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https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/introducing-the-swiss-army-tool/ | Introducing The Swiss Army… Tool? | Kristina Panos | [
"News",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"multitool",
"multitools",
"swiss army knife"
] | You’ve probably used one for everything from opening packages to stripping wires in a pinch (because you know better than to use your teeth). We’re talking about the blade of the iconic Swiss Army knife. And while there are many different models out there, they all feature at least one knife among their utensils. Until now.
Citing pressure due to the increase in worldwide knife violence,
the company announced that they’ll be releasing a new range of tools without blades
. Carl Elsner, fourth-generation CEO of Swiss Army knife maker Victorinox, is also concerned about increasing regulations surrounding knives at sporting events and other activities. And he has a point: according to
the UN’s Global Study on Homicide 2023
(PDF), 30% of European homicides were committed with some type of sharp object.
In
an interview with
The Guardian
, Elsner spoke of creating more specialized tools, such as one for cyclists, who don’t necessarily need a blade. He also mentioned that Victorinox have a tool specifically for golfers, but we’d like to point out that it features, among other things, a knife.
It’s going to be a long time before people stop assuming that the skinny red thing in your pocket contains a knife, especially at the airport. What TSA agent is going to take the time to check out your tool? They’re going to chuck it in the bucket with the rest of them. Would you consider buying a blade-less multi-tool? Let us know in the comments.
Don’t have much need for a knife?
Here’s a bench tool that has it all
.
(
Main
and
thumbnail
photos via Unsplash) | 152 | 39 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757411",
"author": "Ben Garrison",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T23:08:15",
"content": "Ridiculous, somebody can just use a kitchen knife. I’m glad I live in a country where people have the fundamental human right to keep and bare arms so they can protect themselves from individual thre... | 1,760,371,922.686312 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/pov-digital-clock-is-the-literal-sands-of-time/ | POV Digital Clock Is The Literal Sands Of Time | Dan Maloney | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"hopper",
"led",
"persistence of vision",
"pic18f4550",
"POV",
"sand",
"solenoid"
] | Sand has been used to keep track of the passage of time since antiquity. But using
sand to make a persistence of vision digital clock
(
English translation
) is something altogether new. And it’s pretty cool, too.
The idea behind the timepiece that [Álvaro Gómez Giménez] built is pretty simple drop a tiny slug of fine sand from a hopper and light it up at just the right point in its fall. Do that rapidly enough and you can build up an image of the digits you want to display. Simple in concept, but the devil is in the details. Sand isn’t the easiest material to control, so most of the work went into designing hoppers with solenoid-controlled gates to dispense well-formed slugs of sand at just the right moment. Each digit of the clock has four of these gates in parallel, and controlling when the 16 gates open and close and when the LEDs are turned on is the work of a PIC18F4550 microcontroller.
The build has a lot of intricate parts, some 3D printed and some machined, but all very carefully crafted. We particularly like the big block of clear plastic that was milled into a mount for the main PCB; the translucent finish on the milled surfaces makes a fantastic diffuser for the 96 white LEDs. The clock actually works a lot better than we expected, with the digits easy to make out against a dark background. Check it out in the video below.
Between the noise of 16 solenoids and the sand getting everywhere, we’d imagine it wouldn’t be a lot of fun to have on a desk or nightstand, but the execution is top-notch, and an interesting and unusual concept we haven’t seen before. Sure, we’ve seen
sandwriting
, but that’s totally different.
Thanks to [ThoriumBR] for the tip. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757374",
"author": "chuck",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T20:54:52",
"content": "Not a single time piece of footage with real original sound of it working.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6757377",
"author": "ThoriumBR",
... | 1,760,371,921.884555 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/fully-3d-printed-case-is-stacked-high-with-mini-pcs/ | Fully 3D Printed Case Is Stacked High With Mini PCs | Tom Nardi | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"3D printed enclosure",
"cluster",
"mini pc",
"N100"
] | Over the years we’ve seen no shortage of 3D printed cases designed to hold several Raspberry Pi computers, often with the intent to use them as convenient desktop-sized platforms for experimenting with concepts such as server load balancing and redundancy.
The reason the Pi was always the star of the show is simple enough to explain: they were small and cheap. But while the Pi has only gotten more expensive over the years, x86 machines have gotten smaller and cheaper. Which is how a project like the
N100 Obelisk was born
.
As the name implies, [Jay Doscher] has packed this printed tower of power with a number of mini computers utilizing the Intel N100 CPU, namely the QC12 from Beelink. At $250 a pop they’re definitely a more expensive option than the Pi 5. But with each one packing 16 GB of RAM, a 512 GB NVME drive, plus the option to plug in a SATA drive, you’re getting plenty of bang for your computing buck.
Each QC12 lives on its own printed “shelf” inside the case, which will fit up to five of the machines at once. Though [Jay] notes that heat could become an issue at that point, so four seems like a safer number. The front panel of each computer can be accessed through a cut-out in one side of the case, while the rear (and all the cables) are covered with easily removable panels should you need to get in there and reconfigure anything.
With everything all buttoned up, it looks like it could survive a bomb blast. Considering it took two rolls of filament and the better part of 100 M4 screws to put the thing together, we’d wager it doesn’t just
look
tough, either. The write-up says the goal was for the final product to have a certain brutalist style, and it certainly seems like the mission was accomplished on that front.
Of course, the really standout feature of the Obelisk is the integrated Waveshare AMOLED display. This 13.3 inch panel boasts a resolution of 2560×1440, and even offers touch support. Here it’s been rotated into portrait orientation to provide plenty of vertical space, making it ideal for working on the command line, writing code, or scrolling through long documents. Don’t need a screen? No problem — the case has been designed in such a way that you can forgo the display and fill in the opening with more of the printed panels.
As
we’ve seen with his previous projects
, [Jay] has a knack for turning extruded plastic into devices that are both
functional and visually striking
. We’re always excited when one of his creations come our way, and can’t wait to see what he’s got in store for the future. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757333",
"author": "ytrewq",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T19:04:04",
"content": "Nice design, and very useful. I’ve swapped all my Raspberry Pi boards with mini PCs and am not looking back, but having two of them stacked plus a USB controller for 8 SATA disks (plus switch, router etc) ... | 1,760,371,921.840544 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/ask-hackaday-do-you-calibrate-your-instruments/ | Ask Hackaday: Do You Calibrate Your Instruments? | Jenny List | [
"Ask Hackaday",
"Hackaday Columns",
"hardware",
"Slider"
] | [
"bench instruments",
"calibration",
"measurement"
] | Like many of you, I have a bench full of electronic instruments. The newest is my Rigol oscilloscope, only a few years old, while the oldest is probably my RF signal generator that dates from some time in the early 1950s. Some of those instruments have been with me for decades, and have been crucial in the gestation of countless projects.
