system, and
found something interesting with that combination
. The PTZOptics network security camera was the intended target, and there were
a pair of vulnerabilities
that this attack was intended to exploit. The first is a simple authorization bypass, where sending HTTP packets without an authorization header to the
param.cgi
endpoint returns data without any authorization needed. Use the
get_system_conf
parameter, and the system helpfully prints out valid username and password hashes. How convenient.
Gaining arbitrary command execution is trivial, as the ntp configuration isn’t properly sanitized, and the ntp binary is called insecurely. A simple
$(cmd)
can be injected for easy execution. Those two were being chained together for a dead simple attack chain, presumably to add the IoT devices to a botnet. The flaws have been fixed, and law enforcement have been on the case, at least seizing the IP address observed in the attacks.
Speaking of camera hacks,
we do have an impressive tale from Pwn2Own 2024
, where researchers at Synacktiv used a format string vulnerability to pwn the Synology TC500 camera. The firmware in question had a whole alphabet of security features, like ASLR, PIE, NX, and Full RelRO. That’s Address Space Layout Randomization, Position Independent Executables, Non-Executable memory, and Full Relocation Read-Only protections. Oh, and the payload was limited to 128 characters, with the first 32 ASCII characters unavailable for use.
How exactly does one write an exploit in this case? A bit of a lucky break with the existing memory layout gave access to what the write-up calls a “looping pointer”. That seems to be a pointer that points to itself, which is quite useful to work from offsets instead of precise memory locations. The vulnerability allowed for writing a shell command into unused memory. Then finally a bit of Return Oriented Programming, a ROP gadget, manages to launch a system call on the saved command line. Impressive.
Maybe It Wasn’t a Great Idea
…to give LLMs code execution capabilities. That’s the conclusion we came to after reading CyberArk’s post on
how to achieve Remote Code Execution on a Large Language Model
. The trick here is that this particular example, LoLLMs, can run python code on the backend to perform certain tasks, like do math calculations. This implementation uses Python sandboxing, and naturally there’s a known way to defeat it. The trick can be pulled off just by getting the model to evaluate the right JSON snippet, but it’s smart enough to realize that something is off and refuse to evaluate the JSON.
The interesting detail here is that it is the LLM itself that is refusing, so it’s the LLM that needs bypassed. There has been very interesting work done on LLM jailbreaks, like DAN, the Do Anything Now prompt. That would probably have worked, but this exploit can be even sneakier than that. Simply ask the LLM to help you write some JSON. Specify the payload, and ask it to add something to it. It gladly complies, and code is executed. Who knew that LLMs were so gullible?
More Quantum Erratta
This story just keeps on giving. This time it’s
[Dan Goodin] at Ars Technica
that has the lowdown, filling in the last few missing details about the much over-hyped quantum computing breakthrough. One of the first of those details is that the story of the compromise of AES was published in the South China Morning Post, which has over-hyped Chinese quantum progress before. What [Goodin]’s article really adds to the discussion is opinions from experts. The important takeaway is that the performance of the D-Wave quantum computer is comparable to classical approaches.
Bits and Bytes
Remember
the traffic light hacking
? And
part two
? We now have
the third installment
, which is really all about you, too, can purchase and hack on one of these traffic controllers. It may or may not surprise you that the answer is to buy them on Ebay and cobble together a makeshift power supply.
It’s amazing how often printers, point of sale, and other IoT gadgets are just running stripped-down, ancient versions of Android.
This point of sale system
is no exception, running an old, custom Android 6 system, that seems to actually be rather well locked down. Except that it has an NFC reader, and you can program NFC tags to launch Android apps. Use this creative workaround to get into Android settings, and you’re in business.
I have long maintained that printers are terrible. That sentiment apparently is extending into security research on printers, with Lexmark moving to a new encrypted filesystem for printer firmware. Thankfully, like most of these schemes, it’s not foolproof, and
[Peter] has the scoop on getting in
. May you never need it. Because seriously, printers are the worst. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8057036",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-11-01T16:02:02",
"content": "Thanks!I found this episode much more understandable(?) than some previous ones.I just don’t have much knowledge of ITS, Information Technology Security, and this series (inclu... | 1,760,371,746.635454 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/11/01/fail-of-the-week-subscription-ev-charger-becomes-standalone-briefly/ | Fail Of The Week: Subscription EV Charger Becomes Standalone, Briefly | Dan Maloney | [
"Fail of the Week",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"fail of the week",
"pic",
"raspberry pi",
"replay attack",
"reverse engineering",
"rs-485"
] | At this point in the tech dystopia cycle, it’s no surprise that the initial purchase price of a piece of technology is likely not the last payment you’ll make. Almost everything these days needs an ongoing subscription to do whatever you paid for it to do in the first place. It’s ridiculous, especially when all you want to do is
charge your electric motorcycle
with electricity you already pay for; why in the world would you need a subscription for that?
That was [Maarten]’s question when he picked up a used EVBox wall mount charger, which refused to charge his bike without signing up for a subscription. True, the subscription gave access to all kinds of gee-whiz features, none of which were necessary for the job of topping off the bike’s battery. A teardown revealed a well-built device with separate modules for mains supply and battery charging, plus a communications module with a cellular modem, obviously the bit that’s phoning home and keeping the charger from working without the subscription.
After some time going down dead ends and a futile search for documentation, [Maarten] decided to snoop into the conversation between the charger boards and the comms board, reasonably assuming that if he knew what they were talking about, he’d be able to mimic the commands that make the charger go. He managed to do exactly that, reverse engineering enough of the protocol to do a simple replay attack using a Raspberry Pi. That let him use the charger. Problem solved, right?
Not so fast — this is a “Fail of the Week,” after all. This is where [Maarten] should have called it a day, but he decided to keep poking enough to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. He discovered that the charging module’s firmware was only doing limited validation of messages coming from the comms module, and since he’d only found fourteen of the commands in the protocol, he thought he’d take advantage of the firmware’s openness to explore all 256 possible commands. Scanning through all the commands proved fatal to the charger, though, bricking the poor thing right after he’d figured everything out. Ouch!
To his credit, [Maarten] was only trying to be complete in his exploration of the protocol, and his intention to make it easier for the next hacker is laudable in the extreme. That he took it a byte too far is unfortunate, but such is the price we sometimes pay for progress. Everything he did is thoroughly documented, so if you’ve got one of these chargers you’ve got all the tools needed to make it a standalone. Just make sure you know when to stop. | 48 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056981",
"author": "Christoph",
"timestamp": "2024-11-01T12:01:43",
"content": "Maarten might want to replace the communication module with an open source alternative (https://github.com/OpenEVSE/OpenEVSE_PLUS).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,371,746.443551 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/11/01/combining-gyro-stabilisation-with-weight-shift-balancing/ | Combining Gyro Stabilisation With Weight Shift Balancing | Danie Conradie | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"gyroscope",
"hyperspace pirate",
"pid control"
] | Gyroscopes are perfect to damper short impulses of external forces but will eventually succumb if a constant force, like gravity, is applied. Once the axis of rotation of the mass aligns with the axis of the external torque, it goes into the gimbal lock and loses the ability to compensate for the roll on that axis. [Hyperspace Pirate] tackled this challenge on a
gyroscopically stabilized RC bike
by shifting a weight around to help keep the bike upright.
[Hyperspace Pirate] had previously stabilized a little
monorail train
with a pair of control moment gyroscopes. They work by actively adjusting the tilt of gyroscopes with a servo to apply a stabilizing torque. On this bike, he decided to use the gyro as a passive roll damper, allowing it to rotate freely on the pitch axis. The bike will still fall over but at a much slower rate, and it buys time for a mass on the end of the servo-actuated arm to shift to the side. This provides a corrective torque and prevents gimbal lock.
[Hyperspace Pirate] does an excellent job of explaining the math and control theory behind the system. He implemented a PD-controller (
PID
without the integral) on an Arduino, which receives the roll angle (proportional) from the accelerometer on an MPU6050
MEMS sensor
and the roll rate (Derivative) from a potentiometer that measures the gyro’s tilt angle. He could have just used the gyroscope output from the MPU6050, but we applaud him for using the actual gyro as a sensor.
Like [Hyperspace Pirate]’s
other projects
, aesthetics were not a consideration. Instead, he wants to experiment with the idea and learn a few things in the process, which we can support. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056997",
"author": "James Ray Demello",
"timestamp": "2024-11-01T13:19:38",
"content": "Very neat video. But, you don’t need to shift weight to make this thing balance. It will balance itself very nicely if you simply make the gyro top-heavy. Move the rotor and motor up so that the... | 1,760,371,746.677123 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/cataract-surgery-for-an-old-tv/ | Cataract Surgery For An Old TV | Lewin Day | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"crt",
"picture tube",
"television",
"tube",
"tv",
"TV tube"
] | TVs used to be round, and the GE M935AWL is a great example of that. [bandersentv] found one of these ancient sets, but found it had a “cataract”—a large ugly discoloration on the tube.
He set about repairing the tube and the set, restoring this grand old piece back to working order.
The video begins with the removal of the round CRT tube. Once it’s extracted from the set, it’s placed in a round garbage can which serves as a handy work stand for the unique device. It’s all delicate work as it’s very easy to damage a picture tube, particularly an old one. Removing the discoloration is quite a job—the problem is caused by adhesive holding the front layer safety glass on, which has going bad over the years. It requires lots of heat to remove. In doing this repair, [bandersentv] notes he’s also giving up the safety of the original extra glass layer on the front of the tube. Worth noting if you’re worried about a given tube’s integrity.
Of course, cleaning the tube is just part of the job. [bandersentv] then gave us
a second video
in which he returns the tube to its original home and gets the TV back up and running. The quality is surprisingly good given what poor shape the tube was in to begin with.
It’s funny, because modern TV repair
is altogether a rather different affair
. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056905",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2024-11-01T05:45:55",
"content": "I feel like I read this same post here a month ago. love seeing these old CRT repair vids.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056924",
"aut... | 1,760,371,746.297005 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/few-things-are-cheaper-than-this-antenna/ | Few Things Are Cheaper Than This Antenna | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"dipole",
"ham radio",
"impedance",
"inexpensive",
"inverted V",
"radio",
"resonance"
] | As far as hobbies go, ham radio tends to be on the more expensive side. A dual-band mobile radio can easily run $600, and a high-end HF base station with the capability of more than 100 watts will easily be in the thousands of dollars. But, like most things, there’s an aspect to the hobby that can be incredibly inexpensive and accessible to newcomers. Crystal radios, for example, can be built largely from stuff most of us would have in our parts drawers, CW QRP radios don’t need much more than that,
and sometimes even the highest-performing antennas are little more than two lengths of wire
.
For this specific antenna, [W3CT] is putting together an inverted-V which is a type of dipole antenna. Rather than each of the dipole’s legs being straight, the center is suspended at some point relatively high above ground with the two ends closer to the earth. Dipoles, including inverted-Vs, are resonant antennas, meaning that they don’t need any tuning between them and the radio so the only thing needed to match the antenna to the feed line is a coax-to-banana adapter. From there it’s as simple as attaching the two measured lengths of wire for the target band and hoisting the center of the antenna up somehow. In [W3CT]’s case he’s using a mast which would break the $8 budget, but a tree or building will do just as well.
The video on the construction of this antenna goes into great detail, so if you haven’t built a dipole yet or you’re just getting started on your ham radio journey, it’s a great place to get started. From there we’d recommend checking out
an off-center-fed dipole
which lets a dipole operate efficiently on multiple bands instead of just one, and for more general ham radio advice without breaking the bank we’d always recommend
the $50 Ham series
. | 44 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056883",
"author": "Rudyard Merriam",
"timestamp": "2024-11-01T02:12:13",
"content": "Expensive? Not really considering the reoccurring costs are nil. Try playing golf once a weekend for a year and you’ve spent the price of a good rig. Now play another year and you’ve lost the mone... | 1,760,371,746.770611 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/bakelite-to-the-future-a-1950s-bluetooth-headset/ | Bakelite To The Future – A 1950s Bluetooth Headset | Dave Rowntree | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"Bakelite",
"Bluetooth Classic",
"ESP32",
"ESP32-WROVER-32",
"hands free",
"ptt",
"rotary telephone"
] | A decade ago, [Jouke Waleson] bought a Dutch ‘model 1950’ PTT (The Dutch Postal
Service) rotary-dial telephone of presumably 1950s vintage manufactured by a company called
Standard Electric,
and decided it would be neat to
hack it to function as a Bluetooth hands-free device
. Looking at the reverse, however, it is stamped “10.65” on the bottom, so maybe it was
made as recently as 1965, but whatever, it’s still pretty old-tech now.
A well-specified transformer?
The plan was to utilise ESP32 hardware with the Espressif HFP stack to do all the Bluetooth heavy lifting. [Jouke] did find out the hard way that this is not a commonly-trodden path in hackerland, and working examples and documentation were sparse, but the fine folks from Espressif were on hand via GitHub to give him the help he needed. After ripping into the unit, it was surprisingly stuffed inside there. Obviously, all the switching, even the indication, was purely electromechanical, which should be no surprise. [Jouke] identified all the necessary major components, adding wires and interfacing components as required, but was a bit stumped at the function of one funky-looking component that we reckon must be a multi-tap audio transformer, oddly finished in baby pink! After renovating some interesting cross-shaped mechanical indicators and wiring up some driving transistors, it was time to get on to the audio interface.
Initially, [Joike] planned to use an
INMP441
I
2
S digital microphone module, but this was incompatible with the standard
ESP32 HFP client
(used for Bluetooth hands-free support), so [Jouke] pivoted and used a
WM8782-based ADC board
for audio input. This also allowed the existing microphone to be used simply by biasing
Glorious electromechanical innards.
it to 5 Volts and hooking it straight up to the ADC board via a coupling capacitor. This was a happy outcome, as the modern digital microphone would have sounded very different to the original equipment! On the speaker side, a
PCM5102 I
2
S audio DAC module
was pressed into service. The ringer/buzzer needed seven volts, so adding a boost converter board was also necessary. It’s a minor annoyance for powering a single device, but this is a one-off hack, so it’s no big deal. Finally, the backplate was modified to add a USB-C module and a power switch so it could be power-cycled, giving access to the ESP32 boot loader and enabling firmware updates without opening the case.
The
outfit’s brains are courtesy of a
LilyGo T-Koala
board, a basic breakout board based around the older ESP32-WROVER module. This was necessary as the newer ESP32 chips drop Bluetooth classic support and, with it, support for handling the
Bluetooth hands-free protocol. We were particularly ticked by the project tagline, “Bakelite to the future”, and that lifting the phone when not answering an incoming call connects you to Google Assistant or Siri! Nice work! For a look over the source code for the project, check out the
GitHub page
.
This is not the first modernisation of a classic telephone, and we hope it won’t be the last. Here’s an older
GSM-based hack
. If all this talk of rotary phones and tethered handsets confuses you, here’s
our guide to this older telephone system
. Telephones weren’t the only old-school home appliances constructed from Bakelite
—far from it. It was also used to
make many
radios
. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056903",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2024-11-01T04:35:20",
"content": "Must have been for a multi-line office use. I like seeing no letters!Coiled cord not historic or tangle resistant.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,746.547811 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/small-volumetric-lamp-spins-at-6000-rpm/ | Small Volumetric Lamp Spins At 6000 RPM | Lewin Day | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"coils",
"led",
"motor",
"volumetric display"
] | Volumetric displays are simply cool. Throw some LEDs together, take advantage of persistence of vision, and you’ve really got something. [Nick Electronics] shows us how its done with
his neat little volumetric lamp build.
The concept is simple. [Nick] built a little device to spin a little rectangular array of LEDs. A small motor in the base provides the requisite rotational motion at a speed of roughly 6000 rpm. To get power to the LEDs while they’re spinning, the build relies on wire coils for power transmission, instead of the more traditional technique of using slip rings.
The build doesn’t do anything particularly fancy—it just turns on the whole LED array and spins it. That’s why it’s a lamp, rather than any sort of special volumetric display. Still, the visual effect is nice.
We’ve seen some other highly capable volumetric displays before, though.
Video after the break. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056833",
"author": "TerryMatthews",
"timestamp": "2024-10-31T20:26:43",
"content": "Funny, I was in a Utron rabbit hole on youtube this morning and this video popped up in the side feed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8056857"... | 1,760,371,746.59409 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/3d-printing-with-a-hot-glue-gun/ | 3D Printing With A Hot Glue Gun | Jenny List | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"extruder",
"hot end",
"hot glue"
] | Face it, we’ve all at some time or other looked at our hot glue guns, and thought “I wonder if I could use that for 3D printing!”. [Proper Printing] didn’t just think it,
he’s made a working hot glue 3D printer
. As you’d expect, it’s the extruder which forms the hack here.
A Dremel hot glue gun supplies the hot end, whose mains heater cartridge is replaced with a low voltage one with he help of a piece of brass tube. He already has his own design for an extruder for larger diameters, so he mates this with the hot end. Finally the nozzle is tapped with a thread to fit an airbrush nozzle for printing, and he’s ready tp print. With a much lower temperature and an unheated bed it extrudes, but it takes multiple attempts and several redesigns of the mechanical parts of the extruder before he finally ended up with the plastic shell of the glue gun as part of the assembly.
The last touch is a glue stick magazine that drops new sticks into a funnel on top of the extruder, and it’s printing a Benchy. At this point you might be asking why go to all this effort, but when you consider that there are other interesting materials which are only available in stick form it’s clear that this goes beyond the glue. If you’re up for more hot glue gun oddities meanwhile, in the past
we’ve shown you the opposite process to this one
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056818",
"author": "Darren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-31T18:51:27",
"content": "Forrest Mims was doing this back in the 1980s, long before anything resembling a commercial 3-D printer existed. He talked about using hot glue guns, moved around in x-y by motors made from rewired car alt... | 1,760,371,746.490141 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/supercon-2024-flower-sao-badge-redrawing-in-kicad/ | Supercon 2024 Flower SAO Badge Redrawing In KiCad | Chris Lott | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"2024 Hackaday Supercon",
"KiCAD",
"PCB design",
"schematics",
"Supercon AddOn"
] | Out of curiosity, I redrew the Supercon Vectorscope badge schematics in KiCad last year. As you might suspect, going from PCB to schematic is opposite to the normal design flow of KiCad and most other PCB design tools. As a result, the schematics and PCB of the Vectorscope project were not really linked. I decided to try it again this year, but with the added goal of making a complete KiCad project. As usual, [Voja] provided a well drawn schematic diagram in PDF and CorelDRAW formats, and a PCB design using Altium’s Circuit Maker format (CSPcbDoc file). And for reference, this year I’m using KiCad v8 versus v7 last year.
Importing into KiCad
This went smoothly. KiCad imports Altium files, as I discovered last year. Converting the graphic lines to traces was easier than before, since the graphical lines are deleted in the conversion process. There was a file organizational quirk, however. I made a new, empty project and imported the Circuit Maker PCB file. It wasn’t obvious at first, but the importing action didn’t make use the new project I had just made. Instead, it created a completely new project in the directory holding the imported Circuit Maker file. This caused a lot of head scratching when I was editing the symbol and footprint library table files, and couldn’t figure out why my edits weren’t being seen by KiCad. I’m not sure what the logic of this is, was an easy fix once you know what’s going on. I simply copied everything from the imported project and pasted it in my new, empty project.
While hardly necessary for this design, you can also import graphics into a KiCad schematic in a similar manner to the PCB editor. First, convert the CorelDRAW file into DXF or SVG — I used InkScape to make an SVG. Next do
Import -> Graphics
in the Kicad schematic editor. However, you immediately realize that, unlike the PCB editor, the schematic editor doesn’t have any concept of drawing layers. As a work around, you can instead import graphics into a new symbol, and place this symbol on a blank page. I’m not sure how helpful this would be in tracing out schematics in a real world scenario, since I just drew mine from scratch. But it’s worth trying if you have complex schematics.
Note: this didn’t work perfectly, however. For some reason, the text doesn’t survive being imported into KiCad. I attribute this to my poor InkScape skills rather than a shortcoming in KiCad or CorelDRAW. Despite having no text, I put this symbol on its own page in sheet two of the schematic, just for reference to see how it can be done.
Just like last year, the footprints in the Circuit Maker PCB file were imported into KiCad in a seemingly random manner. Some footprints import as expected. Others are imported such that each individual pad is a standalone footprint. This didn’t cause me any problems, since I made all new footprints by modifying standard KiCad ones. But if you wanted to save such a footprint-per-pad part into a single KiCad footprint, it would take a bit more effort to get right.
Recreating Schematics and Parts
After redrawing the schematics, I focused on getting the part footprints sorted out. I did them methodically one by one. The process went as follows for each part:
Start with the equivalent footprint from a KiCad library
Duplicate it into a local project library
Add the text SAO to the footprint name to avoid confusion.
Position and align the part on the PCB atop the imported footprint
Note and adjust for any differences — pad size and/or shape, etc.
Update the part in the project library
Attach it to the schematic symbols in the usual manner.
Delete the imported original footprint (can be tricky to select)
Some parts were more interesting than others. For example, the six SAO connectors are placed at various non-obvious angles around the perimeter. I see that [Voja] slipped up once — the angle between connectors 4 and 5 is at a definitely non-oddball angle of 60 degrees.
SAO Angle Difference
#1 326 102 6->1
#2 8 42 1->2
#3 61 53 2->3
#4 118 57 3->4
#5 178
60 4->5
#6 224 46 5->6
With all this complete, the PCB artwork consists of all new footprints but uses the original traces. I needed to tweak a few traces here and there, but hopefully without detracting too much from [Voja]’s style. Speaking of style, for those interested in giving that free-hand look to hand-routed tracks in KiCad, check the options in the
Interactive Router Settings
menu. Choose the
Highlight collisions / Free angle mode
and set the PCB grid to a very small value. Free sketch away.
Glitches
Actual jumper on assembled PCB
Circuit Maker PCB File
Schematics showing jumper
I used two photos of the actual board to check when something wasn’t clear. One such puzzle was the 3-pad SMT solder ball jumper. This was shown on the schematic and on the fully assembled PCB, but it was not in the Circuit Maker design files. I assumed that the schematics and photos were the truth, and the PCB artwork was a previous revision. There is a chance that I got it backwards, but it’s an easy to fix if so. Adding the missing jumper took a bit of guesswork regarding the new and adjusted traces, because they were hard to see and/or underneath parts in the photo. This redrawn design may differ slightly in appearance but not in functionality.
DRC checks took a little more iterating than usual, and at one point I did something to break the edge cuts layer. The irregular features on this PCB didn’t help matters, but I eventually got everything cleaned up.
I had some trouble sometimes assigning nets to the traces. If I was lucky, putting the KiCad footprint on top of the traces assigned them their net names. Other times, I had traces which I had to manually assign to a net. This operation seemed to work sporatically, and I couldn’t figure out why. I was missing a mode that I remember from another decade in a PCB tool, maybe PCAD?, where you would first click on a net. Then you just clicked on any number of other items to stitch them into the net. In KiCad it is not that simple, but understandable given the less-frequent need for this functionality.
You may notice the thru hole leads on the 3D render are way too long. Manufacturers provide 3D files describing the part as they are shipped, which reasonably includes the long leads. They are only trimmed at installation. The virtual technician inside KiCad’s 3D viewer works at inhuman speeds, but has had limited training. She can install or remove all through hold or SMT parts on the board, in the blink of an eye. She can reposition eight lamps and change the background color in mere seconds. These are tasks that would occupy a human technician for hours. But she doesn’t know how to trim the leads off of thru hole parts. Maybe that will come in future versions.
Project Libraries
I like to extract all symbols, part footprints, and 3D files into separate project libraries when the design wraps up. KiCad experts will point out that for several versions now this is not necessary. All (or most) of this information is now stored in the design files, alghouth with one exception — the 3D files. Even so, I still feel safer making these project libraries, probably because I understand the process.
KiCad can now do this with a built-in function. See the
Export -> Symbols to New Library
and
Export -> Footprints to New Library
in the schematic and PCB editors, respectively. These actions give you the option to additionally change all references in the design to use this new library. This didn’t work completely for me, for reasons unclear. Eventually I just manually edited the sch and pcb file and fixed the library names with a search and replace operation.
Hint: When configuring project libraries in KiCad, I always give them a nickname that begins with a dot. For example,
.badge24
or
.stumbler
. This always puts project libraries at the top of the long list of libraries, and it makes it easier to do manual search and replaces in the design files if needed.
What about 3D files, you say? That isn’t built into KiCad, but have no fear. [Mitja Nemec] has you covered with the Archive 3D Models
KiCad plugin
. It was trivial to activate and use in KiCad’s
Plugin and Content Manager
.
All Done
In the end, the design passed all DRCs, and I could run
Update PCB from Schematic...
without errors. I went out on a limb and immediately placed an order for five PCBs, hoping I hadn’t overlooked something. But it’s only US$9.00 risk. They are on the way from China as I type this.
All the files can be found in this
GitHub repo
. If you find any errors, raise an issue there. I have not done this procedure for any of the SAO petals, but when I do, I will place a link in the repository.
Schematics showing jumper | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056802",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-31T17:42:24",
"content": "Page Break, Please?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056866",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2024-10... | 1,760,371,746.351865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/a-look-inside-a-canadian-satellite-tv-facility/ | A Look Inside A Canadian Satellite TV Facility | Lewin Day | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"canada",
"satellite",
"satellite TV"
] | If you’ve ever wondered what goes on in the ground facilities of a satellite TV operation, you could go banging on the doors or your local station. You’d probably get thrown out in short order. Alternatively, you could watch
this neat little tour from [saveitforparts].
The tour takes us through a ground facility operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Canada in Montreal. The facility in question largely handles CBC’s French language content for the Canadian audience. We’re treated to a look at the big satellite dishes on the roof, as well as the command center inside. Wall to wall screens and control panels are the order of the day, managing uplinks and downlinks and ensuring content gets where it needs to go. Particularly interesting is the look at the hardcore hardware for full-strength transmission to satellites. The video also includes some neat trivia, like how CBC was the first broadcaster to offer direct satellite TV to customers in 1978.
We’ve seen [saveitforparts] tackle
some interesting satellite hardware teardowns
before, too. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056792",
"author": "MD",
"timestamp": "2024-10-31T17:29:34",
"content": "I’m reminded of the time our AES chapter got a tour of the broadcast level of the CN Tower :-) Speaking as an EE—Wow…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "80... | 1,760,371,746.154007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/voyager-1-fault-forces-switch-to-s-band/ | Voyager 1Fault Forces Switch To S-Band | Dan Maloney | [
"Space"
] | [
"Deep Space Network",
"DSN",
"fault protection",
"nasa",
"S-band",
"Voyager 1",
"x band"
] | We hate to admit it, but whenever we see an article about either Voyager spacecraft, our thoughts immediately turn to worst-case scenarios. One of these days, we’ll be forced to write obituaries for the plucky interstellar travelers, but today is not that day, even with
news of yet another issue aboard
Voyager 1
that threatens its ability to communicate with Earth.
According to NASA, the current problem began on October 16 when controllers sent a command to turn on one of the spacecraft’s heaters.
Voyager 1
, nearly a light-day distant from Earth, failed to respond as expected 46 hours later. After some searching, controllers picked up the spacecraft’s X-band downlink signal but at a much lower power than expected. This indicated that the spacecraft had gone into fault protection mode, likely in response to the command to turn on the heater. A day later,
Voyager 1
stopped communicating altogether, suggesting that further fault protection trips disabled the powerful X-band transmitter and switched to the lower-powered S-band downlink.
This was potentially mission-ending; the S-band downlink had last been used in 1981 when the probe was still well within the confines of the solar system, and the fear was that the
Deep Space Network
would not be able to find the weak signal. But find it they did, and on October 22 they sent a command to confirm S-band communications. At this point, controllers can still receive engineering data and command the craft, but it remains to be seen what can be done to restore full communications. They haven’t tried to turn the X-band transmitter back on yet, wisely preferring to further evaluate what caused the fault protection error that kicked this whole thing off before committing to a step like that.
Following Voyager news these days feels a little morbid, like a death watch on an aging celebrity. Here’s hoping that this story turns out to have a happy ending and that we can push the inevitable off for another few years. While we wait, if you want to know a little more about the Voyager comms system, we’ve got
a deep dive
that should get you going.
Thanks to [Mark Stevens] for the tip. | 70 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056678",
"author": "Fuhrer",
"timestamp": "2024-10-31T11:07:50",
"content": "like a death watch on an aging celebrityA certain old man from a well known British car show comes to mind.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056692"... | 1,760,371,746.935766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/31/bogey-six-oclock-the-an-aps-13-tail-warning-radar/ | Bogey Six O’clock!: The AN/APS-13 Tail Warning Radar | Danie Conradie | [
"History",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"altimeter",
"P-47",
"P-51",
"radar",
"wwii"
] | Although we think of air-to-air radar as a relatively modern invention, it first made its appearance in WWII. Some late war fighters featured the AN/APS-13 Tail Warning Radar to alert the pilot when an enemy fighter was on his tail. In [WWII US Bombers]’
fascinating video
we get a deep dive into this fascinating piece of tech that likely saved many allied pilots’ lives.
Fitted to aircraft like the
P-51 Mustang
and P-47 Thunderbolt, the AN/APS-13 warns the pilot with a light or bell if the aircraft comes within 800 yards from his rear. The system consisted of a 3-element
Yagi antenna
on the vertical stabilizer, a 410 Mhz transceiver in the fuselage, and a simple control panel with a warning light and bell in the cockpit.
In a dogfight, this allows the pilot to focus on what’s in front of him, as well as helping him determine if he has gotten rid of a pursuer. Since it could not identify the source of the reflection, it would also trigger on friendly aircraft, jettisoned wing tanks, passing flak, and the ground. This last part ended up being useful for safely descending through low-altitude clouds.
This little side effect turned out to have very significant consequences. The nuclear bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki each carried four radar altimeters derived from the AN/APS-13 system. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056676",
"author": "alialiali",
"timestamp": "2024-10-31T10:33:39",
"content": "Very cool!The idea of a bell ring is so darling.How did the radar work? Did it time returned pulses or some sort of interference effect with varying frequency? Video didn’t seem to cover it and I don’t ... | 1,760,371,746.824164 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/30/an-electric-vehicle-conversion-with-a-difference/ | An Electric Vehicle Conversion With A Difference | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"electric conversion",
"electric tractor",
"tractor"
] | For a first try at an electric vehicle conversion we’re guessing that most would pick a small city car as a base vehicle, or perhaps a Kei van. Not [LiamTronix], who instead
chose to do it with an old Ferguson tractor
. It might not be the most promising of EV platforms, but as you can see in the video below, it results in a surprisingly practical agricultural vehicle.
A 1950s or 1960s tractor like the Ferguson usually has its engine as a structural member with the bellhousing taking the full strength of the machine and the front axle attached to the front of the block. Thus after he’s extracted the machine from its barn we see him parting engine and gearbox with plenty of support, as it’s a surprisingly hazardous process. These conversions rely upon making a precise plate to mount the motor perfectly in line with the input shaft. We see this process, plus that of making the splined coupler using the center of the old clutch plate. It’s been a while since we last did a clutch alignment, and seeing him using a 3D printed alignment tool we wish we’d had our printer back then.
The motor is surprisingly a DC unit, which he first tests with a 12 V car battery. We see the building of a hefty steel frame to take the place of the engine block in the structure, and then a battery pack that’s beautifully built. The final tractor at the end of the video still has a few additions before it’s finished, but it’s a usable machine we wouldn’t be ashamed to have for small round-the-farm tasks.
