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https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/a-64-bit-x86-bootloader-from-scratch/ | A 64-bit X86 Bootloader From Scratch | Al Williams | [
"Software Development",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"bootloader",
"protected mode",
"x86"
] | For most people, you turn on your computer, and it starts the operating system. However, the reality is much more complex as [Thasso] discovered. Even modern x86 chips start in 16-bit real mode and there is a bit of fancy footwork required to shift to modern protected mode with full 64-bit support. Want to see how? [Thasso]
shows us the ropes
.
Nowadays, it is handy to develop such things because you don’t have to use real hardware. An emulator like QEMU will suffice. If you know assembly language, the process is surprisingly simple, although there is a lot of nuance and subtlety. The biggest task is setting up appropriate paging tables to control the memory mapping. In real mode, segments have access to fixed 64 K blocks of memory unless you use some tricks. But in protected mode, segments define blocks of memory that can be very small or cover the entire address space. These segments define areas of memory even though it is possible to set segments to cover all memory and — sort of — ignore them. You still have to define them for the switch to protected mode.
In the bad old days, you had more reason to worry about this if you were writing a DOS Extender or using some
tricks to get access to more memory
. But still good to know if you are rolling your own operating system. Why do the processors still boot into real mode?
Good question
. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6776019",
"author": "Jim",
"timestamp": "2024-07-15T07:13:55",
"content": "16-bit real mode is base code at the hardware level, hence why it’s still used for the absolute lowest level functions like booting. 32-bit and 64-bit code is ran in protected states meaning less access to re... | 1,760,371,856.381926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/using-forward-and-reverse-osmosis-to-let-astronaut-eva-suits-produce-fresh-water-from-urine/ | Using Forward- And Reverse-Osmosis To Let Astronaut EVA Suits Produce Fresh Water From Urine | Maya Posch | [
"Space"
] | [
"EVA",
"life support",
"urine"
] | An uncomfortable reality with the spacesuits used for extravehicular activities (EVA) – commonly referred to as spacewalks – is that the astronaut spends hours in them, during which normal bodily functions like urinating and defecating continue. The current EVA record at the ISS is currently a hair under nine hours, necessitating a new approach. A team of researchers have now pitched the idea of an in-suit water recovery system with an article by [Sofia Etlin] and colleagues
as published
in
Frontiers in Space Technologies
.
For the current Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) EVA spacesuit the current solution is what is called the
MAG
: the Maximum Absorbency Garment, which is effectively a fancy adult diaper with sodium polyacrylate as absorbent for up to 2 L of fluids. It replaced the urine collection device (UCD) that was used until female astronauts joined the astronaut corps in the 1970s. Generally astronauts aim to not defecate until they finish their EVA, which leaves urinating and the related activity of rehydrating as the spacesuits only have 0.95 L of water that has to last the duration of the spacewalk.
Prototyping the system circuitry. (Credit: Sofia Etlin et al, 2024, Front. Space Technol.)
By filtering the urine and recycling it into potable water, this should both prevent all the disadvantages of diapers and give astronauts much more water to drink during EVAs. Although the media reporting on this paper have often
referenced
the stillsuits of
Dune
, this device is significantly less advanced and quite bulky, with the filtration equipment contained in a backpack and would weigh about 8 kg. The waste water is filtered using a dual forward osmosis – reverse osmosis (FO-RO) system, with the FO used as a pre-filter to prevent membrane fouling common with RO.
Collecting the urine is performed by a UCD that is more reminiscent of pre-MAG systems, with a silicone cup that conforms to the genitals of the male or female astronaut. When urinating, the inner lining of the cup will detect the moisture and activate a vacuum pump to remove the urine and get it to the FO-RO system as quickly as possible. Filtered water would have salts added before being made available for consumption.
Of note is that this is decidedly still a prototype, but considering that similar technology is already used on the ISS to filter waste water, having a miniature version added to new (EVA) spacesuits seems only a matter of time. It should make hours-long trips strapped into a space capsule decidedly less unpleasant, too, beyond the obvious benefits to astronauts in the midst of an EVA. | 34 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775994",
"author": "reg",
"timestamp": "2024-07-15T02:58:36",
"content": "At first it looks like a lot of pieces but I suspect the same motor could run all 3 pumps.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6776002",
"author": "Jeff"... | 1,760,371,856.454355 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/hackaday-links-july-14-2024/ | Hackaday Links: July 14, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"am radio",
"amazon",
"Astro",
"brick",
"ConEx",
"driver assistance",
"drone",
"drone show",
"ev",
"fireworks",
"hackaday links",
"jamming",
"legislation",
"robot",
"shipping container"
] | We’ve been going on at length in this space about the death spiral that AM radio seems to be in, particularly in the automotive setting. Car makers have begun the process of phasing AM out of their infotainment systems, ostensibly due to its essential incompatibility with the electronics in newer vehicles, especially EVs. That argument always seemed a little specious to us, since the US has
an entire bureaucracy
dedicated to making sure everyone works and plays well with each other on the electromagnetic spectrum. The effort to drop AM resulted in pushback from US lawmakers, who threatened legislation to ensure every vehicle has the ability to receive AM broadcasts, on the grounds of
its utility in a crisis
and that we’ve spent billions ensuring that 80% of the population is within range of an AM station.
The pendulum has now swung back, with a group of tech boosters claiming that
an AM mandate would be bad
, forcing car manufacturers to “scrap advanced safety features” like “advanced driver-assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, and collision avoidance systems that actually reduce car accidents and fatalities.” That last part is a bit of a reach considering
recent research
(second item) showing the iffy efficacy of some of these safety features, but the really rich part is when the claim that continuing to support the “outdated technology” of AM radio would prevent engineers from developing “future safety innovations.” Veiled threat much? And pretty disrespectful to the engineering field in general, we have to say, given that at its best, engineering is all about working within constrained environments and supporting conflicting goals.
While most of America was celebrating the Independence Day holiday last week with raucous pyrotechnic displays, one town in Washington State was enjoying a spectacle of a different sort:
watching a swarm of drones commit mutual suicide
. For various reasons, the city of SeaTac decided to eschew the more traditional patriotic display and plunk down $40,000 on a synchronized aerial drone show, which despite the substitution of chest-thumping explosions with the malignant hornets-nest buzz of 200 drones actually looks pretty cool. Right up until 55 of the drones went rogue, that is, and descended toward the watery doom of Angle Lake below. It wasn’t clear at first what was going on; video of the incident shows most of the drones gently settling into the lake, with only one seeming to just crash outright. That pretty much lines up with the official line from Great Lakes Drone, the outfit running the drone show, who blamed
“outside interference”
for the malfunction. A costly malfunction, by the way; at $2,600 a copy, the 55 drowned drones total nearly $100,000 more than the contracted price for the show. Forty-eight of the lost drones have been recovered, which points to perhaps the one bright spot of the story — the local diving club probably got a lot of bottom time thanks to the recovery effort.
Ten months is a long time in the rapidly changing technology world, but to go from expensive IoT doodad to brick in less than a year has to be some kind of record. And in a strange twist, it’s actually not Google this time, but rather Amazon, who just announced that their
Astro for Business robots will cease to function as of September 25
. The device, which is basically a mobile Alexa, was initially targeted at consumers who wanted something to roll around inside their homes to
collect data for Amazon
monitor security and keep an eye on your pets. Last November, Amazon announced an Astro for Business version that did much the same for the small and medium business market. Amazon seems to have made the decision to unfork the market and concentrate on the home version, which seems to make more sense. Business owners will get a refund on their bricked devices and a $300 Amazon credit for their troubles, but there’s no word on what will happen to the devices. Here’s hoping some of them show up in the secondary market; we’d love to see some teardowns.
And finally, if you think there’s nothing interesting about a big steel box, you’re either reading the wrong website or you haven’t seen
the latest video
by The History Guy on the history of the humble shipping container. We’ve always been a bit of a shipping container freak, and we’ve long known that the whole idea of containerized cargo reaches back to the 1950s or so. That’s where we thought the story started, but boy were we wrong. The real story goes back much further than that, all the way to the “lift vans” of the early 20th century, which were wooden boxes that could be hoisted from a wagon onto a ship and move a lot of items all in one go. We also had no idea where the term “ConEx” came from in reference to shipping containers, but THG took care of that too. Fascinating stuff. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775957",
"author": "eedge",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T23:23:40",
"content": "“We’ve always been a bit of a shipping container freak, and we’ve long known…” is this a pronoun confusion or the royal we in the sentence. I’m bit confused…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"re... | 1,760,371,855.697305 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/five-ways-to-repair-broken-pcb-traces/ | Five Ways To Repair Broken PCB Traces | Al Williams | [
"PCB Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"pcb",
"Printed Circuit Board"
] | When everything used wires, it was easy to splice them or replace them. Not so much with PC boards, but everyone has their favorite method for repairing a broken trace. [Mr. SolderFix] has
his five favorite ways
, as you can see in the video below.
Of course, before you can repair a trace, you probably have to expose it since most boards have solder mask now. Unless you plan to shut the trace at both ends, exposing the actual trace is probably the first step.
The first method is to just blob with solder, but we aren’t fans of that. Solder is not a great interconnect, so we nearly always put a small bit of wire over the gap, even if we might cover it with solder. That way, if the solder cracks over time, you still have a conductor as long as the solder bonds to the trace and wire. We did like that he used a blob of solder mask to cover the repair, which was a nice touch.
Of course, that isn’t going to work if you have a long delaminated trace. In particular, about two inches of a track was totally off the substrate. Here, using a wire is essential. We usually don’t bother to fit it exactly to the trace, but he is a bit more particular than we are. He used solder to model the bends in the wire and then straightened it out. That serves as a guide for how long to cut the jumper wire. He then bends the jumper to fit the trace and tacks it down with Kapton tape. It doesn’t work any better than one of our spaghetti-like repairs, but it does look better.
You’ve probably seen — or could deduce — how to do these repairs, but tips like using solder to model a trace are priceless. Some repairs have been done with copper sheets instead of wires. We didn’t see him using any conductive paint, which we’ve also had good luck with and we’ll admit we’ve covered repairs with clear nail polish rather than solder mask, but there are many possibilities, of course.
What’s your favorite method? It is harder — but not impossible — to repair boards that are
completely broken
. If you are a masochist, put your wires
inside the board
instead. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775928",
"author": "fonz",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T20:20:12",
"content": "by far the easiest is enameled wire of the type that, as long you start at the end, can strip using solder",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6775935",
... | 1,760,371,856.321632 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/undo-arduino-encryption-with-an-oscilloscope/ | Undo Arduino Encryption With An Oscilloscope | Elliot Williams | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"crypto",
"cryptography",
"power analysis",
"rsa"
] | Cryptography ain’t easy. Seemingly small details like how many times a computationally intensive loop runs can give the game away. [Lord Feistel]
gives us a demo of how this could work with nothing more than poorly designed code, a resistor, and an oscilloscope
.
The hardware side is, as mentioned, really simple. Put a resistor inline with the Arduino and monitor the voltage drop across the resistor with the scope. When the chip is working hard, it consumes more current, and code sections that take longer will show up as longer dips.
On the software end, it’s only a little more complicated. The
RSA encryption scheme
involves a lot of exponentiation and modulo-taking. Here, [Lord Feistel] is targeting a naive way of computing the exponents quickly, and demonstrates how you can read the exponent straight out the chip’s power demand.
Implementing this attack against a real-world RSA algorithm, in the context of the Arduino doing other stuff, will be harder. And we don’t know if the algorithm implemented in “standard” Arduino libraries is smarter than this one. (If
you
know, let
us
know in the comments.) But still, this is a cool example of just how simple and straightforward it can be to eavesdrop on bad code.
If you only need to bypass encryption instead of breaking it, check out [Lord Feistel]’s
other tutorial on power glitching
that we featured previously. If you haven’t played around with the hardware side of security, it gets deep pretty quickly, but you can at least dip your toes in the shallow end with what you’ve got in your closet. | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775887",
"author": "Julianne",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T17:37:42",
"content": "I suppose with Arduino encryption broken, soon we’ll finally be able to run custom code on them! :o)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775931",
... | 1,760,371,855.924216 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/wrap-your-keyboard-with-a-vacuum-former/ | Wrap Your Keyboard With A Vacuum Former | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"keycaps",
"vacuum former",
"vinyl wrap"
] | Coloured keycaps are a common customisation when it comes to making your input device special. If you are working with modern tech it’s easy, there are plenty of vendors who can sell you keycaps for any purpose. With retro tech it’s never so simple, if a keycap hasn’t been made for decades you’re out of luck. This doesn’t faze [Drygol] though, who has solved the coloured retro keycap in a unique and non-destructive way.
Wrap them in vinyl film using a vacuum former
.
Vacuum formers are an often-underrated tool in the hardware arsenal, but as this project shows, they can produce startlingly good results. Original keycaps are placed on a 3D-printed scaffold before the vinyl is formed over them, then they are carefully cut out and a triangular edge on both sides is folded underneath, The result is an Amiga with a striking orange keyboard, and for us the best bit is that the original key is safely preserved under the vinyl.
[Drygol]’s exceptional work in the retrocomputing sphere has delighted us many times on these pages. There are too many examples to link here, but one we particularly liked was
this nearly-all-new Amiga 2000
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775848",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T15:18:00",
"content": "Vacuum forming is indeed quite cool (pun intended :) ) I’ve seen some commercial kits for small scale vacuum forming and they are remarkably expensive for no apparent reason at all. You still have to add ... | 1,760,371,855.871592 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/ask-hackaday-has-firefox-finally-gone-too-far/ | Ask Hackaday: Has Firefox Finally Gone Too Far? | Jenny List | [
"internet hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"firefox",
"privacy",
"web browser"
] | In a world where so much of our lives depend on the use of online services, the web browser used to access those services becomes of crucial importance. It becomes a question of whether we trust the huge corporate interests which control this software with such access to our daily lives, and it is vital that the browser world remains a playing field with many players in the game.
The mantle has traditionally fallen upon Mozilla’s Firefox browser to represent freedom from corporate ownership, but over the last couple of years even they have edged away from their open source ethos and morphed into an advertising company that happens to have a browser. We’re asking you: can we still trust Mozilla’s Firefox,
when the latest version turns on ad measurement by default
?
Such has been the dominance of Google’s Chromium in the browser world, that it becomes difficult to find alternatives which aren’t based on it. We can see the attraction for developers, instead of pursuing the extremely hard task of developing a new browser engine, just use one off-the-shelf upon which someone else has already done the work. As a result, once you have discounted browsers such as the venerable
Netsurf
or
Dillo
which are cool as heck but relatively useless for modern websites, the choices quickly descend into the esoteric. There are
Ladybird
and
Servo
which are both promising but still too rough around the edges for everyday use, so what’s left? Probably
LibreWolf
represents the best option, a version of Firefox with a focus on privacy and security.
We’re interested in your views on this topic, because we know you’ll have a lot to say about it. Meanwhile if you’re a Firefox user who’s upgraded to version 128 and you’re not sure what to do, don’t panic. Find the settings page, go to “Privacy and Security”, and un-check the “Website Advertising Preferences” checkbox. | 119 | 37 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775775",
"author": "The Mighty Buzzard",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T11:17:39",
"content": "Firefox has been a bad joke on its formerly awesome self for a very long time now. They may not have entirely sold their souls to Google back in the early 2000s and just be boiling us frogs slo... | 1,760,371,856.155866 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/14/the-mysterious-roman-dodecahedron-was-possibly-just-for-knitting/ | The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron Was Possibly Just For Knitting | Maya Posch | [
"History"
] | [
"dodecahedron",
"knitting"
] | Over the years archaeological digs of Roman sites have uncovered many of these strange dodecahedrons, usually made out of metal and with various holes in their faces. With no surviving records that describe how they were used, speculation has ranged from jewelry to a knitting aid. In a
2023 video
by [Amy Gaines] it is this latter use which is explored, using a 3D printed dodecahedron and some wooden dowels to knit both gold wire and yarn into rather intricate patterns that are also referred to as ‘Viking Knitting’.
As we
mentioned previously
when yet another one of these dodecahedrons was uncovered, their use was unlikely to be of supreme relevance in military or scientific circles on account of a lack of evidence. What is quite possible is that these were both attractive shapes for jewelry (beads), and useful knitting aids for both jewelry makers (for e.g. gold wire braiding) and quite possibly yarn-related uses. The results which [Amy] demonstrates in the video for the gold wire in particular bear a striking resemblance to ancient braided gold chains on display at the Met and other museums, which leads credence to this theory.
If these items were effectively just common knitting tools, that would explain why the historical record is mum on them, as they would have been as notable as a hammer or a
precision lathe
used by the ancient Greeks.
Thanks to [john] for the tip. | 40 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775753",
"author": "Glen Searle",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T09:22:31",
"content": "Not all dodecahedrons have holes. They also predate the widespread spinning of wool by over a thousand years. My guess is that as they have twelve sides which are all a little different, it had some f... | 1,760,371,855.827801 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/print-wave-metal-casting/ | Print Wave Metal Casting | Navarre Bartz | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"brass",
"casting",
"metal",
"metal casting",
"microwave",
"microwave casting",
"mold",
"plaster of paris"
] | Direct 3D printing of metal remains out of reach for the hobbyist at the moment, so casting is often the next best thing, particularly given the limitations of 3D printed metals. [Denny] from
Shake the Future
shows us how to simplify the process with “
print wave metal casting
.”
The first step of printing a PLA object will seem familiar to any 3D print to metal process, but the main differentiator here is pouring the investment casting on the printer build plate itself. We like how he used some G-code to shake the build plate to help remove bubbles. Once the plaster solidifies, the plastic and mold are placed in the microwave to soften the plastic for removal.
The plaster is dried in an oven (or air fryer) and then [Denny] bolts the mold together for the casting process. Adding a vacuum helps with the surface finish, but you can always polish the metal with a generous helping of elbow grease.
If [Denny] seems familiar, you might remember his very detailed breakdown
of microwave casting
. We’ve seen plenty of different approaches to
metal casting
over the years here. Need a part in another material? How about casting
concrete
or
resin
?
Thanks to [marble] on the Hackaday Discord for the tip! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775743",
"author": "Ewald",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T08:05:09",
"content": "Great process and great video, this really invites to try it yourself,",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6775749",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timest... | 1,760,371,855.744771 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/c-design-patterns-for-low-latency-applications/ | C++ Design Patterns For Low-Latency Applications | Maya Posch | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"c++",
"code optimization"
] | With performance optimizations seemingly having lost their relevance in an era of ever-increasing hardware performance, there are still many good reasons to spend some time optimizing code. In a
recent preprint article
by [Paul Bilokon] and [Burak Gunduz] of the Imperial College London the focus is specifically on low-latency patterns that are relevant for applications such as high-frequency trading (
HFT
). In HFT the small margins are compensated for by churning through absolutely massive volumes of trades, all of which relies on extremely low latency to gain every advantage. Although FPGA-based solutions are very common in HFT due their low-latency, high-parallelism, C++ is the main language being used beyond FPGAs.
Although many of the optimizations listed in the paper are quite obvious, such as prewarming the CPU caches, using
constexpr
, loop unrolling and use of inlining, other patterns are less obvious, such as hotpath versus coldpath. This overlaps with the branch reduction pattern, with both patterns involving the separation of commonly and rarely executed code (like error handling and logging), improving use of the CPU’s caches and preventing branch mispredictions, as the benchmarks (using Google Benchmark) clearly demonstrates. All design patterns can also be found in the
GitHub repository
.
Other interesting tidbits are the impact of signed and unsigned comparisons, mixing floating point datatypes and of course lock-free programming using a ring buffer design. Only missing from this list appears to be aligned vs unaligned memory accesses and zero-copy optimizations, but those should be easy additions to implement and test next to the other optimizations in this paper. | 41 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775719",
"author": "Bobtato",
"timestamp": "2024-07-14T02:49:53",
"content": "Moore’s law may not have run out quite yet, but it’s slowing down, while software bloat isn’t, so I think software performance is going to become a much hotter topic.I mean, it always was at a very low le... | 1,760,371,856.001683 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/axial-3d-printer-aces-test-aboard-virgin-spaceplane/ | Axial 3D Printer Aces Test Aboard Virgin Spaceplane | Tom Nardi | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Space"
] | [
"lithography",
"Virgin Galactic",
"zero-gravity"
] | Here on Earth, being able to 3D print replacement parts is handy, but rarely necessary. If you’ve got a broken o-ring, printing one out is just saving you a trip to the hardware store. But on the Moon, Mars, or in deep space, that broken component could be the difference between life and death. In such an environment, the ability to print replacement parts on demand promises to be a game changer.
Which is why the recent
successful test of a next-generation 3D printer
developed by a group of Berkeley researchers is so exciting. During a sub-orbital flight aboard Virgin Galactic’s
Unity
spaceplane, the SpaceCAL printer was able to rapidly produce four test prints using a unique printing technology known as computed axial lithography (CAL).
NASA already demonstrated that
3D printing in space was possible
aboard the International Space Station in a series of tests in 2014. But the printer used for those tests wasn’t far removed technologically from commercial desktop models, in that the objects it produced were built layer-by-layer out of molten plastic.
In comparison, CAL produces a solid object by polymerizing a highly viscous resin within a rotating cylinder. The trick is to virtually rotate the 3D model at the same speed as the cylinder, and to project a 2D representation of it from a fixed view point into the resin. The process is not only faster than traditional 3D printers, but involves fewer moving parts.
Lead researcher [Taylor Waddell] says that SpaceCAL had already performed well on parabolic flights, which provide a reduced-gravity environment for short periods of time, but the longer duration of this flight allowed them to push the machine farther and collect more data.
It’s also an excellent reminder that, while often dismissed as the playthings of the wealthy, sub-orbital spacecraft like those being developed by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are capable of hosting real scientific research. As long as your experiment doesn’t need to be in space for more than a few minutes to accomplish its goals, they can offer a ticket to space that’s not only cheaper than a traditional orbital launch, but comes with less red tape attached. | 32 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775686",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T23:44:42",
"content": ">a highly viscous resin within a rotating cylinder.>sub-orbital spacecraft (…) are capable of hosting real scientific researchRight, but what then was the point of doing it in zero gravity? If the resin is l... | 1,760,371,856.523802 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/docker-powered-remote-gaming-with-games-on-whales/ | Docker-Powered Remote Gaming With Games On Whales | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Games",
"Software Development"
] | [
"docker",
"gaming",
"linux",
"server",
"software",
"streaming",
"virtualization"
] | Cloud gaming services allow even relatively meager devices like set top boxes and cheap Chromebooks play the latest and greatest titles. It’s not perfect of course — latency is the number one issue as the player’s controller inputs need to be sent out to the server — but if you’ve got a fast enough connection it’s better than nothing. Interested in experimenting with the tech on your own terms? The open source
Games on Whales project is here to make that a reality
.
As you might have guessed from the name, Games on Whales uses Linux and Docker as core components in its remote gaming system. With the software installed on a headless server, multiple users can create virtual desktop environments on the same machine, with each spawning as a separate process on the host computer. This means that all of the hardware of the host can be shared without needing to do anything complicated like setting up GPU pass-through. The main Docker container can spin up more containers as needed.
Of course there will obviously be limits to what any given hardware configuration will be able to support in terms of number of concurrent users and the demands of each stream. But for someone who wants to host a server for their friends or something even simpler like not having to put a powerful gaming PC in the living room, this is a real game-changer. For those not up to speed on Docker yet,
we recently featured a guide on getting started
with this powerful tool since it does take some practice to wrap one’s mind around at first. | 15 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775654",
"author": "Misterlaneous",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T21:06:00",
"content": "I’ve migrated my docker server over to podman because it is far more secure. Instead of each container running as root, each container runs as a user with just enough permissions to run the containe... | 1,760,371,856.638907 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/the-nsa-is-defeated-by-a-1950s-tape-recorder-can-you-help-them/ | The NSA Is Defeated By A 1950s Tape Recorder. Can You Help Them? | Jenny List | [
"History"
] | [
"ampex",
"grace hopper",
"nsa",
"video tape"
] | One of the towering figures in the evolution of computer science was Grace Hopper, an American mathematician, academic, and Naval reservist, whose work gave us the first programming languages, compilers, and much more. Sadly she passed away in 1992, so her wisdom hasn’t directly informed the Internet Age in the manner of some of her surviving contemporaries.
During her life she gave many lectures though, and as [Michael Ravnitzky] discovered, one of them was recorded on video tape and resides in the archives of America’s National Security Agency. With the title “Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People”,
it was the subject of a Freedom Of Information request
. This in turn was denied, on the grounds that “Without being able to view the tapes, NSA has no way to verify their responsiveness”. In short, the recording lies on Ampex 1″ reel-to-reel video tape, which the NSA claims no longer to be able to read.
It’s fairly obvious from that response that the agency has no desire to oblige, and we’d be very surprised to find that they keep a working Ampex video system to hand on the off-chance that a passing researcher might ask for an archive tape. But at the same time it’s also obvious that a lecture from Rear Admiral Hopper is an artifact of international importance that should be preserved and available for study. It’s an interesting thought exercise to guess how many phone calls Hackaday would have to make to secure access to a working Ampex video recorder, and since we think for us that number would be surprisingly low it’s likely the NSA know exactly who to call if they needed that tape viewed in a hurry. We don’t have influence over secretive government agencies, but if we did we’d be calling shame on them at this point.
If you’re curious about Grace Hopper,
we’ve talked about her work here in the past.
Thanks [F4GRX] for the tip.
Ampex image:
Telecineguy.
, Public domain. | 59 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775610",
"author": "midori",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T17:11:11",
"content": "The NSA should give NASA a call.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775644",
"author": "Gunplumber",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T20:30:59... | 1,760,371,856.737429 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/its-not-unsual-to-love-hacking/ | It’s Not Unusual To Love Hacking | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"newsletter",
"sharing hacks"
] | Most of what we do here at Hackaday is look out for cool projects and then write them up so that you all know about them. Nothing is better than being really stoked about a clever hack and then being able to share it with tens of thousands of like-minded folks. Sure, it’s our job, but we really do it because we love to share. And it’s clear that you all do too! After all,
we
write up the hacks that
you
document for us.
We recently featured a hack where the guy who did the work in question said that he didn’t think it was “worthy of Hackaday”. (Of course, it was!) And I don’t like that sentiment at all, honestly, because a hack that you enjoyed doing is a hack worth sharing, even if just for sharing the joy of doing it, and that came across fully.
Of course we gladly feature the ultra-bravado hacks where the nearly impossible is made real. But there’s equal value in the simple hacks that inspire others to pursue one odd path or another. Or even pieces where there’s no hack involved, but simply the sharing of something cool.
This week, [Arya Voronova] wrote a piece about
her experience using MicroPython on embedded devices
, and it apparently resonated with a lot of our readers. It’s not a deep-dive into MicroPython, or a mind-bending abuse of the language. Instead, it’s a simple “this is what I love about doing things this way”, and that’s a great perspective that often gets lost when we get deep in the technical weeds.
I had the same realization a few months back at Hackaday Europe. In the lightning talks, most everyone gave talks about cool projects that they are working on, and they’re absolutely worth watching for that. [Jaap Meijers] gave
a wonderful talk about making animated QR codes
, but it wasn’t about how he invented animated QR codes, because he was just using someone else’s project. Instead, it was about how neat he thought someone else’s work was, and how he really wanted to share it with us. (And now
you
know too.)
Epic hacks are fantastic, no question. But the simple expression of the love of hacking, whether in words or in the
doing
, is equally important. Show us your work, but don’t forget to show us your joy along the way.
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
! | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775583",
"author": "Aaron Christophel",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T14:09:41",
"content": "UNSUAL?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775584",
"author": "Aaron Christophel",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T14:13:35",
... | 1,760,371,856.80209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/particle-physics-on-a-small-affordable-pcb/ | Particle Physics On A Small, Affordable PCB | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Science"
] | [
"amplifier",
"beta particles",
"beta radiation",
"particle detector",
"photodiode",
"rp2040",
"semiconductor"
] | Experimenting in the world of particle physics probably brings to mind large, expensive pieces of equipment like particle accelerators, or at least exotic elements or isotopes that most of us can’t easily find. But plenty of common objects emit various particles, and it turns out that detecting these particles does not require government backing or acres of test equipment. In fact, you can get this job done with a few readily-available parts
and [Tim] shows us how it’s done with his latest project
.
