url stringlengths 37 208 | title stringlengths 4 148 | author stringclasses 173 values | publish_date stringclasses 1 value | categories listlengths 0 12 | tags listlengths 0 27 | featured_image stringlengths 0 272 | content stringlengths 0 56.1k | comments_count int64 0 900 | scraped_comments_count int64 0 50 | comments listlengths 0 50 | scraped_at float64 1.76B 1.76B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/06/creating-1%c2%b5m-features-the-hacker-way/ | Creating 1 Um Features The Hacker Way | Julian Scheffers | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"chip manufacturing",
"photolithography",
"semiconductor fab"
] | [Breaking Taps] has done some lithography experiments in the past, including some test patterns and a rudimentary camera sensor. But now, it’s time to turn it up a notch with
1µm garage semiconductor ambitions
.
The
e-beam lithography
he’s done in the past can achieve some impressive resolutions, but they aren’t very fast; a single beam of electrons needs to scan over the entire exposure area, somewhat like a tiny crayon. That’s not very scalable; he needed a better solution to make 1µm semiconductors.
Test patterns from the first attempt
In his quest, he starts by trying to do
maskless photolithography
, using a literal projector to shine light on the target area all at once. After hacking a projector devkit apart, replacing blue with ultraviolet and adding custom optics, it’s time for a test. The process works for the most part but can’t produce fine details the way [Breaking Taps] needs. Unfortunately, fixing that would mean tearing the whole set-up apart for the umpteenth time.
The photomask used in the reduction machine
In either a genius move, or the typical hacker tangent energy, he decides not to completely re-build the maskless lithography machine, but instead uses it to create
masks
for use in a 10:1 reduction machine, also known as the more traditional mask photolithography. In the end, this works out well for him, reaching just about 2 µm effective minimum feature size in this two-step process.
We haven’t even remotely covered everything and there are, of course, always things to improve. And who knows? Maybe we’ll see 1µm semiconductors from [Breaking Taps] in the future. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6783205",
"author": "smellsofbikes",
"timestamp": "2024-08-06T15:24:49",
"content": "The engineering and design effort he puts in to solve his problems, and the thought that goes into debugging the new problems that arise, always impress me about his work.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,833.979786 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/06/a-look-inside-the-space-shuttles-first-printer/ | A Look Inside The Space Shuttle’s First Printer | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Space"
] | [
"AN/UG-74C",
"FSK",
"impact",
"printer",
"reverse engineering",
"Space Shuttle",
"teleprinter"
] | There was even a day not too long ago when printers appeared to be going the way of the dodo; remember the “paperless office” craze? But then, printer manufacturers invented printers so cheap they could give them away while charging $12,000 a gallon for the ink, and the paperless office suddenly suffered an extinction-level event of its own. You’d think space would be the one place where computer users would be spared the travails of printing, but as [Ken Shirriff] outlines,
there were printers aboard the Space Shuttle
, and the story behind them is fascinating.
The push for printers in space came from the combined forces of NASA’s love for checklists and the need for astronauts in the early programs to tediously copy them to paper; Apollo 13, anyone? According to [Ken], NASA had always planned for the ability to print on the Shuttle, but when their fancy fax machine wasn’t ready in time, they kludged together an interim solution from a US military teleprinter, the AN/UG-74C. [Ken] got a hold of one of these beasts for a look inside, and it holds some wonders. Based on a Motorola MC6800, the teleprinter sported both a keyboard, a
current loop
digital interface, and even a rudimentary word processor, none of which were of much use aboard the Shuttle. All that stuff was stripped out, leaving mostly just the spinning 80-character-wide print drum and the array of 80 solenoid-powered hammers, to bang out complete lines of text at a time. To make the printer Shuttle-worthy, a 600-baud frequency-shift keying (FSK) interface was added, which patched into the spaceplane’s comms system.
[Ken] does his usual meticulous analysis of the engineering of this wonderful bit of retro space gear, which you can read all about in the linked article. We hope this portends a video by
his merry band of Apollo-centric collaborators
, for a look at some delicious 1970s space hardware. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6783137",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2024-08-06T08:14:02",
"content": "Fascinating article, Ken never ever disappoints!As for airborne data printers, I think the germans did it first in WW2 with the luftwaffe using the FuG 120 ‘Bernhardine’ miniature version of the... | 1,760,371,833.427151 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/05/the-555-as-a-mosfet-driver/ | The 555 As A MOSFET Driver | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"555",
"mosfet",
"mosfet driver"
] | To drive a MOSFET requires more than merely a logic level output, there’s a requirement to charge the device’s gate which necessitates a suitable buffer amplifier. A variety of different approaches can be taken, from a bunch of logic buffers in parallel to a specialised MOSFET driver, but [Mr. T’s Design Graveyard] is here with a surprising alternative. As it turns out, the ever-useful 555 timer chip does the job admirably.
It’s a simple enough circuit, the threshold pin is pulled high so the output goes high, and the PWM drive from an Arduino is hooked up to the reset pin. A bipolar 555 can dump a surprising amount of current, so it’s perfectly happy with a MOSFET. We’re warned that the CMOS variants don’t have this current feature, and he admits that the 555 takes a bit of current itself, but if you have the need and a 555 is in your parts bin, why not!
This will of course come as little surprise to anyone who played with robots back in the day, as a 555 or particularly the 556 dual version made a pretty good and very cheap driver for small motors. If you’ve ever wondered how these classic hips work,
we recently featured an in-depth look
. | 27 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6783098",
"author": "spiritplumber",
"timestamp": "2024-08-06T02:07:22",
"content": "will this work for high-side drivers as well? it should…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "7043540",
"author": "Cosmin",
"times... | 1,760,371,833.929368 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/05/cisco-ball-is-the-tumbleweed-opposite-of-a-disco-ball/ | Cisco Ball Is The Tumbleweed Opposite Of A Disco Ball | Navarre Bartz | [
"Art"
] | [
"calm",
"disco ball",
"kinetic art",
"Laura Kampf",
"silence",
"tumbleweed"
] | Inspiration can strike a maker at any moment. For [Laura Kampf], it happened in the desert when
she saw a tumbleweed
.
Tumbleweeds roll through the western United States, hitting cars on the interstate and providing some background motion for westerns. [Kampf] found the plant’s intricate, prickly structure mesmerizing, and decided to turn it into a piece of contemplative kinetic art.
[Kampf] attached the tumbleweed to a piece of wood using epoxy and mounted it to what appears to be a worm drive motor nestled inside an interestingly-shaped piece of wood. As the tumbleweed turns, a light shines through it to project a changing shadow on the wall to “create silence, it creates calmness, it takes away from the noise that surrounds it.” While [Kampf] has some work to do to get the sculpture to its finished state, we can get behind her mantra, “The most important thing about the phase of execution is to get started.”
Are you looking for some projects of your own to
help you find calm
? How about some
ambient lighting
, a
sand drawing table
, or a
music player that keeps things simple
? | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6783076",
"author": "fiddlingjunky",
"timestamp": "2024-08-05T23:24:36",
"content": "“through the western United States”This is likely a Salsola tumbleweed, which was introduced from the Eurasia. It’s interesting that it’s become so iconic over here, I’ve had to clear paths on highw... | 1,760,371,833.365761 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/04/the-ultimate-seed-vault-backup-how-about-the-moon/ | The Ultimate Seed Vault Backup? How About The Moon | Donald Papp | [
"green hacks",
"News"
] | [] | A safe haven to preserve samples of biodiversity from climate change, habitat loss, natural disaster, and other threats is recognized as a worthwhile endeavor. Everyone knows good backup practice involves a copy of critical elements at a remote location, leading some to ask:
why not the moon
?
Not even the
Svalbard global seed vault
is out of the reach of climate change’s effects.
A biological sample repository already exists in the form of the
Svalbard global seed vault
, located in a mountain on a remote island in the Arctic circle. Even so, not even Svalbard is out of the reach of our changing Earth. In 2017, soaring temperatures in the Arctic melted permafrost in a way no one imagined would be possible, and water infiltrated the facility. Fortunately the flooding was handled by personnel and no damage was done to the vault’s contents, but it was a wake-up call.
An off-site backup that requires no staffing could provide some much-needed redundancy. Deep craters near the moon’s polar regions offer stable and ultra-cold locations that are never exposed to sunlight, and could offer staffing-free repositories if done right.
The lunar biorepository proposal
has the details, and is thought-provoking, at least.
The moon’s lack of an atmosphere is inconvenient for life, but otherwise pretty attractive for some applications. A backup seed vault is one, and
putting a giant telescope in a lunar crater
is another. | 44 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782840",
"author": "Mr.Seed",
"timestamp": "2024-08-05T05:30:52",
"content": "That seed vault is used many times a year to retrieve seeds. Moon is extreamly stupid idea because retrieving the seeds would not be practical.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,833.862389 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/04/apollo-computer-the-forgotten-workstations/ | Apollo Computer: The Forgotten Workstations | Donald Papp | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"80's",
"apollo computer",
"vintage"
] | Ever heard of Apollo Computer, Inc.? They were one of the first graphical workstation vendors in the 1980s, and at the time were competitors to Sun Microsystems.
But that’s enough dry historical context. Feast your eyes on this
full-color, 26-page product brochure straight from 1988
for the Series 10000 “Personal Supercomputer” featuring multiple processors and more! It’s loaded with information about their hardware and design architecture, giving a unique glimpse into just how Apollo was positioning their offerings, and the markets they were targeting with their products.
Apollo produced their own hardware and software, which meant much of it was proprietary. Whatever happened to Apollo? They were acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 1989 and eventually shuttered over the following decade or so. Find yourself intrigued? [Jim Rees] of
The Apollo Archive
should be your next stop for everything Apollo-oriented.
Vintage computing has a real charm of its own, but no hardware lasts forever. Who knows? Perhaps we might someday see an Apollo workstation brought to life in VR, like we have with the
Commodore 64
or the
BBC Micro
(which even went so far as to sample the sound of authentic keystrokes. Now that’s dedication.) | 27 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782835",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-08-05T04:13:10",
"content": "I remember these. I did some rudimentary chip design on one for a course I did. Nice hardware.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782837",
"au... | 1,760,371,833.77481 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/04/hackaday-links-august-4-2024/ | Hackaday Links: August 4, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"CME",
"fcc",
"fiber optic",
"flare",
"flight tracking",
"gmrs",
"hackaday links",
"nasa",
"NASA TV",
"sabotage",
"satellite",
"solar",
"space junk",
"sun",
"sunspot"
] | Good news, bad news for Sun watchers this week, as
our star launched a solar flare even bigger than the one back in May
that gave us an amazing display of aurora that dipped down into pretty low latitudes. This was a big one; where the earlier outburst was only an X8.9 class, the one on July 23 was X14. That sure sounds powerful, but to put some numbers to it, the lower end of the X-class exceeds 10
-4
W/m
2
of soft X-rays. Numbers within the class designate a linear increase in power, so X2 is twice as powerful as X1. That means the recent X14 flare was about five times as powerful as the May flare that put on such a nice show for us. Of course, this all pales in comparison to the strongest flare of all time, a 2003 whopper that pegged the needle on satellite sensors at X17 but was later estimated at X45.
So while the X14 last week was puny by comparison, it still might have done some damage if it had been Earth-directed. As it was, the flare and its associated coronal mass ejection occurred on the far side of the Sun, sending all that plasma off into the void, since pretty much all the planets were on
this side of the Sun
at the time. That’s the bad news part of this story, at least for those of us who enjoy watching aurora, not to mention the potential for a little doomsday. But fear not; the sunspot region that spawned this monster flare is transiting the far side of the Sun as we speak, and might just emerge with all its destructive potential intact.
Then again, why wait for the Sun to snuff communications when you can just
start your own fiber optic apocalypse
? Perhaps that was the motivation when saboteurs in France broke into cabinets in several locations on the night of July 28 and 29 to cut fiber cables. These must have been proper cables, since telecomms insiders say it would have taken an axe or angle grinder to cut through them. While the saboteurs were obviously motivated and organized, they appear not to have been familiar enough with the network topology to cause a widespread outage, nor did they succeed in disrupting the Paris Olympics, the most obvious nearby target. Then again, maybe they weren’t looking for that much attention. Probing attack much?
A couple of weeks back we featured
a story
(third item) about a GMRS system that had a questionable interaction with Federal Communications Commission investigators, resulting in their system of linked repeaters being taken offline. It seemed pretty clear to us at the time that the FCC regulations regarding the General Mobile Radio Service allowed for repeaters, but prohibited linking them together with pretty much any kind of network. Our friend Josh (KI6NAZ) over at Ham Radio Crash Course is
weighing in on the issue now
, and seems to have come to the same conclusion. However, the FCC didn’t really do themselves or the GMRS community any favors with the wording of
47 CFR §95.1733
, which prohibits “Messages which are both conveyed by a wireline control link and transmitted by a GMRS station.” That “wireline” bit seems to be the part GMRS operators latched onto, thinking somehow that this only meant landline telephones and that linking repeaters through the Internet was all good.
A friend of ours once related his plans for the weekend, which included, “Going home, flipping on cable, and turning on CSPAN.” He knew this was pretty sad, and even had a name for it: “Loser Entertainment Television”, or LET. We’re not sure what other channels were on his LET list, but if NASA TV had been available at the time, we’re pretty sure he would have included it. Sadly, or luckily depending on your viewpoint,
NASA is shutting down their cable channel
in a couple of weeks. You say you had no idea that NASA had a cable channel? We didn’t either — we haven’t had cable or satellite service in at least a decade now — so don’t feel too bad. Our condolences if NASA TV was a part of your life, but you can at least take comfort that much of the same content will still be available on the NASA+ streaming service, which we also didn’t know was a thing.
Are we so out of touch?
And finally, if you need something to play with during these dog days of (northern hemisphere) summer, you could do worse than
React Flight Tracker
, and open-source 3D visualizer for everything that flies. And we mean everything; not only does it track civil and military aviation globally, it also shows the obit of everything from satellites in LEO to dead comms birds in parking geosynchronous parking orbits. You can even zoom way out and see bits of space flotsam like boosters and fairing out about halfway to the Moon. The nice thing about it is the Google Earth-like interface, which gives you a unique perspective on flight. We always knew that the best path from Istanbul to Seattle was (almost) over the North Pole, but seeing it on a 3D globe really brings the point home. It’s also interesting to watch planes from Tokyo to Frankfurt skirting around Russian airspace. Have fun. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782818",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-08-05T01:20:14",
"content": "I’ve missed several aurora possibilities recently due to cloud cover.B^(",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782849",
... | 1,760,371,833.535937 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/04/your-esp32-as-a-usb-bluetooth-dongle/ | Your ESP32 As A USB Bluetooth Dongle | Jenny List | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"ESP32",
"hci"
] | Using Bluetooth on a desktop computer is now such a seamless process; it’s something built-in and just
works
. Behind that ubiquity is a protocol layer called HCI, or Host Controller Interface, a set of commands allowing a host computer to talk to a Bluetooth interface. That interface doesn’t have to be special, and [Dakhnod] is here to show us that
it can be done with an ESP32 microcontroller through its USB interface
.
The linked repository doesn’t tell us which of the ESP32 variants it works with, but since not all of them have a USB peripheral we’re guessing one of the newer variety. It works with Linux computers, and we’re told it should work with Windows too if a HCI driver is present. We might ask ourselves why such a project is necessary given the ubiquity of Bluetooth interfaces, but for us it’s provided the impetus to read up on
how it all works
.
We can’t find anyone else in our archive who’s made a Bluetooth dongle in this way, but we’ve certainly seen sniffing of HCI commands
to reverse engineer a speaker’s communications
. | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782701",
"author": "GabyPCgeeK",
"timestamp": "2024-08-04T19:11:27",
"content": "It says USB but it’s UART to USB and newer ESP32s only have BLE capabilities so I think it’s for the original ESP32.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,371,833.317299 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/04/all-the-air-ducting-parts-you-could-ever-need/ | All The Air Ducting Parts You Could Ever Need | Jenny List | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"air ducting",
"fume extraction",
"ventilation"
] | If you have ever planned an air duct or dust extraction system for your shop, you’ll know just how difficult it can be to accommodate all but the simplest of arrangements. Off the shelf systems are intended for use in home heating or other domestic systems, and offer little flexibility of choice. Of course you could 3D print an adapter or two, but [Fabian] has taken it to the next level with
a comprehensive library of 3D-printable pipe system adapters and accessories
. We’re not sure we’ve seen such a complete collection.
The pipes are mostly at 125 mm diameter, with the full array of elbows and joints, alongside adapters for fans and smaller pipes, and different splitter options. It becomes particularly interesting in the accessories department though, because he’s also made a set of smart addons, packing ESP32s for sensors, and even valves.
It sometimes shocks us to go into hackerspaces and see nothing in the way of extraction around tools that really need it. Airborne smoke and particulates are a proven hazard, and thus we like this project a lot. If you don’t have adequate ventilation or extraction on your bench, consider printing yourself a solution.
Take a look at how one hackerspace did it
. | 49 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782607",
"author": "Termm",
"timestamp": "2024-08-04T14:11:09",
"content": "We are close to the day where 3D printers will be fast, reliable and autonomous enough (think filament loading, part unloading) to be used and replace going to buy cheap hardware at the store.If a company p... | 1,760,371,833.705007 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/04/pc-9800-boot-sounds-for-modern-computers/ | PC-9800 Boot Sounds For Modern Computers! | Alexander Rowsell | [
"computer hacks",
"laptops hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"boot jingle",
"M.2",
"PC-9800"
] | There have been many computers that played a little jingle to greet you upon booting. The NEC PC-9800 is a famous example, though almost all the Macintosh computers played either the soothing “booting” chord or sometimes the Sad Mac “error” chord. And of course, consoles have long played music on startup, with the original PlayStation boot music heralding a whole new era of video games. But modern machines don’t do anything, except maybe a single beep if you’re lucky. So why not pop in
this M.2 card (JP)
and bring some quirky flair to your PC?
While this particular card is aimed at the Japanese market and specifically evokes the PC-9800, we hope to see some hackers creating projects bringing other custom boot sounds to laptops and PCs around the rest of the world! A simple microcontroller, DAC, speaker and flash storage for the waveform would be all that’s required. It could even be capacitively coupled into the system’s sound output for some extra nerd points. You could pull the ultimate prank and have your friend’s laptop play the opening notes to “Never Gonna Give You Up” upon boot. Or you could have your favourite hacker movie quote play – “I can trace her physical location by looking at the binary!”. Brilliant!
In the meantime, if you want one of these cards, you’ll likely have to use a Japanese mail forwarding service as the cards are only available from Japanese retailer
Kadenken
— though for only ¥2880, or just under $20 USD, which is a great deal.
[via
Techspot
] | 24 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782558",
"author": "PinheadBE",
"timestamp": "2024-08-04T11:22:00",
"content": "Isn’t this the perfect example of “A 556 could have done this” ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782568",
"author": "pelrun",
"t... | 1,760,371,833.485353 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/04/detecting-faster-than-light-travel-by-extraterrestrials/ | Detecting Faster Than Light Travel By Extraterrestrials | Maya Posch | [
"Space"
] | [
"faster than light",
"gravitational waves",
"warp drive"
] | The idea of traveling faster than the speed of light (FTL) has been a popular idea long before [Alcubierre] came up with the first plausible theoretical underpinnings for such a technology. Yet even if such an FTL drive is possible, it may be hundreds of years before humanity manages to develop its first prototype. This does however not prevent us from for looking for possible FTL drive signatures in the spacetime around us. Such a concept was
recently proposed
by [Katy Clough] and colleagues in a
recent article
(
Arxiv preprint
).
For a friendly but detailed explanation the
PBS Space Time video
(embedded below) on the paper comes highly recommended. The gotcha with detecting an FTL warp drive is that it is undetectable until it collapses in some fashion. By simulating what this collapse might look like, the researchers were able to speculate about the properties to look for. These include gravitational waves, which would not be detectable by an existing gravitational wave detector like LIGO, but we might be able to build one that can.
Ultimately we’d be acting on conjecture on what a warp bubble would look like and how it would behave when it collapses so we might just as well mistake something far less intelligent for Vulcans passing through our solar system. It might also be our first sign of extraterrestrial life, possibly ogling some primitive civilization on a Class M planet until it’s ready for First Contact. | 73 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782583",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-08-04T12:34:07",
"content": "Well, now I wonder if there’s some interstellar signpost somewhere:“Entering a no-wake zone. Sub-light beyond this point.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,371,834.095653 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/bringing-the-umpcs-back-with-a-pi-zero/ | Bringing The UMPCs Back With A Pi Zero | Arya Voronova | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"diy handheld",
"handheld",
"pda",
"physical keyboard",
"pi zero",
"qwerty",
"raspberry pi",
"RPi",
"umpc"
] | Miss PDAs and UMPCs? You wouldn’t be the only one, and it’s a joy to see someone take the future into their own hands. [Icepat]’s dream is reviving UMPCs as a concept, and he’s bringing forth a pretty convincing hardware-backed argument in form of
the Pocket Z project.
For the hardware design, he’s hired two engineers, [Adam Nowak] and [Marcin Turek], and the 7-inch Pocket Z7 version is coming up quite nicely!
The Hackaday.io project shows
an impressive gallery of inspiration
devices front and center, and with these in mind, the first version of the 7-inch UMPC sets the bar high. With a 1024×600 parallel RGB (DPI) touchscreen display, an ATMega32U4-controlled keyboard, battery-ready power circuitry, and a socketed Pi Zero for brains, this device shows a promising future for the project, and we can’t wait to see how it progresses.
While it’s not a finished project just yet, this effort brings enough inspiration all around, from past device highlights to technical choices, and it’s worth visiting it just for the sentiment alone. Looking at our own posts, UMPCs are indeed resurfacing, after a decade-long hiatus – here’s
a Sidekick-like UMPC
with a Raspberry Pi, that even
got an impressive upgrade
a year later! As for PDAs, the Sharp memory LCD and Blackberry keyboard combination
has
birthed
a good
few
projects
recently, and, who can forget about the
last decade’s
introductions
to the scene. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782521",
"author": "alanrcam",
"timestamp": "2024-08-04T08:12:55",
"content": "When someone mentions “pocket size” I wonder: which pocket? Cargo pants, for example, can carry some hefty items.For designs, I’m reminded of the 701 “Butterfly” keyboard: when you opened it, the pieces ... | 1,760,371,834.141987 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/pixel-art-and-the-myth-of-the-crt-effect/ | Pixel Art And The Myth Of The CRT Effect | Maya Posch | [
"Art",
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"crt",
"pixel art"
] | The ‘CRT Effect’ myth says that the reason why pixel art of old games looked so much better is due to the smoothing and blending effects of cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays, which were everywhere until the early 2000s. In fits of mistaken nostalgia this has led both to modern-day extreme cubism pixel art and video game ‘CRT’ filters that respectively fail to approach what pixel art was about, or why old games looked the way they did back with our NES and SNES game consoles. This is a point which [Carl Svensson]
vehemently argues
from a position of experience, and one which is likely shared by quite a few of our readers.
Although there is some possible color bleed and other artefacts with CRTs due to the shadow mask (or Sony’s Trinitron aperture grille), there was no extreme separation between pixels or massive bleed-over into nearby pixels to create some built-in anti-aliasing as is often claimed unless you were using a very old/cheap or dying CRT TV. Where such effects did happen was mostly in the signal being fed into the CRT, which ranged from the horrid (RF, composite) to the not-so-terrible (S-Video, component) to the sublime (SCART RGB), with RGB video (SCART or VGA) especially busting the CRT effect myth.
Where the pixel art of yester-year shines is in its careful use of dithering and anti-aliasing to work around limited color palettes and other hardware limitations. Although back in the Atari 2600 days this led to the extreme cubism which we’re seeing again in modern ‘retro pixel art’ games, yesterday’s artists worked with the hardware limitations to create stunning works of arts, which looked great on high-end CRTs connected via RGB and decent via composite on the kids’ second-hand 14″ color set with misaligned electron guns. | 61 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782493",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2024-08-04T03:57:33",
"content": "i retired my last crt some 10-15 years ago. i was only using it for stereo vision because lcds werent up to 120hz yet. at least none that i could afford. i eventually retired it when the stereo enable... | 1,760,371,834.295236 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/need-a-usb-sniffer-use-your-pico/ | Need A USB Sniffer? Use Your Pico! | Arya Voronova | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"rp2040",
"sniffer",
"usb sniffer"
] | Ever wanted to sniff USB device communications? The usual path was buying an expensive metal box with USB connectors, using logic analyzers, or wiring devboards together and hacking some software to make them forward USB data.
Now,
thanks to [ataradov]’s work,
you can simply use a Pi Pico – you only need to tap the D+ and D- pins, wire them to RP2040’s GPIOs, and you can sniff communication between your computer and any low-speed (1.5 Mbps) or full-speed (12 Mbps) devices. On the RP2040 side, plug the Pico into your computer, open the virtual serial port created, and witness the USB packets streaming in – for the price of a Pico, you get an elegant USB sniffer, only a little soldering required.
[ataradov] also offers us a complete board design with a RP2040 and a USB hub on it, equipped with USB sockets that completely free us from the soldering requirement; it’s
an open-source KiCad design,
so you can simply order some sniffers made from your favourite fab! This project is a great learning tool, it’s as cheap and easy to make as humanly possible, and it has big potential for things like reverse-engineering old and new systems alike. Just couple this hack with another Pico doing USB device or
host duty
, maybe get up to date with
USB reverse-engineering fundamentals,
and you could make
a Facedancer-like tool
with ease.
Need to reach 480 Mbit/s? [ataradov] has a wonderful board for you as well, that
we have covered last year
– it’s well worth it if a device of yours can only do the highest speed USB2 can offer, and, it offers WireShark support. Want WireShark support
and
to use a Pico? Here’s
a GitHub project by another hacker
, [tana]. By now, merely having a Pi Pico
gives you
so
many
tools
,
it’s
not
even
funny
.
We thank [Julianna] for sharing this with us! | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782473",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T23:58:01",
"content": "Small correction: Low-speed USB is 1.5Mbps, not 1.2Mbps.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#USB_1.xSeveral years ago I also did a short experiment with Sigrok / Pulseview and the USD 5 Saleaeae clone and ca... | 1,760,371,834.36538 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/steam-deck-or-single-board-computer/ | Steam Deck, Or Single Board Computer? | Arya Voronova | [
"computer hacks",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"mainboard",
"motherboard",
"steam deck",
"steamdeck"
] | With a number of repair-friendly companies entering the scene, we have gained motivation to dig deeper into devices they build, repurpose them in ways yet unseen, and uncover their secrets. One such secret was recently
discovered by [Ayeitsyaboii] on Reddit
– turns out, you can use the Steam Deck mainboard as a standalone CPU board for your device, no other parts required aside from cooling.
All you need is a USB-C dock with charging input and USB/video outputs, and you’re set – it doesn’t even need a battery plugged in. In essence, a Steam Deck motherboard is a small computer module with a Ryzen CPU and a hefty GPU! Add a battery if you want it to work in UPS mode, put an SSD or even an external GPU into the M.2 port, attach WiFi antennas for wireless connectivity – there’s a
wide
range
of projects
you
can
build
.
Each such finding brings us closer to the future of purple neon lights, where hackers spend their evenings rearranging off-the-shelf devices into gadgets yet unseen. Of course, there’s companies that explicitly want us to hack their devices in such a manner – it’s
a bet that Framework made
to
gain a strong foothold
in the hacker community, for instance. This degree of openness is
becoming
a welcome
trend
, and it feels like we’re
only
starting
to explore
everything we can build – for now, if your Framework’s or SteamDeck’s screen breaks, you always have the option to build something cool with it.