Surprisingly there haven’t been as many electric tractors on these pages as you’d expect, though
we’ve seen some commercial ones
. | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056646",
"author": "ewlie",
"timestamp": "2024-10-31T08:36:24",
"content": "I don’t like being a safety safety, but people getting injured with tractors tipping over are very common. The intro in the video was a bit scary.Impressive build though.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,371,746.994396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/30/portable-solder-paste-station-prevents-smears-with-suction/ | Portable Solder Paste Station Prevents Smears With Suction | Danie Conradie | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"impeller",
"solder paste",
"vacuum"
] | Applying solder paste to a new custom PCB is always a little nerve-racking. One slip of the hand, and you have a smeared mess to clean up. To make this task a little easier,
[Max Scheffler] built the Stencil Fix Portable
, a compact self-contained vacuum table to hold your stencil firmly in place and pop it off cleanly every time.
The
Stencil Fix V1
used a shop vac for suction, just like
another stencil holder
we’ve seen. The vacuum can take up precious space, makes the jig a little tricky to move, and bumping the hose can lead to the dreaded smear and colorful language. To get around this [Max] added a brushless drone motor with a 3D printed impeller, with a LiPo battery for power. The speed controller gets its PWM signal from a little RP2040 dev board connected to a potentiometer. [Max] could have used a servo tester, but he found the motor could be a little too responsive and would move the entire unit due to inertia from the impeller. The RP2040 allowed him to add a low pass filter to eliminate the issue. The adjustable speed also means the suction force can be reduced a little for easy alignment of the stencil before locking it down completely.
We love seeing tool projects like these that make future projects a little easier. Fortunately, [Max] made the designs available so you can build your own. | 30 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056367",
"author": "Rey",
"timestamp": "2024-10-30T11:05:25",
"content": "Typical overengineering! Using RP2040 (dual core MCU, 133 MHz, 262 KB RAM) to make a… low pass filter? Can be done with just one resistor and one cap (6 dB low pass filter).",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,371,747.475446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/30/homebrew-sferics-receiver-lets-you-tune-into-earth-music/ | Homebrew Sferics Receiver Lets You Tune Into Earth Music | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"Dawn Chorus",
"earth music",
"jfet",
"lm386",
"sferics",
"vlf",
"whistlers"
] | It probably comes as little surprise that our planet is practically buzzing with radio waves. Most of it is of our own making, with cell phones, microwaves, WiFi, and broadcasts up and down the spectrum whizzing around all the time. But our transmissions aren’t the only RF show in town, as the Earth itself is more than capable of generating radio signals of its own, signals which you can explore with
a simple sferics receiver like this one
.
If you’ve never heard of sferics and other natural radio phenomena, we have
a primer
to get you started. Briefly, sferics, short for “atmospherics,” are RF signals in the VLF range generated by the millions of lightning discharges that strike the Earth daily. Tuning into them is a pretty simple proposition, as [DX Explorer]’s receiver demonstrates. His circuit, which is based on a design by [K8TND], is just a single JFET surrounded by a few caps and resistors, plus a simple trap to filter out the strong AM broadcast signals in his area. The output of the RF amplifier goes directly into an audio amp, which could be anything you have handy — but you risk breaking [Elliot]’s heart if you don’t use his
beloved LM386
.
This is definitely a “nothing fancy” build, with the RF section built ugly style on a scrap of PCB and a simple telescopic whip used for an antenna. Tuning into the Earth’s radio signals does take some care, though. Getting far away from power lines is important, to limit AC interference. [DX Explorer] also found how he held the receiver was important; unless he was touching the ground plane of the receiver, the receiver started self-oscillating. But the pips, crackles, and pings came in loud and clear on his rig; check out the video below for the VLF action. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056393",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known as Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-30T13:02:39",
"content": "Oh, I thought maybe radio signals from earthquake piezo would be mentioned.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056457",
... | 1,760,371,747.233344 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/an-international-hackerspace-map/ | An International Hackerspace Map | Jenny List | [
"Hackerspaces"
] | [
"ESP32",
"map",
"spaceapi"
] | If you’re looking for a hackerspace while on your travels, there is more than one website which shows them on a map, and even tells you whether or not they are open. This last feature is powered by SpaceAPI, a standard way for hackerspaces to publish information about themselves, including whether or not they are closed.
Given such a trove of data then it’s hardly surprising that [S3lph] would use it to create
a gigantic map of central Europe with lights in the appropriate places
(German language,
Google Translate link
) to show the spaces and their status.
The lights are a set of addressable LEDs and the brain is an ESP32, making this an accessible project for most hackers with the time to assemble it. Unsurprisingly then it’s not the first such map we’ve seen, though it’s considerably more ambitious than
the last one
. Meanwhile if your hackerspace doesn’t have SpaceAPI yet or you’re simply curious about the whole thing,
we took a look at it back in 2021
.
Thanks [Dave] for the tip. | 17 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056364",
"author": "PPJ",
"timestamp": "2024-10-30T11:00:14",
"content": "Nice project. I just wish it contained at least Poland (which often is considered Eastern Europe):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Europe",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,371,747.721495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/electrostatic-motors-are-making-a-comeback/ | Electrostatic Motors Are Making A Comeback | Navarre Bartz | [
"Science"
] | [
"Benjamin Franklin",
"corona motor",
"critical materials",
"Electric motor",
"electrostatic",
"electrostatic induction",
"electrostatic motor",
"electrostatics",
"high voltage"
] | Electrostatic motors are now common in MEMS applications, but researchers at the University of Wisconsin and spinoff C-Motive Technologies have brought
macroscale electrostatic motors back.
[via
MSN/WSJ
]
While the first real application of an electric motor was Ben Franklin’s electrostatically-driven turkey rotisserie, electromagnetic type motors largely supplanted the technology due to the types of materials available to engineers of the time. Newer dielectric fluids and power electronics now allow electrostatic motors to be better at some applications than their electromagnetic peers.
The main advantage of electrostatic motors is their reduced
critical materials use
. In particular, electrostatic motors don’t require
copper
windings or any
rare earth magnets
which are getting more expensive as demand grows for electrically-powered machines. C-Motive is initially targeting direct drive industrial applications, and the “
voltage driven nature of an electrostatic machine
” means they require less cooling than an electromagnetic motor. They also don’t use much if any power when stalled.
Would you like a refresher on
how to make static electricity
or a
deeper dive on how these motors work
? | 21 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056242",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-10-30T02:23:33",
"content": "Near the bottom of the article:At 1.5 T, a field achievable with iron, the theoretical magnetic shear limit is 1.79 MPa or 260 psi. At 3 kV/mm with atmospheric conditions, the theoretical electric shear l... | 1,760,371,747.33647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/lies-big-lies-and-led-lightbulb-lifespan-promises/ | Lies, Big Lies And LED Lightbulb Lifespan Promises | Maya Posch | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"led lightbulb"
] | Checking the voltages on a dead LED lightbulb. Best done by a professional, obviously. (Credit: The Doubtful Technician, YouTube)
We have probably all seen the marketing blurbs on packaging and elsewhere promoting the amazing lifespan of LED lighting solutions. Theoretically you should be able to install a LED bulb in a fixture that used to hold that incandescent lightbulb which had to be replaced annually and have it last a decade or longer. Yet we seem to replace these LED bulbs much more often than that, with them suffering a range of issues. To get to the root cause of this, [The Doubtful Technician]
decided to perform an autopsy
on a couple of dead lightbulbs which he got from a variety of sources and brands.
One lamp is an Amazon-bought one from a seller who seems to have vanished, but was promised over 3 years of constant use. Other than the fun of blinding of oneself while testing, this one was easy to diagnose, with a dodgy solder joint on a resistor in a MELF package. The next one from Lowes was very dim, and required popping open with some gentle force, which revealed as likely culprit a shorted SMD resistor. Finally a more substantial (i.e. heavier) bulb was tested which had survived about 7 years in the basement until it and its siblings began to suddenly die. Some might consider this the normal lifespan, but what really failed in them?
The electronics in this last bulb were the most impressive, with a full switch mode power supply (SMPS) that appears to have suffered a failure. Ultimately the pattern with these three bulbs was that while the LEDs themselves were still fine, it were things like the soldering joints and singular components on the LED driver PCB that had failed. Without an easy way to repair these issues, and with merely opening the average LED lightbulb being rather destructive, this seems like another area where what should be easy repairs are in fact not, and more e-waste is created. | 109 | 38 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056184",
"author": "KDawg",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T23:06:24",
"content": "I just get the great value brand walmart bulbs, I have had some that last 3 or 4 years in the harsh environment of steamy bathrooms in tiny fixtures all the way up to the one’s on my front porch that I inst... | 1,760,371,747.623127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/custom-fan-controller-for-otherwise-fanless-pcs/ | Custom Fan Controller For Otherwise Fanless PCs | Bryan Cockfield | [
"hardware"
] | [
"automation",
"fan",
"fan controller",
"openfan",
"openfan micro",
"power supply",
"temperature",
"usb"
] | Most of us using desktop computers, and plenty of us on laptops, have some sort of fan or pump installed in our computer to remove heat and keep our machines running at the most optimum temperature. That’s generally a good thing for performance, but comes with a noise pollution cost. It’s possible to build fanless computers, though, which are passively cooled by using larger heat sinks with greater thermal mass, or by building more efficient computers, or both. But sometimes even fanless designs can benefit from some forced air, so [Sasa]
built this system for cooling fanless systems with fans
.
The main advantage of a system like this is that the fans on an otherwise fanless system remain off when not absolutely necessary, keeping ambient noise levels to a minimum. [Sasa] does have a few computers with fans, and this system helps there as well. Each fan module is WiFi-enabled, allowing for control of each fan on the system to be set up and controlled from a web page. It also can control 5V and 12V fans automatically with no user input, and can run from any USB power source, so it’s not necessary to find a USB-PD-compatible source just to run a small fan.
Like his previous project
, this version is built to easily integrate with scripting and other third-party software, making it fairly straightforward to configure in a home automation setup or with any other system that is monitoring a temperature. It doesn’t have to be limited to a computer, either; [Sasa] runs one inside a server cabinet that monitors the ambient temperature in the cabinet, but it could be put to use anywhere else a fan is needed.
Perhaps even a hydroponic setup
. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056281",
"author": "Oliver",
"timestamp": "2024-10-30T07:06:20",
"content": "I have a 200mm 5v noctua fan that simply amazes me how much airflow it has while running on just usb power.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056453"... | 1,760,371,747.281269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/another-commodore-portable-we-never-quite-received/ | Another Commodore Portable We Never (Quite) Received | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"commodore",
"handheld computer",
"Toshiba"
] | The story of Commodore computers is one of some truly great machines for their time, and of the truly woeful marketing that arguably spelled their doom. But there’s another Commodore computing story, that of the machines we never received, many of which came close enough to production that they might have made it.
[Old VCR] has the story of one of these
, and it’s a portable. It’s not a C64 like the luggable which did emerge, neither is it the legendary LCD portable prototype in the possession of our Hackaday colleague [Bil Herd]. Instead it’s a palmtop branded under licence from Toshiba, and since it’s a rare device even its home country of Japan the article gives us perhaps the only one we’ll ever see with either badge.
The Commodore HHC-4 was announced at Winter CES 1983, and since it was never seen again it’s aroused some curiosity among enthusiasts. The article goes to some lengths to cross-reference the visible features and deduce that it’s in fact a Toshiba Pasopia Mini, a typical palmtop computer of the era with not much in the way of processing power, a small alphanumeric display, and a calculator-style QWERTY keyboard. We’re treated to a teardown of a Toshiba unit and its dock, revealing some uncertainty about which processor architecture lurks in those Toshiba custom chips.
Looking at the magazine reviews and adverts it seems as though Commodore may have had some machines with their branding on even if they never sold them, so there exists the tantalizing possibility of one still lurking forgotten in the possession of a former staffer. We can hope.
If Commodore history interests you, you really should read [
Bil]’s autobiographical account of the company in the 1980s
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056093",
"author": "Miles Archer",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T19:07:06",
"content": "I have a very similar Sharp branded device. I bought it new in 1983ish.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056177",
"author": ".",
... | 1,760,371,747.668492 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/boss-byproducts-fulgurites-are-fossilized-lightning/ | Boss Byproducts: Fulgurites Are Fossilized Lightning | Kristina Panos | [
"chemistry hacks",
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"fossil",
"fulgurites",
"Lichtenberg figure",
"lightning",
"rock",
"sand"
] | So far in this series, we’ve talked about man-made byproducts — Fordite, which is built-up layers of cured car enamel, and Trinitite, which was created during the first nuclear bomb test.
A lovely fulgurite pendant. Image via
Etsy
But not all byproducts are man-made, and not all of them are basically untouchable. Some are created by Mother Nature, but are nonetheless dangerous. I’m talking about fulgurites, which can form whenever lightning discharges into the Earth.
It’s likely that even if you’ve seen a fulgurite, you likely had no idea what it was.
So what are they, exactly?
Basically, they are natural tubes of glass that are formed by a fusion of silica sand or rock during a lightning strike.
Much like Lichtenberg figures appear across wood, the resulting shape mimics the path of the lightning bolt as it discharged into the ground. And yes,
people make jewelry out of fulgurites
.
Lightning Striking Again
Image via
NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory
Lightning is among the oldest observed phenomena on Earth. You probably know that lightning is just a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere. It can occur between clouds, the air, or the ground and often hits tall things like skyscrapers and mountaintops.
Lightning is often visible during volcanic eruptions, intense forest fires, heavy snowstorms, surface nuclear detonations, and of course, thunderstorms.
In lightning’s infancy, air acts as an insulator between charges — the positive and negative charges between the cloud and the ground. Once the charges have sufficiently built up, the air’s insulating qualities break down and the electricity is rapidly discharged in the form of lightning.
When lightning strikes, the energy in the channel briefly heats up the air to about 50,000 °F, which is several times the surface of the Sun. This makes the air explode outward. As the shock wave’s pressure decreases, we hear thunder.
Of Sand and Rock and Other Stuff
Fulgurites, also known as fossilized lightning, don’t have a fixed composition: they are composed of whatever they’re composed of at the time of the lightning strike. Four main types of fulgurites are officially recognized: sand, soil, caliche (calcium-rich), and rock fulgurites. Sand fulgurites can usually be found on beaches or in deserts where clean sand devoid of silt and clay dominates. And like those Lichtenberg figures, sand fulgurites tend to look like branches of tubes. They have rough surfaces comprised of partially-melted grains of sand.
Sand fulgurites, aka forbidden churros. Image via
Wikimedia Commons
When sand fulgurites are formed, the sand rapidly cools and solidifies. Because of this, they tend to take on a glassy interior. As you might imagine, the size and shape of a fulgurite depends on several factors, including the strength of the strike and the depth of the sand being struck. On average, they are 2.5 to 5 cm in diameter, but have been found to exceed 20 cm.
Soil fulgurites can form in a wide variety of sediment compositions including clay-, silt-, and gravel-rich soils as well as leosses, which are wind-blown formations of accumulated dust. These also appear as tubaceous or branching formations, vesicular, irregular, or a combination thereof.
Calcium-rich sediment fulgurites have thick walls and variable shapes, although it’s common for multiple narrow channels to appear. These can run the gamut of morphological and structural variation for objects that can be classified as fulgurites.
Rock fulgurites are typically found on mountain peaks, which act as natural lightning rods. They appear as coatings or crusts of glass formed on rocks, either found as branching channels on the surface, or as lining in pre-existing fractures in the rock. They are most often found at the summit or within several feet of it.
Fact-Finding Fulgurites
Aside from jewelry and such, fulgurites’ appeal comes in wherever they’re found, as their presence can be used to estimate the number of lightning strikes in an area over time.
Then again there’s some stuff you may not necessarily want to use in jewelry making. Stuff that can be found in the dark, dank corners of the Earth. Stay tuned! | 28 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056059",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T17:17:52",
"content": "Someone gave me a piece of fulgurite but it is black. Not sure if that is a common color for it to form or if it was simply misidentified.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},... | 1,760,371,747.793694 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/little-quadruped-has-pcb-spine-and-no-wiring/ | Little Quadruped Has PCB Spine And No Wiring | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"Dynamixel",
"esp32-C3",
"quadroped",
"scara"
] | Dealing with all the wiring can quickly become a challenge on robots, especially the walking variety which have actuators everywhere.
[Eric Yufeng Wu] sidestepped the wiring issue by creating Q8bot
, a little quadruped where all the components, including the actuators, are mounted directly on the PCB.
[Eric] uses a custom PCB as the spine of the robot, and the eight servos plug directly into connectors on the PCB. With their bottom covers removed, the servos screw neatly into a pair of 3D printed frames on either side of the PCB, which also have integrated 14500 battery holders. The PCB is minimalist, with just the XIAO
ESP32C3
module, a boost converter circuit to drive the servos, and a battery fuel gauge. Each SCARA-style leg consists of four SLS 3D printed segments, with press-fit bearings in the joints.
The little one moves quickly, and can even do little jumps. For this prototype, most of the control processing is done on a laptop, which sends raw joint angles to the onboard ESP32 via the
ESP-Now
protocol. We think this little robot has a lot of development potential, and fortunately [Eric] has made all the hardware and software files available for others to build their own. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056033",
"author": "Christian",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T15:44:33",
"content": "Taking the back plate of the servos and modeling them into your own design, excellent idea!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056038",
"au... | 1,760,371,747.840105 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/2024-supercon-last-minute-announcements/ | 2024 Supercon: Last Minute Announcements | Tom Nardi | [
"cons",
"News"
] | [
"2024 Hackaday Supercon",
"2024 Hackaday Superconference",
"announcements"
] | If you’re hear a rushing noise, don’t be alarmed — that’s just the rapidly approaching 2024 Hackaday Supercon. As hard as it is to believe, a whole year has gone by, and we’re now just a few days away from kicking off our annual hardware hacking extravaganza in Pasadena. Tickets just sold out over the weekend — thank you procrastinators!
For those of you who have tickets to join us this weekend, we’ve got a few last minute announcements and bits of information we wanted to get out to you. As a reminder, you can
find the full schedule for all three days on the official Supercon site
.
New Events Added!
For those who’ve attended a Supercon before, you know we like to cram as much content as we can into the weekend. But there’s always room for more, and this year we’ve managed to squeeze in a couple extra activities that we’re very excited about.
Halloween Hacker Happy Hour
It just so happens that Halloween is the night before Supercon officially kicks off, and that seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. So we’ll be throwing a pre-event party at the nearby KingsRow Gastropub where costumes and all manner of blinking LEDs are very much encouraged. Officially we’ll be hanging out from 7:00 to 10:00 PM, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself still talking to Hackaday folks at last call.
You don’t need tickets for this event, but we’d like to have a rough head count, so if you could
RSVP through Eventbrite we’d appreciate it
.
Tina’s Junk Challenge
Tina’s been piling up her treasures for weeks
We’ve always wanted to introduce some kind of swap meet aspect to Supercon, but the logistics have always been a challenge. This year though, we’re finally going to get the chance to test out the idea. Former DesignLab Resident Tina Belmont is in the process of moving out of the country and needs to find a new home for her electronic bric-a-brac.
Everything is free, so attendees are encouraged to take anything they think they can make use of. Naturally, an influx of interesting hardware could provide for some very unique badge hacking possibilities. If we can get enough people to graft these second-hand components onto their badges, we just might be able to turn it into a proper category come Sunday night.
A table where folks can offload their electronic bits and bobs has
worked well at other hacker cons
, so we’re eager to see how it goes at Supercon. If this is something you’d like to see more of, or would potentially like to participate in next year, let us know.
Krux’s Side Quests
Let’s be honest, most of us are already taking our marching orders from the computer in one way or another. So why not turn it into a fun interactive game?
The idea is simple: use the mysterious retrocomputer oracle, and it gives you a quest. Maybe you’ll have to find a hidden item, or solve a riddle. Krux has a run a variation of this game at Toor Con in the past, but the challenges spit out by the computer this time will be tailored to Supercon.
Windows Through Wires Exhibition
You may recall that we asked the Hackaday community if they had any
unusual display technology they’d like to show off
during Supercon as part of an exhibit.
Well, as you might have imagined, the response was incredible. From gorgeous vintage pieces to completely custom hardware, there’s going to be a wide array of fascinating hardware for attendees to study up-close.
While getting a chance to see various display technologies throughout the years would have our attention as it is, what’s really exciting is that many of the custom-built devices in the exhibit are either projects hosted on Hackaday.io or ones that we’ve covered at some point on the front page.
Considering how gorgeous some of them have looked in photographs, we’re eager to drool over them in the real world — and we bet you are to.
Workshop Technical Difficulties
Hopefully we’ve provided enough good news that we can slip in a bit of the bad. Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel the “Hands on with an Electron Microscope” workshop that was to be hosted by Adam McCombs and Isabel Burgos. Everyone with tickets will of course be getting a refund, and you should be receiving an email to that effect shortly if you haven’t already.
While we’re just as disappointed by this news as you are, it’s one of those situations where there simply weren’t any good solutions. Long story short, the scanning electron microscope that was small enough to bring to Supercon is down, and there’s just not enough time to get it up and running at this point. An attempt was made to find another small-ish electron microscope on short notice but…well, that’s just as tricky to pull off as it sounds.
Send Us Your Lightning Talks!
To end this update on a high note, we want to remind everyone that this year we’ll once again be going Lighting Talks on Sunday morning. If you’ve never given a talk before, the shorter seven minute format is perfect for getting your feet wet. Or maybe you’ve got something you want to talk about that doesn’t take a whole hour to explain. Either way, the Lightning Talks are a great way to share what your passionate about with the Supercon audience.
If you’d like to give a Lightning Talk,
simply fill out this form
. You can upload slides if you’ve got them, but they aren’t strictly necessary. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055996",
"author": "Osterwood",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T14:25:45",
"content": "I read “workshop technical difficulties” as “workshop OF technical difficulties” and while I have no idea what that workshop would entail, I know I’d want to attend it.",
"parent_id": null,
"dep... | 1,760,371,747.888952 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/asahi-linux-brings-better-gaming-to-apple-silicon/ | Asahi Linux Brings Better Gaming To Apple Silicon | Navarre Bartz | [
"ARM",
"Linux Hacks",
"Mac Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"arm",
"asahi",
"boot",
"gpu",
"linux",
"macOS"
] | For those of you longing for better gaming on an Apple Silicon device,
Asahi Linux is here to help
.
While Apple’s own
line of CPUs
are relatively new kids on the block, they’ve still been around for four years now, giving hackers ample time to dissect their innards. The team behind Asahi Linux has now brought us “the only conformant OpenGL®, OpenCL™, and Vulkan® drivers” for Apple’s M1 and M2.
The emulation overhead of the system means that most games will need at least 16 GB of RAM to run. Many games are playable, but newer titles can’t yet hit 60 frames per second. The developers are currently focused on “correctness” and hope to improve performance in future updates. Many indie titles are reported to already be working at full speed though.
You can hear more about some of the fiddly bits of how to “tessellate with arcane compute shaders” in the video below. Don’t worry, it’s only 40 minutes of the nine hour video and it should start right at the presentation by GPU dev [Alyssa Rosenzweig].
If you want to see some of
how Linux on Apple Silicon started
or some of the previous work on
hacking the M1 GPU
, we have you covered. | 8 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055974",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T12:53:44",
"content": "Who makes a 9 hour video?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8055985",
"author": "IIVQ",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T13:25:08",
"cont... | 1,760,371,747.934347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/compact-dedicated-news-reader-always-brings-you-cbc/ | Compact Dedicated News Reader Always Brings You CBC | Lewin Day | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"news",
"raspberry pi",
"rss",
"rss reader"
] | Your phone or laptop will give you access to the vast majority of news in the world, in languages you can read and a few hundred you can’t. Maybe you only like one news source, though, and that news source happens to be Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). If that’s the case,
you might like to give this project a look from [Ron Grimes].
[Ron] built a device that does one thing and one thing only: it displays news stories from CBC. It’s built around a Raspberry Pi 2, and the project began when he wanted to interface a keypad just to see if he could. With that done, the next challenge was to integrate a 16×2 character LCD display of the HD44780 persuasion. With those two tasks completed, the question was simple — what to display? He figured tuning into the CBC news feed would be useful, and the Chocolate Box News Reader was born.
The device displays 29 news feeds in total, including the main top stories, world news, and Canadian regional news. It stores 15 news items per feed and will hang on to those stories even if the Internet drops. The reader will display the whole stash of stored news in around 90 minutes or so, and each stored item comes with more information if something strike’s [Ron’s] curiosity or interest.
Files are on GitHub for the curious.
It’s a neat build, and we can imagine it being a smart item to have kicking around the house. It was also a great way for [Ron] to build on
his familiarity with the Raspberry Pi
, too. Meanwhile, if you’ve got your own nifty Pi-based projects—or others!—don’t hesitate to
drop us a line! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8056039",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T15:59:59",
"content": "This is a very neat project and I’m sure the creator learned a lot during the process. Let’s not pretend it has any real lasting value beyond that, though! 🤣 Other than us learning along with him.Major pro... | 1,760,371,747.971623 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/making-pcb-strip-filter-design-easy-to-understand/ | Making PCB Strip Filter Design Easy To Understand | Dan Maloney | [
"PCB Hacks",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"bandpass",
"butterworth",
"dielectric",
"filter",
"fr4",
"ptfe",
"resonator",
"RF",
"stripline",
"stub"
] | We’ve always been fascinated by things that perform complex electronic functions merely by virtue of their shapes. Waveguides come to mind, but so do active elements like
filters made from nothing but PCB traces
, which is the subject of this interesting video by [FesZ].
Of course, it’s not quite that simple. A PCB is more than just copper, of course, and the properties of the substrate have to be taken into account when designing these elements. To demonstrate this, [FesZ] used
an online tool
to design a bandpass filter for ADS-B signals. He designed two filters, one using standard FR4 substrate and the other using the more exotic PTFE.
He put both filters to the test, first on the spectrum analyzer. The center frequencies were a bit off, but he took care of that by shortening the traces slightly with a knife. The thing that really stood out to us was the difference in insertion loss between the two substrates, with the PTFE being much less lossy. The PTFE filter was also much more selective, with a tighter pass band than the FR4. PTFE was also much more thermostable than FR4, which had a larger shift in center frequency and increased loss after heating than the PTFE. [FesZ] also did a more real-world test and found that both filters did a good job damping down RF signals across the spectrum, even the tricky and pervasive FM broadcast signals that bedevil ADS-B experimenters.
Although we would have liked a better explanation of design details such as via stitching and trace finish selection, we always enjoy these lessons by [FesZ]. He has a knack for explaining abstract concepts through concrete examples; anyone who can make
coax stubs
and
cavity filters
understandable has our seal of approval. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055864",
"author": "Lucas",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T08:00:06",
"content": "“Hello, and welcome back” is the best youtube introduction I think.Short, to the point, true in many cases, and funny for new viewers that are not ‘back’ since they are new. (well, funny to those that share... | 1,760,371,748.017202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/raspberry-pi-oss-wayland-transition-completed-with-switch-to-labwc/ | Raspberry Pi OS’s Wayland Transition Completed With Switch To Labwc | Maya Posch | [
"News",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"Raspberry Pi OS",
"Wayland"
] | With the latest release of Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) the end of the X Window System
has become reality
, completing a years-long transition period. Although this change between display servers is not something which should be readily apparent to the casual user, the change from the client-server-based X11 protocol to the monolithic
Wayland protocol
has a number of implications. A major change is that with the display server and window manager no longer being separate units, features such as network transparency (e.g. remote X-sessions) are no longer a native feature, but have to be implemented separately by e.g. the Wayland compositor.
For Raspberry Pi the transition to Wayland was based on the perceived efficiency and security benefits of the monolithic architecture, with the 2021 release of Raspbian (based on Debian Bullseye) testing the waters using the hybrid X11 window manager/Wayland compositor
Mutter
. This allowed for switching between X11 and Wayland without committing. In 2023 Mutter was replaced with the
Wayfire
compositor with Wayland becoming the default on Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 platforms. Along the way it was found that the Wayfire project wasn’t developing in a way that would benefit Raspberry Pi OS, which led to what should now be the final Wayland compositor in the form of
Labwc
.
One advantage of Labwc is that it is more lightweight than Wayfire and Raspberry Pi has judged that this means that it should be the default across all Raspberry Pi systems. Compatibility with X11-based software is maintained with the XWayland library, so that users should ideally not notice any difference after switching to Labwc even on lower-end boards. Unless you’re one one of those people who use features such as (remote) X-sessions, nothing should feel markedly different.
In addition to this big change, the new Raspberry Pi OS release also improves touch screen support with the integrated Squeekboard virtual keyboard popping up when a touch screen is detected. Finally, the remote access
Raspberry Pi Connect
feature sees a few tweaks, which is the feature that effectively replaces remote X-sessions. Considering how glacially slow X desktop sessions can be, this is something which can be considered an improvement, but it would be nice if there was an alternative that didn’t rely on Raspberry Pi-provided services to work. | 88 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055769",
"author": "Dave Jones",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T02:19:27",
"content": "Does it mean it can finally run Tibia?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8055773",
"author": "Tobias",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T02:32:57",
... | 1,760,371,748.153441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/interfacing-old-burglar-alarm-sensors-into-homeassistant/ | Interfacing Old Burglar Alarm Sensors Into HomeAssistant | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"ge interlogix",
"home",
"homeassistant"
] | The annoying thing about commercial smart home gear is its lack of interoperability. HomeAssistant is very flexible though, and it’s easy to use all kinds of gear—even stuff you bodge together yourself. [Jeff Sandberg] demonstrates that ably with his project
to use ancient 1990s burglar alarm sensors in his modern smarthome setup.
The sensors in question are from an old GM Interlogix security system. The sensors themselves sit on doors or windows. They use magnets and a reed switch to sense if the door or window is opened. If so, they send out a radio message saying as much. All [Jeff] had to do was catch those messages and translate them for HomeAssistant.
To listen in on the sensors, [Jeff] employed a Nooelec NESDR—a software defined radio that could pick up the 319.5 MHz signals. The NESDR runs a tool called RTL_433, which can decode the sensor signals, and spit out MQTT messages to interface with HomeAssistant.
Much of the hard work was done already for [Jeff]—he just had to lace together the components. This is just a testament to the hard work by people in the HomeAssistant and SDR communities for figuring all this out and putting the tools online.
We’ve seen some neat HomeAssistant builds before,
like this neat home control terminal.
If you’re cooking up your own smarthome hacks, don’t hesitate to let us know! | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055728",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T23:14:21",
"content": "Hooking up an old (obsolete?) burglar alarm to Home Assistant, cool!I’ve seen a few homes with unused control panels on a wall. It would be neat to get them working again.",
... | 1,760,371,748.296407 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/turning-a-quansheng-handheld-into-a-neat-desktop-transceiver/ | Turning A Quansheng Handheld Into A Neat Desktop Transceiver | Lewin Day | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"ham radio",
"Quansheng",
"radio"
] | The Quansheng UV-K5 is a popular handheld radio. It’s useful out of the box, but also cherished for its modification potential. [OM0ET] purchased one of these capable VHF/UHF radios, but got to hacking—
as he wanted to use it as a desktop radio instead!
This might just sound like a simple reshell, but there was actually a bit of extra work involved. Most notably, the Quansheng is designed to be tuned solely by using the keypad. For desktop use, though, that’s actually kind of a pain. Thus, to make life easier, [OM0ET] decided to whip up a little encoder control to handle tuning and other control tasks using an ESP32. This was achieved with help from one [OM0WT] and files for that are
on Github
. Other tasks involved finding a way to make the keypad work in a new housing, and how to adapt things like the audio and data module and the speaker to their new homes.
Despite the original handheld being much smaller than the case used here, you’d be surprised how tight everything fits in the case. Still, the finished result looks great. We’ve seen some other
adaptable and upgradable ham radio gear before, too.