The goal of his build is to have a working particle detector for less than $10 per board, although he’s making them in bulk to be used in an educational setting. The board uses a set of photodiodes enclosed in a protective PCB sandwich to detect beta particles from a Potassium-40 source. The high-energy electron interacts with the semiconductor in the photodiode and creates a measurable voltage pulse, which can be detected and recorded by the microcontroller on the board. For this build an RP2040 chip is being used, with a number of layers of amplification between it and the photodetector array used to get signals that the microcontroller can read.
Getting particle physics equipment into the hands of citizen scientists is becoming a lot more common thanks to builds like this which leverage the quirks of semiconductors to do something slightly outside their normal use case, and of course the people building them
releasing their projects’ documentation on GitHub
. We’ve also seen
an interesting muon detector
with a price tag of around $100 and
an alpha particle detector
which uses a copper wire with a high voltage to do its work. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775568",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T12:34:36",
"content": "“Experimenting in the world of particle physics probably brings to mind large, expensive pieces of equipment like particle accelerators, or at least exotic elements or isotopes that most of us can’t easi... | 1,760,371,856.576267 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/13/rulers-of-the-ancient-world-literally/ | Rulers Of The Ancient World — Literally! | Al Williams | [
"History"
] | [
"ancient technology",
"measurement",
"ruler"
] | If you were expecting a post about ancient kings and queens, you are probably at the wrong website. [Burn Heart] has a fascination with
ancient measuring devices
and set out to recreate period-correct rules, although using decidedly modern techniques.
The first example is a French rule for measuring the “pied du Roi” or king’s foot. Apparently, his royal highness had large feet as a the French variant is nearly 13 inches long. The next rulers hail from Egypt and measure cubits and spans. Turns out the pyramid builders left a lot of information about measurements and their understanding of math and tools like dividers.
Other rules from Rome, Japan, and the Indus Valley are also included. According to the post, one set of these rulers used locally sourced wood, but a second “limited” edition used wood that the originals might have. Most of the rulers were etched via CNC, although the French ruler was hand-etched.
The Romans, apparently, had smaller feet than French royalty, as their Pes or foot was about 11.65 inches. There are plenty of little tidbits in the post ranging from the origin of the word inch to why the black wood used for piano keys is called ebony.
We’ll stipulate this isn’t exactly a hack, although it is fine workmanship and part of hacker culture is obsessing over measuring things, so we thought it was fair game. These days, rulers are often
electronic
. Which makes it natural to put them
on a PC board
. | 29 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775534",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T08:12:12",
"content": "The metre should have been made equal to the yard. Close enough for government work and would have saved a lot of hassle.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,371,856.961273 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/a-teeny-3d-printed-printing-press-thanks-gutenberg/ | A Teeny 3D-Printed Printing Press, Thanks Gutenberg | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d print",
"3d printer",
"Gutenberg",
"printing press"
] | The printing press was first invented in 1440 AD by Johannes Gutenberg. It’s not so relevant to our day to day lives today, but it’s a technology that forever changed the path of human history. Now you can whip one up yourself
using this teeny design from the [3DPrintingEnthusiast]!
Don’t expect to be making broadsheets with this thing—it’s a strictly table-top sized unit made on a 3D printer. Still, it does the job! The bed, frame, paper holder, and clamps are all 3D-printed. However, you will need some minor additional supplies to complete the carriage and inkballs.
As for your printing plates, you could go out and source some ancient lead type—or you could just 3D print some instead. The latter is probably easier if you’re living in 2024 like yours truly. Who knows, though. 2028 could be a banner year where printing presses roar back to prominence. Try not to think about the global scale disasters that would make that a reality.
In any case, there’s got to be some kind of irony about
3D-printing a printing press on a 3D printer
? Perhaps, perhaps not. Debate it below! | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775508",
"author": "Eric Mockler",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T05:21:20",
"content": "Or put a quill pen in a 3D printer, and intersperse the gcode with inkwell dipping. To print all the new constitutions and declarations of independence coming our way.",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,371,856.893051 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/surgery-not-just-for-humans-anymore/ | Surgery — Not Just For Humans Anymore | Navarre Bartz | [
"Science"
] | [
"Amputation",
"animal intelligence",
"ants",
"insects",
"surgery"
] | Sometimes, a limb is damaged so badly that the only way to save the patient is to amputate it. Researchers have now found that humans aren’t the only species to
perform life-saving amputations
. [via
Live Science
]
While some ants have a gland that secretes antimicrobial chemicals to treat wounds in their comrades, Florida carpenter ants have lost this ability over the course of evolution. Lacking this chemical means to treat wounds, these ants have developed the first observed surgery in an animal other than humans.
When an ant has a wounded leg, its fellow ants analyze the damage. If the femur is the site of the wound, the other ants removed the damaged limb in 76% of cases by biting it off, while tibial wounds were treated in other ways. Experimental amputations of the tibia by researchers showed no difference in survivability compared to leaving the limb intact unless the amputation was performed immediately, so it seems the ants know what they’re doing.
Maybe these ants could be helpful surgical aids with some
cyborg additions
since they’ve already got experience? Ants can
help you with programming
too if that’s more your speed. | 21 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775484",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T02:26:32",
"content": "Do you want ants?!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6775488",
"author": "Matt",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T03:19:09",
"content": "I for one w... | 1,760,371,857.02327 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/tiny-transceiver-gets-it-done-with-one-transistor/ | Tiny Transceiver Gets It Done With One Transistor | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"direct conversion",
"ham",
"QRP",
"transceiver"
] | When we first spotted the article about
a one-transistor amateur radio transceiver
, we were sure it was a misprint. We’ve seen a lot of simple low-power receivers using a single transistor, and a fair number of one-transistor transmitters. But both in one package with only a single active component? Curiosity piqued.
It turns out that [Ciprian Popica (YO6DXE)]’s design is exactly what it says on the label, and it’s pretty cool to boot. The design is an improvement on a one-transistor transceiver called “El Pititico” and is very petite indeed. The BOM has only about fifteen parts including a 2N2222 used as a crystal-controlled oscillator for both the transmitter and the direct-conversion receiver, along with a handful of passives and a coupe of hand-wound toroidal inductors. There’s no on-board audio section, so you’ll have to provide an external amplifier to hear the signals; some might say this is cheating a bit from the “one transistor” thing, but we’ll allow it. Oh, and there’s a catch — you have to learn Morse code, since this is a CW-only transmitter.
As for construction, [Ciprian] provides a nice PCB layout, but the video below seems to show a more traditional “ugly style” build, which
we always appreciate
. The board lives in a wooden box small enough to get lost in a pocket. The transceiver draws about 1.5 mA while receiving and puts out a fairly powerful 500 mW signal, which is fairly high in
the QRP world
. [Ciprian] reports having milked a full watt out of it with some modifications, but that kind of pushes the transistor into Magic Smoke territory. The signal is a bit chirpy, too, but not too bad.
We love minimalist builds like these; they always have us sizing up our junk bin and wishing we were better stocked on crystals and toroids. It might be good to actually buckle down and learn Morse too. | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775464",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T23:41:03",
"content": "“Oh, and there’s a catch — you have to learn Morse code, since this is a CW-only transmitter.”Nah, you can do a little hack and put a dynamic microphone in the oscillator line and have AM. ;)Ideally, it’s ... | 1,760,371,857.179604 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/home-automation-panel-looks-industrial/ | Home Automation Panel Looks Industrial | Al Williams | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"home automation",
"home-assistant"
] | Modern tech is great, but we have to admit that we sometimes miss when electronic things looked complicated. A modern computer looks dull compared to, say, an IBM 360. Control rooms now look no different than a stock trading room, instead of being full of indicators, knobs, and buzzers. [BorisDigital] must have some of those same feelings. He built a very cool
control panel
for his Home Assistant setup. He based it somewhat on a jet cockpit and a little on a nuclear plant control room, and the result, as you can see in the video below, is great.
This is less of a how-to video and more of an inspirational one. After all, you won’t have the same setup, but there are many details about how it was constructed with a Raspberry Pi, 3D printing, and control of the Home Assistant via web services.
You might point out that you could put everything on a computer screen, but what fun is that? There is a touchscreen, so you do have some options. Normally, the panel hangs on the wall, but you can snap feet on to rest the panel on a desk or table.
The panel has about 50 I/O devices, so a GPIO expander — actually several of them — was necessary. To make a nice-looking label, he fills in 3D-printed inset text with spackle. It isn’t perfect, but it looks good enough. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775474",
"author": "TheOnceAndFutureThingy",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T00:50:56",
"content": "Oh it’s beautiful. Cockpit and nuclear power plant as home decor. I would have said CNC machining center. Makes Alexa look like a Disney princess, snd that’s not a compliment.",
"parent... | 1,760,371,857.07268 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/iron-man-arc-reactor-clock-is-a-stylish-piece/ | Iron Man Arc Reactor Clock Is A Stylish Piece | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"arc reactor",
"clock",
"iron man",
"leds"
] | Iron Man
was the film that kicked off the Marvel craze, and is widely regarded to be better than a lot of the movies that followed. If you’re a big fan of the OG, you’re probably already drowning in Iron Man helmets and arc reactor doo-dads, but here’s one more for you. After all,
you probably don’t have an arc reactor clock yet.
The build comes to us from [jerome95]. It starts with an off-the-shelf ring of addressable LEDs, which serves as the basic defining dimension for the project. The ring gets a 3D printed support structure and some non-functional copper coils to complete the basic “arc reactor” look. Inside the center sits a small 7-segment display which displays the time under the command of an ESP32. It uses a network time server so it’s always on the dot. Meanwhile, if you’re not a fan of the 7-segment version, you can always try the
OLED variant
of the build instead.
It’s not a complicated build; that could have been easily achieved, though. The builder could have displayed the time by making the LEDs flash different colors, instead of using a 7-segment display. However, that would have made a
far more confounding clock
. As it is, this design would make an excellent gift for any Marvel fan. Particularly those that acknowledge the supremacy of the film that started it all. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775438",
"author": "Bleugh",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T21:45:25",
"content": "Love this, simple, but functional, something we all could build with a little effort :-)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6775500",
"author": "Jer... | 1,760,371,857.117314 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/build-your-own-hydroelectric-dam/ | Build Your Own Hydroelectric Dam | Al Williams | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"dam",
"hydroelectric",
"turbine"
] | We have to admit that we often think about building unusual things, but we hadn’t really considered building our own hydroelectric dam before.
[Mini Construction] did
, apparently, and there’s a timelapse of the build in the video below.
We wished this was more of a how-to video, although if you are handy with brickwork, the mechanical construction seems straightforward. Presumably, you’d need to understand how much force the water had but we don’t know if there was math involved or just seat-of-the-pants design.
We were unclear what the tower was for until we saw the turbine installed in it. We weren’t clear where it came from, and it looked like maybe it was repurposed from something else. If you recognize what it is, or have a guess, drop a comment, will you? While the brickwork was impressive, the wiring — especially near water — looked a bit suspect. We hope that was just test wiring and a more permanent arrangement was made later.
We have seen
hacker hydroelectric
before, but rarely.
Waterwheels
seem much more common. Honestly, the masonry work was the best we’ve seen since
[Walt] built a bomb shelter
. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775197",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T23:20:56",
"content": "Yeah, I would like to know more about the turbine and generator.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6775204",
"author": ... | 1,760,371,857.239755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/newly-completed-overly-complex-clock-synchronizes-multiple-mechanisms/ | Newly Completed Overly-Complex Clock Synchronizes Multiple Mechanisms | Donald Papp | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"complexity",
"dominoes",
"laser cut",
"marble run",
"rube goldberg"
] | Some time ago [Kelton] was working on a clock inspired by Rube Goldberg contraptions. It uses only a single motor, and he’s proud to now
show off the finished product
(video, embedded below.)
The clock shows hours on the left, and minutes on the right. Every sixty minutes the clock drops a marble. That marble kicks off a series of visually-satisfying operations that culminate in advancing the hour. Then everything resets, and it continues for as long as it has power.
The hour oscillates in a very satisfying manner as it locks in.
At the top of each hour, the minute hand tips a marble with a gravity cam. That marble runs down a track gaining enough momentum to flip a kicker, and a short series of falling dominoes builds enough force to tip and trigger the spring-loaded ratchet that locks in a new hour. You can
skip directly to 2:09
if you just want to listen to [Kelton] explain the whole operation from beginning to end.
We think it’s very interesting to note that this clock’s complexity is, if anything, understated. Each of the mechanisms involved must individually reset by their own separate mechanisms, each of which are as intriguing as their showier counterparts, and we’re sure they were every bit as difficult to get just right. And of course, it’s all driven by a single motor.
You may recall
the promising start this clock project was off to
and we’re delighted to see it come to completion, especially considering its complexity. Not every project sees completion, and
fewer still get a version two
, but that’s okay. What really floats our boat is seeing the process and details as well as hearing about what worked and what didn’t. We’re glad this clock reached the finish line, but even if something doesn’t work out, there’s always something to learn. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775252",
"author": "Trevor",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T06:37:33",
"content": "Beautiful, I would love to try build one if you would be so kind as to share your files",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,371,857.404041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/2024-business-card-challenge-the-gift-of-music/ | 2024 Business Card Challenge: The Gift Of Music | Kristina Panos | [
"contests",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"2024 Business Card Challenge",
"arm cortex-m",
"dac"
] | Has anyone ever told you that you just can’t carry a tune? If you were to be the lucky recipient of one of
[Ayu]’s synthesizer business cards
, well, then it really couldn’t be helped.
This tiny, go-anywhere instrument has quite a lot going for it. It’s easy for anyone to pick up and play something, but versatile enough that a more experienced musician can add complexity. While we do tend to see twelve keys in a small form-factor like this, the Canta-Cart uses them a bit differently. Only ten are tied to notes, and the other two are for transposition.
[Ayu] was able to keep the BOM cost way down by using the PY32, which is an ARM Cortex-M microcontroller made by Puya that costs as little as 10¢ each. In fact, the whole BOM clocks in around 60¢ total even with the audio DAC and amplifier ICs, which really makes these ideal to actually give away to people. Check it out in action after the break, or
try it in the browser
! | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775155",
"author": "Ewald",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T20:00:58",
"content": "Nice! I might actually try and build this",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6775156",
"author": "funvill",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T20:08:35",
... | 1,760,371,857.44723 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/you-can-build-a-little-car-that-goes-farther-than-you-push-it/ | You Can Build A Little Car That Goes Farther Than You Push It | Lewin Day | [
"Science",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"generator",
"motor",
"physics"
] | Can you build a car that travels farther than you push it?
[Tom Stanton] shows us that you can
, using a capacitor and some nifty design tricks.
[Tom]’s video shows us the construction of a small 3D printed trike with a curious drivetrain. There’s a simple generator on board, which charges a capacitor when the trike is pushed along the ground. When the trike is let go, however, this generator instead acts as a motor, using energy stored in the capacitor to drive the trike further.
When put to the test by [Tom], both a freewheeling car and the capacitor car are pushed up to a set speed. But the capacitor car goes farther. The trick is simple – the capacitor car can go further because it has more energy. But how?
It’s all because more
work
is being done to push the capacitor car up to speed. It stores energy in the capacitor while it’s being accelerated by the human pushing it. In contrast, after being pushed, the freewheeling car merely coasts to a stop as it loses kinetic energy. However, the capacitor car has similar kinetic energy plus the energy stored in its capacitor, which it can use to run its motor.
It’s a neat exploration of some basic physics, and useful learning if you’ve ever wondered about the prospects of
perpetual motion machines
. | 25 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775086",
"author": "David Given",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T15:50:20",
"content": "You don’t need a generator for this. It works just as well with a geared down flywheel. That’s how those push-along toys operate. Work is done spinning up the flywheel, and then when you let go the fl... | 1,760,371,857.511948 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/embedded-python-micropython-is-amazing/ | Embedded Python: MicroPython Is Amazing | Arya Voronova | [
"Featured",
"News",
"Original Art",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [
"microcontroller",
"micropython",
"programming",
"skills"
] | In case you haven’t heard, about a month ago MicroPython has celebrated its 11th birthday. I was lucky that I was able to start hacking with it soon after pyboards have shipped – the first tech talk I remember giving
was about MicroPython
, and that talk was how I got into the hackerspace I subsequently spent years in. Since then, MicroPython been a staple in my projects, workshops, and hacking forays.
If you’re friends with Python or you’re willing to learn, you might just enjoy it a lot too. What’s more, MicroPython is an invaluable addition to a hacker’s toolkit, and I’d like to show you why.
Hacking At Keypress Speed
Got a MicroPython-capable chip? Chances are, MicroPython will serve you well in a number of ways that you wouldn’t expect. Here’s a shining example of what you can do. Flash MicroPython onto your board – I’ll use a RP2040 board like a Pi Pico. For a Pico, connect an I2C device to your board with SDA on pin 0 and SCL on pin 1, open a serial terminal of your choice and type this in:
>>> from machine import I2C, Pin
>>> i2c = I2C(0, sda=Pin(0), scl=Pin(1))
>>> i2c.scan()
This interactivity is known as REPL – Read, Evaluate, Print, Loop. The REPL alone makes MicroPython amazing for board bringup, building devices quickly, reverse-engineering, debugging device library problems and code, prototyping code snippets, writing test code and a good few other things. You can explore your MCU and its peripherals at lightning speed, from inside the MCU.
When I get a new I2C device to play with, the first thing I tend to do is wiring it up to a MicroPython-powered board, and poking at its registers. It’s as simple as this:
>>> for i in range(16):
>>> # read out registers 0-15
>>> # print "address value" for each
>>> print(hex(i), i2c.readfrom_mem(0x22, i))
>>> # write something to a second (0x01) register
>>> i2c.writeto_mem(0x22, 0x01, bytes([0x01]) )
That
i2c.scan()
line alone replaces an I2C scanner program you’d otherwise have to upload into your MCU of choice, and you can run it within three to five seconds. Got Micropython running? Use serial terminal, Ctrl+C, and that will drop you into a REPL, just type
i2c.scan()
and press Enter. What’s more, you can inspect your code’s variables from the REPL, and if you structure your code well, even restart your code from where it left off! This is simply amazing for debugging code crashes, rare problems, and bugs like “it stops running after 20 days of uptime”. In many important ways, this removes the need for a debugger – you can now use your MCU to debug your code from the inside.
Oh, again, that
i2c.scan()
? You can quickly modify it if you need to add features on the fly. Want addresses printed in hex?
(hex(addr) for addr in i2c.scan())
. Want to scan your bus while you’re poking your cabling looking for a faulty wire? Put the scan into a
while True:
and Ctrl+C when you’re done. When using a typical compiled language, this sort of tinkering requires an edit-compile-flash-connect-repeat cycle, taking about a dozen seconds each time you make a tiny change. MicroPython lets you hack at the speed of your keyboard typing. Confused the pins? Press the `up` button, edit the line and run the
i2c =
line anew.
To be clear, all of code is running on your microcontroller, you just type it into your chip’s RAM and it is executed by your MCU. Here’s how you check GPIOs on your Pi Pico, in case you’re worried that some of them have burnt out:
>>> from machine import Pin
>>> from time import sleep
>>> pin_nums = range(30) # 0 to 29
>>> # all pins by default - remove the ones connected to something else if needed
>>> pins = [Pin(num, Pin.OUT) for num in pin_nums]
>>>
>>> while True:
>>> # turn all pins on
>>> for i in range(len(pins)):
>>> pins[i].value(True)
>>> sleep(1)
>>> # turn all pins off
>>> for i in range(len(pins)):
>>> pins[i].value(False)
>>> sleep(1)
>>> # probe each pin with your multimeter and check that each pin changes its state
There’s many things that make MicroPython a killer interpreter for your MCU. It’s not just the hardware abstraction layer (HAL), but it’s also the HAL because moving your code from board to board is generally as simple as changing pin definitions. But it’s all the other libraries that you get for free that make Python awesome on a microcontroller.
Batteries Included
It really is about the batteries – all the libraries that the stock interpreter brings you, and many more that you can download. Only an import away are
time
,
socket
,
json
,
requests
,
select
,
re
and many more, and overwhelmingly, they work the same as CPython. You can do the same
r = requests.get("https://retro.hackaday.com"); print(r.text)[:1024]
as you would do on desktop Python, as long as you got a network connection going on. There will be a few changes – for instance,
time.time()
is an integer, not a float, so if you need to keep track of time very granularly, there are different functions you can use.
Say, you want to parse JSON from a web endpoint. If you’re doing that in an Arduino environment, chances are, you will be limited in what you can do, and you will get triangle bracket errors if you mis-use the JSON library constructs because somehow the library uses templates; runtime error messages are up to you to implement. If you parse JSON on MicroPython and you expect a dict but get a list in runtime, it prints a readable error message. If you run out of memory, you get a very readable
MemoryError
printed out, you can expect it and protect yourself from it, even fix things from REPL and re-run the code if needed.
The user-supplied code is pretty good, too. If you want PIO or USB-HID on the RP2040, or ESP-CPU-specific functions on the ESP family, they are exposed in handy libraries. If you want a library to drive a display, it likely already has been implemented by someone and put on GitHub. And, if that doesn’t exist, you port one from Arduino and publish it; chances are, it will be shorter and easier to read. Of course, MicroPython has problems. In fact, I’ve encountered a good few problems myself, and I would be amiss not mentioning them.
Mind The Scope
In my experience, the single biggest problem with MicroPython is that writing out `MicroPython` requires more of my attention span than I can afford. I personally shorten it to
uPy
or just
upy
, informally. Another problem is that the new, modernized MicroPython logo has no sources or high-res images available, so I can’t print my own stickers of it, and MicroPython didn’t visit FOSDEM this year, so I couldn’t replenish my sticker stock.
On a more serious note, MicroPython as a language has a wide scope of where you can use it; sometimes, it won’t work for you. An ATMega328P can’t handle it – but an ESP8266 or ESP32 will easily, without a worry in the world, and you get WiFi for free. If you want to exactly control what your hardware does, counting clock cycles or hitting performance issues, MicroPython might not work for you – unless you write some Viper code.
If you want to have an extremely-low-power MCU that runs off something like energy harvesting, MicroPython might not work – probably. If you need your code run instantly once your MCU gets power, mind the interpreter takes a small bit of time to initialize – about one second, in my experience. If you want to do HDMI output on a RP2040, perhaps stick to C – though you can still do PIO code, there are some nice libraries for it.
Some amount of clock cycles will be spent on niceties that Python brings. Need more performance? There are things you can do. For instance, if you have a color display connected over SPI and you want to reduce frame rendering time, you might want to drop down to C, but you don’t have to ditch MicroPython – just put more of your intensive code into C-written device drivers or modules you compile, and, prototype it in MicroPython before you write it.
As Seen On Hackaday
If you’ve followed the USB-C PD talking series, you must’ve seen that the code was written in MicroPython, and I’ve added features like PD sniffing, DisplayPort handling and PSU mode as if effortlessly; it was just that easy to add them and more. I started with the REPL, a FUSB302 connected to a RP2040, poking at registers and reading the datasheet, and while I needed outside help, the REPL work was so so much fun!
There’s something immensely satisfying about poking at a piece of technology interactively and trying to squeeze features out of it, much more if it ends up working, which it didn’t, but it did many other times! I’ve been hacking on that PD stack, and now I’m slowly reformatting it from a bundle of functions into object-based code – Python makes that a breeze.
Remember the Sony Vaio board? Its EC (embedded controller) is a RP2040, always powered on as long as batteries are inserted, and it’s going to be running MicroPython. The EC tasks include power management, being a HID over I2C peripheral, button and LED control, and possibly forwarding keyboard and trackpoint events to save a USB port from the second RP2040, which will run QMK and server as a keyboard controller. MicroPython allows me to make the firmware quickly, adorn it with a dozen features while I do it, and keep the codebase expandable on a whim. The firmware implementation will be a fun journey, and I hope I can tell about it at some point.
Have you used MicroPython in your projects? What did it bring to your party? | 105 | 23 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775056",
"author": "m1ke",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T14:34:54",
"content": "Great read! This motivates me to want to try MicroPython, just don’t know when I’ll get around to it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775069",
... | 1,760,371,857.681655 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/ticketmaster-safetix-reverse-engineered/ | Ticketmaster SafeTix Reverse-Engineered | Alexander Rowsell | [
"internet hacks",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"concert ticket",
"hash algorithm",
"reverse engineering",
"security through obscurity",
"ticketmaster",
"totp"
] | Ticketmaster is having a rough time lately. Recently, a hacker named [Conduition] managed to
reverse-engineer their new “safe” electronic ticket system
. Of course, they also had the recent breach where more than half a billion accounts had
personal and financial data leaked
without any indication of whether or not the data was fully encrypted. But we’re going to focus on the former, as it’s more technically interesting.
Ticketmaster’s stated goals for the new SafeTix system — which
requires
the use of a smartphone app — was to reduce fraud and ticket scalping. Essentially, you purchase a ticket using their app, and some data is downloaded to your phone which generates a rotating barcode every 15 seconds. When [Conduition] arrived at the venue, cell and WiFi service was totally swamped by everyone trying to load their barcode tickets. After many worried minutes (and presumably a few choice words) [Conduition] managed to get a cell signal long enough to update the barcode, and was able to enter, albeit with a large contingent of similarly annoyed fans trying to enter with their legally purchased tickets.
The real kicker here is that since the barcode rotates every 15 seconds, printing it out simply isn’t an option. This alienates anyone who doesn’t have a smartphone, which includes individuals who may not be able to physically operate one. So the problem isn’t simply that users were being forced to install yet another application on their device, but that the system reduces accessibility to entertainment. [Conduition] was dismayed and frustrated with this, and so the reverse-engineering effort began.
Decoding the barcode was actually quite simple. It is a standard PDF417 barcode, which contains a long Base64 string, two six-digit numbers, and a Unix timestamp all concatenated together with colons. The only parts of the string that seemed to change over time were the two six-digit numbers. Hmm, can we think of a common technology which generates six-digit numbers that update seemingly randomly on a fixed cycle? Of course — it’s just a Time-based one-time password (TOTP), the technology behind 2FA authenticator apps!
So where were the secret keys coming from? TOTP only requires two things: a static secret string, and the current time. [Conduition] checked the communication with the Ticketmaster servers and found a particularly interesting request that returned JSON-formatted data, inside which were of course the two secret keys. One seems to be unique per customer, and the other per ticket.
The important data captured from the web traffic
The Ticketmaster API documentation only briefly mentions this feature, but they do state that customers must refresh their ticket barcodes within 20 hours before an event starts. These two pieces of information were enough to allow [Conduition] to whip up a simple app that accepts the secret keys and the ticket ID and pops out the rotating barcodes. This would allow you to sell your tickets in the 20 hours prior to an event, or even just give them away to friends without having to give their personal data to Ticketmaster and allow you to take back control of your tickets.
Thanks to [Chrischi] for the tip! | 49 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775001",
"author": "Kalten",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T11:34:12",
"content": "I think I speak for a lot of people when I say f*$^ ticketmaster and their legsalised scalping",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775005",
"au... | 1,760,371,857.776841 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/celebrating-the-jack-ells-automatic-photometric-telescope/ | Celebrating The [Jack Ells] Automatic Photometric Telescope | Dan Maloney | [
"Space"
] | [
"BBC Micro",
"counter",
"equatorial",
"newtonian",
"photometry",
"photomultiplier",
"PM tube",
"telescope"
] | Here at Hackaday, we take pride in presenting the freshest hacks and the best of what’s going on today in the world of hardware hacking. But sometimes, we stumble upon a hack from the past so compelling that we’ve got to bring it to you, so we can all marvel at what was possible in the Before Times.