If I follow the manufacturer’s recommendations then just like that PAT tester I should have them calibrated frequently. This process involves sending them off to a specialised lab where their readings are compared to a standard and they are adjusted accordingly, and when they return I know I can trust their readings. It’s important if you work in an industry where everything must be verified, for example I’m certain the folks down the road at Airbus use meticulously calibrated instruments when making assemblies for their aircraft, because there is no room for error in a safety critical application at 20000 feet.
But on my bench? Not so much, nobody is likely to face danger if my frequency counter has drifted by a few Hz.
How Many PPM Have Left The Building Over The Decades?
Fortunately my 1940s Cossor is now retired, so its calibration status is no longer important.
So I have never had any of my instruments calibrated, and I’ve established that there’s no real need for me to do so. But let’s look at it another way, just how far out of calibration are they likely to be?
I can make a few educated guesses based upon what I know about the instruments in question. I am working against the inevitable degradation of components over time changing the parameters of the circuitry inside the instrument, and my estimate is based upon the quality of those parts and the type of circuit involved.
The accuracy of most instruments usually depends in some way upon two parts of its circuit; first whatever circuitry handles its signal path, and then whichever standard it uses against which to compare the incoming value to be measured. In both instances it’s likely that time will have done its work on whatever components lie in their path, perhaps changing their value, or introducing parasitic resistances.
This doesn’t matter in the case of my 1950s signal generator as its calibration was only as good as that of a pointer against a dial in the first place, but for my nearly 30 year old digital multimeter it might now be starting to show itself. Even those instruments which use references that should be beyond reproach aren’t immune, for example while a DMM may use an on-chip bandgap reference to compare voltages, it will still only be as good as the 30-year-old variable resistor used to trim it. All I can say is that if any of my instruments have drifted over time, they haven’t done so to the extent that I have been able to notice. Perhaps it’s as well that I don’t work in aerospace.
So far then, my instruments haven’t obviously let me down despite never seeing the inside of a calibration lab. But should I have done so? This is where it’s over to you, do any Hackaday readers take the time to have their instruments calibrated when they’re not required to by an exacting need at work? If so, why? Or do you have any tricks to DIY? As always, the comments are below. | 54 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757287",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T17:12:19",
"content": "No I don’t send my instruments to calibration. But I do know that errors may sum to each other to a point where mains 220V is represented by some instrument as 212V; is that a problem? for a hobbyi... | 1,760,371,921.792186 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/raspberry-pi-narrates-and-tattles-on-your-cat-nature-documentary-style/ | Raspberry Pi Narrates (And Tattles On) Your Cat, Nature Documentary Style | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cat",
"cat detector",
"nature documentary",
"raspberry pi"
] | Detecting a cat with a raspberry pi and camera is one thing, but [Yoko Li]’s
AI Raspberry Pi Cat Detection
brings things entirely to another level by
narrating
your feline’s activities, nature documentary style.
The project is ostensibly aimed at tattling on the housecats by detecting forbidden behavior such as trespassing on the kitchen counter. But we daresay that’s overshadowed by the verbose image analysis, which describes the scene in its best David Attenborough impression.
This feline exemplifies both the beauty and the peaceful nature of its kind. No email will be sent as the cat is not on the kitchen counter.
Hard to believe that just a few years ago
this cat detector tool
was the bee’s knees in cat detection technology. Things have certainly come a long way. Interested? The GitHub repository has everything needed to roll your own and we highly recommend watching it in action in the video, embedded below. | 10 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757288",
"author": "GameboyRMH",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T17:18:14",
"content": "The voice sounds more like Jeremy Clarkson than David Attenborough.“Here resting on this seat we have a domesticated short-haired tabby cat. But it’s not just any cat. It’s the laziest cat…IN THE WORLD... | 1,760,371,922.05023 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/the-great-green-wall-africas-ambitious-attempt-to-fight-desertification/ | The Great Green Wall: Africa’s Ambitious Attempt To Fight Desertification | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"africa",
"desertification",
"great green wall",
"un",
"world food program"
] | As our climate changes, we fear that warmer temperatures and drier conditions could make life hard for us. In most locations, it’s a future concern that feels uncomfortably near, but for some locations, it’s already very real. Take the Sahara desert, for example, and the degraded landscapes to the south in the Sahel. These arid regions are so dry that they struggle to support life at all, and temperatures there are rising faster than almost anywhere else on the planet.
In the face of this escalating threat, one of the most visionary initiatives underway is
the Great Green Wall of Africa
. It’s a mega-sized project that aims to restore life to barren terrain.
A Living Wall
Concentrated efforts have helped bring dry lands back to life. Credit:
WFP
Launched in 2007 by the African Union, the Great Green Wall was originally an attempt to halt the desert in its tracks. The Sahara Desert has long been expanding, and the Sahel region has been losing the battle against desertification. The Green Wall hopes to put a stop to this, while also improving food security in the area.
The concept of the wall is simple. The idea is to take degraded land and restore it to life, creating a green band across the breadth of Africa which would resist the spread of desertification to the south. Intended to span the continent from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, it was originally intended to be 15 kilometers wide and a full 7,775 kilometers long. The hope was to complete the wall by 2030.
The Great Green Wall concept moved past initial ideas around simply planting a literal wall of trees. It eventually morphed into a broader project to create a “mosaic” of green and productive landscapes that can support local communities in the region.
Reforestation is at the heart of the Great Green Wall. Millions of trees have been planted, with species chosen carefully to maximise success. Trees like Acacia, Baobab, and Moringa are commonly planted not only for their resilience in arid environments but also for their economic benefits. Acacia trees, for instance, produce gum arabic—a valuable ingredient in the food and pharmaceutical industries—while Moringa trees are celebrated for their nutritious leaves.
Choosing plants with economic value has a very important side effect that sustains the project. If random trees of little value were planted solely as an environmental measure, they probably wouldn’t last long. They could be harvested by the local community for firewood in short order, completely negating all the hard work done to plant them. Instead, by choosing species that have ongoing productive value, it gives the local community a reason to maintain and support the plants.