Sometimes custom is the way to go! Video after the break. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055702",
"author": "Canuckfire",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T21:27:25",
"content": "That looks like a Takachi enclosure…I have been looking at lots of benchtop hardware lately and have been sorely disappointed with most formfactors, and rehousing something honestly didn’t seem like a ... | 1,760,371,748.241922 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/the-woodworkers-cyberdeck/ | The Woodworker’s Cyberdeck | Lewin Day | [
"Cyberdecks"
] | [
"cyberdeck",
"raspberry pi"
] | Computers were supposed to be personal, customizable, and cool. At times, in this cold modern world, we forget that. However, the cyberdeck scene is chock full of people building creative, original computers that suit their own tastes, aesthetics, and needs. [DIY Tinkerer] is one such individual, and he made the most of his woodworking skills
when it came time to build his own cyberdeck!
The technological basics are along the lines of what we’re used to in this field. The build is based around a Raspberry Pi 4, with [DIY Tinkerer] selecting an 8 GB model for his needs. It’s paired with a 9000 mAh onboard battery, and there’s a power jack on the front to let the thing run on anything from 5 to 20 volts DC. For ease of use, there’s a multi-memory card reader and several USB 3 ports available.
The rest of the video focuses on the woodworking side of things. [DIY Tinkerer] shows us how he managed to build a new housing out of a rugged plastic case that would also be practical to use. The final product is both functional and attractive, and comes with an oscilloscope built in to boot! It came a long way from
his earlier build, too.
We’ve seen a great load of cyberdeck builds over the years
. | 9 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055905",
"author": "Ian",
"timestamp": "2024-10-29T09:21:39",
"content": "This is quite a nice build.But it’s not a cyberdeck.Please stop normalizing the misuse of the term.A cyberdeck isn’t just any cool/custom computer.A cyberdeck is a portable general use computer that is:– made... | 1,760,371,748.359747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/word-of-the-day-calendar-is-great-use-of-e-paper/ | Word Of The Day Calendar Is Great Use Of E-Paper | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"e-paper",
"epaper",
"raspberry pi",
"word calendar",
"word of the day calendar"
] | If you’re trying to learn a new language, there are always a lot of words to learn. A word-of-the-day calendar can help, and they’re often readily available off the shelf. Or, you can grab some hardware and build your own,
as [daedal-tech] did!
The project was built as a gift to help [daedal-tech]’s partner with their efforts to pick up French. Thus, a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W was employed and paired with a small Waveshare e-Paper display. These were stuffed inside a fancy light switch plate from Hobby Lobby and a small stand, the pair of which act as a pretty nice little frame for the build. The Pi runs a small Python script which employs the BeautifulSoup4 library and the Python Image library. Basically, the script grabs French words and spits them out on the display with a small description such that one might understand their meaning.
It’s a simple build, but one that has some real utility and is fun to boot. We might see
more word clocks
than calendars around these parts, but we love both all the same! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055616",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T16:14:26",
"content": "What a cute project! I absolutely love it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8056424",
"author": "daedal-tech",
"timestamp": "2024-... | 1,760,371,748.563252 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/freebsd-at-30-the-history-and-future-of-the-most-popular-bsd-based-os/ | FreeBSD At 30: The History And Future Of The Most Popular BSD-Based OS | Maya Posch | [
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Software Development"
] | [
"freebsd",
"operating system"
] | Probably not too many people around the world celebrated November 1st, 2023, but on this momentous date FreeBSD celebrated its 30th birthday. As the first original fork of the first complete and open source Unix operating system (
386BSD
) it continues the legacy that the Berkeley Software Distribution (
BSD
) began in 1978 until its final release in 1995. The related NetBSD project saw its beginnings somewhat later after this as well, also forking from 386BSD. NetBSD saw its first release a few months before FreeBSD’s initial release, but has always followed a different path towards maximum portability unlike the more generic nature of FreeBSD which – per the
FAQ
– seeks to specialize on a limited number of platforms, while providing the widest range of features on these platforms.
This means that FreeBSD is equally suitable for servers and workstations as for desktops and embedded applications, but
each platform
gets its own support tier level, with the upcoming version 15.x release only providing first tier support for x86_64 and AArch64 (ARMv8). That said, if you happen to be a billion-dollar company like Sony, you are more than welcome to provide your own FreeBSD support. Sony’s Playstation 3,
Playstation 4
and
Playstation 5
game consoles namely all run FreeBSD, along with a range of popular networking and NAS platforms from other big names. Clearly, it’s hard to argue with FreeBSD’s popularity.
Despite this, you rarely hear people mention that they are running FreeBSD, unlike Linux, so one might wonder whether there is anything keeping FreeBSD from stretching its digital legs on people’s daily driver desktop systems?
In The Beginning There Was UNIX
Once immortalized on the silver screen with the enthusiastically spoken words “It’s a UNIX system. I know this.”, the
Unix
operating system (trademarked as UNIX) originated at Bell Labs where it initially was only intended for internal use to make writing and running code for systems like the PDP-11 easier. Widespread external use started with Version 6, but even before that it was the starting point for what came to be known as the Unix-based OSes:
Diagram showing the key Unix and Unix-like operating systems (Credit:
Eraserhead1, Infinity0, Sav_vas, Wikimedia
)
After FreeBSD and
NetBSD
forked off the 386BSD codebase, both would spawn a few more forks, most notable being OpenBSD which was forked off NetBSD by Theo de Raadt when he was (controversially) removed from the project. From FreeBSD forked the Dragonfly BSD project, while FreeBSD is mostly used directly for specific applications, such as
GhostBSD
providing a pleasant desktop experience with preconfigured desktop and similar amenities, and
pfSense
for firewall and router applications. Apple’s Darwin that underlies OS X and later contains a significant amount of FreeBSD code as well.
Overall, FreeBSD is the most commonly used of these OSS BSDs and also the one you’re most likely to think of when considering using a BSD, other than OS X/MacOS, on a desktop system.
Why FreeBSD Isn’t Linux
Screenshot of Debian GNU/Hurd with Xfce desktop environment (Credit:
VulcanSphere
, Wikimedia)
The Linux kernel is described as ‘Unix-like’, as much like Minix it does not directly derive from any Unix or BSD but does provide some level of compatibility. A Unix OS meanwhile is the entirety of the tools and applications (‘userland’) that accompany it, something which is provided for Linux-based distributions most commonly from the
GNU
(‘GNU is Not Unix’) project, ergo these Linux distributions are referred to as
GNU/Linux-based
to denote their use of the Linux kernel and a GNU userland. There is also a version of Debian which uses GNU userland and the FreeBSD kernel, called
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD
, alongside a (also Unix-like)
Hurd
kernel-based flavor of Debian (Debian GNU/Hurd).
In terms of overall identity it’s thus much more appropriate to refer to ‘Linux kernel’ and ‘GNU userland’ features in the context of GNU/Linux, which contrasts with the BSD userland that one finds in the BSDs, including modern-day MacOS. It is this identity of kernel- and userland that most strongly distinguishes these various operating systems and individual distributions.
These differences result in a number of distinguishing features, such as the kernel-level
FreeBSD jail
feature that can virtualize a single system into multiple independent ones with very little overhead. This is significantly more secure than a filesystem-level chroot jail, which was what Unix originally came with. For other types of virtualization, FreeBSD offers
bhyve
, which can be contrasted with the kernel-based virtualization machine (KVM) in the Linux kernel. Both of these are hypervisor/virtual machine managers that can run a variety of guest OSes. As demonstrated in
a comparison
by Jim Salter, between bhyve and KVM there is significant performance difference, with bhyve/NVMe on FreeBSD 13.1 outperforming KVM/VirtIO on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS by a large margin.
What this demonstrates is why FreeBSD for storage and server solutions is such a popular choice, and likely why Sony picked FreeBSD for its customized Playstation operating systems, as these gaming consoles rely heavily on virtualization, as with e.g. the
PS5 hypervisor
.
OpenZFS And NAS Things
A really popular application of FreeBSD is in Network-Attached Storage (NAS), with originally FreeNAS (now TrueNAS) running the roost here, with iXsystems providing both development and commercial support. Here we saw
some recent backlash
, as iXsystems announced that they will be adding a GNU/Linux-based solution (TrueNAS SCALE), while the FreeBSD-based version (TrueNAS CORE) will remain stuck on FreeBSD version 13. Here
The Register
confirmed with iXsystems that this effectively would end TrueNAS on FreeBSD. Which wouldn’t be so bad if performance on Linux wasn’t noticeably worse as covered earlier, and if
OpenZFS
on Linux wasn’t so problematic.
SAS storage bays in Huawei RH2288H V2 Rack Server. (Source:
Wikimedia
)
Unlike with FreeBSD where the ZFS filesystem is an integral part of the kernel, ZFS on Linux is more of an afterthought, with a range of different implementations that each have their own issues, impacting performance and stability. This means that TrueNAS on Linux will be less stable, slower and also use more RAM. Fortunately, as befits an open source ecosystem, an alternative exists in the form of
XigmaNAS
which was forked from FreeNAS and follows current FreeBSD fairly closely.
So what is the big deal with
ZFS
? Originally developed by Sun for the Solaris OS, it was released under the open source CDDL license and is the default filesystem for FreeBSD. Unlike most other filesystems, it is both the filesystem and volume manager, which is why it natively handles features such as RAID, snapshots and replication. This also provides it with the ‘self-healing’ ability where some degree of data corruption is detected and corrected, without the need for dedicated RAID controllers or ECC RAM.
For anyone who has had grief with any of the Ext*, Reiserfs or other filesystems (journaled or not) on Linux, this probably sounds pretty good, and its tight integration into FreeBSD again explains why it’s it’s such a popular choice for situations where data integrity, performance and stability are essential.
FreeBSD As A Desktop
It’s probably little surprise that FreeBSD-as-a-desktop is almost boringly similar to GNU/Linux-as-a-desktop, running the Xorg server and one’s desktop environment (DE) of choice. Which also means that it can be frustratingly broken, as I found out while trying to follow the
instructions
in the FreeBSD handbook for setting up Xfce. This worked about as well as my various attempts over the years to get to a working
startx
on Debian and Arch. Fortunately trying out
another guide
on the FreeBSD Foundation site quickly got me on the right path. This is where using GhostBSD (using the Mate DE by default) is a timesaver if you want to use a GUI with your FreeBSD but would like to skip the ‘deciphering
startx
error messages’ part.
After installation of FreeBSD (with Xfce) or GhostBSD, it’s pretty much your typical desktop experience. You got effectively the same software as on a GNU/Linux distro, with FreeBSD even providing binary (user-space) compatibility with Linux and with official GPU driver support from e.g. NVidia (
for x86_64
). If you intend to stick to the desktop experience, it’s probably quite unremarkable from here onwards, minus the use of the FreeBSD
pkg
(and source code
ports
) package manager instead of
apt
,
pacman
, etc.
Doing Some Software Porting
One of my standard ways to test out an operating system is to try and making some of my personal open source projects run on it, particularly
NymphCast
as it takes me pretty deep through the bowels of the OS and its package management system. Since NymphCast already runs on Linux, this should be a snap, one would think. As it turns out, this was mostly correct. From having had a play with this on FreeBSD a few years ago I was already aware of a few gotchas, such as the difference between GNU
make
and BSD
make
, with the former being available as the
gmake
package and command.
Another thing you may want to do is
set up
sudo
(also a package) as this is not installed by default. After this it took me a few seconds to nail down the names of the dependencies to install via the
FreeBSD Ports
site, which I added to the NymphCast dependencies shell script. After this I was almost home-free, except for some details.
These details being that on GhostBSD you
need to install
the
GhostBSD*-dev
packages to do any development work, and after some consulting with the fine folks over at the
#freebsd
channel on Libera IRC I concluded that using Clang (the system default) to compile everything instead of GCC would resolve the quaint linker errors, as both apparently link against different c++ libraries (clang/libc++ vs gcc/libstdc++).
This did indeed resolve the last issues, and I had the latest nightly of NymphCast running on FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE, playing back some videos streaming from Windows & Android systems. Not that this was shocking, as the current stable version
is already up
on Ports, but that package’s maintainer had make similar tweaks (
gmake
and use of
clang++
) as I did, so this should make their work easier for next time.
FreeBSD Is Here To Stay
I’ll be the first to admit that none of the BSDs really were much of a blip on my radar for much of the time that I was spending time with various OSes. Of course, I got lured into GNU/Linux with the vapid declarations of the ‘Year of the Linux Desktop’ back in the late 90s, but FreeBSD seems to always have been ‘that thing for servers’. It might have been just my fascination with porting projects like NymphCast to other platforms that got me started with FreeBSD a few years ago, but the more you look into what it can do and its differences with other OSes, the more you begin to appreciate how it’s a whole, well-rounded package.
At one point in time I made the terrible mistake of reading the ‘Linux From Scratch’ guide, which just reinforced how harrowingly pieced together Linux distributions are. Compared to the singular code bases of the BSDs, it’s almost a miracle that Linux distributions work as well as they do. Another nice thing about FreeBSD is the project structure, with no ‘Czar for life’, but rather a democratically elected core leadership. In the 30-year
anniversary reflection article
(
PDF
) in
FreeBSD Journal
the way this system was created is described. One could say that this creates a merit-based system that rewards even newcomers to the project. As a possible disadvantage, however, it does not create nearly the same clickbait-worthy headlines as another Linus Torvalds rant.
With widespread industry usage of FreeBSD and a strong hobbyist/enthusiast core, it seems fair to say that FreeBSD’s future looks brighter than ever. With FreeBSD
available for easy installation
on a range of SBCs and running well in a virtual machine, it’s definitely worth it to give it a try. | 40 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055573",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T14:20:29",
"content": "Running XigmaNAS on a potato NAS.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8055576",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T14:31:1... | 1,760,371,748.514116 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/video-provides-rare-look-inside-chinas-space-station/ | Video Provides Rare Look Inside China’s Space Station | Tom Nardi | [
"Space"
] | [
"china",
"space station",
"tiangong"
] | China has a space station — it’s called Tiangong, the first module was launched in 2021, and it’s all going quite swimmingly, thank you very much. That’s essentially what we know about the orbital complex here in the West, as China tends to be fairly secretive when it comes to their activities in space.
But thanks to a
recently released video by the state-funded
CCTV Video News Agency
,
we now have an unprecedented look inside of humanity’s newest orbital laboratory. Shenzhou-18 crew members [Ye Guangfu], [Li Cong], and [Li Guangsu] provide viewers with a full-blown tour of the station, and there’s even baked-in English subtitles so you won’t miss a beat.
The few looks the public has gotten inside of Tiangong in the past have been low-resolution and generally of the “shaky cam” variety. In comparison, this flashy presentation was clearly made to impress an international audience. But let’s be fair, if you managed to build your own crewed station in low Earth orbit, wouldn’t you want to show it off a bit?
Crew berths on Tiangong appear considerably more comfortable than those on the ISS.
So what did we learn about Tiangong from this tour? Well, admittedly not more than we could have guessed. The layout of the three-module station isn’t entirely unlike the International Space Station or even its Soviet predecessor, Mir.
One module contains a common area where the crew meets and eats their meals, as well as the sleeping berths for crew members. (The small portholes in each berth are a nice touch.) Then there are the multi-purpose laboratory modules with their rows of rack mounted experiments, an exercise area, and finally an airlock that can be used to either bring cargo onboard or expose experiments to space.
Even though it’s much smaller than the ISS, one can’t help but notice that the inside of the Tiangong appears a bit less cramped. The modules of the Chinese station have a slightly sleeker internal look, and overall, everything seems less cluttered, or at least, better organized. Some online commenters have equated it to the comparison between the SpaceX Dragon and Russia’s Soyuz capsule, which given the relative ages of the two stations, isn’t wholly inaccurate.
China’s space program has been making great strides over the last several years, but from an outsider’s perspective, it’s been difficult to follow. It’s been doubly frustrating for us here at Hackaday. We’d love to provide the same sort of in-depth coverage we do for American and European missions, but often it’s a challenge to find the technical data that requires. Here’s hoping this video means China is looking to be more transparent about their off-world activities going forward. | 71 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055489",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T11:10:12",
"content": "Just think of the amzing things that humanity could acheive if we could just get past this ideological, power driven competion between different parts of the world. True, competion does help push inovation,... | 1,760,371,748.674117 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/28/lock-in-thermography-on-a-cheap-ir-camera/ | Lock-In Thermography On A Cheap IR Camera | Dan Maloney | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"cosine",
"debugging",
"in-phase",
"infrared",
"integration",
"ir",
"lock-in thermography",
"modulated",
"quadrature",
"sine"
] | Seeing the unseen is one of the great things about using an infrared (IR) camera, and even the cheap-ish ones that plug into a smartphone can dramatically improve your hardware debugging game. But even fancy and expensive IR cameras have their limits, and may miss subtle temperature changes that indicate a problem. Luckily, there’s a trick that improves the thermal resolution of even the lowliest IR camera, and all it takes is
a little tweak to the device under test and some simple math
.
According to [Dmytro], “lock-in thermography” is so simple that his exploration of the topic was just a side quest in a larger project that delved into the innards of a
Xinfrared Xtherm II T2S+
camera. The idea is to periodically modulate the heat produced by the device under test, typically by ramping the power supply voltage up and down. IR images are taken in synch with the modulation, with each frame having a sine and cosine scaling factor applied to each pixel. The frames are averaged together over an integration period to create both in-phase and out-of-phase images, which can reveal thermal details that were previously unseen.
With some primary literature in hand, [Dmytro] cobbled together some simple code to automate the entire lock-in process. His first test subject was a
de-capped AD9042 ADC, with power to the chip
modulated by a MOSFET attached to a Raspberry Pi Pico. Integrating the images over just ten seconds provided remarkably detailed images of the die of the chip, far more detailed than the live view. He also pointed the camera at the Pico itself, programmed it to blink the LED slowly, and was clearly able to see heating in the LED and onboard DC-DC converter.
The potential of lock-in thermography for die-level debugging is pretty exciting, especially given how accessible it seems to be. The process reminds us a little of other “seeing the unseeable” techniques, like those neat
acoustic cameras
that make diagnosing machine vibrations easier, or even
measuring blood pressure
by watching the subtle change in color of someone’s skin as the capillaries fill. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055443",
"author": "GG-Labs",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T09:12:40",
"content": "Love this content, thank you!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8055462",
"author": "sweethack",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T09:54:17",
"conte... | 1,760,371,748.732489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/27/the-pound-or-euro-or-dollar-can-still-be-in-your-pocket/ | The Pound ( Or Euro, Or Dollar ) Can Still Be In Your Pocket | Jenny List | [
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"cryptocurrency",
"money",
"privacy"
] | A British journalistic trope involves the phrase “The pound in your pocket”, a derisory reference to the 1960s Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s use of it to try to persuade the public that a proposed currency devaluation wouldn’t affect them. Nearly six decades later not so many Brits carry physical pounds in their pockets as electronic transfers have become more prevalent, but the currency remains. So much so that the governor of the Bank of England has had to reassure the world that
the pound won’t be replaced by a proposed “Britcoin” cryptocurrency
should that be introduced.
Normally matters of monetary policy aren’t within Hackaday’s remit, but since the UK is not the only country to mull over the idea of a tightly regulated cryptocurrency tied to their existing one, there’s a privacy angle to be considered while still steering clear of the fog of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. The problem is that reading
the justification for the new digital pound
from the Bank of England, it’s very difficult to see much it offers which isn’t already offered by existing cashless payment systems. Meanwhile it offers to them a blank regulatory sheet upon which they can write any new rules they want, and since that inevitably means some of those rules will affect digital privacy in a negative manner, it should be a worry to anyone whose government has considered the idea. Being at pains to tell us that we’ll still be able to see a picture of the King (or a dead President, or
a set of bridges
) on a bit of paper thus feels like an irrelevance as increasingly few of us handle banknotes much anyway these days. Perhaps that act in itself will now become more of an act of protest. And just when we’d persuaded our hackerspaces to go cashless, too.
Header: Wikitropia,
CC BY-SA 3.0
. | 88 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055344",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T02:13:17",
"content": "A government can seize a digital bank note of yours without reaching in your pocket.That’s why I’m against it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,371,748.85386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/27/hackaday-links-october-27-2024/ | Hackaday Links: October 27, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"Arkansas",
"batteries",
"Betelgeuse",
"binary star",
"brine",
"entropy",
"ev",
"game",
"hackaday links",
"lithium",
"lp",
"manufacturing",
"mastering",
"orion",
"password rules",
"record",
"Smackover",
"Supernova",
"variable star",
"vinyl"
] | Problem solved? If the problem is supplying enough lithium to build batteries for all the electric vehicles that will be needed by 2030, then
a new lithium deposit in Arkansas
might be a resounding “Yes!” The discovery involves the Smackover Formation — and we’ll be honest here that half the reason we chose to feature this story was to be able to write “Smackover Formation” — which is a limestone aquifer covering a vast arc from the Rio Grande River in Texas through to the western tip of the Florida panhandle. Parts of the aquifer, including the bit that bulges up into southern Arkansas, bear a brine rich in lithium salts, far more so than any of the brines currently commercially exploited for
lithium metal production
elsewhere in the world. Given the measured concentration and estimated volume of brine in the formation, there could be between 5 million and 19 million tons of lithium in the formation; even at the lower end of the range, that’s enough to build nine times the number of EV batteries needed.
There are still a lot of unknowns, not least of which is whether any of the lithium in the brine is recoverable, and there are surely technical and regulatory hurdles aplenty. But the mere existence of a brine deposit that rich in lithium that covers such a vast area is encouraging; surely there’s somewhere within the formation where it’ll be possible to extract and concentrate the brine in an environmentally sensitive manner. And, once again just for fun, Smackover Formation.
While not ones to cheer for interstellar catastrophes, we can’t say that we haven’t been rooting for Betelgeuse to go supernova these last few years. Ever since the red supergiant star that sits on Orion’s shoulder started its peculiar dimming a while back, talk among astronomy buffs was that the activity presaged an imminent explosion of the star, one that could make Betelgeuse the brightest object in the night sky for a few months, and possibly make it visible in the daytime as well. As thrilling — and foreboding, at least by ancient astronomy standards — as that sounds, it seems as if the unusual dimming recently observed has a more prosaic explanation: a “Betelbuddy” star. According to astronomers who pored over observations, after ruling out all the other possibilities to explain the dimming, it seems like there must be a smaller star orbiting Betelgeuse that’s periodically plowing a clear spot through the cloud of dust surrounding the dying star. That would explain the periodic dimming and brightening, but why have we not seen this Betelbuddy before? It could be that the smaller star is lost in the giant’s glare, hiding in its halo of incandescent gas. So, don’t hold your breath on seeing a supernova anytime soon.
Do you find password rules annoying? We sure do, and even using a password manager with a generator that can handle all sorts of restrictions like password length and special characters, being told how to generate a password seems silly, especially since the information on what characters a valid password would have seems like valuable clues to potential crackers. But if for some reason you haven’t had enough password pestering, try out
the password game
. You start by entering a password — we, of course, started with
correct horse battery staple
— and then deal with the consequences of your obviously poor choices. You’ll be asked to do all the silly stuff that only decreases the entropy of your password, which only makes it harder to remember and easier to guess. We haven’t played it through — it’s way too annoying — but we assume that if you ever actually manage to compose a suitable password, you’ll be asked to change it every 90 days.
And finally, we’ve managed to live long enough now to have cycled completely through all the major music recording modalities except wax cylinders. Having heard them all, we’ve got to agree with the hipsters: vinyl is the best. That’s especially true after watching this fascinating look at the LP record production process, which covers everything from mastering to packaging. The painstaking steps at the beginning are perhaps the most interesting, but anyone who doesn’t appreciate the hot vinyl squeezing out from the press is a cold, heartless monster. The video is only 15 minutes long and mercifully free of narration, so enjoy. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055326",
"author": "DV Henkel-Wallace",
"timestamp": "2024-10-28T00:26:41",
"content": "You’re about 650 years too late. Back when they first brewed Löwenbräu they should have gotten drunk and encouraged a supernova. Or maybe started even earlier since those things don’t happen…o... | 1,760,371,748.906916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/27/bncs-for-an-old-instrument/ | BNCs For An Old Instrument | Jenny List | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"dignal generator",
"instrument repair",
"tube",
"valve"
] | Back in the summer our eye was caught by [Jazzy Jane]’s new signal generator, or perhaps we should say her new-to-her signal generator. It’s an Advance E1 from around 1950, and it was particularly interesting from here because it matches the model on the shelf above this bench.
She’s back with a new video on the E1
, allowing us a further look inside it as she replaces a dead capacitor, gets its audio oscillator working, and upgrades its sockets.
Treating us to a further peek inside the unit, first up is a leaky capacitor. Then a knotty question for old tech enthusiasts, to upgrade or not? The ancient co-ax connectors are out of place on a modern bench, so does originality matter enough to give it a set of BNC sockets? We’d tend to agree; just because we have some adapters for the unit here doesn’t mean it’s convenient. Following on from that is a period variable frequency audio mod which has failed, so out that comes and a little fault-finding is required to get the wiring of the audio transformer.
These instruments are not by any means compact, but they do have the advantage of being exceptionally well-built and above all cheap. We hope readers appreciate videos like the one below the break, and that you’re encouraged not to be scared of diving in to older items like this one to fix them. Meanwhile
the first installment is here
. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055285",
"author": "Reg",
"timestamp": "2024-10-27T22:02:41",
"content": "Very nice. Needs a splitter for the 2nd BNC output set to switch phase by 180 degrees using the spare switch ;-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8055... | 1,760,371,748.9512 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/27/apple-ios-18s-new-repair-assistant-easier-parts-pairing-yet-with-many-limitations/ | Apple IOS 18’s New Repair Assistant: Easier Parts Pairing Yet With Many Limitations | Maya Posch | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"apple iphone",
"right to repair"
] | Over the years, Apple has gone all-in on parts pairing. Virtually every component in an iPhone and iPad has a unique ID that’s kept in a big database over at Apple, which limits replacement parts to only those which have their pairing with the host system officially sanctified by Apple. With iOS 18 there seems to be somewhat of a change in how difficult getting a pairing approved, in the form of Apple’s new Repair Assistant. According to early responses
by [iFixit]
and in a
video by [Hugh Jeffreys]
the experience is ‘promising but flawed’.
As noted in the official
Apple support page
, the Repair Assistant is limited to the iPhone 15+, iPad Pro (M4) and iPad Air (M2), which still leaves many devices unable to make use of this feature. For the lucky few, however, this theoretically means that you can forego having to contact Apple directly to approve new parts. Instead the assistant will boot into its own environment, perform the pairing and calibration and allow you to go on your merry way with (theoretically) all functionality fully accessible.
The bad news here is that parts whose IDs show up as being locked (Activation Lock) are ineligible, which is something you cannot tell when you’re buying replacement parts. During [iFixit]’s testing involving swapping logic boards between two iPhone 15 Pros they found many issues, ranging from sudden reboots during calibration and boot looping. Some of these issues were due to the captive-portal-based WiFi network at [iFixit] HQ, but after eliminating that variable features like Face ID still refused to calibrate among other issues.
Meanwhile [Hugh]’s experiences have been more positive, but the limited nature of this feature, and the issues surrounding used and third-party parts, mean that the practical use of this Repair Assistant will remain limited, with tons of perfectly fine Activation Locked parts scrapped each year and third-party parts requiring pairing hacks to make basic features work,
even on Apple’s MacBooks
.
IOS 18 also adds battery monitoring for third-party batteries, which is a nice touch, but one
cannot help but get the feeling
that Apple is being dragged kicking and screaming into the age of easy repairs and replacements with Apple devices.
Featured image: A stack of Activation Locked MacBooks destined for the shredder in refurbisher [John Bumstead]’s workshop. | 12 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055198",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2024-10-27T17:58:15",
"content": "The flip side of this is that the aggressive locking to an AppleID and the fact you can’t just rip an iPhone apart for parts means that stolen iPhones are of much less value than they used to be. Police force... | 1,760,371,748.9966 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/27/a-brand-new-additive-pcb-fab-technique/ | A Brand-New Additive PCB Fab Technique? | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"PCB Hacks"
] | [
"Additive",
"automotive",
"pcb",
"solder",
"traces"
] | Usually when we present a project on these pages, it’s pretty cut and dried — here’s what was done, these are the technologies used, this was the result. But sometimes we run across projects that raise far more questions than they answer, such as with
this printed circuit board that’s
actually
printed
rather than made using any of the traditional methods.
Right up front we’ll admit that this video from [Bad Obsession Motorsport] is long, and what’s more, it’s part of a lengthy series of videos that document the restoration of an Austin Mini GT-Four. We haven’t watched the entire video much less any of the others in the series, so jumping into this in the middle bears some risk. We gather that the instrument cluster in the car is in need of a tune-up, prompting our users to build a PCB to hold all the instruments and indicators. Normally that’s pretty standard stuff, but jumping to the 14:00 minute mark on the video, you’ll see that these blokes took the long way around.
Starting with a naked sheet of FR4 substrate, they drilled out all the holes needed for their PCB layout. Most of these holes were filled with rivets of various sizes, some to accept through-hole leads, others to act as vias to the other side of the board. Fine traces of solder were then applied to the FR4 using a modified CNC mill with the hot-end and extruder of a 3D printer added to the quill. Components were soldered to the board in more or less the typical fashion.
It looks like a brilliant piece of work, but it leaves us with a few questions. We wonder about the mechanics of this; how is the solder adhering to the FR4 well enough to be stable? Especially in a high-vibration environment like a car, it seems like the traces would peel right off the board. Indeed, at one point (27:40) they easily peel the traces back to solder in some SMD LEDs.
Also, how do you solder to solder? They seem to be using a low-temp solder and a higher temperature solder, and getting right in between the melting points. We’re used to seeing solder wet into the copper traces and flow until the joint is complete, but in our experience, without the capillary action of the copper, the surface tension of the molten solder would just form a big blob. They do mention a special “no-flux 96S solder” at 24:20; could that be the secret?
We love the idea of additive PCB manufacturing, and the process is very satisfying to watch. But we’re begging for more detail. Let us know what you think, and if you know anything more about this process, in the comments below.
Thanks to [dennis1a4] and about half a dozen other readers for the nearly simultaneous tips. | 68 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055142",
"author": "tdobrandano",
"timestamp": "2024-10-27T14:20:20",
"content": "They mention the use of spray on adhesive later in the video when pointing out the dirt that got stuck to it. I assume they sprayed the adhesive on the FR4 before printing the traces on. And they test... | 1,760,371,749.103062 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/27/small-steam-generator-creates-educational-experience/ | Small Steam Generator Creates Educational Experience | Danie Conradie | [
"Engine Hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"Boiler",
"generator",
"steam turbine"
] | Steam turbines have helped drive a large chunk of our technological development over the last century or so, and they’ll always make for interesting DIY. [Hyperspace Pirate] built a
small turbine and boiler in his garage
, turning fire into flowing electrons, and learning a bunch in the process.
[Hyperspace Pirate] based the turbine design on 3D printed Pelton-style turbines he had previously experimented with, but milled it from brass using a CNC router. A couple of holes had to be drilled in the side of the rotor to balance it. The shaft drives a brushless DC motor to convert the energy from the expanding steam into electricity.
To avoid the long heat times required for a conventional boiler, [Hyperspace Pirate] decided to use a flash boiler. This involves heating up high-pressure water in a thin coil of copper tube, causing the water to boil as it flows down the tube. To produce the high-pressure water feed the propane tank for the burner was also hooked up to the water tank to pressurize it, removing the need for a separate pump or compressed air source. This setup allows the turbine to start producing power within twelve seconds of lighting the burner — significantly faster than a conventional boiler.