This one,
a completely homebrewed automatic photometric telescope
, was designed and built by the father-son team of [Jack Ells] and [Peter Ells]. From the elder [Ells]’ field notes, the telescope saw its first light in 1988, giving us some idea of the scale of problems that had to be overcome to get this wonderful machine working. The optics are straightforward, as least as telescopes go — it’s an
f-
4.0 Newtonian reflector with an 8.5″ (221 mm) primary mirror on an equatorial mount. The telescope is very rugged-looking indeed, and even stands on brick piers for stability. The telescope’s mount is controlled by a BBC Micro running custom BASIC software.
For the photometric parts, the [Ells] boys installed a photo-multiplier tube at the focus of the telescope. More precisely, they used a liquid light guide to connect the eyepiece to a rack full of equipment, which included the PM tube, its high-voltage power supply, and a series of signal conditioners and counter circuits. The idea was to view a single star through a pinhole mask over the objective of the telescope and count the rate of photons received over time. Doing so would reveal periodic changes in the star’s brightness. Today we’d use similar data to search for exoplanet transits; while we don’t think that was a thing back in 1988, it looks like this telescope could easily have handled the job.
Sadly, [Jack Ells] died only two years after finishing the telescope. But he left it with his son, who eventually moved it to a location with better seeing conditions, where it gathered data for another eight years. The quality of the work is amazing, and as father-son projects go, this one is tough to beat. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775029",
"author": "jawnhenry",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T13:26:51",
"content": "I would like to know where to getallavailableoriginal, and first-sourceinformation on this effort.Everything–from the (obviously) hand-ground optics; to the very robust equatorial mount; to the liquid l... | 1,760,371,857.825061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/hackaday-podcast-episode-279-solar-flares-flash-cells-and-free-airline-wifi/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 279: Solar Flares, Flash Cells, And Free Airline WiFi | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | Get your weekly fix of great hacks with your guides, Elliot Williams and Al Williams. This week, the guys talk about hacking airline WiFi, vanishing cloud services, and hobbies adjacent to hacking, such as general aviation. Things go into the weird and wonderful when the topic turns to cavity filters, driving LEDs with a candle, and thermite.
Quick hacks? Everything from vintage automated telescopes to home fusion reactors and ham radio mobile from a bicycle. Then there’s the can’t miss articles about the Solar Dynamics Observatory and an explainer about flash memory technology.
Check out the links below and leave your favorite hack of the week in the comments below!
As always,
this week’s episode is freeze-dried as an MP3 for your convenience
.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 279 Show Notes:
News:
Shapeways Files For Bankruptcy
Hackaday Supercon 2024 Call For Participation: We Want You!
What’s that Sound?
Do you know what the sound is
? Al didn’t, but if you do, you might win a limited edition Hackaday Podcast T-shirt.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Hacking Airline WiFi The Hard Way
DNS Tunneling: Getting The Data Out Over Other Peoples’ WiFi
You Break It, We Fix It
Dial-Up Internet Over WhatsApp
Samsung Killed The Online Service, This 20 Dollar Dongle Brings It Back
Transcend Wifi SD Card Is A Tiny Linux Server
Supercon 2023: Why More Hackers Should Earn Their Wings
Cavity Filters, The Black Art You Have A Chance Of Pursuing
Candle Powered Lantern Isn’t As Silly As You Think
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-News/50s/Radio-News-1958-08-R.pdf#page=37
The Thermite Process Iron Foundry
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Celebrating The [Jack Ells] Automatic Photometric Telescope
Plight Of The Lowly Numitron Tube
Repeatable “One-Click” Fusion, From Your Cellphone
Al’s Picks:
Bringing The 555 Mini-Notebook To Video
Going Ham Mobile On A Bicycle
C Compiler Exists Entirely In Vim
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Solar Dynamics Observatory: Our Solar Early Warning System
Citizen Scientist Radio Astronomy (and More): No Hardware Required
Zooniverse Sunspot Detectives
The Flash Memory Lifespan Question: Why QLC May Be NAND Flash’s Swan Song | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775370",
"author": "Paul Longley",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T16:41:53",
"content": "Thanks Guys – an enjoyable episode. I worked in Telecom, and waveguides always seemed like black magic as they blur the line between signal conduction being electromagnetic wave propagation and elect... | 1,760,371,857.868647 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/holy-keyboard-case-batman/ | Holy Keyboard Case, Batman! | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"safe",
"Zazu",
"Zazu keyboard",
"ZMK"
] | Whoever thought a keyboard could look so sinister?
Well, [rain2] aka [AffectionateWin7178], that’s who. Vengeance is the sixth keyboard they’ve designed, and let’s just say we wouldn’t mind seeing the other five.
This is a takeoff of Zazu, a custom case printed for the monoblock split designed by [AlSaMoMo]. A friend of [rain2] made a ZMK PCB for the Zazu about a month ago, and they dreamed up the case design together. Among our first questions were of course, how do you type without those bat wings digging into your palms? But evidently, they are designed not to get in the way at all during use.
We particularly like the gold skirt around the edge which joins the two printed halves. It goes nicely with the bank vault elements like the dial around the trackball and the five-way switch that resembles a handle. And yeah, we wish the Batmobile was a mouse, too. While it seems that [rain2] hasn’t released the STLs for the case, you can find
the ZMK Zazu repo
on GitHub. Happy designing! As always,
let us know what you come up with
.
Here’s another BAT keyboard you might be interested in
. | 4 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775350",
"author": "Big Alien Robot",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T15:26:05",
"content": "Best ragequit keyboard throw ever!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6775355",
"author": "olaf",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T15:37:16",
... | 1,760,371,857.914242 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/this-week-in-security-blast-radius-gitlab-and-plormbing/ | This Week In Security: Blast-RADIUS, Gitlab, And Plormbing | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"Blast RADIUS",
"RegreSSHion",
"This Week in Security"
] | The RADIUS authentication scheme, short for “Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service”, has been widely deployed for user authentication in all sorts of scenarios. It’s a bit odd, in that individual users authenticate to a “RADIUS Client”, sometimes called a Network Access Server (NAS). In response to an authentication request, a NAS packages up the authentication details, and sends it to a central RADIUS server for verification. The server then sends back a judgement on the authentication request, and if successful the user is authenticated to the NAS/client.
The scheme was updated to its current form in 1994, back when MD5 was considered a cryptographically good hash. It’s been demonstrated that MD5 has problems, most notably a chosen-prefix collision attack demonstrated in 2007. The basis of this collision attack is that given two arbitrary messages, it is possible to find a pair of values that, when appended to the end of those messages, result in matching md5 hashes for each combined message. It turns out
this is directly applicable to RADIUS
.
The attack
is a man-in-the-middle, but not against an authenticating user. This attack is a man-in-the-middle between the NAS and the RADIUS server, and a real user isn’t even required. This elevated position does make an attack harder to achieve in some cases, but situations like RADIUS providing authentication for administrative access to a device is squarely in scope. Wrapping the RADIUS backend communications in a TLS layer does protect against the attack.
Gitlab
It’s once again time to go update your Gitlab instances, and this one sounds familiar. It’s another issue where
an attacker could run pipeline jobs as an arbitrary user
. This comes as one more of a series of problems in Gitlab, with at least one of them being exploited in the wild. It’s not surprising to see a high-visibility vulnerability leading to the discovery of several more similar problems. With this latest issue being so similar to the previous pipeline problem, it’s possible that it’s actually an incomplete patch or additional workaround discovered to exploit the same issue.
Exim
There’s a bug in the Exim email server, that
impacts the processing of attachment blocking rules
. Specifically, the filename in the email header is broken into multiple parts, with some confusing extra bytes in between. It’s technically compliant with the right RFC, but
Exim’s mime handling code gets confused
, and misses the right message name.
Exim server can be configured to block certain file types, and this vulnerability allows those blocked attachments through. The original CVSS of 9.1 is a tad insane. The latest update drops that to a 5.4, which seems much more appropriate.
Plormbing Your ORM
Prisma is a “Next Generation ORM (Object Relational Mapper), that takes database schema, and maps it to code objects. In other words, it helps write code that interacts with a database.
There’s some potential problems there
, like using filters on protected data, to leak information one byte at a time, in a very Hollywood manner.
This brings us to a second approach, a time-based data leak. Here a SQL query will execute slowly or quickly depending on the data in the database. The
plormber tool
is designed to easily build attempts at time-based leaks. Hence the pun. If you have a leak in your ORM, call a plORMber. *sigh*
Internet Explorer Rises Again
When Microsoft finally obsoleted Internet Explorer in 2022, I had some hope that it wouldn’t be the cause of any more security issues. And yet here we are, in 2024, talking about
an exploitation campaign that used a 0-day in Windows to launch Internet Explorer
.
A very odd file extension,
.pdf.url
, manages to appear as a pdf file with the appropriate icon, and yet opens IE when executed. This finally got classified by Microsoft as a vulnerability and fixed.
Bits and Bytes
There’s
another SSH issue
, related to regreSSHion. This time a vendor patch makes a call to
cleanup_exit()
from a signal handler function, calling more async-unsafe code. If that doesn’t make any sense, circle back around to
last week’s installment of the column
for the details. This time it’s Fedora, Red Hat, and other distros that used the patch.
One of the security barriers that most of us rely on is that traffic originating from the WAN side of the router should stay there. When that paradigm breaks down, we have problems. And that’s exactly what
the folks at Claroty are working to defeat
. The trick this time is a vulnerability in a router’s Dynamic DNS service. Manage to spoof a DNS lookup or MitM that connection, and suddenly it’s RCE on the router.
And finally, we’ve covered a pair of outstanding stories this week here at Hackaday. You should go read about how
Ticketmaster’s app was reverse engineered
, followed by
a brilliant and completely impractical scheme
to get your Internet connection for free while flying. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775426",
"author": "ziew",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T20:54:46",
"content": "> It’s a bit odd, in that individual users authenticate to a “RADIUS Client”, sometimes called a Network Access Server (NAS).I think you got it backwards. Network Access Server is something that end users c... | 1,760,371,858.011535 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/diy-spacer-increases-fdm-flow-rate-for-faster-better-printing/ | DIY Spacer Increases FDM Flow Rate For Faster, Better Printing | Dan Maloney | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"bondtech",
"CHT",
"copper",
"extruder",
"FDM",
"hot end",
"Nozzle",
"spacer",
"volcano"
] | The host of problems to deal with when you’re feeling the need for FDM speed are many and varied, but high on the list is figuring out how to melt filament fast enough to accommodate high flow rates. Plus, the filament must be melted completely; a melty outside and a crunchy inside might be good for snacks, but not for 3D printing. Luckily, budget-minded hobbyists can build
a drop-in booster to increase volumetric flow
using only basic tools and materials.
[aamott]’s booster, which started life as a copper screw, is designed to replace the standard spacer in an extruder, with a bore that narrows as the filament gets closer to the nozzle to ensure that the core of the filament melts completely. Rather than a lathe, [aamott]’s main tool is a drill press, which he used to drill a 0.7 mm bore through the screw using a PCB drill bit. The hole was reamed out with a 10° CNC engraving bit, generating the required taper. After cutting off the head of the screw and cleaning up the faces, he cut radial slots into the body of the booster by threading the blade of a jeweler’s saw into the bore. The result was a bore wide enough to accept the filament on one end, narrowing to a (roughly) cross-shaped profile at the other.
Stacked up with a couple of knock-off Bondtech CHT nozzles, the effect of the booster was impressive — a 50% increase in flow rate. It’s not bad for a prototype made with simple tools, and it looks a little easier to build than
[Stefan]’s take on the same idea
. | 8 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775368",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T16:35:01",
"content": "Whats wrong with the Volcano CHT nozzles? This is basically, what this contraption tries to replicate, no?https://www.bondtech.se/product/bondtech-cht-volcano-coated-brass-nozzle/Available as clone from Ali f... | 1,760,371,857.956679 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/12/making-sd-cards-more-nostalgic-with-more-cartridge-ness/ | Making SD Cards More Nostalgic With More Cartridge-ness | Maya Posch | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"cartridge"
] | As practical SD cards are, they lack much of what made floppy disks and cartridges so awesome: room for art and a list of contents, as well as the ability to not be lost in shaggy carpet or down a pet’s gullet. In a fit of righteous nostalgia, [Abe] decided that he’d turn
SD cards into cartridges
in the best way possible, and amazingly managed to not only finish the project after two years, but also make it look snazzy enough to have come straight out of the 1980s. The resulting cartridges come both with fixed (256 MB) and removable micro SD card storage, which are mounted on a PCB that passively connects to pogo pins in the custom, 3D printed reader.
Front of an SD-card-turned-cartridge with and without decal. (Credit: Abe’s Projects, YouTube)
The inspiration for this project kicked in while [Abe] was working on a
floppy drive conversion
project called the Floppy8, which crammed an MCU into an external floppy drive along with a rough version of these SD card-based cartridges that used the physical card’s edge connector to connect with a micro SD slot inside the converted floppy drive. The problem with this setup was that alignment was terrible, and micro SD cards would break, along with a range of other quality of life issues.
Next, the SD card was put into a slot on the carrier PCB that featured its own edge connector. This improved matters, but the overly complicated (moving) read head in the reader turned out to be very unreliable, in addition to FDM printed parts having general tolerance and durability issues. Eventually a simplified design which takes these limitations in mind was created that so far seems to work just fine.
Although SD cards in cartridges are not a new idea, using them purely as a data carrier is far less common. One could argue about the practicality of turning a fingernail-sized micro SD card into something much larger, but in terms of aesthetics and handleability it definitely gets an A+. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775282",
"author": "Bobtato",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T09:32:19",
"content": "I’d say this was pointless if I hadn’t been actively considering a similar idea",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775345",
"author": "Greg A... | 1,760,371,858.068264 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/you-can-use-a-crt-as-an-audio-amplifier-tube/ | You Can Use A CRT As An Audio Amplifier Tube | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"amplifier",
"audio",
"crt",
"tv"
] | When we talk about audio amplifier tubes, we’re normally talking about the glass little blobby things you might find in a guitar amplifier. We’re not normally talking about big ol’ color CRTs, but apparently they can do the job too.
That’s what [Termadnator] is here to show us.
The CRT in question is a 14″ unit from a common garden variety Philips color TV. [Termadnator] pulled out the TV’s original circuitry, and replaced much of it with his own. He had to whip up a high-voltage power supply with a 555 and a laptop power supply, along with a bunch of fake MOSFETs pressed into service. He also had to build his own Leyden jar capacitor, too. The specifics of converting it to audio operation get a bit messy, but fear not—[Termadnator] explains the idea well, and also supplies a schematic. Perhaps the coolest thing, though, is the crazy color pattern that appears on the display when it’s working as an amp.
Sound output isn’t exactly loud, and it’s a little distorted, too. Still, it’s amusing to see an entire TV instead doing the job of
a single amplifier tube
. Video after the break.
[Thanks to bugminer for the tip!] | 36 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775243",
"author": "Awesome!",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T05:35:28",
"content": "Now That’s a Hack!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775499",
"author": "arnis303",
"timestamp": "2024-07-13T04:04:31",
"co... | 1,760,371,858.229221 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/11/why-the-555-is-not-a-timer-but-can-be-one/ | Why The 555 Is Not A Timer, But Can Be One | Maya Posch | [
"classic hacks"
] | [
"555",
"NE555"
] | Although commonly referred to as a ‘timer IC’, the venerable NE555 and derivatives are in fact not timer ICs. This perhaps controversial statement is the open door that gets kicked in by [PKAE Electronics] over at YouTube, as he explains with
excellent diagrams and simulations
how exactly these ICs work, and what it takes to make it actually do timer things. For anyone who has ever used one of these chips there is probably nothing too mind-blowing, but it’s an infinitely better way to wrap your way around an NE555 and kin than a datasheet.
At its core, the 555 contains three 5 kOhm resistors as a voltage divider, which has been
incorrectly postulated
to be the source of the chip’s name. This voltage divider controls two comparators, which in turn control an SR flipflop. These comparators are used for the voltage trigger and threshold inputs, which in turn toggle the flipflop, respectively setting and resetting it. This by itself just means that the 555 can be used as a threshold detector, with settable control voltage. How a 555 becomes a timer is when the discharge, trigger and threshold pins are combined with external resistors and a capacitor, which creates a smooth square wave on the 555’s output pin.
There are many ways to make basic components into an oscillator of some type, but the 555 is a great choice when you want something more refined that doesn’t involve using an entire MCU. That said, there’s far more that the 555 can be used for, as [PKAE] alludes to, and we hope that he makes more excellent videos on these applications. | 33 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775225",
"author": "SETH",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T02:31:50",
"content": "In 1997 I bought 555s and using my hands to hold the wires according to pinout to run the signal into my Sony boom box. I powered with a 9v, and cycled through available time modes with one pin.",
"pare... | 1,760,371,858.15177 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/giving-the-original-xbox-256-mb-of-memory/ | Giving The Original Xbox 256 MB Of Memory | Lewin Day | [
"Xbox Hacks"
] | [
"ddr ram",
"memory",
"ram",
"sdram",
"xbox",
"xbox hacks"
] | The original Xbox forever changed the console world, because it was basically just PC components laced together in a slightly different architecture. It featured a Pentium 733 MHz CPU with just 64MB of RAM. [Prehistoricman] has been hard at work,
figuring out how to up that to 256MB instead.
This isn’t [Prehistoricman’s] first rodeo. Previously, he managed to up the Xbox’s RAM to 128 MB. To figure out how to go further, he had to figure out the addressing scheme. A datasheet for the Xbox’s original memory chip was a help in this regard, as was the
envytools project
and an Xbox source code leak.
A BIOS hack was needed to move the auto-precharge pin to free up more address pins for the higher memory space. Furthermore, the only available memory chips that were suitable used BGA packages, so a small PCB with castellated edges was needed to adapt the chip to the Xbox’s motherboard, which expects a TQFP package.
Ultimately, getting this hack to work involved a lot of bare-metal hacking. It also won’t help the performance of commercial games at all, as they were all designed within the limitations of the original console.
Still, it’s impressive to see this now-ancient platform hacked to do more
. It’s also hilarious to compare it with a contemporary PC, which could simply accept 256 MB of RAM by using additional memory slots. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Stephen Walters for the tip!] | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774954",
"author": "Misterlaneous",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T06:10:08",
"content": "Xbmc would have used the extra RAM tho.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775038",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-07... | 1,760,371,858.555163 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/hacking-airline-wifi-the-hard-way/ | Hacking Airline WiFi The Hard Way | Al Williams | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"in-flight internet"
] | We’ve all been there. You are on a flight, there’s WiFi, but you hate to pay the few bucks just to watch dog videos. What to do? Well, we would never suggest you engage in theft of service, but as an intellectual exercise, [Robert Heaton] had an interesting idea. Could the limited free use of the network be coopted to access the general internet? Turns out, the answer is
yes
.
Admittedly, it is a terrible connection. Here’s how it works. The airline lets you get to your frequent flier account. When there, you can change information such as your name. A machine on the ground can also see that change and make changes, too. That’s all it takes.
It works like a drop box. You take TCP traffic, encode it as fake information for the account and enter it. You then watch for the response via the same channel and reconstitute the TCP traffic from the remote side. Now the network is at your fingertips.
There’s more to it, but you can read about it in the post. It is slow, unreliable, and you definitely shouldn’t be doing it. But from the point of view of a clever hack, we loved it. In fact, [Robert] didn’t do it either. He proved it would work but did all the development using GitHub gist as the drop box. While we appreciate the hack, we also appreciate the ethical behavior!
Some airlines allow free messaging, which is another way to
tunnel traffic
. If you can connect to something, you can probably find a way to
use it as a tunnel
. | 28 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774956",
"author": "Kryptylomese",
"timestamp": "2024-07-11T06:35:04",
"content": "In the old land line days to save the cost of a phone call, people used to ring each other and count the number of rings rather than pick up the phone and the count would be a message e.g. four rings... | 1,760,371,858.383462 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/bring-your-reusable-grocery-bag-on-your-head/ | Bring Your Reusable Grocery Bag On Your Head | Navarre Bartz | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"grocery bag",
"sewing",
"simone giertz"
] | After decades of taking plastic bags for granted, some places now charge for them to help offset some of the environmental damage they cause. If you have a tendency to forget your reusable bags at home but love to wear hats, [Simone Giertz] has
the bag hat for you
.
Having conquered everything from making the first
Tesla pickup
to a
tambour puzzle table
, a hat that can turn into a grocery bag seems like a relatively easy challenge. It was not. One thing that [Giertz] observes early in the process is that fabric is a much less “honest” material since it can move in ways that many of the other materials she works with cannot, like
glass
or
wood
.
As with any good project, there are numerous iterations of the bag hat, mostly due to trying to balance the two distinct functions of bag and hat without overly-compromising either. In the end, the hat features a zipper down the center from ear to ear that opens up into a mesh grocery bag. The adjustable loop of the hat does double duty as the bag handle.
If you’d like to
build your own sewing machine
for projects like this, maybe you should
find out how they work
. If you’d rather just get on with the sewing bit,
we can help you with that too
. | 60 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774898",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T23:07:58",
"content": "We do use reusable grocery bags, but we ask for plastic bags as well, to clean up after our dog when we go on walks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,858.741209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/if-you-want-an-expensive-chair-just-print-your-own/ | If You Want An Expensive Chair Just Print Your Own | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"chair",
"spin"
] | The Magis Spun chair is a weird piece. It’s basically a kind of seat with a round conical base that stops it from sitting still in one place. Instead, it rolls and pivots around when you sit on it, which is apparently quite fun. They’re expensive though, which gave [Morley Kert] a neat idea.
Why not 3D print one instead?
Obviously 3D printing a sofa wouldn’t be straightforward, but the Magis Spun is pretty much just a hunk of plastic anyway. The real thing is made with rotational molding. [Morley] suspected he could make one for less than the retail price with 3D printing.
With no leads on a big printer, he decided to go with a segmented design. He whipped up his basic 3D model through screenshots from the manufacturer’s website and measurements of a display model in a store. After print farming the production, the assembly task was the next big challenge. If you’re interested in doing big prints with small printers, this video is a great way to explore the perils of this idea.
Ultimately, if you want to print one of these yourself, it’s a big undertaking. It took 30-50 print days, or around 5 days spread across 15 printers at Slant 3D’s print farm. It used around $300-400 of material at retail prices, plus some extra for the epoxy and foam used to assemble it.
The finished product was killer, though, even if it looks a little rough around the edges. It rolls and pivots just like the real thing.
We don’t feature a lot of chair hacks on Hackaday,
but we do feature some!
Video after the break. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774860",
"author": "Cad the Mad",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T20:44:11",
"content": "Lovely build. Silly product, silly project, lessons to learn, fun video.There’s something very satisfying about taking a pretentious, overpriced item and reproducing it for a fraction of the price.Now... | 1,760,371,858.795413 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/floss-weekly-episode-791-its-all-about-me/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 791: It’s All About Me! | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"open source",
"Origin Story"
] | This week
David Ruggles
chats with
Jonathan Bennett
about his origin story! What early core memory does Jonathan pin his lifelong computer hobby on? And how was a tense meeting instrumental to Jonathan’s life outlook? And how did Jonathan manage to score a squashable brain toy from an equipment manufacturer? Watch the whole show to find out!
Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show Right on
our YouTube Channel
? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us!
Take a look at the schedule here
.
Direct Download
in DRM-free MP3.
If you’d rather read along,
here’s the transcript for this week’s episode
.
Places to follow the FLOSS Weekly Podcast:
Spotify
RSS | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6775383",
"author": "calculus",
"timestamp": "2024-07-12T17:17:33",
"content": "I didn’t know Jonathan was a time traveler: “… recorded July 19th …”(*checks watch* it is July 12th)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,371,858.595614 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/supercon-2023-why-more-hackers-should-earn-their-wings/ | Supercon 2023: Why More Hackers Should Earn Their Wings | Tom Nardi | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"2023 Hackaday Supercon",
"aircraft",
"drone",
"license",
"pilot"
] | Hacking has taken on many different meanings over the years, but if you’re here reading these words, we’ll assume your definition is pretty close to ours. To hack is to explore and learn, to find new and (hopefully) better ways of doing things. Or at least, that’s part of it. The other part is to then take what you learned and share it with others. Do that enough, and soon you’ll find yourself part of a community of like-minded individuals — which is where things really start getting interesting.
Here at Hackaday the objects of our attention are, with the occasional exception, electronic devices of some sort or another. Perhaps an old piece of gear that needs a modern brain transplant, or a misbehaving consumer gadget that could benefit from the addition of an open source firmware. But just as there are different ways to interpret the
act
of hacking, there’s plenty of wiggle room when it comes to
what
you can hack on.
In his talk during the 2023 Hackaday Supercon
, Tom Mloduchowski makes the case that more hackers should be getting involved with aviation. No, we’re not talking about flying drones, though he does cover that during the presentation. This is the real deal. Whether you want to take a quick joyride in a small plane, become a professional pilot, or even build and operate your own experimental aircraft, this talk covers it all.
Experimental Aircraft
Now, to be fair, it’s not that the act of flying a plane is somehow related to hacking. Which isn’t to say that they’re mutually exclusive, either. After all, we’re sure there’s some non-zero number of Hackaday readers who happen to also be professional pilots. But that doesn’t mean they bring a soldering iron with them in the cockpit. Probably.
What Tom is
really
talking about is that last bit — experimental aircraft. You see, what the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considers to be “experimental” may not match the mental image it likely conjures up for you. While it could
technically
mean some fanciful whirlybird from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, in the vast majority of cases, it’s a plane built by an individual from either a kit or published plans. In other words, while the craft might not be mass produced, there’s going to be at least a few other people who have built the thing and would probably love to meet up and talk about it.
What’s more, being the operator of an experimental plane gives you special privileges. Tom points out that for a normal private pilot, you generally can’t do much more than basic maintenance to your aircraft. Even if you own it outright, the FAA says you’re only qualified to operate the plane, not work on it. Something as simple as mounting a GoPro to the outside of your plane could get you in hot water, as that’s technically a modification to the aircraft that was never tested or approved by the manufacturer.
But with an experimental aircraft, the primary builder is able to apply for what the FAA calls a “Repairman Certificate” for that specific plane. This not only grants you the right to fix the aircraft, but to modify it as you see fit. Critically, it also gives you the authority to certify the plane to be airworthy after said modifications have been made. Essentially, it’s a license to hack your plane however you wish, with the understanding that you’re potentially putting your life on the line should one of those hacks come apart at altitude.
There are, of course, some limitations. Experimental aircraft still need to be registered with the FAA, and must apply for a “Special Airworthiness Certificate” before taking to the skies. You’ll need to keep a detailed build log and provide pictures of the aircraft during various stages of assembly to quality for this Certificate, but that shouldn’t be a problem for most hackers. Even after all that, you won’t be able to carry passengers on your experimental craft until it’s logged enough hours in a particular configuration.
Working Your Way Up
Putting the possible risk to life and limb aside for a moment, it’s clear how the idea of being able to build and modify your own aircraft could appeal to somebody with a hacker’s mindset. So the next logical question is, how do you get there?
Well, as you might expect when dealing with the Federal government, there are some hoops to jump through. Unfortunately, you can’t leap right to flying experimental planes, you’ve got to move through the various stages of getting your private pilot’s license just as if you wanted to fly a commercially built aircraft. But the good news is that the whole process is faster and easier than most people think, and as the FAA modernizes various aspects of the testing and training procedures, it’s only getting better.
As Tom explains, the process will usually start with a test flight at your local airport. A licensed pilot would be in command of the aircraft from a legal standpoint, but you’ll be able to get some hands-on time at the controls and figure out if this is really something you want to pursue. If that flight goes well, you’ll then move into your ground training period, which is essentially studying from books and videos. This part of the process will probably cost you a few hundred dollars in materials and fees, and at the end, you’ll need to pass a knowledge test.
After that, it’s time to start flying. You’ll need to spend at least 45 hours behind the controls of an aircraft before you can even attempt to pass your private pilot test, but on average, it takes closer to 70 hours before most students are confident enough to move to the next step. Incidentally, this is where things get expensive. Between the rental of the plane, fuel, and the instructor’s time, you’ll probably be paying between $150 to $200 for each one of those flying hours.