[Via
Dexerto
] | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782438",
"author": "fuzzyfuzzyfungus",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T20:17:24",
"content": "Not a huge surprise that it works; but nice that Valve didn’t make the BIOS really touchy. You can typically just pull a laptop board and have it work; but the exceptions that have a battery aler... | 1,760,371,834.189163 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/homebrew-relay-computer-features-motorized-clock/ | Homebrew Relay Computer Features Motorized Clock | Tom Nardi | [
"classic hacks",
"computer hacks"
] | [
"clock generator",
"clock source",
"relay computer",
"woodworking"
] | Before today, we probably would have said that scratch-built relay computers were the sole domain of only the most wizardly of graybeards. But this
impressive build sent in by [Will Dana]
shows that not only are there young hardware hackers out there that are still bold enough to leave the transistor behind, but that they can help communicate how core computing concepts can be implemented with a bundle of wires and switches.
Created for his YouTube channel
WillsBuilds
, every component of this computer was built by [Will] himself. Each of the nine relay-packed protoboards inside the machine took hours to solder, and when that was done, he went out to the garage to start cutting the wood that would become the cabinet they all get mounted in.
The entire build process is documented in the video, and is interwoven with short segments that go deeper into the various concepts at play. If you’ve never been able to figure out how a box full of relays can add numbers together, this might be the video that finally makes it click for you (no pun intended).
We were particularly impressed with [Will]’s determination to not let any modern technology sneak into his build. When researching other relay builds, he found that some of them relied on anachronistic components like the 555 timer or quartz crystals to generate the clock signal. That simply wouldn’t do, so he initially tried to put together a variation of the clock circuit that
[Paul Law] used in his gorgeous relay computer.
In the end he couldn’t quite get it working the way he wanted, so he went really old school and came up with a clock module that uses a motorized cam and microswitch to generate the necessary pulses.
In the era of the 10 cent microcontroller, when it’s often easier to write a few lines of code to get something working than figuring out how to do it with discrete components, this project is certainly refreshing. Especially when it’s coming from a younger maker. [Will] definitely came away from this build with several new skills under his belt and a new appreciation for concepts that many of us take for granted these days, and we’re looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782409",
"author": "WillsBuilds",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T17:23:56",
"content": "Thanks so much for featuring this! It took a ton of effort but it was worth it :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782463",
"author": "... | 1,760,371,834.75571 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/how-about-privacy-and-hackability/ | How About PrivacyandHackability? | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"hackability",
"newsletter",
"privacy"
] | Many smart electric meters in the US use the 900 MHz band to broadcast their usage out to meter readers as they walk the neighborhood. [Jeff Sandberg] used an RTL-SDR dongle and some software to
integrate this data into his own home automation system
, which lets him keep track of his home’s power usage.
Half of the comment section was appalled that the meters broadcast this data in the clear, and these readers thought this data should be encrypted even if the reach is limited to the home-owner’s front yard. But that would have stopped [Jeff] from accessing
his own data
as well, and that would be a shame. So there’s clearly a tradeoff in play here.
We see this tradeoff in a lot of hardware devices as well – we want to be able to run
our
firmware on them, but we don’t want criminals to do the same. We want the smart device to work with the cloud service, but to
also
work with our own home automation system if we have one. And we want to be able to listen in to our smart meters, but don’t necessarily want others to do so.
The solution here is as easy as it is implausible that it will get implemented. If the smart meters transmitted encrypted, each with their own individual password, then everyone would win. The meter reader would have a database of passwords linked to meter serial numbers or addresses, and the home owner could just read it off of a sticker, optimally placed on each unit. Privacy
and
usability would be preserved.
This issue isn’t just limited to electric meters. Indeed, think of all of the data that is being sent out from or about you, and what percentage of it is not encrypted and should be, but also about what data is sent out encrypted that you could use access to. The solution is to put
you
in control of the encryption, by selecting a password or having access to one that’s set for you. Because after all, if it’s your data, it should be
your
data: private and usable.
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
the web version of the newsletter
.
Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning?
You should sign up
! | 32 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782375",
"author": "clancydaenlightened",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T14:11:17",
"content": "Simple fixUse NFC so you have to have a reader in close range, and NFC/RFID works just as goof to tell how many kilowatts in a month you they charging youAnd you can just add some overly stron... | 1,760,371,834.614381 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/get-your-glitch-on-with-a-picoemp-and-a-3d-printer/ | Get Your Glitch On With A PicoEMP And A 3D Printer | Dan Maloney | [
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"ChipWhisperer",
"EMFI",
"fault injection",
"glitch",
"PicoEMP",
"reverse engineering"
] | We’re not sure what [Aaron Christophel] calls
his automated chip glitching setup built from a 3D printer
, but we’re going to go ahead and dub it the “Glitch-o-Matic 9000.” Has a nice ring to it.
Of course, this isn’t a commercial product, or even a rig that’s necessarily intended for repeated use. It’s more of a tactical build, which is still pretty cool if you ask us. It started with a proof-of-concept exploration, summarized in
the first video below
. That’s where [Aaron] assembled and tested the major pieces, which included
a PicoEMP
, the bit that actually generates the high-voltage pulses intended to scramble a running microcontroller temporarily, along with
a ChipWhisperer
and an oscilloscope.
The trouble with the POC setup was that glitching the target chip, an LPC2388 microcontroller, involved manually scanning the business end of the PicoEMP over the package. That’s a tedious and error-prone process, which is perfect for automation. In
the second video below
, [Aaron] has affixed the PicoEMP to his 3D printer, giving him three-axis control of the tip position. That let him build up a heat map of potential spots to glitch, which eventually led to a successful fault injection attack and a clean firmware dump.
It’s worth noting that the whole reason [Aaron] had to resort to such extreme measures in the first place was the resilience of the target chip against power supply-induced glitching attacks. You might not need to build something like the Glitch-o-Matic, but it’s good to keep in mind in case you run up against such a hard target. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782346",
"author": "Cricri",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T11:56:49",
"content": "I had no idea you could laser glitch without having to decap the chip’s epoxy.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782354",
"author": "Halogene... | 1,760,371,834.543529 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/03/linux-handheld-packs-dual-batteries-so-its-never-out-of-juice/ | Linux Handheld Packs Dual Batteries So It’s Never Out Of Juice | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"blackberry",
"cyberdeck",
"handheld terminal"
] | There was a time — not so long ago — when a handheld terminal would have been an expensive and exotic piece of kit. Now, all it takes is a Raspberry Pi and an off-the-shelf TFT display, as
[ZitaoTech] shows us
.
The resemblance to a Blackberry isn’t a coincidence
Admittedly, we are now seeing these all over the place, but this build looks well thought out. It looks suspiciously like a Blackberry, which isn’t a bad thing. It also has an interesting dual-battery system that lets you swap between two identical Nokia BL-5C batteries without missing a beat.
The device looks like a Blackberry because it uses the Q10 or Q20 Blackberry keyboard. There is a pass-through switch that lets you use the keyboard and pointer as a USB device on a different host computer.
Rounding out the design are three USB ports, an I2C port, and a TF card slot. Size-wise, the device is about 140 mm tall and 82 mm wide. The thickness is less than 16 mm. Even with the batteries, it weighs a lot less than 200 grams.
In the “
Something-you-can-try
” directory, there are images for Windows 3.1, mini VMAC, and — of course —
DOOM
. As you might expect, most of the project is 3D printing the intricate case.
We’ve seen similar projects, including one that has
a case inspired by the ZX Spectrum
. Then there is
Beepy
. | 23 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782299",
"author": "Misterlaneous",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T08:43:43",
"content": "11 being louder than 10 not withstanding, why not just have a larger battery?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782311",
"author": "Ho... | 1,760,371,834.822787 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/better-battery-design-through-science/ | Better Battery Design Through Science | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Battery Hacks"
] | [
"battery",
"design",
"dimensions",
"lithium",
"modeling",
"performance",
"python",
"simulation",
"troubleshooting"
] | Before the age of lithium batteries, any project needing to carry its own power had to rely on batteries that were much less energy-dense and affordable. In many ways, we take modern lithium technology for granted, and can easily put massive batteries in our projects by the standards of just a few decades ago. While the affordability of lithium batteries has certainly decreased the amount of energy we need to put in to our projects to properly size batteries, there’s still a lot of work to be done if you’re working on a bigger project or
just want to get the maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your DIY battery pack
.
The main problem with choosing a battery, as [ionworks] explains, is that batteries can’t be built for both high energy and high power, at least not without making major concessions for weight or cost. After diving in to all of the possible ways of customizing a battery, the battery guide jumps in to using PyBaMM to perform computational modeling of potential battery designs to hopefully avoid the cumbersome task of testing all of the possible ways of building a battery. With this tool virtually all of a battery’s characteristics can be simulated and potential problems with your setup can be uncovered before you chose (or start production of) a specific battery system.
While customizing a battery pack to this extent might not be a consideration for most of us unless the project is going to be big enough to run something like an electric car or a whole-house generator, it’s a worthwhile tool to know about as even smaller projects like ebikes can benefit from choosing the right cell for the application. Some of the nuances of battery pack design can be found in
this guide to building packs from the standard 18650 cells
.
Header: Lead holder,
CC BY-SA 3.0
. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782283",
"author": "El Gru",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T05:52:59",
"content": "It’s the old “Pick 2 out of 3” game.Spoiler alert: it’s everywhere.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782423",
"author": "PPJ",
"time... | 1,760,371,834.496495 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/taco-bell-to-bring-voice-ai-ordering-to-hundreds-of-us-drive-throughs/ | Taco Bell To Bring Voice AI Ordering To Hundreds Of US Drive-Throughs | Maya Posch | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"News"
] | [
"voice assistant",
"voice recognition"
] | Drive-throughs are a popular feature at fast-food places, where you can get some fast grub without even leaving your car. For the fast-food companies running them they are also a big focus of automation, with the ideal being a voice assistant that can take orders and pass them on to the (still human) staff. This probably in lieu of being able to make customers use the touch screens-equipped order kiosks that are common these days. Pushing for this drive-through
automation change is now Taco Bell
, or specifically the Yum Brands parent company.
This comes interestingly enough shortly after McDonalds deemed its own drive-through
voice assistant to be a failure
and removing it. Meanwhile multiple Taco Bell in the US in 13 states and five KFC restaurants in Australia are trialing the system, with results apparently encouraging enough to start expanding it. Company officials are cited as it having ‘improved order accuracy’, ‘decreased wait times’ and ‘increased profits’. Considering the McDonalds experience which was pretty much the exact opposite in all of these categories we will remain with bated breath. Feel free to share your Taco Bell or other Voice AI-enabled drive-through experiences in the comments. Maybe whoever Yum Brands contracted for their voice assistant did a surprisingly decent job, which would be a pleasant change.
Top image: Taco Bell – Vadnais Heights, MN (Credit: Gabriel Vanslette,
Wikimedia
) | 41 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782249",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T02:32:05",
"content": "Taco Bell?The Mexican phone company?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6782252",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024... | 1,760,371,834.964186 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/sliding-shelves-supersize-storage/ | Sliding Shelves Supersize Storage | Navarre Bartz | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"furniture",
"furniture slider",
"garage",
"Interactive Furniture",
"organizing",
"shelving",
"storage",
"transforming furniture",
"workshop"
] | Organizing things in your home or workshop is a constant battle for some of us. Until we have access to a Tardis or bag of holding, maybe the next best thing is a
sliding shelf system
.
[HAXMAN] found a great set of sliding shelves online, but after recovering from sticker shock decided he could build something similar for much less. The frame for the shelving was built from 4×4 posts, some 2x4s, and strut channel track welded to steel 2x6s. Aluminum plates bolted to strut trolleys support the weight of the shelving units he built from plywood.
Everything was painted with a multi-material paint formulated for covering both wood and metal so everything has a uniform appearance. We love the bright shelving offset by the more classic black appearance of the rack. Just because its storage, doesn’t mean it has to look boring!
Looking for more clever storage solutions? You might like your to
make your own shadow boards
,
favor Gridfinity
, or just wonder what other readers do to
organize their electronic odds and ends
. | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782219",
"author": "Dave",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T23:17:38",
"content": "That looks great!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6782224",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T23:46:11",
"content": "I stopped t... | 1,760,371,834.881738 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/custom-hat-gives-vintage-mitutoyo-calipers-a-new-lease-on-life/ | Custom Hat Gives Vintage Mitutoyo Calipers A New Lease On Life | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"attiny85",
"caliper",
"digital",
"hat",
"metrology",
"Mitutoyo",
"oled",
"Vernier"
] | Metrology fans are usually at least a little bit in love with Mitutoyo, and rightfully so. The Japanese company has been making precision measuring instruments for the better part of 100 years, and users appreciate their precision almost as much as the silky smooth feel of their tools. If you can afford it, a Mitutoyo caliper is quite an addition to your toolbox.
As good as they are, though, they’re not perfect, which is what led to
this clever Mitutoyo digital caliper hack
by [turbanedengineer]. The calipers in question, a digital set from the early 1980s, happen to have a unique history with a tangential Hackaday angle — they belonged to [Dhaval], mechanical engineer and avid motorcyclist who happens to be the late elder brother of our own [Anool Mahidharia].
The tool, in need of a little TLC, made its way to [turbanedengineer] who first restored the broken battery contacts. Once powered up again, it became apparent that while the caliper’s native metric measurements were spot on, the internal conversion to inches was considerably off. This led [turbanedengineer] to the data port on the tool, which is intended to send serial data to an external computer for logging measurements. After a little experimentation to nail down the data format, he prototyped a tiny circuit using an ATtiny85 and an OLED display that reads the caliper data, converts metric to inches, and displays both measurements on the screen. The prototype led to a more permanent version, which cleverly sits over the original display and taps into the data port without any free wires. The video below shows the very slick results.
Our hearts go out to [Anool] and his family for their loss, and we tip our hats to [turbanedengineer] for his thoughtful and respectful hack of a storied tool. We know that
anthropomorphizing tools
makes no rational sense, but we think it’s safe to say that a tool like this has a soul, and it’s probably happy to be back in the game. | 16 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782179",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T20:16:20",
"content": "I’n not sure if this hack will fix my broken Mitutoyo, as its pcb appears to be corroded, I only get a brief flash on the LCD when power is applied. But I’ll follow the link(s... | 1,760,371,835.106931 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/over-molding-wires-with-hot-glue-and-3d-printed-molds/ | Over-molding Wires With Hot Glue And 3D Printed Molds | Dan Maloney | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"EVA",
"hot glue",
"injection",
"molding",
"overmold",
"release agent",
"splice",
"strain relief",
"wire"
] | We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: water always finds a way in. That’s particularly problematic for things like wire splices in damp environments, something that no amount of electrical tape is going to help. Heat shrink tubing might be your friend here, but for an electrically isolated and mechanically supported repair, you may want to give
over-molding with a hot glue gun
a try.
The inspiration for [Print Practical]’s foray into over-molding came from
a video
that’s making the rounds showing a commercially available tool for protecting spliced wires in the automotive repair trade. It consists of a machined aluminum mold that the spliced wires fit into and a more-or-less stock hot glue gun, which fills the mold with melted plastic. [Print Practical] thought it just might be possible to 3D print custom molds at home and do it himself.
His first attempt didn’t go so well. As it turns out, hot glue likes to stick to things — who knew? — including the PETG mold he designed. Trying to pry apart the mold after injection was a chore, and even once he got inside it was clear the glue much preferred to stay in the mold. Round two went much better — same wire, same mold, but now with a thin layer of vegetable oil to act as a release agent. That worked like a charm, with the over-mold standing up to a saltwater bath with no signs of leaking. [Print Practical] also repaired an iPhone cable that has seen better days, providing much-needed mechanical support for a badly frayed section.
This looks like a fantastic idea to file away for the future, and one that’s worth experimenting with. Other filament types might make a mold better able to stand up to the hot glue, and materials other than
the ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer
found in most hot glue sticks might be explored. TPU over-molds, anyone? Or perhaps you can use
a printer as an injector
rather than the glue gun. | 50 | 24 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782159",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T18:40:59",
"content": "Why don’t you just 3d print mold to make the mold and cast silicone in it? that way you’ll never have to worry about hotglue sticking to it, since it does not stick to silicone…",
"parent_id": null,... | 1,760,371,835.052158 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/hackaday-podcast-episode-282-saildrones-a-new-classic-laptop-and-snes-cartridges-are-more-than-you-think/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 282: Saildrones, A New Classic Laptop, And SNES Cartridges Are More Than You Think | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | In this episode, the CrowdStrike fiasco has Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi pondering the fragility of our modern infrastructure. From there the discussion moves on to robotic sailboats, the evolving state of bespoke computers, and the unique capabilities of the Super Nintendo cartridge. You’ll also hear about cleaning paintings with lasers, the advantages of electronic word processors, stacking 3D printed parts, and the joys of a nice data visualization. They’ll wrap the episode up by marveling at the techniques required to repair undersea fiber optic cables, and the possibilities (and frustrations) of PCB panelization using multiple designs.
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!
As always,
the Hackaday Podcast is available in DRM-free MP3 for offline listening
.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 282 Show Notes:
News:
A History Of Internet Outages
Connections (British TV series) – Wikipedia
What’s that Sound?
Congrats to [Arawn Greyson], who knows his Time Lords.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Saildrones Searching The Sea For Clues To Hurricane Behavior
GREENBIRD SMASHES WORLD RECORD!!
Supercon 2023: [Pierce Nichols] Is Teaching Robots To Sail
Canary Island Team Wins World Robotic Sailing 2016
Printed Portable Computer Inspired By The Classics
Mechanical Keyboard + Laptop = Clacktop
A Look Inside The Super Nintendo Cartridges And Video System
Reverse-Emulating NES: Nintendception!
Doom On The NES
A Brief History Of AlphaSmart
AlphaSmart Neo Teardown: This Is The Way To Write Without Distractions
Read Utility Meters Via SDR To Fill Out Smart Home Stats
George Washington Gets Cleaned Up With A Laser
Laser Removes Rust Like Magic
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Need Many Thin Parts? Try Multi-material Stack Printing
AI Image Generator Twists In Response To MIDI Dials, In Real-time
This Home Made Mac Has A Real CRT
Tom’s Picks:
Foliodeck Squeezes A Writerdeck Into A Planner
Junk Bin Build Lets You Test Fuel Injectors On The Cheap
An RC Tracked Robot, Without The Pain
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Undersea Cable Repair
Hacker Tactic: Multi-Design Panels | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782368",
"author": "nottinghamcitytraveller",
"timestamp": "2024-08-03T13:28:15",
"content": "I’m impressed that Tom recognised David Tennant’s voice if he hadn’t seen Doctor Who. In that he speaks with an RP accent, and in pretty much everything else he uses his own west of Scotla... | 1,760,371,835.14844 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/solar-fountain-aerates-garden-pond/ | Solar Fountain Aerates Garden Pond | Navarre Bartz | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"aeration",
"fish pond",
"garden",
"pond"
] | Sometimes off-the-shelf solutions to a problem don’t meet your expectations. That’s what led [TomGoff] to build his own
solar pond fountain
.
This build features a lot of creative reuse of materials [TomGoff] already had on hand, like the end of a cable reel for the platform and a wheelbarrow inner tube for flotation. A 3D printed nozzle in the center of this apparatus is attached to a 12 V water pump and the whole thing is controlled by an Arduino running 30 seconds on and 3 minutes off to conserve battery power.
A hand-built perfboard contains a light dependent resistor (LDR) to tell the Arduino not to run at night, the relay for the pump, and a battery charge monitor. Be sure to check out the full write-up to see the video of the Tinkercad electronics simulation as well as the code. A 20 W solar panel keeps the whole thing charged so you don’t have to run mains power out to your pond.
If you need more solar projects for your garden, how about this
Charmander lamp
or a
solar powered irrigation system
? | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782141",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T17:33:05",
"content": "For real?What kind of pump is that only sprinkling with a 20W solarpanel?And 30s on/3min off?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782144",
"author... | 1,760,371,835.196268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/this-week-in-security-echospoofing-ransomware-records-and-github-attestations/ | This Week In Security: Echospoofing, Ransomware Records, And Github Attestations | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"Attestation",
"ransomware",
"spam",
"This Week in Security"
] | It’s a bit of bitter irony, when a security product gets used maliciously, to pull off the exact attack it was designed to prevent. Enter
Proofpoint, and the EchoSpoofing attack
. Proofpoint offers an email security product, filtering spam and malicious incoming emails, and also handling SPF, DKIM, and DMARC headers on outgoing email. How does an external service provide those email authentication headers?
One of the cardinal sins of running an email server is to allow open relaying. That’s when anyone can forward email though an SMTP server without authentication. What we have here is two nearly open relays, that wound up with spoofed emails getting authenticated just like the real thing. The first offender is Microsoft’s Office365, which seems to completely skip checking for email spoofing when using SMTP relaying from an allowed IP address. This means a valid Office365 account allows sending emails as any address. The other half relies on the way Proofpoint works normally, accepting SMTP traffic from certain IP addresses, and adding the authentication headers to those emails. There’s an option in Proofpoint to add the Microsoft Office 365 servers to that list, and apparently quite a few companies simply select that option.
The end result is that a clever spammer can send millions of completely legitimate looking emails every day, that look very convincing even to sophisticated users. At six months of activity, averaging three millions emails a day, this campaign managed just over half a billion malicious emails from multiple high-profile domains.
The good news here is that Proofpoint and Guardio discovered the scheme, and worked with Microsoft to develop the
X-OriginatorOrg
header that is now applied to every email sent from or through the Office365 servers. This header marks the account tenant the email belongs to, giving vendors like Proofpoint a simple way to determine email validity.
Ransomware Gets Bigger
It’s not just spam emails that posted eye-watering numbers this year. We’ve
broken the record for the biggest ransomware payment
, too. Zscaler is reporting a $75 million ransom payment from a “Fortune 50” company. Reading the tea leaves indicates Cencora as a likely candidate, as this pharmaceutical giant was hit by an attack in February, and none of the usual suspects ever claimed responsibility. This leads one to suspect that it was the Dark Angels ransomware operation.
The Linux CNA, with a Grain of Salt
One of the interesting recent security developments is the proliferation of CNAs, CVE Numbering Authorities, particularly among Open Source projects. Part of the reason is the growing prevalence of CVE issued on bogus bugs, or with completely overblown CVSS scores. One of these new CNAs is the Linux Kernel itself, which has taken an odd approach to handing CVEs: Every bug gets one. On one hand, the kernel developers make a valid point that in kernel land, basically any bug can be a vulnerability. And it’s certainly one way to put the pressure on vendors to use more up-to-date kernel releases. On the other hand, Linux is now the most prolific CNA measured in CVEs generated each year.
The situation does not sit well with everyone.
Grsecurity has published a case study on CVE-2021-4440
, that highlights some issues. The emphasis here seems to be that the kernel team uses a lot of automation tools to manage CVEs, and these tools aren’t always great at accuracy or clarity. Now one thing to keep in mind, grsecurity in particular has had a rocky relationship with the upstream kernel, so a grain of salt might be taken with this one. Regardless, it seems like the kernel is experiencing some growing pains, as it comes into its new role as CNA.
Github Adds Attestation
Github has added a new
attestation feature
, presumably spurred by the XZ attack. Github Attestations are a cryptographic proof that a tarball or binary was built from the source code publicly available, and hasn’t been tampered with. This has been out for about a month now, and this week is joined by
a quick starter guide
to publishing attestations with everything a project releases. There’s also a Kubernetes project that only allows running images that have valid attestations in place, which is handy!
ZDI on Windows
ZDI has some interesting coverage of some recently discovered vulnerabilities in antivirus products, all around the idea of link following. Put simply, what if an antivirus detects a malicious file, but before it can delete that file, an attacker switches the file out with a filesystem link to a different file? In many cases, the antivirus
follows the link and deletes something it shouldn’t
. Part two is some more advanced ways to pull off this trick, like
using NTFS Alternate Data Streams to trick the antivirus into action
.
While we’re talking ZDI disclosures, there’s a Deep Sea Electronics communication module that had some problems, like
a configuration backup endpoint that has no authentication check
. There are a couple of other endpoints missing authentication, as well as trivial Denial of Service situations. Unfortunately this is a case where the vendor dropped the ball, and these vulnerabilities are assumed to be unpatched for this device.
Bits and Bytes
The unfortunate state of mobile applications is that just because it’s published on an official app store,
there is no guarantee that an app is safe
. Mandrake was first seen in 2016, with several waves of malicious activity, to disappear for a couple years. It’s back, and has eluded notice til very recently. I was intrigued by the idea that it excluded 90 countries from being targeted, and found this in the source document: “It avoids running in low income states, African nations, former Soviet Union countries or predominantly Arabic-speaking nations.”
Once again, in IoT the S stands for security. A wifi security camera with a generic brand name shipped with a hard-coded root password.
On this one, the journey is most of the fun
. But really, WiFi cameras have bigger problems, and it’s apparently
becoming common for thieves to use wifi jammers to cover their tracks
. Hardwire your cameras, and keep them away from the Internet.
While it didn’t rise to the Crowdstrike level, Microsoft had an Azure outage this week, that caused some headache. It turns out it was a DDoS attack, and Microsoft’s own Denial of Service mitigation tooling
amplified the attack instead of mitigating it
. Decidedly non-ideal. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782114",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known as Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T15:58:03",
"content": "The Internet isn’t broken, but it ran into a ditch and rolled over a couple of times!(sigh!)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,371,835.244163 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/getting-a-laser-eye-injury-and-how-to-avoid-it/ | Getting A Laser Eye Injury And How To Avoid It | Maya Posch | [
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"laser safety"
] | Most people love lasers, because they can make cats chase, read music from a shiny disc, etch and cut materials, and be very shiny in Hollywood blockbusters, even when their presence makes zero sense. That said, lasers are also extremely dangerous, as their highly focused nature and wide range of power levels can leave a person dazzled, blinded or dead from direct and indirect exposure. A lapse in laser safety was how [Phil Broughton] ended up with part of his retina forever marked, as he
describes his adventures
with an overly enthusiastic laser company sales person.
Quanta Ray PRO350 with frequency doubling, emitting a 532 nm beam – Sales brochure image from Quanta Ray, unknown date
It didn’t take much, just this sales person who made a really poor decision while trying to please some customers and nearly ended with multiple adults, a local school, pilots at a nearby airfield getting their retinas blasted out due to an absolutely harebrained idea to use a fairly high-powered Quanta-Ray Nd:YAG laser on reflective surfaces in the open.
This was in 1999, and fortunately [Phil] only suffered some fairly minor damage to his retina from the laser beam reflection. What happened to the customers (who wore argon laser safety glasses) or the sales critter (who left soon after) is not described, but both may have received some bad news when they had their eyes checked shortly after at the
ophthalmologist
.
These kind of stories are a stark reminder that
laser safety
is not optional. Lasers producing a visible (400 – 700 nm) wavelength above Class 2 should only be operated in a fully secured environment, with safety glasses for the appropriate laser wavelength. Class 2 lasers producing a non-visible wavelength can cause permanent damage because the blink reflex of the eye does not offer any protection here.
As even some dodgy laser pointers are being (illegally) sold online are actually Class 2, this should make it clear that laser eye injury can happen to anyone, and it only takes a second to change someone’s life forever. | 28 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782011",
"author": "WonkoTheSaneUK",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T11:32:57",
"content": "TL;DR – DO NOT LOOK INTO LASER BEAM WITH REMAINING EYE!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782035",
"author": "Dan",
"timestam... | 1,760,371,835.311989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/02/rube-goldberg-floppy-disk-cleaner/ | Rube Goldberg Floppy Disk Cleaner | Navarre Bartz | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"3.5\" floppy disk",
"amiga floppy",
"archival",
"linear rail",
"retrocomputing"
] | Floppies were once the standard method of information exchange, but decades of storage can render them unreadable, especially if mold sets in. [Rob Smith] wanted to clean some floppies in style and made a
Disco Rube Goldberg-Style device
for the job.
Starting with a disk caddy on linear rails, [Smith] has a track for the floppy to follow. First it goes through a set of pads with cleaning solution on them, and is then dried off with heating elements. To make it more fun, the device has LEDs and a set of speakers at the bottom to treat the disk to a more complete car wash-esque experience.