Throughout the entire video [Hyperspace Pirate] shows his calculation for the design and tests, making for a very informative demonstration. By hooking up a variable load and Arduino to the rectified output of the motor, he was able to measure the output power and efficiency. It came out to less than 1% efficiency for turning propane into electricity, not accounting for the heat loss of the boiler. The wide gaps between the turbine and housing, as well as the lack of a converging/diverging nozzle on the input of the turbine are likely big contributing factors to the low efficiency.
Like many of his other projects, the goal was the challenge of the project, not practicality or efficiency. From a
gyro-stabilized monorail
, to
copper ingots from algaecide
and and a
DIY cryocooler
, he has sure done some interesting ones. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055125",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2024-10-27T13:15:53",
"content": "Could the results be different if the Pelton was switched out for something more suited to steam? Isn’t the Pelton an impulse turbine, responding to mass?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,371,749.149696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/27/how-pollution-controls-for-cargo-ships-made-global-warming-worse/ | How Pollution Controls For Cargo Ships Made Global Warming Worse | Maya Posch | [
"Science",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"climate change",
"geoengineering",
"shipping"
] | In 2020 international shipping saw itself faced with new fuel regulations for cargo ships pertaining to low sulfur fuels (IMO2020). This reduced the emission of sulfur dioxide aerosols from these ships across the globe by about 80% practically overnight and resulting in perhaps the biggest unintentional geoengineering event since last century.
As
detailed in a recent paper
by [Tianle Yuan] et al. as published in
Nature
, by removing these aerosols from the Earth’s atmosphere, it also removed their cooling effect. Effectively this change seems to have both demonstrated the effect of
solar engineering
, as well as sped up the greenhouse effect through radiative forcing of around 0.2 Watt/m
2
of the global ocean.
The inadvertent effect of the pollution by these cargo ships appears to have been what is called marine cloud brightening (MCB), with the increased reflectivity of said clouds diminishing rapidly as these pollution controls came into effect. This was studied by the researchers using a combination of satellite observations and a chemical transport model, with the North Atlantic, the Caribbeans and South China Sea as the busiest shipping channels primarily affected.
Although the lesson one could draw from this is that we should put more ships on the oceans burning high-sulfur fuels, perhaps the better lesson is that MCB is a viable method to counteract global warming, assuming we can find a method to achieve it that doesn’t also increase acid rain and similar negative effects from pollution.
Featured image: Time series of global temperature anomaly since 1980. (Credit: Tianle Yuan et al., Nature Communications Earth Environment, 2024) | 39 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055124",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2024-10-27T13:04:33",
"content": "The wording of the title is misleading. It should be “how fine particles in the atmosphere masked the real extend of global warming”. And this author definitely is often super biased.",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,371,749.224674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/clockwork-rover-for-venus/ | Clockwork Rover For Venus | Danie Conradie | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Space"
] | [
"mechanical computer",
"obstacle avoidance",
"venus"
] | Venus hasn’t received nearly the same attention from space programs as Mars, largely due to its exceedingly hostile environment. Most electronics wouldn’t survive the 462 °C heat, never mind the intense atmospheric pressure and sulfuric acid clouds. With this in mind, NASA has been experimenting with the concept of a completely mechanical rover. The [Beardy Penguin] and a team of fellow students from the University of Southampton decided to try their hand at the concept—
video
after the break.
The project was divided into four subsystems: obstacle detection, mechanical computer, locomotion (tracks), and the drivetrain. The obstacle detection system consists of three (left, center, right) triple-rollers in front of the rover, which trigger inputs on the mechanical computer when it encounters an obstacle over a certain size. The inputs indicate the position of each roller (up/down) and the combination of inputs determines the appropriate maneuver to clear the obstacle. [Beardy Penguin] used Simulink to design the logic circuit, consisting of AND, OR, and NOT gates. The resulting 5-layer
mechanical computer
quickly ran into the limits of tolerances and friction, and the team eventually had trouble getting their design to work with the available input forces.
Due to the high-pressure atmosphere, an
on-board wind turbine
has long been proposed as a viable power source for a
Venus rover
. It wasn’t part of this project, so it was replaced with a comparable 40 W electric motor. The output from a logic circuit goes through a timing mechanism and into a planetary gearbox system. It changes output rotation direction by driving the planet gear carrier with the sun gear or locking it in a stationary position.
As with many undergraduate engineering projects, the physical results were mixed, but the educational value was immense. They got individual subsystems working, but not the fully integrated prototype. Even so, they received several awards for their project and even came third in an international Simulink challenge. It also allowed another team to continue their work and refine the subsystems. | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055031",
"author": "gregg4",
"timestamp": "2024-10-27T06:31:42",
"content": "In one of Carl Sagan’s books, which came out shortly after the two Pioneer space craft wandered out of the solar system, it contained a discussion one of the designs that Russia sent to that planet. The sc... | 1,760,371,749.289972 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/geochron-another-time-another-timeless-tale/ | Geochron: Another Time, Another Timeless Tale | Heidi Ulrich | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"analemma",
"clock",
"geochron",
"timekeeper",
"timekeeping",
"world clock",
"world time"
] | The Geochron World Time Indicator is a clock that doubles as a live map of where the sun is shining on the Earth. Back in its day, it was a cult piece that some have dubbed the “Rolex on the wall.”
Wired’s recent coverage of the clock
reminded us of just how cool it is on the inside. And to dig in, we like
[Attoparsec]’s restoration project
on his own mid-1980s Geochron, lovingly fixing up a clock he picked up online.
[Attoparsec]’s recent restoration shares insights into the clock’s fascinating mechanics. Using a synchronous motor, transparent slides, and a lighted platen, the Geochron works like a glorified slide projector, displaying the analemma—a figure-eight pattern that tracks the sun’s position over the year.
But if you’re looking for a digital version, way back in 2011 we showcased
[Justin]’s LED hack of FlorinC’s “Wise Clock”,
which ingeniously emulated the Geochron’s day-night pattern using RGB LEDs, swapping out the faceplate for a world map printed on vellum. That’s probably a much more reasonable way to go these days. Why haven’t we seen more remakes of these? | 10 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8055008",
"author": "captnmike",
"timestamp": "2024-10-27T04:19:50",
"content": "Who is going to be the first to say “use a 555”?With the price of large displays getting low and lower – why not use a color display and do the math and such with something like a RPi? And add a displa... | 1,760,371,749.429153 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/the-glacial-ipv6-transition-raising-questions-on-necessity-and-nat-based-solutions/ | The Glacial IPv6 Transition: Raising Questions On Necessity And NAT-Based Solutions | Maya Posch | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"internet",
"IPv6"
] | A joke in networking circles is that the switch from IPv4 to IPv6 is always a few years away. Although IPv6 was introduced in the early 90s as a result of the feared imminent IPv4 address drought courtesy of the blossoming Internet. Many decades later,
[Geoff Huston] in an article
on the
APNIC
blog looks back on these years to try to understand why IPv4 is still a crucial foundation of the modern Internet while IPv6 has barely escaped the need to (futilely) try to tunnel via an IPv4-centric Internet. According to a straight extrapolation by [Geoff], it would take approximately two more decades for IPv6 to truly take over from its predecessor.
Although these days a significant part of the Internet is reachable via IPv6 and IPv6 support comes standard in any modern mainstream operating system, for some reason the ‘IPv4 address pool exhaustion’ apocalypse hasn’t happened (yet). Perhaps ironically, this might as [Geoff] postulates be a consequence of a lack of planning and pushing of IPv6 in the 1990s, with the rise of mobile devices and their use of non-packet-based 3G throwing a massive spanner in the works. These days we are using a contrived combination of TLS Server Name Indication (SNI), DNS and Network Address Translation (NAT) to provide layers upon layers of routing on top of IPv4 within a content-centric Internet (as with e.g. content distribution networks, or CDNs).
While the average person’s Internet connection is likely to have both an IPv4 and IPv6 address assigned to it, there’s a good chance that only the latter is a true Internet IP, while the former is just the address behind the ISP’s CG-NAT (carrier-grade NAT), breaking a significant part of (peer to peer) software and services that relied on being able to traverse an IPv4 Internet via perhaps a firewall forwarding rule. This has now in a way left both the IPv4 and IPv6 sides of the Internet broken in their own special way compared to how they were envisioned to function.
Much of this seems to be due to the changes since the 1990s in how the Internet got used, with IP-based addressing of less importance, while giants like Cloudflare, AWS, etc. have now largely
become
‘the Internet’. If this is the path that we’ll stay on, then IPv6 truly may never take over from IPv4, as we will transition to something entirely else. Whether this will be something akin to the pre-WWW ‘internet’ of
CompuServe and kin
, or something else will be an exciting revelation over the coming years and decades.
Header: Robert.Harker [
CC BY-SA 3.0
]. | 72 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054940",
"author": "The Mighty Buzzard",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T23:28:58",
"content": "Don’t look at me, I have v6 disabled in my home system’ kernels and plan to keep it that way until I either can’t get a v4 address or they start charging extra. There’s no up side to me to have... | 1,760,371,749.534483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-gain-a-dmca-exemption/ | McDonalds Ice Cream Machines Gain A DMCA Exemption | Jenny List | [
"News",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"dmca",
"McDonald's",
"right to repair"
] | An unlikely theatre for an act in the right-to-repair saga came last year in the form of McDonalds restaurants, whose McFlurry ice cream machines are prone to breakdown. The manufacturer had locked them down, and a franchisee with a broken machine had no option but to call them for an expensive repair job. iFixit and Public Knowledge challenged this with a request for a DMCA exemption from the Copyright Office,
and now news emerges that this has been granted
.
The exemption in question isn’t specific to McDonalds, instead it applies to retail food preparation equipment in general, which includes ice-cream machines. We’re guessing that franchisees won’t be breaking out the screwdrivers either, instead it’s likely to lower significantly the cost of a service contract for them and any other food industry operators hit with the same problem. Meanwhile any hackers who’ve picked up an old machine can now fix it themselves without breaking the law, and maybe the chances of your local Mickey D’s having no McFlurries have gone down.
This story has featured more than once on these pages, so catch up
here
, and
here
. | 71 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054778",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T20:39:29",
"content": "Now Donald can do the maintenance. He would ace the repairs and get very good ratings ! (Beautiiful)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8054780",
"autho... | 1,760,371,749.635493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/a-new-chinese-radio-breaks-cover-is-it-worth-it/ | A New Chinese Radio Breaks Cover, Is It Worth It? | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"airband",
"fm",
"HF",
"receiver"
] | Scanning the firehose of new electronic kits and modules coming from the usual Chinese suppliers can be a rewarding experience, as sometimes among the endless breakout boards comes an item that looks interesting enough to try. As an example there’s
a receiver kit being given a quick review
by [Tech Minds], offering AM and HF multi-mode, FM broadcast, and air band alongside what appear to be digital streaming features.
Looking at it, though all the RF part is hidden under screening cans we’re guessing it might contain one of the Silicon Labs all-in-one receiver chips, but the whole appears to deliver a useful receiver with a comprehensive interface. The review isn’t quite technical enough so we can’t glean a lot more, but it looks as though it could be useful. We’d be tempted to snag one for review, but since with very few exceptions we pay for the stuff we review, it’s a mite expensive at $50+ for yet another radio.
There’s an ongoing question with all these cheap kits and modules though, first of all where did the design come from and
are we freeloading on someone else’s hard work
, but then whether or not what you’re getting is a knock-off using defective semiconductors or with bean-counting parts removal degrading performance. We’re guessing more will come out about this radio in due course, and we can all make our own judgement. Meanwhile this one can be found on AliExpress or Banggood, so take a look and see if you’re tempted. | 25 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054757",
"author": "3isenhorn",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T18:26:31",
"content": "It looks like a rad1o with larger screen.https://github.com/rad1oOkay not an SDR but it looks very similar",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "806686... | 1,760,371,749.709438 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/diy-laser-tag-project-does-it-in-style/ | DIY Laser Tag Project Does It In Style | Donald Papp | [
"Games",
"Weapons Hacks"
] | [
"infrared",
"laser tag",
"oled",
"transparent oled"
] | This DIY lasertag project designed by [Nii], which he brought to Tokyo Maker Faire back in September, is a treasure trove. It’s all in Japanese and
you’ll need to visit X (formerly Twitter) to see it
, but the images do a fine job of getting the essentials across and your favorite translator tool will do a fair job of the rest.
There’s a whole lot to admire in this project. The swing-out transparent OLED display is super slick, the electronics are housed on a single PCB, the back half of the grip is in fact a portable USB power bank that slots directly in to provide power, and there’s a really smart use of a short RGB LED strip for effects.
The optical elements show some inspired design, as well. An infrared LED points forward, and with the help of a lens, focuses the beam tightly enough to make aiming meaningful. For detecting hits, the top of the pistol conceals a custom-made reflector that directs any IR downward into a receiver, making it omnidirectional in terms of hit sensing but only needing a single sensor.
Want to know more? Check out [Nii]’s
earlier prototypes
on his website. It’s clear this has been in the works for a while, so if you like seeing how a project develops, you’re in for a treat.
As for the choice of transparent OLED displays? They are certainly cool, and we remember
how wild it looks to have several stacked together
. | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054686",
"author": "Markus",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T15:06:32",
"content": "The link seems to be broken (as the platform that it was on)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8054954",
"author": "cherries",
"timest... | 1,760,371,749.821595 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/rf-detector-chip-helps-find-hidden-cameras-and-bugs/ | RF Detector Chip Helps Find Hidden Cameras And Bugs | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"bug sniffer",
"logarithmic amplifier",
"signal strength"
] | It’s a staple of spy thriller movies, that the protagonist has some kind of electronic scanner with which he theatrically searches his hotel room to reveal the bad guys’ attempt to bug him. The bug of course always had a flashing LED to make it really obvious to viewers, and the scanner was made by the props department to look all cool and futuristic.
It’s not so far-fetched though, while bugs and hidden cameras in for example an Airbnb may not have flashing LEDs, they still emit RF and can be detected with a signal strength meter.
That’s the premise behind [RamboRogers]’ RF hunter,
the spy movie electronic scanner made real.
At the rear of the device is an ESP32, but the front end is
an AD8317 RF detector chip
. This is an interesting and useful component, in that it contains a logarithmic amplifier such that it produces a voltage proportional to the RF input in decibels. You’ll find it at the heart of an RF power meter, but it’s also perfect for a precision field strength meter like this one. That movie spy would have a much higher chance of finding the bug with one of these.
For the
real
spies of course, the instruments
are much more sophisticated
. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054642",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T11:36:17",
"content": "That is a great looking design. Clever use of the log detector. I’ve seen a few bits of homebrew test gear that use it too. Thanks for sharing l",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,371,749.754579 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/26/chinese-humanoid-robot-establishes-new-running-speed-courtesy-of-running-shoes/ | Chinese Humanoid Robot Establishes New Running Speed Courtesy Of Running Shoes | Maya Posch | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"humanoid robot"
] | As natural as walking is to us tail-less bipedal mammals, the fact of the matter is that it took many evolutionary adaptations to make this act of controlled falling forward work (somewhat) reliably. It’s therefore little wonder that replicating bipedal walking (and running) in robotics is taking a while. Recently a Chinese humanoid robot
managed to bump up
the maximum running speed to 3.6 m/s (12.96 km/h), during a match between two of
Robot Era’s
STAR1 humanoid robots in the Gobi desert.
For comparison, the
footspeed
of humans during a marathon is around 20 km/h and significantly higher with a sprint. These humanoid robots did a 34 minute run, with an interesting difference being that one was equipped with running shoes, which helped it reach these faster speeds. Clearly the same reasons which has led humans to start adopting footwear since humankind’s hunter-gatherer days – including increased grip and traction – also apply to humanoid robots.
That said, it looks like the era when humans can no longer outrun humanoid robots is still a long time off. | 37 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054610",
"author": "avgrnr",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T08:32:40",
"content": "“For comparison, the footspeed of humans during a marathon is around 20 km/h”For elite runners, yes. The average speed for male runners at the NYC marathon is about 9 km/h.",
"parent_id": null,
"de... | 1,760,371,749.965598 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/ataris-pac-man-flop-how-a-classic-went-off-course/ | Atari’sPac-ManFlop: How A Classic Went Off-Course | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Games",
"Software Development"
] | [
"arcade",
"arcade game",
"atari",
"atari 2600",
"pac-man",
"pacman",
"retrocomputing"
] | For fans of retro games,
Pac-Man
is nothing short of iconic—a game so loved it’s been ported to nearly every console imaginable. But the Atari 2600 version, released in 1982, left players scratching their heads – as laid out in
a video by [Almost Something]
. Atari had licensed
Pac-Man
to ride the wave of its arcade success, but the home version, programmed solely by [Todd Fry], missed the mark, turning an arcade icon into a surprising lesson in over-ambitious marketing.
Despite the hype, [Fry] faced an almost impossible task: translating
Pac-Man’s
detailed graphics and complex gameplay to the Atari’s limited 4 K cartridge with only 128 bytes of RAM. Atari’s strict limitations on black backgrounds and its choice to cut costs by sticking with a 4 K cartridge left the game barely recognizable. The famous pellet-chomping maze became simpler, colors were changed, and the iconic ghosts—reduced to single colors—flickered constantly. And then, Atari went all in, producing twelve million copies, betting on the success of universal appeal. In a twist,
Pac-Man
did sell in record numbers (over seven million copies) but still fell short of Atari’s expectations, leaving millions of unsold cartridges eventually dumped in a New Mexico landfill.
This debacle even kind of marked Atari’s 1983 decline. Still,
Pac-Man
survived the hiccup, evolving and outlasting its flawed adaptation on the 2600. If you’re interested in learning more about the ins and outs of game ports, check out the fantastic talk
[Bob Hickman] gave during Supercon 2023
. | 35 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054568",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T05:25:37",
"content": "I forgot this was in vertical format, what a squish to horizontal. Long before the even taller cellphone vids of now. Nobody was going to turn their TV console on it’s side or put up with dead screen ar... | 1,760,371,749.890381 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/retrotechtacular-making-enough-merlins-to-win-a-war/ | Retrotechtacular: Making Enough Merlins To Win A War | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"engine",
"Merlin",
"retrotechtacular",
"rolls-royce",
"spitfire",
"wwii"
] | From the earliest days of warfare, it’s never been enough to be able to build a deadlier weapon than your enemy can. Making a sharper spear, an arrow that flies farther and straighter, or a more accurate rifle are all important, but if you can’t make a lot of those spears, arrows, or guns, their quality doesn’t matter. As the saying goes, quantity has a quality of its own.
That was the problem faced by Britain in the run-up to World War II. In the 1930s, Rolls-Royce had developed one of the finest pieces of engineering ever conceived: the Merlin engine. Planners knew they had something special in the supercharged V-12 engine, which would go on to power fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire, and bombers like the Avro Lancaster and Hawker Hurricane. But, the engine would be needed in such numbers that an entire system would need to be built to produce enough of them to make a difference.
“Contribution to Victory,”
a film that appears to date from the early 1950s, documents the expansive efforts of the Rolls-Royce corporation to ramp up Merlin engine production for World War II. Compiled from footage shot during the mid to late 1930s, the film details not just the exquisite mechanical engineering of the Merlin but how a web of enterprises was brought together under one vast, vertically integrated umbrella. Designing the engine and the infrastructure to produce it in massive numbers took place in parallel, which must have represented a huge gamble for Rolls-Royce and the Air Ministry. To manage that risk, Rolls-Royce designers made wooden scale models on the Merlin, to test fitment and look for potential interference problems before any castings were made or metal was cut. They also set up an experimental shop dedicated to looking at the processes of making each part, and how human factors could be streamlined to make it easier to manufacture the engines.
With prototype engines and processes in hand, Rolls-Royce embarked on a massive scale-up to production levels. They built huge plants in Crewe and Glasgow, hopefully as far from the Luftwaffe’s reach as possible. They also undertook a massive social engineering effort, building a network of training institutions tasked with churning out the millions of skilled workers needed. Entire towns were constructed to house the workers, and each factory had its own support services, including fire brigade and medical departments.
As fascinating as the engineering behind the engineering is, the film is still a love letter to the engine itself, of which almost 150,000 copies would eventually be manufactured. The casting processes are perhaps the most interesting, but there’s eye candy aplenty for Merlin fans at every stage of production. We were also surprised to learn that Rolls-Royce took the added step of mounting finished Merlins in the cowlings needed for the various planes they were destined for, to ensure that the engine would be properly integrated with the airframe. This must have been a huge boon to groundcrews out in the field; being able to bolt a new nose on a Spitfire and get it back in the fight with a spanking new Merlin was probably key to victory in the Battle of Britain. | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054558",
"author": "Paul LeBlanc",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T03:58:33",
"content": "The Hawker Hurricane was a fighter, not a bomber.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8054604",
"author": "Jonathan Wilson",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,371,751.571674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/diy-3d-hand-controller-using-a-webcam-and-scripting/ | DIY 3D Hand Controller Using A Webcam And Scripting | Heidi Ulrich | [
"home hacks",
"News",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"3d",
"browser",
"gesture control",
"interactive",
"javascript",
"MediaPipe",
"webcam"
] | Are you ready to elevate your interactive possibilities without breaking the bank? If so, explore
[Caio Bassetti]’s tutorial
on creating a full 3D hand controller using only a webcam, MediaPipe Hands, and Three.js. This hack lets you transform a 2D screen into a fully interactive 3D scene—all with your hand movements. If you’re passionate about low-cost, accessible tech, try this yourself – not much else is needed but a webcam and a browser!
The magic of the project lies in using MediaPipe Hands to track key points on your hand, such as the middle finger and wrist, to calculate depth and positioning. Using clever Three.js tricks, the elements can be controlled on a 3D axis. This setup creates a responsive virtual controller, interpreting hand gestures for intuitive movement in the 3D space. The hack also implements a closed-fist gesture to grab and drag objects and detects collisions to add interactivity. It’s a simple, practical build and it performs reliably in most browsers.
For more on this innovation or other exciting DIY hand-tracking projects, browse
our archive on gesture control projects
, or check out
the full article on Codrops
. With tools such as MediaPipe and Three.js, turning ideas into reality gets more accessible than ever. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054564",
"author": "Petebeat",
"timestamp": "2024-10-26T04:34:31",
"content": "Neat, I have to take a look at this. I tried to use this same media pipe tool to prototype a custom 6dof “sci-fi ship” controller I wanted to build during a brief stint of playing star citizen. Existing ... | 1,760,371,751.701916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/can-you-homebrew-a-running-shoe/ | Can You Homebrew A Running Shoe? | Dave Rowntree | [
"Wearable Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"athletics",
"running",
"shoe",
"sock",
"sole"
] | Unless you spend all your time lounging on the sofa, you probably own at least one pair of shoes. But have you ever thought to make your own to improve some aspect of your life? YouTube channel
Answer in Progress
set out to do precisely that, but it didn’t quite work out
.
When you (well, other people) get into running, it’s tempting to believe a lot of the shoe company hype and just drop hundreds of dollars on the latest ‘super shoe’ and hope that will help you break your target time. But do you actually need to buy into all this, or can you make something yourself? The project aimed to get the 5k time down significantly, at any cost, but primarily by cheating with technology. The team set out to look at the design
process, given that there is indeed a fair amount of science to shoe design. Firstly, after a quick run, the main issues with some existing shoes were identified, specifically that there are a lot of pain points; feet hurt from all the impacts, and knees take a real pounding, too. That meant they needed to increase the sole cushioning. They felt that too much energy was wasted with the shoes not promoting forward motion as much as possible; feet tended to bounce upwards so that a rocker sole shape would help. Finally, laces and other upper sole features cause distraction and some comfort issues, so those can be deleted.
A thicker mid-sole allows for a rolled shape
The plan was to make a ‘sock’ shoe style, with an upper in one piece and stretchy enough to slip on without laces. The process started by wrapping the foot in cling film and then a few layers of duct tape to fix the shape. This was split down the top to extract the foot, open out the pattern, and transfer it to some nylon fabric. The outer profile was transferred and cut out with simple hand tools in a fashion that would allow the shape to be reconstructed as it was glued to a sole. It sounds simple, but it’s pretty fiddly work.
The latest running shoes use specialised rubber materials for the midsole. The solid foam wedge between the outer rubber and the inner sole cushions the foot. Those materials are only a few per cent ‘better’ than much more accessible foams that can be 3D printed. After sculpting a sole shape by hand using Blender, a friend 3D printed it. After that, the upper part was glued and ready for a test run. Which didn’t last long. It turned out that the lack of a stable heel counter (the bit around the back) that helps lock the heel in place meant the foot was too loose in the shoe, causing potential issues such as an ankle roll. That would be not good. A follow-up session with a sports-focused chiropodist demonstrated that all this was rather pointless before the fundamental issues of strength and fitness were addressed. So, whilst it was fun to see an attempt to beat the big boys at their own game, it sure isn’t easy to pull it off, especially if you can’t get off the sofa.
The invention of flexible 3D printing
filaments spurred the development of a wide range of 3D-printed footwear,
like
these low-poly beauties
.
While we’re 3D printing shoes, we also need some
lace locks
. Finally, with winter approaching for us Northerners, perhaps it’s time to
run off a pair of 3D-printed strap-on cleats
.
Thanks to [fluffy] for the tip! | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054494",
"author": "Fuhrer",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T21:17:26",
"content": "Nice thumbnail. I’m definitely watching that video 😊",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8054533",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2024-10-2... | 1,760,371,752.087911 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/upgrading-a-microwave-oven-to-20-kw/ | ‘Upgrading’ A Microwave Oven To 20 KW | Dave Rowntree | [
"High Voltage",
"Science"
] | [
"emission spectra",
"high power",
"magnetron",
"microwave oven"
] | Whilst microwave plasmas are nothing new around here, we were curious to see what happens at 20x the power, and since YouTuber [Styropyro] had
put out a new video
, we couldn’t resist seeing where this was going. Clearly, as your bog standard microwave oven can only handle at most one kilowatt; the ‘oven’ needed a bit of an upgrade.
A 16 kW water-cooled magnetron. Why not over-drive it to 20 kW for fun?
Getting hold of bigger magnetrons is tricky, but as luck — or perhaps fate — would have it, a 16 kW, water-cooled beast became available on eBay thanks to a tip from a Discord user. It was odd but perhaps not surprising that this
Hitatch H0915 magnetron
was being sold as a ‘heat exchanger.’
[Styropyro] doesn’t go into much detail on how to supply the anode with its specified 16 kW at 9.5 kVDC, but the usual sketchy (well down-right terrifying) transformers in the background indicate that he had just what was needed kicking around the ‘shop. Obviously, since this is a [Styropyro] video, these sorts of practical things have been discussed before, so there is no need to waste precious time and get right on to blowing stuff up!
Some classic microwave tricks are shown, like boiling water in five seconds, cooking pickles (they really do scream at 20 kW) and the grape-induced plasma-in-a-jar. It was quite clear that at this power level, containing that angry-looking plasma was quite a challenge. If it was permitted to leak out for only a few seconds, it destroyed the mica waveguide cover and risked coupling into the magnetron and frying it. Many experiments followed, a lot of which seemed to involve the production of toxic brown-colored nitrogen dioxide fumes. It was definitely good to see him wearing a respirator for this reason alone!
Is it purple or is it indigo? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
The main star of the demonstration was the plasma-induced emissions of various metal elements, with the rare indigo and violet colors making an appearance once the right blend of materials was introduced into the glassware. Talking of glassware, we reckon he got through a whole kitchen’s worth. We lost count of the number of exploded beakers and smashed plates. Anyway, plasma science is fun science, but obviously, please don’t try any of this at home!
For those who didn’t take an ‘electron devices’ course at college, here’s
a quick guide to how magnetrons work
. Plasma physics is weird; here’s
how the plasma grape experiment works
. Finally, this
old hack is a truly terrible idea
. Really don’t do this. | 39 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054453",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T18:34:38",
"content": "Always loved this guy, hope his medical concerns get sorted out and don’t cause him further issues",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8054504",
"au... | 1,760,371,752.037793 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/ham-radio-in-the-internet-age/ | Ham Radio In The Internet Age | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"ham radio"
] | Even if you are relatively young, you can probably think back on what TV was like when you were a kid and then realize that TV today is completely different. Most people watch on-demand. Saturday morning cartoons are gone, and high-definition digital signals are the norm. Many of those changes are a direct result of the Internet, which, of course, changed just about everything. Ham radio is no different. The ham radio of today has only a hazy resemblance to the ham radio of the past. I should know. I’ve been a ham for 47 years.
You know the meme about “
what people think I do
?” You could easily do that for ham radio operators. (Oh wait, of course, someone
has done it
.) The perception that hams are using antique equipment and talking about their health problems all day is a stereotype. There are many hams, and while some of them use old gear and some of them might be a little obsessed with their doctor visits, that’s true for any group. It turns out there is no “typical” ham, but modern tech, globalization, and the Internet have all changed the hobby no matter what part of it you enjoy.
Radios
One of the biggest changes in the hobby has been in the radio end. Hams tend to use two kinds of gear: HF and VHF/UHF (that’s high frequency, very high frequency, and ultra-high frequency). HF gear is made to talk over long distances, while VHF/UHF gear is for talking around town. It used to be that a new radio was a luxury that many hams couldn’t afford. You made do with surplus gear or used equipment.
Globalization has made radios much less expensive, while technological advances have made them vastly more capable. It wasn’t long ago that a handy-talkie (what normal folks would call a walkie-talkie) would be a large purchase and not have many features. Import radios are now sophisticated, often using SDR technology, and so cheap that they are practically disposable. They are so cheap now that many hams have multiples that they issue to other hams during public service events.
Because these cheap ($20-$40) radios often use SDR, they can
even be hacked
. These radios aren’t typically the highest quality if you are used to repurposed commercial gear, but when you can replace the radio for $20, it hardly matters.
HF radios are a different story. Thanks to software-defined radio, superpowerful computers, and FPGAs, even relatively inexpensive HF radios have features that would have seemed like magic when I first got my license.
The ICOM IC-7300 is considered a “starter” radio!
While some hams like to build gear or use simple or older gear, modern transceivers, like the IC-7300 from Icom shown here, have incredible RF filtering done in software, spectrum analyzers, and scopes built in. The 7300, by the way, isn’t considered a “top of the line” radio by any means. But it has features that would have been a dream on a state of the art unit before the advent of DSP.
Having these kind of tools changes how you operate. In the old days, you’d tune around to see if you could hear anyone. Now, glancing at the screen will show you all the signals on a band and how strong they are. Touch one, and you tune it in immediately. Digital noise reduction is very helpful these days with so much interference, and, of course, you can control the whole thing from a PC if you want to.
The receivers are exceptional compared to what even a high-end radio would offer a few decades ago. Specialized filters used to be expensive and limited in options. Now, you can design any filter you want on the fly and it will be nearly perfect.
Granted, these radios aren’t in the impulse buy category like the handheld radios. Still, you can find them new for around $1,000 and used for less. There are also other similar radios for much less. Just as you can buy imported handheld VHF and UHF radios, there are imported HF radios that put out a lower wattage (20 watts vs 100 watts is typical). These still have plenty of features, and you can get them for about half the cost of the name-brand 100W rigs. [K4OGO] has a video (see below) about several popular radios in that price range and you’ll notice that many of them have similar displays.
Digital Modes
Paradoxically, you might not need as hot a receiver, or as big of an antenna, or as much power as you might think. Hams have long known that voice communication is inefficient. Morse code could be the earliest form of digital radio communication, allowing a proficient operator to copy signals that would never make a voice contact. However, hams have also long used other digital modes, including TeleType, which is more convenient but less reliable than a good Morse code operator.
That changed with computer soundcards. Your computer can pull signals out of a hash that you would swear was nothing but noise. Modern protocols incorporate error detection and correction, retries, and sophisticated digital signal processing techniques to pull information from what appears to be nowhere.