Investing In Yourself
Obviously, getting your private pilot license (PPL) is a serious commitment. Even in the best case, it’s going to take hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. But once you’ve got it, you’ll be opening up a whole new world to explore. Whether you want to ultimately design and build your own plane, or just want to be able to travel around the country on your own terms, there’s plenty to be gained.
As Tom also points out, having a PPL also streamlines the process of flying commercial drones. While you’d normally have to go through training to pilot a large drone, or make money from its operation, those holding a PPL can add on a drone license by taking a simple test.
Ready to fly? The weather is warm, so why not take a drive out to your local airport and see if you can’t hitch a ride with somebody. Who knows? This time next year you might be a hacker
and
a pilot. | 14 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774833",
"author": "Peter",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T18:27:57",
"content": "Nice. Blessed are the US citizens, because general aviation over there is a lot easier than in Europe (if you are not a bush pilot with flashy youtube channel).I want to see a lot of things like facetmobile... | 1,760,371,858.646713 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/bringing-the-555-mini-notebook-to-video/ | Bringing The 555 Mini-Notebook To Video | Alexander Rowsell | [
"classic hacks",
"PCB Hacks"
] | [
"555 timer",
"electronics tutorials",
"engineer's mini-notebook",
"engineer's notebook",
"forrest mims",
"tutorial video"
] | Like many of us [AnotherMaker] is a fan of the classic Forrest Mims electronics books, specifically, the Engineer’s Mini-Notebook series. They were great sources of inspiration, but at the time, he couldn’t afford to actually build most of the circuits described. Now as an adult, he decided to go through the
555 Timer IC Circuits
Mini-Notebook, full of example circuits and explanations, all in Mims’ trademark handwritten style, and build all the circuits for real. And so, a
series of YouTube videos
are currently being released going over every circuit, how it works, and looking at waveforms on an oscilloscope!
So, PCBs were designed, each containing four of the circuits from the book. With the Mims circuit diagram on one side of the screen and the PCB on the other, [AnotherMaker] goes into a good amount of detail explaining how each circuit works, referring to the schematic and oscilloscope as needed. Each part in the series focuses on the next circuits in order, and eventually the whole series will cover every single circuit in the book.
It’s a great series of videos for anyone learning electronics, especially those who would like to learn about one of the most produced integrated circuits of all time! It’s also an excellent way to bring a fresh perspective to this classic book, while simultaneously bringing the content to a wider audience via online video. | 17 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774799",
"author": "Steven-X",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T15:52:50",
"content": "I had the original Engineers Notebook. I built a number of projects, but the one I never did build was the LED o-scope! I need to add that to my bucket list!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,858.917144 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/pcb-design-review-hab-tracker-with-atmega328p/ | PCB Design Review: HAB Tracker With ATMega328P | Arya Voronova | [
"Featured",
"PCB Hacks",
"Skills",
"Slider"
] | [
"PCB design",
"review"
] | Welcome to the Design Review Central! [VE3SVF] sends us their board, and it’s a HAB (High Altitude Balloon) tracker board. It’s got the venerable ATMega28P on it, a LoRa modem and a GPS module, and it can be powered from a LiIon battery. Stick this board with its battery onto a high-altitude balloon, have it wake up and transmit your coordinates every once in a while, and eventually you’ll find it in a field – if you’re lucky. Oherwise, it will get stuck hanging on a tree branch, and you will have to use a quadcopter to try and get it down, and then, in all likelihood, a second quadcopter so that you can free the first one. Or go get a long ladder.
The ATMega328P is tried and true, and while it’s been rising in price, it’s still available – with even an updated version that sports a few more peripherals; most importantly, you’re sure to find a 328P in your drawer, if not multiple. Apart from that, the board uses two modules from
a Chinese manufacturer, G-Nice,
for both GPS and Lora. Both of these modules are cheap, making this tracker all that more accessible; I could easily see this project being sold as a “build your own beacon” kit!
Let’s make it maybe a little nicer, maybe a little cheaper, and maybe decrease the power consumption a tad along the way. We’ll use some of the old tricks, a few new ones, and talk about project-specific aspects that might be easy to miss.
The Low Hanging Fruit
Way better than the 0.5mm/0.25mm defaults, so make sure to replace them! Can even go down to 0.17mm if called for.
This board has four layers, which is nice because you get more ground and more routing space for a tiny price increase these days. This board doesn’t add fills on inner layers, but that is an easy fix – just select one of the GND power planes and tick the In1/In2.Cu boxes in their settings. Another thing to tweak in zone settings is zone clearance and minimum thickness – default KiCad clearances are way too conservative, setting them to something like 0.2 mm / 0.2 mm is a good idea. That improves ground connectivity, and also lets us get rid of ground tracks that would otherwise be necessary to bring ground to different connectors.
The inner layers have ground, and ground on all layers can reach further, too. That said, the inner layers benefit from being completely free – that’s when you get the best return current flow. Remember, each track, whether signal or power, needs its ground return path, and if you don’t provide a direct clean one, electricity will find a way. That, in turn, results in noise, both received and emitted, as well as possible instabilities.
In particular, the ISP flashing header had a lot of low-hanging fruit; tracks that were pulled on inner layers but could as well go on top/bottom layers. Many tracks could be snaked between GPS and LoRa module pads, too – the gaps are wide enough, that even a 0.2 mm track feels comfortable in there, and you could probably pull two if you dropped down to 0.15 mm, which is still safe with most fabs.
And, after a dozen minutes of work, the inner layers are free. A surprising amount of space could be found – for instance, the three DIO tracks nicely went along the right edge of the board. More importantly, capacitors were moved closer to where they work best. In particular, the AREF capacitor is two vias and one long inner track apart, which won’t make for good analog decoupling. That did require moving the ATMega a bit upwards, but a judicious application of Del and Shift+Del on tracks, as well as some track dragging, made that move go quickly.
I could talk about component size choices, but they’re not meaningfully interfering with routing on the board – even the opposite, having one of the diodes be 1206 helps me avoid some vias. On the other hand, rotating the battery divider resistors and power regulators 180 degrees resulted in some good routing space freed up. And, looking at the board, the ATMega328P routing could perhaps use being rotated one turn clockwise, too. That’d make SPI routing cleaner, power tracks and analog pins shorter, and let us put capacitors at the sides, at the low low cost of having GPIO pins snake around a bit. However, here, the benefits aren’t necessarily as clear-cut as in previous articles; instead, it’s a time vs niceness tradeoff.
The Chip Gets Rotated, But Not Necessarily
Here, a conundrum. We could spend maybe a dozen more minutes and rotate the chip, or leave it be? Is the board going to be slightly nicer? Yes. Is this necessary? No. If you want to just order the board and go, it’s completely fair for you to press order and leave improvements of this grade for rev2. On the other hand, if the itch to improve your board is bad enough that the time investment doesn’t scare you out of it, give in and see yourself become better at PCB design. Worked for me.
There are hidden problems for such small redesigns, though. Remember, a redesign might have you reinstate a problem that you’ve successfully avoided with the original iteration, or, it can quickly become infeasible. I’ve had it happen, where a redesign that intended to add features and reduce complexity has become counter-productive midway through, so, I’ve had to stop myself from continuing and just order the board already. You’ll learn to keep track of these, but it does take keeping it in mind. Keep your Ctrl+Z’s ready, keep a copy of the files, or a Git commit, if you are doing something fundamental, and be ready to get a lesson in letting go.
I ended up rotating the chip, and the board did indeed become a bit nicer, but in ways that don’t solve any pressing problems. By the way, have you noticed something this board has done really well from the start? That’s component placement. The ways the LoRa module, GPS module, ATMega328P and the headers are positioned, I wouldn’t change anything about them. Maybe move the pin headers onto a 2.5 4mm grid so that you could expand this board with a perfboard if needed, but that one isn’t a must – this is a low weight board, after all, the headers are more for debugging than anything else.
Last Thoughts: Inner Layers And Antenna Choice
If you have internal layers, use them for ground or power fills, so that power and return currents can flow unrestricted. This is going to reduce both radiated and received emissions, as well as make power rails smoother, which feels mighty helpful considering this design has two radios on it and the GPS radio has a passive antenna.
Also, some fabs don’t want empty inner layers. Last year, JLCPCB started refusing multi-layer boards with inner or outer layers less than 30% full, in what’s presumably an attempt to decrease the etching process costs, causing some people to redesign perfectly working PCBs with little notice. Combine this with a recent documentation overhaul that just so happened to turn some previously free options into paid ones, and if I were to guess, they are no longer able to keep running at a loss as much as they did, so, the age of golden offers at JLCPCB might soon to be over.
Our improvements ended up providing more than enough copper on top and bottom layers, that you could possibly switch this board to two-layer; again, cheaper ordering, possibly quicker manufacturing time, possibly cheaper PCBA. Isn’t a requirement, but it is nice when you can do it. If you are to keep the two extra layers, remember that on-board antennas need keepouts at least for a wide patch under them, if not for a good amount of space around them, and the keepout has to be on all layers. No tracks, no fills, no copper, do not pass go, do not collect 200.
Thicker tracks for power paths are good whenever you can afford them – and this board has plenty of space! I personally usually add them in last, and it’s not a problem here, but it’s most certainly a smarter decision to draw them thick first so that you don’t have to do a re-layout later.
It also does feel like you could consider an active antenna here. For a high-altitude balloon, sure, you’re way way more likely to get a fix and you’ve got a whole lot more time to do it, but I would guess improving your chances is worthwhile. Plus, I don’t know much about G-Nice’s modules, still yet to try out the one I purchased last year – it might be that this module is perfectly okay, but it concerns me these are meant to be footprint-compatible drop-in replacements for well-established company modules, with this specific module borrowing an U-Blox footprint, and as such, I don’t know how much to expect. An active antenna adds a fair of weight and size footprint, and it might be that everyone’s flying with passive antennas no worries, so I might be completely out of my zone here. Whichever is the case, I would appreciate input!
As usual, if you would like a design review for your board,
submit a tip
to us with
[design review]
in the title, linking to your board files. KiCad design files strongly preferred, both repository-stored files (GitHub/GitLab/etc) and shady Google Drive/Dropbox/etc
.zip
links are accepted. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774782",
"author": "MacGyverS2000",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T14:57:24",
"content": "“Also, some fabs don’t want empty inner layers. Last year, JLCPCB started refusing boards with inner or outer layers more than 30% full…”Should “more” be “less”? When you say “empty”, do you mean v... | 1,760,371,858.855223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/a-new-raspberry-5-dsi-cable-makes-using-screens-easier/ | A New Raspberry 5 DSI Cable Makes Using Screens Easier | Lewin Day | [
"Parts",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"display cable",
"dsi",
"flat flex",
"flex cable",
"raspberry pi",
"Raspberry Pi 5"
] | Arguably the greatest strength of the Raspberry Pi is the ecosystem — it’s well-supported by its creators and the aftermarket. At the same time, the proliferation of different boards has made things more complicated over the years. Thankfully, though, the community is always standing by to help fix any problems. [Rastersoft] has stepped up in this regard, solving an issue
with the Raspberry Pi 5 and DSI screen cables.
The root cause is that the DSI cable used on the Raspberry Pi 5 has changed relative to earlier boards. This means that if you use the Pi 5 with many existing screens and DSI cables, you’ll find your flat ribbon cable gets an ugly twist in it. This can be particularly problematic when using the cables in tight cases, where they may end up folded, crushed, or damaged.
[Rastersoft] got around this by designing a new cable that avoided the problem. It not only solves the twist issue, but frees up space around the CPU if you wish to use a cooler. Thanks to modern PCB houses embracing flexible boards, it’s easy to get it produced, too.
This is a great example of the democratization of PCB and electronics production in general. 20 years ago, you wouldn’t be able to make
a flex cable like this
without ordering 10,000 of them. Today, you can order a handful for your own personal use, and share the design with strangers on a whim. Easy, huh? It’s a beautiful world we live in. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774768",
"author": "Joel",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T14:22:45",
"content": "Is that a hole in the ground plane I see?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6774770",
"author": "Joel",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T14:24:5... | 1,760,371,858.960784 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/10/model-rocket-nails-vertical-landing-after-three-year-effort/ | Model Rocket Nails Vertical Landing After Three-Year Effort | Dan Maloney | [
"Toy Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"flight controller",
"IMU",
"landing",
"model rocket",
"rocketry",
"SpaceX",
"Thrust vectoring"
] | Model rocketry has always taken cues from what’s happening in the world of full-scale rockets, with amateur rocketeers doing their best to incorporate the technologies and methods into their creations. That’s not always an easy proposition, though, as
this three-year effort to nail a SpaceX-style vertical landing
aptly shows.
First of all, hats off to high schooler [Aryan Kapoor] from
JRD Propulsion
for his tenacity with this project. He started in 2021 with none of the basic skills needed to pull off something like this, but it seems like he quickly learned the ropes. His development program was comprehensive, with static test vehicles, a low-altitude hopper, and extensive testing of the key technology: thrust-vector control. His rocket uses two solid-propellant motors stacked on top of each other, one for ascent and one for descent and landing. They both live in a 3D printed gimbal mount with two servos that give the stack plus and minus seven degrees of thrust vectoring in two dimensions, which is controlled by a custom flight computer with a barometric altimeter and an inertial measurement unit. The landing gear is also clever, using rubber bands to absorb landing forces and syringes as dampers.
The video below shows the first successful test flight and landing. Being a low-altitude flight, everything happens very quickly, which probably made programming a challenge. It looked like the landing engine wasn’t going to fire as the rocket came down significantly off-plumb, but when it finally did light up the rocket straightened and nailed the landing. [Aryan] explains the major bump after the first touchdown as caused by the ascent engine failing to eject; the landing gear and the flight controller handled the extra landing mass with aplomb.
All in all, very nice work from [Aryan], and we’re keen to see this one progress. | 30 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774693",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T08:31:12",
"content": "No mentioning of BS.space?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6774712",
"author": "Miko",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T10:30:35",
... | 1,760,371,859.046758 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/build-your-own-16-mb-30-pin-simms-for-vintage-pcs/ | Build Your Own 16 MB 30-Pin SIMMs For Vintage PCs | Lewin Day | [
"Parts",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"386",
"edo",
"fpm",
"ram",
"ram stick",
"SIMM"
] | Today’s memory sticks have hundreds of pins and many gigabytes of RAM on board. Decades ago, though, the humble 30-pin SIMM was the state of the art where memory was concerned. If you’ve got vintage gear, you can try and hunt down old RAM, or you can copy [Bits und Bolts]
and make your own
.
Previously, [Bits und Bolts] built a 4 MB SIMM, but he’s now ramped up to building 16 MB RAM sticks — the largest size supported by the 30-pin standard. That’s a ton compared to most 30-pin sticks from the 1980s, which topped out at a feeble 1 MB.
We get to see four of his 16 MB sticks installed in a 386 motherboard, set up to operate in the appropriate Fast Page Mode. He was able to get the system operating with 64 MB of RAM, an amount still considered acceptable in the early Pentium 3 era. Hilariously, memtest took a full ten hours to complete a single pass with this configuration. [Bits and Bolts] also tried to push the motherboard further, but wasn’t able to get it to POST with over 64 MB of RAM.
As [Bits und Bolts] demonstrates, if you can read a schematic and design a PCB, it’s not that hard to design RAM sticks for many vintage computers. We’ve seen
some other RAM hacks in this vein before, too
. | 28 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774670",
"author": "rasz_pl",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T05:10:06",
"content": "2 year old github repo documenting same design, even includes the very same “EDO to FPM” hackhttps://github.com/rigred/SIMMBA-16",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,371,859.120282 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/misconceptions-about-loops-or-static-code-analysis-is-hard/ | Misconceptions About Loops, Or: Static Code Analysis Is Hard | Maya Posch | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"static analysis"
] | When thinking about loops in programming languages, they often get simplified down to a conditions section and a body, but this belies the dizzying complexity that emerges when considering loop edge cases within the context of static analysis. A paper titled
Misconceptions about Loops in C
by [Martin Brain] and colleagues as presented to
SOAP 2024
conference goes through a whole list of false assumptions when it comes to loops, including for languages other than C. Perhaps most interesting is the conclusion that these ‘edge cases’ are in fact a lot more common than generally assumed, courtesy of how creative languages and their users can be when writing their code, with or without dragging in the meta-language of C’s preprocessor.
Assumptions like loop equivalence can fall apart when considering the CFG ( control flow graph) interpretation versus a parse tree one where the former may e.g. merge loops. There are also doozies like assuming that the loop body will always exist, that the first instruction(s) in a loop are always the entry point, and the horrors of estimating loop exits in the context of labels, inlined functions and more. Some languages have specific loop control flow features that differ from C (e.g. Python’s
for/else
and Ada’s
loop
), all of which affect a static analysis.
Ultimately, writing a good static analysis tool is hard, and there are plenty of cases where it’s likely to trip up and give an invalid result. A language which avoids ambiguity (e.g. Ada) helps immensely here, but for other languages it helps to write your code as straightforward as possible to give the static analysis tool a fighting chance, or just get really good at recognizing confused static analysis tool noises.
(Heading image: Control flow merges can create multiple loop entry
edges (Credit: Martin Brand, et al., SOAP 2024) ) | 39 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774647",
"author": "Mike",
"timestamp": "2024-07-10T02:43:25",
"content": "all that paper showed is how poorly people write code without thinking. Far to many coders focus on just getting the job done as fast as possible, never thinking of the what if scenarios.",
"parent_id": ... | 1,760,371,859.2064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/looking-at-standard-cell-design-in-the-pentium-processor/ | Looking At Standard-Cell Design In The Pentium Processor | Maya Posch | [
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"pentium"
] | Die photo of the Intel Pentium processor with standard cells highlighted in red. The edges of the chip suffered some damage when I removed the metal layers. (Credit: Ken Shirriff)
Whereas the CPUs and similar ASICs of the 1970s had their transistors laid out manually, with the move from LSI to VLSI, it became necessary to optimize the process of laying out the transistors and the metal interconnects between them. This resulted in the development of standard-cells: effectively batches of transistors with each a specific function that could be chained together. First simple and then more advanced auto-routing algorithms handled the placement and routing of these standard elements, leading to dies with easily recognizable structures under an optical microscope. Case in point an original (P54C) Intel Pentium, which [Ken Shirriff] took
an in-depth look
at.
Using a by now almost unimaginably large 600 nm process, the individual elements of these standard cells including their PMOS and NMOS components within the
BiCMOS
process can be readily identified and their structure reverse-engineered. What’s interesting about BiCMOS compared to CMOS is that the former allows for the use of bipolar junction transistors, which offer a range of speed, gain and output impedance advantages that are beneficial for some part of a CPU compared to CMOS. Over time BiCMOS’ advantages became less pronounced and was eventually abandoned.
All in all, this glimpse at the internals of a Pentium processor provides a fascinating snapshot of high-end Intel semiconductor prowess in the early 1990s.
(Top image: A D flip-flop in the Pentium. Credit: [Ken Shirriff] ) | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774627",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T23:24:53",
"content": "Amazing work! I love [ken sherriff]’s articles: loads of detailed photos you can zoom in and study if you want and good write-ups you can read and re-read bits at your leisure. So much better for technical doc... | 1,760,371,859.36652 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/building-a-cassette-deck-controller-to-save-a-locked-out-car-stereo/ | Building A Cassette Deck Controller To Save A Locked Out Car Stereo | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"cassette",
"compact cassette",
"tape",
"tape deck"
] | Cars have had DRM-like measures for longer than you might think. Go back to the 1990s, and coded cassette decks were a common way to stop thieves being able to use stolen stereos. Sadly, they became useless if you ever lost the code. [Simon] had found a deck in great condition that was locked out,
so he set about building his own controller for it.
The build relies on the cassette transport of a car stereo and a VFD display, but everything else was laced together by Simon. It’s a play-only setup, with no record, seeing as its based on an automotive unit. [Simon]’s write up explains how he reverse engineered the transport, figuring out how the motors and position sensors worked to control the playback of a cassette.
[Simon] used an Atmega microcontroller as the brains of the operation, which reads the buttons of the original deck via an ADC pin to save I/O for other tasks. The chip also drives the VFD display for user feedback, and handles auto reverse too. The latter is thanks to the transport’s inbuilt light barriers, which detect the tape’s current status. On the audio side, [Simon] whipped up his own head amplifier to process the signal from the tape head itself.
Fundamentally, it’s a basic build, but it does work.
We’ve seen other DIY tape decks before, too
. There’s something about this format that simply refuses to die. The fans just won’t let Compact Cassette go down without a fight. Video after the break. | 27 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774598",
"author": "HaHa",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T20:14:42",
"content": "",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6774609",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T20:48:27",
"content": "Yeah but sometimes ... | 1,760,371,859.434441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/hackable-ham-radio-gives-up-its-mechanical-secrets/ | Hackable Ham Radio Gives Up Its Mechanical Secrets | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"mechanical",
"mesh",
"model",
"Photogrammetry",
"point cloud",
"Quansheng",
"RealityCapture",
"reverse engineering",
"Rhino",
"stl",
"uv k5"
] | Reverse-engineered schematics are
de rigeur
around these parts, largely because they’re often the key to very cool hardware hacks. We don’t get to see many mechanical reverse-engineering efforts, though, which is a pity because electronic hacks often literally don’t stand on their own. That’s why
these reverse-engineered mechanical diagrams
of the Quansheng UV-K5 portable amateur radio transceiver really caught our eye.
Part of the reason for the dearth of mechanical diagrams for devices, even one as
electrically
and
computationally
hackable as the UV-K5, is that mechanical diagrams are a lot less abstract than a schematic or even firmware. Luckily, this fact didn’t daunt [mdlougheed] from putting a stripped-down UV-K5 under a camera for a series of images to gather the raw data needed by photogrammetry package
RealityCapture
. The point cloud was thoughtfully scaled to match the dimensions of
the radio’s reverse-engineered PC board
, so the two models can work together.
The results are pretty impressive, especially for a first effort, and should make electromechanical modifications to the radio all the easier to accomplish. Hats off to [mdlougheed] for the good work, and let the mechanical hacks begin. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774590",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T20:04:25",
"content": "i thought the reason we didn’t see many reverse-engineered mechanical diagrams for things like this is that it’s just not mechanically very interesting. for most hobbyist projects you simply need to measu... | 1,760,371,859.312736 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/supercon-call-for-proposals-extended-july-16th/ | Supercon Call For Proposals Extended: July 16th | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"2024 Hackaday Supercon",
"2024 Hackaday Superconference",
"call for participation",
"cons"
] | Ever since the first Supercon, people have submitted talk proposals at the very last minute, and some even in the minutes after the last minute. We know how it is – we are fully licensed procrastineers ourselves. So with an eye toward
tradition
, we’re extending the
Call for Speakers
and the
Call for Workshops
one more week
, until July 16th.
The Hackaday Superconference is really and truly our favorite event of the year. It’s small, but not too small. The ideas everyone brings with them, however, are big. It’s like the absolute best of Hackaday live and in person. If you’re looking for a place to give a technical talk, or just to regale us all with the trials and triumphs of hacking, you won’t find a more receptive audience anywhere. Plus, presenters get in free.
In other news, [Voja] has an alpha version of the badge finished, so all that’s left is 90% of the work disguised as 10%. Some people have asked for clues, and what we’ll say at this point is that “
Simple Add Ons
have underutilized I2C pins”.
Expect tickets to go on sale in the next weeks – early bird tickets sell out fast. Keep your eyes on Hackaday for the announcement post when it goes live. Or, you can skip straight to the front of the line by giving a talk. But you can’t give a talk if you don’t
submit your proposal first
. Get on it now, because we’re not going to extend the CFP twice! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774621",
"author": "cnlohr",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T21:57:54",
"content": "Thank you for extending. I almost had my proposal ready but this will def make it easier to make good.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6775006",
... | 1,760,371,861.220022 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/keep-your-lungs-clean-and-happy-with-a-diy-supplied-air-respirator/ | Keep Your Lungs Clean And Happy With A DIY Supplied-Air Respirator | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"breathing",
"HEPA",
"hood",
"lungs",
"PPE",
"pulse oximeter",
"resin",
"respirator",
"sar",
"sla",
"supplied air",
"VOC"
] | The smell of resin SLA printing is like the weather — everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it. At least until now, as [Aris Alder] tackles the problem with
an affordable DIY supplied-air respirator
.
Now, we know what you’re thinking, anything as critical as breathing is probably best left to the professionals. While we agree in principle, most solutions from reputable companies would cost multiple thousands of dollars to accomplish, making it hard to justify for a home gamer who just doesn’t want to breathe in nasty volatile organic compounds. [Aris] starts the video below with a careful examination of the different available respirator options, concluding that a supplied air respirator (SAR) is the way to go.
His homebrew version consists of an affordable, commercially available plastic hood with a built-in visor. Rather than an expensive oil-free compressor to supply the needed airflow, he sourced a low-cost inline duct fan and placed it outside the work zone to pull in fresh air. Connecting the two is low-cost polyethylene tubing and a couple of 3D printed adapters. This has the advantage of being very lightweight and less likely to yank the hood off your head, and can be replaced in a few seconds when it inevitably punctures.
Another vital part of the kit is a
pulse oximeter
, which [Aris] uses to make sure he’s getting enough oxygen. His O
2
saturation actually goes up from his baseline when the hood is on and powered up, which bodes well for the system. Every time we pick up the welding torch or angle grinder we wish for something like this, so it might just be time to build one.
Thanks to [Zane Atkins] for the tip. | 13 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774523",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T17:22:43",
"content": "Respiration aspirations",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6774530",
"author": "Aaron",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T17:... | 1,760,371,861.441346 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/solar-dynamics-observatory-our-solar-early-warning-system/ | Solar Dynamics Observatory: Our Solar Early Warning System | Dan Maloney | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"corona satellite",
"coronal mass ejection",
"observatory",
"science",
"solar flare",
"space",
"sun"
] | Ever since the beginning of the Space Age, the inner planets and the Earth-Moon system have received the lion’s share of attention. That makes sense; it’s a whole lot easier to get to the Moon, or even to Mars, than it is to get to Saturn or Neptune. And so our probes have mostly plied the relatively cozy confines inside the asteroid belt, visiting every world within them and sometimes landing on the surface and making a few holes or even leaving some footprints.
But there’s still one place within this warm and familiar neighborhood that remains mysterious and relatively unvisited: the Sun. That seems strange, since our star is the source of all energy for our world and the system in general, and its constant emissions across the electromagnetic spectrum and its occasional physical outbursts are literally a matter of life and death for us. When the Sun sneezes, we can get sick, and it has the potential to be
far worse than just a cold
.
While we’ve had a succession of satellites over the last decades that have specialized in watching the Sun, it’s not the easiest celestial body to observe. Most spacecraft go to great lengths to avoid the Sun’s abuse, and building anything to withstand the lashing our star can dish out is a tough task. But there’s one satellite that takes everything that the Sun dishes out and turns it into a near-constant stream of high-quality data, and it’s been doing it for almost 15 years now. The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, has also provided stunning images of the Sun, like
this CGI-like sequence of a failed solar eruption
. Images like that have captured imaginations during this surprisingly active solar cycle, and emphasized the importance of SDO in our solar early warning system.
Living With a Star
In a lot of ways, SDO has its roots in the earlier Solar and Heliospheric Observer, or SOHO, the wildly successful ESA solar mission. Launched in 1995, SOHO is stationed in a halo orbit at Lagrange point L
1
and provides near real-time images and data on the sun using a suite of twelve science instruments. Originally slated for a two-year science program, SOHO continues operating to this day, watching the sun and acting as an early warning for coronal mass ejections (CME) and other solar phenomena.