Cotton swabs and a cleaning solution are all you really need to do the job by hand, but if you have a lot of floppies, that can get tedious quickly. [Smith] compares his machine’s performance to doing it by hand with both IPA and a dish soap solution showing that his machine does indeed clean the disks and usually makes them more readable than they were before. He cautions that it might be best to make multiple copies of the disk during the cleaning process as it isn’t always constructive though.
Thinking about
archiving that stack of floppies
under your workbench? While
Linux doesn’t support the drives anymore
, we’ve covered a
couple different
methods
in the past
and the
importance of reading the flux
. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782040",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T12:42:22",
"content": "The name seems off because this is a practical device that directly performs a task. The crux of a Rube Goldberg device isn’t it’s complexity. Wikipedia describes these devices as “a chain reaction–type ma... | 1,760,371,835.405145 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/altermagnetism-in-manganese-telluride-and-others-the-future-of-spintronics/ | Altermagnetism In Manganese Telluride And Others: The Future Of Spintronics? | Maya Posch | [
"Science"
] | [
"altermagnetism",
"magnetism"
] | Magnetic materials are typically divided into ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic types, depending on their magnetic moments (electron spins), resulting in either macroscopic (net) magnetism or not. Altermagnetism is however a recently
experimentally confirmed
third type that as the name suggests alternates effectively between these two states, demonstrating a splitting of the spin energy levels (spin-split band structure). Like antiferromagnets,
altermagnets
possess a net zero magnetic state due to alternating electron spin, but they differ in that the electronic
band structure
are not Kramers degenerate, which is the feature that can be tested to confirm altermagnetism. This is the crux of the
February 2024 research paper
in
Nature
by [J. Krempaský] and colleagues.
Specifically they were looking for the antiferromagnetic-like vanishing magnetization and ferromagnetic-like strong lifted Kramers spin degeneracy (LKSD) in manganese telluride (MnTe) samples, using photoemission spectroscopy in the UV and soft X-ray spectra. A
similar confirmation
in RuO2 samples was published in
Science Advances
by [Olena Fedchenko] and colleagues.
What this discovery and confirmation of altermagnetism means has been covered previously in a range of papers ever since altermagnetism was first proposed in 2019 by [Tomas Jungwirth] et al.. A
2022 paper
published in
Physical Review X
by [Libor Šmejkal] and colleagues details a range of potential applications (section IV), which includes spintronics. Specific applications here include things like memory storage (e.g. GMR), where both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetics have limitations that altermagnetism could overcome.
Naturally, as a fairly new discovery there is a lot of fundamental research and development left to be done, but there is a good chance that within the near future we will see altermagnetism begin to make a difference in daily life, simply due to how much of a fundamental shift this entails within our fundamental understanding of magnetics.
Heading image: Illustrative models of collinear ferromagnetism, antiferromagnetism, and altermagnetism in crystal-structure real space and nonrelativistic electronic-structure momentum space. (Credit: Libor Šmejkal et al., Phys. Rev. X, 2022) | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6782006",
"author": "Macten",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T11:15:39",
"content": "Thanks Maya, I enjoy your content a lot!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6782961",
"author": "Fredz",
"timestamp": "2024-08-05T15:17... | 1,760,371,835.358361 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/what-are-photons-anyway/ | What Are Photons, Anyway? | Navarre Bartz | [
"Science"
] | [
"particle",
"photon",
"photonics",
"physics",
"quantum physics",
"wave",
"wave particle duality",
"wavicles"
] | Photons are particles of light, or waves, or something like that, right? [
Mithuna Yoganathan
]
explains this conundrum in more detail
than you probably got in your high school physics class.
While quantum physics has been around for over a century, it can still be a bit tricky to wrap one’s head around since some of the behaviors of energy and matter at such a small scale aren’t what we’d expect based on our day-to-day experiences. In classical optics, for instance, a brighter light has more energy, and a greater amplitude of its electromagnetic wave. But, when it comes to ejecting an electron from a material via the photoelectric effect, if your wavelength of light is above a certain threshold (bigger wavelengths are less energetic), then nothing happens no matter how bright the light is.
Scientists pondered this for some time until the early 20th Century when Max Planck and Albert Einstein theorized that electromagnetic waves could only release energy in packets of energy, or photons. These quanta can be approximated as particles, but as [
Yoganathan
] explains, that’s not exactly what’s happening. Despite taking a few classes in quantum mechanics, I still learned something from this video myself. I definitely appreciate her including a failed experiment as anyone who has worked in a lab knows happens all the time. Science is never as tidy as it’s portrayed on TV.
If you want to do some quantum mechanics experiments at home (hopefully with more luck than [
Yoganathan
]), then how about
trying to measure Planck’s Constant with a multimeter
or
LEGO
? If you’re wondering how you might better explain electromagnetism to others, maybe this
museum exhibit will be inspiring
. | 33 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781918",
"author": "Chris Maple",
"timestamp": "2024-08-02T05:06:19",
"content": "How is a visible light photon inside inside a sealed iron box going to be infinite in extent?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6781941",
... | 1,760,371,835.679633 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/getting-an-old-hvac-system-online/ | Getting An Old HVAC System Online | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Arduino Hacks"
] | [
"air conditioning",
"arduino",
"automation",
"hvac",
"nano matter",
"remote control"
] | Standardization might sound boring, but it’s really a great underlying strength of modern society. Everyone agreeing on a way that a certain task should be done saves a lot of time, energy, and money. But it does take a certain amount of consensus-building, and at the time [JC]’s HVAC system was built the manufacturers still hadn’t agreed on a standard control scheme for these machines yet. But with a little ingenuity and an Arduino,
the old HVAC system can be given a bit of automatic control
.
The original plan for this antiquated system, once off-the-shelf solutions were found to be incompatible, was to build an interface for the remote control. But this was going to be overly invasive and complex. Although the unit doesn’t have a standard remote control system, it does have extensive documentation so [JC] was able to build a relay module for it fairly easily with an Arduino Nano Matter to control everything and provide WiFi functionality. It also reports the current status of the unit and interfaces with the home automation system.
While some sleuthing was still needed to trace down some of the circuitry of the board to make sure everything was wired up properly, this was a much more effective and straightforward (not to mention inexpensive) way of bringing his aging HVAC system into the modern connected world even through its non-standardized protocols. And, although
agreeing on standards can sometimes be difficult
, they can also be
powerful tools once we all agree on them
. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781868",
"author": "Egghead. Larsen",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T23:34:24",
"content": "Mitsubishi! The Tri-Diamond! We had some rebranded 286s sold by Burroghs/UniSys but the name and emblem were all over the inside – same as the Leading Edge Model D2. Sturdy and reliable! Which was... | 1,760,371,835.783447 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/a-new-era-for-us-passenger-rail/ | A New Era For US Passenger Rail? | Navarre Bartz | [
"News",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"Amtrak",
"Federal Railroad Administration",
"FRA",
"passenger rail",
"rail travel",
"railroad",
"train",
"trains"
] | Here in the United States, we’re lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to shiny new passenger rail, despite being leaders in previous centuries. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has
just released a story map
of how the US could close the gap (a little).
The Corridor Identification and Development (CID) Program
is a way for FRA to provide both funding and technical assistance as corridor sponsors (mostly state Departments of Transportation) evaluate either new intercity service or expansion of existing services. While it isn’t a guarantee of anything, it is a step in the right direction to rebuilding passenger rail capacity in the US.
Some cities would be getting rail service back for the first time in decades, and perhaps even more exciting is that several of the routes being studied are for high speed rail “primarily or solely on new trackage.” As any railfan can tell you, vintage rails aren’t the best for trains going fast (sorry,
Acela
). With recent polling showing
strong public support for the build out of high speed rail
, it’s an exciting time for those who prefer to travel by rail.
We don’t think you’ll be able to ride a
gyro monorail
, nuclear-powered, or
jet train
on these proposed routes, but we do hope that Amtrak and FRA are looking to the
state-of-the-art
when it comes to those high speed alignments. While you’re eagerly awaiting new passenger service, might we
recommend this field guide
to what all those different freight cars going by are for here in North America? | 115 | 26 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781393",
"author": "PWalsh",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T02:25:31",
"content": "Shipping by water is cheaper than by rail, rail is cheaper than truck.The US has a fair amount of inland waterways that *could* be used for cheap shipping.The Jones Act in the US prevents most cargo transp... | 1,760,371,836.030752 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/diy-off-grid-battery-pack-from-ev-battery/ | DIY Off Grid Battery Pack From EV Battery | Navarre Bartz | [
"Battery Hacks"
] | [
"battery pack",
"inverter",
"off grid"
] | Car camping gets you out in the great outdoors, but sometimes it’s nice to bring a few comforts from home. [Ed’s Garage] has taken a module from a salvaged EV and turned it into a
handy portable power station
.
With 2.3 kWh of storage from the
single Spark EV module
, the battery pack can power [Ed]’s hotplate, lights, fridge, and other electric accessories while camping away from shore power. The inverter he selected can provide up to 1500W of AC power and his 12V converter can do 150W. Several USB ports and a wireless charging pad adorn the outside next to the waterproof AC ports. He even printed a small magnetic flashlight to reuse the light from the inverter which uses an 18650 cell that can be charged from the big battery in a charger built into the exterior of the pack.
The battery management system (BMS) has a Bluetooth module allowing for remote monitoring of state of charge and setting the maximum and minimum charge points for the pack. The whole thing comes in at 73 pounds (33 kg), and while he had originally thought to give it wheels to roll, he changed his mind once he thought more about what sort of wheels he’d need to maneuver the thing in the backcountry.
If you’re thinking of building your own power pack, why not checkout a few other builds for inspiration like this one from
tool batteries
or one designed to
charge directly from a solar panel
. Be sure you checkout our guide on
how to select a BMS
if you’re going to use a lithium-based chemistry. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781417",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T03:39:19",
"content": "This is honestly really cool. It’s lithium-ion, so I might want to weatherproof it and keep it somewhere outside.. or at least in the garage.-T somebody who has had a battery fire",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,835.733469 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/lightburn-turns-back-the-clock-bails-on-linux-users/ | LightBurn Turns Back The Clock, Bails On Linux Users | Tom Nardi | [
"Featured",
"Linux Hacks",
"News",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"compatibility",
"laser cutter",
"LightBurn",
"linux"
] | Angry Birds
, flash mobs, Russell Brand, fidget spinners. All of these were virtually unavoidable in the previous decade, and yet, like so many popular trends, have now largely faded into obscurity. But in a recent announcement, the developers of LightBurn have brought back a relic of the past that we thought was all but buried along with Harambe —
popular software not supporting Linux
.
But this isn’t a case of the developers not wanting to bring their software to Linux. LightBurn, the defacto tool for controlling hobbyist laser cutters and engravers, was already multi-platform. Looking forward, however, the developers claim that too much of their time is spent supporting and packaging the software for Linux relative to the size of the user base. In an
announcement email sent out to users
, they reached even deeper into the mid-2000s bag of excuses, and cited the number of Linux distributions as a further challenge:
The segmentation of Linux distributions complicates these burdens further — we’ve had to provide three separate packages for the versions of Linux we officially support, and still encounter frequent compatibility issues on those distributions (or closely related distributions), to say nothing of the many distributions we have been asked to support.
We’re not sure how much of their time could possibly be taken up by responding to
requests
for supporting additional distributions (especially when the answer is no), but apparently, it was enough that they finally had to put their foot down — the upcoming 1.7.00 release of LightBurn will be the last to run on Linux.
To really add insult to injury, LightBurn is paid software, with users having to purchase a yearly license after the time-limited demo period. Accordingly, any Linux users who recently purchased a year’s license for the software can ask for a refund. Oh, and if you’re holding out hope that the community can swoop in and take over maintaining the Linux builds, don’t — LightBurn is closed source.
While there are
open source projects
like
LaserWeb
that can be used to control these types of machines regardless of what operating system you’re running, losing LightBurn on Linux definitely hurts. While we try not to put our stamp on closed source proprietary software because of situations exactly like this one, we have to admit that LightBurn was a nice tool, especially when
compared to the joke software
that many of these lasers ship with.
The developers end their notice to Linux users with what seems like a particularly cruel kick while they’re already down:
Rest assured that we will be using the time gained by sunsetting Linux support to redouble our efforts at making better software for laser cutters, and beyond. We hope you will continue to utilize LightBurn on a supported operating system going forward, and we thank you for being a part of the LightBurn community.
So take comfort, Linux users — LightBurn will emerge from this decision better than ever. Unfortunately, you just won’t be able to use it. | 219 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781318",
"author": "anonymous",
"timestamp": "2024-07-31T20:06:31",
"content": "I just want to know: why is the move sunsetting linux support rather than doing a flatpak?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6781326",
"aut... | 1,760,371,836.437099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/floss-weekly-episode-794-release-them-all-with-jreleaser/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 794: Release Them All With JReleaser | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Software Development"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"JReleaser"
] | This week
Jonathan Bennett
and
Katherine Druckman
chat with
Andres Almiray
about JReleaser, the Java release automation tool that’s for more than just Java, and more than just releases. What was the original inspiration for the tool? And how does JReleaser help avoid a string of commits trying to fix GitHub Actions? Listen to find out!
–
https://andresalmiray.com
–
https://github.com/aalmiray
–
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aalmiray
–
https://jreleaser.org
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 | [] | 1,760,371,836.117502 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/reverse-engineering-a-soundsystems-api/ | Reverse Engineering A Soundsystem’s API | Bryan Cockfield | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"api",
"HTTP",
"internet of things",
"soundsystem",
"speakers",
"web api",
"web interface",
"web server"
] | We’ve all been stymied by a smart thermostat, coffee maker, or other device which would work fine on its own but ultimately seems to be worse off for having an Internet connection — so when something actually pulls off this feat it’s quite noteworthy. [James] has a powerful set of connected speakers and while they don’t have all of the functionality he needed built-in,
an included web API at least allowed him to build in the features he wanted
.
The major problem with these speakers isn’t that they’re incredibly loud (although they are), but rather that the wide range of available volumes for such a loud soundsystem doesn’t leave a lot of fine adjustment in the range where [James] typically uses these speakers. To tackle the problem, he first found the web interface the speakers present and then discovered a somewhat hidden application programming interface (API) within that allows for some manual control. He built a second website which serves as a volume slider within the range he wants, and the web server sends this volume to the speakers via this API which allows much finer control than the built-in user interface.
Having a usable API included with Internet-connected devices is not always the case, although it’s a great model for any company wanting to allow their customers better control of the products they buy. If you need to roll out your own API for connected devices that don’t have one already,
take a look at [Sean Boyce]’s guide from 2019
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781234",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-07-31T15:33:08",
"content": "Since when coding is easier than a voltage divider?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6781240",
"author": "LookAtDaShinyShiny",
"tim... | 1,760,371,836.077735 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/polaroid-in-an-instant/ | Polaroid In An Instant | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"edwin land",
"polarizing film",
"polaroid"
] | Edwin Land, were he alive, would hate this post. He wanted to be known for this scientific work and not for his personal life. In fact, upon his death, he ordered the destruction of all his personal papers. However, Land was, by our definition, a hacker, and while you probably correctly associate him with the Polaroid camera, that turns out to be only part of the story.
Land in 1977
It was obvious that Land was intelligent and inquisitive from an early age. At six, he blew all the fuses in the house. He was known for taking apart clocks and appliances. When his father forbade him from tearing apart a phonograph, he reportedly replied that nothing would deter him from conducting an experiment. We imagine many Hackaday readers have similar childhood stories.
Optics
He was interested in optics, and at around age 13, he became interested in using polarized light to reduce headlight glare. The problem was that one of the best polarizing crystals known — herapathite — was difficult to create in a large size. Herapathite is a crystalline form of iodoquinine sulfate studied in the 1800s by William Herapath, who was unable to grow large sizes of the crystal. Interestingly, one of Herapath’s students noticed the crystals formed when adding iodine to urine from dogs that were given quinine.
Land spent a year at Harvard studying physics, but he left and moved to New York. He continued trying to develop a way to make large, practical, light-polarizing crystals. At night, he would sneak into labs at Columbia University to conduct experiments.
His breakthrough was the realization that he could develop tiny polarizing crystals and put millions of them in a film to form a large polarizer without the problem of growing giant crystals. At first, he created tiny crystals, suspended them in liquid, and aligned them with an electromagnet. A sheet of celluloid would pass through the liquid, picking up precisely aligned microcrystals. When the liquid dried, the crystals remained, and you had a sheet of polarizing film.
A Polarizing Patent
Two misaligned filters will pass less light until reaching 90 degrees of misalignment, which will block most light
That was the basis of the
1929 patent
for polarizing films. Later, the process changed to using a polymer sheet with crystals that aligned by stretching the plastic without an electromagnet. Eventually, the crystals would be made of iodine. Not only did polarizing filters reduce glare, but using two of them allowed you to control the flow of light. If the two filters have the same alignment, light with the correct polarization will pass. As you rotate one filter, less light will pass until the polarizers are at right angles to each other. At that point, virtually no light will flow. Polariscopes can even detect stress in glass objects.
In 1932, a Havard professor who had family money joined with Land to form Land-Wheelwright Laboratories to manufacture polarizing films. You’d think that wouldn’t be a big business, but it turns out there were many uses for a large polarizer, although auto headlights didn’t work out. Kodak bought polarizing film for movie cameras. American Optical made polarized sunglasses. It even made 3D movies and photographs more practical.
In 1937, the company changed its name to Polaroid. But it would be 1943 before the Polaroid camera was even an idea. Of course, between those years, there was a World War to contend with.
The company sold many 3D movie cameras. They produced a 3D film for the 1939 World’s Fair. Unfortunately, the right eye film has been lost, but the left eye one is still around, and you can see it below.
War Years
Turns out polarizing films have more military uses than you might guess. Pilots and soldiers benefit from polarized goggles. A 1944 magazine article noted that all fire control teams had polarizing goggles that could adjust their darkness by turning a knob. Polaroid even produced goggles for war dogs and mules. Even General George Patton was seen sporting a pair of Polaroid goggles.
While most of the company’s war effort was optical in nature, it wasn’t all polarized light technology. For example, the company also developed synthetic quinine after the war shut off the supply of tree bark normally used to produce the medicine. While that might seem odd, at the time, quinine crystals were used in the polarizing films produced by the company. The work ultimately didn’t pan out for practical purposes, but it did win the Polaroid researcher responsible a Nobel Prize in 1965, as it was a landmark achievement in organic chemistry.
Before the war, a Polaroid employee made the Vectograph, a stereo viewer that encoded depth information in the form of polarization. During the war, the technique was used to enhance reconnaissance photos. Land and his company also played important roles in future photo intelligence development. He contributed to the U2’s camera and several satellite- and balloon-borne cameras.
The Camera
Of course, what Land is really known for is instant photography. Inspiration struck in 1943 while on vacation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He took a picture of his three-year-old daughter. She wanted to see the resulting picture right away.
That wasn’t possible, of course, but it got Land thinking. Reportedly, in an hour, he had the basic ideas in place to make the system work. Within three years, he had a prototype. Two years after that, the camera was on sale to the public.
The camera used a technique known as diffusion transfer that was known before Land used it and made it practical for cameras. Prior to this, it was used to copy documents and produce lithography plates before being replaced with more modern techniques. The company made 60 cameras and put 57 of them on a shelf in a department store, thinking they would have some time to make more. The cameras were all sold in a single day, as you can see in the video below. Later, a demonstration by Steve Allen on national television undoubtedly sold many cameras.
The secret isn’t so much in the camera as in the film. In the original process, silver halide — just like regular film — turns black where the light hits it and doesn’t blacken where the image was dark. A dye transfer process migrates dye to the surface of the picture, being blocked where the image is black. This produces a positive image. This requires a series of chemical reactions.
To start the reactions, the reagents are lumped together at the edge of the picture. Rollers in the camera crush capsules containing the reagents and spread them across the picture. For color photos, there are multiple light-sensitive layers and complementary dyes.
In early cameras, the development occurred in the middle of a pack, and after a delay, the user had to separate the image from the rest of the pack. However, in 1972, integral film appeared, which used more chemical magic to develop the image right in front of your eyes.
Genius
Now, when you hear of Edwin Land, you know he did more than invent the instant camera. Not bad for someone who dropped out of school twice. He did, eventually, get an honorary PhD from Harvard. In fact, Harvard’s Baker Library has
a great exhibit about Land
and his work if you want a lot more detail.
If you have an instant camera, you can
build your own film packs
. Despite digital photography, we are still fascinated with these
instant cameras
. | 23 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781198",
"author": "Chr E",
"timestamp": "2024-07-31T14:29:45",
"content": "The SX-70 system, both the camera (folding SLR with an incredible optics design, and sophisticated electronic autoexposure system powered by the film cartridge) and the film (an entire automated darkroom in... | 1,760,371,836.507976 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/climate-change-may-make-days-longer/ | Climate Change May Make Days Longer | Navarre Bartz | [
"clock hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"climate change",
"Clocks",
"horology",
"tides",
"time"
] | For those who say there’s never enough time in a day, your wish for more time is getting granted, if ever so slightly. Scientists have now found a
new source of our days getting longer
— climate change.
You may have already been aware that the length of the day on Earth has been getting longer over time due to the drag exerted on our planet by our friendly neighborhood Moon. Many other factors come into play though, including the Earth’s own mass distribution. As the Earth warms and polar caps melt, the water redistributes to the Earth’s equator causing it to slow more rapidly.
In the worst-case scenario,
RCP8.5
, it would result in climate-related effects to planetary rotational velocity even larger than those caused by lunar tides. Under that scenario, the earth would probably be a less pleasant place to live in many other ways, but at least you’d have a little more time in your day.
While we’re talking about time, we wonder what ever happened to
getting rid of Daylight Savings in the US
? If you long for a simpler time, perhaps you should take up
repairing mechanical watches and clocks
? | 31 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781126",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-07-31T11:10:29",
"content": "I cared about climate change and environmentalism before it was mainstream. I eventually stopped caring.I cared about social moral decay before it was mainstream. I eventually stopped caring.I cared abo... | 1,760,371,836.188719 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/cardboard-r-c-plane-actually-flies/ | Cardboard R/C Plane Actually Flies | Navarre Bartz | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"cardboard",
"flight",
"plane",
"rc plane"
] | Many makers start by building mock-ups from cardboard, but [Alex-08] has managed to build an
R/C plane that actually flies, out of cardboard
.
If you’ve been thinking of building an R/C plane from scratch yourself, this guide is an excellent place to start. [Alex-08] goes through excruciating detail on how he designed and constructed this marvel. The section on building the wings is particularly detailed since that’s the most crucial element in making sure this plane can get airborne.
Some off-the-shelf R/C parts and 3D printed components round out the parts list to complement the large cardboard box used for most of the structural components. The build instructions even go through some tips on getting that vintage aircraft feel and how to adjust everything for a smooth flight.
Need a wind tunnel instead? You can build that
out of cardboard too
. If paper airplanes are more your thing, how about
launching them from space
? And if you’re just trying to get a head start on Halloween, why not laser cut an
airplane costume from cardboard
? | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781819",
"author": "Jon Mayo",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T20:19:53",
"content": "My first custom RC plane was made from cardboard and a lot of tape for the seams and hinges. It was a glider though. I didn’t have the kind of money to put a valuable glow engine in something that needed... | 1,760,371,836.56026 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/2024-tiny-games-contest-pi-o-scope-pong/ | 2024 Tiny Games Contest: Pi-O-Scope-Pong | Donald Papp | [
"contests",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"2024 Tiny Games Challenge",
"oscilloscope",
"pong",
"raspberry pi",
"xbox controller"
] | [Aaron Lager]’s
Pi-O-Scope-Pong
project takes a minimal approach to
Pong
by drawing on an oscilloscope to generate crisp paddles and ball. A Raspberry Pi takes care of the grunt work of signal generation, and even uses the two joysticks of an Xbox controller (connected to the Pi over Bluetooth) for inputs.
Originally, [Aaron] attempted to generate the necessary signals directly from the Pi’s PWM outputs by doing a little bit of RC filtering on the outputs, but was repulsed by the smeary results. The solution? An old but perfectly serviceable 8-bit
MAX506 DAC
now handles crisping up the visuals with high-quality analog outputs. Code is available on
the project’s GitHub repository
.
There isn’t any score-keeping or sound, but one thing that it has over the original Pong is a round ball. The ball in the original
Pong
game was square, but mainly because
cost was a concern during design
and generating a round ball would have ballooned the part count.
In many ways,
Pong
itself is a great inspiration for the
Tiny Games Challenge
, because the simplicity of its gameplay was likely a big part of its success. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781860",
"author": "Mike Bradley",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T23:13:33",
"content": "Interesting, I wonder how it would do with a Bournes 4116R-R2R-503LF R/2R for under $2 versus that $27 DAC?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "67... | 1,760,371,836.719116 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/the-atomic-gardener-of-eastbourne/ | The Atomic Gardener Of Eastbourne | Jenny List | [
"cons",
"green hacks"
] | [
"atomic gardening",
"citizen science",
"irradiated seeds"
] | Pity the video team at a large hacker camp, because they have a huge pile of interesting talks in the can but only the limited resources of volunteers to put them online. Thus we often see talks appearing from past camps, and
such it is with one from Electromagnetic Field 2022
. It’s from [Sarah Angliss], and as its subject it takes the extraordinary work of [Muriel Howorth], a mid-20th-century British proponent of irradiated seeds as a means to solve world hunger.
Today we are used to genetic modification in the context of plants, and while it remains a controversial subject, the science behind it is well known. In the period following the Second World War there was a different approach to improving crops by modifying their genetics: irradiating seeds in a scattergun approach to genetic modification, in the hope that among thousands of duds there might be a mutant with special properties.
To this came Muriel Howorth, at first charged with telling the story of atomic research for the general public. She took irradiated seeds from Oak Ridge in the USA, and turned them into a citizen science program, with an atomic gardening society who would test these seeds and hopefully, find the supercrops within. It’s a wonderfully eccentric tale that might otherwise be the plot of a
Wallace and Gromit
movie, and but for
a few interested historians of popular science
it might otherwise have slipped into obscurity. We’re sorry we didn’t catch this one live
back when we attended the event
. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781719",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T16:49:03",
"content": "https://www.atomicgardening.com/triggers my Avast antivirus… Hm….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6781886",
"author": "Thelinkisglowing",
... | 1,760,371,836.607909 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/programming-ada-implementing-the-lock-free-ring-buffer/ | Programming Ada: Implementing The Lock-Free Ring Buffer | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Software Development"
] | [
"ada",
"software development"
] | In the
previous article
we looked at designing a lock-free ring buffer (LFRB) in Ada, contrasting and comparing it with the C++-based version which it is based on, and highlighting the Ada way of doing things. In this article we’ll cover implementing the LFRB, including the data request task that the LFRB will be using to fill the buffer with. Accompanying the LFRB is a test driver, which will allow us to not only demonstrate the usage of the LFRB, but also to verify the correctness of the code.
This test driver is uncomplicated: in the main task it sets up the LFRB with a 20 byte buffer, after which it begins to read 8 byte sections. This will trigger the LFRB to begin requesting data from the data request task, with this data request task setting an end-of-file (EoF) state after writing 100 bytes. The main task will keep reading 8-byte chunks until the LFRB is empty. It will also compare the read byte values with the expected value, being the value range of 0 to 99.
Test Driver
The Ada version of the test driver for the LFRB can be found in the
same GitHub project
as the C++ version. The file is called
test_databuffer.adb
and can be found in the
ada/reference/
folder. The Makefile to build the reference project is found in the
/ada
folder, which requires an Ada toolchain to be installed as well as Make. For details on this aspect, see the
first article
in this series. When running
make
in the folder, the build files are placed under
obj/
and the resulting binary under
bin/
.