What kind of sound card do you need? Almost any modern card will do it, but if you have the Icom IC-7300 pictured above, you don’t need one. It turns out, it is a sound card itself. When you plug it into a PC, it offers audio in and out for ham radio programs. It can even send IQ signals directly to the PC for common SDR programs to work with.
Some
digital modes
are conversational. You can use them like you might a radio-based chat room to talk to people you know or people you’ve just met. However, some modes are more specialized and optimized to make and confirm contact.
Computer Logging
There was a time when every ham had a log book — a notebook to write down contacts — and a stack of
QSL
cards. Operators would exchange cards in the mail to confirm contact with each other. Many of the cards were interesting, and collecting enough cards could earn an award (for example, working all 50 US states or over 100 foreign countries).
Things are different now. Many people use a computer to track their contacts. While you could just use a spreadsheet, there are many ways to log and — more importantly — share logs online.
The advantage is that when you make a contact and enter into the system, it can match your entry up with your partner’s entry and immediately confirm the contact. This isn’t perfect, because there are several systems people use, but it is possible to interoperate between them. No more waiting for the mail.
DX and Propagation
I mentioned that having a display of the entire ham band changes how you operate. But there is even more help out there. Many people enjoy working rare foreign stations or special event stations held at parks or historical locations. These days, if you hear a station like that on the air, you can
report it on the Internet
so other people can find them. In some cases, the operator will report themselves, even.
A real-time view of beacon reception across the globe.
Suppose you want to make contact with someone in Kenya because you haven’t done it, and you are working towards an award that counts how many countries you’ve contacted. Instead of searching endlessly, you can simply watch the Internet for when a station from that country appears. Then turn on your radio, use the digital tuning to go exactly to their frequency, and try your luck.
Of course, radio propagation isn’t foolproof. But you can use
beacons
to determine how propagation is near you. There are many tools to
manipulate the beacon data
to better understand radio conditions. In fact, if you use
digital modes
or Morse code,
you can find out who’s hearing you
on the Internet, which can be very useful.
Why Not You?
Some old hams say the Internet is ruining ham radio. I say it is changing ham radio just like it has changed virtually everything else. Some of those changes aren’t that drastic anyway. For years, people chasing awards, trying to work long distances, or participating in contests have very short contacts. You typically would exchange your name, location, and how strong your signal is and then make way for the next person to make contact. The digital mode
FT8
automates all that. It is true that it isn’t very personal, but those kinds of contacts were never personal to start with.
What’s more is that you don’t have to use any of this if you don’t want to. I operate a lot of Morse code with no mechanical assistance. If I hear a big pileup, I might go look at the computer to see who has been spotted on that frequency. But I don’t have to. I could figure it out the old-fashioned way.
Hams work with advanced signal processing software, satellites, moon bounce, support communities, design antennas, foster school education, work during disasters, and push the envelope on microwave communication. No matter what your interests, there’s something you’ll enjoy doing. For many years now, you don’t even have to pass a test for Morse code, so if you didn’t want to learn the code, you don’t have to.
In many ways, hams were the original hackers, and you might be surprised by how many hackers you know who are hams already. I don’t know what ham radio will look like in the year 2100, but I know it will be pushing the limits of technology, somehow. | 66 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054442",
"author": "CJay",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T17:40:49",
"content": "I think the main thing ruining ham radio is old hams who are resistant to change and refuse to accept that amateur radio is a broad church hobby with room for everyone.I’ve even been told on the RSGB mailing... | 1,760,371,751.958571 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/hackaday-podcast-episode-294-sao-badge-reveal-precision-on-a-shoestring-and-the-saga-of-redbox/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 294: SAO Badge Reveal, Precision On A Shoestring, And The Saga Of Redbox | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | With the 2024 Hackaday Supercon looming large on the horizon, Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi start this episode off by talking about this year’s badge and its focus on modular add-ons. From there they’ll go over the results of a particularly challenging installment of
What’s that Sound?
, discuss a promising DIY lathe that utilizes 3D printed parts filled with concrete, and ponder what the implosion of Redbox means for all of their disc-dispensing machines that are still out in the wild.
You’ll also hear about custom macropads, lifting SMD pins, and how one hacker is making music with vintage electronics learning kits. Finally, they’ll reassure listeners that the shifting geopolitical landscape probably
won’t
mean the end of Hackaday.io anytime soon, and how some strategically placed pin headers can completely change how you approach designing your own PCBs.
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!
Download in DRM-free MP3.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 294 Show Notes:
News:
The 2024 Hackaday Supercon SAO Badge Reveal
What’s that Sound?
Congrats to [I can see the sounds] for guessing the HAARP.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
A 3D Printed, Open Source Lathe?
Precision CNC With Epoxy Granite
Experiments In Creating The Best Epoxy Granite
Redbox Is Dead, But The Machines Are Kind Of Hanging On
Redbox hack reveals customer info. from 2K rentals – Ars Technica
Foone🏳️⚧️: “the unit I’ve got an image for has records going …” – digipres.club
Libre Space Foundation Aims To Improve Satellite Tech
Flying The First Open Source Satellite
32C3: So You Want To Build A Satellite?
Open Source CubeSats Ease The Pain Of Building Your Own
How To Build A CubeSat
SatNOGS – Global Network of Ground Stations
Keeping Tabs On An Undergraduate Projects Lab’s Door Status
DIY Air Bearings, No Machining Required
Learn 40 Years Of Mech Prototyping At Lightspeed
High-Precision Air Bearing CNC Lathe And Grinder
I2C The Hard Way
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
3D Printed Tires, By The Numbers
Zero To Custom MacroPad In 37 Easy Steps
Make Your Own Remy The Rat This Halloween
Tom’s Picks:
Give Your SMD Components A Lift
75-In-One Music
Figuring Out The Most Efficient Way To Reuse Bags Of Desiccant
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Will .IO Domain Names Survive A Geopolitical Rearrangement?
Hacker Tactic: Building Blocks
Power Supply PCB Redesign | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,751.664126 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/donated-atari-mega-st-gives-a-peek-at-game-development-history/ | Donated Atari Mega ST Gives A Peek At Game Development History | Donald Papp | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"atari st",
"game development",
"restoration",
"software development",
"vintage"
] | [Neil] from
The Cave
, a computer and console gaming museum in the UK, has a treat for vintage computing and computer gaming enthusiasts. They received an important piece of game dev history from [Richard Costello], who coded ports of
Gauntlet 2
,
Mortal Kombat
, and
Primal Rage
for Atari ST and Amiga home computers.
[Richard] brought them his non-functional Atari Mega ST
in the hopes that they could get it working again, and demonstrate to visitors how game development was done back in the 80s — but sadly the hardware is not in the best shape.
The Atari ST flagged deleted files for overwriting but didn’t actively wipe them, allowing an undelete utility to work.
That doesn’t stop [Neil], however. The real goal is seeing if it’s possible to re-create the development environment and access the game assets on the SCSI hard drive, and it’s not necessary to revive every part of the hardware to do that. The solution is to back up the drive using a
BlueSCSI
board which can act as a host, scan the SCSI bus, and dump any device it finds to an SD card. The drive didn’t spin up originally, but some light percussive maintenance solved that.
With the files pulled off the drive, it was time to boot it up using an emulator (which begins at the
16:12 mark)
. There are multiple partitions, but not a lot of files. There was one more trick up [Neil]’s sleeve. Suspecting that deleting everything was the last thing [Richard] did before turning the machine off decades ago, he fired up a file recovery utility. The Atari ST “deleted” files by marking them to be overwritten by replacing the first letter of the filename with a ‘bomb’ character but otherwise leaving contents intact. Lo and behold, directories and files were available to be undeleted!
[Neil] found some fascinating stuff such as mixed game and concept assets as well as what appears to be a copy of
Ramrod
,
a never-released game
. It’s an ongoing process, but with any luck, the tools and environment a game developer used in the 80s will be made available for visitors to experience.
Of course, modern retro gaming enthusiasts don’t need to create games the classic way; tools like
GB Studio
make development much easier. And speaking of hidden cleverness in old games, did you know the original
DOOM
actually had
multi-monitor support hidden under the hood
? | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054417",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T15:20:38",
"content": "“did you know the original DOOM actually had multi-monitor support hidden under the hood?”No, I didn’t. So now do we have to start asking, “Does it play multi-monitor DOOM? “"... | 1,760,371,752.138785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/this-week-in-security-the-geopolitical-kernel-roundcube-and-the-archive/ | This Week In Security: The Geopolitical Kernel, Roundcube, And The Archive | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"linux kernel",
"quantum",
"Roundcube",
"This Week in Security"
] | Leading off the week is the controversy around the Linux kernel and
an unexpected change in maintainership
. The exact change was that over a dozen developers with ties to or employment by Russian entities were removed as maintainers. The unfortunate thing about this patch was that it was merged without any discussion or real explanation, other than being “due to various compliance requirements”. We eventually got more answers, that this was due to US sanctions against certain Russian businesses, and that the
Linux Foundation lawyers gave guidance
that:
If your company is on the U.S. OFAC SDN lists, subject to an OFAC sanctions program, or owned/controlled by a company on the list, our ability to collaborate with you will be subject to restrictions, and you cannot be in the MAINTAINERS file.
So that’s that. One might observe that it’s unfortunate that a single government has that much control over the kernel’s development process. There were some questions about why Russian entities were targeted and not sanctioned Chinese companies like Huawei. [Ted Ts’o] spoke to that, explaining that in the US there are exemptions and different rules for each country and business. This was all fairly standard compliance stuff, up until
a very surprising statement
from [James Bottomley], a very core Kernel maintainer:
We are hoping that this action alone will be sufficient to satisfy the US Treasury department in charge of sanctions and we won’t also have to remove any existing patches.
I can only conclude from this that the US Treasury has in fact made this threat, that code would need to be removed. Now this is genuinely surprising, given the legal precedent that
code is 1st Amendment protected speech
. That precedent was established when dealing with encryption code that was being export restricted in the 90s. It seems particularly problematic that the US government believes it can specify what code does and does not belong in the Linux kernel.
SELinux
Since we’re in Kernel land,
let’s talk SELinux
. Many modern Linux systems, and Android in particular, use SELinux to provide an extra security layer. It’s not an uncommon troubleshooting step, to turn off SELinux to see if that helps with mysterious issues. What we have here in the klecko Blog is an intro to bypassing SELinux. The setup is that an exploit has achieved root, but is in a unprivileged context. What options does an attacker have to try to bypass SELinux?
The first, most obvious solution is to just disable SELinux altogether. If you can write to memory, the SELinux enabled bit can just be set to false. But that might not work, if you can’t write to memory, or have a hypervisor to wrestle with, like some Android systems. Another option is the set of permissive flags that can be overwritten, or the AVC cache that can be poisoned, both approaches resulting in every SELinux request being approved. It’s an interesting overview.
Printer Root
Xerox printers with the “Network Troubleshooting” feature have some
unintended hidden functionality
. The troubleshooting is done by calling tcpdump as root, and the configuration allows setting the IP address to use for the troubleshooting process. And as you might expect, that IP address was used to create a command line string, and it isn’t properly escaped. You can sneak a
$(bash ...)
in as part of the address, allowing code execution. The good news is that access to this troubleshooting function is locked behind the web admin account. Xerox has made fixed firmware available for this issue.
Fix Your Roundcube
The Roundcube email web client has a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that
is actively being exploited
. The flaw is the processing of SVGs, and the addition of an extra space in an
href
tag, that the browser ignores. Sneaking this inside an SVG allows for arbitrary Javascript to run when opening this malicious email.
Roundcube has released 1.5.7 and 1.6.7
that address the issue. This is under active exploitation, currently being used against the Russian aligned CIS countries. It’s a simple exploit, so expect to see it more widely used soon.
The Archive
The Internet Archive
continues to be under siege
. The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks were apparently done by SN-Blackmeta. But the hacker behind the data breach is still a mystery. But the news this week is that there is still someone with access to Internet Archive API keys. Specifically Zendesk, illustrated by the fact that when Mashable reached out via email, the hacker answered, “It’s dispiriting to see that even after being made aware of the breach 2 weeks ago, IA has still not done the due diligence of rotating many of the API keys that were exposed in their gitlab secrets.”
It’s obviously been a terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad month for the Internet Archive. As it’s such an important resource, we’re hoping for some additional support, and getting the service back to 100%.
Quantum Errata
You may remember last week, that we talked about a Quantum Annealing machine making progress on solving RSA cryptography. In the comments, it was pointed out that some coverage on this talks about RSA, and some talks about AES, a cryptography thought to be quantum-resistant.
At least one source is claiming
that this confusion is because there were actually two papers from the same team, one discussing RSA, and the other techniques that could be used against AES. This isn’t confirmed yet, and there are outstanding questions about both papers.
Bits and Bytes
SQL injection attacks are old hat by this point. [NastyStereo] has an interesting idea:
Polyglot SQL injection attacks
. The idea is simple. A SQL query might be escapable with a single quote or a double quote. To test it, just include both:
OR 1#"OR"'OR''='"="'OR''='
. There are more examples and some analysis at the link.
Kaspersky researchers found a Chrome exploit, that was being delivered
in the form of an online tank battle game
. In reality, the game was stolen from its original developers, and the web site was a crypto stealing scam, making use of the browser 0-day. This campaign has been pinned on Lazarus, the APT from North Korea.
And yet another example of fake software, researchers at kandji d
iscovered a fake Cloudflare Authenticator campaign
. This one is a MacOS malware dropper that does a reasonably good job of looking like it’s an official Cloudflare app. It’s malware, and places itself in the system crontab, to get launched on every boot. Follow the link for Indicators of Compromise if you need them. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054406",
"author": "Vauxhall Astra",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T14:43:55",
"content": "Visiting the website was all it took to get infected — the game was just a distraction.So, the Giggle Chromo is the new Internut Sexplorer when it comes to exploits eh? I remember fun days of Windo... | 1,760,371,751.623634 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/a-birthday-cake-for-a-retrocomputer-designer/ | A Birthday Cake For A Retrocomputer Designer | Jenny List | [
"cooking hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"birthday cake",
"imsai 8080",
"RC2014"
] | When making a birthday cake a bit more personal, one can create a novelty themed confection appropriate for the lucky recipient. In the case of [Spencer Owen], who you may know as the creator of the RC2014 retrocomputing ecosystem, it was appropriate to have one of the little machines at work somewhere, so [peahen] did just that. The result is a cake in the shape of an IMSAI 8080 microcomputer, but it does more than just look the part.
This is a working replica of the classic machine,
powered as you might expect by an RC2014 sitting next to it.
The lights are a set of addressable LEDs, and the switches are made from appropriately colored sweets. Sadly the plan to make these capacitive touch switched failed as the wiring became buried in the icing, but the LEDs deserve a second look. They’re encased in translucent heatshrink sleeving which is embedded under a layer of white icing, which is translucent enough, but on top for the classic panel light look are a set of edible cake-maker’s jewels. Best of all while all except the electronics is edible, the front panel is robust enough to have been removed from the cake in one and thus will live on.
We rather like the idea of electronics meeting sugarcraft, because fondant is a surprisingly versatile medium that deserves attention much further than just confectionery. We remember it being a popular cheap way to experiment with 3D printing back at the dawn of open source printers, and it still has some potential. Meanwhile if you’ve not seen the RC2014
we reviewed its original version back in 2016
, and since then it’s evolved to become
an ecosystem in its own right
. | 6 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054359",
"author": "Brian",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T11:07:22",
"content": "Lots of tasty bytes.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8054427",
"author": "Mike Barber",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T16:12:41",
"... | 1,760,371,751.756269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/25/putting-the-new-cryogrip-build-plate-to-the-test/ | Putting The New CryoGrip Build Plate To The Test | Dave Rowntree | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"Bambu lab",
"build plate",
"low-temperature",
"magnetic",
"PETG",
"PLA"
] | BIQU
has released a new line of low-temperature build plates that look to be the next step in 3D printing’s iteration
—or so YouTuber
Printing Perspective
thinks after
reviewing one
. The Cryogrip Pro is designed for the Bambu X1, P1, and A1 series of printers
but could easily be adapted for other magnetic-bed machines.
The bed adhesion strength when cold is immense!
The idea of the new material is to reduce the need for high bed temperatures, keeping enclosure temperatures low. As some enclosed printer owners may know, trying to print PLA and even PETG with the door closed can be troublesome due to how slowly these materials cool. Too high an ambient temperature can wreak havoc with this cooling process, even leading to nozzle-clogging.
The new build plate purports to enable low, even ambient bed temperatures, still with maximum adhesion. Two versions are available, with the ‘frostbite’ version intended for only PLA and PETG but having the best adhesion properties. A more general-purpose version, the ‘glacier’ sacrifices a little bed adhesion but gains the ability to handle a much wider range of materials.
An initial test with a decent-sized print showed that the bed adhesion was excellent, but after removing the print, it still looked warped. The theory was that it was due to how consistently the magnetic build plate was attached to the printer bed plate, which was now the limiting factor. Switching to a different printer seemed to ‘fix’ that issue, but that was really only needed to continue the build plate review.
They demonstrated a common issue with high-grip build plates: what happens when you try to remove the print. Obviously, magnetic build plates are designed to be removed and flexed to pop off the print, and this one is no different. The extreme adhesion, even at ambient temperature, does mean it’s even more essential to flex that plate, and thin prints will be troublesome. We guess that if these plates allow the door to be kept closed, then there are quite a few advantages, namely lower operating noise and improved filtration to keep those nasty nanoparticles in check. And low bed temperatures mean lower energy consumption, which is got to be a good thing. Don’t underestimate how much power that beefy bed heater needs!
Ever wondered what mini QR-code-like tags are on the high-end build plates?
We’ve got the answer
. And now that you’ve got a pile of different build plates, how do you store them and keep them clean? With
this neat gadget
! | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054311",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T08:35:39",
"content": "I guess today’s sponsor is Bambu Labs?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8054394",
"author": "Giblets",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T13:38... | 1,760,371,751.518142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/custom-drone-software-searches-rescues/ | Custom Drone Software Searches, Rescues | Bryan Cockfield | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"algorithm",
"autonomous",
"computer vision",
"drone",
"Imaging",
"mountain rescue",
"Search and Rescue"
] | When a new technology first arrives in people’s hands, it often takes a bit of time before the full capabilities of that technology are realized. In much the same way that many early Internet users simply used it to replace snail mail, or early smartphones were used as more convenient methods for messaging and calling than their flip-phone cousins, autonomous drones also took a little bit of time before their capabilities became fully realized. While some initially used them as a drop-in replacement for things like aerial photography,
a group of mountain rescue volunteers in the United Kingdom realized that they could be put to work in more efficient ways suited to their unique abilities
and have been behind a bit of a revolution in the search-and-rescue community.
The first search-and-rescue groups using drones to help in their efforts generally used them to search in the same way a helicopter would have been used in the past, only with less expense. But the effort involved is still the same; a human still needed to do the searching themselves. The group in the UK devised an improved system to take the human effort out of the equation by sending a drone to fly autonomously over piece of mountainous terrain and take images of the ground in such a way that any one thing would be present in many individual images. From there, the drone would fly back to its base station where an operator could download the images and run them through a computer program which would analyse the images and look for outliers in the colors of the individual pixels. Generally, humans tend to stand out against their backgrounds in ways that computers are good at spotting while humans themselves might not notice at all, and in the group’s first efforts to locate a missing person they were able to locate them almost immediately using this technology.
Although the system is built on a mapping system somewhat unique to the UK, the group has not attempted to commercialize the system.
MR Maps
, the software underpinning this new feature, has been free to use for anyone who wants to use it. And for those just starting out in this field, it’s also worth pointing out that
location services offered by modern technologies in rugged terrain like this can often be misleading
, and won’t be as straightforward of a solution to the problem as one might think. | 17 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054278",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T06:04:34",
"content": "That is not a customdronesoftware. That is software outside the drone that uses the video and processes it.It’s like saying “I made aeroplane software” when writing a new version of ADS-B decoder.",
"pa... | 1,760,371,752.190112 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/using-an-oled-displays-light-for-embedded-sensors/ | Using An OLED Display’s Light For Embedded Sensors | Maya Posch | [
"Science"
] | [
"oled",
"photosensor"
] | These days displays are increasingly expected to be bidirectional devices, accepting not only touch inputs, but also to integrate fingerprint sensing and even somehow combine a camera with a display without punching a hole through said display. Used primarily on smartphone displays, these attempts have been met with varying degrees of success.
But a paper published in the
Communications Engineering
journal
describes a version which combines an OLED with photosensors in the same structure — a design that may provide a way to make such features much more effective.
The article by [Chul Kim] and colleagues of the Samsung Display Research Center in South Korea the construction of these bidirectional OLED displays is described, featuring the standard OLED pixels as well as an organic photodiode (OPD) placed side-by-side. Focusing on the OLED’s green light for its absorption characteristics with the human skin, the researchers were able to use the produced OLED/OPD hybrid display for fingerprint recognition, as well as a range of cardiovascular markers, including heart rate, blood pressure, etc.
The basic principle behind these measurements involves
photoplethysmography
, which is commonly used in commercially available pulse oximeters. Before these hybrid displays can make their way into commercial devices, there are still a few technical challenges to deal with, in particular electrical and optical leakage. The sample demonstrated appears to work well in this regard, but the proof is always in the transition from the lab to mass-production. We have to admit that it would be rather cool to have a display that can also handle touch, fingerprints and record PPG data without any special layers or sensor chips. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054290",
"author": "Clark",
"timestamp": "2024-10-25T07:16:17",
"content": "It’s a nice idea, but does a high-resolution smartphone display have enough space to fit OPDs between the pixels?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "80542... | 1,760,371,752.243243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/classic-heathkit-ol-1-scope-gets-some-tlc/ | Classic Heathkit OL-1 Scope Gets Some TLC | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Teardown"
] | [
"heathkit",
"oscilloscope"
] | These days, not only are oscilloscopes very common, but even a cheap instrument today would have been the envy of the world’s greatest labs not that long ago. But back in the day, the home experimenter basically had two choices: buy a surplus scope that a big company was getting rid of or build a Heathkit. [Radiotvphononut] bought an old Heathkit OL-1 scope at an estate sale and set about
putting it back in service
.
If you are used to a modern scope, you’ll be amazed at how simple a scope like this can be. A handful of tubes and a CRT is the bulk of it. Of course, the OL-1 is an analog scope with a 400 kHz bandwidth. It did, however, have two channels, which was a rarity at the time.
The OL-1 was sold for a few years up to 1956 and cost about $30 as a kit. There was a version with a larger screen (five whole inches) that cost an extra $40, so you can bet there were more OL-1s sold since $40 was a big ask in 1956. While they don’t seem like much today, you were probably the envy of the ham club in 1956 when you lugged this in for show and tell.
This is a long video, but it pays off at the end. Overall, this was a more capable scope than
the $66 scope from 10 years earlier we looked at
. Did you ever wonder how people visualized signals before the CRT? Funny,
we did too
. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053573",
"author": "Semi Old Dude",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T18:53:10",
"content": "Had one of those in the late 1970s as a youngun. Wrote HeathKit and they responded with partial documentation! The scope died in the early 80s, wish I had kept it instead of trashing it:(",
"p... | 1,760,371,752.416599 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/will-io-domain-names-survive-a-geopolitical-rearrangement/ | Will .IO Domain Names Survive A Geopolitical Rearrangement? | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"cctld",
"country code",
"Domain",
"domain names",
"gtld",
"iana",
"ICANN",
"internet",
"tld",
"top-level domains"
] | The Domain Name System (DNS) is a major functional component of the modern Internet. We rely on it for just about everything! It’s responsible for translating human-friendly domain names into numerical IP addresses that get traffic where it needs to go. At the heart of the system are the top-level domains (TLDs)—these sit atop the whole domain name hierarchy.
You might think these TLDs are largely immutable—rock solid objects that seldom change. That’s mostly true, but the problem is that these TLDs are sometimes linked to real-world concepts that are changeable. Like the political status of various countries! Then, things get altogether more complex. The .io top level domain is the latest example of that.
A Brief History
ICANN is the organization in charge of TLDs.
Before we get into the current drama, we should explain some background around top level domains. Basically, as the Internet started to grow out of its early nascent form, there was a need to implement a proper structured naming system for online entities. In the mid-1980s, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) introduced a set of original top level domains to categorize domain names. These were divided into two main types—generic top-level domains, and country code top-level domains. The generic TLDs are the ones we all know and love—.com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov, and .mil. The country codes, though, were more complex.
Initially, the country codes were based around the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard—two letter codes to represent all necessary countries. These were, by and large, straightforward—the United Kingdom got .uk, Germany got .de, the United States got .us, and Japan got .jp.
Eventually, management of TLDs was passed from IANA to a new organization called ICANN—Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Over time, ICANN has seen fit to add more TLDs to the official list. That’s why today, you can register a domain with a .biz, .info, or .name registration. Or .horse, .Dad, .Foo, or so many others besides.
Wikipedia maintains an interactive decoding table that covers the full ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code space, as used to designate ccTLDs. Credit:
Wikipedia
What’s With .io?
The official logo of the .io ccTLD. The Internet Computer Bureau Ltd. is the registry organization in charge of it.
Over the past 20 years or so, the .io domain has become particularly popular with the tech set—the initialism recalls the idea of input/output. Thus, you have websites like Github.io or Hackaday.io using a country-code TLD for vanity purposes. It’s pretty popular in the tech world.
This was never supposed to be the case, however. The domain was originally designated for the British Indian Ocean Territory, all the way back in 1997. This is a small overseas territory of the United Kingdom, which occupies a collection of islands of the Chagos Archipelago. Total landmass of the territory is just 60 square kilometers. The largest island is Diego Garcia, which plays host to a military facility belonging to the UK and the United States. Prior to their removal by British authorities in 1968, the island played host to a population of locals known as Chagossians.
The flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory. Not even kidding.
The territory has been the subject of some controversy, often concerning the Chagossians and their wish to return to the land. More recently, the Mauritian government has made demands for the British government to relinquish the islands. The East African nation considers that the islands should have been handed back when Mauritius gained independence in 1968.
Recent negotiations have brought the matter to a head. On October 3, the British and Mauritius governments came to an agreement that the UK would cede sovereignty over the islands, and that they would hence become part of Mauritius. The British Indian Ocean Territory would functionally cease to exist, though the UK would maintain a 99-year lease over Diego Garcia and continue to maintain the military facility there.
The key problem? With the British Indian Ocean Territory no longer in existence, it would thus no longer be eligible for a country-code TLD. According to
IANA,
ccTLDs are based on the ISO 3166-1 standard. When a country ceases to exist, it is removed from the standard, and thus, the ccTLD is supposed to be retired in turn. IANA states protocol is to notify the manager of the ccTLD and remove it after five years by default. Managers can ask for an extension, limited to another five years for a total of ten years maximum. Alternatively, a ccTLD manager may allow the domain to be retired early at their own discretion.
However, as per
The Register
, the situation is more complex. The outlet spoke to ICANN, which is the organization actually in charge of declaring valid TLDs. A spokesperson provided the following comment:
ICANN relies on the
ISO 3166-1 standard
to make determinations on what is an eligible country-code top-level domain. Currently, the standard lists the British Indian Ocean Territory as ‘IO’. Assuming the standard changes to reflect this recent development, there are multiple potential outcomes depending on the nature of the change.
One such change may involve ensuring there is an operational nexus with Mauritius to meet certain policy requirements. Should ‘IO’ no longer be retained as a coding for this territory, it would trigger a 5-year retirement process described at [the IANA website], during which time registrants may need to migrate to a successor code or an alternate location.
We cannot comment on what the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency may or may not do in response to this development. It is worth noting that the ISO 3166-1 standard is not just used for domain names, but many other applications. The need to modify or retain the ‘IO’ encoding may be informed by needs associated with those other purposes, such as for Customs, passports, and banking applications.
The Chagos Archipelago is, genuinely, a long way from everywhere. Credit:
TUBS
, CC BY-SA 3.0
Basically, ICANN passed the buck, putting the problem at the feet of the International Standards Organization which maintains ISO 3166-1. If the ISO standard maintains the IO designation for some reason, it appears that ICANN would probably follow suit. If ISO drops it for some reason, it could be retired as a ccTLD.
The Register
notes that the .io record in ISO 3166-1 has not changed since a minor update
in 2018.
Any modification by ISO would be unlikely before the treaty between the UK and Mauritius is ratified in 2025. At that point, the five year clock could start ticking.
However, history is a great educator in this regard. There’s another grand example of a country that functionally ceased to exist. In 1991, the Soviet Union was no longer a going concern. And yet, the .su designation remains “exceptionally reserved” in the ISO 3166-1 standard at the request of the Foundation for Internet Development. However, the entry notes it was “removed from ISO 3166-1 in 1992” when the USSR broke up into its constituent states. Those states were all given their own country codes, except for Ukraine and Belarus, which had already entered ISO 3166 before this point.
.su domains are still very much a going concern, 33 years after the fall of the Soviet Union.
But can you still get a .su domain? Well, sure!
Netim.com
will happily register one for you. A number of websites still use the TLD, like
this one,
and it has reportedly become a popular TLD
for cybercriminal activity
. The current registry is the Russian Institute for Public Networks, and .su domains persist despite efforts by ICANN to end its use
in 2007.
Given .io is so incredibly popular, it’s unlikely to disappear just because of some geopolitical changes. Even if it were to be designated for retirement, it would probably stick around for another five to ten years based on existing regulations. More likely, though, special effort will be made to officially reserve .io for continued use. Heck, even if ISO drops it, it could become a regular general TLD instead. If .pizza can be a domain, surely .io can be as well.
Long story short? There are questions around the future of .io, but nothing’s been decided yet. Expect vested interests to make sure it sticks around for the foreseeable future. | 47 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053418",
"author": "anon",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T14:23:07",
"content": "This feels like a problem only bureaucracy could create. It is a useful domain. People like having it. It harms literally no one to let it keep existing. But oh no the official guidance from some random grou... | 1,760,371,752.373481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/tridora-a-full-custom-cpu-designed-for-pascal/ | Tridora: A Full-Custom CPU Designed For Pascal | Dave Rowntree | [
"computer hacks",
"FPGA"
] | [
"32-bit",
"cpu",
"Digilent Arty A7",
"fpga",
"Pascal",
"Stack-based"
] | [Sebastian Lederer] has created Tridora
: an unusual stack-based CPU core intended for FPGA deployment, co-developed with its own Pascal compiler. The 32-bit word machine is unusual in that it has not one but three stacks, 16-bit instruction words, and a limited ISA, more like those of the 8-bit world. No multiply or divide instructions will be found in this CPU.
The design consists of about 500 lines of Verilog targeting the
Digilent Arty-A7 FPGA board,
which is based around the Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA line. [Sebastian] plans to support the Nexys A7 board, which boasts a larger FPGA array but has less RAM onboard. The CPU clocks in at 83 MHz with four clock cycles per instruction, so over 20 MIPS, which is not so shabby for a homebrew design. Wrapped around that core are a few simple peripherals, such as the all-important UART, an SD card controller and a VGA display driver. On the software side, the Pascal implementation is created from scratch with quite a few restrictions, but it can compile itself, so that’s a milestone achieved. [Sebastian] also says there is a rudimentary operating system, but at the moment, it’s a little more than a loader that’s bundled with the program image.