Although L
1
, the point between the Earth and the Sun where the gravitation of the two bodies balances, provides an unobstructed view of our star, it has disadvantages. Chief among these is distance; at 1.5 million kilometers, simply getting to L
1
is a much more expensive proposition than any geocentric orbit. The distance also makes radio communications much more complicated, requiring the specialized infrastructure of the Deep Space Network (DSN). SDO was conceived in part to avoid some of these shortcomings, as well as to leverage what was learned on SOHO and to extend some of the capabilities delivered by that mission.
SDO stemmed from Living with a Star (LWS), a science program that kicked off in 2001 and was designed to explore the Earth-Sun system in detail. LWS identified the need for a satellite that could watch the Sun continuously in multiple wavelengths and provide data on its atmosphere and magnetic field at an extremely high rate. These requirements dictated the specifications of the SDO mission in terms of orbital design, spacecraft engineering, and oddly enough, a dedicated communications system.
Geosynchronous, With a Twist
Getting a good look at the Sun for space isn’t necessarily as easy as it would seem. For SDO, designing a suitable orbit was complicated by the stringent and somewhat conflicting requirements for continuous observations and constant high-bandwidth communications. Joining SOHO at L
1
or setting up shop at any of the other Lagrange points was out of the question due to the distances involved, leaving a geocentric orbit as the only viable alternative. A low Earth orbit (LEO) would have left the satellite in the Earth’s shadow for half of each revolution, making continuous observation of the Sun difficult.
To avoid these problems, SDO’s orbit was pushed out to geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) distance (35,789 km) and inclined to 28.5 degrees relative to the equator. This orbit would give SDO continuous exposure to the Sun, with just a few brief periods during the year where either Earth or the Moon eclipses the Sun. It also allows constant line-of-sight to the ground, which greatly simplifies the communications problem.
Science of the Sun
SDO packaged for the trip to geosynchronous orbit. The solar array corners are clipped to provide clearance for the high-gain dishes when the Earth is between SDO and the Sun. The four telescopes of AIA are visible on the top with EVE and HMI on the other edge above the stowed dish antenna. Source:
NASA
The main body of SDO has a pair of solar panels on one end and a pair of steerable high-gain dish antennas on the other. The LWS design requirements for the SDO science program were modest and focused on monitoring the Sun’s magnetic field and atmosphere as closely as possible, so only three science instruments were included. All three instruments are mounted to the end of the spaceframe with the solar panels, to enjoy an unobstructed view of the Sun.
Of the three science packages, the Extreme UV Variability Experiment, or EVE, is the only instrument that doesn’t image the full disk of the Sun. Rather, EVE uses a pair of multiple EUV grating spectrographs, known as MEGS-A, and MEGS-B, to measure the extreme UV spectrum from 5 nm to 105 nm with 0.1 nm resolution. MEGS-A uses a series of slits and filters to shine light onto a single diffraction grating, which spreads out the Sun’s spectrum across a CCD detector to cover from 5 nm to 37 nm. The MEGS-A CCD also acts as a sensor for a simple pinhole camera known as the Solar Aspect Monitor (SAM), which directly measures individual X-ray photons in the 0.1 nm to 7 nm range. MEGS-B, on the other hand, uses a pair of diffraction gratings and a CCD to measure EUV from 35 nm to 105 nm. Both of these instruments capture a full EUV spectrum every 10 seconds.
To study the corona and chromosphere of the Sun, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) uses four telescopes to create full-disk images of the sun in ten different wavelengths from EUV to 450 nm. The 4,096 by 4,096 sensor gives the AIA a resolution of 0.6 arcseconds per pixel, and the optics allow imaging out to almost 1.3 solar radii, to capture fine detail in the thin solar atmosphere. AIA also visualizes the Sun’s magnetic fields as the hot plasma gathers along lines of force and highlights them. Like all the instruments on SDO, the AIA is built with throughput in mind; it can gather a full data set every 10 seconds.
For a deeper look into the Sun’s interior, the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) measures the motion of the Sun’s photosphere and magnetic field strength and polarity. The HMI uses a refracting telescope, an image stabilizer, a series of tunable filters that include a pair of Michelson interferometers, and a pair of 4,096 by 4,096-pixel CCD image detectors. The HMI captures full-disk images of the Sun known as Dopplergrams, which reveal the direction and velocity of movement of structures in the photosphere. The HMI is also capable of switching a polarization filter into the optical path to produce magnetograms, which use the polarization of light as a proxy for magnetic field strength and polarity.
SDO’s Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). Sunlight is gathered by the conical telescope before entering tunable filters in the optical oven at the back of the enclosure. The twin CCD cameras are in the silver enclosure to the left of the telescope and are radiantly cooled by heatsinks to lower thermal noise. Source:
NASA
.
Continuous Data, and Lots of It
Like all the SDO instruments, HMI is built with data throughput in mind, but with a twist. Helioseismology requires accumulating data continuously over long observation periods; the original 5-year mission plan included 22 separate HMI runs lasting for 72 consecutive days, during which 95% of the data had to be captured. So not only must HMI take images of the Sun every four seconds, it has to reliably and completely package them up for transmission to Earth.
Schematic of the 18-m dish antenna used on the SDO ground station. The feedhorn is interesting; it uses a dichroic “kickplate” that’s transparent to S-band wavelengths but reflective to the Ka-band. That lets S-band telemetry pass through to the feedhorn in the center of the dish while Ka-band data gets bounced into a separate feed. Source:
AIAA Space Ops 2006 Conference
.
While most space programs try to leverage existing communications infrastructure, such as the Deep Space Network (DSN), the unique demands of SDO made a dedicated communications system necessary. The SDO communication system was designed to meet the throughput and reliability needs of the mission, literally from the ground up. A dedicated ground station consisting of a pair of 18-meter dish antennas was constructed in White Sands, New Mexico, a site chosen specifically to reduce the potential for rainstorms to attenuate the Ka-band downlink signal (26.5 to 50 GHz). The two antennas are located about 5 km apart within the downlink beamwidth, presumably for the same reason; storms in the New Mexico desert tend to be spotty, making it more likely that at least one site always has a solid signal, regardless of the weather.
To ensure that all the downlinked data gets captured and sent to the science teams, a complex and highly redundant Data Distribution System (DDS) was also developed. Each dish has a redundant pair of receivers and servers with RAID5 storage arrays, which feed a miniature data center of twelve servers and associated storage. A Quality Compare Processing (QCP) system continually monitors downlinked data quality from each instrument aboard SDO and stores the best available data in a temporary archive before shipping it off to the science team dedicated to each instrument in near real-time.
The numbers involved are impressive. The SDO ground stations operate 24/7 and are almost always unattended. SDO returns about 1.3 TB per day, so the ground station has received almost 7 petabytes of images and data and sent it on to the science teams over the 14 years it’s been in service, with almost all of it being available nearly the instant it’s generated.
As impressive as the numbers and the engineering behind them may be, it’s the imagery that gets all the attention, and understandably so. NASA makes
all the SDO data
available to the public, and almost every image is jaw-dropping. There are also plenty of “greatest hits” compilations out there, including a reel of the X-class flares that resulted in the spectacular aurorae over North America back in mid-May.
Like many NASA projects, SDO has far exceeded its planned lifespan. It was designed to catch the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24, but has managed to stay in service through the solar minimum of that cycle and into the next, and is now keeping a close watch on the peak of Solar Cycle 25. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774509",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T16:36:40",
"content": "Also interesting is OSO mission, some kind of ancient precursor in sun exploration.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbiting_Solar_ObservatoryThere’s also a German documentary in b/w that features it.https://... | 1,760,371,861.123616 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/samsung-killed-the-online-service-this-20-dollar-dongle-brings-it-back/ | Samsung Killed The Online Service, This 20 Dollar Dongle Brings It Back | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"online hack",
"samsung",
"samsung camera"
] | Around 2010 or so, Samsung cameras came with an online service: Social Network Services. It enabled pictures to be unloaded wirelessly to social media with minimum hassle, which back then wasn’t quite as easily accomplished as it is today. Sadly they shuttered the service in 2021, leaving that generation of cameras, like so many connected devices, orphaned. Now along comes [Ge0rG] with a replacement,
replicating the API on a $20 LTE dongle
.
The dongle in question is
one we featured a couple of years ago
, packing a Linux-capable computer of similar power to a Raspberry Pi Zero alongside its cell modem. The camera can connect to the device, and a photo can be sent in a Mastodon post. It’s something of a modern version of the original, but for owners of the affected cameras it’s a useful recovery of a lost service.
It’s surprising in a way that we’ve not heard of more hacks using these dongles, as they do represent a useful opportunity. That we haven’t should be seen as a measure of the success of the Raspberry Pi and other boards like it, just as it’s no longer worth hacking old routers for Linux hardware projects, so there’s less of a need to do the same here. | 14 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774447",
"author": "Jason",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T13:56:41",
"content": "Uploaded not unloaded.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6774453",
"author": "Somehuman",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T14:07:48",
"content": "Int... | 1,760,371,861.17131 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/09/making-ev-motors-and-breaking-up-with-rare-earth-elements/ | Making EV Motors, And Breaking Up With Rare Earth Elements | Donald Papp | [
"Engine Hacks"
] | [
"Electric motor",
"ev",
"rare-earth"
] | Rare earth elements are used to produce magnets with very high strength that also strongly resist demagnetization, their performance is key to modern motors such as those in electric vehicles (EVs). The stronger the magnets, the lighter and more efficient a motor can be. So
what exactly does it take to break up with rare earths?
Rare earth elements (REEs) are actually abundant in the Earth’s crust, technically speaking. The problem is they are found in very low concentrations, and inconveniently mixed with other elements when found. Huge amounts of ore are required to extract useful quantities, which requires
substantial industrial processing
. The processes involved are ecologically harmful and result in large amounts of toxic waste.
Moving away from rare earth magnets in EV motors would bring a lot of benefits, but poses challenges. There are two basic approaches: optimize a motor for non-rare-earth magnets (
such as iron nitrides
), or do away with permanent magnets entirely in favor of electromagnets (pictured above). There are significant engineering challenges to both approaches, and it’s difficult to say which will be best in the end. But research and prototypes are making it increasingly clear that effective REE-free motors are perfectly feasible. Breaking up with REEs and their toxic heritage would be much easier when their main benefit — technological performance — gets taken off the table as a unique advantage. | 85 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774371",
"author": "Bo-Erik Sandholm",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T10:24:13",
"content": "In my humble opinion there is really no need for the extreme performance that currently is one of the common selling point for Electric cars 😀",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repli... | 1,760,371,861.331948 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/going-ham-mobile-on-a-bicycle/ | Going Ham Mobile On A Bicycle | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"antenna",
"ham",
"HF",
"mobile. bicycle",
"pota",
"radio"
] | It’s said that “Golf is a good walk spoiled,” so is
attaching an amateur radio to a bike
a formula for spoiling a nice ride?
Not according to [Wesley Pidhaychuk (VA5MUD)], a Canadian ham who tricked out his bike with a transceiver and all the accessories needed to work the HF bands while peddling along. The radio is a Yaesu FT-891, a workhorse mobile rig covering everything from the 160-meter band to 6 meters. [Wes] used some specialized brackets to mount the radio’s remote control head to the handlebars, along with an iPad for logging and a phone holder for streaming. The radio plus a LiFePO
4
battery live in a bag on the parcel rack in back. The antenna is a Ham Stick mounted to a mirror bracket attached to the parcel rack; we’d have thought the relatively small bike frame would make a poor counterpoise for the antenna, but it seems to work fine — well enough for [Wes] to work some pretty long contacts while pedaling around Saskatoon, including hams in California and Iowa.
The prize contact, though, was with [WA7FLY], another mobile operator whose ride is even more unique: a 737 flying over Yuma, Arizona. We always knew commercial jets have HF rigs, but it never occurred to us that a pilot who’s also a ham might while away the autopilot hours working the bands from 30,000 feet. It makes sense, though; after all, if
truckers do it
, why not pilots? | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774323",
"author": "Cad the Mad",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T05:16:13",
"content": "I had a coworker who is a devout ham and enjoyed bicycling. He’d already set up an ARPS transmitter on his bike and had the great idea to add a mic/speaker to the radio so he could have conversations ... | 1,760,371,861.492839 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/plight-of-the-lowly-numitron-tube/ | Plight Of The Lowly Numitron Tube | Adam Fabio | [
"clock hacks",
"hardware"
] | [
"numitron",
"Technology Connections",
"tube",
"vacuum tube"
] | In the 60’s and 70’s there were many ways to display numeric data. Nixie tubes, Vacuum Florescent Displays (VFD), micro projection systems, you name it. All of them had advantages and drawbacks. One of the simplest ways to display data was the RCA Numitron. [Alec] at
Technology Connections
has a
bit of a love/hate relationship with
these displays.
The Numitron is simply a seven-segment display built from light bulb filaments. The filaments run at 5 V, and by their nature are current limited. Seven elements versus the usual ten seen in Nixie tubes reduced the number of switching elements (transistors, relays, or tubes) needed to drive them, and the single low-voltage supply was also much simpler than Nixie or even VFD systems.
Sounds perfect, right? Well, [Alec] has a bone to pick with this technology. The displays were quite dim, poorly assembled, and not very pleasing to look at. RCA didn’t bother tilting the “8” to fit the decimal point in! Even the display background was gray, causing the numbers to wash out in ambient light. Black would have been much better. In [Alec]’s words, the best way to describe the display would be “Janky,” yet he still enjoys them. In fact, he built a fancy retro-industrial-themed clock with them.
The Numitron was not a failure, though — we know variants of this display ended up in everything from gas pumps to
aircraft cockpit gauges
. You can even build an LED-based replica clock — no glowing filaments necessary. | 17 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774114",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T08:16:36",
"content": "“…didn’t bother tilting the “8” to fit the decimal point in!”Thank you; I never twigged why 7-segment displays were so often “in italics”!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,861.384715 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/peleds-using-perovskites-to-create-leds-which-also-sense-light/ | PeLEDs: Using Perovskites To Create LEDs Which Also Sense Light | Maya Posch | [
"Science"
] | [
"PeLED",
"perovskite"
] | With both of the dominant display technologies today – LCD and OLED – being far from perfect, there is still plenty of room in the market for the Next Big Thing. One of the technologies being worked on is called PeLED, for Perovskite LED. As a semiconductor material, it can both be induced to emit photons as well as respond rather strongly to incoming photons. That is a trick that today’s displays haven’t managed without integrating additional sensors. This technology could be used to create e.g. touch screens without additional hardware, as
recently demonstrated
by [Chunxiong Bao] and colleagues at Linköping University in Sweden and Nanjing University in China.
Their paper in
Nature Electronics
describes the construction of photo-responsive metal halide perovskite pixels, covering the typical red (CsPbI
3−
x
Br
x
), green (FAPbBr
3
), and blue (CsPbBr
3−
x
Cl
x
) wavelengths. The article also describes the display’s photo-sensing ability to determine where a finger is placed on the display. In addition, it can work as an ambient light sensor, a scanner, and a solar cell to charge a capacitor. In
related research
by [Yun Gao] et al. in
Nature Electronics
, PeLEDs are demonstrated with 1 microsecond response time.
As usual with perovskites, their lack of stability remains their primary obstacle. In the article by [Chunxiong Bao] et al. the manufactured device with red pixels was reduced to 80% of initial brightness after 18.5 hours. While protecting the perovskites from oxygen, moisture, etc. helps, this inherent instability may prevent PeLEDs from ever becoming commercialized in display technology. Sounds like a great challenge for the next Hackaday Prize! | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774105",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T05:31:23",
"content": "Could that be used for adaptive brightness? Sense if it’s bright or dark and adjust the backlight level? Currently devices require camera or sensor to detect light level",
"parent_id": null,
"depth":... | 1,760,371,861.538885 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/korean-multifunction-counter-teardown/ | Korean Multifunction Counter Teardown | Al Williams | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"frequency counter",
"test equipment",
"workbench"
] | [Thomas Scherrer] likes to tear down old test equipment, and often, we remember the devices he opens up or — at least — we’ve heard of them. However, this time, he’s got a
Hung Chang HC-F100 multifunction counter
, which is a vintage 1986 instrument that can reach 100 MHz.
Inside, the product is clearly a child of its time period. There’s a transformer for the linear supply, through-hole components, and an Intersil frequency counter on a chip. Everything is easy to get to and large enough to see.
Powering it up, the display lit up readily. The counter seemed to work with no difficulties, which was a bit of a surprise.
The oscillator inside has a temperature regulator so that once warmed up, it should be more or less stable. Touching it disturbs it, but you really shouldn’t be making real measurements with the top off while you are poking around on the inside.
This would pair well with a period
function generator
. Compare it to
a modern version
. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774128",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T09:21:19",
"content": "So even back then they made electronic instruments with mostly empty boxes.A while back I was looking around for a bench top DMM, but I could not find any to my liking. The small / “cheap” ones have slow... | 1,760,371,860.958618 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/hackaday-links-july-7-2024/ | Hackaday Links: July 7, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"am",
"analog",
"Anool",
"broadcast",
"Compressed Gas",
"cylinder",
"fm",
"hackaday links",
"hotline",
"Maker's Asylum",
"Mumbai",
"radio",
"robot suicide",
"space debris",
"SpaceX",
"spectrum",
"submarine",
"Switzerland",
"terrestrial",
"u-boot"
] | Begun, the Spectrum Wars have. First, it was
AM radio getting the shaft
(last item) and being yanked out of cars for the supposed impossibility of peaceful coexistence with
rolling broadband EMI generators
EVs. That battle has gone back and forth for the last year or two here in the US, with
lawmakers even getting involved at one point
(first item) by threatening legislation to make terrestrial AM radio available in every car sold. We’re honestly not sure where it stands now in the US, but now
the Swiss seem to be entering the fray
a little up the dial by turning off all their analog FM broadcasts at the end of the year. This doesn’t seem to be related to interference — after all,
no static at all
— but more from the standpoint of reclaiming spectrum that’s no longer turning a profit. There are apparently very few analog FM receivers in use in Switzerland anymore, with everyone having switched to DAB+ or streaming to get their music fix, and keeping FM transmitters on the air isn’t cheap, so the numbers are just stacked against the analog stations. It’s hard to say if this is a portent of things to come in other parts of the world, but it certainly doesn’t bode well for the overall health of terrestrial broadcasting. “First they came for AM radio, and I did nothing because I’m not old enough to listen to AM radio. But then they came for analog FM radio, and when I lost my album-oriented classic rock station, I realized that I’m actually old enough for AM.”
Have you or a loved one been injured by falling space debris? You may be entitled to significant compensation. Call 1-800-SPACEJUNK for a free consultation with one of our attorney specialists. OK, maybe it hasn’t gotten to that point yet, but when
SpaceX has set up a space debris hotline
, you know the lawsuits are just around the corner. The move seems to be related to a piece of junk that fell on a campground in North Carolina earlier in the year which was identified as a section of a SpaceX Dragon that had brought astronauts to the ISS. The rather furry-looking piece of debris has apparently remained on the campground and is even being used to attract business, which seems a far better outcome than
the Florida family whose roof caught a chunk of an ISS battery pack
. No word on what happens if you call the SpaceX hotline to report something, but if black-suited goons don’t rush to the scene in a Cybertruck, we’ll be disappointed.
If you’ve been around Hackaday for a while, the name Anool Mahidharia will probably be familiar to you. Aside from
writing over 300 articles for us
, Anool has been a driving force behind
The Maker’s Asylum
hackspace in Mumbai, where among a ton of other achievements he managed to spearhead the development of
an affordable open-source oxygen concentrator
during the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic. All that was side action on his main gig running test and measurement company Lumetronics. Anool has decided to shut the business down and sell off all
the contents of the shop
, which contains some really cool machines and equipment. If you’re handy to Mumbai you’ll definitely want to check this out. Anool, we’re not sure what the future holds for you, and we certainly hope you’re not hanging things up for good, but if you are, “So long, and thanks for all the hacks.”
The entire point of a submarine is to be invisible, to dip beneath the waves and imitate a patch of perfectly normal seawater as convincingly as possible. So we mere mortals have very few opportunities to see submarines at all, let alone see one maneuver. But if you’re anywhere near the Heidelberg area, y
ou just might get a chance to see U17
, a Type 206 diesel-electric sub that served in the
Bundesmarine
until 2010, as it’s being moved to its new home at the Technik Museen Sinsheim. A lot of the journey is on barges along the Rhine and Neckar rivers, at least until it arrives in Haßmersheim, whereupon the 90-meter boat will take to the road in a circuitous route to its new home. Can’t get to Germany to watch it in person? No worries — there’s
a live stream for that
.
Speaking of old tube-shaped objects, we know that compressed gas cylinders are built to last, but one was recently found that’s been in
continuous service for over a century
. Gas cylinders are subject to periodic inspection,
for obvious reasons
, and get a date stamped into their neck once they pass. The stalwart cylinder, currently holding carbon dioxide gas, has date stamps going back to 1921, and may even have older stamps lying beneath labels with fancy new-fangled 2D barcodes. Quite a contrast to a date stamped into the steel with a hammer and die, and it only emphasizes how old this thing is and how much of our technological history it has witnessed — so far.
And finally, if you think your job sucks, you’re probably right. But even so, it’s not worth ending it all, as a “civil service robot” apparently did by
casting itself down a stairwell
. The bot, apparently despondent thanks to a zero-wage, dead-end job that entailed shuffling documents around a municipal office in Gumi, South Korea, was seen rolling about in circles on a landing before taking the fatal plunge, which witnesses seemed to think was deliberate. The robot’s remains were collected and a post-mortem examination is being conducted to see what went wrong. The suicidal robot, built by California start-up
Bear Robotics
, which disappointingly does not appear to build
robotic bears
, seemed to have been the only one of its peers with the ability to call elevators and move between floors of its own volition. So maybe it wasn’t so much a suicide but a case of workplace jealousy and murder most foul. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774092",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T02:16:52",
"content": "Rest in pieces Supervisor Robot.We hardly knew ye!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6774155",
"author": "craig",... | 1,760,371,861.595425 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/new-battery-has-no-anode/ | New Battery Has No Anode | Al Williams | [
"Battery Hacks",
"News"
] | [
"battery",
"sodium battery",
"solid-state battery"
] | Conventional batteries have anodes and cathodes, but a
new design
from the University of Chicago and the University of California San Diego lacks an anode. While this has been done before, according to the University, this is the first time a solid-state sodium battery has successfully used this architecture.
Sodium is abundant compared to lithium, so batteries that use sodium are attractive. According to the University of Chicago’s news release:
Anode-free batteries remove the anode and store the ions on an electrochemical deposition of alkali metal directly on the current collector. This approach enables higher cell voltage, lower cell cost, and increased energy density…
Of course, there are also downsides. In particular, making anodeless batteries with liquid electrolytes can be easier to build, but the liquid forms solids that impede the battery’s performance over time.
The new battery uses an aluminum powder as a current collector. Interestingly, while this is a solid, it flows more like a liquid. Combined with a solid electrolyte, the battery flips the usual idea of a solid cathode and a liquid electrolyte.
We are always interested in
new battery tech
. However, we rarely see them out in the wild. Maybe
AI
will have better luck. | 29 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774012",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T20:15:42",
"content": "How does it smell?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6774050",
"author": "𐂀 𐂅",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T22:45:45",
"content... | 1,760,371,861.656734 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/c-compiler-exists-entirely-in-vim/ | C Compiler Exists Entirely In Vim | Donald Papp | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"8cc",
"c++",
"compiler",
"hello world",
"vim"
] | 8cc.vim
is a C compiler that exists as pure Vimscript. Is it small? It sure is! How about fast? Absolutely not! Efficient? Also no. But does it work and is it neat? You betcha!
Ever typed
:wq
to write the buffer and exit in
Vim
? When you do that, you’re using
Vimscript
. Whenever one enters command mode
:
in Vim, one is in fact using a live Vimscript interpreter. That’s the space in which this project exists and does its magic. Given enough time, anyway.
Vimscript itself was created by [Bram Moolenaar] in 1991. The idea was to execute batches of vim commands programmatically. It’s been used for a variety of purposes since then.
8cc
is a lightweight C compiler that has been supplanted by
chibicc
, but that doesn’t matter much because as author [rhysd] admits, this is really just a fun concept project more than anything. It may take
twenty minutes or more to compile “hello world”
, but doing it entirely from within Vim is a trip. | 36 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773971",
"author": "Ale",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T17:18:58",
"content": "I will wait for the emacs version, of course.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6773977",
"author": "Warren Burstein",
"timestamp": "2024... | 1,760,371,862.009134 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/custom-microcode-compiler-made-in-google-sheets/ | Custom Microcode Compiler, Made In Google Sheets | Donald Papp | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"classic computing",
"cpu",
"homebrew cpu",
"microcode"
] | When homebrewing a CPU, one has to deal with microcode. Microcode is the low-level nuts and bolts of how, precisely, a CPU executes instructions (like opcodes) and performs functions such as updating the cycle counter or handling interrupt requests. To make this task easier, [Bob Alexander] created a
microcode compiler built in Google Sheets
to help with his own homebrew work, but it’s flexible and configurable enough to be useful to others, as well.
A CPU’s microcode usually lives in read-only memory, and writing the microcode is only one step in the journey. [Bob]’s tool compiles his microcode into files that can be burned into memory (multiple EEPROM chips, in [Bob]’s case) or used as a Verilog program in the case of implementing the CPU in an FPGA. It’s configurable enough to be adapted for other homebrew CPU projects, though one would of course have to re-write the microcode portion.
A
read-only version of the spreadsheet
makes for some fun browsing, and if it piques your interest enough to get a copy of your own complete with the compiler script, you can do that
here
. It uses Google Sheets, and writes the output files into one’s Google Drive.
This kind of low-level project really highlights the finer points of just how the hard work of digital computing gets done. A good example is the
Gigatron
which implemented a RISC CPU using only microcode, memory, and logic gates in the late 70s. We’ve even seen custom microcode used to
aid complex debugging
. | 12 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773958",
"author": "Greg A",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T15:23:03",
"content": "it’s a fun use for a spreadsheet, for sure, but personally i cringe at it because i put all my projects in git. i like having the history, and i want the diffs to be meaningful human-readable summary of c... | 1,760,371,861.710125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/2024-business-card-challenge-magnetic-fidget-card/ | 2024 Business Card Challenge: Magnetic Fidget Card | Kristina Panos | [
"contests"
] | [
"2024 Business Card Challenge",
"magnets",
"neodymium magnet"
] | If you want someone to keep your business card around, you should probably make it really cool-looking, or have it do something useful. It’s kind of the whole point of the 2024 Business Card Challenge. And while we’d normally expect electronics of some persuasion to be involved, we must admit that
this magnetic fidget card
definitely does something, at least when manipulated. And even when it’s just sitting there, the card has a storage slot for IDs, or whatever you want.
Have you ever played with a magnetic fidget? They are quite satisfying, and making one yourself is likely to be even cheaper than making one of the spinning variety. This one uses a whopping 16 neodymium magnets, which means that it’s probably quite aurally satisfying as well as fun to handle.
And of course, since it’s 3D-printed, you can put whatever you want on the faces and update them easily if something changes. Bonus points to [Bhuvan Bagwe] for designing some for the Hackaday crew! | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773988",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T18:42:13",
"content": "“Aurally”As in audible,Or effecting one’s aura?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6774183",
"author": "Elliot Wil... | 1,760,371,862.098107 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/07/hacking-a-brother-label-maker-is-your-cups-half-empty-or-half-full/ | Hacking A Brother Label Maker: Is Your CUPS Half Empty Or Half Full? | Al Williams | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"brother",
"CUPS",
"label maker",
"labelmaker",
"linux",
"p-touch",
"printing"
] | On the one hand, we were impressed that a tiny Brother label maker actually uses CUPS to support printing. Like [Sdomi], we were less than impressed at how old a copy it was using – – 1.6.1. Of course, [Sdomi] managed to gain access to the OS and set things up the right way, and we get an
over-the-shoulder view
.
It wasn’t just the old copy of CUPS, either. The setup page was very dated and while that’s just cosmetic, it still strikes a nerve. The Linux kernel in use was also super old. Luckily, the URLs looked like good candidates for command injection.