The LFRB package is called
LFRingDataBuffer
, which we include along with the
dataRequest
package that contains the data request task. Obviously, since typing out
LFRingDataBuffer
over and over would be tiresome, we rename the package:
with LFRingDataBuffer;
with dataRequest; use dataRequest;
procedure test_databuffer is
package DB renames LFRingDataBuffer;
[..]
After this we can initialize the LFRB:
initret : Boolean;
[..]
initret := DB.init(20);
if initret = False then
put_line("DB Init failed.");
return;
end if;
Before we start reading from the LFRB, we create the data request task:
drq : DB.drq_access;
[..]
drq := new dataRequestTask;
DB.setDataRequestTask(drq);
This creates a reference to a
dataRequestTask
instance, which is found in the
dataRequest
package. We pass this reference to the LFRB so that it can call entries on it, as we will see in a moment.
After this we can start reading data from the LFRB in a while loop:
bytes : DB.buff_array (0..7);
read : Unsigned_32;
emptied : Boolean;
[..]
emptied := False;
while emptied = False loop
read := DB.read(8, bytes);
[..]
if DB.isEoF then
emptied := DB.isEmpty;
end if;
end loop;
As we know what the value of each byte we read has to be, we can validate it and also print it out to give the user something to look at:
idx : Unsigned_32 := 0;
[..]
idx := 0;
for i in 0 .. Integer(read - 1) loop
put(Unsigned_8'Image(bytes(idx)) & " ");
if expected /= bytes(idx) then
aborted := True;
end if;
idx:= idx + 1;
expected := expected + 1;
end loop;
Of note here is that
put()
from the
Ada.Text_IO
package is similar to the
put_line()
procedure except that it doesn’t add a newline. We also see here how to get the string representation of an integer variable, using the
'Image
attribute. For Ada 2012 we can use it in this fashion, though since 2016
and in Ada 2022
we can also use it directly on a variable, e.g.:
put(bytes(idx)'Image & " ");
Finally, we end the loop by checking both whether EoF is set and whether the buffer is empty:
if DB.isEoF then
emptied := DB.isEmpty;
end if;
With the test driver in place, we can finally look at the LFRB implementation.
Initialization
Moving on to the LFRB’s implementation file (
lfringdatabuffer.adb
), we can in the
init
procedure see a number of items which we covered in the previous article already, specifically the buffer type and its allocation, as well as the unchecked deallocation procedure. All of the relevant variables are set to their appropriate value, which is zero except for the number of free bytes (since the buffer is empty) and the last index (capacity – 1).
Flags like EoF (False) are also set to their starting value. If we call
init
with an existing buffer we first delete it before creating a new one with the requested capacity.
Reading
Simplified layout of a ring buffer.
Moving our attention to the read function, we know that the buffer is still empty, so nothing can be read from the buffer. This means that the first thing we have to do is request more data to fill the buffer with. This is the first check in the read function:
if eof = false and len > unread then
put_line("Requesting data...");
requestData;
end if;
Here
len
is the requested number of bytes that we intend to read, with
unread
being the number of unread bytes in the buffer. Since
len
will always be more than zero (unless you are trying to read zero bytes, of course…), this means that we will call the
requestData
procedure. Since it has no parameters we omit the parentheses.
This procedure calls an entry on the data request task before waiting for data to arrive:
dataRequestPending := True;
readT.fetch;
while dataRequestPending = True loop
delay 0.1; -- delay 100 ms.
end loop;
We set the atomic variable
dataRequestPending
which will be toggled upon a write action, before calling the
fetch
entry on the data request task reference which got passed in from the test driver earlier. After this we loop with a 100 ms wait until the data has arrived. Depending on the context, having a time-out here might be desirable.
We can now finally look at the data request task. This is found in the reference folder, with the specification (
dataRequest.ads
) giving a good idea of what the Ada rendezvous synchronization mechanism looks like:
package dataRequest is
task type dataRequestTask is
entry fetch;
end dataRequestTask;
end dataRequest;
Unlike an
Ada task
, which is auto-started with the master task to which the subtask belongs, a task type can be instantiated and started at will. To communicate with the task we use the rendezvous mechanism, which presents an interface (entries) to other tasks that are effectively like procedures, including the passing of parameters. Here we have defined just one entry called
fetch
, for hopefully obvious reasons.
The task body is found in
dataRequest.adb
, which demonstrates the rendezvous select loop:
task body dataRequestTask is
[..]
begin
loop
select
accept fetch do
[..]
end fetch;
or
terminate;
end select;
end loop;
end dataRequestTask;
To make sure that the task doesn’t just exit after handling one call, we use a loop around the
select
block. By using
or
we can handle more than one call, with each entry handler (
accept
) getting its own section so that we can theoretically handle an infinite number of entries with one task. Since we only have one entry this may seem redundant, but to make sure that the task does exit when the application terminates we add an
or
block with the
terminate
keyword.
With this structure in place we got a basic rendezvous-enabled task that can handle fetch calls from the LFRB and write into the buffer. Summarized this looks like the following:
data : DB.buff_array (0..9);
wrote : Unsigned_32;
[..]
wrote := DB.write(data);
put_line("Wrote " & Unsigned_32'Image(wrote) & HT & "- ");
Here we can also see the way that special ASCII characters are handled in Ada’s Text_IO procedures, using the
Ada.Characters.Latin_1
package. In this case we concatenate the horizontal tab (HT) character.
Skipping ahead a bit to where the data is now written into the LFRB’s buffer, we can read it by first checking how many bytes can be read until the end of the buffer (comparing the read index with the buffer end index). This can result in a number of of outcomes: either we can read everything in one go, or we may need to read part from the front of the buffer, or we have fewer bytes left unread than requested. These states should be fairly obvious so I won’t cover them here in detail, but feel free to put in a request.
To take the basic example of reading all of the requested bytes in a single chunk, we have to read the relevant indices of the buffer into the
bytes
array that was passed as a bidirectional parameter to the read function:
function read(len: Unsigned_32; bytes: in out buff_array) return Unsigned_32 is
This is done with a single copy action and an array slice on the (dereferenced) buffer array:
readback := (read_index + len) - 1;
bytes := buffer.all(read_index .. readback);
We’re copying into the entire range of the target array, so no slice is necessary here. On the buffer array, we start at the first unread byte (
read_index
), with that index plus the number of bytes we intend to read as the last byte. Minus one due to us starting the array with zero instead of 1. This would be a handy optimization, but since we’re a stickler for tradition, this is what we have to live with.
Writing
Writing into the buffer is easier than reading, as we only have to concern ourselves with the data that is in the buffer. Even so it is quite similar, just with a focus on free bytes rather than unread ones. Hence we start with looking at how many bytes we can write:
locfree : Unsigned_32;
bytesSingleWrite: Unsigned_32;
[..]
locfree := free;
bytesSingleWrite := free;
if (buff_last - data_back) < bytesSingleWrite then
bytesSingleWrite := buff_last - data_back + 1;
end if;
We then have to test for the different scenarios, same as with reading. For example with a straight write:
if data'Length <= bytesSingleWrite then
writeback := (data_back + data'Length) - 1;
buffer.all(data_back .. writeback) := data;
elsif
[..]
end if;
Of note here is that we can obtain the size of a regular array with the
'Length
attribute. Since we can write the whole chunk in one go, we set the slice on the target (the dereferenced buffer) from the write index (
data_back
) to (and including) the size of the data we’re writing (minus one, because tradition). If we have to do partial copying of the data we need to use array slices here as well, but here it is only needed on the buffer.
Finally, we have two more items to take care of in the write function. The first is letting the data request procedure know that data has arrived by setting
dataRequestPending
to false. The other is to check whether we can request more data if there is space in the buffer:
if eof = true then
null;
elsif free > 204799 then
readT.fetch;
end if;
There are a few notable things in this code. The first is that Ada does not allow you to have empty blocks, but requires you to mark those with
null
. The other is that magic numbers can be problematic. Originally the fixed data request block size in NymphCast was 200 kB before it became configurable. If we were to change the magic number here to e.g. 10 (bytes), we’d call the
fetch
entry on the data request task again on the first read request, getting us a full buffer.
EoF
With all of the preceding, we now have a functioning, lock-free ring buffer in Ada. Obviously we have only touched on the core parts of what makes it tick, and skimmed over the variables involved in keeping track of where what is going and where it should not be, not to mention how much. Much of this should be easily pieced together from the linked source files, but can be expanded upon, if desired.
Although we have a basic LFRB now, the observing among us may have noticed that most of the functions and procedures in the Ada version of the LFRB as located on GitHub are currently stubs, and that the C++ version does a lot more. Much of this functionality involves seeking in the buffer and a number of other tasks that make a lot of sense when combined with a media player like in NymphCast. These features will continue to be added over time as the LFRB project finds more use, but probably aren’t very interesting to cover.
Feel free to sound off in the comments on what more you may want to see involving the LFRB. | 20 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781711",
"author": "William Payne",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T16:25:44",
"content": "Market share: \tAda\t1.08%.https://www.google.com/search?q=percent+of+programmers+using+ada%3F&sca_esv=de3e428f524f6eaa&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1QCTP_enUS1084US1084&sxsrf=ADLYWIKIO8UT_1lklAWTuqlbzaY0CHg-Iw%... | 1,760,371,836.675701 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/programming-tiny-blinkenlight-projects-with-light/ | Programming Tiny Blinkenlight Projects With Light | Dan Maloney | [
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"CH32V003",
"differential",
"led",
"matrix",
"op-amp",
"sensor",
"transimpedance",
"wearable"
] | [mitxela] has a tiny problem, literally: some of his projects are so small as to defy easy programming. While most of us would probably solve the problem of having no physical space on a board to mount a connector with WiFi or Bluetooth, he took a different path and gave
this clever light-based programming interface
a go.
Part of the impetus for this approach comes from some of the LED-centric projects [mitxela] has tackled lately, particularly wearables such as
his LED matrix earrings
or
these blinky industrial piercings
. Since
LEDs can serve as light sensors
, albeit imperfect ones, he explored exactly how to make the scheme work.
For initial experiments he wisely chose his larger but still diminutive
LED matrix badge
, which sports a CH32V003 microcontroller, an 8×8 array of SMD LEDs, and not much else. The video below is a brief summary of the effort, while the link above provides a much more detailed account of the proceedings, which involved a couple of false starts and a lot of prototyping that eventually led to dividing the matrix in two and ganging all the LEDs in each half into separate sensors. This allows [mitxela] to connect each side of the array to the two inputs of an op-amp built into the CH32V003, making a differential sensor that’s less prone to interference from room light. A smartphone app alternately flashes two rectangles on and off with the matrix lying directly on the screen to send data to the badge — at a low bitrate, to be sure, but it’s more than enough to program the badge in a reasonable amount of time.
We find this to be an extremely clever way to leverage what’s already available and make a project even better than it was. Here’s hoping it spurs new and even smaller LED projects in the future. | 18 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781560",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T11:07:56",
"content": "Nice job [mitxela]. Now implement that to give a sync ability to your blinky Fibonacci earrings, and to reflash / configure them",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comme... | 1,760,371,836.848383 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/08/01/secret-messages-on-plastic-just-add-tesla-coil/ | Secret Messages On Plastic, Just Add Tesla Coil | Donald Papp | [
"High Voltage",
"Science"
] | [
"corona treatment",
"hydroglyphics",
"hydrophilic",
"hydrophobic",
"tesla coil"
] | Here’s
a short research paper
from 2013 that explains how to create “hydroglyphics”, or writing with selecting surface wetting. In it, an apparently normal-looking petri dish is treated so as to reveal a message when wetted with water vapor. The contrast between hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces, which is not visible to the naked eye, becomes visible when misted with water. All it took was a mask, and a little treatment with a modified Tesla coil.
Plastics tend to be hydrophobic, meaning their surface repels water. These plastics also tend to be non-receptive to things like inks and adhesives. However, there is an industrial process called
corona treatment
(invented by Verner Eisby in 1951) that changes the surface energy of materials like plastics, rendering them more receptive to inks, coatings, and adhesives. Eisby’s company Vetaphone still exists today, and
has a page describing the process
.
What’s this got to do with the petri dishes and their secret messages? The process is essentially the same. By using a Tesla coil modified with a metal wire mesh, the surface of the petri dish is exposed to the coil’s discharge, altering its surface energy and rendering it hydrophilic. By selectively blocking the discharge with a nonconductive mask made from a foam sticker, the masked area remains hydrophobic. Mist the surface with water, and the design becomes visible.
The effects of corona treatment decay over time, but we think this is exactly the sort of thing that is worth keeping in mind just in case it ever comes in useful. Compact Tesla coils are fairly easy to get a hold of nowadays, but
it’s also possible to make your own
. | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781478",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T08:22:05",
"content": "Doesn’t beat microdots, or Tor",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6781519",
"author": "elmesito",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T09:20:21",
"cont... | 1,760,371,836.79261 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/spin-your-own-passive-cooling-fibres/ | Spin Your Own Passive Cooling Fibres | Jenny List | [
"chemistry hacks",
"green hacks"
] | [
"passive cooling",
"PLA",
"radiative cooling"
] | When the temperature climbs, it’s an eternal problem: how to stay cool. An exciting field of materials science lies in radiative cooling materials, things which reflect so much incoming heat that they can cool down from their own radiation rather than heating up in the sun. It’s something [NightHawkInLight] has been working on over a series, and
he’s dropped a very long video
we’ve placed below. It’s ostensibly about spinning radiative cooling fibers, but in fact provides a huge quantity of background as well as a bonus explanation of cotton candy machines.
These materials achieve their reflectivity by creating a surface full of microscopic bubbles. It’s the same process that makes snow so white and reflective, and in this case it’s achieved by dissolving a polymer in a mixture of two solvents. The lower boiling point solvent evaporates first leaving the polymer full of microscopic bubbles of the higher boiling point solvent, and once these evaporate they leave behind the tiny voids. In the video he’s using PLA, and we see him experimenting with different solvents and lubricants to achieve the desired result. The cotton candy machine comes in trying to create fibers by melting solid samples, something which doesn’t work as well as it could so instead he draws them by hand with a small rake.
When he tests his mat of fibers in bright sunlight the effect is almost magical if we didn’t already know the mechanism, they cool down by a few degrees compared to ambient temperature and the surrounding control materials. This is a fascinating material, and we hope we’ll see more experimenters working with it. You won’t be surprised to hear
we’ve featured his work before
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781495",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T08:48:53",
"content": "Try those road mark reflective particles",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6781760",
"author": "psyke",
"timestamp": "2024-08-01T18:... | 1,760,371,837.002131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/31/a-look-inside-the-super-nintendo-cartridges-and-video-system/ | A Look Inside The Super Nintendo Cartridges And Video System | Maya Posch | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"cartridge",
"snes",
"super nintendo entertainment system"
] | Despite being effectively sold as a toy in the 1990s, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was pretty bleeding-edge as far its computing chops were concerned. This was especially apparent with its cartridges, such as in this
excellent summary article
by [Fabien Sanglard].
In addition to the mask ROM that stored the game data and (optionally) battery-backed SRAM to store save data, a wide range of enhancement processors existed that upgraded the base SNES system with additional processors for more CPU performance, enhanced graphics and so on. Imagine sticking a game cartridge in a PlayStation 4 today that boosted CPU speed by 5x and gave it a much better GPU, this was the world of SNES games.
On the other side of the video game cartridges was the
video output system
, which seems easy enough in today’s world of digital HDMI and DisplayPort output. In the 90s video output did however mean NTSC and SECAM/PAL, which means playing nice with frequencies, different resolutions (lines) and squeezing as much as possible into a single frame in a way that works with the game console’s rendering pipeline. As a result of this the PAL version of Super Mario World has a larger vertical resolution than the NTSC version (240 vs 224 lines), even if it’s still squashed into the same 4:3 format. For the physical video output side, European gamers were spoiled with an AV connector to (RGB) SCART output, while the rest of the world dealt with some variety of RF composite or S-video.
Although the SNES’s successor in the form of the N64 would not take cartridges to the same extremes, it was this flexible architecture that gave the SNES such an amazing game library. | 22 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781093",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-07-31T08:33:30",
"content": "I yearn for a future where sillicon fabs are so ubiquitous and common that unity and other game engines have an “export to HDL” option along with the usual “export for windows” or whateverImagine never ... | 1,760,371,837.246016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/ai-image-generator-twists-in-response-to-midi-dials-in-real-time/ | AI Image Generator Twists In Response To MIDI Dials, In Real-time | Donald Papp | [
"Art",
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"ai",
"art",
"dials",
"midi",
"stable diffusion"
] | MIDI isn’t just about music, as [Johannes Stelzer] shows by
using dials to adjust AI-generated imagery in real-time
. The results are wild, with an interactivity to them that we don’t normally see in such things.
[Johannes] uses
Stable Diffusion
‘s SDXL Turbo to create a baseline image of “photo of a red brick house, blue sky”. The hardware dials act as manual controls for applying different embeddings to this baseline, such as “coral”, “moss”, “fire”, “ice”, “sand”, “rusty steel” and “cookie”.
By adjusting the dials, those embeddings are applied to the base image in varying strengths. The results are generated on the fly and are pretty neat to see, especially since there is no appreciable amount of processing time required.
The MIDI controller is integrated with the help of
lunar_tools
, a software toolkit on GitHub to facilitate creating interactive exhibits. As for the image end of things, we’ve previously covered
how AI image generators work
. | 29 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781074",
"author": "Cad the Mad",
"timestamp": "2024-07-31T05:13:01",
"content": "In before people lose it over AI image generation.Very cool project. Visually fascinating and highly polished with the minimal processing time.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,371,837.321398 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/overhauling-subway-cars-is-a-big-job/ | Overhauling Subway Cars Is A Big Job | Navarre Bartz | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"maintenance",
"railyard",
"rebuild",
"subway",
"trains"
] | Subway cars have a tough life. Moving people through a city efficiently underground every day and night takes a toll on the hardware. To keep things running efficiently, NYC
rebuilds its cars every six years.
The enormous job of refurbing a subway car back to factory spec happens in one of two yards, either in Brooklyn or Manhattan. The cars are pulled off their 16,000 lb trucks, and treated to an overhaul of their “doors, windows, signage, seats, floor tiles and HVAC.” The trucks are inspected and wheels can be reground to true at the six year mark; they get all new wheels every 12.
Once everything is repaired, the shiny and like-new components are inspected and reassembled to go back out on the line. While it’s no small job, the overhaul shops can process over 1,000 cars in a year to keep things running smoothly. Before the overhaul program was introduced in the 1980s, NYC subway cars typically experienced failures every 16,000 miles, but between the scheduled maintenance and other advances that number has soared to an average failure rate every 140,000 miles.
For a somewhat less official use of underground spaces, how about this
Parisian secret society
? If you really want to bring the subway home, how about making an
old subway seat into a chair
? If you need something more light-hearted, you should really checkout this
90s subway safety video from LA
. | 6 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781162",
"author": "Davin Peterson",
"timestamp": "2024-07-31T12:58:48",
"content": "Wow, 6 years seems a little soon to rebuilt subway cars.The Washington DC Metro had its subway cars overhauled when they get 20 years old to give them another 20 years. They retire the railcars whe... | 1,760,371,837.107561 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/making-an-aluminum-foil-glider-to-prototype-hydroforming/ | Making An Aluminium Foil Glider To Prototype Hydroforming | Maya Posch | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"glider",
"hydroforming"
] | Hydroforming is a very effective way to turn a ductile metal like aluminium or stainless steel into a specific shape, either using a die or by creating a closed envelope in which the hydraulic fluid is injected. While trying to think of ways to create a hydroformed airplane without spending big bucks on having it done professionally – or learning to weld sheet metal together with waterproof welds along the seams – [Adrian Perez] decided that
using plain aluminium foil
as found in the average kitchen might be a good way to get his feet wet here. When stuck together with double-sided tape, the foil is both strong and light enough to be inflated like a party balloon and still fly better than a lead balloon (which do fly, albeit poorly).
The basic design for the initial
Luma
glider that he assembled is based around a
Kline-Fogleman (KA) airfoil
. This type of airfoil is mostly characterized by the simplicity of construction, having been devised in the 1960s for paper airplanes. It uses a stepped approach rather than a continuous airfoil and has seen mostly attention in hobby circles. Even if this Luma glider brings to mind the ill-fated
Goodyear Inflatoplane
, a hydroformed version of these foil prototype gliders would not have to rely on being inflated to function.
For small-scale prototypes, using low-cost aluminium foil or similar to test out shapes before committing to a design to be welded and hydroformed does seem like a useful approach. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781035",
"author": "Bear Naff",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T23:44:03",
"content": "Looking at this guy’s other videos, he’s either burning through a huge backlog of projects, or he’s another Robert Murray-Smith and is going to be an endless font of interesting, if less than practical,... | 1,760,371,837.180021 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/the-last-instrument-to-get-auto-tuned/ | The Last Instrument To Get Auto-Tuned | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"auto tune",
"autotune",
"esp-32-s3",
"ESP32",
"fundamental frequency algorithm",
"kazoo",
"midi",
"synth",
"synthesizer",
"yin"
] | Various decades have their musical signature, like the excessive use of synthesizers and hairspray in the 1980s pop music scene. Likewise, the early 2010s was marked by a fairly extreme use of autotune, a technology that allows sounds, especially vocals, to be shifted to precise pitches regardless of the pitch of the original source. In this dark era, a wide swath of instruments and voices on the charts were auto-tuned at some point,
although we don’t remember this iconic instrument ever being featured among the annals of pitch-shifted pop music
.
The auto-tuned kazoo created by [Guy Dupont] does its pitch corrections on-the-fly thanks to a built-in ESP-32-S3 microcontroller which, through a microphone inside the kazoo, listens for note of the musician’s hum and corrects it to the closest correctly pitched note. Once it identifies the note it outputs a kazoo-like pitch-corrected note from a small speaker, also hidden inside the instrument. It does this fast enough for live performances using the YIN fundamental frequency estimation algorithm. Not only can the kazoo be played directly, but thanks to the implementation of MIDI it can be used to control other synthesizers or be played through other means as a stand-alone synthesizer.
Much like the 80s, where the use of synthesizers relaxed from excessive use on nearly every instrument on every track throughout the decade to a more restrained use as the decade faded, so has autotune been toned down in most music to be more subtly applied. But like our enjoyment of heavily synthesized tunes outside the 80s like those by Daft Punk or The Weeknd, we can also appreciate something heavily auto-tuned outside of the 2010s like a stylized kazoo or
a T-Pain-style guitar effects pedal
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6781005",
"author": "makefu",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T20:37:21",
"content": "Next please auto-tune for vuvuzela.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6781025",
"author": "Garth",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T22:31:42",... | 1,760,371,839.15945 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/this-home-made-mac-has-a-real-crt/ | This Home Made Mac Has A Real CRT | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"crt",
"mac",
"mac Classic"
] | Cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions may no longer be in production, but its last bastion came in the form of extremely cheap little Chinese portable sets with a black-and-white tube. They’re now useless for broadcast TV, so can often be had for next-to-nothing. [Action Retro]
has a video showing a Mac Classic clone using one
, and with a built-in Raspberry Pi and a copy of RiscOS it almost makes a usable computer.
The video below the break is a little heavy on the 3D printer sponsor and the Mac case comes from a Thingiverse project, but it’s well executed and we’re grateful for being introduced to
that original project
. We’d have gone for a period-correct beige filament rather than the glow-in-the-dark green one used here.
We’re guessing that more than one reader will have a few of those TVs around the place, such is their ubiquity. Is it worth making this as a novelty item? It depends upon your viewpoint, but we can’t help liking the result even if perhaps it’s not for us. If RiscOS isn’t quite the thing, there’s
an option a little closer to the real thing
. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780980",
"author": "Garth",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T18:53:35",
"content": "Wow, that is so cool. I have seen many of these old portable TVs at flea markets and thought that they would make a cool retro-pi enclosure. Too bad there wasn’t any way to adjust the CRT yoke better with t... | 1,760,371,839.46944 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/programming-ada-designing-a-lock-free-ring-buffer/ | Programming Ada: Designing A Lock-Free Ring Buffer | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Software Development"
] | [
"ada",
"software development"
] | Ring buffers are incredibly useful data structures that allow for data to be written and read continuously without having to worry about where the data is being written to or read from. Although they present a continuous (ring) buffer via their API, internally a definitely finite buffer is being maintained. This makes it crucial that at no point in time the reading and writing events can interfere with each other, something which can be guaranteed in a number of ways. Obviously the easiest solution here is to use a mutual exclusion mechanism like a mutex, but this comes with a severe performance penalty.
A lock-free ring buffer (LFRB) accomplishes the same result without something like a mutex (lock), instead using a hardware feature like atomics. In this article we will be looking at how to design an LFRB in Ada, while comparing and contrasting it with the C++-based LFRB that it was ported from. Although similar in some respects, the Ada version involves Ada-specific features such as access types and the rendezvous mechanism with task types (‘threads’).
Port Planning
The C++ code that the Ada LFRB is based on can be found as a
creatively titled
GitHub project, although it was originally developed for the
NymphCast
project. In that project’s usage scenario, it provides a memory buffer for network data as it’s being fetched from a client and made available to the local media player. Here the player requests additional data when it doesn’t have enough buffered data to decode the next frame, resulting in a read request to the LFRB. If its buffer doesn’t have sufficient data left to fulfill the read request, it triggers the data request task, which for NymphCast means fetching more data from the client until the LFRB’s buffer is full again.
Simplified layout of a ring buffer.
With this C++ version we are using only C++14-level features, including
std::thread
,
std::chrono
, mutexes and condition variables. For the internal buffer we use a heap-allocated buffer, a
uint8_t
array, with raw pointers into this array which keep track of the reading and writing locations, alongside a number of atomic variables for the number of free bytes, unread bytes, buffer capacity, and so on. This means that while seemingly simple, the main trick lies in properly updating the pointers and variables to properly reflect the current state.
So what would the Ada version look like? We would need a heap-allocated buffer, obviously. Here we would use a simple array, which has the advantage in Ada that its arrays are bound-checked during compile- and run-time. Meanwhile the
uint8_t*
pointers are replaced with simple index trackers, which will use the predefined
Unsigned_32
type from the standard
Interfaces
package. This guarantees that we can have a buffer capacity of up to 4 GB, just in case that much is ever needed.
For the data request thread we use an Ada task, which is effectively the same thing as in C++, just with it being a native part of the language. This means that no packages have to be included and task synchronization mechanisms are also an integral part of the core language. What we do notice here is that Ada’s multi-threading features are very different from that found in other mainstream languages which overwhelmingly follow the POSIX pthread model. We will look at this in more detail when we get to this part of the design in the next part of this series.
Unchecked Operations
Although in Ada we can allocate more memory as much as we want using the
new
keyword, one thing which the language doesn’t like you to do is deallocating it, akin to
free
or
delete
in C and C++. This is because manual deallocation like this is a common source of really bad things, so you’re generally asked to not do this and instead rely on the automatic deallocation methods. If you feel that you really,
really
have to do manual deallocation of previously allocated memory blocks, you can do so via the
Ada.Unchecked_Deallocation
package that was
added
with Ada 95.
Since we would like to maybe get rid of the buffer which we allocated when the LFRB’s capacity was set, for example when the user demands that a differently sized buffer is created, or just for housekeeping reasons when shutting down the application, we have to enter unchecked territory. Fortunately, this isn’t hugely complicated, merely requiring us to define a procedure that uses the provided generic template from the
Ada.Unchecked_Deallocation
package.
To demonstrate this, we can implement the allocation and deallocation, starting with allocating the byte array:
type buff_array is array(Unsigned_32 range <>) of Unsigned_8;
type buff_ref is access buff_array;
buffer : buff_ref;
buffer := new buff_array(0 .. capacity);
As the
new
allocation returns an access type reference (‘pointer’) for the type which we are allocating, we need to define a type for this and use this as the reference from then onwards.