The
Tridora Gitlab project
hosts the Verilog source, an emulator (written in Golang,
not
Pascal) and a suite of example applications. We see quite a few custom CPUs, often using older or less popular programming languages. Here’s an
FPGA-based Forth machine to get you started
. Implementing programming languages from scratch is also a surprisingly common hack. Check out this from-scratch
compiler for the Pretty Laughable Programming language
. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053376",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T12:21:24",
"content": "It reminds me of Western Digital’s Pascal Microengine from 45 years ago.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8053409",
"author": "Göst... | 1,760,371,752.518441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/75-in-one-music/ | 75-In-One Music | Jenny List | [
"classic hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"75-in-1",
"electronic kit",
"electronic music"
] | It’s likely that many Hackaday readers will have had their interest in electronics as a child honed by exposure to an electronics kit. The type of toy that featured a console covered in electronic components with spring terminals, and on which a variety of projects could be built by wiring up circuits. [Matthew North Music] has a couple of these, and
he’s made a video investigating whether they can be used to make music
.
The kits he’s found are a Radio Shack one from we’re guessing the 1970s, and a “Cambridge University Recording Studio” kit that looks to be 1990s-vintage. The former is all discrete components and passive, while the latter sports that digital audio record/playback chip that was the thing to have in a novelty item three decades ago. With them both he can create a variety of oscillator and filter circuits, though for the video he settles for a fairly simple tone whose pitch is controlled by an light-dependent resistor, and a metronome as a drum beat.
The result is a little avant garde, but certainly shows promise. The beauty of these kits is they can now be had for a song, and as grown-ups we don’t have to follow the rules set out in the book, so we can see there’s a lot of fun to be had. We look forward to some brave soul using them in a life performance at a hacker camp. | 18 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053329",
"author": "Per",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T09:06:38",
"content": "You can see where Moog Grandmother got it’s inspiration :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8053342",
"author": "Anonymous",
"timestamp": "2024-10... | 1,760,371,752.469743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/heathkit-signal-generator-gets-an-update/ | Heathkit Signal Generator Gets An Update | Al Williams | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"heathkit",
"repair",
"signal generator"
] | [DTSS_Smudge] correctly intuits that if you are interested in an old Heathkit signal generator, you probably already know how to solder. So, in a recent video, he focused on the components he decided to update for safety and other reasons. Meanwhile, we get
treated to a nice teardown of this iconic piece of test gear
.
If you didn’t grow up in the 1960s, it seems strange that the device has a polarized line cord with one end connected to the chassis. But that used to be quite common, just like kids didn’t wear helmets on bikes in those days.
A lot of TVs were “hot chassis” back then, too. We were always taught to touch the chassis with the back of your hand first. That way, if you get a shock, the associated muscle contraction will pull your hand away from the electricity. Touching it normally will make you grip the offending chassis hard, and you probably won’t be able to let go until someone kindly pulls the plug or a fuse blows.
These signal generators were very common back in the day. A lot of Heathkit gear was very serviceable and more affordable than the commercial alternatives. In 1970, these cost about $32 as a kit or $60 already built. While $32 doesn’t sound like much, it is equivalent to $260 today, so not an impulse buy.
Some of the parts are simply irreplaceable. The variable capacitor would be tough to source since it is a special type. The coils would also be tough to find replacements, although you might have luck rewinding them if it were necessary.
We are spoiled today with so many cheap quality instruments available. However, there was something satisfying about building your own gear and it certainly helped if you ever had to fix it.
There was so much Heathkit gear around that even though they’ve been gone for years, you still see
quite a few units in use
. Not all of their gear had tubes, but
some of our favorite ones did
. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053290",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T05:27:06",
"content": "I am rather shocked (pun) that any Heath gear was without a transformer power supply. In those days only cheap consumer stuff had those hot chassis designs. I remember my dad calling out about some guy ... | 1,760,371,752.561247 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/a-modern-pc-with-a-retro-os/ | A Modern PC With A Retro OS | Bryan Cockfield | [
"computer hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"backward compatibility",
"dos 6.22",
"floppy disk",
"native hardware",
"parallel port",
"PS/2"
] | Despite the rise of ARM processors in more and more computers from embedded systems to daily driver PCs, the x86 architecture maintains a stronghold in the computing space that won’t be going away anytime soon. One of the main drivers of this is its beachhead in industrial systems; the x86 architecture is backwards-compatible farther back than many of us have been alive and in situations where machines need to run for years with minimum downtime it’s good to know you can grab any x86 system off the shelf and it’ll largely work. This is also true for gaming, so if you’re like [Yeo Kheng Meng] and
want to run games like DOOM natively on modern hardware it’s certainly possible
, although there are a few catches.
This build goes into the design of a modern AMD Ryzen 5 desktop computer, with all of the components selected specifically for their use running software more than three decades old now. [Yeo Kheng Meng] is targeting DOS 6.22 as his operating system of choice, meaning that modern EFI motherboards won’t necessarily work. He’s turned to business class products as a solution for many of these issues, as motherboards targeting business and industrial customers often contain more support for antiquated hardware like PS/2 and parallel ports while still having modern amenities like DDR5 memory slots. PS/2 ports additionally are an indicator that the motherboard will supports older non-EFI boot modes (BIOS) and can potentially run DOS natively. Everything here can also run modern operating systems, since he isn’t building this system only to run DOS and retro games.
Beyond the motherboard choice, he’s also using a Soundblaster card for audio which is a design choice generally relegated to history, but still used in modern gaming by a dedicated group. There’s also a floppy drive running via a USB header adapter cable. Of course, there are a few problems running DOS and other era-appropriate software natively on such incomprehensibly fast hardware (by early 90s standards). Some video games were hard coded to the processor clock of the x86 process of the era, so increasing the clock speed orders of magnitude results in several playability issues. In emulators it’s easier to provide an artificially slow clock speed, but on real hardware this isn’t always possible. But [Yeo Kheng Meng] has done a lot to get this modern computer running older software like this. Another take we’ve seen for retro gaming on original hardware is
this system which uses a brand-new 486 processor
meant for use in industrial settings as well. | 24 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053259",
"author": "notmyfault2000",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T03:03:09",
"content": "I wonder if some kind of TSR timer interrupt would help with the extreme clock speeds; when a timer happens just take over for a while until it’s time to release back to the other program.",
"p... | 1,760,371,752.76177 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/give-your-smd-components-a-lift/ | Give Your SMD Components A Lift | Al Williams | [
"PCB Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"smd rework",
"smd soldering"
] | When you are troubleshooting, it is sometimes useful to disconnect a part of your circuit to see what happens. If your new PCB isn’t perfect, you might also need to add some extra wires or components — not that any of us will ever admit to doing that, of course. When ICs were in sockets, it was easy to do that. [MrSolderFix] shows his technique for
lifting pins on SMD devices
in the video below.
He doesn’t use anything exotic beyond a microscope. Just flux, a simple iron, and a scalpel blade. Oh, and very steady hands. The idea is to heat the joint, gently lift the pin with the blade, and wick away excess solder. If you do it right, you’ll be able to put the pin back down where it belongs later. He makes the sensible suggestion of covering the pad with a bit of tape if you want to be sure not to accidentally short it during testing. Or, you can bend the pin all the way back if you know you won’t want to restore it to its original position.
He does several IC pins, but then shows that you need a little different method for pins that are near corners so you don’t break the package. In some cases for small devices, it may work out better to simply remove them entirely, bend the pins as you want, and then reinstall the device.
A simple technique, but invaluable. You probably don’t have to have a microscope if you have eagle eyes or sufficient magnification, but the older you get, the more you need the microscope.
Needless to say, you can’t do this with
BGA packages
. SMD tools used to be exotic, but
cheap soldering stations
and fine-tipped irons have become the norm in hacker’s workshops. | 10 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053205",
"author": "Gösta",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T23:39:54",
"content": "Most definitely a hack! Genuinely informative and practical, when needed. :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8053300",
"author": "ono",
... | 1,760,371,752.701413 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/mini-robotic-arm-lets-you-start-your-own-mini-assembly-line/ | Mini Robotic Arm Lets You Start Your Own Mini Assembly Line | Navarre Bartz | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot arm",
"robotics",
"servo"
] | Automating tasks with a robot sounds appealing, but not everyone has the budget for an Aismo or Kuka. [FABRI Creator] has a great tutorial on how to build your own mini robotic arm for
small, repeatable tasks
.
Walking us through the entire build, step-by-step, [FABRI Creator] shows us how to populate the custom-designed PCB and where to put every servo motor and potentiometer to bring the creation to life. This seems like a great project to start with if you haven’t branched out into motion systems before since it’s a useful build without anything too complicated to trip up the beginner.
Beyond the usual ability to use the arm to perform tasks, this particular device uses an Arduino Nano to allow you to record a set of positions as you move the arm and to replay it over and over. The video shows the arm putting rings on a stand, but we can think of all kinds of small tasks that it could accomplish for us, letting us get back to writing or hacking.
If controlling a robot arm with potentiometers sounds familiar, maybe you
remember this robot arm with an arm-shaped controller
. | 25 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054228",
"author": "scott_tx",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T23:38:01",
"content": "assembly line huh, I suspect that thing can barely pick itself up.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8054307",
"author": "Jan",
"tim... | 1,760,371,752.877039 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/simple-pcb-repairs-keep-old-vehicle-out-of-the-crusher/ | Simple PCB Repairs Keep Old Vehicle Out Of The Crusher | Dan Maloney | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"capacitor",
"conformal",
"ecu",
"ford",
"module",
"pcm",
"repair"
] | For those of us devoted to keeping an older vehicle on the road, the struggle is real. We know that at some point, a part will go bad and we’ll learn that it’s no longer available from the dealer or in the aftermarket, at least at a reasonable cost. We might get lucky and find a replacement at the boneyard, but if not — well, it was nice knowing ya, faithful chariot.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though, at least if the wonky part is one of the many computer modules found in most cars made in the last few decades. Sometimes they can be repaired, as with
this engine control module from a Ford F350 pickup
. Admittedly, [jeffescortlx] got pretty lucky with this module, which with its trio of obviously defective electrolytics practically diagnosed itself. He also had the advantage of the module’s mid-90s technology, which still relied heavily on through-hole parts, making the repair easier.
Unfortunately, his luck stopped there, as the caps had released the schmoo and corroded quite a few traces on the PCB. Complicating the repair was the conformal coating on everything, a common problem on any electronics used in rough environments. It took a bit of probing and poking to locate all the open traces, which included a mystery trace far away from any of the leaky caps. Magnet wire was used to repair the damaged traces, the caps were replaced with new ones, and everything got a fresh coat of brush-on conformal coating.
Simple though they may be, we really enjoy these successful vehicle module repairs because they give us hope that when the day eventually comes, we’ll stand a chance of being able to perform some repair heroics. And it’s nice to know that something as simple as
fixing a dead dashboard cluster
can keep a car out of the crusher. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054225",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T23:28:46",
"content": "The Engine Control Module in my 1994 Suzuki Sidekick had capacitors prone to leakage. Fortunately, I was warned on an Internet forum about the possibility, and changed out the... | 1,760,371,752.815785 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/artificial-intelligence-runs-on-arduino/ | Artificial Intelligence Runs On Arduino | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"arduino",
"artificial intelligence",
"brightness",
"machine learning",
"python",
"training model"
] | Fundamentally, an artificial intelligence (AI) is nothing more than a system that takes a series of inputs, makes some prediction, and then outputs that information. Of course, the types of AI in the news right now can handle a huge number of inputs and need server farms’ worth of compute to generate outputs of various forms, but at a basic level, there’s no reason a purpose-built AI can’t run on much less powerful hardware. As a demonstration, and to win a bet with a friend,
[mondal3011] got an artificial intelligence up and running on an Arduino
.
This AI isn’t going to do anything as complex as generate images or write clunky preambles to every recipe on the Internet, but it is still a functional and useful piece of software. This one specifically handles the brightness of a single lamp, taking user input on acceptable brightness ranges in the room and outputting what it thinks the brightness of the lamp should be to match the user’s preferences. [mondal3011] also builds a set of training data for the AI to learn from, taking the lamp to various places around the house and letting it figure out where to set the brightness on its own. The training data is run through a linear regression model in Python which generates the function that the Arduino needs to automatically operate the lamp.
Although this isn’t the most complex model, it does go a long way to demonstrating the basic principles of using artificial intelligence to build a useful and working model, and then taking that model into the real world. Note also that the model is generated on a more powerful computer before being ported over to the microcontroller platform. But that’s all par for the course in AI and machine learning. If you’re looking to take a step up from here,
we’d recommend this robot that uses neural networks to learn how to walk
. | 23 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054155",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T18:52:33",
"content": "Uhm, so the Excel “trend line” is now also an AI?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8054158",
"author": "Jan Praegert",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,371,753.031431 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/supercon-2023-building-a-portable-vectrex-the-right-way/ | Supercon 2023: Building A Portable Vectrex, The Right Way | Lewin Day | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"2023 Hackaday Supercon",
"2023 Hackaday Superconference",
"console",
"fpga",
"sprite_tm",
"vectrex"
] | The Vectrex was a unique console from the early 1980s. Developed by a company you’ve probably never heard of—Smith Engineering—it was put into production by General Consumer Electronics, and later sold by Milton Bradley. It was an outright commercial failure, but it’s remembered for its sharp vector display and oddball form factor.
The Vectrex was intended for tabletop use in a home environment. However, [Jeroen Domburg], also known as [Sprite_tm], decided to set about building a portable version. This wasn’t easy, but that just makes the development process a more interesting story. Thankfully for us, [Sprite_tm] was kind enough to tell the tale
at the 2023 Hackaday Supercon.
Vectorlicious
Vector graphics were the thing that set the Vectrex apart.
[Sprite] starts by introducing the audience to the Vectrex, just to make sure everyone understands what was special about this thing. For comaprison’s sake, he lines it up against its contemporaries. Back in the early 1980s, the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision had incredibly low resolution video output with big ugly pixels. In contrast, the Vectrex could draw clean, sharp lines with its inbuilt
vector-style display
.
Basically, instead of coloring in individual pixels, the Vectrex instead drew lines from point to point on the screen. It was an entirely different way of doing graphics—fast, tidy, and effective—and it was popular in early video arcade games, too. Some Vectrex games even came with plastic overlays to create the impression of color on the screen. Unlike pixel displays, though, this technology didn’t really scale well to prettier, more lifelike graphics. Thus after the Vectrex, no other mainstream consoles adopted this technique.
The talk cites the awesome Scopetrex project, which lets you play Vectrex games on an oscilloscope.
From there, [Sprite_tm] walks the audience through the hardware of the Vectrex. The architecture is fairly simple, based around a
68A09 CPU
, which is a Motorola CPU with some improvements over the earlier 6502. It’s paired with some ROM, RAM, and I/O glue logic, and it loads its games off cartridges. Then there’s the audio hardware, a digital-to-analog converter for video output, and all the subsequent analog electronics for driving the vector CRT display.
Unlike a modern console, what’s inside the box is no secret. Datasheets and full schematics are publicly available that lay out exactly how the whole thing works. This is hugely valuable for anyone looking to repair a Vectrex—or make a portable one. You don’t need to reverse engineer much, since it’s all laid out for you. Indeed, as [Sprite_tm] notes, a replica motherboard already exists
that lets you play Vectrex games on an oscilloscope’s XY input
.
Building the Portable
Some people have built small Vectrexes before,
by going the emulator route with a Raspberry Pi and a small LCD display.
[Sprite] wasn’t a fan of this route, as modern pixel LCDs make for jagged diagonal lines because they’re not proper vector displays like the original Vectrex CRT. Thus, to build a more authentic portable Vectrex, [Sprite_tm]’s build needed certain parts. On top of replicating the CPU and logic of the Vectrex, he needed to find a small CRT that operate as a proper vector display. Plus, he wanted to build something
properly portable
—”I wanna sit on the bus and then whip it out and play it,” he explains.
Old answerphones proved to be the perfect CRT donor.
They work as vector displays with a few mods.
Obviously, finding a suitable CRT was the first big hurdle to clear. [Sprite_tm] mused over using a tube from a Sony Watchman handheld portable TV, but decided against it. He notes that these are fairly rare and valuable, and he didn’t want to destroy one for his project. But he still needed a small CRT in a practical form factor, and he found the perfect donor. In the 90s, LCDs were pretty crap and expensive, so apartment video intercoms relied on CRTs instead. Now, these systems are all largely defunct, and he notes you can find old examples of these answerphones for a few dollars online.
Pretty tidy.
Of course, these answerphone CRTs weren’t designed for vector operation. However, [Sprite_tm] teaches us how you can convert one to draw straight lines on command instead of scanning like a TV. You can get legit vector operation just by squirting the right voltages into the deflection coils. Of course, getting it to work in practice is a lot harder than you might think, but perseverance got the job done in the end. Understanding the physics involved is useful, too, and [Sprite_tm] explains the theory with an apt comparison between coils and a pig.
From there, the talk explains how the rest of the hardware came together. [Sprite_tm] elected to stuff all the Vectrex magic into an FPGA, which felt cooler than software emulation but was more compact than using all-original chips on a replica mainboard. It lives on a custom PCB that also carries all the necessary electronics to drive the CRT in the desired vector mode.
The build also has a cartridge port for playing original Vectrex games. However, for ease of use, [Sprite] also fitted a RISC V CPU, some RAM, and a microSD card for loading ROMs for games that he doesn’t own in physical format. Everything was then wrapped up in a custom 3D-printed case that’s roughly twice as large as the Nintendo Game Boy Color in length and width—and about four times thicker.
[Jeroen] built two examples. They’re very fully featured—they can play both real carts and ROMs off a microSD card.
The final result? It’s a retrogaming triumph. The display isn’t perfect—it’s flickery, it’s a little skewed—but that’s not so different from the original Vectrex anyway. This thing is portable, it’s playable, and the vector CRT looks absolutely glorious, as does the case design. These things don’t make sense to make, as [Sprite] notes, but we agree with his ultimate assessment—this is art. | 16 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054142",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known as Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T18:14:12",
"content": "“an inductor is like a pig”I hadn’t thought of it that way before.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8054145",
"author"... | 1,760,371,753.090643 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/hands-on-with-a-giant-nixie-tube/ | Hands On With A Giant Nixie Tube | Dave Rowntree | [
"classic hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"display",
"GPO",
"museum",
"nixie tube",
"telephone selector",
"uniselector"
] | [Sam Battle] is no stranger to these pages, nor is his
Museum is not Obsolete.
The museum was recently gifted an enormous Nixie tube created by
Dalibor Farný,
a B-grade (well, faulty) unit that could not be used in any of their commissioned works but was perfectly fine for
displaying in the museum’s retro display display
.
This thing is likely the largest Nixie tube still being manufactured; although we read that it’s probably not the largest
ever
made, it’s still awesome.
Every hacker should have their own museum.
It is fairly simple to use, like all Nixie tubes, provided you’re comfortable with relatively high DC voltages, albeit at a low current. They need a DC voltage because if you drive the thing with AC, both the selected cathode digit plate and the anode grid will glow, which is not what you need.
Anyway, [Sam] did what he does best, clamped the delicate tube in some 3D printed mounts and hooked up a driver made from stuff he scraped out of a bin in the workshop. Obviously, for someone deeply invested in ancient electromagnetic telephone equipment, a GPO (British General Post Office, now BT) uniselector was selected, manually advanced with an arcade-style push button via a relay. This relay also supplies the ~140 V for the common anode connection on the Nixie tube. The individual digit cathodes are grounded via the uniselector contacts. A typically ancient GPO-branded snubber capacitor prevents the relay contacts from arcing over and ruining the display unit. There isn’t much more to it, so if you’re in the Ramsgate, UK, area anytime soon, you can pop in and play with it for yourself.
Nixies are cool, we’ve covered Nixie projects for years, like this
DIY project from ages ago
. Bringing such things into the modern area is the current specialty of
Dalibor Farný
, with this
nice video showing some of the workmanship involved
. By the way — the eagle-eyed will have noticed that we
covered this particular Nixie tube before
, shown in the format of a large art installation. But it doesn’t hurt to get close up and play with it on the bench.\ | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054133",
"author": "a_do_z",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T17:32:23",
"content": "A bit of a tangent here.Much of what’s on Sam’s channel seems to be synthesizer related, so not exactly my personal cup of tea. But (among a few other videos) the series he did on acquiring and bringing ba... | 1,760,371,753.139806 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/hacker-tactic-building-blocks/ | Hacker Tactic: Building Blocks | Arya Voronova | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"PCB Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"design",
"modules",
"pcb",
"PCB design",
"reuse"
] | The software and hardware worlds have overlaps, and it’s worth looking over the fence to see if there’s anything you missed. You might’ve already noticed that we hackers use PCB modules and devboards in the same way that programmers might use libraries and frameworks. You’ll find way more parallels if you think about it.
Building blocks are about belonging to a community, being able to draw from it. Sometimes it’s a community of one, but you might just find that building blocks help you reach other people easily, touching upon common elements between projects that both you and some other hacker might be planning out. With every building block, you make your or someone else’s next project quicker, and maybe you make it possible.
Sometimes, however, building blocks are about being lazy.
Just Throw Pin Headers
Back when I was giving
design review on a LVDS driver board for a Sony Vaio display,
there was a snag – the display used, doesn’t generate its own backlight voltage, so you have to bring your own backlight driver. Well, I didn’t want to bother designing the backlight driver portion of the circuit.
The way I justified it, adding that circuit to the board didn’t make much sense – the entire board was an experimental circuit, and adding one more experiment onto it would result in extra board revisions and reassemblies. Honestly, though, I just really didn’t want to design the LED driver circuit at the time – it didn’t feel as interesting.
So, I had an easy-to-follow proposal – let’s put all backlight-driver-related signals onto three pin headers, forming a “module” footprint of sorts, and then develop the module separately! The hacker agreed, and in the meantime, used a spare panel’s LED backlight to test the display in the meantime – way more accessible of a solution. The pin headers remained, at the time, bound to be unpopulated for, at least, until the next PCB order.
New revisions of the module came and went, now
bearing a HDMI port
and a whole new ASIC – easy to design, because, again, the hacker didn’t have to worry about the backlight circuit, and just kept the module footprint from the previous design. Was the backlight driver module PCB designed yet? Well, simply put, no.
A friend of mine, just a month later, was designing a motherboard replacement for a tablet computer, and she asked me for advice on how to power the backlight. I thought for a second, and, I had an easy answer for her – use the module footprint. At that point, I still haven’t designed the module, but I didn’t have to mention that. She rejoiced, put the module footprint onto the board, even designed her own neat symbol for it, and then promptly went on to lay out diffpairs and reverse-engineer pinouts, both significantly more fun activities than designing a backlight driver with zero experience in design of backlight drivers.
Some time later, I started getting insistent messages from the original hacker, about needing a backlight driver. The funny part is that by that point, I have already had designed a backlight driver circuit for my own Vaio motherboard, but I never felt engaged enough to turn it into a module. A different friend of mine was looking for small projects, however. I gave her the task: here’s a footprint for a module, here’s a circuit that goes onto the module, and we need a module. Indeed, she
has delivered
a module – by that point, a module we could put onto three different PCBs.
Building Blocks
The entire occasion definitely helped cement my reputation as someone who delivers, eventually – with big emphasis on
eventually
. It also brought four people and three projects together, and it let us order the first revision PCB way sooner than otherwise, all because we set out to eventually add the backlight circuit as a module. Now, this module is a building block in our projects – whenever one of us, or maybe one of you, needs a backlight driver, we know that we have an option handy.
I have some unique experiences with PCB modules as building blocks – at one point, I’ve
built an entire phone
out of them, and I still build devices heavily based on modules. Whenever I’d have the occasion, I’d throw a TP4056 module footprint onto a board instead of reimplementing the whole circuit from scratch. In 2022, I designed a module with a RP2040 and the FUSB302 USB-PD PHY – it was the building block that led to my USB-C series on Hackaday, and eventually helped me, my friends, and other hackers develop a whole lineup of unique USB-C devices.
small stamps with RP2040 and PD capability
latest version, with three buttons and one Neopixel
simple devboard – very good if your module has one!
friend’s Framework Dell PSU charger adapter PCB,
made possible by the altmode friend module on the back
a fellow hacker’s USB-C host port devboard, supporting USB3 and DisplayPort
Building block use and design is the fun way, and it’s the lazy way, and it’s the friendly way – would you believe me if I told you it’s also the safe way? Say, does your circuit need a custom DC-DC, or can you slap a few pads onto the board to connect a commonplace generic module? If you can afford the increased space, might as well make your board as simple as it goes – if there’s less to test and bringup, you’ll get to your project’s finish line earlier, and have less hurdles to jump over.
The Practical Aspects
There are a few techniques you can use if you want to make a building block – pin headers are the simple obvious one. Castellations is a fun one, and here’s a trick – you don’t have to pay JLCPCB for castellated holes, as long as you are fine getting dirty ones, which are still wonderful for prototyping. If you’re using Aisler, you can get
perfect castellated holes
, though – good for scaling up a module of yours after you’ve verified the design. Don’t be scared of
turning through-holes into castellations
– it works, and it’s super easy if your board is thin enough. Oh, and you might just be able to get
castellations through V-Cuts!
this module is a mainstay on my 18650 helper boards I’ve
covered here
Got an Eastern or Western module, and it doesn’t quite use pin headers? Get out the calipers, measure its pads, and create a footprint for it – you will thank yourself later. I’ve done just once for a 5 V boost module, stocking up on them and putting them onto a bunch of boards. It’s not like I’d feel comfortable designing 5 V boost regulators at the time, so the module has bought me a couple years of worrying about something else instead. The modules have since vanished from the market, but, today I’ve got a few 5 V boost designs I can easily make modules out of. Now, it looks like I can even upgrade my own old boards that are still in use!
When designing your own boards, try to put all pin headers on a grid, 2.54 mm (0.1in) is a must – only use an integer millimeter grid or pin headers if you have no other options. Such a module isn’t just solderable – it’s breadboardable, which helps a ton when you’re trying to figure out an especially daring circuit technique. Castellated modules can be breadboardable, too, if you make sure to concentrate the core necessary signals on two opposite sides!
A “TP4056” style board, upgraded to a 2A switching charger (io: 194860 )
My own spin on a TP4056 board, with onboard USB-UART
A TP4056 replacement design, with upgrades like power path and S5 battery charging
Are you designing a new module for your own use? See if there’s a footprint you can copy, or an unspoken standard you can follow. Boards speak about themselves through their looks, and footprints convey a purpose through their layout. Look at the boards above- it’s pretty easy to notice that they are TP4056 style battery chargers, but all of them upgraded in their own way. If you follow an existing footprint when designing your own board, it’s going to look more familiar for a newcomer hacker, channeling the power of
skeuomorphism
where you might not have expected to find it.
The Looks Make The Module
Looking for a PCB form-factor? Going with a Dangerous Prototypes-blessed one brings you
a ton of benefits
, e.g., pre-made
lasercut cases
.
Board formats are underrated when it comes to accidentally creating building blocks. Sparkfun has example layouts for QWIIC devices – follow it, plop a JST-SH connector on, maybe order your PCB in red for a change, and your sensor PCB will shine in a whole new way in your eyes. Dangerous Prototypes, on the other hand, suggests a set of PCB formats known as
Sick of Beige
that work with existing enclosures and lasercut templates – that’s the surface-level benefit, the real deal is that these footprints also talk the Dangerous Prototypes language. If your programmer board feels like a generic rectangle, putting it into the frame of BusPirate fame will give it the air of hacker-oriented tooling. With both of these formats, you get mounting holes – mark of a hacker who knows what’s good.
Looking for a ToF sensor? Looking at this picture, you can instantly tell that
this one
‘s I2C and 3.3V – chances are, it will fit wonderfully into your project.
Interconnect standards go hand in hand with making your building blocks’ features recognizable without reading the silkscreen – it’s why I
talk so much about QWIIC
, and
a JST-SH connector
is always a welcome addition on my boards. Adding a well-recognized standard connector makes your board recognizable as a potential building block. Now, the board looks interoperable if you just give it a chance, equipped with a familiar socket, and perhaps, you won’t feel as much need for designing a new one – quite likely, building a new device in a single day instead of two weeks’ time.
Sometimes, your board will be split apart into building blocks without your involvement whatsoever. Publishing a design that goes beyond connecting a button to an LED? Try to fill in the blanks – it’s about helping the hacker that follows in your footsteps. Sometimes it’s a highschool kid trying to put together a design, and sometimes it’ll be you again, just a couple years later. So, note down the part number of that switcher inductor in the schematic, and fill in the values of the resistor divider while you’re at it – and if you’re revisiting a board of yours where you haven’t done that, do it, then
git commit
and
git push
.
Beyond The Ordinary
In a pinch, rip and tear until it’s done
There’s building blocks everywhere for those with the eyes to see. A single-board computer is one, I’d argue –
a SoM in a DDR footprint
is one without a doubt. An engineer once showed me a technique for creating building blocks out of thin air – taking unpopulated leftover large project PCBs, then sawing out the section with the circuit you need. Sometimes, you really only need a single piece of that one Ethernet transceiver circuit, and you need it now – you might have not planned for it, but the Dremel tool forgives all.
Circuit blocks are an often requested feature in KiCad. At the moment, you can copy-paste portions of a schematic between projects – which is more than good enough for many circuits. It’s not as great for switching regulators or MCUs, however, and we can’t help but hope to see new advancements in the field soon. Perhaps, one day, you’ll be able to click a few buttons and turn your favourite USB hub into a circuit block – and from there, who knows, maybe you can fill the void that
the NanoHub’s eternal out-of-stock state
has left in our hearts! | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054115",
"author": "BobH",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T15:58:39",
"content": "I use the pin header method with a lot of small boards. The small boards get combined into larger projects with wiring harnesses. The biggest drawback is that wiring harnesses get large and complex. It’s sti... | 1,760,371,753.255126 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/keeping-tabs-on-an-undergraduate-projects-labs-door-status/ | Keeping Tabs On An Undergraduate Projects Lab’s Door Status | Maya Posch | [
"classic hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"automation",
"home-assistant",
"occupancy sensor",
"zigbee"
] | Over at the University of Wisconsin’s Undergraduate Projects Lab (UPL) there’s been a way to check whether this room is open for general use by CS undergraduates and others practically for most of the decades that it has existed. Most recently [Andrew Moses] gave
improving on the then latest, machine vision-based iteration a shot
. Starting off with a historical retrospective, the 1990s version saw a $15 camera combined with a Mac IIcx running a video grabber, an FTP server and an HP workstation that’d try to fetch the latest FTP image.
As the accuracy of this system means the difference between standing all forlorn in front of a closed
UPL
door and happily waddling into the room to work on some projects, it’s obvious that any new system had to be as robust as possible. The machine vision based version that got installed previously seemed fancy: it used a Logitech C920 webcam, a YOLOv7 MV model to count humanoids and a tie into Discord to report the results. The problem here was that this would sometimes count items like chairs as people, and there was the slight issue that people in the room didn’t equate an open door, as the room may be used for a meeting.
Thus the solution was changed to keeping track of whether the door was open, using a sensor on the two doors into the room. Sadly, the captive-portal-and-login-based WiFi made the straightforward approach with a reed sensor, a magnet and an ESP32 too much of a liability. Instead the sensor would have to communicate with a device in the room that’d be easier to be updated, ergo a Zigbee-using door sensor, Raspberry Pi with Zigbee dongle and Home Assistant (HA) was used.
One last wrinkle was the need to use a
Cloudflare-based tunnel add-on
to expose the HA API from the outside, but now at long last the UPL door status can be checked with absolute certainty that it is correct. Probably.
Featured image: The machine vision-based room occupancy system at UoW’s UPL. (Credit:
UPL
, University of Wisconsin) | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054051",
"author": "Shoe",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T12:28:45",
"content": "I’m a little confused, wouldn’t a booking system be a lot more simple and just as effective? If they really wanted Discord integration I’m sure a bot could scrape that and list the times that the room is bo... | 1,760,371,753.193155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/24/3d-printed-tires-by-the-numbers/ | 3D Printed Tires, By The Numbers | Dan Maloney | [
"Parts",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"abs",
"overmold",
"PLA",
"rc",
"tire",
"torque",
"TPU",
"urethane",
"wheel"
] | What does it take to make decent tires for your projects? According to
this 3D printed tire torture test
, it’s actually pretty easy — it’s more a question of how well they work when you’re done.