Worst of all, the old version of CUPS had some known vulnerabilities, so there were several avenues of attack. The interface had some filtering, so slashes and spaces were not passed, but several other characters could get around the limitations. Very clever.
The post contains a few good tricks to file away for future use. It also turned out that despite the Brother branding, the printer is really from another company, which was useful to know, too. In the end, does the printer work any better? Probably not. But we get the urge to check some of the other devices we own.
The last time we saw CUPS save an old printer, it had to
be bolted on
. CUPS was meant to
support 3D printers
, but we never see anyone using it like that. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773909",
"author": "H4CK",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T11:28:07",
"content": "Dealing with printers is a peculiar kind of fun, but sdomi always delivers with top write-ups.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6773974",
"author": "... | 1,760,371,862.475107 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/repeatable-one-click-fusion-from-your-cellphone/ | Repeatable “One-Click” Fusion, From Your Cellphone | Elliot Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"fusion",
"fusor",
"reactor",
"science",
"software"
] | Sometimes you spend so much time building and operating your nuclear fusor that you neglect the creature comforts, like a simple fusion control profile or a cellphone app to remote control the whole setup. No worries, [Nate Sales] has your back with his
openreactor
project, your one-click fusion solution!
An inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusor is perhaps the easiest type of fusion for the home gamer, but that’s not the same thing as saying that building and running one is easy. It requires high vacuum, high voltage, and the controlled introduction of deuterium into the chamber. And because it’s real-deal fusion, it’s giving off neutrons, which means that you don’t want to be standing on the wrong side of the lead shielding. This is where remote control is paramount.
While this isn’t an automation problem that many people will be having, to put it lightly, it’s awesome that [Nate] shared his solution with us all. Sure, if you’re running a different turbo pump or flow controller, you might have some hacking to do, but at least you’ve got a start. And if you’re simply curious about fusion on a hobby scale, his repo is full of interesting details, from the inside.
And while this sounds far out, fusion at home is surprisingly attainable. Heck, if
a 12-year old
or
even a YouTuber
can do it, so can you! And now the software shouldn’t stand in your way.
Thanks [Anon] for the tip! | 22 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773900",
"author": "Nobody",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T10:06:23",
"content": "Huh …. all those fools spending millions of dollars on fusion and all they needed was THIS !!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6773910",
"au... | 1,760,371,862.155689 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/british-trains-to-maybe-make-way-for-steam-once-more/ | British Trains To (Maybe) Make Way For Steam Once More | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"hydrogen steam generator",
"locomotive",
"railroad",
"railway",
"steam",
"steam locomotive",
"steam turbine"
] | There’s nothing more guaranteed to excite a grizzled old railway enthusiast than the sight of a steam locomotive. The original main-line rail propulsion technology still clings on in a few places, but for practical purposes, it disappeared a lifetime ago. It’s interesting then to hear of a brand new steam locomotive prototype being considered for revenue freight use on British metals. Is it yet another rebuild of a heritage design to be used for enthusiasts only?
No, it’s an entirely new design with nothing in common with the locomotives of the past
, as [Terrier55Stepney] tells us in the video below the break.
Gone is the huge boiler and reciprocating pistons of old, as indeed is the notion of boiling anything. Instead, this is a steam turbine, nothing like the 1920s and 30s experiments with conventional locomotives, nor even the Union Pacific’s oil-fired condensing turbo-electrics. The new idea here from the British company
Steamology
is to create steam directly from the combustion of hydrogen in a series of small modular steam generators, and the resulting prototype turbo-generator will replace the diesel engine in a redundant British Rail class 60 freight locomotive. It’s unclear whether it will incorporate a condenser, but since it has no need to retain the water for a boiler we’re not sure it would need one.
Prototype locomotives featuring new technologies have
a long and inglorious history of not making the grade
, so while this is definitely an exciting and interesting development we’re not guaranteed to see it in widespread use. But it could offer a way to ensure a low-carbon replacement for diesel heavy freight locomotives, and unexpectedly provide engine upgrades for existing classes. The fact it’s technically a steam locomotive is incidental.
BR Class 60: Tutenkhamun Sleeping,
CC BY 2.0
. | 72 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773845",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T02:29:54",
"content": "Stop trying to make [the hydrogen economy] happen. It’s not going to happen.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6773894",
"author": "James Mac ... | 1,760,371,862.433894 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/full-scale-flying-delorean-gets-closer-to-liftoff/ | Full-Scale Flying DeLorean Gets Closer To Liftoff | Tom Nardi | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"airframe",
"multirotor",
"quadcopter"
] | These days, even hobbyist multi-rotor aircraft are capable of carrying considerable payloads. For example, the test rig that [Brian Brocken] recently put together should be able to loft more than 80 pounds (36 kilograms) without breaking a sweat. That would be a whole lot of camera gear or other equipment, but in this case, he’s planning on carrying something a bit more interesting: a
full-scale foam DeLorean
.
We first covered this project in
December of last year
, when [Brian] started using a massive robotic arm to carefully cut the body and individual parts of the car out of expanded polystyrene foam. He estimated at the time the body should weigh in at less than 30 lbs (14 kg), so he’d need to build a quadcopter with a maximum lift of roughly twice that much to keep the performance where he wanted it.
In the latest update to the Hackaday.io project page, [Brian] goes over the work that’s been done since we first got a glimpse of this incredible build. Improvements have been made to the motorized flaps and slats that cover up the front and rear motors when not in operation. The DeLorean’s iconic gull-wing doors have also been recreated, although in this case they’re motorized.
But the real news is the prototype airframe. Made of aluminum and 3D printed components, [Brian] is using it to get a feel for how much thrust can be expected from the motors, as well as provide some early numbers for the eventual PID tuning that’ll be needed to get the car flying smoothly. Unfortunately, there’s a bit too much flex in this version of the frame — [Brian] says that a later carbon fiber version will not only be more rigid, but also shave off a few more precious pounds.
We’re just as eager as the rest of you to see the first flight of this ambitious build, so stay tuned for the next update. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773823",
"author": "Sheff",
"timestamp": "2024-07-07T00:08:10",
"content": "Foam Board ?? Where we’re Going We Don’t Need Foam Board !!!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6774202",
"author": "Todd",
"timestamp":... | 1,760,371,862.527651 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/2024-business-card-challenge-a-battery-tester-with-blinkenlights/ | 2024 Business Card Challenge: A Battery Tester With Blinkenlights | Kristina Panos | [
"contests"
] | [
"2024 Business Card Challenge",
"battery tester",
"pogo pins"
] | Readers of a certain vintage will no doubt remember that for a brief time, some alkaline batteries came with a built-in battery tester. Basically, you just pushed really hard with your fingernails on the two ends of the strip, and it either lit up the little strip (or didn’t if it was dead), or made the word ‘good’ appear if energized.
But those days are long gone. What you need now is to either grab the voltmeter, stick out your tongue, or
build yourself a battery-testing business card
. Even the normies will enjoy this one, mostly because LEDs. Forty-seven of them to be exact, which will come to life and demonstrate that [Greg] is capable of making working electronic gadgets. No way does this card end up at the bottom of a desk drawer.
As far as grasping the batteries goes, [Greg] had several ideas, but ultimately landed on pogo pins, which we think is a fabulous solution. Be sure to check out the neat
interactive BOM
, somewhere in the middle of which is the CH32v003 RISC-V microcontroller. In the video after the break, you can see [Greg] using a Flipper Zero to program it. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773793",
"author": "Sascha Wüstemann",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T21:35:23",
"content": "Some are rather inspiring, e. g. the badgy!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6773804",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
... | 1,760,371,862.247756 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/arduino-plc-keeps-the-beat/ | Arduino PLC Keeps The Beat | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"arduino",
"arduino opta",
"drums",
"metronome",
"plc",
"power supply",
"programming",
"solenoid"
] | For most of our prototype, hobby, or one-off electronics projects it’s perfectly fine to use a development platform like an Arduino Uno or something to that effect. They’re both easy to program and easy to wire up to projects without breaking the bank. But if you step into an industrial setting where reliability is paramount even in places that are noisy, vibrating all the time, hot, or otherwise unpleasant for electronics, you’ll want to reach for a programmable logic controller (PLC) that are much more robust. There is actually a PLC from Arduino, and if you want to dip your toes into the PLC world then
take a look at this drum kit based on the Arduino Opta
.
With the PLC at the core of the build, it’s on to making the drumming mechanisms themselves. For that, project creator [JC Audio] is using a series of solenoids attached to camera mounts with a custom 3D printed part that allows for quick assembly and disassembly so he can get the positioning of each drum sound just right. The high hat is taken care of by the noise of an internal solenoid, with the other drums striking various real drums and other solid objects in his shops. The solenoids themselves are driven by a solid-state relay expansion module to ensure there’s enough power
While the build doesn’t sit inside a factory and run for years at a time, a musician’s stage is certainly a rough enough environment that we might reach for a PLC over a standard development board for its benefits. The code for this project is available as well at
the project’s GitHub page
for those looking for a more advanced timekeeper to play along with their music practice, and for more details on why you might choose a PLC for your project
take a look at this Arduino vs PLC showdown from a few years ago
. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773768",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T18:06:48",
"content": "I find the voice coil arm and magnet of a hard drive makes a great actuator for striking a drum. Lever action instead of linear much like a stick. I attached a piece of piano spring wire to the stub of ... | 1,760,371,862.203345 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/open-source-high-speed-sige-ic-production-for-free/ | Open Source High Speed SiGe IC Production For Free! | Dave Rowntree | [
"hardware"
] | [
"analog",
"bipolar",
"chip",
"high speed",
"IC design",
"MPW",
"open source",
"shuttle run",
"silicon germanium"
] | We’ve covered the Tiny Tapeout project a few times on these pages, and while getting your digital IC design out there onto actual silicon for a low cost is super cool, it is still somewhat limited. Now, along comes the German FMD QNC project funding MPW (multi-project wafer) runs not in bog standard Silicon CMOS but
Silicon-Germanium bipolar technology
. And this is accessible to you and me, of course, provided you have the skills to design in this high-speed analog technology.
The design can be
submitted via Github
by cloning the IHP-Open-DesignLib repo, adding your design, and issuing a pull request. If your submission passes the correctness checks and is selected, it will be fabricated in-house by the IHP pilot line facility, which means it will take at least four months to complete. However, there are a few restrictions. The design must be open source, DRC complete (obviously!) and below a somewhat limiting two square millimetres. Bonus points for selecting your project can be had for good documentation and a unique quality, i.e., they shouldn’t have too many similar designs in the project archive. Also, you don’t get to keep the silicon samples, but you may rent them for up to two years for evaluation. In fact,
anybody
can rent them. Still, it’s a valuable service to trial a new technique or debug a design and a great way to learn and hone a craft that is difficult to get into by traditional means. Such projects would be an excellent source of verifiable CV experience points we reckon!
If you fancy getting your hands on your own silicon, but bipolar SiGe is a bit of a stretch, look no further than
our guide to Tiny Tapeout
. But don’t take our word for it—
listen to the creator himself! | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774389",
"author": "NFM",
"timestamp": "2024-07-09T11:19:25",
"content": "So I design a chip but I don’t get to own or even keep the results?I’ll stick with the openframe project. Their tools may still be buggy, but at least we own the fistful of chips that come out the other end, ... | 1,760,371,862.570175 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/keyboard-contains-entire-mini-pc-just-byod/ | Keyboard Contains Entire Mini PC, Just BYOD | Kristina Panos | [
"News",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"bring your own display",
"BYOD",
"keyboard",
"mini pc",
"Ryzen"
] | When we talk about keyboards that do it all, we usually mean either big ones with lots of keys and doodads like rotary encoders and displays, or small ones with lots of layers (and usually a few doodads, too). But this — this is something else entirely.
Chinese PC maker Linglong have crammed an entire mini PC into a keyboard
that’s small enough to fit in your back pocket. Oh, and it folds, too. All you need is a display.
Why do you need a display? Why not include one, if you’re going to wedge everything else in there? Well, the company envisions its users pairing it with a VR or AR glasses. But we can see use cases far beyond ownership of special spectacles, of course.
For instance, office work. Linglong says this key-puter (you read it here first) will last up to ten hours for light use, and nearly six hours for watching movies, but heavy use will have you down to four hours, which really isn’t that bad.
Spec-wise, it looks pretty good, with an AMD Ryzen 7 and either 16 or 32 GB of memory and a half- or full-terabyte hard drive. The whole thing is around 4 x 6″ (15 x 10cm), presumably in the folded orientation, and weighs less than two pounds (800 g). The projected cost is $400-500 depending on specs.
Unfortunately, this little key-puter isn’t available just yet. There are just 200 units available for Beta testing, and no, we don’t have one!
Main and thumbnail images via
Linglong | 52 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774270",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T23:16:07",
"content": "A computer in a keyboard?I was thinking “easy with a Raspi CM 400”.Then, I read “Ryzen 7”!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,371,862.686312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/2024-business-card-challenge-a-very-annoying-business-card-indeed/ | 2024 Business Card Challenge: A Very Annoying Business Card, Indeed | Kristina Panos | [
"contests"
] | [
"2024 Business Card Challenge",
"ESP32",
"solar"
] | Usually the business card itself is the reminder to get in contact with whoever gave it to you. But this is Hackaday, after all.
This solar-powered card reminds the recipient to send [Dead Rat Productions] an email by beeping about every two hours
, although the gist of that email may simply be begging them to make it stop, provided they didn’t just toss the thing in the garbage.
The full-on, working version of the card is not intended for everyone — mostly serious-looking A-list types that ooze wealth. Most of [Dead Rat Productions]’ pub mates will get an unpopulated version, which could be a fun afternoon for the right kind of recipient, of course.
That person would need a Seeed Studio Xiao SAMD21, a solar panel, plus some other components, like an energy-harvesting chip to keep the battery topped up. Of note, there is a coin cell holder that requires prying with a screwdriver to get the battery out, so there’s really no escaping the beeping without some work on their part. We rather like the artwork on this one, especially the fact that the coin cell sits inside the rat’s stomach. That’s a nice touch. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774248",
"author": "Titus431",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T20:31:58",
"content": "So … a solar charged annoyatron where the PCB is only populated if they think the recipient is a billionaire?No actual website — just a pic from the card.Historically, I may have been looking for clients... | 1,760,371,862.733094 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/hack-all-the-things-get-all-the-schematics/ | Hack All The Things, Get All The Schematics | Arya Voronova | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants"
] | [
"hacking",
"repair",
"schematics"
] | When I was growing up, about 4 or 5 years old, I had an unorthodox favourite type of reading material: service manuals for my dad’s audio equipment. This got to the point that I kept asking my parents for more service manuals, and it became a running joke in our family for a bit. Since then, I’ve spent time repairing tech and laptops in particular as a way of earning money, hanging out at a flea market in the tech section, then spending tons of time at our hackerspace. Nowadays, I’m active in online hacker groups, and I have built series of projects closely interlinked with modern-day consumer-facing tech.
Twenty three years later, is it a wonder I have a soft spot in my heart for schematics? You might not realize this if you’re only upcoming in the hardware hacking scene, but device schematics, whichever way you get them, are a goldmine of information you can use to supercharge your projects, whether you’re hacking on the schematic-ed device itself or not. What’s funny is, not every company wants their schematics to be published, but it’s ultimately helpful for the company in question, anyway.
If you think it’s just about repair – it’s that, sure, but there’s also a number of other things you might’ve never imagined you can do. Still, repair is the most popular one.
Repair, Of Course
Asked to pay for a schematic? You can most likely find it elsewhere for free.
It’s an old chestnut that tech marvels of the past used to come bundled with schematics, and that’s no longer the case. Indeed, they are often top secret. For laptops and phones, one part of that is extensive NDAs that cover information on many a chip within them, including schematics. That said, somehow, this hasn’t stopped certain companies like Clevo, who has been seen putting their designs’ schematics right inside the service manual, for example, the
P75xZM_ESM.pdf
.
Still, schematics are a market; repair shops earn their keep from being able to fix devices, so a PDF is likely to leak one way or another, often it just takes time. For certain laptop manufacturers and series, this doesn’t happen, but most of all it seems to depend on popularity. In a way, schematics being leaked is a decent indicator that a product is popular enough to hit repair shops en masse, creating demand for underpaid workers to bring a loaded microSD card with them on a trip back home from the factory employing them.
I’m aware that companies sometimes can’t publish much, and, it’s still interesting how publishing schematics and other repair documents is not more popular with companies, despite everything it brings. During my call-in laptop repair days, travelling around with a tiny Asus netbook in my toolbox that used to be a makeup suitcase, I can remember one specific phrase I heard often: “yeah, we don’t like %BRAND%, we’ve had our %BRAND% device break and it couldn’t be fixed”.
Companies Who Publish Nevertheless
When it comes to publicly shared schematics, for instance, Framework laptops have adopted a “Raspberry Pi” approach – share schematics that concern external ports, where no NDAs could conceivably be involved, and even publish further specifications about these ports. This has created a vivid hacking and modding ecosystem around Framework, attracting a good amount of people, and this part in particular is something other companies could do as well.
I’ve talked aplenty about the Framework ecosystem
already, and I mention the schematic involvement there quite a bit, too!
It’s not just about connectors – there’s plenty of places in a laptop where failures are likely to occur, like power management. Intel might scoff at the CPU and Thunderbolt part pinouts being published, but schematics for these aren’t usually involved in a laptop repair anyway, what fails is usually power management, and chances are, just the schematic pages for that could be published without violating an NDA. Raspberry Pi’s schematics used to work in this way; sadly, RPF has given up on publishing Linux-powered Pi schematics due to being stuck in a perfectionism loop – the Pi 5 schematics are nowhere to be seen, and
the USB-C-fixed Pi 4 schematics aren’t available either.
Pine64 is a strange case – their products are not open-source, in large part due to their operation’s scale landing them in a cloning-happy environment. Still, they publish a ton of the information that you might want. Pine64 publishes schematics for their products, and is forthcoming with things like – for instance, ever broke a barrel jack socket on your Pinecil? It’s a rare fault, but in case you somehow have,
they stock replacement sockets
. Of course, Pinecil schematics are available too, in full, same goes for PinePhone and most of their other products.
I was particularly active in the Pinecil community of the Pine64 discord, and thanks to schematics being accessible in a searchable way, we could help people fix their Pinecils on a community basis, across timezones, often quicker than the tech support could give them a response. In fact, because of the conversations happening in an official Pine64 community, Pine64 tech support could read the conversations in our channel, and avoid repeating many of the debugging steps with the Pinecil owner in question. It really helped that, everything they had to do over email, we could do over real-time chat! Schematics were a crucial part of that, from tracing what could it be that’d die from a reverse polarity what was shorting out the 3.3 V regulator, to the part numbers.
A good few failures were relatively common, and a few community members across different continents, including me, stocked up on some of the commonly involved parts and mailed them out to people in flat envelopes. Compared to the Pinecil sales numbers, the number of failures that we handled was pretty low, but we did help a good few people; generally, people were quite happy about fixing something they own, as opposed to getting a new iron and putting the broken one into a cupboard drawer!
here’s a trace you can cut to protect your old Pinecil from FUSB failure, and gain 24V support as a side effect
It wasn’t just replacing components – together, we narrowed down a particularly common fault that would kill Pinecils or at least make their USB-C PD power input inoperable, and figured out a fix that, in the end, involved simply cutting a trace. The gist is, a pin of a specific IC on the Pinecil was connected directly to the power input rail, this pin specifically was sensitive to overvoltage, killing the chip in a way that sometimes would even pull down the entire 3.3 V rail. What’s interesting, it didn’t have to be connected to that rail at all! The community designed a fix, people have applied it for both failure immunity and also being able to use 24 V bricks. Later on, Pine64 applied the fix to a new batch of the Pinecil hardware, which is now immune to this fault.
Before the ability to just cut the trace was figured out by [Thanos the tank engine] and others, I managed to design an addon board that’d down-regulate the voltage with a Zener diode, and even published the files for it. After all, you can design a whole lot if schematics are available!
Build All The Cool Stuff
Hackers have long used schematics to design things like addons – physical board attributes, you can redesign with calipers in hand, but schematics capture everything else. All those consoles
put into tiny formfactors
, made possible because of
the motherboard being cut down?
Schematics were likely involved in one way or another.
having schematics how [Wificable] could figure out there are two separate PCIe links on this connector, and make a riser exposing them both at the same time
Friends of mine have done the same kind of schematic-inspired design, on a number of occasions – in particular, [Wificable] has designed an MXM reuse adapter and a good few MXM cards only thanks to available schematics, and her TinyRiser, an adapter that pulls extra PCIe from a particular lineup of Lenovo Tiny computers, was only possible because we could get find the relevant PDF in a Telegram group.
Got a technical question the manufacturer doesn’t expand on? A schematic is a reliable way to check.
It’s not just addons, it’s also finding information you can’t find otherwise. Wondering what your laptop’s USB-C port does, whether it supports DisplayPort, or charging input? The manufacturer’s website might not be helpful at all, but the schematics show it all instantly, on the page with the block diagram. I’ve seen a product being developed, an ExpressCard slot adapter housing an SSD, that researched laptop schematics to figure out 3.3 V current limits on the ExpressCard slot and how they were implemented in different laptops.
Tapping into the iPhone battery market
to get a reliable source of slim batteries for your project? Use the schematics to find the battery connector pinout – and the connector part number. Remember the M.2 card with a 1:2 PCIe switch, that
I’ve shown you the design process of?
That one was only possible because of a laptop schematic we found featuring the ASM1182e chip. Schematics often contain part numbers, and these are super helpful – you could consult one of the
connector bibles
, or you could simply copy the part number for a connector out of a schematic PDF and get the exact part number necessary.
Remember that
Sony Vaio P motherboard rebuild project
I’ve started? I’ve just recently received the v1 PCBs of a motherboard I designed, now they’re waiting to be assembled, and I couldn’t have had done this without all the connector pinout information I found in the schematic. In particular, it might be that this motherboard replacement will be impossible to adapt to the second revision of these Vaios, since, as far as I’ve seen, that revision’s schematics haven’t leaked. Well, either way, expect an article about the new motherboard soon!
There’s way, way more you can learn from schematics as you go. One of my current projects requires learning a fair bit from the PinePhone schematic and specifically its LTE modem that boasts open firmware, as part of uncovering yet another series-worthy topic; naturally, you will hear about that one soon. Schematics keep a treasure trove of hacker-friendly information in them, and information deserves to be free. | 32 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774214",
"author": "Oliver",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T17:32:54",
"content": "Here here, absolutly!!> Schematics keep a treasure trove of hacker-friendly information in them, and information deserves to be free.As a society we can improve best by working together. Freedom of informa... | 1,760,371,862.808675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/usagi-electrics-bendix-g15-gets-dc-power/ | [Usagi Electric’s] Bendix G15 Gets DC Power | Adam Fabio | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"Bendix G15",
"G15",
"Usagi",
"usagi electric",
"vacuum tube"
] | [Usagi Electric] is
breathtakingly close to having his Bendix G15 vacuum
tube computer up and running. This week he is joined by a new friend, [Lloyd] who is restoring a G15 as well. [Lloyd] used to repair the Bendix Computers back in the 1970s, so he’s privy to lots of practical knowledge you can’t find in the manuals.
The goal this week was to apply DC power to the G15. The AC power spins the fans and makes the tubes start glowing. But DC makes the magic happen. That’s when the boot sequencers start running, sending data to the drum, testing various parts of the machine, and finally, loading software from the paper tape reader.
Since this was a computer from the 1950’s, powering up DC might work, or could let the magic smoke out. The only way to find out was to push the big green “Reset” button.
The first attempt was stymied by a blown fuse. The second attempt resulted in real live blinkenlights. The data and status lights on the Bendix lit up for the first time in decades. The only thing missing was the sound of the tape drive. A bit of digging proved that the problem wasn’t in the computer, but in the typewriter user console. The typewriter is supposed to connect the SA line to the -20 volt DC rail. That wasn’t happening though. Since that expected voltage wasn’t present on the SA line at the Bendinx, the boot process halted.
Unfortunately, the typewriter has “somebody’s been here before” syndrome – in addition to age, there are a number of odd modifications. It’s going to take [Usagi] a bit of time to dig into it and figure out what’s wrong.
The good news is that the computer is using its
massive spinning drum drive
. [Usagi] was able to verify this with the test panel inside the machine. One button will write a pulse to the drum, and another will erase it. Manipulating these buttons, [Usagi] could see the results on an oscilloscope. This may sound simple – but just getting to this point means an incredibly complex chain of tube, relay, and mechanical logic has to work. Bravo [Dave] and [Lloyd]! | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774259",
"author": "That guy ¯\\(°_o)/¯",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T21:37:39",
"content": "its not his, its on loan to repair from system source",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "7444197",
"author": "Fritz Schneider",
"tim... | 1,760,371,862.850572 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/the-flash-memory-lifespan-question-why-qlc-may-be-nand-flashs-swan-song/ | The Flash Memory Lifespan Question: Why QLC May Be NAND Flash’s Swan Song | Maya Posch | [
"Current Events",
"Engineering",
"Featured",
"Slider"
] | [
"NAND flash",
"solid state drive"
] | The late 1990s saw the widespread introduction of solid-state storage based around NAND Flash. Ranging from memory cards for portable devices to storage for desktops and laptops, the data storage future was prophesied to rid us of the shackles of magnetic storage that had held us down until then. As solid-state drives (SSDs) took off in the consumer market, there were those who confidently knew that before long everyone would be using SSDs and hard-disk drives (HDDs) would be relegated to the dust bin of history as the price per gigabyte and general performance of SSDs would just be too competitive.
Fast-forward a number of years, and we are now in a timeline where people are
modifying SSDs
to have less storage space, just so that their performance and lifespan are less terrible. The reason for this is that by now NAND Flash has hit a number of limits that prevent it from further scaling density-wise, mostly in terms of its feature size. Workarounds include stacking more layers on top of each other (3D NAND) and increasing the number of voltage levels – and thus bits – within an individual cell. Although this has boosted the storage capacity, the transition from single-level cell (SLC) to multi-level (MLC) and today’s TLC and QLC NAND Flash have come at severe penalties, mostly in the form of limited write cycles and much reduced transfer speeds.
So how did we get here, and is there life beyond QLC NAND Flash?
Floating Gates
Basic model of a floating-gate transistor.
At the core of NAND Flash lies the concept of floating gates, as first pioneered in the 1960s with the floating-gate MOSFET (
FGMOS
). As an FGMOS allows for the retention of a charge in the floating gate, it enabled the development of non-volatile semiconductor storage technologies like EPROM, EEPROM and flash memory. With EPROM each cell consists out of a single FET with the floating and control gates. By inducing hot carrier injection (
HCI
) with a programming voltage on the control gate, electrons are injected into the floating gate, which thus effectively turns the FET on. This allows then for the state of the transistor to be read out and interpreted as the stored bit value.
Naturally, just being able to program an EPROM once and then needing to erase the values by exposing the entire die to UV radiation (to induce ionization within the silicon oxide which discharges the FET) is a bit of a bother, even if it allowed the chip to be rewritten thousands of times. In order to make EPROMs in-circuit rewritable, EEPROMs change the basic FET-only structure with two additional transistors. Originally EEPROMs used the same HCI principle for erasing a cell, but later they would switch to using
Fowler-Nordheim tunneling
(FNT, the wave-mechanical form of field electron emission) for both erasing and writing a cell, which removes the damaging impact of hot carrier degradation (HCD). HCD and the application of FNT are both a major source of the physical damage that ultimately makes a cell ‘leaky’ and rendering it useless.
Combined with charge trap flash (
CTF
) that replaces the original polycrystalline silicon floating gate with a more durable and capable silicon nitride material, modern EEPROMs can support around a million read/write cycles before they wear out.