When we’re done with the array, we need to use the custom function which we defined as follows:
with Ada.Unchecked_Deallocation;
procedure free_buffer is new Ada.Unchecked_Deallocation
(Object => buff_array, Name => buff_ref);
free_buffer (buffer);
To create a deallocation procedure, we just need to provide the generic template with the details of what we’re trying to deallocate. This means the
buff_array
type for the object type and
buff_ref
for the access type name (the ‘pointer’ type). These correspond to the types which we defined earlier when we allocated the buffer.
Setting Bounds
To be able to safely write and read the buffer’s contents, we need to keep track of more than just the current read and write indices. We also need to know the starting index of the buffer (always 0), the last index (capacity – 1), as well as the current number of free and unread bytes. The latter two start at zero and are updated as data is written and read. This is similar to the C++ version, except for a few offset differences due to the C++ version using mostly pointer arithmetic and this Ada port pure array indices. We are of course free to start an Ada array at any index (like 1) we desire, but for this port we are sticking to 0 as the first index because it’s tradition.
One nice thing about Ada is that if we do get an offset or index wrong, we get a
constraint_error
exception
raised during runtime, along with the where and how. For example if we go out of bounds an Index Check is raised:
raised CONSTRAINT_ERROR : datarequest.adb:26 index check failed
Then if we use array slices to write to or copy from part of an array, making a mistake there gets us a Length Check:
raised CONSTRAINT_ERROR : lfringdatabuffer.adb:329 length check failed
Here array slices follow the pattern of
array(first .. last)
, where the first byte that’s part of the slice is specified with
first
and the last byte to be included with
last
.
Dereferencing
This leaves us with one more detail regarding access types, which includes the earlier array access type, as well as that of procedure, function and task access types (first two called function pointers in C++ nomenclature). For our array access type this is fairly easy, as demonstrated when e.g. creating an array slice to write data into the buffer:
buffer.all(data_back .. writeback) := data;
Dereferencing on the
buffer
array is done using
.all
, after which we can use it as normal. For references to procedures, functions and also tasks it’s even more straightforward, which we will take an in-depth look at in the next part as we begin to implement the LFRB and assemble all of the pieces which we have discussed in this article. | 7 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780961",
"author": "beadon",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T17:59:49",
"content": "I’ve used this great little guide on a similar lock-free implementation for single-producer / single-consumer in C –https://embedjournal.com/implementing-circular-buffer-embedded-c/thought I might share he... | 1,760,371,839.278837 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/foliodeck-squeezes-a-writerdeck-into-a-planner/ | Foliodeck Squeezes A Writerdeck Into A Planner | Navarre Bartz | [
"Cyberdecks"
] | [
"cyberdeck",
"distraction free",
"eink",
"writerdeck"
] | When it comes to writing, sometimes a computer or smartphone is just too distracting to keep on task. [vagabondvivant] found this to be the case and rolled their own distraction-free writing tool, the
Foliodeck
.
With the increasing availability of parts for cyberdecks, it’s not too surprising to see we’re seeing the emergence of the writerdeck. Typically designed to be a no frills word processing device, they are designed to help their creators focus on writing and not be subject to the myriad notifications present trying to work with a more general computing device or smartphone.
In this case, [vagabondvivant] took a classy looking planner folio and removed its paper management components to leave a fabric and leather shell. The heart of the assembly is a HiSense A5 eink smartphone magnetically attached to a piece of MDF cut to mate the phone to the planner shell. A 10 Ah powerbank slots into the MDF below the keyboard which is also magnetically attached, and the whole thing zips up nicely. Future improvements are planned like a hinge, so it doesn’t have to be propped against something and a custom-built mechanical keyboard.
This isn’t the first
writerdeck
we’ve seen, and we’ve seen some other
writer-focused
decks and
typewriter replacements
.
https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Foliodeck_f04ca8.mp4 | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780829",
"author": "Joe Jansen",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T12:14:17",
"content": "My 50+ year old fingers hurt just watching the video…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6780861",
"author": "Egghead Larsen",
"timestamp": "... | 1,760,371,838.932053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/a-brief-history-of-alphasmart/ | A Brief History Of AlphaSmart | Navarre Bartz | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"AlphaSmart",
"AlphaSmart NEO",
"education",
"history",
"portable computer",
"word processor"
] | There are a handful of gadgets that do one thing so well that they become cult classics long after the company that made them has moved on or closed up shop. [This Does Not Compute] takes us through the history of the AlphaSmart word processor which started as an educational tool, but finds itself in many a writer’s bag today.
The original AlphaSmart bears more than a passing resemblance to its Apple contemporaries since the company was founded by two Apple engineers. The Cupertino company didn’t see the value in the concept, but didn’t lean on any non-competes to keep the pair from pursuing the idea on their own time either. What resulted was a dead simple word processor that could be had for 1/5 of what a new computer typically cost in the era, which was particularly attractive for the target market of schools.
After several successful years, the pressure of PDAs and then smartphones from one side and cheaper laptops from the other meant school districts no longer wanted single-purpose devices when they could have a fully-fledged computing experience for students. We wonder if that was the right call, with so many now wanting distraction-free devices, but it was the end of the road for the company either way.
Our own [Kristina Panos] and [Tom Nardi] have shown us the
guts of the Neo
and of one of its competitors,
the Writer
, respectively. If you have a Neo of your own in need of replacement keycaps,
you can print them
. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780670",
"author": "D",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T20:05:21",
"content": "A 68000-style CPU running at 33mhz is more horsepower than I expected. That potentially exceeds the (desktop) Mac LC II that they were competing against in my public school. But they presumably don’t play Orego... | 1,760,371,839.039782 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/hacker-tactic-multi-design-panels/ | Hacker Tactic: Multi-Design Panels | Arya Voronova | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"how-to",
"PCB Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"panel",
"PCB design"
] | Last time,
we talked about single-PCB-design panels
, all the cool aspects of it, including some cost savings and handling convenience. Naturally, you might wonder, and many did – can you put multiple different PCBs on a single panel? The answer is “yes, without a doubt!” The tool we used last time, KiKit, will not be as helpful here, so we’ll be looking elsewhere.
Making multi-PCB panels can help you save money, naturally, but it can also make your assembly a whole lot easier, and it can bring you hacking to a whole new level. It sure helped with mine! You might have already learned that some fabs scoff at multi-design panels and add surcharges. Well, you’ll be delighted to learn that there are more hacker-friendly fabs out there, too.
Developing PCBs In Bulk
So far, I’ve worked on about 300 different PCB designs, with half of them available
in my monorepo.
I’ve assembled and tested just about half of these. You might guess that this would cost a lot of money, and that assembly would take a fair bit of time, but I have some tricks up my sleeve. For a start, you can easily order PCBs 10-12 times more cheaply if you do multi-panel.
Around 2016, I decided to start developing PCBs in larger quantities, both fully-featured device PCBs and small building-block boards for all sorts of mods. I was trying to do this on a pretty tiny budget. It helped that I started working on ZeroPhone soon after, a smartphone you could
mod with custom PCBs,
and there were more than enough different mods to get creative with. In a month’s time, I could easily develop a dozen PCB designs, and the trick to that was knowing a friendly PCB service.
one of the panels I’ve done
end result of the panel stenciled and pick&placed all together
How do you order PCBs in large quantities on a budget? As long as you keep to two-layer boards, it turns out you can combine these PCBs into a panel and order that panel from a service like
DirtyPCBs
. DirtyPCBs is a hacker-friendly PCB service with flat prices, no sudden charges for unpopular options, and zero extra fees for different design panels. The trick is that you just need to make them in a manufacturable way.
This is a notable contrast to most other fabs, which will require extra fees for every deviation from the norm. This is counterproductive and an impediment to creativity when you’re offering a service to hackers. The ability to experiment without being financially punished for it is an important one, but many fabs will see different-design panelization fees as an attempt at cheating them out of money, as opposed to a hack you can do to make your life easier in a dozen different ways.
This 0.8mm ENIG black silk panel cost me $35 for 10pcs, with ten different designs. At JLCPCB, it’s 10 times more expensive to order these PCBs separately.
Just like with single-design panels, multi-design panels are easier to handle than an assortment of transparent baggies with PCBs – it’s a single PCB until you break it apart, which in itself is a pretty satisfying process. They’re also easier to assemble en masse, because you can stencil them all together.
Look at the picture to the left – these PCBs on the bottom might look simple, but the M.2 sockets are a bother to solder, and you really want to stencil them, because each pasting pass takes time. If I do a panel like this in one shot, I only need a single swipe of an old credit card with a line of solder paste, and I can mount five M.2 slots at once – then hot air them all at once quickly, or pop them into a reflow oven.
This makes assembly way, way easier, and it doesn’t stop here! I’ve noticed something outstanding – the assemble-full-panel-at-once process has actually motivated me to finish even the smallest projects, making sure my bare PCBs always get components soldered onto them. This left me to just bringup or test them at some point, which is tempting and fun – as opposed to assembling an individual board piece by piece, which can feel tedious. Before that, I would assemble projects individually, and it was quite easy to just never assemble a board, leaving a project forever incomplete. I haven’t been ordering panels for a bit now, and having written this, next month I just might do it again, because I realize that I really miss it.
As some of you might guess, this also helps with at-home pick and place, letting you skip the per-PCB setup time and making it even easier to assemble your projects than before. I’ve used a pick and place machine for assembling quite a few of these panels, and for that,
I wrote a script
combining all
.kicad_pos
data into a full panel’s
.kicad_pos
. I haven’t updated it in a fair bit, and it might have hiccups handling the bottom layer board rotations, purely through my lack of testing, but it’s still a large timesaver if you got a PnP handy. Over time, I learned to flip my boards in a way that the “most SMDs” side is the top side on the panel – this will save you a large amount of time if you’re using pick and place or even just stenciling such a panel, especially if you account for the effort of making a custom jig for stenciling a PCB with components mounted to its bottom.
For this “10pcs of a single 22x40mm design” price, you can get a full 10×10 panel at DirtyPCBs.
Show Me the Money
As for DirtyPCBs, their flat fee structure really frees you up when it comes to the colors and options like ENIG. Sure, you’re not getting 2-layer PCBs for $2 apiece like some other places offer, but as soon as you go beyond their $2 offer restrictions, you’ll be the one paying extra to offset all these $2 offers – how do you think they make money? DirytPCB’s flat prices are more honest, in my opinion – you pay for the area you’re using, and you fill it up with whatever you want as long as it manufactures well.
I’ve done ESP-12 style drop-in replacement modules with quick-and-dirty castellations, a test board I wanted to make in the cheapest possible way as a proof of concept, and it came out well for what it was. With someone like JLCPCB, I would’ve gotten at least an attempt to upsell me on their (seriously expensive) castellations, and at worst, a requirement to have me remake my board entirely, something I’ve had to deal with recently. And at DirtyPCBs, I could pick any colour I wanted. At some point, I used different colours to denote “generations” of my designs; to this day, if I see a blue PCB at home, I know it’s from about 2018, and a red PCB is from around 2020.
Of course, this is for two-layer boards, but many of our designs can fit in two layers – as I keep demonstrating in
the design review series.
Also, a much-needed detour on manufacturability! You need to make sure that the PCBs in your panels are connected well to each other, so that the individual boards don’t fall out of your panel during manufacturing or flying probe test – this is important. DirtyPCBs also asks us that you add rails on all four sides, ideally; you can do V-Cuts for those. You don’t get a special castellation process either, but you can do V-Cuts with the usual “put straight lines cutting across the board on your Edge.Cuts” trick; all V-cuts must be at least 7 cm long, a standard requirement for fabs. Keep the distances between boards to 2 mm or more so that the outline can be milled well, and make sure to thoroughly read
DirtyPCBs’ ordering requirements;
the more professional you are with compiling your panels, the smoother your ordering experience will be.
a panel haul from 2018 – easily a thousand individual boards here, and it cost me a bit over $100!
I usually order 10 cm x 10 cm panels, each full of boards of various kinds, and it’s pretty fun to put them together. Ask your friends if they have some boards they wanted to order, perhaps do a PCB design weekend, add them to your panels, and, suddenly, you’ve started a mini-OSHpark! Boost this by giving your friends design review or even assemble their boards, and, all of a sudden, you find yourself in the middle of a hacker community.
Multi-design panels are cheaper, they make your assembly easier, help you advance your projects, work around fab limitations, or even put your hackerspace or hacker collective closer together. If a design is larger than 10 cm x 10 cm or has more than two layers, I go for one of the usual suspects, but there’s a number of designs I will only ever order in panels. Now, let’s take a look at how you put a multi-design panel together.
Putting It All Together
Once the PCBs arrive, here’s the best part yet. You can assemble this kind of panel all at once, too! Again, make sure your boards are all flipped so that all component-bearing sides are on the same side, and you can stencil, assemble, and bake such a panel in one go. As I’ve shown, this is how I’ve managed to design a good few M.2 cards and other boards on the cheap – stenciling a single M.2 card at a time is bothersome, but stenciling seven at once is pretty comfortable.
I quite like that PCBWay straight up tells you about multi-design stencils on the stencil ordering page
For stenciling, you’ll want a stencil, naturally – DirtyPCBs built-in option is pretty competitive, and the stencil you get is of a comfortable size. I used to order stencils for these panels on JLCPCB, but recently, JLC changed their policies and multi-design stencils are no longer the same price as single-design ones, with steep extra fees. So, now JLC stencils are not affordable in the slightest – but PCBWay still explicitly allows multi-design stencils for no cost increase, so it might be a better option.
Even if you decide to order a custom-sized small stencil that fits into a standard JLCPCB mailing box, JLCPCB hits you with a hard-to-notice 300 g weight addition to your order for what’s just a paper thin piece of aluminium in a ziplock bag – the cheap stencils are actually paid for by hidden “shipping” fees, so, don’t focus on the $7 stencil price point too much. If you’re ordering a lot of designs, say, for a group of people, as I do sometimes, combining DirtyPCBs for 10 v cm x 10 cm two-layer panels and some other fab for everything else including stencils is probably the most cost-effective option.
For all the panels shown above, I used
GerberPanelizer
from ThisIsNotRocketScience, a software that
we’ve covered on Hackaday before.
This one is Windows-only, hasn’t had a release for a while and the last binaries are from 2020, which are
no longer compatible
with KiCad 6 or beyond, but the state of newer-than-2020 code on GitHub is pretty good.
Here is my workaround: install Visual Studio Community onto a Windows VM, load the Visual Studio project included in the repo, pick the GerberPanelizer project, compile it and use the
.exe
s generated. Drag and drop boards into a GerberPanelizer window, add tabs with T, remember to save your project (File=>Save) before you export it so you can re-export it later on if you decide to make a small change to one of the boards, and generate the gerbers.
Want a Linux alternative? You might try and run GerberPanelizer on Linux, as multiple people on GitHub have tried to varying degrees of success; alternatively, you could
try out this software that claims Linux support.
I haven’t checked this one out yet, but it seems good, and I might try it out when I finally get way too tired to work with Windows 10’s endless nuances. If you have recommendations, we’re all ears!
Behold, a multi-design stencil, and you can even put multi-design panels in it!
Do you want to order stencils for cheaper? If so, you might be happy to learn that multi-design stencils are a thing; about the only issue is that you’ll be expected to cut the stencils apart yourself – remember to use scissors that you don’t care about, and tape the stencil edges with painters tape afterwards. (You should be doing that anyway, they will cut you when you least expect it.) Doing multi-design panels and want stencils for these? You can use the panel gerber output files as input to the GerberPanelizer and combine them with other boards, of course, creating a multi-multi-PCB stencil.
How do you compile such a stencil panel? For a start, you can simply use KiCad – as long as all your boards are all made in KiCad, or you simply import them into KiCad for a stencil panel’s sake. Open the PCB editor in standalone mode, use
File=>Append board
to add all your boards in there, then export gerbers like you normally would. You can’t quite use this for making PCB panels easily, sadly, because adding mousebites manually is kind of a pain, so unless all your boards are the same size and you can do V-cuts, you’ll want to use a suite like GerberPanelizer.
There’s a lot to explore to the multi-panel technique, so you better keep it in mind – when you’re planning a multi-design project, doing something like
making a PCB case out of PCBs,
or just looking to do a PCB design weekend marathon turning every single of your circuit building blocks into a breakout, multi-design panelization will likely save you a bunch of money and trouble. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780602",
"author": "Cheburashka",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T17:16:56",
"content": "Thanks for the tip about Dirtypcbs!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780608",
"author": "Kirby",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T17:32... | 1,760,371,839.416296 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/a-soviet-cassette-recorder-receiving-some-love/ | A Soviet Cassette Recorder Receiving Some Love | Jenny List | [
"History",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"cassette deck",
"repair",
"USSR"
] | For those of us who lived in the capitalist west during the Cold War, there remains a fascination to this day about the Other Side. The propaganda we were fed as kids matched theirs in describing the awful things on the other side of the wall, something that wasn’t borne out when a decade or so later in the 1990s we met people from the former communist side and found them unsurprisingly to be just like us. It’s thus still of interest to have a little peek into Eastern Bloc consumer electronics, something we have the chance of courtesy of [DiodeGoneWild],
who’s fixing a 1980s Soviet cassette recorder
.
The model in question is a Vesna 309, and it has some audio issues and doesn’t turn the tape. It gets a teardown, the motor is cleaned up inside, and a few capacitor and pot cleanups later it’s working again. But the interest lies as much in the machine itself as it does in the repair, as it’s instructive to compare with a Western machine of the same period.
We’re told it would have been an extremely expensive purchase for a Soviet citizen, and in some ways such as the adjustable level control it’s better-specified than many of our equivalents. It’s based upon up-to-date components for its era, but the surprise comes in how comparatively well engineered it is. A Western cassette deck mechanism would have been a much more sketchy affair than the substantial Soviet one, and its motor would have been a DC part with a simple analogue speed controller rather than the brushless 3-phase unit in the Vesna. Either we’re looking at the cassette deck for senior comrades only, or the propaganda was wrong — at least about their cassette decks. The full video is below, and if you’re hungry for more
it’s not the first time we’ve peered into electronics from the eastern side of the Iron Curtain
. | 40 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780575",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T15:52:59",
"content": "The icons on the “Play” and “Record” buttons are interesting!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780603",
"author... | 1,760,371,839.356925 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/an-antenna-to-throw-you-for-a-loop/ | An Antenna To Throw You For A Loop | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Radio Hacks",
"Reviews",
"Slider"
] | [
"antenna",
"loop antenna",
"shortwave"
] | It is one of Murphy’s laws, we think, that you can’t get great things when you need them. Back in the heyday of shortwave broadcasting, any of us would have given a week’s pay for even a low-end receiver today. Digital display? Memory? Digital filtering? These days, you have radios, and they aren’t terribly expensive, but there isn’t much to listen to. Making matters worse, it isn’t easy these days to string wires around in your neighborhood for a variety of reasons. Maybe you don’t have a yard, or you have deed restrictions, or your yard lacks suitable space or locations. This problem is so common that there are a crop of indoor antennas that seem attractive. Since I don’t often tune in shortwave and I don’t want to have to reset my antenna after every storm, I decided to look at the Tecsun AN-48X along with a YouLoop clone from China. Let’s start with the Tecsun.
In the Box
The Tecsun in a more or less diamond shape
The antenna is not terribly cheap at about $50 or so, but there’s a lot in the box. The business end looks like something you’d wear around your neck. A small box has a switch for three bands — LW, AM, and SW. the two wires coming out of that box form a loop. You can stick the loop to something using a suction cup or a hook. There’s also a little bar that looks like a standard telescoping antenna but it has two plastic clips on the end. You use this to form the loop into a diamond shape with the telescoping rod about halfway.
At the bottom of the box with the switch is a standard 1/8″ jack. A cable connects that jack to a similar jack on the control unit which is about the size of a large pack of gum and has two AAA batteries inside. That box has a switch, two knobs, and a pigtail with another 1/8″ jack.
If your radio takes a 1/8″ plug for an antenna, that’s where you connect it. If it doesn’t, you have a few options. The box contains pigtails that convert the plug to BNC, RCA, alligator clips, or a ferrite bar that can couple to a radio’s internal antenna. You probably need SMA for a modern radio, so you’ll need an adapter. There’s also a plastic stand that can hold your radio and the ferrite bar if you are using it.
The knobs on the control box control the gain and tune the frequency of the antenna. Other than the switch close to the loop, all the other controls are on the control box, which stays close to your radio. So, as long as you don’t care about jumping between LW, AM, and SW, you don’t need to access the loop part during operation.
A Few Tests
I decided to try the antenna at a few different times a day in a few different locations. I used an old portable DAK shortwave receiver and also a more modern SDR receiver.
The Tecsun control box.
For the first test, I hung the loop on my upstairs stair rail and let the cable drop down to the first floor. During the day, WWV was barely audible, and there was little else to hear outside of noise. Granted, this was indoors. The signal level control didn’t seem to do much. The tuning frequency knob reminded me of a regenerative receiver control. You could hear the device oscillate, and just past the oscillation, you’d get the best signal. It made me wonder if the inner circuit was, in fact, a regenerative amplifier.
The portable shortwave uses a regular jack, but for the Malachite, I had to use a BNC to SMA adapter. Neither radio could pull much out. Nighttime reception was a little better, but not much.
The Great Outdoors
Unsurprisingly, the device worked a little better outdoors. I hung it from an exposed beam on a pergola, and at night, there were a few fairly clear signals. During the daylight hours, WWV was elusive, but the Voice of America and Radio Havana — not too far from Houston — were easy to copy, especially if you understand French. I even managed to catch a few faint snags of WWVH.
The video below shows a few audio clips of the results. Forgive the outdoor glare on the screen in the first clip. I omitted the clips with music that YouTube might flag, but you get the idea.
I also tested a YouLoop clone. This worked almost as well as the Techsun, but not quite as well. However, there was nothing to fidget with on the frequency.
The YouLoop
The YouLoop has an interesting idea. It uses coax for the loop and configures it like a Mobius strip so that it is kind of, an infinite loop. At the bottom is a balun with three connectors, and at the top is a phase inverter. That sounds fancy, but it really is just a box that connects the inside of one cable to the outside of the other. The antenna came with a powered preamp, although if your radio has a preamp, you probably don’t need it.
It is handy that it just works, and the coax sections are stiff enough to be easy to handle when you want to hang it from a branch, for example. However, it also doesn’t pack down as tightly, and the boxes are metal, which adds to the weight but is probably better for shielding.
Signals on this loop were almost always lower in volume than the same signal from the Tecsun, even with the preamp. On the other hand, if you don’t need the preamp, this antenna takes no batteries. It is simple enough that you can try it and see if you like it without a major investment.
Observations
The Tecsun control board revealed
While the Tecsun is light, I can’t help but wonder if the shielded feedline might not have helped it. For both antennas, having the preamp close up to the feed point might pay off, although maybe some of the wire between the antenna and the control boxes or preamp becomes part of the antenna. It isn’t, after all, a tuned antenna.
The Tecsun’s control box frequency knob is maddeningly sensitive, but it does seem to help things. Inside the box is a tiny PCB, and I didn’t find any online schematics.
Should you run out and get either of these antennas? If you have other options, probably not. But if you need something, both of them are better than nothing.
If you haven’t had a shortwave radio in a while, they are
surprisingly cheap these days
. Well,
most of them
, anyway. | 27 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780548",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T14:42:53",
"content": "I love all these colorful little loopholes designed to trick God on the shabbat, there’s so many of them. I wonder if using it as part of a radio would in any way violate its purpose. I’d have to consult a rab... | 1,760,371,839.230903 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/a-look-at-the-intel-n100-radxa-x4-sbc/ | A Look At The Intel N100 Radxa X4 SBC | Maya Posch | [
"Reviews"
] | [
"intel",
"intel N100",
"radxa",
"rp2040"
] | Recently Radxa released the X4, which is an SBC containing not only an N100 x86_64 SoC but also an RP2040 MCU connected to a Raspberry Pi-style double pin header. The Intel N100 is one of a range of Alder Lake-N SoCs which are based on a highly optimized version of the Skylake core, first released in 2015. These cores are also used as ‘efficiency’ cores in Intel’s desktop CPUs. Being x86-based, this means that the Radxa X4 can run any Linux, Windows and other OS from either NVMe (PCIe 3.0 x4) or eMMC storage. After getting his hands on one of these SBCs, [Bret] couldn’t wait to
take a gander
at what it can do.
Installing Windows 11 and Debian 12 on a 500 GB NVMe (2230) SSD installed on the
X4 board
worked pretty much as expected on an x86 system, with just some missing drivers for the onboard Intel 2.5 Gbit Ethernet and WiFi, depending on the OS, but these were easily obtained via the Intel site and installed. The board comes with an installed RTC battery and a full-featured AMI BIOS, as well as up to 16 GB of LPPDR5 RAM.
Using the system with the Radxa PoE+ HAT via the 2.5 Gbit Ethernet port also worked a treat once using a quality PoE switch, even with the N100’s power level set to 15 Watt from the default 6. The RP2040 MCU on the mainboard is connected to the SoC using both USB 2.0 and UART, according to the
board schematic
. This means that from the N100 all of the Raspberry Pi-style pins can be accessed, making it in many ways a more functional SBC than the Raspberry Pi 5, with a similar power envelope and cost picture.
At $80 USD before shipping for the 8 GB (no eMMC) version that [Bret] looked at one might ask whether an N100-based MiniPC could be competitive, albeit that features like PoE+ and integrated RPi-compatible header are definite selling points. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780501",
"author": "Djfjwhdg",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T11:56:37",
"content": "The spec sheet is…lacking. No specific chipsets. Why is that a potential issue? Because for something like nearly a decade Intel hasn’t been able to make a 2.5G ethernet card that works properly. They ke... | 1,760,371,839.104421 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/making-usb-blaster-clones-work-for-linux/ | Making USB Blaster Clones Work For Linux | Al Williams | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"altera blaster",
"cpld",
"fpga",
"vhdl"
] | The last time we checked in with [Downtown Doug Brown], he had some cheap Altera USB Blaster clones that didn’t want to work under Linux. The trick at that time was to change the device’s 24 MHz clock to 12 MHz. This month,
he’s found some different ones that don’t work
, but now the clock change doesn’t work. What’s the problem?
He also picked up a Terasic clone, which does work on Linux and is considered, according to [Doug], the best of the clones. The units were superficially similar. So what follows is a lot of USB tracing and dumping of the CPLD chip’s configuration.
The problem is that even though CPLDs are relatively simple, relative is a — well — relative word. It is still a lot of work to reverse engineer a CPLD bitstream. However, he did find some public VHDL source code that acted the same so he presumed it shared a common problem with the original configuration.
Inspecting the code, he realized that there was no delay between a critical part of the protocol. For some reason, Windows didn’t seem to care, but it was enough to upset the Linux driver. At least, that was the theory.
Theory, in this case, translated to practice. As a bonus, the new code even made
the original units
work at full speed. Although it isn’t technically accurate, you can think of CPLDs as little FPGAs, and sometimes, they are more
approachable for beginners
. They are also great when you don’t need a full-blown FPGA. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780616",
"author": "Charles Springer",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T17:48:59",
"content": "What is a USB Blaster? Aside from a sidearm in Galactic Patrol generally called a DeLameter.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780641",
... | 1,760,371,838.97415 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/re-imagining-telepresence-with-humanoid-robots-and-vr-headsets/ | Re-imagining Telepresence With Humanoid Robots And VR Headsets | Donald Papp | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"humanoid robot",
"robotics",
"stereo camera",
"Teleoperation",
"telepresence",
"vr"
] | Don’t let the name of the
Open-TeleVision
project fool you; it’s a framework for improving telepresence and making robotic teleoperation far more intuitive than it otherwise would be. It accomplishes this in part by taking advantage of the remarkable technology packed into modern VR headsets like the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest. There are loads of videos on the project page, many of which demonstrate successful teleoperation across vast distances.
Teleoperation of robotic effectors typically takes some getting used to. The camera views are unusual, the limbs don’t move the same way arms do, and intuitive human things like looking around to get a sense of where everything is don’t translate well.