For the test, [Excessive Overkill] made four different sets of shoes for his RC test vehicle. First up was a plain PLA wheel with a knobby tread, followed by an exact copy printed in ABS which he intended to coat with Flex Seal — yes,
that Flex Seal
. The idea here was to see how well the spray-on rubber compound would improve the performance of the wheel; ABS was used in the hopes that the Flex Seal solvents would partially dissolve the plastic and form a better bond. The next test subjects were a PLA wheel with a separately printed TPU tire, and a urethane tire molded directly to a PLA rim. That last one required a pretty complicated five-piece mold and some specialized urethane resin, but the results looked fantastic.
Non-destructive tests on the tires included an assessment of static friction by measuring the torque needed to start the tire rolling against a rough surface, plus a dynamic friction test using the same setup but measuring torque against increasing motor speed. [Overkill] threw in a destructive test, too, with the test specimens grinding against a concrete block at a constant speed to see how long the tire lasted. Finally, there was a road test, with a full set of each tire mounted to an RC car and subjected to timed laps along a course with mixed surfaces.
Results were mixed, and we won’t spoil the surprise, but suffice it to say that molding your own tires might not be worth the effort, and that Flex Seal is as disappointing as any other infomercial product.
We’ve seen other printed tires before
, but hats off to [Excessive Overkill] for diving into the data. | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053991",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T09:13:30",
"content": "Please, spoil the surprise. No-one wants to watch a video if they don’t have to.Although we might miss today’s sponsor (probably not Flex Seal).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,753.308883 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/seven-new-street-fighter-2-arcade-rom-hacks/ | Seven NewStreet Fighter 2Arcade Rom Hacks | Dave Rowntree | [
"classic hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"assembly",
"Binary modification",
"Capcom",
"Gameplay",
"mame",
"Motorola 68000",
"street fighter"
] | [Sebastian Mihai] is a prolific programmer and hacker with a particular focus on retrocomputing and period games, and this latest hack,
adding new gameplay elements to Capcom’s
Street Fighter II – Champion Edition
, is another great one. [Sebastian] was careful to resist changing the game physics, as that’s part of what makes this game ‘feel’ the way it does, but added some fun extra elements, such as the ability to catch birds, lob barrels at the other player, and dodge fire.
The title screen was updated for each of the different versions, so there is no doubt about which was being played. This work was based on their
previous hacks to
Knights of the Round
. Since both games shared the same
Capcom CPS-1 hardware
, the existing 68000 toolchain could be reused, reducing the overhead for this new series of hacks.
Binary modification program flow
Obviously, without access to the game’s source code, the hacks (all
seven
of them!) were made by binary modification, first learning about how the original program stores aspects of the game and hacking in a little hand-grafted assembly here and there to sneak in the extra elements without interfering too much with the original code operation.
[Sebastian] stripped out some title screen effects to speed boot time and removed some in-game graphics, such as the score and the ‘insert coin’ images, to free up some graphical tiles to reuse for the new elements. [Sebastian] first needed to understand the game code, which meant disassembly and hand annotation of the entire binary, which was done using the MAME debugger. As the linked article demonstrates, saying this is a big task is somewhat of an understatement.
A simple approach was taken to the mods consisting of three types of binary patches. The first, or ‘short circuit’, are simple NOPs inserted to disable subroutine calls or RTS to force an early return in a subroutine. The second type is a blob of code residing in some unused ROM space and storing state in a spare section of RAM. This is where the main parts of the new code reside. Finally, hooks are injected into the code at key locations, which jump into the binary blob where modified behavior is required. This can do any needed initialization before returning to the main game logic. Making significant changes to the game would be very hard without any spare space in the system, but we guess you could do it by stripping out other game elements, but [Sebastian] didn’t need to go there. If you’re into retro gaming and particularly modding, then going deeper into [Sebastian]’s homepage will reveal an astonishing number of projects and hacks.
Sometimes, our fond memories of games of old are skewed a little over the years, and the gameplay wasn’t that great in reality. So, what can we do? How about a
little Redux, Zelda II style
? If you’re really down the rabbit hole of retro hardware, then dealing with all those pesky EPROM chips is getting more difficult these days. To help with that, here’s
a modern take on the necessary hardware
. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053973",
"author": "alialiali",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T08:01:58",
"content": "Reminds me of the proof of concept backdoor Saleem Rashid inserted into ledger firmware (a popular crypto hardware wallet made by a deeply unpopular company).Saleem had to make space on the MCU and did ... | 1,760,371,753.356332 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/singapores-4300-km-undersea-transmission-line-with-australia-clears-regulatory-hurdle/ | Singapore’s 4300 Km Undersea Transmission Line With Australia Clears Regulatory Hurdle | Maya Posch | [
"green hacks",
"News"
] | [
"singapore",
"solar",
"solar power"
] | The proposed AAPowerLink transmission line between Darwin (Australia) and Singapore. (Credit:
Sun Cable
)
Recently Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA)
granted Sun Cable conditional approval
for its transmission line with Australia. Singapore has been faced for years now with the dilemma that its population’s energy needs keep increasing year-over-year, while it has very little space to build out its energy-producing infrastructure, least of all renewables with their massive footprints. This has left Singapore virtually completely dependent on natural gas-burning thermal plants.
With no nearby countries to obtain excess power from as is common in e.g. the EU’s integrated energy market, an idea was
floated
in 2020 by Australian company Sun Cable for the project, called the Australia-Asia Power Link (
AAPL
). This would entail two transmission lines:
the 800 km long DarwinLink to a yet-to-be-built multi-GW, 12,400 hectares
solar farm
in the
Barkly Region
of the Northern Territory. This link would be rated for 4 GW of transmission capacity.
the 4300 km long SingaporeLink HVDC line from Darwin to Singapore, rated for 2 GW (1.75 GW after losses).
Back in 2023 Sun Cable went into
voluntary administration
after the two billionaires providing venture capital for Sun Cable had disagreements about the company’s ‘funding and direction’. It’s unknown in how far these issues are resolved, even as Singapore’s EMA seems to have given conditional approval to the SingaporeLink transmission line. This comes against the background of Singapore having signed a
30-year nuclear power deal
with the US and is exploring the
eventual deployment
of nuclear power as well as the importing of large quantities of ammonia and (green) hydrogen.
The current planning for the whole Sun Cable project is set for completion by 2035, with construction yet to begin on all three components. There are still many uncertainties to be resolved, as the 1.75 GW that would be provided 24/7 to Singapore would have to be backed up by significant grid-level storage on both sides, which is
not an easy problem
to solve.
If completed, it would be the world’s longest electricity transmission line, providing enough power for ~9% of Singapore’s 2024 energy needs, and likely far below that by 2035. Naturally, all of these projections are eerily reminiscent of the
EU’s continuously revived plans
to import solar power and hydrogen from Africa.
Featured image:
Senoko
natural gas and oil-fired power station, Singapore in 2007. (Credit:
Terence Ong
) | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053901",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T02:39:57",
"content": "Maybe they need more HaD readers!https://hackaday.com/2019/10/03/floating-power-plants-the-coastal-city-solution-sure-to-be-increasingly-popular/Now, for that kind of power they’ll need about 60 of those lit... | 1,760,371,753.420416 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/signal-processing-shenanigans-the-createc-sc-01-pocket-oscilloscope/ | Signal Processing Shenanigans: The Createc SC 01 Pocket Oscilloscope | Heidi Ulrich | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Teardown"
] | [
"createc",
"digital Oscilloscope",
"oscilloscope",
"pocket oscilloscope",
"t202"
] | If you’re passionate about signal processing and retro tech, you’ll want to check out the Createc SC 01, a quirky handheld oscilloscope that recently caught the eye of [Thomas Scherrer] from OZ2CPU Teardown. This device, cheekily dubbed a “signal computer,” promises to be both intriguing and, perhaps, frustrating. You can view
[Thomas]’ original teardown video here
.
This device is packed with buttons and a surprisingly retro aesthetic that can make even the most seasoned hacker feel nostalgic. With a sample rate of 20 MHz and a bandwidth of up to 10 MHz, it’s a digital oscilloscope with a twist. Users may find its setup challenging, thanks to a somewhat convoluted manual that boasts numerous errors. However, beneath the confusion lies the potential for creative exploration: this signal computer can analyse analog signals, perform calculations, and even store data.
Despite its quirks, the SC 01 is sure the experience. Imagine troubleshooting a circuit while grappling with its unpredictable user interface—an adventure in itself for those who like a techy challenge.
The Createc SC 01 is not just another tool; it’s an invitation to embrace the imperfections of vintage tech. If you enjoy the hands-on learning process and don’t shy away from a few hiccups, this device might be something you’ll enjoy. Hackaday featured
an article on similar devices
last year. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "8054042",
"author": "Victor Martelli",
"timestamp": "2024-10-24T11:53:02",
"content": "There are many free software oscilloscopes that will run on low cost PC hardware. They are great for anyone teaching in a resource limited school. Physics and math projects suddenly gain a new le... | 1,760,371,753.459679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/a-3d-printed-open-source-lathe/ | A 3D Printed, Open Source Lathe? | Dave Rowntree | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"2020 extrusion",
"3d printed",
"concrete lathe",
"lathe",
"tool"
] | [Chris Borge] has spent the last few years creating some interesting 3D printed tools and recently has updated their
3D printable lathe design to make a few improvements
. The idea was to 3D print the outer casing of the lathe in two parts, adding structural parts where needed to bolt on motors and tool holders, and then fill the whole thing with concrete for strength and rigidity.
Only a few parts to print
The printed base is initially held together with two lengths of studding, and a pile of bolts are passed through from below, mating with t-nuts on the top. 2020 extrusion is used for the motor mount. The headstock is held on with four thread rods inserted into coupling nuts in the base. The headstock unit is assembled separately, but similarly; 3D printed outer shell and long lengths of studding and bolts to hold it together. Decent-sized tapered roller bearings make an appearance, as some areas of a machine tool really cannot be skrimped. [Chris] explains that the headstock is separate because this part is most likely to fail, so it is removable, allowing it to be replaced.
Yes, that’s right. We’re filling it with lovely runny concrete.
Not a bad job on aluminium for a DIY lathe!
Once together, the whole assembly is filled with runny concrete and set aside to cure. Before fully curing, the top surfaces are scraped flat to remove excess concrete so the top covers will fit. A belt-driven motor is fitted, with associated control electronics, and then it’s time to talk tooling. The first tool shown is a simple T-shaped rest, used with a hand tool known as a ‘graver.’ This is more likely to be used on a wood lathe, but we reckon you could about get away with it if you’re really careful with aluminium or perhaps brass. An adjustable rest was made using a few simple pieces (in steel!) and held in a short length of 2020 extrusion in a manner that makes it adjustable, albeit not shown in this video. Finally, a reasonable torture test is demonstrated, comprising a rough-cut aluminium disk screwed to a threaded carrier. This was tidied up to make it nice and round and clean up its surfaces. The lathe survived, only melting the 3D printed motor pulley, which, as they say, should not have been a 3D printed part when metal parts are so easy to acquire! If you want to build one for yourself, then
everything you need is here
, but like with projects of this type, more development is still needed to overcome a few shortcomings. Check out [Chris]’s channel for many more interesting ideas!
We’ve seen a few of [Chris]’s other
3D-printed tools, like this neat
fractal vice for odd-shaped objects
. We like tiny tool hacks;
after all, when you’re making small things,
you don’t need full-sized tools
.
Thanks to [CJay] for the tip! | 36 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053635",
"author": "Mike Bradley",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T20:08:54",
"content": "First dont get me wrong, I like this.But I am just curious, with companies like sendcutsend and pcbway, its so easy to get some solid steep plates to use in major parts of a build. I think the 3D pri... | 1,760,371,753.536362 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/floss-weekly-episode-806-manyfold-the-dopamine-of-open-source/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 806: Manyfold — The Dopamine Of Open Source | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"3d printing",
"ActivityPub",
"FLOSS Weekly",
"mastodon"
] | This week
Jonathan Bennett
and
David Ruggles
chat with
James Smith
about Manyfold, the self-hosted 3D print digital asset manager that’s on the Fediverse! Does it do live renders? Does it slice? Listen to find out!
https://floppy.org.uk/
https://manyfold.app
https://github.com/manyfold3d/manyfold
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 | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,753.575499 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/23/silent-antenna-tuning/ | Silent Antenna Tuning | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Radio Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"ham radio"
] | If you want to deliver the maximum power to a load — say from a transmitter to an antenna — then both the source and the load need to have the same impedance. In much of the radio communication world, that impedance happens to be 50Ω. But in the real world, your antenna may not give you quite the match you hoped for. For that reason, many hams use antenna tuners. This is especially important for modern radios that tend to fold their power output back if the mismatch is too great to protect their circuitry from high voltage spikes. But a tuner has to be adjusted, and often, you have to put a signal out over the air to make the adjustments to match your antenna to your transmitter.
There are several common designs of antenna tuners, but they all rely on some set of adjustable capacitors and inductors. The operator keys the transmitter and adjusts the knobs looking for a dip in the SWR reading. Once you know the settings for a particular frequency, you can probably just dial it back in later, but if you change frequency by too much or your antenna changes, you may have to retune.
It is polite to turn down the power as much as possible, but to make the measurements, you have to send some signal out the antenna. Or do you?
Several methods have been used in the past to adjust antennas, ranging from grid dip meters to antenna analyzers. Of course, these instruments also send a signal to the antenna, but usually, they are tiny signals, unlike the main transmitter, which may have trouble going below a watt or even five watts.
New Gear
However, a recent piece of gear can make this task almost trivial: the vector network analyzer (VNA). Ok, so the VNA isn’t really that new, but until recently, they were quite expensive and unusual. Now, you can pick one up for nearly nothing in the form of the NanoVNA.
The VNA is, of course, a little transmitter that typically has a wide range coupled with a power detector. The transmitter can sweep a band, and the device can determine how much power goes forward and backward into the device under test. That allows it to calculate the SWR easily, among other parameters.
In Practice
This sounds good, but how does it work? Well, to find out, I took a long wire connected to an MFJ Versa Tuner II and fed the NanoVNA’s TX port to the tuner. With the tuner in bypass, the screen looked like the first image. It actually had a pretty low SWR near 14 MHz, but everywhere else was not going to work very well at all.
The antenna happened to have a natural dip on 20 meters. The range of measurement is 1 to 30 MHz.
The next step was to switch the tuner into the circuit. Ideally, you could infinitely vary the inductor and both capacitors, but making roller inductors is a cost, so many tuners — including this one — have switches that select taps on the inductor, meaning you can only change it in fixed steps. That isn’t usually a problem, though, because you can adjust the capacitors to make up for it.
Since you aren’t transmitting, there’s no rush, and you can easily switch things around and turn knobs until you can find a null. If you were using the actual transmitter, you’d want to avoid switching the inductor “hot” because the switch contacts won’t appreciate any high-power RF.
The tuner created a few dips, one on the 40 meter band
I centered the frequency range around 7 MHz and found the lowest setting I could on the tuner. Then, I zoomed back out to the entire HF band. Not bad.
I went through and found null spots for all the ham bands. It was also possible to measure the SWR for bands I can’t transmit on (for example, 15 MHz, to listen to WWV).
Once I had jotted down all the settings, it was time to reconnect the transmitter. Well, technically, a transceiver — in this case, an Icom IC-7300. Even without transmitting, having the knobs adjusted correctly definitely helped with receiving, often strikingly so.
But Did It Really Work?
My first attempt was to use the frequency exactly where I had tuned before switching in the transmitter. As you’d expect, the transmitter saw a low SWR and had no issues, but changing frequencies was a little different.
The knobs on the tuner are not especially precise. Some high-end devices have multi-turn knobs with counters to help you get exactly back to some setting, but this tuner has no such thing. So when the dot on the knob is on, say, “2,” it is hard to know for sure if it is exactly where you had it last time it was in the same position.
A quick CQ on 15 meters with questionable propagation conditions
However, you can get close. Changing frequencies and tuner settings would sometimes give me a great SWR, but sometimes it was a little high (never any more than, maybe, 1.5:1). A minor tweak of the two capacitors on the tuner would resolve it quite easily.
A quick CQ on 15 meters resulted in the map you can see from the
reverse beacon network
. The furthest away I was heard was a bit more than 1,800 miles away. Not bad for a fairly short wire hung over a tree. Subsequent testing on several bands resulted in many contacts across four continents in a few hours.
Takeaway
Do you need to use a VNA to tune? No, but it sure is handy. Sure, it generates a tiny signal, but nothing like your transmitter. I like tuning very quietly and precisely without risking the expensive final amplifiers in my station. A good tuner can load up almost anything, and while you won’t get the performance you would get out of a proper antenna, you can still get on the air and have a lot of fun.
Of course, the VNA can do other things too. It can characterize components and modules like filters. You can even use them as time domain reflectometers to troubleshoot cables. It is worth noting that while I took pictures of the VNA so you could see what it would look like, it is actually better to use one of several programs on your PC that can create graphs and data that would be easy to work with. For example, I often use
this one
.
Want more
things to do with your VNA
? You can even
map antenna patterns
with one. | 56 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053495",
"author": "Mark Topham",
"timestamp": "2024-10-23T17:39:44",
"content": "Even with a VNA it’s not silent, you can hear the signal being injected with your radio nearby.I routinely do this when tuning my magnetic loop antenna because it’s extremely narrowband.",
"parent... | 1,760,371,753.842447 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/a-wobble-disk-air-motor-with-one-moving-part/ | A Wobble Disk Air Motor With One Moving Part | Dan Maloney | [
"Parts"
] | [
"air",
"engine",
"motor",
"nutation",
"wobble"
] | In general, the simpler a thing is, the better. That doesn’t appear to apply to engines, though, at least not how we’ve been building them. Pistons, cranks, valves, and seals, all operating in a synchronized mechanical ballet to extract useful work out of some fossilized plankton.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though, if the clever engineering behind
this wobbling disk air engine
is any indication. [Retsetman] built the engine as a proof-of-concept, and the design seems well suited to 3D printing. The driven element of the engine is a disk attached to the equator of a sphere — think of a model of Saturn — with a shaft running through its axis. The shaft is tilted from the vertical by 20° and attached to arms at the top and bottom, forming a Z shape. The whole assembly lives inside a block with intake and exhaust ports. In operation, compressed air enters the block and pushes down on the upper surface of the disk. This rotates the disc and shaft until the disc moves above the inlet port, at which point the compressed air pushes on the underside of the disc to continue rotation.
[Resetman] went through several iterations before getting everything to work. The main problems were getting proper seals between the disc and the block, and overcoming the friction of all-plastic construction. In addition to the FDM block he also had one printed from clear resin; as you can see in the video below, this gives a nice look at the engine’s innards in motion. We’d imagine a version made from aluminum or steel would work even better.
If [Resetman]’s style seems familiar, it’s with good reason. We’ve featured plenty of his clever mechanisms, like this
pericyclic gearbox
and
his toothless magnetic gearboxes
. | 17 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053149",
"author": "Joshua Rector",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T20:07:17",
"content": "That’s two moving parts",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8053155",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-1... | 1,760,371,753.955191 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/for-desalination-follow-the-sun/ | For Desalination, Follow The Sun | Al Williams | [
"green hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"desalination",
"electrodialysis"
] | It’s easy to use electricity — solar-generated or otherwise — to desalinate water. However, traditional systems require a steady source of power. Since solar panels don’t always produce electricity, these methods require some way to store or acquire power when the solar cells are in the dark or shaded. But MIT engineers have a fresh idea for solar-powered desalination plants: modify the workload
to account for the amount of solar energy available
.
This isn’t just a theory. They’ve tested community-sized prototypes in New Mexico for six months. The systems are made especially for desalinating brackish groundwater, which is accessible to more people than seawater. The goal is to bring potable water to areas where water supplies are challenging without requiring external power or batteries.
The process used is known as “flexible batch electrodialysis” and differs from the more common reverse osmosis method. Reverse osmosis, however, requires a steady power source as it uses pressure to pump water through a membrane. Electrodialysis is amenable to power fluctuations, and a model-based controller determines the optimal settings for the amount of energy available.
There are other ways to use
the sun to remove salt from water
. MIT has dabbled in that process, too, at
a variety of different scales
. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053134",
"author": "Tito Ferreira Figueiredo",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T18:36:13",
"content": "desalinate during the day enough water to last during the night.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8053137",
"author": "Bare... | 1,760,371,754.017388 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/the-2024-hackaday-supercon-sao-badge-reveal/ | The 2024 Hackaday Supercon SAO Badge Reveal | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"2024 Hackaday Supercon",
"2024 Hackaday Superconference",
"badge",
"badgelife",
"sao",
"Supercon AddOn"
] | We’ve been hinting at it for a few months now, running a series of articles on SAOs, then a
Supercon Add-On Challenge
. We even let on that the badge would have space for multiple SAOs this year, but would you believe six?
Way back in 2017ish, Hackaday’s own [Brian Benchoff] and the [AND!XOR] crew thought it would be funny and useful to create a “standard” for adding small custom PCB art-badges onto bigger conference badges. The idea was to keep it quick and dirty, uncomplicated and hacky, and
the “Shitty” Add On was born
. The badge community took to this like wildfire. While the community has moved on from the fecal humor, whether you call these little badgelets “SAOs”, “
Simple Add-Ons
”, or even “Supercon-8 Add Ons”,
there’s something here for everyone
. So if you’ve already got some SAOs in a drawer, bring them to this year’s Supercon and show them off!
But you don’t need to bring your own SAOs. We thought that as long as we were providing six SAO ports, we’d provide you with a small starter collection: four of them, in fact. A fantastic capacitive touch wheel designed by [Todbot], a beautiful spiral petal matrix of LEDs designed by [Voja Antonic], a completely blank-slate protoboard petal, and an I2C-enabled microcontroller proto-petal.
Bringing it all together, of course, is the main badge, which sports a Raspberry Pi Pico W on the back-side, for WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. This badge is intended to be a showcase of SAOs, and we thought that there have always been some under-explored corners of the spec. The most recent six-pin standard has power, ground, two GPIO pins, and an I2C pair. How often do we see SAOs that only use the power lines? This year, that changes!
Every GPIO pin on all six SAO slots is individually accessible, and the Pi Pico’s two hardware I2C peripheral busses are broken out on the left and right sides of the badge respectively. (Have an I2C enumeration conflict? Just move one of the offenders to the other side.) The idea here, combined with the wireless features and a trio of buttons on the front, is to give you a big sandbox to explore the possibilities of SAOs that go farther than just art.
Many Ways to Play
Straight out of the gate, the touch wheel and the LED petal matrix invite you to play with them, all the while fooling you into learning a little bit about interfacing I2C devices. You see, I2C devices have a unique address, and the rest of the functionality is handled by as if they were memory-mapped peripherals. What does this mean? If you want to ask the touch wheel where your finger is, you simply query its memory location 0. To set the LED colors, you write bytes to memory locations 15, 16, and 17 for red, green, and blue, respectively. Each spiral arm of the LED matrix petal is simply a byte in memory – write to it and the blinkies blink.
The take-home: I2C devices are fun and to play with. And when you start combining the functions of multiple SAOs, you can really start getting creative. But we’ve only scratched the surface. The I2C proto petal includes a CH32V003 chip, with its own dedicated I2C device hardware peripheral, so if you have essentially anything that you can solder to it, you can turn that into an I2C-enabled device to add to the party.
This is a multi-lingual party, though. The main badge, and all of the connection logic, runs on MicroPython. This makes it just a few lines of code to display your finger presses on the touchwheel over on the LED petal matrix, for instance, and we’ll have some demo code to ease you in. (And we’re frantically writing more!) But the I2C protoboard requires a little bit of C. If you’ve got a CH32V003 environment set up, by all means bring it – we love [CHLohr]’s
CH32V003fun
. We’re working on getting the badge board to program the CH32 in-situ, and we’re 99% sure we’ll have that ready by showtime. We’ll have demo code here to get you started as well. Will you program your first RISC-V chip at this year’s Supercon?
But say you don’t want anything to do with all this software? Just give me the solder! The blank-slate protoboard is for you. It breaks out the SAO lines, and gives you maximal room for creative hardware play. Heck, you could solder an LED, a resistor, and call it done. Or play around with the possibilities of the GPIOs. Low-code or no-code, the choice is yours.
Participate!
We know you’re all looking forward to getting your hands on the badge and the SAOs and getting creative. Here is the
2024 Supercon SAO Badge GitHub repository
, for your perusal. All of the design files that we have are there in the hardware directory, but the code is not yet complete. If you want to design a 3D-printed case or add-on, you’ll find the vector files in PDF.
As usual [Voja] makes his circuit diagrams by hand, so you’ll find
a beautifully annotated schematic
that lets you know where each and every pin goes. If you’re not feeling the AA battery love, you’ll see that [Voja] has left you some pads to hook up an external power supply, for instance.
But the software is a work in progress, and in particular, we don’t know what I2C devices you’ll be bringing with you. We’re going to include as many MicroPython I2C device libraries as we can find, from OLED screens to magnetometers, and we’d like them to be on the default conference image. So if you’ve a device that you’d like us to support, either drop a link in the comments below or add the code in
the libraries folder
and submit a pull request! We’ll be flashing these at the absolute last minute, of course, but please get it in this weekend if you can.
Supercon!
Supercon 8’s badge is the unofficial world-record holder for the most SAO connectors on any official conference badge, but it also aspires to encourage you to play around with the
functional
aspects of our favorite mini-badge form factor. Heck, maybe you’ll learn a thing or two about I2C along the way? Push some GPIOs around? Or maybe you’ll just have a fun weekend with a soldering iron, some stellar talks, and some great company. Whatever it’s going to be, we can’t wait to see you all, and to see what you come up with!
If you have any questions about the badge, fire away in the comments here.
You do have your tickets already
, right? See you soon!
(C3P0 add-on by [kuro_dk] and Cyclops by [Simenzhor] not included.) | 25 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053127",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T18:03:12",
"content": "Finally!(Sigh!)“All of the design files that we have are there in the hardware directory, but the code is not yet complete. If you want to design a 3D-printed case or add-on, y... | 1,760,371,754.180838 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/pushing-the-plasma-limits-with-a-custom-flyback-transformer/ | Pushing The Plasma Limits With A Custom Flyback Transformer | Danie Conradie | [
"High Voltage"
] | [
"555",
"flyback transformer",
"Plasma Channel"
] | For serious high-voltage plasma, you need a serious transformer. [Jay Bowles] from
Plasma Channel
is taking his projects to the next level, so he built a beefy
6000:1 flyback transformer
.
[Jay] first built a driving circuit for his dream transformer, starting with a simple 555 circuit and three MOSFETs in parallel to handle 90 A of current. This led to an unexpected lesson on the necessity for transistor matching as one of them let out the Magic Smoke. On his second attempt, the 555 was swapped for an adjustable pulse generator module with a display, and a single 40 A MOSFET on the output.
The transformer is built around a large 98×130 mm ferrite core, with eleven turns on the primary side. All the hard work is on the secondary side, where [Jay] designed a former to accommodate three winding sections in series. With the help of the [3D Printing Nerd], he printed PLA and resin versions but settled on the resin since it likely provided better isolation.
[Jay] spent six hours of quality time with a drill, winding 4000 feet (~1200 m) of enameled wire. On the initial test of the transformer, he got inch-long arcs on just 6 V and 15 W of input power. Before pushing the transformer to its full potential, he potted the secondary side in epoxy to reduce the chances of shorts between the windings.
Unfortunately, the vacuum chamber hadn’t removed enough of the air during potting, which caused a complete short of the middle winding as the input started pushing 11 V. This turned the transformer into a beautiful copper and epoxy paperweight, forcing [Jay] to start again from scratch.
On the following attempt [Jay] took his time during the potting process, and added sharp adjustable electrodes to act as voltage limiters on the output. The result is beautiful 2.25-inch plasma arcs on only 11 V and 100 W input power. This also meant he could power it with a single 580 mAh 3S LiPo for power.
[Jay] plans to use his new transformer to test materials he intends to use in future
plasma ball
,
ion thruster
, and
rail gun
projects. We’ll be keeping an eye out for those! | 18 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053104",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T16:37:58",
"content": "“Shatters all voltage records”That kind of hype is what I dislike most about YouTube!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8... | 1,760,371,753.903647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/in-its-second-year-jawncon-was-bigger-and-better/ | In Its Second Year, JawnCon Was Bigger And Better | Tom Nardi | [
"cons",
"Featured",
"Slider"
] | [
"capture the flag",
"hacker con",
"JawnCon",
"vintage computing"
] | Starting a hacker con is hardly what anyone would describe as easy — but arguably, the truly difficult part is keeping the momentum going into the second year and beyond. For the first year, you can get away with a few missed opportunities and glitches, but by the time you’ve got one event under your belt, you’ll have set the bar for what comes next. There’s pressure to grow, to make each year bigger and better than before. All the while, making sure you don’t go broke in the process. Putting on a single hacker con is an achievement in and of itself, but establishing a long-running hacker con is a feat that relatively few groups have managed to pull off.
With this in mind,
the incredible success of the second annual JawnCon
is all the more impressive. The Philadelphia-area event not only met the expectations of a sophomore effort, but exceeded them in pretty much every quantifiable way. From doubling attendance to providing a unique and immersive experience with their electronic badge, the team seized every opportunity to build upon the already strong foundation laid last year. If this was the make-or-break moment for the Northeast’s newest hacker con, the future looks very bright indeed.
But before setting our sights on next year, let’s take a look at some of the highlights from JawnCon 0x1.
While you can watch all of this year’s talks on YouTube
, the aspect of a hacker on that
can’t
easily be recorded is the quality time spent with like-minded individuals. Unfortunately, there’s no way to encompass everything that happened during a two-day con into a single article. Instead, this following will cover a few of the things that stood out to me personally.
If you’d like to experience the rest of JawnCon, you’ll just have to make the trip out to Philly for 2025.
Creating New Traditions
For returning attendees, certainly the most striking thing about this year’s event was simply how many people showed up. In the closing ceremonies, we learned that attendance had more than doubled since last year, and you could absolutely feel it. The rooms never felt cramped, but they certainly felt
full.
But the growth of this year’s event wasn’t limited to the ticket holders. The local chapter of
The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers (TOOOL)
was there, equipped with picks and transparent padlocks for anyone interested in an impromptu lesson in lockpicking. You could also try to get yourself out of a pair of handcuffs and other forms of restraints.
This year also featured a “Free Table” where attendees could leave interesting items for others. We’ve all got some piece of hardware that’s been gathering dust for just a bit too long. Maybe it was for some project that you’re no longer interested in, or you just don’t have the time to mess around with it. Instead of tossing it in the trash, a table like this is a great way to re-home some of those technical treasures.
The table was constantly being refreshed as more attendees showed up and added their contributions to the pile. There was only one rule: if your stuff was still there at the end of the con, you had to take it home. But as things started wrapping up on Saturday evening, there were just a few oddball antenna cables and a couple mystery PCBs left. It was especially gratifying to see how many reference books were picked up.
Another highlight this year was a informal competition inspired by the old IT adage that
digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband service
could be run over a piece of wet string. With all the hardware necessary to establish a DSL connection on-site, attendees were invited to bring up various objects that would fill in for the telephone line. The medium that provided the fastest confirmed Internet connection would be crowned the winner.