Special earthworks are also aiding in the fight to repair barren lands. In places like Mauritania, communities have been digging half-moon divots into the ground. Water can easily run off or flow away on hard, compacted dirt. However, the half-moon structures trap water in the divots, and the raised border forms a protective barrier. These divots can then be used to plant various species where they will be sustained by the captured water. Do this enough times over a barren landscape, and with a little rain, formerly dead land can be brought back to life. It’s a traditional technique that is both cheap and effective at turning brown lands green again.
Progress
The project has been an opportunity to plant economically valuable plants which have proven useful to local communities. Credit:
WFP
The initiative plans to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land, while also sequestering 250 million tons of carbon to help fight against climate change. Progress has been sizable, but at the same time, limited. As of mid-2023, the project had restored approximately 18 million hectares of formerly degraded land. That’s a lot of land by any measure. And yet, it’s less than a fifth of the total that the project hoped to achieve. The project has been frustrated by funding issues, delays, and the degraded security situation in some of the areas involved. Put together, this all bodes poorly for the project’s chances of reaching its goal by 2030, given 17 years have passed and we draw ever closer to 2030.
While the project may not have met its loftiest goals, that’s not to say it has all been in vain. The Great Green Wall need not be seen as an all or nothing proposition. Those 18 million hectares that have been reclaimed are not nothing, and one imagines the communities in these areas are enjoying the boons of their newly improved land.
In the driest parts of the world, good land can be hard to come by. While the Great Green Wall may not span the African continent yet, it’s still having an effect. It’s showing communities that with the right techniques, it’s possible to bring some barren zones from the brink, turning hem back into useful productive land. That, at least, is a good legacy, and if the projects full goals can be realized? All the better. | 61 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757241",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T14:26:14",
"content": "It’d be interesting to know the rate of reclamation over the last 17 years. I’d expect it to have probably been somewhat slow going at first, with later acceleration, especially as the results and benefits ... | 1,760,371,922.155792 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/the-moondrop-miad-01-a-smartphone-with-balanced-audio-output/ | The Moondrop MIAD 01: A Smartphone With Balanced Audio Output | Maya Posch | [
"Android Hacks",
"Cellphone Hacks"
] | [
"mp3 player",
"smartphone"
] | Over the past several years we have seen smartphones regrettably lose features which were once standard, such as FM radios, IR blasters, status LEDs, physical buttons, micro SD card slots, and of course headphone jacks. An interesting counterpoint here regarding the latter is the
newly released Moondrop MIAD 01 smartphone
.
As a relatively well-known manufacturer of audio equipment including in-ear monitors (IEMs), the announcement of a smartphone came out of left field, but the specifications make sense. Of particular interest are the dual audio jacks: one 3.5 mm TRRS and one 4.4 mm balanced TRRS, making it a good match for high-end headphones that support balanced audio.
While the smartphone hardware is your average mid-range selection, featuring a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC — its main selling point are the dual
Cirrus Logic MasterHiFi
DACs, that power the dual audio jacks. It’s also the reason behind the name: Mobile Internet Audio Device, or MIAD for short.
Given Moondrop’s audio enthusiast market, this tracks. These are people for whom the mere mentioning of ‘Bluetooth Audio’ or ‘USB-C-to-audio jack dongle’ is likely to evoke a less than favorable response.
In terms of software, Moondrop says the phone will offer a “native” Android 13 experience, which hopefully means it will be free from manufacturer-specific changes and bloatware. You’ll need to manually install Google Mobile Services though, as is often the case with Android devices that aren’t from the major players in the industry.
As reported by
Android Authority
, the MIAD 01 is available via select outlets for $399. Details like software updates remain to be clarified, but this might be the most over the top audio-centric smartphone we have seen so far. It definitely gives Sony’s current range of Android-based Walkmans a run for their money, while even having phone functionality in the package. | 21 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757215",
"author": "Gareth",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T11:46:53",
"content": "I’m still waiting for a phone that has better speakers than my Black Shark 5 and eagerly clicked on this. Disappointed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,922.005396 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/09/matchbox-transceiver-pushes-the-spy-radio-concept-to-its-limits/ | Matchbox Transceiver Pushes The Spy Radio Concept To Its Limits | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"80-meter",
"amateur radio",
"cw",
"dead bug",
"dipole",
"ham",
"matchbox",
"mixer",
"morse",
"NE5532",
"sidetone",
"transceiver"
] | The Altoids tin has long been the enclosure of choice for those seeking to show off their miniaturization chops. This is especially true for amateur radio homebrewers — you really have to know what you’re doing to stuff a complete radio in a tiny tin. But when you can build
an entire 80-meter transceiver in a matchbox
, that’s a whole other level of DIY prowess.
It’s no surprise that this one comes to us from [Helge Fykse (LA6NCA)], who has used the aforementioned Altoids tin to build an impressive range of “spy radios” in both
vacuum tube
and
solid-state
versions. He wisely chose solid-state for the matchbox version of the transceiver, using just three transistors and a dual op-amp in a DIP-8 package. There’s also an RF mixer in an SMD package; [Helge] doesn’t specify the parts, but it looks like it might be
from Mini-Circuits
. Everything is mounted
dead bug style
on tiny pieces of copper-clad board that get soldered to a board just the right size to fit in a matchbox.
A 9 volt battery, riding in a separate matchbox, powers the rig. As do the earbud and tiny Morse key. That doesn’t detract from the build at all, and neither does the fact that the half-wave dipole antenna is disguised as a roll of fishing line. [Helge]’s demo of the radio is impressive too. The antenna is set up very low to the ground to take advantage of near vertical incidence skywave (NVIS) propagation, which tends to direct signals straight up into the ionosphere and scatter them almost directly back down. This allows for medium-range contacts like [Helge]’s 239 km contact in the video below.
Banging out Morse with no sidetone was a challenge, but it’s a small price to pay for such a cool build. We’re not sure how much smaller [Helge] can go, but we’re eager to see him try. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757193",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T09:01:55",
"content": "Ugh, morse. An oscillator, essentially.Why not do AM? Crystal sets and spy bugs used to be installed in matchboxes.Why not make it a real walkie-talkie, thus. :D80m used to be a local area band, too. Like ... | 1,760,371,921.943278 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/ardeeg-lowers-the-cost-of-brain-computer-interfaces/ | ArdEEG Lowers The Cost Of Brain-Computer Interfaces | Tom Nardi | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"bci",
"brain-computer interface",
"eeg"
] | Considering the incredible potential offered by brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), it’s no wonder there are so many companies scrambling to make their mark in the field. Some see it as an assistive technology, while others imagine it as the future of interactive entertainment. Regardless of the application, the technology has yet to make much inroads with the DIY crowd — largely due to the complexity and cost of the hardware involved.