A stereo camera with gimbal streaming to a VR headset complete with head tracking seems like a very hackable design.
To address this, researches provided a user with a robot-mounted, real-time stereo video stream (through which the user can turn their head and look around normally) as well as mapping arm and hand movements to humanoid robotic counterparts. This provides the feedback to manipulate objects and perform tasks in a much more intuitive way. In short, when our eyes, bodies, and hands look and work more or less the way we expect, it turns out it’s far easier to perform tasks.
The
research paper
goes into detail about the different systems, but in essence, a stereo depth and RGB camera is perched with a 3D printed gimbal atop a humanoid robot frame like the Unitree H1 equipped with high dexterity hands. A VR headset takes care of displaying a real-time stereoscopic video stream and letting the user look around. Hand tracking for the user is mapped to the dexterous hands and fingers. This lets a person look at, manipulate, and handle things without in-depth training. Perhaps slower and more clumsily than they would like, but in an intuitive way all the same.
Interested in taking a closer look? The
GitHub repository
has the necessary code, and while most of us will never be mashing ADD TO CART on something like the Unitree H1, the reference design for a stereo camera streaming to a VR headset and mirroring head tracking with a two-motor gimbal looks like the sort of thing that would be useful for a
telepresence project
or two. | 20 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780915",
"author": "eswan",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T16:00:30",
"content": "Okay. Now put one on the moon.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6781008",
"author": "ono",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T20:46:28",
... | 1,760,371,839.713496 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/undersea-cable-repair/ | Undersea Cable Repair | Dan Maloney | [
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"boat",
"cable",
"internet",
"ocean",
"splicing",
"underwater"
] | The bottom of the sea is a mysterious and inaccessible place, and anything unfortunate enough to slip beneath the waves and into the briny depths might as well be on the Moon. But the bottom of the sea really isn’t all that far away. The average depth of the ocean is only about 3,600 meters, and even at its deepest, the bottom is only about 10 kilometers away, a distance almost anyone could walk in a couple of hours.
Of course, the problem is that the walk would be straight down into one of the most inhospitable environments our planet has to offer. Despite its harshness, that environment is home to
hundreds of undersea cables
, all of which are subject to wear and tear through accidents and natural causes. Fixing broken undersea cables quickly and efficiently is a highly specialized field, one that takes a lot of interesting engineering and some clever hacks to pull off.
A Series of Tubes
Understanding submarine cable repairs starts with understanding the cables themselves and the challenges they face once installed. Broadly speaking, undersea cables break down into two main types: power cables and data cables. While the number of undersea power cables is rapidly increasing, mainly thanks to offshore wind farms, their cable runs tend to be shorter and to stay within relatively shallow water. Data cables, which will be the main focus of this article, tend to be long-haul cables such as those that stitch continents together and face different challenges than undersea power cables.
There are currently
close to a million miles
of submarine data cable in operation, almost all of which is fiber optic. That’s pretty amazing considering that copper dominated the first 120 years of submarine voice and data cable construction, and that it was only in 1988 that
the first transatlantic optical cable
was laid. Optical networks have obvious benefits over copper coaxial cables in terms of data throughput and reliability of the physical plant; after all, copper and seawater don’t get along very well, and water always finds a way in. The trick with fiber optics is to find a way to safely handle the hair-thin glass strands and protect them against the conditions they’ll have to endure.
Typical double-armored submarine fiber cable. Legend: 1) Polyethylene, 2) Mylar tape, 3) Galvanized steel wires, 4) Aluminum water barrier, 5) Polycarbonate, 6) Copper or aluminum tube, 7) Petroleum jelly or silicone gel, and 8) Optical fiber pairs. Source: Oona Räisänen, public domain.
The core of a typical modern submarine cable will have multiple fiber pairs, often eight or more, with each fiber in a pair handling traffic in one direction. The fibers are bundled together in a tube made from either plastic, aluminum, or copper, with the space between the tube wall and the fibers filled with petroleum jelly or silicone gel to exclude air, which would compress at depth. This is wrapped in a polycarbonate or polyethylene jacket surrounded by a layer of galvanized steel wires wrapped in copper tape. The steel acts as armor for the fibers inside and provides mechanical strength, while the copper serves as a conductor for the high-voltage DC supplies at either end of the cable that power
the inline optical repeaters
that are spaced every 60 km or so. All of this is then wrapped in a thick polyethylene cover, completing the core of the cable.
Depending on the application, additional layers of armoring and protection can be added to the core. Cable destined for deep water installation with silty or sandy seafloor areas will often consist of the core alone. Cable installed in deep water but along a rockier bottom will usually get an extra wrapping of galvanized steel wires. Tougher bottom conditions and shallower water might require a cable with a double layer of armor wires or, for very challenging bottom conditions or in waters shallow enough that fishing activity or anchoring could present a hazard, a final outer armor layer may even be added. Armored cables generally have an abrasion-resistant outer wrapping of asphalt-impregnated nylon yarn.
The threat profile that a cable faces is very much dependent on depth. Close to shore, where human activity is the primary threat, installers often take the extra precaution of burying the cable. Where seabed conditions allow, cables can be buried as much as three meters deep in trenches that are dug by remotely operated plows straddling the cable and towed by the cable ship. Damage still occurs even with these precautions, with 70% or all cable casualties occurring in water less than 200 meters deep.
Once the water is deep enough to preclude anchoring, fishing, or sabotage — about a kilometer — the most likely source of damage is natural disasters such as underwater rockslides, seismic events, or volcanic activity. Even deep-sea currents are a hazard, as they can be powerful enough to move cables great distances and potentially drag them across rocks or wrecks. Whatever the cause, cable damage can range from scuffing or abrading the outer jacket enough for water to find a way inside, damaging a section of cable and gradually degrading performance to outright cleaving of the cable. It’s even possible for
a long section of cable to be mysteriously removed
in an apparently intentional act of sabotage.
Finding Fault
Whatever the ultimate failure mode might be, finding a fault in a cable that might be
as long as the Earth’s circumference
and could be 8,000 meters under the sea is no easy task. Cables typically come ashore multiple times along their length, and each landing has monitoring equipment to watch the vital signs of each segment. That isolates the fault to a specific segment of cable, but to dispatch a repair ship, the cable owner needs to pinpoint the fault as precisely as possible.
Spread-spectrum time-domain reflectometry (SS-TDR) is often used to locate and characterize a fault on active cables. Traditional time-domain reflectometry, which sends signals down a conductor to determine where any impedance discontinuities are by timing any reflections that come back from any impedance discontinuities along the way, can’t be used on in-use undersea cables thanks to the high voltages involved. SS-TDR, which was originally developed to detect faults in the wiring of airplanes using 400-Hz AC power, uses modulated pseudo-noise (PN) signals rather than a plain square wave pulse. The signals still bounce off any impedance changes introduced by damage, but an algorithm is used to correlate the returned PN codes with what was sent and when, making it easier to make measurements in a noisy environment. Optical TDR can also be used to locate fiber breaks, but since there are perhaps dozens of individual fibers inside a cable that would each have to be scanned, the fact that anything that would break one of them would likely breach the outer power conductor first makes it easier to just can that.
Once a fault is located, the cable has to be recovered. Very few cable repairs are executed on submerged cables; it’s just not the right place to open up a cable to work on it. While recovering something as small as a cable from perhaps thousands of meters below the surface seems daunting, knowing exactly where the cable was laid helps. That said, cables damaged by underwater rockslides or trawling accidents could be in a completely different spot than where they were laid, so locating the cable can be challenging. Also, some cable routes are packed with both in-service and obsolete cables; the transatlantic submarine corridor alone has dozens of cables that have to deal with the tricky topography of the Midatlantic Ridge.
While submersibles are sometimes used to identify the precise location of a cable, retrieving it is heavy work that requires heavy equipment. The cable ship travels to a point a couple of nautical miles away from the fault location and travels perpendicular to the path of the cable while dragging a cutting grapnel along the sea floor. The grapnel digs into the seabed until it snags the cable and begins lifting it. As the ship continues winching in the grapnel, the cable is forced against a cutting blade in the crotch of the grapnel, eventually severing it cleanly and completely. The cut ends fall back to the bottom where they await a second pass, this time using a special recovery grapnel. Once the first end of the cut cable is snagged, the ship’s crane winches it aboard so that a recovery buoy can be attached. This buoy marks the location of the first end, making it easier to recover later.
The Fix Is In
Olympic Subsea
‘s cable repair procedure
When both ends of the cable are hauled aboard, they make their way to the joint shop. This is an area adjacent to the “cable highway” on the ship, the cable-handling space located between the cable tanks amidship and the linear cable engine (LCE) that is used to pull cable out of the tanks and properly tension during deployment. The jointing shop has sturdy gear to secure the ends of the cable to the ship so that it doesn’t move during repairs; the cable ship also uses GPS-guided dynamic positioning thrusters to hold as precise a location as possible.
Cable technicians then get to work on repairs. If the damaged section of cable hasn’t been left on the seafloor it needs to be cut away, an arduous task for the more heavily-armored inshore cables. Once the outer jacketing and armor have been removed, the exposed fibers are ready for splicing. This is essentially the same operation as splicing terrestrial fiber optic cables; after the cladding is stripped off, the ends of the glass fiber are cleaved cleanly and positioned in the jaws of a fusion splicer. This device uses a microscope and machine vision system to precisely align the glass fibers in the gap between two tungsten electrodes before using an electric discharge to melt the fibers and fuse them together. The result is a physically and optically continuous low-loss bond.
When all the fibers have been spliced on both sides of the repair the cable is thoroughly tested. If the repairs are good, each splice is securely clamped within a joint body. This is a device engineered to both seal the spliced fibers and provide continuous mechanical support and electrical continuity. Once the joint is sealed and covered with multiple layers of polymeric waterproofing it’s ready to be returned to the seafloor. Lowering the cable is a delicate operation; you can’t just kick it over the side and hope for the best. The splice needs to be supported by a lowering yoke to reduce mechanical stress on the joint. The yoke is lowered on a cable equipped with an acoustic release hook which opens when it receives a specially coded ultrasound ping from the surface. The resulting bend in the cable is called a repair bight, which is carefully designed to respect the minimum bend radius of the cable. | 6 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780899",
"author": "Beowulf Shaeffer",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T15:21:22",
"content": "All those metal componentsandhigh voltage power? No wonder sharks bite them…Very interesting article!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "678108... | 1,760,371,839.553221 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/read-utility-meters-via-sdr-to-fill-out-smart-home-stats/ | Read Utility Meters Via SDR To Fill Out Smart Home Stats | Donald Papp | [
"green hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"home automation",
"homeassistant",
"RTL-SDR",
"smart meter",
"solar"
] | [Jeff Sandberg] has put a fair bit of effort into adding solar and battery storage with associated smarts to his home, but his energy usage statistics were incomplete. His solution was to
read data from the utility meter using RTL-SDR
to fill in the blanks. The results are good so far, and there’s no reason similar readings for gas and water can’t also be done.
[Jeff] uses the open source home automation software
Home Assistant
which integrates nicely with his solar and battery backup system, but due to the way his house is wired, it’s only aware of about half of the energy usage in the house. For example, [Jeff]’s heavy appliances get their power directly from the power company and are not part of the solar and battery systems. This means that Home Assistant’s energy statistics are incomplete.
Fortunately, in the USA most smart meters broadcast their data in a manner that an economical software-defined radio like
RTL-SDR
can access. That provided [Jeff] with the data he needed to get a much more complete picture of his energy usage.
While
getting data from utility meters is conceptually straightforward
, actually implementing things in a way that integrated with his system took a bit more work. If you’re finding yourself in the same boat, be sure to look at [Jeff]’s documentation to get some ideas. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780815",
"author": "pigster6",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T11:18:13",
"content": "For those in Europe:https://github.com/wmbusmeters/wmbusmeters",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780820",
"author": "Iván Stepaniuk",
... | 1,760,371,839.772807 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/30/junk-bin-build-lets-you-test-fuel-injectors-on-the-cheap/ | Junk Bin Build Lets You Test Fuel Injectors On The Cheap | Dan Maloney | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"automotive",
"fuel",
"ice",
"injector",
"manifold",
"pump",
"rail",
"test stand"
] | Fiddle around with cars long enough and you’ll realize two things: first, anything beyond the simplest repairs will probably require some kind of specialized tool, and second, those tools can be prohibitively expensive. That doesn’t mean you’re out of luck, though, especially if you’ve got scrap galore and a DIY spirit, as
this junk bin fuel injector test stand
ably demonstrates.
[Desert Rat Racer]’s test rig is designed to support four injectors at once and to test them under conditions as close as possible to what they’ll experience when installed. To that end, [Rat] mounted a junk intake manifold to a stand made from scrap wood and metal found by the side of the road. A pickle jar serves as a reservoir for the test fluid — he wisely used mineral spirits as a safer substitute for gasoline — and a scrap electric fuel pump pressurizes a junk fuel rail, which distributes fuel to the injectors under test.
For testing, the injectors are wired up to an electric injector tester, which is one of the few off-the-shelf components in the build. The fuel pump and injectors are powered by the 12 volt rail of a scrapped PC power supply. Just being able to watch the spray pattern is often enough to find a faulty injector, but in case a more quantitative test is indicated, each injector is positioned over a cheap glass cylinder to catch the test fluid, and scraps of a tape measure are used to measure the depth of the collected fluid. No fancy — and expensive — graduated cylinders required.
While we truly respect the hackiness of [Desert Rat Racer]’s build, the concept of avoiding buying
tactical tools
is foreign to us. We understand the logic of not dropping a ton on a single-use tool, but where’s the fancy blow-molded plastic case? | 32 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780788",
"author": "Johnu",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T08:35:54",
"content": "I’ve built something very similar – TBH the injector driver can be a good old 555 in a variable pulsewidth configuration and a decent FET that can deal with the inductive kick, although Infineon do some nic... | 1,760,371,840.250483 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/building-the-unreleased-lemmings-arcade-cabinet-from-1991/ | Building The UnreleasedLemmingsArcade Cabinet From 1991 | Maya Posch | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"arcade",
"arcade cabinet",
"lemmings"
] | Back in the early 90s the world was almost graced with an arcade version of
Lemmings
, but after a few board revisions it was abandoned in 1991. Now the folk over at UK-based [RMC – The Cave] on YouTube have managed to not only get their mitts on a nearly finished
prototype board
, but have
also designed and built
a period-appropriate cabinet to go with it. This involved looking at a range of arcade cabinets created by Data East and picking a design that would allow both for the two-player mode of the game, and fit the overall style.
The finished
Lemmings
arcade cabinet. (Credit: RMC – The Cave, YouTube)
Arcade cabinets came in a wide range of cabinet styles and control layouts, largely defined by the game’s requirements, but sometimes with flourishes to distinguish the cabinet from the hundred others in the same arcade.
In this particular case the typical zig-zag (Z-back) style was found to be a good fit as on the Data East
Night Slashers
1993-era cabinet, which then mostly left the controls (with two trackballs) and cabinet art to figure out. Fortunately there is plenty of inspiration when it comes to
Lemmings
art, leading to the finished cabinet with the original mainboard, the JAMMA wiring harness with MultiPi JAMMA controller, a 19″ CRT monitor and other components including the 3D printed controls panel.
With more and more new arcades popping up in the US and elsewhere, perhaps we’ll see these
Lemmings
arcade cabinets appear there too, especially since the ROMs on the prototype board were dumped for convenient MAME-ing.
Thanks to [Neil] for the tip. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780799",
"author": "Rpol_404",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T09:44:53",
"content": "Let’s go!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780853",
"author": "CJay",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T13:15:58",
"content": "Oh n... | 1,760,371,840.401723 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/saildrones-searching-the-sea-for-clues-to-hurricane-behavior/ | Saildrones Searching The Sea For Clues To Hurricane Behavior | Navarre Bartz | [
"drone hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"autonomous saiboat",
"hurricane",
"sail",
"sail wing",
"sailboat",
"sailing",
"sails",
"weather forecast",
"wing sail"
] | Hurricanes can cause widespread destruction, so early forecasting of their strength is important to protect people and their homes. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is using
saildrones to get better data
from inside these monster storms.
Rising ocean temperatures due to climate change are causing hurricanes to intensify more rapidly than in the past, although modeling these changes is still a difficult task. People on shore need to know if they’re in store for a tropical storm or a high strength hurricane to know what precautions to take. Evacuating an area is expensive and disruptive, so it’s understandable that people want to know if it’s necessary.
Starting with five units in 2021, the fleet has gradually increased in size to twelve last summer. These 23ft (7m), 33ft (10m), or 65ft (20m) long vessels are propelled by wing sails and power their radio and telemetry systems with a combination of solar and battery power. No fossil fueled vessel can match the up to 370 days at sea without refueling that these drones can achieve, and the ability to withstand hurricane winds and sea conditions allow scientists an up-close-and-personal look at a hurricane without risking human lives.
We’ve covered how the
data gets from a saildrone to shore
before, and if you want to know how robots learn to sail, there’s a
Supercon talk for that
.
Thanks to [CrLz] for the tip! | 26 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780744",
"author": "irox",
"timestamp": "2024-07-30T02:29:06",
"content": "Great to sea SailDrone getting attention (and ocean tech in general).",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6780767",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,371,840.176322 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/29/getting-linux-process-list-without-forking-using-just-a-bash-script/ | Getting Linux Process List Without Forking Using Just A Bash Script | Maya Posch | [
"how-to",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"bash",
"shell script"
] | The
ps
command is extremely useful when you want to get some quick information on active system processes (hence the name), especially followed by piping it into grep and kin for some filtering. One gotcha is of course that
ps
doesn’t run in the current shell process, but is forked off into its own process, so what if everything goes wrong and you absolutely need to run
ps aux
on a system that is completely and utterly out of fresh process IDs to hand out? In that scenario, you fortunately can write a shell script that does the same, but all within the same shell,
as [Isabella Bosia] did
, with a Bash shell script.
The how and why is mostly covered in the
shell script
itself, using detailed comments. Initially the hope was to just read out and parse the contents of
/proc/<pid>/status
, but that doesn’t have details like CPU%. The result is a bit more parsing to get the desired result, as well as a significant amount of cussing in the comments. Even if it’s not entirely practical, as the odds of ending up on a system with zero free PIDs are probably between zero and NaN, but as an ‘entertaining’ job interview question and example of all the fun things one can do with shell scripting it’s definitely highly recommended. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780721",
"author": "Christian",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T23:34:05",
"content": "Also applies to Android.ps on Android comes in via toybox and the output is not universal or even 100% parseable (good luck separating the columns for all cases). Going directly to /proc/{pid}/cmdline a... | 1,760,371,839.995744 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/amd-returns-to-1996-with-zen-5s-two-block-ahead-branch-predictor/ | AMD Returns To 1996 With Zen 5’s Two-Block Ahead Branch Predictor | Maya Posch | [
"Engineering"
] | [
"amd",
"branch prediction"
] | An interesting finding in fields like computer science is that much of what is advertised as new and innovative was actually pilfered from old research papers submitted to ACM and others. Which is not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, as many of such ideas were not practical at the time. Case in point the new branch predictor in AMD’s Zen 5 CPU architecture, whose two-block ahead design is based on an idea coined a few decades ago. The details are laid out by [George Cozma] and [Camacho] in a recent article, which follows on a recent
interview
that [George] did with AMD’s [Mike Clark].
The
1996 ACM paper
by [André Seznec] and colleagues titled
“Multiple-block ahead branch predictors”
is a good start before diving into [George]’s article, as it will help to make sense of many of the details. The reason for improving the branch prediction in CPUs is fairly self-evident, as today’s heavily pipelined, superscalar CPUs rely heavily on branch prediction and speculative execution to get around the glacial speeds of system memory once past the CPU’s speediest caches. While predicting the next instruction block after a branch is commonly done already, this two-block ahead approach as suggested also predicts the next instruction block after the first predicted one.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this multi-block ahead branch predictor by itself isn’t the hard part, but making it all fit in the hardware is. As described in the paper by [Seznec] et al., the relevant components are now dual-ported, allowing for three prediction windows. Theoretically this should result in a significant boost in IPC and could mean that more CPU manufacturers will be looking at adding such multi-block branch prediction to their designs. We will just have to see how Zen 5 works once released into the wild. | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780233",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T08:45:18",
"content": "More importantly, have they thought about how to protect it against speculative execution attacks?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780237",
"a... | 1,760,371,840.113407 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/print-your-own-magnetic-connector/ | Print Your Own Magnetic Connector | Al Williams | [
"Parts"
] | [
"3d print",
"magnet"
] | If you have a late-model laptop, you’ve probably seen how the chargers magnetically snap into place. In theory, this should be easy to recreate for your own purposes. But why reinvent the wheel when [DarthKaker] has already
done the work for you
— assuming you only need two conductors.
The 3D-printed shells take the usual round magnets. Obviously, the north pole on one part should point to the south pole on the other part. In addition, if polarity matters, you should also have each housing contain one north-facing and one south-facing magnet so that the connectors will only mate one way.
It appears the project uses wires soldered or spot welded to the magnets. Heating magnets sometimes has bad effects, so we might try something different. For example, you could solder the wires to thin washers affixed to the magnets with epoxy, perhaps. Or use the magnets for alignment and make a different arrangement for the contacts, although that would take a different shell design.
We have talked about magnet
soldering
for connectors before. Don’t forget that you can build magnets into your
prints
, too. | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780214",
"author": "Alyx",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T05:49:18",
"content": "Late-model laptops use USB-C (the good ones TB4)…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780238",
"author": "Ewald",
"timestamp": "2024-07-2... | 1,760,371,840.309493 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/the-bappr-keeps-your-addressable-led-system-cool/ | The BAPPR Keeps Your Addressable LED System Cool | Alexander Rowsell | [
"hardware",
"LED Hacks"
] | [
"addressable leds",
"buck converter",
"led strip",
"Neopixels",
"rgb",
"switching power supply"
] | We all love a nice strip or grid of addressable LEDs. It can add flair or an artistic touch to many projects, and it can make gaming computers look extra 1337. However, providing enough current to a long strip of addressable LEDs can sometimes be difficult. Often a separate voltage rail is needed to supply enough juice. At the same time, continually sending out data to animate them can often use 100% of the microcontroller’s CPU power, especially if the serial bus is being bit-banged. A crash or badly timed interrupt can leave the system in a weird state and sometimes with the LEDs not displaying the correct colours. Or you might just want to enter a power-saving mode from time to time on your main MCU? Well,
the BAPPR
is designed to address all of these problems.
[TheMariday] created the BAPPR and made it fully open-source. It’s a switch-mode power supply that can accept anywhere from 7 V to 17 V and converts it into a strong 5 V rail for typical addressable LEDs. It also has a “smart” mode where it monitors the data line going to the LEDs to see if there is activity. If for some reason the system stops sending data, the BAPPR can intervene and shut off the power to the LEDs, which can help prevent strange colour combinations from being displayed while the system recovers. Once data starts flowing again, power is restored and the light party can resume.
Input voltage vs output current efficiency graph
This is accomplished by directly rectifying and filtering the actual data line itself. As long as it remains active, enough charge will remain on C4 to keep the output alive. While this is a very simple and effective solution, it’s possible that a system might get stuck outputting VO
H
and this would keep the system enabled. Adding a series coupling capacitor could be a way to change the behaviour if desired — that’s the beauty of open hardware! At the same time, it’s very simple to disable the LED system simply by outputting a low level on the data line, which allows quick and efficient power saving.
It’s easy to adjust the parameters of the “smart” mode by simply picking different values for the input resistor, storage capacitor, and draining resistor. This can either have it activate more quickly upon resumption of data, or you can increase the amount of time it waits before shutting the output off when the data line goes to zero. If you’ve got a project with lots of addressable LED strips, having local power supplies like the BAPPR allows you to increase the efficiency of the entire system by sending a higher voltage, perhaps 12 V – 18 V, to each module, reducing losses over potentially long cable runs. | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780194",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T03:27:04",
"content": "Is BAPPR an acronym?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780218",
"author": "The Mariday",
"timestamp": "2... | 1,760,371,840.059132 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/midi-controller-in-a-cubic-inch/ | MIDI Controller In A Cubic Inch | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"attiny85",
"controller",
"midi",
"music",
"smallest",
"synthesizer"
] | MIDI as a standard has opened up a huge world to any musician willing to use a computer to generate or enhance their playing and recording. Since the 80s, it has it has revolutionized the way music is produced and performed, allowing for seamless integration of digital instruments, automation of complex sequences, and unprecedented control over everything from production to editing. It has also resulted in a number of musical instruments that probably wouldn’t be possible without electronic help, like this MIDI instrument which might be the world’s smallest.
Fitting into a cubic inch of space, the tiny instrument’s volume is mostly taken up by the MIDI connector itself which was perhaps an acceptable size by 1980s standards but seems rather bulky today. A two-layer PCB split into three sections sandwiches the connector in place and boasts an ATtiny85 microcontroller and all the associated electronics needed to implement MIDI. Small threaded screws hold the platform together and provide each layer with a common ground. Four small pushbuttons at the top of the device act as the instrument’s keys.
The project’s creator (and Hackaday alum!) [Jeremy Cook] has it set up to play notes from a piano right now, but has also made the source code available so that any musical action can be programmed onto these buttons. Flexibility is perhaps MIDI’s greatest strength and why the standard has lasted for decades now, as it makes it fairly straightforward to build
more comprehensive, easy-to-learn musical instruments
or even
musical instruments out of retro video game systems
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780158",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T23:19:14",
"content": "Nice!Add a couple of antennas to make it a theremin.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6780735",
"author": "shod",
... | 1,760,371,840.350852 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/need-many-thin-parts-try-multi-material-stack-printing/ | Need Many Thin Parts? Try Multi-material Stack Printing | Elliot Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"layers",
"multimaterial",
"stack printing"
] | Admittedly it’s a bit of a niche application, but if you need lots of flat 3D printed objects, one way to go about it is to print them in a stack and separate them somehow. An old(er) solution is to use a non-extruding “ironing” step between each layer, which makes them easier to pull apart. But another trick is to use the fact that PLA and PETG don’t stick well to each other to your advantage. And thus is born
multi-material stack printing
. (Video, embedded below the break.)
[Jonathan] wants to print out multiples of his fun
Multiboard mounting system
backplates, and these are the ideal candidate for stack printing: they’re thin, but otherwise take up the entire build plate. As you’d expect, the main trick is to print thin layers of PETG between the PLA plate layers that you
do
want. He demonstrates that you can then simply pull them apart.
There are some tricks, though. First is to make two pillars in addition to the plates, which apparently convinces the slicer to not flatten all the layers together. (We don’t really understand why, honestly, but we don’t use Bambu slicer for multi-materials.) The other trick that we expect to be more widely applicable, is that [Jonathan] extrudes the PETG interlayers a little thicker than normally. Because the PETG overflows the lower PLA layer, it physically locks on even though it chemically doesn’t. This probably requires some experimentation.
As multi-material printers get cheaper, we’ve seen a lot more innovative uses for them popping up. And we wouldn’t be so stoked about the topic if there weren’t a variety of hacker projects to make it possible. Most recently, the
impressive system from [Armored_Turtle]
has caught our eye. Who knows what kind of
crazy applications
we’ll see in the future? Are you doing multi-material yet? | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780259",
"author": "Brant Wedel",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T10:04:44",
"content": "Oh! This could also be used for better bed adhesion and part removal.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6780270",
"author": "elwing",
"time... | 1,760,371,840.51804 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/a-history-of-internet-outages/ | A History Of Internet Outages | Al Williams | [
"History",
"internet hacks"
] | [
"CrowdStrike",
"internet outages",
"submarine cables"
] | We heard a story that after the recent hurricane, a man noted that while the house was sweltering hot because the power was still out, his kids were more anxious for the internet to come back online. The Internet is practically a basic necessity for most people, but as you may have noticed with the recent CrowdStrike debacle, the Internet isn’t always reliable. Granted, the problem in that case wasn’t the Internet
per se
, but a problem with many critical hosts that provide services. [Thomas Germain] from the BBC took the opportunity to recall some of the more
bizarre reasons we’ve had massive Internet outages
in the past.