Two pieces of spaghetti ended up taking the top spot, with a link speed of 10 Mbit. A section of carbon fiber tube — dubbed “hard-line coax” for the purposes of the competition — managed second place with around 6 Mbit. As you might expect, the failures in this competition were perhaps just as interesting as the successes. A line of “energy gel” was apparently not conductive enough, though some flickering of the indicator LEDs on the modem seemed to indicate it was close. While it came as no surprise that a line of hackers holding hands wasn’t a suitable link for the experiment, the audience did appreciate the irony that the hardware indicated it couldn’t progress past the
handshaking
stage of the connection.
The Internet is a series of tubes…semolina tubes.
Living History for Hackers
Attendees had already gotten a
sneak peek at the JawnCon 0x1 badge
a few weeks before the event, so the fact that they’d all be getting tiny modems to plug into their computers (and indeed, wear around their necks) wasn’t a complete surprise. But still, I don’t think anyone was fully prepared for what a unique experience it was really going to be.
For the younger players, there was an obvious learning curve. But the veterans in attendance were all too happy to explain the relevant AT commands and get them dialing away. Once you’d figured out how to connect up to the network and start exploring, it added a whole new dimension to the event.
Not only were there various puzzles and Capture the Flag (CTF) challenges that could be accessed through the modem, but it also acted as a gateway to games, chats, and other features that functioned within the con’s infrastructure.
For example, running a command within the modem’s onboard menu system would print the current talk taking place on the stage downstairs, and tell you who was up next.
It was actually a bit surreal. Walking around you’d come across a table of 20-somethings, all with look-alike Hayes modems plugged into their shiny new MacBooks or high-end gaming laptops. It’s hard to say how many of them came away from the event with a new respect for the old ways, but there’s no question they had learned a hell of a lot more about the early Internet than they would have from just watching a YouTube video about it.
While the badge was certainly the star of the show, there were also vintage serial terminals dotted around the chill-out area that you could interact with. By default they showed the talk schedule in a glorious shade of either amber or green, but hit a key and you’d be dumped into the terminal. Nominally, jumping on the terminals and executing various tasks was part of the CTF, but it was also a lot of fun to turn back the clock and sit down at a real serial terminal and interact with some *nix box hidden away elsewhere in the building.
Long Live the Jawn
Any event that manages to double its attendance from the previous year is clearly doing something right. But if you don’t know how to handle the growth, it can become a problem. Luckily, the JawnCon staff are on the case. It sounds like next year they may opt to use a larger space within the same building at Arcadia University. The University is a great fit for the event, so the fact that there’s room to grow is great news for everyone involved.
Of course, it takes more than simply securing a larger room every couple years to make sure an event like this stays on the right track. You also need intelligent and responsible folks at the wheel. Here again, JawnCon is well equipped for the future. The staff and volunteers that worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring this con to life are some of the most passionate and welcoming individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. They represent the very best qualities of hacker culture, and armed with a genuine desire to bring that sense of exploration and inclusion to the next generation, they’re the catalyst that will keep JawnCon growing and evolving over the coming years. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053070",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T14:40:34",
"content": "10Mbs over wet spaghetti?! That’s better than I used to get on BT’s copper 😭",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8053120",
"author": "Tom Nardi",
... | 1,760,371,754.233674 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/libre-space-foundation-aims-to-improve-satellite-tech/ | Libre Space Foundation Aims To Improve Satellite Tech | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Space"
] | [
"cubesat",
"libre space foundation",
"model",
"multi-body dynamics",
"open source",
"simulation",
"spring",
"zero-gravity"
] | There’s no shortage of movies, TV shows, and books that show a dystopian future with corporations run amok in outer space with little or no effective oversight.
Dune
,
The Expanse
, and
The Dispossessed
spring to mind as predicting different aspects of this idea, but there are plenty of other warnings throughout sci-fi depicting this potential future. One possible way of preventing this outcome is by ensuring that space is as open-sourced as possible and one group, the Libre Space Foundation (LSF), is working towards this end. Their latest is a project with Ondsel
to develop and model a satellite deploying mechanism using almost entirely open source software
.
The LSF had already designed the PICOBUS satellite launcher system that flew to space in 2022 and deployed a number of CubeSats, but the group needed more information about how the system would perform. They turned to Ondsel to help develop
a multi-body dynamics (MBD) solver, managing simulations with mass-spring-damper models. The satellite launcher includes a large constant-force spring that pushes the CubeSats out of the device once the door is opened, and the model can now simulate their paths in space without gravity. The team will launch their next set of satellites sometime next year
on an RFA-ONE rocket
.
The LSF maintains a huge database of their open source space projects, including this one,
on their GitLab page
. Although it might seem like small potatoes now, the adoption of open source software and hardware by space-fairing entities can help further the democratization of low Earth orbit.
Thanks to [johnad] for the tip! | 27 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8053000",
"author": "Vauxhall Astra",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T11:51:47",
"content": "Why do hearing “libre” gives me those “it’s shady af” vibes?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8053007",
"author": "bob",
"tim... | 1,760,371,754.562243 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/click-to-cancel-coming-soon/ | “Click To Cancel” Coming Soon | Navarre Bartz | [
"News"
] | [
"click to cancel",
"Federal Trade Commission",
"FTC",
"regulation"
] | If you’ve ever had to suffer through a call tree and a 9,000 hour wait on hold to cancel a subscription, we have good news for you if you live in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has just finalized a rule that will “
make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up.
”
The announcement of the proposed rule came in March 2023 and was followed up by 16,000 comments from the public. Complaints to the agency about
negative option
and recurring subscription services have been rising from 42 per day in 2021 to 70 per day in 2024.
Commission Chair Lina M. Khan says, “The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”
The rule will take effect 180 days after entering the Federal Register. If you’re curious about other ways we can hold tech companies accountable,
Cory Doctorow has some ideas
. | 32 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052936",
"author": "haaad",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T08:24:31",
"content": "And now the EU… Should be exactly like that. Sale line picks up witin 1 second so the support line. Sale line connects you to person so the support line. Similar for online service 1 click to buy – 1 click ... | 1,760,371,754.354619 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/pac-man-ghost-helps-with-air-quality-sensing/ | Pac-ManGhost Helps With Air Quality Sensing | Bryan Cockfield | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"air quality",
"carbon dioxide",
"co2",
"CO2 sensor",
"ESP32",
"indoor air quality",
"led strip",
"pac-man",
"ws2182b"
] | In the past, building construction methods generally didn’t worry much about air quality. There were enough gaps around windows, doors, siding, and flooring that a house could naturally “breathe” and do a decent enough job of making sure the occupants didn’t suffocate. Modern buildings, on the other hand, are extremely concerned with efficiency and go to great lengths to ensure that no air leaks in or out. This can be a problem for occupants though and generally requires some sort of mechanical ventilation, but to be on the safe side and keep an eye on it a CO2 sensor like
this unique
Pac-Man
-inspired monitor
can be helpful.
Although there are some ways to approximate indoor air quality with inexpensive sensors, [Tobias] decided on a dedicated CO2 sensor for accuracy and effectiveness, despite its relatively large cost of around $30. An ESP32 handles the data from the sensor and then outputs the results to an array of LEDs hidden inside a ghost modeled after the ones from the classic arcade game
Pac-Man
. There are 17 WS2812B LEDs in total installed on a custom PCB, with everything held together in the custom 3D printed ghost-shaped case. The LEDs change from green to red as the air quality gets worse, although a few preserve the ghost’s white eyes even as the colors change.
For anyone looking to recreate this project and keep an eye on their own air quality, [Tobias] has made everything from the code, the PCB, and the 3D printer files open source, and has used accessible hardware in the build as well. Although the CO2 sensors can indeed be pricey,
there are a few less expensive ways of keeping an eye on indoor air quality
. Some of these methods attempt to approximate CO2 levels indirectly, but current consensus is that
there’s no real substitute for taking this measurement directly
if that’s the metric targeted for your own air quality. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052966",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T09:32:40",
"content": "interesting texture / look of the 3D print …",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8053164",
"author": "Tobias",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T20:... | 1,760,371,754.281864 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/nuclear-tomb-must-survive/ | Nuclear Tomb Must Survive | Al Williams | [
"News"
] | [
"nuclear waste",
"underground"
] | It is hard to imagine that much we built today will be used ten years from now, much less in a hundred. It is hard to make things that last through the ages, which is why we are fascinated with things like ancient pyramids in Mexico, Egypt, and China. However, even the oldest Egyptian pyramid is only about 5,000 years old. [Mark Piesing] at the BBC visited a site that is supposed to
lock up nuclear waste for 100,000 years
.
This particular project is in France, but there are apparently dozens of similar projects around the world. Locating these nuclear tombs is tricky. They need to be in a geologically stable area that won’t contaminate water. They also prefer areas already depleted of resources to lessen the chance someone will be digging nearby in the far future. You also need people to agree to have these facilities in their communities, which is probably the most difficult thing to find.
Burying anything 500 meters underground is a challenge. But we were interested in how you’d plan to keep the material safely away from people for 20 times longer than the pyramids have stood next to the Nile. Anything could happen over that timescale, and it seems unlikely that you’ll have an organization that can last that long and stand watch over these dangerous vaults. If they poke around in these holes, future archeologists could deal with a very real cursed tomb.
Of course, the whole idea is controversial. But putting that aside, how would you design something to last 100,000 years and stay secure? Let us know in the comments. It would be good practice for that generation ship to Bernard’s Star.
We’ve seen that it is hard to keep a clock running for even
100 years
. Already, 50-year-old computers seem
incredibly antique
. What will tech be like in 100,000 years? | 121 | 30 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052814",
"author": "Oscar Goldman",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T02:06:48",
"content": "Dig hole to ChinaDrop it in",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8052854",
"author": "M",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T03:56:18",
... | 1,760,371,754.501299 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/zero-to-custom-macropad-in-37-easy-steps/ | Zero To Custom MacroPad In 37 Easy Steps | Dave Rowntree | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"cad",
"firmware",
"keyboard",
"keyboard layouts",
"KiCAD",
"macropad",
"OnShape",
"QMK",
"wsl"
] | [Jeremy Weatherford] clearly has a knack for explaining projects well enough for easy reproduction but goes way further than most and has created a four-part YouTube series detailing every step from project inception to the final assembly, covering
all aspects of 3D modelling and PCB design for a custom MacroPad design
. Many tools are introduced along the way,
all of which help reduce complexity and, by extension, the scope for errors. As every beginner hacker knows, early successes breed confidence and make for better and more ambitious projects.
Part 1
covers the project motivation and scope and introduces a
keyboard layout editor
tool. This tool allows one to take a layout idea and generate a JSON file, which is then used to drive
keyboard tools
. XYZ to
produce a usable KiCAD project.
The tool only generates a PCB project and an associated netlist file. No schematic is created; you don’t need one for a simple layout.
A very basic keyboard layout
Part 2
is a walkthrough of the design process in KiCAD, culminating in ordering the PCB from JLCPCB and assembling the surface-mount parts. This particular design uses a controller based on the Sea-Picro RP2040 module, but there are many options if you have other preferences. [Jeremy] shows what’s possible with the selected suppliers, but you need not follow this step precisely if you have other ideas or want to use someone local.
Part 3
covers exporting the mechanical aspects of the PCB out of KiCAD and into a 3D CAD program, specifically OnShape. [Jeremy] covers some crucial details, such as how to read the mechanical drawing of the keys to work out where to place the top plate. It’s very easy to plough straight in at this stage and make a design which cannot be assembled! The plan is to use a simple laser-cut box with a bottom plate with mounting holes lining up with those on the PCB. A Top plate is created by taking the outline of the PCB and adding a little margin. An array of rectangular cutouts are designed for the keys to protrude, lining up perfectly with where the keys would be when mounted on the PCB below. The sides of the case are formed from laser-cut sections that lock into each other and the laser-cut base—using the laser joint feature-script addon tool from the OnShape community channel. A second feature script addon is used to auto-layout the laser-cut components onto a single sheet. A CAM application called Kiri Moto is used to export for laser cutting and is available on the OnShape store.
Part 4
concerns the firmware. The QMK WSL build is compiled on Windows using WSL, minimizing the barrier to entry for intrepid hackers who are likely to start out with Windows-based hardware. The QMK layout is configured as an ortho_4x4, but [Jeremy] calmly and clearly explains how the other layouts are used and how they align with the earlier design choices. Finally, the VIAL keyboard layout editor is shown to be used for testing the finished macropad, and how it is used for programming those delicious macros we want to emit into the world.
Macropads are very individual things, and you really need to be pushing the limits of productivity to need one, let alone build a custom device. Here’s one for those who get stuck in
MS Teams calls a lot
. If you’re into video editing, that’s a valid use case
. Video editing macropads have existed for decades, but
have they been made out of wood? | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052766",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T23:12:55",
"content": "I assert that yes, a schematic is needed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "8052816",
"author": "M_B",
"timestamp": "2024-10-22T02:19:27",
"... | 1,760,371,754.608168 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/the-1983-clock-four-decades-in-the-making/ | The 1983 Clock Four Decades In The Making | Al Williams | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"led"
] | In 1983, a 14-year-old [Will] saw an LED clock in The Sharper Image store. At $250, it stayed in the store. That was a lot of money back then, especially for most teenagers. But [Will] didn’t forget. After high school, he and a friend planned to build one from scratch. They worked out how they would do it and did a little prototyping, but never really finished. Well, they never really finished at the time. Because 33 years later, [Will] decided to
finally put it together
. Check it out in the video below.
[Will’s] learned a lot since his original design, plus we have tech today that would have seemed like magic in the late 1980s. But he wanted to stay true to the original design, so there’s no microcontroller or smart LEDs. Just binary counters and a lot of LEDs. There’s even a 555 doing duty as a reset timer.
The original design used the 60 Hz signal from the AC power supply. [Will] made that one concession to modern times and powered the clock from USB-C. That meant adding a reference oscillator, which is a good thing, anyway, as he explains in the post.
The result looks good and we don’t envy him soldering 275 SMD parts! He even graciously made a few and sent one to his old friend.
We don’t know why we were surprised [Will] soldered all those parts. He’s a key member of the people who put on
the SMD soldering challenge
each year at Supercon. Most LED clock projects from those days
used 7-segment displays
. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052719",
"author": "Peter_s",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T20:42:56",
"content": "Dutch magazine elektor made a decently good, nice looking design published december 1994Quasi analog clockwork Janur 1995 Seite 52My friend and me we built two clocks, these clocks lasted till today, lost... | 1,760,371,754.658557 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/strange-english-teaching-computer-might-have-been-big-in-japan/ | Strange English Teaching Computer Might Have Been Big In Japan | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Teardown"
] | [
"japan",
"retrocomputer",
"z80"
] | [Ctrl-Alt-Rees] bought something strange on an auction site: a Japanese Cefucom-21 from 1983. No? Didn’t ring a bell for us either. The legend on the front boldly proclaims: “CCI Multipurpose SLAP Computer,” so maybe it is some kind of computer, but it is definitely strange. For one thing, the “screen” isn’t a screen at all. [Rees] has found that it has something to do with teaching English. You can see the odd beast in the video below.
We don’t know how common these were in Japan, but they appear to be virtually unknown everywhere else. Inside is a Z80 computer based on a Sanyo PHC-25, which is a little better known.
The strange screen is offset from the keyboard. There was also a tape drive and a ROM cartridge port. The screen, however, isn’t driven by the computer — you still needed a TV. Instead, it is a window to view a paper graphic stored on a special kind of cartridge. The cartridge simply had images printed on paper. The computer could roll the paper to an image.
Inside, the computer is a fairly conventional Z80 design but with many extras, including a second Z-80. Luckily, the battery, which is known to leak, didn’t completely blow out.
When the video was made, the old box wasn’t working. However, a comment on the video indicates that he’s since got it working and found the software for it, so we are looking forward to a hands-on video soon.
Have you seen one of these before? If you have, we are sure [Rees] would appreciate hearing from you. There seems to be a correlation between
odd machines and dual Z-80s
. We love seeing these
old, forgotten machines
. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052667",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T18:45:07",
"content": "i thought immediately:Quite strange to see a flat screen / square edges for a CRT in 1983. There weren’t any at that time.“The computer could roll the paper to an image” what an awful wording !",
"parent_... | 1,760,371,754.753931 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/2024-supercon-third-round-of-super-speakers/ | 2024 Supercon: Third Round Of Super Speakers | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News"
] | [
"2024 Hackaday Supercon",
"2024 Hackaday Superconference"
] | The third and final round of the 2024 Supercon talks announcements brings us to the end, and
the full schedule is now up on Hackaday.io
.
With Supercon just a couple weeks away,
we hope you have your tickets already
! Stay tuned tomorrow for a badge reveal.
Alex Toussaint
How to detect – and kill – mosquitoes with off-the-shelf electronics
I’d like to talk about the physics of sonar and small insect detection, with a focus on the off-the-shelf electronics that allow us to study it cheaply. I’ll talk about ultrasonic phased arrays, why nature (bats) uses ears instead of phased arrays, what the optimal wavelength is for ultrasonic detection, and cover automated target recognition. You’ll learn how accessible ultrasonic sonars are to the average hacker, and how much they can teach us about the physics of radar and wave propagation.
Azita Emami
Intelligent Devices for Brain-Machine-Interfaces and Health Monitoring
This talk discusses the design challenges and promises of future wearable and implantable devices. Join us as we take a look at wireless health monitoring with tiny chips, and the hardware-software co-design for Brain-Machine-Interfaces (BMI).
Dave Rowntree
Product prototyping: My journey from electronics consultant to a more complete prototyper
This talk is about my ongoing journey from a work-from-home electronics prototyper to a complete system prototyper working on a multi-disciplinary project as part of a startup. I’m putting an airbag in a basketball shoe. I’ve got a shoe-string month-by-month budget and am documenting my journey. Of course there’s plenty of electronics involved, from wireless charging, flexible full custom pressure sensor arrays, and real-time signal processing. And explosives.
Dev Kennedy
Photonics/Optical Stack for Smart-Glasses
This talk explains three technology pillars: 1) End-to-end simple breakdown of how all smart-glasses work 2) The gamut of HW options to safely display light within the device, since getting the photonics right is key glasses functioning properly 3) The various optical Hw solutions one can use when building an HMD (Head-mounted displays)
Joseph Long
In Living Color: A New World of Full-Color PCBs
There was a time when printed circuit boards were either boring, bare beige or coated with a “luxurious” green solder mask. Since then, solder mask materials have expanded to include a handful of color option, but generally only one per board. Makers have cooked up various techniques within the limitations of one solder mask color, the copper layer beneath, and white or black silkscreen markings to create amazing visual effects on PCBs. However, we’ve longed for more creative power. The time for that power has finally arrived. In 2024, mainstream board houses started offering full-color printing on PCBs as part of standard production orders.
Joshua Wise
X1Plus: an unusual custom firmware for a consumer 3D printer
X1Plus is the first known custom firmware for the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 3D printer. In some ways, X1Plus is a very standard custom firmware: it jumps into a custom kernel, launches a patched userspace, and provides a handful of interesting features to users. And in some ways, X1Plus takes a relatively well-trodden path of exploiting relatively usual cheap IoT device security vulnerabilities that have been passed around from hand to hand for a while.
In this talk, we’ll all get to laugh together a little bit about classic silly IoT security errors, we’ll paint a picture of the architecture of a firmware patchset designed for ordinary users, and we’ll enjoy a little bit of hope at the concept of at least one vendor who found it more interesting to collaborate with their users than to fight them.
Kino De Vita and Cat Morse
Celebrating the World of Display Technology
In this two-part presentation, Cat Morse will take the audience through the story of the PCC Time Machine, a retro-tech clock, and Kino DeVita will talk about curating and designing the first-ever community-sourced exhibit dedicated to electronic display technology.
Mehrdad Majzoobi
Incremental hardware builds and design for agile manufacturing
In this talk, I would like to share some of the methods I used to design, build, and manufacture Ubo open source home pod. In particular, I am going to focus on techniques that can be helpful in small volume production and incremental builds that reduce cost, increases flexibility, and make mistake less costly. I cover various aspects of design and manufacturing of electronics and mechanical parts.
Wayne Pavalko
Adventures in Ocean Tech–The Maker Buoy Journey
This talk discusses my adventures in ocean technology from a single Arduino-based drifting buoy to deploying hundreds of ocean sensors around the world. I’ll discuss how it all started, the hardware and software lessons-learned, and the network of collaborators necessary to turn a hobby into an ocean technology side-hustle.
Janelle Wellons
Behind the Scenes of Mission Control
After 7 years operating science instruments and spacecraft at the Moon, Saturn, and our own planet Earth, Janelle will be uncovering the pillars of spaceflight operations. During this talk, she will take you behind the scenes of mission control from the perspective of a Flight Director to share how we navigate the stars, survive the uncertainty of space, and make a difference for humanity.
Madison Maxey
E-Textiles for Engineers: A deep dive into performance and applications
Think that electronic textiles are only for clothing? Thank again! This talk explores the technical use cases and pros and cons of using e-textiles over other flexible electronic technologies in robotics, automotive and more. From knit e-textile to good ol’ regular PCBS, this talk is all about technology comparison and highlighting where electronic textiles can help solve your biggest electromechanical challenges.
Juan Diego Zambrano Torres, Ivan Hernandez, and Abdelrahman Tarek Zakaria Abdelmaaboud Farag
Immersive Motion Rehabilitation Device
This talk introduces a wearable motion monitoring device using low-energy Bluetooth (BLE). It features an interactive game-based interface for children and generates detailed medical reports, providing therapists with valuable insights for effective rehabilitation.
Panel: Allie Katz, Samy Kamkar, and Al Williams
Unlocking Designs with Reverse Engineering
Allie, Samy, and Al will lead a panel of reverse engineers who will talk tips and tricks about how to get inside of various devices. The ability to think in reverse is also important for your forward-engineering, so don’t miss this one.
(
Go get your tickets already
. And if you’ve got ’em, see you soon!) | 3 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052720",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T20:43:28",
"content": "Dave Rowntree doesn’t look happy in the photo,was it something I said?B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8052761",
... | 1,760,371,754.710124 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/open-source-3d-printed-trackpad/ | Open-Source, 3D Printed Trackpad | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"hid",
"mouse",
"open source",
"pi pico",
"QMK",
"raspberry pi",
"TouchPad",
"trackpad",
"USB C"
] | Touchpads, or trackpads, have been around since the 1980s. Today, you can often find them in laptops and notebook computers as pointing devices. With no moving parts, a trackpad are easy to integrate into the body of a portable computer. they’re much smaller than the traditional mouse. Until the advent of multitouch and gestures over the past two decades, though, they were generally poor substitutes for an actual mouse. These days, trackpads have enough features that some users prefer them even on their desktop computers. If you’re that type of person and don’t want to shell out a big pile of money for an Apple, Logitech, or other off-the-shelf trackpad
you can always build your own
.
This trackpad, called the Ploopy, is completely open source, including the 3D prints needed to build the case. Even the touch surface is 3D printed, using a special sheet and printing the trackpad face down so that the surface takes on a smooth, comfortable texture. Inside the device is a Raspberry Pi Pico running
QMK
, a popular open-source firmware for mice and keyboards we often see on mechanical keyboard builds. The only part most of us won’t find in our parts bin is the Microchip ATMXT1066TD touchscreen controller. But once it’s all assembled and a firmware flashed to the Pi, it’s ready to go.
For anyone looking to build one of these from scratch there are
a set of instructions at a separate page
that document the build process. There’s also
a Reddit thread
with some active discussion. Trackpads have come a long way from the barely-usable, resistive types that were more common in the early days of laptops. Most of us have gotten used to the high-quality devices available now so much so that it’s hard to let them go.
There are some other non-standard pointer devices that some others have a hard time letting go of, too
. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052626",
"author": "YyZ",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T16:35:52",
"content": "The article was good but I’m more curious about the pen next to the pad. Is it what I think it is? Very nice!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8052661",... | 1,760,371,755.108268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/an-sao-for-hams/ | An SAO For Hams | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Microcontrollers",
"Slider"
] | [
"rp2040",
"sao",
"Supercon"
] | Generally speaking, the Hackaday Supercon badge will always have a place for SAO (rebranded as “Supercon add-ons”), and that makes sense. We did originate them, after all. This year, though, we’ve gone all in on SAO, and, in particular, we’ve asked to see more SAOs with communication capabilities. The standard has always had an I2C bus, but few people use them. I decided I wanted to set an example and cook up a badge for Supercon. Was it hard? Yes and no. I’ll share with you a little about the board’s genesis and the issues I found. At the end, I’ll make you a special offer, if you are going to Supercon.
The Idea
The front of the SAOGNR — the SAO connector is, of course, on the back
I’ve been a ham radio operator for a very long time. In fact, July was my 47th anniversary in the radio hobby. Well, that’s not true. It was my 47th year with a license. I had been listening to shortwave long before then. So, I wanted to do something with Morse code. You don’t have to know Morse code to get a license these days, but a lot of hams enjoy it.
I set out to do a simple board that would play some Morse code messages. But that’s just another blinking light LED with a buzzer on it, too. So, naturally, I decided it would also provide Morse code output for the I2C host. That is, the SAO could be used to convert ASCII to Morse code. Sounds simple, right? Sure.
Getting Started
I wanted to use a Raspberry Pi Pico but didn’t want to violate the SAO size requirements. Luckily, there’s an RP2040-Zero module that is quite tiny and looks more or less like a normal Pico. The two big differences are plusses: they have a reset button, and instead of a normal LED, they have a WS2812b-style LED.
Using that let me not worry about a lot of overhead on the board. Sure, it costs a few bucks more, so if you were mass-producing something, that’s not so good. But for this, it was perfect. I only had to add a speaker with a little transistor driver, which is probably unnecessary, four more WS2812B LEDs, and the SAO connector.
I was going to add a button, but I remembered from last year there is a way to use the BOOTSEL button on the module as a normal button, so I decided to cut a corner there. I could have shrunk the board, but I wanted some area for a protyping area and some cool silk screen, since I’m not artistic enough to come up with a nice outline for the board, so I kept the board full-size which is a lot of space.
The only strange thing is that the RP2040-Zero has parts on both sides, so it needs a cutout in the board. No problem. KiCAD didn’t have a good footprint for it that I could find, so I switched over to
EasyEDA
. They have handy integration with the parts you can get, too, so it is easy to price your board and even buy them already put together if you like.
While I waited for the boards, I decided to grab a similar Pico board and prototype the software. However, in the middle of this, I got a disturbing e-mail.
The Boards are Wrong?
The Chinese board house sent me a note: they were not sure the LEDs were connected properly. I checked, and I double-checked. They looked OK to me. I bravely asked them to build the boards as specified and went back to prototyping.
I’m not always a fan of Python, but we have a history of doing badges in Python so people can easily hack them. So I decided to stick to MicroPython. Getting the code and other features to work was a piece of cake. There is something surreal about using regular expressions to filter comments out of a file on a little microprocessor.
I2C Woe
Once I had the main features working, I set out to do the I2C when I realized an unpleasant fact. The Micropython library has I2C classes so you can host an I2C device. It does not have code that lets you be an I2C device yourself. CircuitPython apparently supports this, but I was in no mood to move the code over. Had I realized it going in, I might have made a different choice.
Luckily, an
online forum
had some code that directly manipulated the chip’s I2C registers and I was able to adapt that. If you are thinking of building an SAO with I2C capabilities, this is something to check before you go too far.
I stuck with the simple protocol that just lets me receive I2C commands because that’s all I needed, but there were examples of going further. For my project, I created the I2CTarget class. You tell the constructor which I2C bus you want to use, what pins you want to map to, and the I2C address you want to use. There are defaults for all of that.
Once it is running, you can check to see if data is available (call
any()
) and then read that data (
get()
). Don’t forget that reading data will block, so if you don’t want to block, check to see if anything is available first. The I2C hardware on the chip has a small FIFO, so that’s fine for this project.
I did create a subclass that allows an I2C object to act like a menu in the code. The menu object normally gets input from the user, but using this little trick lets the I2C commands fake user input.
The Boards Arrive
The board came in, as boards tend to do. I changed a few I/O pins in my code and… big sigh of relief, the LEDs were fine. A few tweaks on the code and the SAO was complete.
I left you all the files and documentation over on
Hackaday.io
. Maybe I went a little overboard with the
documentation
. You can decide. The source code is on GitHub, but you’ll find the link on the IO page.
Special Offer
Do you want one? Well, all the design files are there. Fire up your favorite way to etch boards or order them from your favorite board house. It wouldn’t be that hard to point-to-point wire one or put one on a breadboard except for the SAO connector, of course.
However, I have a deal for you. I have a limited number of these and will have them at Supercon. Find me — I’m easy to find since I mostly hang out at the soldering challenge table — and show me some code you propose to run that either uses the SAO or runs on the SAO. If I have any left, I’ll give you one, but when I’m out, I’m out. So, to be on the safe side, maybe make your own and bring it anyway. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052592",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T14:37:45",
"content": "” but didn’t want to violate the SAO size requirements.”I missed that part, now to downsize mine from 3 stacked 15 x 15 cm boards!B^)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,754.862613 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/i2c-the-hard-way/ | I2C The Hard Way | Al Williams | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"i2c"
] | [Igor] has an AS5600 magnetic rotary encoder chip on a breakout board. Normally, you’d think that was an easy device to work with since it has an I2C interface. But [Igor] wanted to do it the hard way. What’s the hard way? By hand. He
directly manipulates the clock and data lines
using some push buttons. You can see how it goes in the video below.
This is possible because the controlling device — in this case [Igor] — gets to set the clock rate, and there’s no reason it has to be regular. We have to admit that it never occurred to us to do this, but we have written “bit banged” I2C-like code before.
The practical value of this isn’t clear, but we were still impressed. Certainly, if you had to write code or build hardware to operate the protocol, this would tell you quickly if you understood the fundamentals. We wonder if his next trick will be RS232 via Morse code key.
If you want a
deep dive into the world of I2C
, we can help with that. This reminded us of the old “
paperclip computer book
” that showed how to make your own computer with oatmeal boxes and paperclips. You just had to do the work of the CPU yourself. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052517",
"author": "doppler",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T11:28:55",
"content": "If he wanted to do it the hard way. Where is the 555 ic to debounce the buttons? Or is that the stupid way ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "8053... | 1,760,371,754.969591 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/21/save-a-packet-use-cheap-co-ax/ | Save A Packet, Use Cheap Co-Ax! | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"75 ohm",
"co-ax",
"RG6"
] | Anyone who works with radio transmitters will know all about matching and impedance, and also about the importance of selecting the best co-axial cable connecting transistor and antenna. But here’s [Steve, KD2WTU] with a different take, he’s suggesting that sometimes a not-so-good co-ax choice can make the grade.
He’s passing up expensive 50 ohm cable in favour of the cheap and ubiquitous 75 ohm RG6 cable
used in domestic TV and satellite receiver installations.
Fighting that received wisdom, he outlines the case for RG6. It’s cheap and it has a surprisingly low loss figure compared to some more conventional choices, something that shouldn’t be a surprise once we consider that it’s designed to carry GHz-plus signals. Where it loses is in having a lower maximum power rating. Power shouldn’t be a problem to a shoestring ham for whom 100W is QRO. Another issue is that 75 ohm coax necessitates a tuner for 50 ohm transmitters. It also has the effect of changing the resonance of some antennas, meaning a few mods may be in order.
So we’re convinced, and with the relatively QRP shack here we can’t see RG6 being a problem. Maybe it’s something to try in out next antenna experiment. Meanwhile if you’re interested in some of the background on co-ax impedance choices,
we’ve been there before
. | 58 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "8052445",
"author": "Dave Jones",
"timestamp": "2024-10-21T08:36:54",
"content": "The main issue with cheap 75 ohm coax is that it uses heavily oxygenated copper, which causes some signals to travel slower than speed of light, leading to weird resonance effects. More expensive 50 oh... | 1,760,371,755.286584 |
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