Flash memory
is a further evolution of the EEPROM, with the main distinctions being a focus on speed and high storage density, as well as the use of HCI for writes in NOR Flash, due to the speed benefits this provides. The difference between NOR and NAND Flash comes from the way in which the cells are connected, with NOR Flash called that way because it resembles a NOR gate in its behavior:
NOR flash memory wiring and structure on silicon (Credit: Cyferz, Wikimedia)
To write a NOR Flash cell (set it to logical ‘0’), an elevated voltage is applied to the control gate, inducing HCI. To erase a cell (reset to logical ‘1’), a large voltage of opposite polarity is applied to the control gate and the source terminal, which draws electrons out of the floating gate due to FNT.
Reading a cell is then performed by pulling the target word line high. Since all of the storage FETs are connected to both ground and the bit line, this will pull the bit line low if the floating gate is active, creating a logical ‘1’ and vice versa. NOR Flash is set up to allow for bit-wise erasing and writing, although modern NOR Flash is moving to a model in which erasing is done in blocks, much like with NAND Flash:
NAND flash memory wiring and structure on silicon (Credit: Cyferz, Wikimedia)
The reason why NAND Flash is called this way is readily apparent from the way the cells are connected, with a number of cells connected in series (a string) between the bit line and ground. NAND Flash uses FNT for both writing and erasing cells, which due to its layout always has to be written (set to ‘0’) and read in pages (a collection of strings), while erasing is performed on a block level (a collection of pages).
Unlike NOR Flash and (E)EPROM, the reading out of a value is significantly
more complicated
than toggling a control gate and checking the level of the bit line. Instead the control gate on a target cell has to be activated, while putting a much higher (>6V) voltage on the control gate of unwanted cells in a string (which turns them on no matter what). Depending on the charge inside the floating gate, the bit line voltage will reach a certain level, which can then be interpreted as a certain bit value. This is also how NAND Flash can store multiple bits per cell, by relying on precise measurements of the charge level of the floating gate.
All of this means that while NOR Flash supports random (byte-level) access and erase and thus eXecute in Place (XiP, allows for running applications directly off ROM), NAND Flash is much faster with (block-wise) writing and erasing, which together with the higher densities possible has led to NAND Flash becoming the favorite for desktop and mobile data storage applications.
Scaling Pains
With the demand for an increasing number of bytes-per-square-millimeter for Flash storage ever present, manufacturers have done their utmost to shrink the transistors and other structures that make up a NAND Flash die down. This has led to issues such as reduced data retention due to electron leakage and increased wear due to thinner structures. The quick-and-easy way to bump up total storage size by storing more bits per cell has not only exacerbated these issues, but also introduced significant complexity.
The increased wear can be easily observed when looking at the endurance rating (program/erase (P/E) cycles per block) for NAND Flash, with SLC NAND Flash hitting up to 100,000 P/E cycles, MLC below 10,000, TLC around a thousand and QLC dropping down to hundreds of P/E cycles. Meanwhile the smaller feature sizes have made NAND Flash more susceptible to electron leakage from electron mobility, such from high environmental temperatures. Data retention also decreases with wear, making data loss increasingly more likely with high-density, multiple bits per cell NAND Flash.
Because of the complexity of QLC NAND Flash with four bits (and thus 16 voltage levels) per cell, the write and read speeds have plummeted compared to TLC and especially SLC. This is why QLC (and TLC) SSDs use a pseudo-SLC (pSLC) cache, which allocates part of the SSD’s Flash to be only used with the much faster SLC access pattern. In the earlier
referenced tutorial
by Gabriel Ferraz this is painfully illustrated by writing beyond the size of the pSLC cache of the target SSD (a Crucial BX500):
(Credit: Gabriel Ferraz)
Although the writes to the target SSD are initially nearly 500 MB/s, the moment the ~45 GB pSLC cache fills up, the write speeds are reduced to the write speeds of the underlying Micron 3D QLC NAND, which are around 50 MB/s. Effectively QLC NAND Flash is no faster than a mechanical HDD, and with worse data retention and endurance characteristics. Clearly this is the point where the prophesied solid state storage future comes crumbling down as even relatively cheap NAND Flash still hasn’t caught up to the price/performance of HDDs.
(Credit: Gabriel Ferraz)
The modification performed by Gabriel Ferraz on the BX500 SSD involves reprogramming its Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 NAND Flash controller using the MPTools software, which is not provided to consumers but has been leaked onto the internet. While not as simple as toggling on a ‘use whole SSD as pSLC’ option, this is ultimately what it comes down to after flashing modified firmware to the drive.
With the BX500 SSD now running in pSLC mode, it knocks the storage capacity down from 500 GB to 120 GB, but the P/E rating goes up from a rated 900 cycles in QLC mode to 60,000 cycles in pSLC mode, or well over 3,000%. The write performance is a sustained 496 MB/s with none of the spikes seen in QLC mode, leading to about double the score in the PCMark 10 Full System Drive test.
With all of this in mind, it’s not easy to see a path forward for NAND Flash which will not make these existing issues even worse. Perhaps Intel and Micron will come out of left field before long with a new take on the
3D XPoint
phase-change memory, or perhaps we’ll just keep muddling on for the foreseeable future with ever worse SSDs and seemingly immortal HDDs.
Clearly one should never believe prophets, especially not those for shiny futuristic technologies.
Featured image: “
OCZ Agility 3 PCB
” by [Ordercrazy] | 87 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774165",
"author": "Zit",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T14:38:19",
"content": "But the growth in HDD capacity is also slowing down. For consumer grade CMR disks around 200 bucks, it was 1TB in 2010, 4TB in 2015, 8TB in 2018 , and from 2021 to now, it has only reached 16TB",
"parent_... | 1,760,371,863.0342 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/08/unlocking-the-mystery-of-an-aircraft-adi/ | Unlocking The Mystery Of An Aircraft ADI | Al Williams | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"adi",
"aircarft",
"aviation",
"avionics",
"cockpit",
"gauge"
] | If you’ve ever seen the cockpit of an airplane, you’ve probably noticed the round ball that shows your attitude, and if you are like us, you’ve wondered exactly how the Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI) works. Well, [msylvain59] is
tearing one apart
in the video below, so you can satisfy your curiosity in less than 30 minutes.
Like most things on an airplane, it is built solidly and compactly. With the lid open, it reminded us of a tiny CRT oscilloscope, except the CRT is really the ball display. It also has gears, which is something we don’t expect to see in a scope.
Getting to the ball mechanism was fairly difficult. It is nearly the end of the video before the ball comes apart, revealing a pair of hefty but tiny autosyn units and a clockwork full of gears. Bendix equipment often used the autosyn to transmit positions over wire similar to a selsyn but using AC instead of DC.
Next time you peek into a cockpit, you’ll know what’s driving that eyeball or, at least, what might be driving it since not every one of these is identical, of course.
These
cool devices
show up in our feed every so often. If you can cram a CPU, a screen, and an accelerometer
into a Lego
, you could build one for your next block model. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6774140",
"author": "Mystick",
"timestamp": "2024-07-08T11:40:02",
"content": "“The artificial horizon – it’s twice as good as the actual horizon.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6774151",
"author": "jbx",
"timestamp": ... | 1,760,371,862.905155 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/halfway-between-inspiration-and-engineering/ | Halfway Between Inspiration And Engineering | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"engineering",
"lateral thinking",
"newsletter"
] | We see a lot of hacks where the path to success is pretty obvious, if maybe strewn with all sorts of complications, land-mines, and time-sinks. Then we get other hacks that are just totally out-of-the-box. Maybe the work itself isn’t so impressive, or even “correct” by engineering standards, but the inner idea that’s so crazy it just might work shines through.
This week, for instance, we
saw an adaptive backlight LED TV modification that no engineer would ever design
. Whether it was just the easiest way out, or used up parts on hand, [Mousa] cracked the problem of assigning brightnesses to the LED backlights by taking a tiny screen, playing the same movie on it, pointing it at an array of light sensors, and driving the LEDs inside his big TV off of that. No image processing, no computation, just light hitting LDRs. It’s mad, and it involves many, many wires, but it gets the job done.
Similarly, we saw an
answer to the wet-3D-filament problem
that’s as simple as it could possibly be: basically a tube with heated, dry air running through it that the filament must pass through on it’s way to the hot end. We’ve seen plenty of engineered solutions to damp filament, ranging from an ounce of prevention in the form of various desiccant storage options, to a pound of cure – putting the spools in the oven to bake out. We’re sure that drying filament inline isn’t the
right
way to do it, but we’re glad to see it work. The idea is there when you need it.
Not that there’s anything
wrong
with the engineering mindset. Quite the contrary: most often taking things one reasonable step at a time, quantifying up all the unknowns, and thinking through the path of least resistance gets you to the finish line of your project faster. But we still have to admire the off-the-wall hacks, where the way that makes the most sense isn’t always the most beautiful way to go. It’s a good week on Hackaday when we get both types of projects in even doses.
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
! | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773731",
"author": "Jesse Jenkins",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T15:56:32",
"content": "Many folks love exotic solutions. Personally, I am a fan of “brute force” solutions. Good job(s)!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6773740",
... | 1,760,371,863.24779 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/candle-powered-lantern-isnt-as-silly-as-you-think/ | Candle Powered Lantern Isn’t As Silly As You Think | Adam Fabio | [
"LED Hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"candle",
"heat",
"lantern",
"peltier",
"SeeBeck Effect"
] | [Gilles Messier] at the
Our Own Devices
YouTube channel recently took a look at an interesting device —
an electric lantern powered by a candle
. At first glance, this sounds completely absurd. Why use a candle to power LEDs when you can use the light from the candle itself? This gadget has a trick up its sleeve, though. It lets candle light out
and
uses the heat from the candle flame to generate power for the LEDs.
The small Peltier “solid-state heat pump” module in the lantern acts as a thermoelectric generator, converting heat from the candle into electricity for the LEDs. The genius of the device is how it handles the candle “exhaust”. A bimetallic disk in the chimney of the lantern closes when the air inside the device is hot. The Peltier device converts the heat differential to electricity, causing the air inside the lantern to cool. Meanwhile, the candle is beginning to starve for oxygen. Once the air cools down a bit, the disk bends, allowing stale smoke out, and fresh air in, allowing the candle to burn brightly again. Then the cycle repeats.
[Gilles] does a deep dive into the efficiency of the lantern, which is worth the price of admission alone. These lanterns are pretty expensive — but
Peltier modules are well-known by hackers
. We’re sure it won’t be too hard to knock together a cheap version at home. | 30 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773678",
"author": "geertu",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T11:29:02",
"content": "https://www.elektormagazine.com/labs/peltier-lamp",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6773680",
"author": "MG",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T11:36:01"... | 1,760,371,863.490683 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/06/new-solar-spheres-claim-to-be-better-than-solar-panels/ | New Solar Spheres Claim To Be Better Than Solar Panels | Al Williams | [
"News",
"Solar Hacks"
] | [
"solar energy",
"solar panels"
] | When you think of solar energy, you probably think of flat plates on rooftops. A company called WAVJA wants you to think of
spheres
. The little spheres, ranging from one to four inches across, can convert light into electricity, and the company claims they have 7.5 times the output of traditional solar panels and could later produce even more. Unfortunately, the video below doesn’t have a great deal of detail to back up the claims.
Some scenes in the video are clearly forward-looking. However, the so-called photon energy system appears to be powering a variety of real devices. It’s difficult to assess some of the claims. For example, the video claims 60 times the output of a similar-sized panel. But you’d hardly expect much from a tiny 4-inch solar panel.
What do you think? Do they really have layers of exotic material? If we were going to bet, we’d bet these claims are a bit of hyperbole. Then again, who knows? We’ll be watching to see what technical details emerge. We have to admit that quotes like this from their website don’t make us especially hopeful:
…relies on the use of multiple layers of materials and special spheres to introduce sunlight and generate a significant amount of luminosity, which is then transformed into electricity using a silicon conductor module…
There are ways to make
solar technology more efficient
. But we do see a lot of solar energy claims that are — well —
inflated
. | 83 | 40 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773626",
"author": "lamalas",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T08:06:03",
"content": "Since when does HaD writes articles on clearly scam/fake things? What’s next, free energy generators?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6773636",
... | 1,760,371,863.604364 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/building-an-ir-thermometer-that-fits-on-your-keychain/ | Building An IR Thermometer That Fits On Your Keychain | Tom Nardi | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"esp32-C3",
"IR thermometer",
"keychain",
"oled display"
] | Non-contact infrared (IR) thermometers used to be something of an exotic tool, but thanks at least in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re now the sort of thing you see hanging up near the grocery store checkout as a cheap impulse buy. Demand pushed up production, and the economies of scale did the test. Now the devices, and the sensors within them, are cheap enough for us hackers to play with.
The end result is that we now have projects like this
ultra compact IR thermometer from [gokux]
. With just a handful of components, some code to glue it all together, and a 3D printed enclosure to wrap it all up, you’ve got a legitimately useful tool that’s small enough to replace that lucky rabbit’s foot you’ve got on your keys.
If this project looks familiar, it’s because the whole thing is closely related to the
LiDAR rangefinder [gokux] put together last month
. It shares the same Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C3 microcontroller, 0.49 inch OLED display, and tiny 40 mAh LiPo battery. The only thing that’s really changed, aside from the adjustments necessary to the 3D printed enclosure, is that the LiDAR sensor was replaced with a MLX90614 IR temperature sensor.
[gokux] has put together some great documentation for this build, making it easy for others to recreate and remix on their own. Assembly is particularly straightforward thanks to the fact that both the display and temperature sensor communicate with the ESP32 over I2C, allowing them to be wired daisy chain style — there’s no need for even a scrap of perfboard inside the case, let alone a custom board. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773617",
"author": "Matthias Haun",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T07:03:52",
"content": "lidar temperature sensor? i think it’s the wrong part… and what about calibrating the temperature sensor? is it necessary?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,371,863.352301 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/dad-where-did-printed-circuit-boards-come-from/ | Dad? Where Did Printed Circuit Boards Come From? | Al Williams | [
"History",
"PCB Hacks"
] | [
"history",
"printed circuits",
"proximity fuze"
] | These days, it is hard to imagine electronics without printed circuit boards. They are literally in everything. While making PCBs at home used to be a chore, these days, you design on a computer, click a button, and they show up in the mail. But if you go back far enough, there were no PC boards.
Where did they come from?
That’s the question posed by [Steven Leibson] who did some investigating into the topic.
There were many false starts at building things like PCBs using wires glued to substrates or conductive inks. However, it wasn’t until World War II that mass production of PC boards became common. In particular, they were the perfect solution for proximity fuzes in artillery shells.
The environment for these fuzes is harsh. You literally fire them out of a cannon, and they can feel up to 20,000 Gs of acceleration. That will turn most electronic circuits into mush.
The answer was to print silver-bearing ink on a ceramic substrate. These boards contained tubes, which also needed special care. Two PCBs would often have components mounted vertically in a “cordwood” configuration.
From there, of course, things progressed rapidly. We’ve actually looked at the
proximity fuze before
. Not to mention
cordwood
. | 19 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773597",
"author": "BobH",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T03:04:12",
"content": "Some of the Automotive Electronics from the 1990s were using the silver traces on a ceramic substrate. It was potted in a thick, transparent goo. If I remember right is was an integrated voltage regulator on... | 1,760,371,863.298979 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/the-thermite-process-iron-foundry/ | The Thermite Process Iron Foundry | Jenny List | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"cast iron",
"iron casting",
"Thermite"
] | The thermite process is a handy way to generate molten iron in the field. It’s the reaction between aluminium metal and iron oxide, which results in aluminium oxide and metallic iron. It’s hot enough that the iron is produced as a liquid, which means it’s most notably used for in-field welding of things such as railway tracks. All this is grist to [Cody’s Lab]’s mill of course, so in the video below the break
he attempts to use a thermite reaction in a rough-and-ready foundry
, to make a cast-iron frying pan.
Most of the video deals with the construction of the reaction vessel and the mold, for which he makes his own sodium silicate and cures it with carbon dioxide. The thermite mix itself comes from aluminium foil and black iron oxide sand, plus some crushed up drinks cans for good measure.
The result is pretty successful at making a respectable quantity of iron, and his pour goes well enough to make a recognizable frying pan. It has a few bubbles and a slight leak, but it’s good enough to cook an egg. We’re sure his next try will be better. Meanwhile this may produce a purer result, but
it’s by no means the only way to produce molten iron on a small scale
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773580",
"author": "Reg",
"timestamp": "2024-07-06T00:09:27",
"content": "A small cupola would be far more useful. One foundry in the early part of the last century made one out of small barrel. Nail keg IIRC and ran it on their float in a parade actually melting and casting durin... | 1,760,371,863.651404 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/a-look-back-at-the-ussrs-mi-6-helicopter-airliner/ | A Look Back At The USSR’s Mi-6 Helicopter Airliner | Maya Posch | [
"History",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"commercial air travel",
"helicopter",
"Soviet Union"
] | Most of us would equate commercial airline travel with fixed-wing aircraft, but civilian transport by helicopter, especially in large and sparsely populated regions, is common enough. It was once even big business in the Soviet Union, where the Aeroflot airline operated passenger helicopters in regular service for many decades. In the mid-1960s they even started work on converting the Mil Mi-6 — the USSR’s largest and fastest helicopter — to carry paying passengers. Unfortunately this never got past a single prototype, with the circumstances
described by [Oliver Parken] in a recent article
.
This passenger version of the Mi-6 got the designation Mi-6P (for
passazhirskyi
, meaning passenger) and would have seated up to 80 (3 + 2 row configuration), compared to the Mi-8 passenger variant that carried 28 – 31 passengers. Why exactly the Mi-6P never got past the prototype stage is unknown, but its successor in the form of the
Mi-26P
has a listed passenger variant and features. Both have a cruising speed of around 250 km/h, with a top of 300 km/h. The auxiliary winglets of the Mi-6 provided additional lift during flight, and the weight lifting record set by the Mi-6 was only broken by the Mi-26 in 1982.
An obvious disadvantage of passenger helicopters is that they are more complicated to operate and maintain, while small fixed wing airliners like the
ATR 72
(introduced in 1988) can carry about as many passengers, requires just a strip of tarmac to land and take off from, travel about twice as fast as an Mi-6P would, and do not require two helicopter pilots to fly them. Unless the ability to hover and land or take-off vertically are required, this pretty much explains why passenger helicopters are such a niche application. Not that the Mi-6P doesn’t have that certain je ne sais quoi to it, mind. | 26 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773530",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T20:38:55",
"content": "The Soviet system made these machines to serve an economy that didn’t exist – almost nobody had the sort of income that would warrant helicopters or even regular airplane travel as a consumer service. As suc... | 1,760,371,863.712658 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/hacking-a-quansheng-handheld-to-transmit-digital-modes/ | Hacking A Quansheng Handheld To Transmit Digital Modes | Lewin Day | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"handheld",
"handheld radio",
"portable radio",
"Quansheng",
"radio",
"uv-k6"
] | Have you ever thought about getting into digital modes on the ham bands? As it turns out, you can get involved using the affordable and popular Quansheng UV-K6 — if you’re game to modify it, that is. It’s perfectly achievable
using the custom Mobilinkd firmware,
the brainchild of one [Rob Riggs].
In order to efficiently transmit digital modes, it’s necessary to make some hardware changes as well. Low frequencies must be allowed to pass in through the MIC input, and to pass out through the audio output. These are normally filtered out for efficient transmission of speech, but these filters mess up digital transmissions something fierce. This is achieved by messing about with some capacitors and bodge wires. Then, one can flash the firmware using a programming cable.
With the mods achieved, the UV-K6 can be used for transmitting in various digital modes, like M17 4-FSK. The firmware has several benefits, not least of which is cutting turnaround time. This is the time the radio takes to switch between transmitting and receiving, and slashing it is a big boost for achieving efficient digital communication. While the stock firmware has an excruciating slow turnaround of 378 ms, the Mobilinkd firmware takes just 79 ms.
Further gains may be possible in future, too. Bypassing the audio amplifier could be particularly fruitful, as it’s largely in the way of the digital signal stream.
Quansheng’s radios are
popular targets for modification,
and are well documented
at this point. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773490",
"author": "Are",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T18:37:05",
"content": "Is it possible to do hardware mod on it to get more memory/flash for code and then get firmware with all fancy functionality?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,371,863.759437 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/hackaday-podcast-episode-278-diy-subs-the-ergoring-and-finding-nema-17/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 278: DIY Subs, The ErgoRing, And Finding NEMA 17 | Tom Nardi | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | In this episode, Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi kick things off with a reminder about the impending deadline for Supercon talk and workshop proposals. From there discussion moves on to the absolutely incredible tale of two brothers who solved a pair of missing person cases with their homebrew underwater vehicle, false data sneaking into OctoPrint’s usage statics, and an organic input device that could give the classic mouse a run for its money.
You’ll also hear about cheap radar modules, open source Xbox mod chips, and lawnmowers from the grocery store. The episode wraps up with a look at the enduring mystique of perpetual motion devices, and the story of a legendary ship that might soon end up being turned into paper clips.
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,
this week’s episode is available as a DRM-free MP3
.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 278 Show Notes:
News:
Hackaday Supercon 2024 Call For Participation: We Want You!
What’s that Sound?
Congrats to [Jones Boy] for teaching us about monitors that degauss themselves on every startup!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Solving Cold Cases With Hacked Together Gear
Long-Term OctoPrint Stat Manipulation Uncovered
Putting Some Numbers On Your NEMAs
Series or Parallel Motor Winding? Here is the difference
Measure Three Times, Design Once
The ErgO Ring Makes Computer Interactions Comfortable
Instant Filament Drying Satisfies An Immediate Need
Google Drive Now Bootable
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Lasers Al Fresco: Fun With Open-Cavity Lasers
So Much Going On In So Few Components: Dissecting A Microwave Radar Module
Try Out MCUs With This Jumperable TSSOP20 Adapter
Tom’s Picks:
3D Printing With A Twist
Make A Cheap Robot Mower Much Smarter
An Open XBOX Modchip Enters The Scene
Can’t-Miss Articles:
A Brief History Of Perpetual Motion
The Museum of Unworkable Devices
Mechanical Clocks That Never Need Winding
Magnetic Bearings Might Keep This Motor Spinning For Millennia
The SS United States: The Most Important Ocean Liner We May Soon Lose Forever | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773519",
"author": "a_do_z",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T20:03:03",
"content": "Having read the article when it first published, I sadly report that while reading the podcast description I just now got the “Finding NEMA” gag.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,863.803379 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/build-a-diy-spinner-to-get-your-tempest-game-going/ | Build A DIY Spinner To Get Your Tempest Game Going | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"mame",
"paddle",
"paddle controller",
"spinner",
"tempest"
] | These days, controls in games are fairly standardized by genre. Most RTSs, FPSs, and RPGs all control more or less the same way. But one type of controller that has fallen by the wayside is the paddle, or spinner. [jesster88] is a big
Tempest
fan, however, and a spinner is crucial.
Thus, what else is there to do but whip up one’s own?
Tempest is one of the more difficult classic games to categorize.
The build is based around a wired optical mouse. It’s pulled apart, with its main PCB installed into a 3D printed enclosure. Inside, the optical sensor is pointed at the base of a spinner constructed out of a printed drum and an off-the-shelf knob. The spinner is installed in a skateboard-style bearing for smooth rotation. As it spins, the optical sensor detects the motion and reports it as mouse movement via USB.
[jesster88] uses the device for playing
Tempest
with MAME. We imagine the technique could be adapted to work with other games
that rely on spinner or paddle inputs, too
. Meanwhile, if you’re whipping up your own retro game hacks at home, don’t hesitate to
let us know! | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773486",
"author": "SipsTea.....",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T18:20:57",
"content": "A few years ago I stumbled across an original tempest machine in working condition,Having played MAME boxes for a couple of decades it was very strangeThe smoothness of play on a vector scan CRT and ... | 1,760,371,863.855125 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/this-week-in-security-hide-yo-ssh-polyfill-and-packing-it-up/ | This Week In Security: Hide Yo SSH, Polyfill, And Packing It Up | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"RegreSSHion",
"ssh",
"This Week in Security"
] | The big news this week was that
OpenSSH has an unauthorized Remote Code Execution exploit
. Or more precisely, it had one that was fixed in 2006, that was unintentionally re-introduced in version 8.5p1 from 2021. The flaw is a signal handler race condition, where async-unsafe code gets called from within the SIGALARM handler. What does that mean?
To understand, we have to dive into the world of Linux signal handling.
Signals
are sent by the operating system, to individual processes, to notify the process of a state change. For example
SIGHUP
, or SIGnal HangUP, originally indicated the disconnect of the terminal’s serial line where a program was running.
SIGALRM
is the SIGnal ALaRM, which indicates that a timer has expired.
What’s interesting about signal handling in Unix is how it interrupts program execution. The OS has complete control over execution scheduling, so in response to a signal, the scheduler pauses execution and immediately handles the signal. If no signal handler function is defined, that means a default handler provided by the OS. But if the handler is set, that function is immediately run. And here’s the dangerous part. Program execution can be anywhere in the program, when it gets paused, the signal handler run, and then execution continues. From Andries Brouwer in
The Linux Kernel
:
It is difficult to do interesting things in a signal handler, because the process can be interrupted in an arbitrary place, data structures can be in arbitrary state, etc. The three most common things to do in a signal handler are (i) set a flag variable and return immediately, and (ii) (messy) throw away all the program was doing, and restart at some convenient point, perhaps the main command loop or so, and (iii) clean up and exit.
The term
async-signal-safe
describes functions that have predictable behavior even when called from a signal handler, with execution paused at an arbitrary state. How can such a function be unsafe? Let’s consider the async-signal-unsafe
free()
. Here, sections of memory are marked free, and then pointers to that memory are added to the table of free memory. If program execution is interrupted between these points, we have an undefined state where memory is both free, and still allocated. A second call to free() during execution pause will corrupt the free memory data structure, as the code is not intended to be called in this reentrant manner.
So back to
the OpenSSH flaw
. The SSH daemon sets a timer when a new connection comes in, and if the authentication hasn’t completed, the SIGALRM signal is generated when the timer expires. The problem is that this signal handler uses the syslog() system call, which is not an async-safe function, due to inclusion of
malloc()
and
free()
system calls. The trick is start an SSH connection, wait for the timeout, and send the last bytes of a public-key packet just before the timeout signal fires. If the public-key handling function just happens to be at the correct point in a
malloc()
call, when the SIGALRM handler reenters
malloc()
, the heap is corrupted. This corruption overwrites a function pointer. Replace the pointer with an address where the incoming key material was stored, and suddenly we have shellcode execution.
There are several problems with turing this into a functional exploit. The first is that it’s a race condition, requiring very tight timing to split program execution in just the right spot. The randomness of network timing makes this a high hurdle. Next, all major distros use Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), which should make that pointer overwrite very difficult. It turns out, also on all the major distros,
ASLR is somewhat broken
. OK, on 32-bit installs, it’s completely broken. On the Debian system tested, there’s literally a single bit of ASLR in play for the glibc library. It can be located at one of two possible memory locations.
Assuming the default settings for max SSH connections and LoginGraceTime, it takes an average of 3-4 hours to win the race condition to trigger the bug, and then there’s a 50% chance of guessing the correct address on the first try. That seems to put the average time at five and a quarter hours to crack a 32-bit Debian machine. A 64-bit machine does have ASLR that works a bit better. A working exploit had not been demonstrated as of when the vulnerability write-up was published, but the authors suggest it could be achieved in the ballpark of a week of attacking.
So what systems should we really worry about? The regression was introduced in 8.5p1, and fixed in 9.8p1. That means Debian 11, RHEL 8, and their derivatives are in the clear, as they ship older OpenSSH versions. Debian 12 and RHEL 9 are in trouble, though both of those distros now have updates available that fix the issue. If you’re on one of those distros, particularly the 32-bit version, it’s time to update OpenSSH and restart the service. You can check the OpenSSH version by running
nc -w1 localhost 22 -i 1
, to see if you’re possibly vulnerable.
Polyfill
The Polyfill service was once a useful tool, to pull JavaScript functions in to emulate newer browser features in browsers that weren’t quite up to the task. This worked by including the polyfill JS script from polyfill.io. The problem is that the Funnull company acquired the polyfill domain and Github account, and
began serving malicious scripts
instead of the legitimate polyfill function.