While teens after a hurricane might miss social media, global outages can be serious business. With 8.5 million computers dead, 911 services went down, medical surgeries were canceled, and — of course — around 46,000 flights were canceled in a single day. We have short memories for these outages, but as [Thomas] points out, this was far from the first massive outage, and many of them have very strange backstories.
How strange? Well, apparently, all of Armenia’s Internet depends on a single fiber optic cable. A 75-year-old woman in Georgia (the country, not the US state) sliced it with a spade while hunting for copper and took down the entire country. A few years later, a tractor in South Africa took out the Internet all across Zimbabwe. If those aren’t strange enough, sharks like to bite undersea cables, as you can see in the video below.
As the Internet becomes more entrenched in necessary services, we are surprised that there are not more requirements for dissimilar redundancy like those on a spacecraft or nuclear power plant. Even preventing third parties from pushing updates directly into production servers might have helped in this case. High-end data centers often have multiple network access points with different carriers. They also have generators or other means to deal with power outages. None of this helps, of course, if you depend on a group of servers that all get the same software updates and the update goes bad.
We don’t know why sharks hate undersea cables. We
love them
. If you want more specifics on the CrowdStrike event, our [Jonathan Bennett] has been
following it for you
. | 31 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780070",
"author": "make piece not war",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T17:09:11",
"content": "Perhaps he’s flossing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780078",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"times... | 1,760,371,840.471142 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/hacker-olympics/ | Hacker Olympics | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"newsletter",
"olympics",
"Rant"
] | The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics is going on today. It’s an over-the-top presentation meant to draw people into sport. And for the next few weeks, we’ll be seeing people from all across the world competing in their chosen physical activities. There will be triumph and defeat, front-runners who nonetheless lag behind on that day, and underdogs who sneak ahead. In short, a lot of ado about sport, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Sports are fun.
But where is the Hacker Olympics? Or even more broadly the Science Olympics or Engineering Olympics? Why don’t we celebrate the achievements of great thinkers, planners, and builders the same way that we celebrate fast runners or steady shooters? With all the pomp and showmanship and so on?
Here at Hackaday, we try our best! When we see a cool hack, we celebrate it. But we’re one little blog, with about a millionth the budget of the International Olympic Commission. However, we have you all as our biggest multiplier. It would be awesome if we could take over the entire city of Paris in celebration of science and engineering, but until then, if you see something smart, share it with us. And if you see something on Hackaday that you think was awesome, share it with your friends.
This article is part of the Hackaday.com newsletter, delivered every seven days for each of the last 200+ weeks. It also includes our favorite articles from the last seven days that you can see on
the web version of the newsletter
.
Want this type of article to hit your inbox every Friday morning?
You should sign up
! | 26 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780048",
"author": "Alphatek",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T15:09:36",
"content": "Isn’t leet coding the equivalent of the Olympics? Specialisation in one pointless activity, achievement purely by repetition, and not being able to apply the skills to other areas.",
"parent_id": nul... | 1,760,371,840.660303 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/the-bivacor-total-artificial-heart-a-maglev-bridge-to-life/ | The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart: A Maglev Bridge To Life | Maya Posch | [
"Lifehacks",
"Medical Hacks"
] | [
"artificial heart",
"total artificial heart"
] | The BiVACOR THA hooked up with the CTO Dianiel Timms in the background. (Credit: BiVACOR)
Outside of the brain, the heart is probably the organ that you miss the most when it ceases to function correctly. Unfortunately, as we cannot grow custom replacement hearts yet, we have to keep heart patients alive long enough for them to receive a donor heart. Yet despite the heart being essentially a blood pump, engineering even a short-term artificial replacement has been a struggle for many decades. A new contender has now arrived in the BiVACOR TAH (total artificial heart), which just had the
first prototype implanted
in a human patient.
Unlike the typical membrane-based pumps, the
BiVACOR
TAH is a rotary pump that uses an impeller-based design with magnetic levitation replacing bearings and theoretically minimizing damage to the blood. This design should also mean a significant flowrate, enough even for an exercising adult. Naturally, this TAH is only being tested as a bridge-to-transplant solution, for patients with a failing heart who do not qualify for a ventricular assist device. This may give more heart patients a chance to that donor heart transplant, even if a TAH as a destination therapy could save so many more lives.
The
harsh reality
is that the number of donor hearts decreases each year while demand increases, leading to unconventional approaches like xenotransplantation using specially bred pigs as donor, as well as therapeutic cloning to grow a new heart from the patient’s own cells. Having a universal TAH that could be left in-place (destination therapy) for decades would offer a solid option next to the latter, but
remains elusive
. As shown by e.g. the lack of
progress
with a TAH like the
ReinHeart
despite a
promising 2014 paper
in a bovine model.
Hopefully before long we’ll figure out a reliable way to fix this ‘just a blood pump’ in our bodies, regardless of whether it’s a biological or mechanical solution. | 28 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780452",
"author": "DocB",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T05:14:30",
"content": "This is cool but it reminds me how much I want them to make artificial joints that don’t try to 1:1 copy natural joints. Artificial knees still use a metal ball on a plastic disk, from what I understand, wea... | 1,760,371,840.736006 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/youve-got-the-portable-radio-now-what-about-the-antenna/ | You’ve Got The Portable Radio, Now What About The Antenna? | Jenny List | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"end fed half wave",
"QRP"
] | There’s an old saying in the amateur radio community that when it comes to antennas all you need is a piece of wet string. This may be a little fanciful, but it’s certainly true that an effective antenna can be made with surprisingly little in the way of conductor. It’s something [Evan Pratten VZ3ZZA] demonstrates amply
with a description of the antenna he took camping in a Canadian provincial park
.
Most of us would try some form of dipole on our adventures, but the antenna he’s using caught our eye as it’s described as an end-fed half-wave, but it has both a half-wave and quarter-wave element. Made from speaker cable or in this case thin mains cable for lamps, it’s obviously far from a perfect match and requires an ATU, but it generates an impressive array of FT4 contacts on a pretty meagre power level. We particularly like his in-plain-sight test run in the parking lot of a supermarket.
We frequently talk about the diversity of pursuits in amateur radio aside from that of the chequebook ham, and this project shows one of those. The world of
QRP, operating at extreme low power
, is not expensive to enter and can be extremely rewarding. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780448",
"author": "Bruce Perens K6BP",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T04:00:51",
"content": "Hey, I haven’t measured it. But I would imagine that the capacitance between those two wires is really high at RF. It might be that just one wire at the longer length works as well.",
"paren... | 1,760,371,841.063547 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/hackaday-links-july-28-2024/ | Hackaday Links: July 28, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"alexa",
"amazon",
"boston dynamics",
"cloud",
"community college",
"ddos",
"dog",
"google",
"hackaday links",
"IoT",
"license plates",
"mit",
"robot",
"technican",
"tower climbing",
"Wind turbine",
"wiz"
] | What is this dystopia coming to when one of the world’s largest tech companies can’t find a way to sufficiently monetize a nearly endless stream of personal data coming from its army of high-tech privacy-invading robots? To the surprise of almost nobody,
Amazon is rolling out a paid tier to their Alexa service
in an attempt to backfill the $25 billion hole the smart devices helped dig over the last few years. The business model was supposed to be simple: insinuate an always-on listening device into customers’ lives to make it as easy as possible for them to instantly gratify their need for the widgets and whatsits that Amazon is uniquely poised to deliver, collecting as much metadata along the way as possible; multiple revenue streams — what could go wrong? Apparently a lot, because the only thing people didn’t do with Alexa was order stuff. Now Amazon is reportedly seeking an additional $10 a month for the improved AI version of Alexa, which will be on top of the ever-expanding Amazon Prime membership fee, currently at an eye-watering $139 per year. Whether customers bite or not remains to be seen, but we think there might be a glut of Echo devices on the second-hand market in the near future. We hate to say we told you so, but — ah, who are we kidding? We love to say
we told you so
.
Having Google offer to write you a check for $23 billion is pretty much the dream of every startup slogging it out in the tech trenches. Such princely offers are few and far between, but even rarer is the startup that says, “Nah, we’re good.” But that’s
effectively what cloud security concern Wiz just did
, rebuffing a buyout offer from Google that would roughly double the company’s current valuation, in favor of taking the company public. That’s a gutsy move, and given Google’s seeming propensity to buy technology only to sit on it or kill it off, probably a smart one.
Speaking of gutsy, one thing we never considered as a potential bottleneck to grid decarbonization is a lack of qualified wind turbine technicians. Or rather, finding people willing and able to climb hundreds of meters straight up to install, maintain, and repair the monstrous machines. It’s not exactly for everyone, but those who are willing to give it a go need proper training, and it turns out that at least one US community college has
a wind turbine technician training program
. Not only that, the college has a 90-meter-tall wind turbine that students can train on. It’s not a bad deal, either; a training program that costs around $10,000 dollars could help land a job paying up to $90,000 a year.
First, there was “DoS,” then we had “DDoS.” Now there’s “DDDoS” —
a dog-distributed denial-of-service attack
. It’s officially called NEO by the US Department of Homeland Security, which developed the system to provide law enforcement officers with protection against IoT hazards. The robot, which is built on a Boston Dynamics Spot chassis, provides a mobile observation and intelligence-gathering platform that can infiltrate an area without risking a meat-based officer. In addition to providing eyes and ears on the (hopefully) bad guys, NEO is also equipped with antennas and powerful transmitters that can swamp signals in the WiFi and cellular bands, rendering nearby nefarious wireless devices useless. We’ve heard wireless jammers are quite illegal to own or operate, so we assume there is some exception for law enforcement to use them. Or maybe it’s a “rules for thee and not for me” situation.
And finally, let your geek flag fly — on your car, at least.
This collection of geeky custom license plates
from MIT grads and faculty is pretty good, and shows some real creativity — especially “DSKDRV,” the plate on Samuel Klein’s floppy-festooned 1998 Honda Civic. There are some clever ideas here, and we especially like the “MITGRAD” Idaho plate, for reasons. But check out Omar Abudayyeh’s “CRISPR” plate; who knew biology could score you a ride like that? | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780399",
"author": "Zai1208",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T23:03:18",
"content": "I saw DDDoS and then saw dog, and thought DDoS through computers on dogs? My prediction was accurate enough, albeit they are robot dogs",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,371,840.825045 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/an-rc-tracked-robot-without-the-pain/ | An RC Tracked Robot, Without The Pain | Jenny List | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed robot",
"raspberry pi",
"robot"
] | Small robots can be found at all levels from STEM toys for kids all the way through to complex hacker projects. Somewhere along that line between easy enough for anyone to build and interesting enough for hackers lies
the PlayCar
, from [ComfySpace]. It’s a small build-it-yourself tracked robot that’s controlled from your smartphone via an app.
At the PlayCar’s heart is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, and surrounding it are a set of inexpensive off the shelf modules for power and motor control. The juice meanwhile comes from a set of AA batteries, and the motors are geared DC units. Having acquired all the components,
the 3D printable parts can then be downloaded from Printables
, and
the ComfySpace app
can be downloaded for either Apple or Android platforms.
It’s clear that ComfySpace is a start-up targeting the education sector, and we wish them every success. The approach of making an open platform is one we like, as it has the potential to create a community feeding back designs and add-ons rather than remaining proprietary. You can take a look at the video below the break for more information. | 13 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780371",
"author": "GarberPark",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T20:38:27",
"content": "Very nice but for educational expandablity its hard to beathttps://hackaday.com/2024/03/06/the-16-pcb-robot/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "678... | 1,760,371,840.873997 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/a-demo-party-on-a-chip/ | A Demo Party On A Chip | Jenny List | [
"Art",
"hardware"
] | [
"ASIC",
"demoscene",
"tiny tapeout"
] | The demoscene has provided our community with its artistic outlet since the first computers which could handle graphics, and has stayed at the forefront of technology all the way. For all that though, there’s a frontier it hasn’t yet entirely conquered, which exists in the realm of silicon. To address this cones the ever awesome Tiny Tapeout, who are bringing their ASIC-for-the-masses scheme to the world of demos with
an ASIC demo competition
.
With a closing date of 6th of September, all accepted entrants get a free Tiny Tapeout tile for their entry. Entries are limited to two tiles or less. with VGA and audio outputs via a specified PMOD pinout. There are a variety of categories including the expected best sound and best graphics, but among them we’re most interested by the mixed signal one that includes analogue circuitry.
Tiny Tapeout has been a particularly exciting project over the last couple of years, truly breaking new ground for the hardware hacker world. Since they’ve just recently been able to start doing some analog design on the chips, we’re excited to see what people come up with for this competition, and we hope it will provide significant advancement to the art. In the best tradition of the demo scene, they’ve even made an intro for the competition, which you can see below the break.
Want to know what all the fuss is about?
Start here
!
Thanks [Inne] for the tip! | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780359",
"author": "DerAxeman",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T19:33:40",
"content": "About time hardware hackers get to show off.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6780379",
"author": "lol",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T20:57:29",... | 1,760,371,841.019286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/printed-portable-computer-inspired-by-the-classics/ | Printed Portable Computer Inspired By The Classics | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"40% keyboard",
"luggable",
"ortholinear keyboard",
"portable computer"
] | These days, laptop computers are all more or less the same, at least externally. Some are thicker than others, they might come in different colors, or with a 360° hinge that lets you flip the screen around the back and use it as a tablet, but overall they’ve all got the same shape and proportions. The industry, and indeed the users, eventually agreed on the best way to make a computer portable and are now fully committed to it.
But that wasn’t always the case. In the 1980s there were a number of laptops from the likes of Toshiba, Tandy, and even IBM that took a slightly different approach to the clamshell design. These computers featured ultra-wide displays with a hinge located closer to the center of the computer, giving the machine a distinctive “trunk” in the back. It’s these classic machines that clearly inspired
[Michael Mayer] to design the Portable Pi 84
.
[Michael] says that the 3D printed enclosure was largely designed around the 40% ortholinear keyboard, which itself is based on the
Happy-Keyboard from [Luis Alegría]
. The rest apparently just fell into place, such as the fact that the 1600 x 600 Waveshare 9.3 inch display happens to be almost the perfect size to cover the keyboard below it.
Compared to many of the other custom computer builds we’ve covered, the rear compartment of the Portable Pi 84 provides ample free space for the various system components. That includes the Raspberry Pi 4 that runs the show, a UPS “hat” that powers the system via a pair of 21700 batteries, and even a set of amplified speakers. It looks like there’s still plenty of room in the back for additional gear, such as an RTL-SDR or
perhaps even a cartridge slot
.
A particularly nice feature of this build are the inset panels on the rear of the machine, which allow for the various ports and connectors to be reconfigured by the user without having to re-print the entire case — one could imagine a replacement panel that features a connector for an external WiFi antenna, for example. We also like
the use of heat-set inserts
throughout the case, which will not only make the build sturdier, but means the case can be opened and closed regularly without fear of stripping out the screw holes.
So is this a computer or a cyberdeck? It’s hard to say. We tend to think that a proper deck needs to have a
more unique physical layout
, and technically this form factor was actually fairly popular at one point. But whatever you want to call builds like this, we’re stoked to see them become more common and better documented. Long live the
truly
personal computer. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780445",
"author": "Mr Name Required",
"timestamp": "2024-07-29T03:01:45",
"content": "Nice project but it would only have taken a little extra effort to put rounded corners on the case housings.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,371,841.116264 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/28/low-gravity-playground-looks-highly-entertaining-and-useful/ | Low-Gravity Playground Looks Highly Entertaining (and Useful) | Kristina Panos | [
"Art"
] | [
"anti-gravity",
"counterweight"
] | With US astronauts scheduled to return to the Moon in 2026, it might be nice for them to really and truly know ahead of time what the gravity situation is going to be like. At 1/6th Earth’s gravity, the difference can be difficult to simulate.
But not anymore. French acrobatic artist [Bastien Dausse] has created
a contraption that does exactly that
. [Dausse] straps himself in, and is instantly able to slowly sproing about, up and down and all around in semi-slow motion, using this device which is calibrated to the Moon’s gravity. [Dausse]’s troupe’s performances center on the idea of gravity and of subverting it.
In order to achieve this effect, the swooping sculpture uses a pair of large counterweights. Check out the video below to see how they too become part of the action during a captivating duet performance. Although not attached, part of the device is a disk on which it smoothly moves around. It looks really fun, and more than a little bit dangerous. But mostly fun.
Did you know that Da Vinci created several experiments dedicated to determining the properties of gravity? | 22 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780281",
"author": "Mikeselectricstuff",
"timestamp": "2024-07-28T12:00:50",
"content": "Colin Furze did something similar a while ago, without the arty-ness",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780375",
"author": "aki009... | 1,760,371,841.396307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/oshw-model-rocket-kit-embraces-the-hexagon/ | OSHW Model Rocket Kit Embraces The Hexagon | Tom Nardi | [
"hardware",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"model",
"Open Hardware Certification",
"OSHWA",
"rocket"
] | If you’ve ever built a model rocket, you’ll know there’s not a whole lot to them. Essentially it’s a cardboard tube, a plastic nosecone, some fins, and a little clip that will keep it riding the launch rail as it accelerates off the pad. Extra points awarded if you add in a parachute, but strictly speaking, even that’s a luxury. Stick an Estes motor in that thing and send it.
But pointing out that lightweight cardboard tubes can be tricky to ship without getting crushed, [Concrete Dog] has come up with HEXA, a
clever model rocket kit that uses pre-scored cardstock instead
. The immediate advantage is that this allows the rocket to be shipped as flat sheets of material, but as a secondary bonus, once folded into its final shape the rocket has an awesome hexagonal cross section.
HEXA is certified Open Hardware
As with a traditional kit, both the nosecone and fins are plastic. Except here they’ve been 3D printed in either PLA or PETG depending on their proximity to he hot and fiery area of the rocket. [Concrete Dog] says the printed parts are largely ready to fly as-is, but that some quality time with a piece of sandpaper and a coat of paint could improve the aerodynamics a bit if you were so inclined.
Ready for the best part? [Concrete Dog] has decided to release all of the design files for the rocket under the CERN Open Hardware Licence, meaning you’re free to reproduce and modify the rocket as you see fit. In fact, on July 24th, the HEXA rocket was
officially certified as Open Hardware
by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) — a first for a DIY rocket, as far as we can tell. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6780027",
"author": "Clara",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T12:50:21",
"content": "Is this the pencil rocket from the Mother series?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780056",
"author": "concretedog",
"timestamp": "20... | 1,760,371,841.183622 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/27/george-washington-gets-cleaned-up-with-a-laser/ | George Washington Gets Cleaned Up With A Laser | Tom Nardi | [
"Art",
"Laser Hacks"
] | [
"art",
"laser",
"restoration",
"varnish"
] | Now, we wouldn’t necessarily call ourselves connoisseurs of fine art here at Hackaday. But we do enjoy watching [Julian Baumgartner]’s YouTube channel, where he documents the projects that he takes on as a professional conservator. Folks send in their dirty or damaged paintings, [Julian] works his magic, and the end result often looks like a completely different piece. Spoilers: if you’ve ever looked at an old painting and wondered why the artist made it so dark and dreary — it probably just needs to be cleaned.
Anyway,
in his most recent video
, [Julian] pulled out a piece of gear that we didn’t expect to see unleashed against a painting of one of America’s Founding Fathers: a Er:YAG laser. Even better, instead of some fancy-pants fine art restoration laser, he apparently picked up second hand unit designed for cosmetic applications. The model appears to be a Laserscope Venus from the early 2000s, which goes for about $5K these days.
Now, to explain why he raided an esthetician’s closet to fix up this particular painting, we’ve got to rewind a bit. As we’ve learned from [Julian]’s previous videos, the problem with an old dirty painting is rarely the paining itself, it’s the varnish that has been applied to it. These varnishes, especially older ones, have a tendency to yellow and crack with age. Now stack a few decades worth of smoke and dirt on top of it, and you’ve all but completely obscured the original painting underneath. But there’s good news — if you know what you’re doing, you can remove the varnish without damaging the painting itself.
In most cases, this can be done with various solvents that [Julian] mixes up after testing them out on some inconspicuous corner of the painting. But in this particular case, the varnish wasn’t reacting well to anything in his inventory. Even his weakest solvents were going right through it and damaging the paint underneath.
Because of this, [Julian] had to break out the big guns. After experimenting with the power level and pulse duration of the 2940 nm laser, he found the settings necessary to break down the varnish while stopping short of cooking the paint it was covering. After hitting it with a few pulses, he could then come in with a cotton swab and wipe the residue away. It was still slow going, but it turns out most things are in the art conservation world.
This isn’t the first time we’ve covered [Julian]’s resourceful conservation methods. Back in 2019, we took at look the surprisingly in-depth video he created about the
design and construction of his custom heat table
for flattening out large canvases. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779962",
"author": "natuk",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T08:41:01",
"content": "Great to see conservation articles here. The term used is often “conservator” instead of “conservationist”.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6780020",... | 1,760,371,841.228307 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/vintage-ribbon-cable-repair-saves-poqet-pc/ | Vintage Ribbon Cable Repair Saves Poqet PC | Jenny List | [
"Repair Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"poqet pc",
"repair",
"ribbon cable"
] | It sometimes seems as though computing power in your pocket is a relatively new phenomenon, but in fact there have been ultraportable computers since the 8-bit era. They started to become useful around the end of the 1980s though as enterprising manufacturers started cramming full-fat PC XTs into pocket form factors. Of these the one to own was the Poqet PC, a slim clamshell design that would run for ages on a pair of AA cells . If you have one today you’d be lucky if its display ribbon cable is without faults though, and [Robert’s Retro]
is here with a fix previously thought impossible
.
A large proportion of the video below the break is devoted to dismantling the unit, no easy task. The cable once exposed is found to have delaminated completely, and he takes us through the delicate task of attaching a modern equivalent. We particularly like the way in which the cable’s own springiness is used to retract it. The result has a white cable rather than the original black, but that’s a small price to pay for a machine that works rather than a broken paperweight.
If early pocket computing is your thing,
it’s a subject we’ve covered before
. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779952",
"author": "heastgun",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T08:03:36",
"content": "*cable replacement",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6779965",
"author": "NFM",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T08:44:58",
"content": "I did a si... | 1,760,371,841.289664 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/analyzing-feature-learning-in-artificial-neural-networks-and-neural-collapse/ | Analyzing Feature Learning In Artificial Neural Networks And Neural Collapse | Maya Posch | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"artificial intelligence",
"machine vision"
] | Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are commonly used for machine vision purposes, where they are tasked with object recognition. This is accomplished by taking a multi-layer network and using a training data set to configure the weights associated with each ‘neuron’. Due to the complexity of these ANNs for non-trivial data sets, it’s often hard to make head or tails of what the network is actually matching in a given (non-training data) input. In a
March 2024 study
(
preprint
) by [A. Radhakrishnan] and colleagues in Science an approach is provided to elucidate and diagnose this mystery somewhat, by using what they call the average gradient outer product (AGOP).
Defined as the uncentered covariance matrix of the ANN’s input-output gradients averaged over the training dataset, this property can provide information on the data set’s features used for predictions. This turns out to be strongly correlated with repetitive information, such as the presence of eyes in recognizing whether lipstick is being worn and star patterns in a car and truck data set rather than anything to do with the (highly variable) vehicles. None of this was perhaps too surprising, but a number of the same researchers used the same AGOP for elucidating the mechanism behind neural collapse (NC) in ANNs.
NC occurs when an ANN gets overtrained (overparametrized). In the
preprint paper
by [D. Beaglehole] et al. the AGOP is used to provide evidence for the mechanism behind NC during feature learning. Perhaps the biggest take-away from these papers is that while ANNs can be useful, they’re also incredibly complex and poorly understood. The more we learn about their properties, the more appropriately we can use them. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779922",
"author": "Chris",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T04:10:09",
"content": "I’ve been really fascinated with understanding how different parts of a neutral network contribute to a network as a whole. In my opinion the easiest way to start to understand the different parts of a netw... | 1,760,371,841.338629 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/your-quicktake-camera-and-your-modern-pc/ | Your QuickTake Camera And Your Modern PC | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"apple",
"java",
"quicktake"
] | An object of desire back in the mid-1990s might have been Apple’s QuickTake camera. In a form factor not unlike a monocular it packed a 640×480 digital camera, the images from which could be downloaded to a computer via a serial cable. A quarter century later it’s a great retro camera for the enthusiast, but both the serial ports and the operating systems needed to run its software have passed into history. Time for the junk pile? Not at all, for [Crazylegstoo] has produced
a new piece of software for 2024
that works for both QuickTake 100 and 150 cameras with USB serial ports on modern operating systems.
Called JQuickTake, it’s a Java app which has the advantage of building on that early Java promise of running cross platform so can be had for Mac or Windows. It allows retrieval of both metadata and images from the camera, but sadly it doesn’t display any of the images. It also doesn’t work with the QuickTake 200. Happily though, there are instructions for building a serial cable, and suggestions for how to deal with the proprietary QTK image format.
Meanwhile if you lack a PC or Mac all is not lost.
You can also use these cameras with an Apple II
.
Header image: Hannes Grobe,
CC BY-SA 4.0. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779892",
"author": "UT",
"timestamp": "2024-07-27T01:51:34",
"content": "So the Java app only works on Mac or Windows, it doesn’t work on Linux?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6779924",
"author": "Sunoo",
"ti... | 1,760,371,841.44944 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/electromagnetic-actuator-mimics-muscle/ | Electromagnetic Actuator Mimics Muscle | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d print",
"3d printed",
"actuator",
"electromagnet",
"electromagnetic",
"magnet",
"magnetic actuator"
] | Most electromagnetic actuators are rotating motors, or some variation on the theme, like servos. However, it’s possible to do linear actuation with electomagnetics, too. [Adrian Perez] demonstrates this with Linette,
his design of a linear actuator that he was inspired to build by the structure of our own muscles
.
The design uses a coil of copper wire in a 3D-printed plastic housing, surrounded by a claw full of strong magnets. When the coil is activated, the magnets are pulled towards the coil. When the coil is not energized, the magnets fall away. [Adrian] demonstrates the actuator under the control of an Arduino, which switches power to the coil to move it up and down.
He also notes that the design is similar solenoids and voice coil style actuators, though unlike most his uses discrete magnets rather than a single monolithic magnet. It’s possible to get more capacity out of the Linette design through stacking. You can parallelize the actuators to get more pulling force, with neighboring coils sharing the same magnets. Alternatively, you can stack them in series to get longer stroke lengths.
[Adrian] hasn’t put the design to a practical application yet, but we could see multiple uses for robotics or small machines. We’ve seen some
other neat DIY magnetic actuators before, too
. Video after the break. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779833",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T20:49:54",
"content": "“… linear actuator that he was inspired to build by the structure of our own muscles.”If it was truly inspired by muscles, it would be much more like a linear stepper motor than the solenoid it is.The video ... | 1,760,371,841.499569 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/ask-hackaday-is-shortwave-on-life-support/ | Ask Hackaday: Is Shortwave On Life Support? | Al Williams | [
"Featured",
"Radio Hacks",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"shortwave"
] | A QSL Card from Radio Moscow probably got many 14-year-olds on government watch lists. (Public domain)
Between World War II and Y2K, shortwave listening was quite an education. With a simple receiver, you could listen to the world. Some of it, of course, was entertainment, and much of it was propaganda of one sort or another. But you could learn a lot. Kids with shortwave radios always did great in geography. Getting the news from a different perspective is often illuminating, too. Learning about other cultures and people in such a direct way is priceless. Getting a QSL card in the mail from a faraway land seemed very exciting back then.