But that might change in the near future thanks to projects like
ardEEG from [Ildar Rakhmatulin]
. This open source shield mounts to the top of the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi and features eight channels for collecting electroencephalogram (EEG) data, such as from a dry electrode cap. The signals can then be processed on the computer using the provided Python example code. From there, the raw data can be visualized or plugged into whatever application you have in mind.
Why target the relatively uncommon WiFi version of the Uno? It’s probably obvious for those with experience with this kind of hardware, but for safety, the system needs complete electrical isolation. The Arduino and shield are powered by a common USB battery bank, and all communication is done over WiFi. Even still, the documentation is clear that the ardEEG is not a medical device, and hasn’t been certified by any regulatory agency — its use is entirely at your own risk.
[Ildar] tells us the hardware will be available soon and should cost under $250, making it one of the most affordable BCI development platforms out there.
As with his earlier PiEEG project
, the hope is that basing the system around a common device in the hacker and maker scene will help democratize access to BCI research. | 22 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757171",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T06:05:37",
"content": "Tell me, what are some cool things I can do with EEG?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6757186",
"author": "JT",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,371,921.651573 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/how-we-got-the-scanning-electron-microscope/ | How We Got The Scanning Electron Microscope | Al Williams | [
"History",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"scanning electron microscope"
] | According to [Asianometry], no one believed in the
scanning electron microscope
. No one, that is, except [Charles Oatley].The video below tells the whole story.
The Cambridge graduate built radios during World War II and then joined Cambridge as a lecturer once the conflict was over. [Hans Busch] demonstrated using magnets to move electron beams, which suggested the possibility of creating a lens, and it was an obvious thought to make a microscope that uses electrons.
After all, electrons can have smaller wavelength than light, so a microscope using electrons could — in theory — image at a higher resolution. [Max Knoll] and [Ernst Ruska], in fact, developed the transmission electron microscope or TEM.
The TEM works by passing an electron beam through a very thin sample and detecting it on the other side. However, the goal was to build an electron device that bounced electrons off an object — a SEM or scanning electron microscope. [Knoll] did build a device using this principle. However, it had a broad beam and could only magnify 10X or so, and it did not scan like a modern scope.
A practical SEM would wait for [Manfred Baron von Ardenne] in 1937. Working with Siemens (who, yes, indirectly owns Hackaday), he created a crude SEM. It took 20 minutes to create an image on a piece of film, so it wasn’t very practical. After two years, World War II broke out, and the work was lost.
At RCA, [Vladimir Zworykin] did some work on SEM, but abandoned the poorly-working device as TEM devices were more attractive. Then, in the 1950s, [Charles Oatley] decided he wanted to build an electron microscope for Cambridge.
Cambridge produced a very successful instrument that exploited secondary electrons and backscatter. They sold over 500 units. The video mentions that SEMs don’t require sample preparation, but they really do—they just don’t require thin slicing with a microtome. Semiconductor devices are often gold-coated to make the insulating surface conductive, for example, but that’s much easier to do than slicing very thin layers.
This is a great story of someone with a dream to create and took a shot. Granted, the time was right and the University was a bit easier to please than a conventional corporate overlord.
We are anxious for someone to create a
DIY SEM that is
buildable. For now, your best bet is to find a junker on the surplus market and
fix it up
.
Image credit: [Hannes Grobe]
CC-BY-SA 2.5 | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757210",
"author": "pelrun",
"timestamp": "2024-05-09T11:15:47",
"content": "“SEMs don’t require sample preparation, but they really don’t”Was that supposed to be “really do”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6757521",
... | 1,760,371,921.698666 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/floss-weekly-episode-782-nitric-in-search-of-the-right-knob/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 782: Nitric — In Search Of The Right Knob | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"Infrastructure as Code",
"Nitric"
] | This week Jonathan Bennett and David Ruggles chat with Rak Siva and Steve Demchuck to talk about
Nitric
! That’s the Infrastructure from Code framework that makes it easy to use a cloud back-end in your code, using any of multiple providers, in multiple programming languages.
The group chatted about the role and form of good documentation, as well as whether a Contributor License Agreement is ever appropriate, and what a good CLA would actually look like. Don’t miss it!
Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show
right in the Hackaday Discord
? Have someone you’d like use to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us!
Direct Download
in DRM-free MP3.
If you’d rather read along,
here’s the transcript for this week’s episode
.
Places to follow the FLOSS Weekly Podcast:
Spotify
RSS | 0 | 0 | [] | 1,760,371,923.234205 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/robotic-platform-turns-shop-vac-into-roomba/ | Robotic Platform Turns Shop Vac Into Roomba | Bryan Cockfield | [
"News"
] | [
"autonomous",
"ebike",
"ebike battery",
"inverter",
"robot",
"roomba",
"shop vac",
"vacuum",
"windshield wiper motor"
] | The robotic revolution is currently happening, although for the time being it seems as though most of the robots are still being generally helpful to humanity, whether that help is on an assembly line, help growing food, or help transporting us from place to place. They’ve even showed up in our homes, although it’s not quite the Jetsons-like future yet as they mostly help do cleaning tasks. There are companies that will sell things like robotic vacuum cleaners but [Clay Builds] wanted one of his own
so he converted a shop vac instead
.
The shop vac sits in a laser-cut plywood frame and rolls on an axle powered by windshield wiper motors. Power is provided from a questionable e-bike battery which drives the motors and control electronics. A beefy inverter is also added to power the four horsepower vacuum cleaner motor. The robot has the ability to sense collisions with walls and other obstacles, and changes its path in a semi-random way in order to provide the most amount of cleaning coverage for whatever floor it happens to be rolling on.
There are a few things keeping this build from replacing anyone’s Roomba, though. Due to the less-than-reputable battery, [Clay Builds] doesn’t want to leave the robot unattended and this turned out to be a good practice when he found another part of the build, a set of power resistors meant to limit current going to the vacuum, starting to smoke and melt some of the project enclosure.