The list of domains and companies caught in this supply chain attack is pretty extensive, with nearly 400,000 still trying to link to the domain as of July 3rd. We say “trying”, as providers have
taken note of Sansec’s report
, breaking the story. Google has blocked associated domains out of advertising, Cloudflare is rewriting calls to polyfill to a clean cache, and Namecheap has blackholed the domain, putting an end to the attack. It’s a reminder that just because a domain is trustworthy now, it may not be in the future. Be careful where you link to.
Pack It Up
We’re no strangers to disagreement over CVE severity drama. There can be a desire to make a found vulnerability seem severe, and occasionally this results in a wild exaggeration of the impact of an issue. Case in point, the node-ip project has an issue, CVE-2023-42282, that
originally scored a CVSS of 9.8
. The node-IP author has taken the stance that
it’s not a vulnerability at all
, since it requires an untrusted input to be passed into node-ip, and then used for an authorization check. It seems to be a reasonable objection — if an attacker can manipulate the source IP address in this way, the source IP is untrustworthy, regardless of this issue in node-ip.
The maintainer, [Fedor] made the call to simply archive the node-ip project in response to the seemingly bogus CVE, and unending stream of unintentional harassment over the issue. Auditing tools starting alerting developers about the issue, and they started pinging the project. With seemingly no way to fight back against the report, archiving the project seemed like the best solution. However, the bug has been fixed, and Github has reduced the severity to “low”
in their advisory
. As a result, [Fedora] did announce that the project is coming back, and indeed it is again an
active project on Github
.
Bits and Bytes
[sam4k]
found a remote Use After Free (UAF) in the Linux Transparent Inter Process Communication (TIPC) service
, that may be exploitable to achieve RCE. This one is sort of a toy vulnerability, found while preparing a talk on bug hunting in the Linux kernel. It’s also not a protocol that’s even built in to the kernel by default, so the potential fallout here is quite low. The problem is fragmentation handling, as the error handling misses a check for the last fragment buffer, and tries to free it twice. It was fixed this May, in Kernel version 6.8.
CocaoPods is a dependency manager for Swift/Objective-C projects, and
it had a trio of severe problems
. The most interesting was the result of a migration, where many packages lost their connection to the correct maintainer account. Using the CocaoPods API and a maintainer email address, it was possible for arbitrary users to claim those packages and make changes. This and a couple other issues were
fixed late last year
. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773485",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T18:14:57",
"content": "“This Week In Security” is my favorite weekly post. I look forward to next week. :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6773500",
"author": "The... | 1,760,371,863.907053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/toyota-heater-switches-learn-new-tricks/ | Toyota Heater Switches Learn New Tricks | Tom Nardi | [
"car hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"automotive",
"heater controller",
"reverse engineering",
"Teensy 3.2",
"toyota"
] | The look, the feel, the sound — there are few things more satisfying in this world than a nice switch. If you’re putting together a device that you plan on using frequently, outfitting it with high-quality switches is one of those things that’s worth the extra cost and effort.
So we understand completely why
[STR-Alorman] went to such great lengths
to get the aftermarket seat heaters he purchased working with the gorgeous switches Toyota used in the 2006 4Runner. That might not sound like the kind of thing that would involve reverse engineering hardware, creating a custom PCB, or writing a bit of code to tie it all together. But of course, when working on even a halfway modern automobile, it seems nothing is ever easy.
The process started with opening up the original Toyota switches and figuring out how they work. The six-pin units have a lot going on internally, with a toggle, a rheostat, and multiple lights packed into each one. Toyota has some pretty good documentation, but it still took some practical testing to distill it down into something a bit more manageable. The resulting KiCad symbol for the switch helps explain what’s happening inside, and [STR-Alorman] has provided a chart that attributes each detent on the knob with the measured resistance.
But understanding how the switches worked was only half the battle. The aftermarket seat heaters were only designed to work with simple toggles, so [STR-Alorman] had to develop a controller that could interface with the Toyota switches and convince the heaters to produce the desired result. The custom PCB hosts a Teensy 3.2 that reads the information from both the left and right seat switches, and uses that to control a pair of beefy MOSFETs. An interesting note here is the use of very slow pulse-width modulation (PWM) used to flip the state of the MOSFET due to the thermal inertia of the heater modules.
We love the effort [STR-Alorman] put into documenting this project, going as far as providing the Toyota part numbers for the switches and the appropriate center-console panel with the appropriate openings to accept them. It’s an excellent resource if you happen to own a 4Runner from this era, and a fascinating read for the rest of us. | 32 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773404",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T11:58:29",
"content": "Would be great to see a hack on those subscription seat heaters.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6773457",
"author": "Dude",
"time... | 1,760,371,863.980597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/05/how-to-turn-cheap-speakers-into-something-a-little-better/ | How To Turn Cheap Speakers Into Something A Little Better | Jenny List | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"speaker",
"speaker cabinet",
"transmission line"
] | [Adam Francis] bought some cheap speaker drivers from AliExpress. Are they any good? Difficult to tell without a set of enclosures for them, so he made a set of transmission line cabinets.
The resulting video
proves that a decent sounding set of speakers shouldn’t have to cost the earth, and is quite entertaining to watch.
The design he’s going for is a transmission line, in effect a folded half-wave resonant tube terminated at one end and open at the other, with the speaker close to half way along.
There is a lot of nuance to perfecting a speaker cabinet
, but this basic recipe doesn’t have to be optimum to give a good result.
So after having some MDF cut to shape and glueing it all together, he ends up with some semi decent speakers for not a lot of money. The video is entertaining, with plenty of Britishisms, but the underlying project is sound. We’d have a pair on our bench. | 25 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773371",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T08:51:55",
"content": "Surely, there must be a commercially available product which includes a decent microphone (or array of them) which plays test sounds from a DUT speaker to profile its frequency response and create an eq... | 1,760,371,864.044825 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/04/useless-robot-gets-cute-has-personality/ | Useless Robot Gets Cute, Has Personality | Donald Papp | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"kawaii",
"useless machine",
"useless robot"
] | Useless robots (or useless machines) are devices that, when switched on, exist only to turn themselves back off. They are fun and fairly simple builds that are easy to personify, and really invite customization by their creators. Even so, [tobychui]’s
Kawaii Useless Robot
goes above and beyond in that regard. Not only will his creation dutifully turn itself off, but if the user persists in engaging it,
Kawaii Useless Robot
grows progressively (and adorably) upset which ultimately culminates in scooting about and trying to run away.
If anything, it gets
cuter
when upset.
This is actually a ground-up re-imagining of an original work [tobychui] saw from a Japanese maker twelve years ago. That original Kawaii Useless Robot did not have any design details, so [tobychui] decided to re-create his own.
Behind the laser-cut front panel is a dot matrix LED display made up of eight smaller units, and inside are a total of four motors, an ESP32 development board, and supporting electronics. A neat touch is the ability to allow connections over Wi-Fi for debugging or remote control. The project page has some nice photos of the interior that are worth checking out. It’s a very compact and efficient build!
Watch it in action in the
video
(embedded below) which also includes a tour of the internals and a thorough description of the functions.
Inspired to make your own useless machine? Don’t be afraid to re-invent the whole concept. For example, we loved
the one that physically spins the switch
and
the clock that falls to the floor
when it detects someone looking at it. That last one is a close relative of
the clock that displays the wrong time
if and only if someone is looking. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773366",
"author": "Dan",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T08:15:17",
"content": "What kind of monster keeps flicking the switch on that poor machine? It clearly doesn’t like it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6773390",
"author": ... | 1,760,371,865.006762 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/03/the-workstation-you-wanted-in-1990-in-your-pocket/ | The Workstation You Wanted In 1990, In Your Pocket | Jenny List | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"DEC",
"DECstation",
"DECWindows",
"ULTRIX"
] | Years ago there was a sharp divide in desktop computing between the mundane PC-type machines, and the so-called workstations which were the UNIX powerhouses of the day. A lot of familiar names produced these high-end systems, including the king of the minicomputer world, DEC. The late-80s version of their DECstation line had a MIPS processor, and ran ULTRIX and DECWindows, their versions of UNIX and X respectively. When we used one back in the day it was a very high-end machine, but now as [rscott2049] shows us,
it can be emulated on an RP2040 microcontroller
.
On the business card sized board is an RP2040, 32 MB of PSRAM, an Ethernet interface, and a VGA socket. The keyboard and mouse are USB. It drives a monochrome screen at 1024 x 864 pixels, which would have been quite something over three decades ago.
It’s difficult to communicate how powerful a machine like this felt back in the very early 1990s, when by today’s standards it seems laughably low-spec. It’s worth remembering though that the software of the day was much less demanding and lacking in bloat. We’d be interested to see whether this could be used as an X server to display a more up-to-date application on another machine, for at least an illusion of a modern web browser loading Hackaday on DECWindows.
Full details of the project
can be found in its GitHub repository. | 59 | 20 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773019",
"author": "ieb",
"timestamp": "2024-07-04T06:38:33",
"content": "Early 90s? The higher end DEC machines were there and above. (source: father worked at dec mosshill at the time)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "677303... | 1,760,371,864.517041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/03/a-trip-down-electronic-toy-memory-lane/ | A Trip Down Electronic Toy Memory Lane | Al Williams | [
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"kits",
"nostalgia",
"toys"
] | Like many of us, [MIKROWAVE1] had a lot of electronic toys growing up. In a video you can watch below, he asks the question: “
Did electronic toys influence your path?
” Certainly, for us, the answer was yes.
The CB “base station” looked familiar although ours was marked “General Electric.” Some of us certainly had things
similar to the 150-in-one kit
and versions of the
REMCO broadcast system
. There were many versions of crystal radio kits, although a kit for that always seemed a little like cheating.
Shortwave radios were fun in those days, too. We miss the days when you could find interesting stations on shortwave. We were also happy to see the
P-box kits
. If you weren’t interested in radio, there were also digital logic kits including a “computer” that was really a giant multi-pole switch that could create logic gates.
It made us wonder what toys are launching the next generation of engineers. We are not convinced that video games, Tik Tok, and ChatGPT are going to serve the same purpose these toys did for many of us. What do you think? What were your favorite toys and what do think will serve that purpose for the next generation? | 46 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6772970",
"author": "Kuli Phex",
"timestamp": "2024-07-04T02:08:45",
"content": "Oh WOW… I had that very 150-in-1 Radio Shack kit. I recall wiring up the relay to act as an oscillator/buzzer, and discovered that the inductive back EMF could give you a mild shock if you ran it off t... | 1,760,371,864.315032 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/03/vhf-uhf-antennas-the-bad-the-ugly-and-the-even-worse/ | VHF/UHF Antennas, The Bad, The Ugly, And The Even Worse | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"antenna",
"ham radio"
] | When you buy a cheap ham radio handy-talkie, you usually get a little “rubber ducky” antenna with it. You can also buy many replacement ones that are at least longer. But how good are they? [Learnelectronics] wanted to know, too, so he broke out his NanoVNA and found out that
they were all bad
, although some were worse than others. You can see the results in the — sometimes fuzzy — video below.
Of course, bad is in the eye of the beholder and you probably suspected that most of them weren’t super great, but they do seem especially bad. So much so, that, at first, he suspected he was doing something wrong. The SWR was high all across the bands the antennas targeted.
It won’t come as a surprise to find that making an antenna work at 2 meters and 70 centimeters probably isn’t that easy. In addition, it is hard to imagine the little stubby antenna the size of your thumb could work well no matter what. Still, you’d think at least the longer antennas would be a little better.
Hams have had SWR meters for years, of course. But it sure is handy to be able to connect an antenna and see its performance over a wide band of frequencies. Some of the antennas weren’t bad on the UHF band. That makes sense because the antenna is physically larger but at VHF the size didn’t seem a big difference.
He even showed up a little real-world testing and, as you might predict, the test results did not lie. However, only the smallest antenna was totally unable to hit the local repeater.
Of course, you can always make
your own antenna
. It doesn’t have to
take much
. | 69 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6772956",
"author": "KenN",
"timestamp": "2024-07-03T23:09:38",
"content": "I’m willing to bet that most of those cheap VHF/UHF handhelds are bought globally by small businesses for cheap short-range communications, mostly at UHF, so the stock antennae are usually adequate. Hams i... | 1,760,371,864.418041 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/03/responsive-lcd-backlights-with-a-little-lateral-thinking/ | Responsive LCD Backlights With A Little Lateral Thinking | Jenny List | [
"home entertainment hacks"
] | [
"backlight",
"lcd",
"led backlight"
] | LCD televisions are a technological miracle, but if they have an annoying side it’s that some of them are a bit lacklustre when it comes to displaying black. [Mousa] has a solution,
involving a small LCD and a bit of lateral thinking
.
These screens work by the LCD panel being placed in front of a bright backlight, and only letting light through at bright parts of the picture. Since LCD isn’t a perfect attenuator, some of the light can make its way through, resulting in those less than perfect blacks. More recent screens replace the bright white backlight with an array of LEDs that light up with the image, but the electronics to make that happen are not exactly trivial.
The solution? Find a small LCD panel and feed it from the same HDMI source as a big panel. Then place an array of LDRs on the front of the small LCD, driving an array of white LEDs through transistor drivers to make a new responsive backlight. We’re not sure we’d go to all this trouble, but it certainly looks quite cool as you can see below the break.
This may be the first responsive backlight we’ve brought you, but
more than one Ambilight clone has graced these pages
. | 23 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6772934",
"author": "db",
"timestamp": "2024-07-03T20:42:48",
"content": "This type of lateral thinking is sadly under appreciated. Analogue control for the win!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6772943",
"author": "victor ma... | 1,760,371,864.758989 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/03/floss-weekly-episode-790-better-bash-scripting-with-amber/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 790: Better Bash Scripting With Amber | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Linux Hacks",
"Podcasts",
"Slider"
] | [
"Amber",
"bash",
"FLOSS Weekly"
] | This week
Jonathan Bennett
and
Dan Lynch
chat with
Paweł Karaś
about Amber, a modern scripting language that compiles into a Bash script. Want to write scripts with built-in error handling, or prefer strongly typed languages? Amber may be for you!
–
https://github.com/Ph0enixKM/Amber
–
https://amber-lang.com/
–
https://docs.amber-lang.com/
Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show Right on
our YouTube Channel
? Have someone you’d like use 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 | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773356",
"author": "chargen",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T07:16:52",
"content": "This is so good. Why stop here why don’t we check for generic SoC opcodes and byt the way supergood show",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6773374",
... | 1,760,371,864.696223 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/03/usb-and-the-myth-of-500-milliamps/ | USB And The Myth Of 500 Milliamps | Arya Voronova | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Slider"
] | [
"current limiting",
"usb",
"usb charging",
"USB-PD",
"usb3"
] | If you’re designing a universal port, you will be expected to provide power. This was a lesson learned in the times of LPT and COM ports, where factory-made peripherals and DIY boards alike had to pull peculiar tricks to get a few milliamps, often tapping data lines. Do it wrong, and a port will burn up – in the best case, it’ll be your port, in worst case, ports of a number of your customers.
Want a single-cable device on a COM port? You might end up doing
something like this.
Having a dedicated power rail on your connector simply solves this problem. We might’ve never gotten DB-11 and DB-27, but we did eventually get USB, with one of its four pins dedicated to a 5 V power rail. I vividly remember seeing my first USB port, on the side of a Thinkpad 390E that my dad bought in 2000s – I was eight years old at the time. It was merely USB 1.0, and yet, while I never got to properly make use of that port, it definitely marked the beginning of my USB adventures.
About six years later, I was sitting at my desk, trying to build a USB docking station for my EEE PC, as I was hoping, with tons of peripherals inside. Shorting out the USB port due to faulty connections or too many devices connected at once was a regular occurrence; thankfully, the laptop persevered as much as I did. Trying to do some research, one thing I kept stumbling upon was the 500 mA limit. That didn’t really help, since none of the devices I used even attempted to indicate their power consumption on the package – you would get a USB hub saying “100 mA” or a mouse saying “500 mA” with nary an elaboration.
Fifteen more years have passed, and I am here, having gone through hundreds of laptop schematics, investigated and learned from design decisions, harvested laptops for both parts and even ICs on their motherboards, designed and built laptop mods, nowadays I’m even designing my own laptop motherboards! If you ever read about the 500 mA limit and thought of it as a constraint for your project, worry not – it’s not as cut and dried as the specification might have you believe.
Who Really Sets The Current Limit?
The specification originally stated – you aren’t supposed to consume more than 500mA from a USB port. At some points, you’re not even supposed to consume more than 100mA! It talked unit loads, current consumption rates, and a good few other restrictions you would want to apply to a power rail. Naturally, that meant enforcement of some kind, and you would see this limit enforced – occasionally.
On the host side, current limiting had to be resettable, of course, and, at the time, that meant either PTC fuses or digital current limiting – both with their flaws, and a notable price increase – per port. Some bothered (mostly, laptops), but many didn’t, either ganging groups of ports together onto a single limited 5 V rail, or just expecting the board’s entire 5 V regulator to take the fall.
Current limiting a port is this simple
Even today, hackers skimp on current limiting, as much as it can be useful for malfunctioning tech we all so often hack on. Here’s a tip from a budding motherboard designer: buy a good few dozen SY6280’s, they’re 10 cents apiece, and here’s
a tiny breakout PCB for them
, too. They’re good for up to 2 A, and you get an EN pin for free. Plus, it works for both 3.3 V, 5 V, and anything in between, say, a single LiIon cell’s output. Naturally, other suggestions in comments are appreciated – SY6280 isn’t stocked by Western suppliers much, so you’ll want LCSC or Aliexpress.
Another side of the equation – devices. Remember
the USB cup warmer turned hotplate
that required 30 paralleled USB ports to cook food? It diligently used these to stay under 500 mA. Mass-manufactured devices, sadly, didn’t.
Portable HDDs wanted just a little more than 2.5 W to spin-up, 3G modem USB sticks wanted an 2 A peak when connecting to a network, phones wanted more than 500 mA to charge, and coffee warmers, well, you don’t want to sell a 2.5 W coffee warmer when your competitor boasts 7.5 W. This led to Y-cables, but it also led to hosts effectively not being compatible with users’ devices, and customer dissatisfaction. And who wants complaints when a fix is simple?
It was also the complexity. Let’s say you’re designing a USB hub with four ports. At its core, there’s a USB hub IC. Do you add current consumption measurement and switching on your outputs to make sure you don’t drain too much from the input? Will your users like having their devices randomly shut down, something that cheaper hubs won’t have a problem with? Will you be limiting yourself to way below what the upstream port can actually offer? Most importantly, do users care enough to buy an overly compliant hub, as opposed to one that costs way less and works just as well save for some edge cases?
Stretching The Limit
500 mA current monitoring might have been the case originally, but there was no real need to keep it in, and whatever safety 500 mA provided, came with bothersome implementation and maintenance. The USB standard didn’t expect the 2.5 W requirement to budge, so they initially had no provisions for increasing, apart from “self-powering” aka having your device grab power from somewhere else other than the USB port. As a result, both devices and manufacturers pushed the upper boundary to something more reasonable, without an agreed-upon mechanism on how to do it.
USB ports, purely mechanically, could very well handle more than 0.5 A all throughout, and soon, having an allowance of 1 A or even 1.5 A became the norm. Manufacturers would have some current limits of their own in mind, but 500 mA was long gone – and forget about the 100 mA figure. Perhaps the only place where you could commonly encounter 500 mA was step-ups inside mobile phones, simply because there’s neither much space on a motherboard nor a lot of power budget to spend.
Smartphone manufacturers were in a bind – how do you distinguish a port able to provide 500 mA from a port able to provide 1000 mA, or even 2 A outright? That’s how D+/D- shenanigans on phone chargers came to be – that, and manufacturers’ greed. For Android, you were expected to short data lines with a 200 Ohm resistor, for Apple, you had to put 2.2 V or 2.7 V on the data pins, and if you tried hard enough, you could sometimes use three resistors to do both at once.
Bringing The Standard In Line
The USB standard group tried to catch up with
the USB BC (Battery Charging standard),
and adopted the Android scheme. Their idea was – if you wanted to do a 1.5 A-capable charger, you would short D+ and D-, and a device could test for a short to check whether it may consume this much. Of course, many devices never checked, but it was a nice mode for smartphones specifically.
When you’re making a device with a LiIon that aims to consume over an amp and be produced in quantity of hundreds of thousands, safety and charger compatibility is pretty crucial. A less common but nifty charging mode from the BC standard, CDP (Charging Downstream Port), would even allow you to do USB2 *and* 1.5 A. Support for it was added to some laptops using special ICs or chipset-level detection – you might have had a yellow port on your laptop, dedicated for charging a smartphone and able to put your phone’s port detection logic at ease.
Further on, USB3 took the chance to raise the 500 mA limit to 90 0mA. The idea was simple – if you’re connected over USB2, you may consume 500 mA, but if you’re a USB3 device, you may take 900 mA, an increased power budget that is indeed useful for higher-speed USB3 devices more likely to try and do a lot of computation at once. In practice, I’ve never seen any laptop implement the USB2 vs USB3 current limit checking part, however, as more and more devices adopted USB3, it did certainly raise the bar on what you could be guaranteed to expect from any port.
As we’ve all seen, external standards decided to increase the power limit by increasing voltage instead. By playing with analog levels on D+ and D- pins in a certain way, the Quick Charge (QC) standard lets you get 9 V, 12 V, 15 V or even 20 V out of a port; sadly, without an ability to signal the current limit. These standards have mostly been limited to phones, thankfully.
USB-C-lean Slate
USB-C PD (Power Delivery) has completely, utterly demolished this complexity, as you might notice if you’ve
followed my USB-C series
. That’s because a device can check the port’s current capability with an ADC connected to each of the two CC pins on the USB-C connector. Three current levels are defined – 3 A, 1.5 A and “Default” (500 mA for USB2 devices and 900 mA for USB3). Your phone likely signals the Default level, your charger signals 3 A, and your laptop either signals 3 A or 1.5 A. Want to get higher voltages? You can do
pretty simple digital communications
to get that.
Want to consume 3 A from a port? Check the CC lines with an ADC, use something like a WUSB3801, or just do the same “check the PSU label” thing. Want to consume less than 500 mA? Don’t even need to bother checking the CCs, if you’ve got 5 V, it will work. And because 5 V / 3 A is a defined option in the standard, myriad laptops will effortlessly give you 15 W of power from a single port.
On USB-C ports, BC can still be supported for backwards compatibility, but it doesn’t make as much sense to support it anymore. Proprietary smartphone charger standards, raising VBUS on their own, are completely outlawed in USB-C. As device designers have been provided with an easy mechanism to consume a good amount of power, compliance has become significantly more likely than before – not that a few manufacturers aren’t trying to make their proprietary schemes, but they are a minority. | 92 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6772910",
"author": "Pat",
"timestamp": "2024-07-03T18:17:34",
"content": "“Having a dedicated power rail on your connector simply solves this problem. We might’ve never gotten DB-11 and DB-27,”We *did* actually get mixed power/data D-subs: they’re called “mixed contact D subminiatu... | 1,760,371,864.906578 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/03/retrotechtacular-the-tools-and-dies-which-made-mass-production-possible/ | Retrotechtacular: The Tools And Dies That Made Mass Production Possible | Jenny List | [
"Engineering",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"machining",
"tool and die",
"vintage machining"
] | Here at Hackaday we’re suckers for vintage promotional movies, and we’ve brought you quite a few over the years. Their boundless optimism and confidence in whatever product they are advancing is infectious, even though from time to time with hindsight we know that to have been misplaced.
For once though the subject of today’s film isn’t something problematic, instead it’s a thing we still rely on today. Precision manufacturing of almost anything still relies on precision tooling, and
the National Tool and Die Manufacturers Association is on hand in the video from 1953 below the break to remind us of the importance of their work
.
The products on show all belie the era in which the film was made: a metal desk fan, CRT parts for TVs, car body parts, a flight of what we tentatively identify as Lockheed P-80 Shooting Stars, and a Patton tank. Perhaps for the Hackaday reader the interest increases though when we see the training of an apprentice toolmaker, a young man who is being trained to the highest standards in the use of machine tools. It’s a complaint we’ve heard from some of our industry contacts that it’s rare now to find skills at this level, but we’d be interested to hear views in the comments on the veracity of that claim, or whether in a world of CAD and CNC such a level of skill is still necessary. Either way we’re sure that the insistence on metrology would be just as familiar in a modern machine shop.
A quick web search finds that the National Tool and Die Manufacturers Association no longer exists, instead the search engine recommends the
National Tooling And Machining Association
. We’re not sure whether this is a successor organisation or a different one, but it definitely represents the same constituency. When the film was made, America was at the peak of its post-war boom, and the apprentice would no doubt have gone on to a successful and pretty lucrative career. We hope his present-day equivalent is as valued.
If you’re of a mind for more industrial process,
can we direct you at die casting
? | 15 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6772882",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-07-03T15:48:52",
"content": "In biology there are many theories which are attributed to the evolution of humans. Fire for cooking food and increased protein leading to more intelligent brains, etc etc. I add another one to the mix,... | 1,760,371,865.132292 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/04/cavity-filters-the-black-art-you-have-a-chance-of-pursuing/ | Cavity Filters, The Black Art You Have A Chance Of Pursuing | Jenny List | [
"News",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"cavity filter",
"filter",
"RF",
"tuned circuit"
] | A tuned circuit formed by a capacitor and an inductor is a familiar enough circuit, and it’s understood that it will resonate at a particular frequency. As that frequency increases, so the size of the capacitor and inductor decrease, and there comes a point at which they can become the characteristic capacitance and inductance of a transmission line. These tuned circuits can be placed in an enclosure, at which they can be designed for an extremely high Q factor, a measure of quality, and thus a very narrow resonant point. They are frequently used as filters for that reason, and [Fesz]
is here with a video explaining some of their operation and configurations
.
Some of the mathematics behind RF design can be enough to faze any engineer, but he manages to steer a path away from that rabbit hole and explain cavity filters in a way that’s very accessible. We learn how to look at tuned circuits as transmission lines, and the properties of the various different coupling methods. Above all it reveals that making tuned cavities is within reach.
They’re a little rare these days, but there was a time when almost every TV set contained a set of these cavities
which were ready-made for experimentation
. | 12 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773328",
"author": "Cad the Mad",
"timestamp": "2024-07-05T03:17:33",
"content": "My first job out of college was at an aerospace waveguide manufacturer and I got to play with these kinds of filters for a few tests.Absolute witchcraft.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"... | 1,760,371,864.9567 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/07/04/shapeways-files-for-bankruptcy/ | Shapeways Files For Bankruptcy | Elliot Williams | [
"News"
] | [
"bankruptcy",
"news",
"shapeways"
] | One of the earliest hobbyist-friendly on-demand 3D printing and fabrication shops, Shapeways,
is filing for bankruptcy
. As these financial arrangements always go,
this may or may not mean the end of the service
, but it’s a sure sign that their business wasn’t running as well as you’d hope.
One of the standout features of Shapeways was always that they made metal printing affordable to the home gamer. Whether it was something frivolous like
a custom gear-shifter knob
, or something all-too functional like
a prototype rocket engine
, it was neat to have the alternative workflow of iterative design at home and then shipping out for manufacturing.
We don’t want to speculate too much, but we’d be surprised if the rise of similar services in China wasn’t part of the reason for the bankruptcy. The market landscape just isn’t what it was
way back in 2013
. (Sadly, the video linked in this article isn’t around any more. If anyone can find a copy, post up in the comments?) So while Shapeways may or may not be gone, it’s not like we can’t get metal parts made anymore.
Still, we’re spilling a little for the OG.
Thanks [Aaron Eiche] for the breaking news tip! | 37 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6773284",
"author": "irox",
"timestamp": "2024-07-04T23:20:23",
"content": "Noooooooo! Hope they survive. They are a great way of creating fire-and-forget parts for communities. Anybody can order the no-longer-available window sleeve clip I designed which is essential for keeping ... | 1,760,371,865.077113 |
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