Today, the shortwave landscape is a mere shadow of itself. According to a
Wikipedia page
, there are 235 active shortwave broadcasters from a list of 414, so nearly half are defunct. Not only are there many “dead” shortwave outlets, but many of the ones that are left are either not aimed at the world market or serve a niche group of listeners.
You can argue that with the Internet, you don’t need radio, and that’s probably correct in some ways but misses a few important points. Indeed, many broadcasters still exist as streaming stations or a mix of radio and streaming. I have to admit I listen to the BBC often but rarely on the air. My computer or phone plays it in crystal clarity 24 hours a day.
A future Hackaday author in front of an Eico shortwave radio
So, while a 14-year-old in 1975 might be hunched over a radio wearing headphones, straining to hear NHK World Radio, these days, they are likely surfing the popular social media site of the week. You could easily argue that content on YouTube, Instagram, and the like can come from all over the world, so what’s the problem?
The problem is information overload. Faced with a shortwave radio, there were a limited number of options available. What’s more, only a small part of the band might be “open” at any given time. It isn’t like the radio could play games or — unless you were a ham — allow you to chat with your friends. So you found radio stations from Germany to South Africa. From China and Russia, to Canada and Mexico. You knew the capital of Albania. You learned a little Dutch from Radio Nederlands.
Is there an answer? Probably not. Radio isn’t coming back, barring an apocalyptic event. Sure, you can listen to the BBC on your computer, but you probably won’t. You can even
listen to a radio over the network
, but that isn’t going to draw in people who aren’t already interested in radio, even if it
really looks like a radio
.
If you made a website with radio stations of the world, would people use it? Something like a software version of
this globe
or a “world service” version of
RadioGarden
. Probably not.
Do you listen to shortwave radio? If so, what are you listening to? Do you listen to “world services” at all? Tell us in the comments. Many careers were launched by finding
a shortwave radio
under the Christmas tree at just the right age. When Internet access is compromised, there’s still
no substitute for real radios
. If you want to listen to some of those vintage programs, they are — unsurprisingly — on the Internet. | 123 | 45 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779776",
"author": "scott_tx",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T17:19:02",
"content": "That’s the price of progress",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6779787",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T17:57:41",
... | 1,760,371,842.272517 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/hackaday-podcast-episode-281-metal-clay-desiccants-silica-gel-and-keeping-filament-dry/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 281: Metal Clay, Desiccants, Silica Gel, And Keeping Filament Dry | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | This week on the Podcast, it’s Kristina’s turn to bloviate alongside Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams. First up in the news: our fresh new contest has drawn three entries already! That’s right,
the 2024 Tiny Games Challenge is underway
. You have until September 10th to show us your best tiny game, whether that means tiny hardware, tiny code, or a tiny BOM.
Then it’s on to What’s That Sound, which sounded familiar to Kristina, but she couldn’t place it. Can you get it? Can you figure it out? Can you guess what’s making that sound? If you can, and your number comes up, you get a special Hackaday Podcast t-shirt.
Then it’s on to the hacks, beginning with a hack to print metal and a way to weld wood, along with a photo-resistor-based, single-pixel camera. We’ll talk desiccants carbon fiber, and Baron Harkonnen. Finally, we discuss the troubles of keeping hygroscopic materials from degrading, and have a klatch about Keebin’ with Kristina.
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 and savor at your leisure
.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 281 Show Notes:
News:
Show Us Your Minimalist Games, And Win
What’s that Sound?
Fill out this form with your best guess
, and you might win!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
CeraMetal Lets You Print Metal, Cheaply And Easily
Not Acceptable!
Home
Mechanical Keyboard + Laptop = Clacktop
Sealed Packs Of Pokémon Cards Give Up Their Secrets Without Opening Them
2000-Year Old Charred Manuscripts Reveal Their Secrets
Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize Awarded And 2024’s New Challenge
Welding Wood Is As Simple As Rubbing Two Sticks Together
This Laser-Cut One-Piece Wedge Tenon Locks Wood Joints Tight
Photoresistor-based Single Pixel Camera
A Single Pixel Digital Camera With Arduino
A Very Modern Flying Spot Scanner
You Can Use LEDs As Sensors, Too
Desiccants, Tested Side By Side
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Exploring Cheap Tantalum Caps Of Mysterious Provenance
Ask Hackaday: Should We Teach BASIC?
Could Carbon Fiber Be The New Asbestos?
Kristina’s Picks:
Robot Seeks And Sucks Up Cigarette Butts, With Its Feet
A Throne For LEGO Baron Harkonnen
2024 Tiny Games Challenge: Improving Reaction Time
Can’t-Miss Articles:
FDM Filament Troubles: Keeping Hygroscopic Materials From Degrading
Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Key Cap Map | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779821",
"author": "JMR",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T20:06:42",
"content": "You didn’t talk about the best part of the Big Clive desiccant video. The comments! Excellent conversation about zeolite their and how it can outperform silica gel.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,841.598377 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/you-can-program-avrs-from-the-commodore-64/ | You Can Program AVRs From The Commodore 64 | Lewin Day | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"AVR",
"c64",
"commodore 64",
"microcontroller"
] | These days, most of our microcontroller boards come with bootloaders so you can squirt hex into them straight over USB. However, you don’t
need
to do things this way. If you’re more old school, you can program your AVRs right from a Commodore 64.
[Linus Akesson] shows us how.
Programming an AVR isn’t that hard. By holding the chip in reset, it’s possible to flash code via a serial protocol using just three wires. However, that’s pretty impractical to do with modern PCs — they don’t come with addressable IO pins anymore. Normally, you’d use a dedicated programmer to do the job, but [Linus] found his had died on a Friday night. So he set about turning his C64 into one instead.
He decided to use the pins of the C64’s Joystick Port 2, with pins 1, 2, 3, and 4 hooked up to SCK, MOSI, Reset, and MISO on the AVR, respectively. 5 V and Ground were also provided courtesy of the C64’s port. He then whipped up a simple bit of assembly code to read a bit of AVR hex and spit it out over the Joystick port following the in-circuit programming protocol. With a 1541 Ultimate to load files on to the C64 in hand, it was easy to pull his compiled AVR program off his modern PC, chuck it on the C64, and then get the old Commodore to program the AVR in turn.
It’s not the first time [Linus] has wowed us with a C64 in hand.
If you’ve got your own fresh projects for the best-selling computer of all time, don’t hesitate to
let us know! | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779766",
"author": "PPJ",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T16:30:47",
"content": "If you consider this could be done much easier and faster with modern SBC that he surely had at hand this challenge is even more impressive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,841.661256 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/this-week-in-security-evilvideo-crowdstrike-and-insecure-boot/ | This Week In Security: EvilVideo, Crowdstrike, And InSecure Boot | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"CrowdStrike",
"EvilVideo",
"This Week in Security"
] | First up this week is the story of
EvilVideo
, a clever telegram exploit that disguises an APK as a video file. The earliest record we have of this exploit is
on June 6th when it was advertised on a hacking forum
.
Researchers at ESET discovered a demo of the exploit, and were able to disclose it to Telegram on June 26th. It was finally patched on July 11. While it was advertised as a “one-click” exploit, that’s being a bit generous, as the ESET demo video shows. But it was a clever exploit. The central trick is that an APK file can be sent in a Telegram chat, and it displays what looks like a video preview. Tap the “video” file to watch it, and Telegram prompts you to play it with an external player. But it turns out the external player in this case is Android itself, which prompts the target to install the APK. Sneaky.
Traffic Control
We briefly
covered this story
a couple months ago, focusing on how bad of an idea it is to threaten a good faith researcher with legal action. Well the details of this traffic controller hack are available, and it’s about what you’d expect.
Part one
is all about getting the hardware and finding a trivial security bypass. The “web security” tab in the user interface seems to be an iframe, and navigating directly to that iframe address simply doesn’t trigger a login prompt. That’s the issue that [Andrew Lemon] first disclosed to Q-Free, leading to the legal nastygram.
Well now we have
part two of that research
, and spoilers: it doesn’t get any better. A couple false starts led [Andrew] to a desperation move. He had a new box to test and no login for it, so he started at the basics with the Burp proxy. And lo and behold, in the request was an odd string.
1.3.6.1.4.1.1206.3.36.1.6.10.1*IDO_0=2&
That is an Object IDentifier (OID) for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). These things use a version of SNMP known as
National Transportation Communications for Intelligent Transportation System Protocol
, or NTCIP. And this device not only uses that protocol, it seems to do so without authentication. Among the fields that are readable and writable without auth are the system username and system password. No hashing in sight. Now we can only hope that this is ancient hardware that isn’t in use any longer, or at least no longer connected to the Internet. And we’ll also hope that vendors like Q-Free have learned their lessons since this software was written. Though given their response to the vulnerability disclosure, we’re not holding our breaths.
The Rest of the Crowdstrike Story
You may have noticed a bit of weirdness around the world last Friday. Early in the morning of the 18th,
Croudstrike pushed a rapid response content update
to their Falcon antivirus platform. Rapid Response data does get tested, but does not get a staged roll out. And in this case, a bug in the testing platform led to the invalid file being pushed out, and because the rollout was not staged, it went everywhere all at once.
This bogus configuration data triggered an out-of-bounds memory read in the Falcon kernel driver, leading to system crashes. The particularly bitter context is that Crowdstrike
had done the same thing to Linux machines
a few months earlier. It’s beginning to seem that antivirus kernel drivers are a bad idea.
Microsoft has made it clear that this wasn’t a Microsoft incident.
And the little known fact is that Microsoft tried to put an end to antivirus kernel drivers years ago, and was blocked by government regulators. And why didn’t Windows offer to boot without the crashing driver? The Crowdstrike kernel driver marks itself as a boot-start driver. The one ray of hope is that it’s possible for the system to stay up just long enough for Crowdstrike to pull an update before the system crash. It only takes something like 15 reboots.
This time it was Microsoft
There was, apparently,
another Blue Screen crash this month
. The July Patch Tuesday update dropped some computers into the BitLocker recovery screen, which just happens to be that same shade of blue. It’s not yet clear what about this set of fixes triggered the problem, but it seems that getting the recovery key does get these machines running again.
LetsKill OCSP
Let’s Encrypt surprised a few of us by
announcing the end of OCSP this week
. The Online Certificate Status Protocol is used to query whether a given certificate is still valid. One of the problems with that protocol is that it requests status updates per DNS address, effectively sending a running browsing history over the Internet. There’s a technical issue, in that the attacks that OCSP is designed to defend against also place the attacker in a position to block OCSP requests, and clients will silently ignore OCSP requests that time out.
The replacement is the Certificate Revocation List (CRL), which is a simple list of revoked certificates. The problem is that those lists can be huge. Mozilla and Google have rolled out a clever solution, that uses data compression and aggressive optimization to handle those CRLs like any other browser update. And hence, OCSP is destined to go away.
InSecure Boot
Binarly is
sounding the alarm on Secure Boot
. The biggest problem is that at least five device manufacturer
used demo keys in production
. The master key predictably leaked, and as a result about 200 devices have broken secure boot protections. That key is labeled
DO NOT TRUST - AMI Test PK
? Perfect, ship it!
Bits and Bytes
Docker Engine had a nasty regression, where
a flaw fixed in 2019 wasn’t properly forward-ported
to later versions. CVE-2024-41110 is a CVSS 10.0 issue, where an API call with Content-Length of 0 is forwarded without any authentication.
An interesting bug was
just fixed in curl
, where a TLS certificate could trigger the curl ASN.1 parser to fail and return an error. When it did this, the function in question can call
free()
on a stack buffer, which is particularly bad idea. This is notable as the curl developers refer to it as a “C mistake (likely to have been avoided had we not been using C)”. Time to add some Rust code to curl?
And finally, there’s something you should know about Github.
Code is forever
. This is all working as intended, but can catch you if you’re not aware. Namely, private or deleted commits that are attached to a public repo are still accessible, if you know or guess the short commit hash. This has some important ramifications for cleaning up data leaks, and developing private forks. Knowing is half the battle! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779739",
"author": "Aeiou",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T14:55:00",
"content": "Isn’t the ‘MSFT retiree’ featured video a scammer?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6779760",
"author": "Dingbat",
"timestamp": "2024-... | 1,760,371,841.81457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/building-a-keychain-wii-looks-possible/ | Building A Keychain Wii Looks Possible | Lewin Day | [
"Nintendo Wii Hacks"
] | [
"console",
"nintendo wii",
"portable console",
"trimmed",
"wii",
"wii hacks"
] | The original Nintendo Wii was not a
big
console, per se, but you could never hope to fit one in your pocket. Or…could you? As it turns out, console modders [Wesk] and [Yveltal] reckon they have found a way to
make a functional Wii at the keychain scale!
The concept is called the Kawaii, and as you might expect, some sacrifices are necessary to get it down to pocketable size of 60 x 60 x 16 mm. It’s all based around the “Omega Trim,” an established technique in the modding community to cut a standard Wii motherboard down to size. Controllers are hooked up via a dock connection that also provides video out. There’s no Bluetooth, so Wiimote use is out of the question. You can still play
some
Wii games with GameCube Controllers by using GC2Wiimote, though. The Wii hardware is under-volted to allow for passive cooling, too, with an aluminum enclosure used to shed heat. Custom PCBs are used to handle power and breakouts, which will be open sourced in due time.
The forum post featured an expression of interest for those eager to order aluminium enclosures to pursue their own Kawaii build. Slots quickly filled up and the EOI was soon closed.
As of now, the Kawaii is still mostly conceptual, with images being very compelling renders. However, it relies on
established Wii modding techniques
, so there shouldn’t be any shocking surprises in the next stage of development. Expect to see finished Kawaii builds in gorgeous machined aluminum housings before long.
We’ve seen some other great Wii portables
over the years. The console remains cheap on the used market and was built in great numbers. Thus, it remains the perfect platform for those eager to get their feet wet in the console modding community!
Here's an idea on scale:
pic.twitter.com/IqA9dDOsaM
— Wesk Mods (@WeskMods)
July 21, 2024 | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779694",
"author": "clancydaenlightened",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T11:34:11",
"content": "You could make it fit in a smartphone if you just made a custom motherboardAnd add a video digitizer for LCDOr just run a 64bit emulator on octacore with 4GB and a better gpu",
"parent_id"... | 1,760,371,841.75524 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/26/can-cats-solve-puzzles/ | Can Cats Solve Puzzles? | Jenny List | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"animal behaviour",
"cat",
"cat toy"
] | Cats, to those of us who appreciate their company, are fascinating creatures, with their infinite curiosity and playfulness. [Makers Muse] has a pair of half-grown-up kittens, and set out to provide them with a plaything far better than those the market could offer.
The result is the Snak Attak
, a gravity puzzle maze that delivers kibble for the cat prepared to puzzle it out.
The point of this exercise isn’t to give kibble but to provide the optimum play experience for a pair of younger cats. The premise is that kibble is held back by a set of wooden pegs each with a temptingly dangly string, and they should after some investigation be able to pull the pegs out and release it. What’s interesting is how the two different cats approach the problem, while one pulls the out as expected, the other pushes them from the back of the device.
The conclusion is that the two cats can indeed solve puzzles, and gain hours of play from the device. An updated version was produced with a few more challenges, and as you can see in the video below the break, it’s captivated their attention. It’s not the first cat toy we’ve brought you by any means,
this robotic mouse
springs to mind, but it’s certainly upped the ante on feline entertainment. | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779671",
"author": "Marco",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T08:54:01",
"content": "Cats can solve any puzzle that can easily be solved by liberal application of violence.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6779677",
"author": "Zoe Na... | 1,760,371,842.023426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/car-becomes-a-massive-bubble-machine/ | Car Becomes A Massive Bubble Machine | Lewin Day | [
"car hacks"
] | [
"bubble",
"bubble fluid",
"bubble machine",
"bubble wand",
"bubbles",
"car",
"soap bubble",
"soap bubbles"
] | You’ve probably seen street performers or family members making giant bubbles at some point in your life. But what if you could go ever bigger…even approaching a bubble of infinite length?
That’s precisely what [Engineezy] tried to do.
The common technique behind blowing big bubbles involves attaching a thick rope to two sticks, then dipping the sticks in bubble fluid. The two sticks can then be spread apart to act as a big triangular bubble wand to create massive bubbles.
So the idea here to create a giant bubble-blowing frame using the same technique, continually feed it with bubble fluid, and stick it on top of a car. Spread the wings of the bubble wand, and watch the bubble grow. Oh, and this setup uses special bubble fluid—made by mixing soap, water, and veterinary J-Lube in specific ratios. Feeding the car-mounted wand with fluid was achieved by tubing delivering a continuous flow. Early small-scale attempts created wild 25 foot bubbles, while the car version made one over 50 feet long. Not infinite, but very cool.
As it turns out,
the science of bubbles is deep and interesting
. | 13 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779670",
"author": "Bubbles",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T08:40:47",
"content": "I’ve been using this recipe for monster bubbles. I’m wondering if there has been any improvements? It’s pretty good though.1440 g water120 g fairy liquid soap60 g cornflour1 tbsp baking powder",
"pare... | 1,760,371,841.957865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/a-robot-face-with-human-skin/ | A Robot Face With Human Skin | Navarre Bartz | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"biomimetic",
"biomimicry",
"biorobotics",
"humanoid",
"robot",
"soft robotics"
] | Many scifi robots have taken the form of their creators. In the increasingly blurry space between the biological and the mechanical, researchers have found a way to
affix human skin to robot faces
. [via
NewScientist
]
Previous attempts at affixing skin equivalent, “a living skin model composed of cells and extracellular matrix,” to robots worked, even on moving parts like fingers, but typically relied on protrusions that impinged on range of motion and aesthetic concerns, which are pretty high on the list for robots designed to predominantly interact with humans. Inspired by skin ligaments, the researchers have developed “perforation-type anchors” that use v-shaped holes in the underlying 3D printed surface to keep the skin equivalent taut and pliable like the real thing.
The researchers then designed a face that took advantage of the attachment method to allow their robot to have a convincing smile. Combined with other research, robots might soon have skin with touch, sweat, and self-repair capabilities like Data’s partial transformation in
Star Trek: First Contact
.
We wonder what this
extremely realistic humanoid hand
might look like with this skin on the outside. Of course that raises the question of
if we even need humanoid robots
? If you want something less uncanny, maybe try
animating your stuffed animals
with this robotic skin instead? | 30 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779604",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T02:53:56",
"content": "Fembots from the Six Million Dollar Man.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6779605",
"author": "Garth",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T02:... | 1,760,371,842.345186 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/cutting-an-iot-fan-free-of-the-cloud/ | Cutting An IoT Fan Free Of The Cloud | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"cloud",
"dreo",
"fan",
"IoT"
] | The cloud is supposed
to make everything better.
You can control things remotely, with the aid of a benevolent corporation and their totally friendly servers. However, you might not
like
those servers, and you might prefer to take personal control of your hardware. If that’s the case, you might like to follow
the story of [ouaibe] and their quest to free a fan from the cloud.
The unit in question was a tower fan from Dreo. [ouaibe] noted that there was already a project to control the fans using
Home Assistant,
but pure lower-level local control was the real goal here. Work began on pulling apart the Dreo Android app to determine how it talked to the fan, eventually turning up a webserver on board, but little progress. The next step was to disassemble the unit entirely. That turned up multiple PCBs inside, with one obviously for wireless communication and another hosting a Sino Wealth microcontroller. Dumping firmwares followed, along with reverse engineering the webserver, and finally establishing a custom ESPHome integration to fully control the fan.
[ouaibe] has shared instructions on how to cut your own fan from the cloud, though notes that the work won’t be extended to other Dreo products any time soon. In any case, it’s a great example of just how much work it can take to fully understand and control
an IoT device that’s tethered to a commercial cloud server.
It’s not always easy, but it can be done! | 22 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779600",
"author": "Alan Sailer",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T01:18:33",
"content": "Sigh.The amount of brilliant work required to free this fan from the cloud is awesome. I mean this without irony.It also makes me really, really happy that I own fan that has an on/off switch. If I’m ... | 1,760,371,842.41052 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/3d-printed-rc-drift-car-comes-with-smoke-effects/ | 3D-Printed RC Drift Car Comes With Smoke Effects | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"car",
"drift car",
"humidifier",
"humidifier module",
"R/C car"
] | Drift cars are cool, but they’re also expensive. If you don’t have money for endless tires, fuel, and engine rebuilds, you might like to get involved at the RC scale instead.
[Max Imagination] has just the build to get you started.
The design uses 3D printing for the majority of the chassis. Rigidity is front of mind, as is creating the right steering and suspension geometry for smooth, controllable drifts. The drivetrain is 3D-printed too, using plastic gears and universal-joint axles combined with off-the-shelf bearings. Steering is controlled via an off-the-shelf servo, with a brushless motor putting power down to all four wheels. While drifting at full scale is best achieved with rear-wheel-drive, it’s easier to control at the small scale with four driven wheels.
True to the DIY ethos, an Arduino-based RC system is used to drive the steering servo and motor speed controller, with a home-built pistol-grip controller. It also activates a small power supply which runs little humidifier modules, which turn water into a visible vapor for a fun smoke effect. It doesn’t really imitate tire smoke, since it disappears nearly the instant the car moves, but it’s still a neat effect.
It’s a neat build that makes a great starting point for your dive into RC. Meanwhile, if you’re more about speed than getting sideways, we’ve seen a homebrew RC car
designed to that end as well
. Video after the break. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779590",
"author": "PEBKAC",
"timestamp": "2024-07-26T00:43:22",
"content": "Is this an ad? Because that guy wants me to *buy* his 3d models.Not open source hardware… and that makes it substantially less interesting as an HAD article.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,371,842.457798 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/usb-c-powered-hotplate-is-not-for-food/ | USB-C Powered Hotplate Is Not For Food | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"hotplate",
"power",
"reflow",
"USB C"
] | Once upon a time, it was deemed mostly silly to try and schlep power from a computer’s ports. Then it was kind of amusing to do so with USB, and before you knew it, we were running whole laptops off what started out as a data connector. These days, it’s not unusual to run a soldering iron off USB-C, or, as [MarkTheQuasiEngineer] has done—
a hotplate!
This hotplate is not for quesadillas, nor samosas. Instead, it’s a tiny hotplate for tiny reflow tasks. Given many PCBs are quite small, there’s no need for a huge hot plate to get your circuits assembled.
The device relies on metal ceramic heating elements to provide the warmth. An NTC thermistor is used for monitoring the temperature for accurate control, which is handled by the STM32 microcontroller that’s running the show. It also drives a small display indicating the mode of operation and current temperature. The STM32 controls the power going to the heating element from the USB-C feed with a stout power MOSFET.
Sadly, the project hasn’t been a complete success. With a PCB on the plate, [MarkTheQuasiEngineer] was only able to achieve peak temperatures of around 200 C. That’s not
great
for doing proper reflow, but it’s a start. He believes upgrading to a more powerful supply to feed the hotplate will help.
We’ve featured some other great
reflow hotplates before too
. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779515",
"author": "Piotrsko",
"timestamp": "2024-07-25T18:40:13",
"content": "It strikes me that back in the day, parallel ports and possibly serial also had access to a goodly amount of watts on one of the mostly un used pins.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replie... | 1,760,371,842.569819 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/linux-fu-failing-pipelines/ | Linux Fu: Failing Pipelines | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks"
] | [
"bash",
"linux"
] | Bash is great for automating little tasks, but sometimes a little script you think will take a minute to write turns into a half hour or more. This is the story of one of those half-hour scripts.
I have too many 3D printers. In particular, I have three that are almost — but not exactly — the same, so each one has a slightly different build process when I want to update their firmware. In all fairness, one of those printers is heading out the door soon, but I’ll probably still wind up building firmware images for it.
My initial process was painful. I have a special directory with the four files needed to configure Marlin for each machine. I copy all four files and ask PlatformIO to perform the build. Usually, it succeeds and gives me a file that looks like
firmware-yyyyddmmhhmm.bin
or something like that.
The problem is that the build process doesn’t know which of the three machines is the target: Sulu, Checkov, or Fraiser. (Long story.) So, I manually look at the file name, copy it, and rename it. Of course, this is an error-prone process, and I’m basically lazy, so I decided to write a script to do it. I figured it would take just a minute to bundle up all the steps. I was wrong.
First Attempt
Copying the files to the right place was a piece of cake. I did check to make sure they existed. The problem came from launching PlatformIO, seeing the result on the screen, and being able to parse the filename out of the stream.
I thought it would be easy:
FN=$(pio run | grep '^Renamed to' | cut -d ' ' -f 3 )
That should do the build and leave
$FN
with the name of the file I need to rename and process. It does, but there are two problems. You can’t see what’s happening, and you can’t tell when the build fails.
Easy Problem First
The pipeline consumes the build’s output. Of course, a
tee
command can manage that, right? Well, sort of. The problem is that the
tee
command sends things to a file and standard out, but the standard out, in this case, is the pipe. Sure, I could
tee
the output to a temporary file and then process that file later, but that’s messy.
So, I resorted to a Bash-specific feature:
FN=$(pio run | tee /dev/fd/2 | grep ...
This puts the output on my screen but still sends it down the pipe, too. Sure, there are cases when this isn’t a good idea, and it isn’t very portable, but for my own use, it works just fine, and I’m OK with that. There are other ways to do this, like using /dev/tty if you know you are only using the script from a terminal.
Harder Problem
The bigger problem is that if the build fails — and it might — there isn’t a good way to fail the whole pipeline. By default, the pipe’s return value is the last return value, and
cut
is happy to report success as long as it runs.
There are a number of possible answers. Again, I could have resorted to a temporary file. However, I decided to set a bash option to cause any failing item in a pipe to fail the whole pipe immediately:
set -o pipefail
So now, in part, my script looks like this:
set -o pipefail
FN=$(pio run | tee /dev/fd/2 | grep '^Renamed to' | cut -d ' ' -f 3 )
if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
echo Success...
cp ".pio/build/STM32F103RC_creality/$FN" "configurations/$1"
echo Result: "configurations/$1/$FN"
else
echo Build failed
exit 3
fi
Final Analysis
Is it brain surgery? Nope. But it is one of those bumps in the road in what should have been a five-minute exercise. Maybe next time you run into it, you’ll save yourself at least 25 minutes. This gets the job done, but it isn’t a stellar example of
bash programming
. I would hate to run it through
a lint-like checker
. | 16 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779547",
"author": "Cyna",
"timestamp": "2024-07-25T20:29:18",
"content": "So, stop using Marlin?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6779558",
"author": "Al Williams",
"timestamp": "2024-07-25T21:55:58",
... | 1,760,371,842.51139 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/25/a-simple-liquid-level-indicator-with-a-single-ic/ | A Simple Liquid Level Indicator With A Single IC | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"liquid level indicator",
"transistor",
"uln2003",
"water level indicator"
] | Often, the only liquid level indicator you need is your eyes, such as when looking at your cold beverage on a summer’s day. Other times, though, it’s useful to have some kind of indicator light that can tell you the same. [Hulk] shows us how to build one for a water tank
using a single IC and some cheap supporting components.
If you’re unfamiliar with the ULN2003, it’s a simple Darlington transistor array with seven transistors inside. It can thus be used to switch seven LEDs without a lot of trouble. In this case, green, yellow, and red LEDs were hooked up to the outputs of the transistors in the ULN2003. Meanwhile, the base of each transistor is connected to an electrode placed at a different height in the water tank. A further positive electrode is placed in the tank connected to 12 volts. As the water raises to the height of each electrode, current flow from the base to the positive electrode switches the corresponding transistor on, and the LED in turn. Thus, you have a useful liquid level indicator with seven distinct output levels.
It’s a neat build that might prove useful if you need to check levels in a big opaque tank at a glance. Just note that it might need some maintenance over time, as the electrodes are unlikely to remain completely corrosion free if left in water. We’ve seen
some other great uses of the ULN2003 before
, too. Video after the break. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6779477",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-07-25T15:54:46",
"content": "Cool project, great if it solves a real problem at home.But yeah nah, this has been done to death.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6779481",
"a... | 1,760,371,842.631351 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.