We can always think of more dangerous tools to attach a robotic platform to
, though. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757105",
"author": "Tricon",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T21:34:31",
"content": "I’m interested in understanding how vacuum power is calculated. Four horsepower seems incredible. I can see that significantly higher power shop vacuums are sold in the Bauer range.",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,371,922.292865 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/much-faster-cold-brew-through-cavitation/ | Much Faster Cold Brew Through Cavitation | Kristina Panos | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"coffee",
"cold brew",
"cold brew coffee",
"transducer",
"ultrasonic"
] | Some coffee snobs might call this sacrilege. Cold brew is supposed to take a long time — that’s part of how it gets its characteristic smoothness. But a group of engineers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) have
figured out a way to cut the time down from several hours to a mere three minutes
, using ultrasonic waves.
Typically, the cold brew coffee process takes between 12 and 24 hours. Enough time to steep the grounds and extract the flavors without the benefit of hot water. This is how it differs from iced coffee, which is brewed hot and poured over ice.
Interestingly, the UNSW Sydney engineers’ process uses a typical prosumer-grade espresso machine and involves blasting the portafilter with a transducer and a horn. This transforms the coffee basket into a sonoreactor. Sound waves at a frequency of 38.8 kHz are injected at multiple points through the walls, generating acoustic cavitation within.
You can read all about it in Ultrasonics Sonochemistry
.
That’s not even the most exciting part. The study found that this arrangement is capable of doubling both the extraction yield and caffeine concentration, compared with non-soundblasted samples. The team sent samples of the coffee off to be evaluated on aroma, texture, flavor, and aftertaste. Although the one-minute extraction samples received similar ratings to a 24-hour brew in terms of flavor and aftertaste, they lacked the intensity and dark chocolate aroma of the longer brew. But the three-minute extraction samples scored quite highly in all areas, suggesting that the average cold brew drinker wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Would you like to roast your own beans at home? You can use a popcorn popper, but you might get tired of semi-uneven roasts and
upgrade to a DIY wobble disk roaster
. | 27 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757070",
"author": "Steve",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T18:56:08",
"content": "I wonder if you could put a mason jar of coffee and ice water in an ultrasonic cleaner and get any results? May have to do some experiments!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{... | 1,760,371,922.888362 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/displays-we-love-hacking-lvds-and-edp/ | Displays We Love Hacking: LVDS And EDP | Arya Voronova | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"how-to",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"displayport",
"DPI",
"DPI666",
"eDP",
"fpd-link",
"lvds",
"parallel rgb"
] | There are times when tiny displays no longer cut it. Whether you want to build a tablet or reuse some laptop displays, you will eventually deal with LVDS and eDP displays. To be more exact, these are displays that want you to use either LVDS or eDP signaling to send a picture.
Of the two, LVDS is the older standard for connecting displays, and eDP is the newer one. In fact, eDP has mostly replaced LVDS for things like laptop and tablet displays. Nevertheless, you will still encounter both of these in the wild, so let’s start with LVDS.
The name “LVDS” actually comes from
the LVDS signaling standard
(Low-Voltage Differential Signaling), which is a fairly generic data transfer standard over differential pairs, just like RS485. Using LVDS signaling for embedded display purposes is covered by a separate standard called
FPD-Link
, and when people say “LVDS”, what they’re actually talking about is FPD-Link. In this article, I will also use LVDS while actually talking about FPD-Link. Barely anyone uses FPD-Link except some datasheets, and I’ll use “LVDS” because that’s what people actually use. It’s just that you deserve to know the distinction so that you’re not confused when someone mentions LVDS when talking about, say, industrial machinery.
Both LVDS and eDP run at pretty high frequencies – they’re commonly used for color displays with pretty large resolutions, so speed can no longer be a constraint. eDP, as a successor technology, is a fair bit more capable, but LVDS doesn’t pull punches either – if you want to make a 1024 x 768 color LCD panel work, you will use LVDS, sometimes parallel RGB – at this point, SPI just won’t cut it. There’s a lot of overlap – and that’s because LVDS is basically
parallel RGB
, but serialized and put onto diffpairs. Let me show you how that happened, and why it’s cool.
Parallel RGB In A Trenchcoat
LVDS is simple enough – for a 1024 x 768 panel, you have either three or four data diffpairs, and one clock diffpair. Comparing it to
parallel RGB
, that’s 4-5 diffpairs (8-10 wires) instead of 18-27 single-ended wires, which greatly reduces the amount of cabling, and the differential signals make for way better noise immunity and significantly decreased electromagnetic footprint. What’s not to love?
In addition, LVDS is easy to convert to parallel RGB, and vice-versa. This is because LVDS is essentially just a transport for parallel RGB signals. All the things about parallel RGB, like porch rates, still apply – even HSYNC and VSYNC are embedded as separate bits in each “packet”.
The display pixel bytes packed into bits transmitted as a serial stream – you might remember these bits from the parallel RGB article!
The diagram shows it better than I could explain in text. For those who can’t see the diagram, LVDS carries those same parallel RGB signals, arranged into pseudo-packets – during six periods of the LVDS clock, each diffpair carries one defined bit of a particular pixel. You’d think that transferring a pixel now would take six to eight times as long, but since we have differential pairs, we can increase the frequency six times without consequence!
Of course, with LVDS making its way, it had to adapt to the manufacturers’ desire to raise the bar on display resolutions. You could just barely update a 1280 x 1024 display through parallel RGB – but on LVDS, we went up to 1920 x 1080. How? Simple, we put a second LVDS link in parallel, and interlaced the columns they’re responsible for. So, first link would carry pixels for columns 0, 2, 4, 6 etc., and second link would carry pixels for columns 1, 3, 5, 7 – sometimes they’re even called “odd” and “even”, and sometimes they’re called ‘A’ and ‘B’.
Let’s Hack
This is what happens if you accidentally swap the “odd” and “even” channels on a high-res panel – the vertical lines are swapped.
If you want to drive a LVDS display from a laptop or a desktop monitor, eBay and Aliexpress have $20 kits that do everything for you – driving the panel from VGA/DVI/HDMI, powering the backlight, and sometimes even a TV tuner – only give it like 12V of power. Those don’t have any jumpers, the resolution is pre-flashed, but if you’re stuck with the wrong resolution board, you can likely reflash the firmware, and maybe you can even hack on the controller itself.
There’s also a cheaper and more flexible but effortful way to drive an LVDS display – one of the MT561 “MT6820” driver boards that take VGA and output LVDS. It has about twenty combinations of “resolution x LVDS configuration” programmed into it that you can toggle with jumpers, and all you might need to do for a laptop or desktop panel is rewire the included LVDS cable according to one of the somewhat-standardized LVDS pinouts. Give it 5 V, take care of the backlight somehow, and you’ll be golden. For HDMI use, put a $3 HDMI to VGA converter into there, and that’ll be all you could need.
Most panels run at 3.3V – please switch the corresponding jumper on the driver board or you’ll kill your panel like I’ve killed some of mine. Sometimes the EDID is screwy, but nothing that you couldn’t fix with a hardcoded one, or by, again, reflashing the firmware. $20 boards are great if all you need is a specific display, but if you have multiple panels you want to play with, having a configurable board like the MT561 is a must.
The 2 mm pinheader LVDS output connector on these kinds of boards is, funnily enough, non-formally standardized itself – I’ve even seen a mass-manufactured display which used this kind of header for its internal panel connection. You can get tons of cables for this 2 mm pin header “standard”, so if you need an LVDS connector on your project and don’t want to bother with cabling, you might just want to use this one –
the MXM immobilizer project
I’ve recently highlighted, has such a header implemented, though it’s not yet fully tested.
For display and laptop panels, the pinouts are also often fairly standardized – here’s
an assortment of common LVDS pinouts
that I’ve compiled. In more embedded displays, LVDS will often be on FPCs – there’s a few common pinouts for these as well, and therefore a few adapter boards and cables from the 2 mm standard LVDS header to an FFC connector, often with backlight drivers for the kinds of displays that need them. If your LVDS display doesn’t have a known pinout but you can probe it in a running system, you can
try and short out pins
to figure out which pairs correspond to which parallel RGB signals. Of course, probing it with a scope will also work, as long as your scope is fast enough.
An
LVDS link reverse-engineering example
from a pretty impressive
Hackaday.io project
– and,
we’ve got more!
Many SBCs, FPGAs and even industrial motherboards have LVDS outputs. If parallel RGB is what you have, you can always convert parallel RGB to LVDS, and back if you ever need to – this is how people have made LVDS HATs for a Raspberry Pi, including
the one that I recently gave design review to;
that one’s open-source and we’re currently doing bringup on it, check it out! I’ve seen pricey chips from Texas Instruments like SN74LVDS84A and SN65LVDS93A and there’s got to be cheaper ones, I don’t know part numbers because I haven’t had to look into it, but I trust that you can find them, and please do share them when you do!
Transition To Greatness
As you might notice, LVDS has problems. For tomorrow’s devices, LVDS is pretty limited tech shoved into a diffpair trenchcoat, and while it worked for decades, at some point the problems became too much. For instance, if you’ve wired a LVDS display up and found the colors to be wildly off, you’ll discover that there’s at least two ways to put RGB bits into a LVDS link for the same configuration, and it might be that your display expects a different one than your transmitter. Also, LVDS doesn’t have any mechanism for discovering the panel’s parameters – EDID can be used for LVDS panels, but is not required by any means and is hardly ever used in reality. Lack of link training means that running a LVDS link at higher speeds quickly becomes tricky. Last but not least, high resolutions of today require a lot of diffpairs.
At some point, we had to let LVDS go, and for most purposes where LVDS used to reign supreme, embedded DisplayPort (eDP) took hold. In laptop space, this happened about 2012-2014, with many laptops gradually switching from LVDS to eDP and some having connectors for both. eDP is a version of DisplayPort designed to be the successor for LVDS, which brings a good number of advantages by rethinking the way we send data to displays. It matters that you know about LVDS because you still might encounter it today, but for today’s purposes, eDP is where it’s at.
What LVDS needs ten diffpairs for, eDP can achieve with three – in fact, an eDP connection for an average 720P panel only needs two diffpairs (AUX and L0), where LVDS needs four-five. This comes at a cost of increasing layout requirements, but modern PCB technologies, connectors and wiring don’t struggle with that. eDP has a sideband channel for automatic discovery of displays, link training, and display parameter adjustments – which helps make it all that more flexible. For many purposes, eDP is indistinguishable from desktop DisplayPort, which makes it easy to find – if your system has a DisplayPort connection, it can drive an eDP panel. Let’s go through what makes eDP great and how it achieves that greatness.
As a leaked schematic of this Wyse 5070 confirms, this port is an eDP port wired up to a DP connector, hence, no audio. However, it goes through a
PS181 chip
to add DP++ support!
I’ve
talked about DisplayPort extensively
in an introduction article, but I’ll recap. DP (and, subsequently, eDP) uses packets to transfer pixels data, as opposed to every widely available video interface before it (yes, even HDMI), and the packets help rid of a lot of cruft. It also removes a few base DisplayPort requirements to make eDP more embedded-friendly – for instance, better support for 1-lane and 2-lane links as opposed to mandatory 4-lane connections, as well as dropping the requirement the audio channel. Despite that, eDP is still fundamentally compatible with DisplayPort transmitters – I’ve heard of a few cases where there was incompatibility, but it was more of a “behaviour of a specific panel” kind of thing.
With DisplayPort, you can achieve way faster speeds and get more features while using less diffpairs than LVDS, and it’s also a reasonably open, straightforward to implement and easy to find standard. Sure, with eDP, the display panels themselves have to be smarter, but that’s not much of a tradeoff considering that electronics are getting more and more compact! The advancement of compact microcoax cabling into consumer electronics has also helped – in a typical eDP cable, every wire is a microcoax line that is individually shielded, so the wires don’t even have to be twisted or shielded, and there’s a ground return channel for every line.
The DisplayPort Greatness, Embedded
Now, about eDP hacking! eDP panel reuse is very similar, except you can also use desktop- and USB-C-obtained DisplayPort links to wire up a panel to your board of choice, and seamless parallel RGB conversion is no longer a thing – you need a controller chip. If you want to convert HDMI or VGA to eDP, there’s, again,
controller boards,
some configurable but most are pre-flashed. As a rule, a HDMI to eDP controller board with 1080p panel firmware will work with all 1080p screens – but I’ve encountered exceptions, which are not unlikely to be due to things like inadequate link training. Given how well eDP tends to work outside of these controller boards, I can’t help but blame the controller firmware writers on this one – I’ve had some controller boards which work wonders with many chips, and other boards which only function for one kind of panel. Again, the firmware is typically (even if not always) on an external SPI-connected flash chip, you can reflash it or hack on it – it’s all 8051, always has been.
There’s
three common pinouts for eDP panels
– it’s even simpler than LVDS, and that makes it very nice to hack on. One is 30-pin which supports 1- and 2-lane panels, another is 40-pin that simply extends the 30-pin pinout but defines a few pins for touchscreens (I call it “touchscreen 40-pin”), and another 40-pin pinout that has 4 DisplayPort lanes (“high-res 40-pin”) which is has a very different pin mapping compared to 30-pin and touchscreen 40-pin. There are FPC adapters on eBay/Aliexpress that extend 30-pin into touchscreen 40-pin and vice-versa, but none that work with high-res 40-pin – beware! Also, my friend once encountered a 30-pin panel in a Wacom tablet that had a fully reversed pinout, pin 1 on pin 30 and so on – she’s yet to replace all the burnt parts. However, this is highly unlikely to happen to you with a laptop panel, and a quick multimeter check will help you ensure this isn’t the case.
The controller boards also bring us somewhat hackable cabling – pass-through FFCs with either a 30-pin or 40-pin IPEX connector on one end, perfectly suited for hacker-friendly eDP use. They’re not noise-proof in the slightest, but if you want an eDP connector, putting a 30-pin FFC connector on your board is a good substitute in a pinch. If you want a smaller EMC footprint, better noise immunity, or don’t want to deal with a flat cable in your build, you can just get a cable that’s a microcoax assembly and put the corresponding connector on your board – more expensive, sure, but you can expect it to be reliable and slim.
This article is an explainer on LVDS and eDP, but it’s also a story about how parallel RGB became reborn into LVDS and powered our laptops and desktop monitors for two decades, and when LVDS became too much to bear, eDP took hold. On your journeys, you might encounter both of these, and I hope that now you know about all the options that can help you.
If you’d like to know more about embedded DisplayPort hacking, I’ve done
an article about that
in the DisplayPort series. And, a new article is incoming, with heaps of examples and references for DisplayPort wireup – stay tuned!
[Featured image: “
Colours
” by Lennart Tange] | 23 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757044",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T17:23:58",
"content": "You’ve packed a lot of info into one post!Thanks!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6757075",
"author": "Arya Vor... | 1,760,371,922.813101 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/ai-helps-make-web-scraping-faster-and-easier/ | AI Helps Make Web Scraping Faster And Easier | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"ai",
"api",
"LLM",
"local LLM",
"web scraping"
] | Web scraping is usually only a first step towards extracting meaningful data. Once you’ve got everything pulled down, you’ve still got to process it into something useful. Here to assist with that is
Scrapegraph-ai
, a Python tool that promises to automate the process using a selection of large language models (LLMs).
Scrapegraph-ai is able to accept a URL as well as a prompt, which is a plain-English instruction on what to do with the data. Examples include summarizing, describing images, and more. In other words, gathering the data and analyzing or formatting it can now be done as one.
The project is actually pretty flexible in terms of the AI back-end. It’s able to work with locally-installed AI tools (via
ollama
) or with API keys for services like OpenAI and more. If you have an OpenAI API key, there’s
an online demo
that will show you the capabilities pretty effectively. Otherwise, local installation is only a few operations away.
This isn’t the first time we have seen the flexibility of AI tools like large language models leveraged to
ease the notoriously-fiddly task of web scraping
, and it’s great to see the results have only gotten better. | 12 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757027",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T16:19:06",
"content": "This is a pretty cool use of LLMs although its not really web scrapping, its basically making sense of the text data on a page, which is a quite valid use case for LLMs.Web scraping is all about efficie... | 1,760,371,922.957719 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/your-open-source-client-options-in-the-non-mastodon-fediverse/ | Your Open-Source Client Options In The Non-Mastodon Fediverse | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"Fediverse",
"phanpy",
"rodent",
"trunks.social",
"tusky"
] | When things started getting iffy over at Twitter, Mastodon rose as a popular alternative to the traditional microblogging platfrom. In contrast to the walled gardens of other social media channels, it uses an open protocol that runs on distributed servers that loosely join together, forming the “Fediverse”.
The beauty of the Fediverse isn’t just in its server structure, though. It’s also in the variety of clients available for accessing the network. Where Twitter is now super-strict about which apps can hook into the network, the Fediverse welcomes all comers to the platform! And although Mastodon is certainly the largest player, it’s absolutely not the only elephant in the room.
Today, we’ll look at a bunch of alternative clients for the platform, ranging from mobile apps to web clients. They offer unique features and interfaces that cater to different user preferences and needs. We’ll look at the most notable examples—each of which brings a different flavor to your Fediverse experience.
Phanpy
Phanpy is relatively new on the scene when it comes to Mastodon alternatives, but it has a fun name and a clean, user-friendly interface. Designed as a web client, Phanpy stands out in the way it hides status actions—like reply, boost, and favorite buttons. It’s an intentional design choice to reduce clutter, with the developer noting they are happy with this tradeoff even if it reduces engagement on the platform. It’s for the chillers, not the attention-starved.
Phanpy also supports multiple accounts, making it a handy tool for those who manage different personas or profiles across the Fediverse. Other power-user features include a multi-column interface if you want to
really
chug down the posts, and a recovery system for unsent drafts.
Rodent
Rodent
, on the other hand, is tailored for users on Android smartphones and tablets. The developers have a bold vision, noting that “Rodent is disruptive, unapologetical, and has a user-first approach.” Despite this, it’s not foreboding to new users—the interface will be instantly familiar to a Mastodon or Twitter user.
Rodent brings you access to Mastodon with a unique set of features. It will let you access instances without having to log in to them (assuming the instance allows it), and has a multi-instance view that lets you flip between them easily. The interface also has neatly nested replies which can make following a conversation far easier. The latest update also set it up to give you meaningful notifications rather than just vague pings from the app. That’s kind of a baseline feature for most social media apps, but this is an app with a small but dedicated developer base.
Tusky
Tusky
is perhaps one of the most popular Mastodon clients for Android users. Known for its sleek and minimalist design, Tusky provides a smooth and efficient way to navigate Mastodon. It’s clean, uncluttered, and unfussy.
Tusky handles all the basics—the essential features like notifications, direct messaging, and timeline filters. It’s a lightweight app that doesn’t hog a lot of space or system resources. However, it’s still nicely customizable to ensure it’s showing you what you want, when you want.
If you’ve tried the official Mastodon app and found it’s not for you, Tusky might be more your speed. Where some apps bombard you with buttons and features, Tusky gets out of the way of you and the feed you’re trying to scroll.
Fedilab
The thing about the Fediverse is that it’s all about putting power back in individual hands. Diversity is its strength, and that’s where apps like
Fedilab
come in. Fedilab isn’t just about accessing social media content either. It wants to let you access other sites in the Fediverse too. A notable example is Peertube—an open-source alternative to YouTube. It’ll handle a bunch of others, too.
You might think this makes Fedilab more complicated, but it’s not really the case. If you just want to use it to access Mastodon, it does that just fine. But if you want to pull in other content to the app, from places like Misskey, Lemmy, or even Twitter, it’ll gladly show you what you’re looking for.
Trunks.social
Trunks.social
is a newer entrant designed to enhance the Mastodon experience for everybody. Unlike some other options, it’s truly multi-platform—available as a webclient, or as an app for both Android and iOS. If you want to use Mastodon across a bunch of devices and with a consistent experience across all of them, Trunks.social could be a good option for you.
It focuses on integrating tightly with iOS features, such as the system-wide dark mode, to deliver a coherent and aesthetically pleasing experience across all Apple devices. Trunks.social also places a strong emphasis on privacy and data protection, offering advanced settings that let users control how their data is handled and interacted with on the platform.
Conclusion
Choosing the right Fediverse client can significantly enhance your experience of the platform. Whether you’re a casual user looking for a simple interface on your smartphone or a power user needing to work across multiple accounts or instances, there’s a client out there for you.
The diversity of clients shows the vibrant ecosystem surrounding the Fediverse. It’s not just Mastodon! It’s all driven by the community’s commitment to open-source development and user-centric design. Twitter once had something similar before it shunned flexibility to rule its community with an iron fist. In the open-source world, though, you don’t need to worry about being treated like that. | 22 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756995",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T14:11:47",
"content": "There is no way the “fed” in fediverse means anything other than “federal”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6757003",
"author": "ArcReacto... | 1,760,371,923.027099 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/remembering-dick-rutan-and-his-non-stop-flight-around-the-world/ | Remembering Dick Rutan And His Non-Stop Flight Around The World | Maya Posch | [
"News"
] | [
"Burt Rutan",
"Dick Rutan",
"Rutan Voyager"
] | On December 23, 1986, an airplane landed at Edwards AFB. This by itself wouldn’t mean much, but this
particular
airplane had just written history. Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the Rutan Model 76 Voyager had just completed its non-stop flight around the world after taking off from that very same runway just over nine days prior. Designed by Dick’s younger brother Burt Rutan, this airplane and this one flight will forever speak to the world’s imagination, even as
we say farewell
to Dick “Killer” Rutan.
Dick Rutan (r) and Jeana Yeager (l) standing next to the Voyager aircraft in 1986. (Source: Ray Kamm collection)
Born Richard Glenn Rutan on July 1, 1938, he spent his military career in the United States Air Force, initially working with radar systems before beginning pilot training in the 1960s. He flew 325 sorties over Vietnam (ejecting once) and served for many more years while racking up many awards and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1978.
After this he would fly as a test pilot for a range of aircraft, including a modified Rutan Long-EZ: the
XCOR EZ-Rocket
in 2001. Yet no flight would be as memorable as the record-breaking flight in the
Rutan Voyager
, which saw the world’s media following the aircraft’s journey around the globe, including with live feeds whenever the aircraft was within reach of national broadcasters. Despite nine days of strenuous flight and some mechanical breakdowns and damaged wingtips (from the fuel-burdened wings scraping over the runway), the flight went about as well as could have been hoped, thanks to Dick’s and Jeana’s piloting skills.
Dick Rutan died on May 3, 2024 at the age of 85 after a long struggle with the consequences of Long COVID. He will be sorely missed by the aviation community and countless others, but his achievements never forgotten. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757021",
"author": "gregg4",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T16:01:42",
"content": "He will be missed.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6757081",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T19:41:16",
"content": "Ah... | 1,760,371,922.734743 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/08/3d-printed-fidget-knife-snaps-back-and-forth-all-day-long/ | 3D Printed Fidget Knife Snaps Back And Forth All Day Long | Donald Papp | [
"Parts"
] | [
"3d printed",
"fidget mechanism",
"spring",
"toggle mechanism"
] | Fidget toys all have a satisfying mechanical action to engage with, and [uhltimate]’s OTF (out the front)
“fidget knife” model
provides that in spades. The model snaps open and closed thanks to a clever arrangement of springs and latches contained in only three printed pieces.
Here’s how it works: at rest, the mock blade (orange in the image above) is latched in the closed position. As one presses the slider forward, the bottom spring begins to pull up against the blade until it moves far enough to release the latch. When the latch is released, the tension built up in the spring propels the blade outward where it again latches in the open position. Retraction is the same essential process, just in the opposite direction (and using a latch on the opposite side of the blade, which faces the other direction.)
As you may imagine, effective operation depends on the material. The model is designed to be printed in PLA, but [uhltimate] also provides a part variation with a stiffer spring for those who find that basic model isn’t quite up to the task for whatever reason. Smooth surfaces are also helpful for hitch-free operation, but lubrication shouldn’t be necessary.
If this sort of thing is up your alley, don’t miss the satisfying snap action of
this 3D printed toggle mechanism
, either! | 31 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756922",
"author": "biuro",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T08:11:40",
"content": "That’s enough to get you arrested in the UK.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6756924",
"author": "BadAngel",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08... | 1,760,371,923.145822 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/mostly-printed-cnc-gets-a-few-upgrades/ | Mostly Printed CNC Gets A Few Upgrades | Dan Maloney | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"backlash",
"cnc",
"jackpot",
"linear rail",
"MPCNC",
"raspberry pi",
"VEVOR"
] | The Mostly Printed CNC is famous for two things. First, being made mostly from 3D printed parts and commonly available steel tubing. Second, because of the materials used, its rigidity isn’t fantastic. But any CNC router is better than no CNC router, and [Alan Reiner]’s
“Mostly Mostly Printed CNC”
upgrades the base MPCNC into a much more capable unit.
MPCNC purists may want to look away, as the video below shows [Alan] committing the heresy of adding linear rails to his machine. The rails were sourced from VEVOR and at less than $100 for 10 meters, it must have been hard to resist. The rigidity wasn’t amazing — witness the horrific chatter at around the 5:15 mark — but [Alan] sorted that out with some aluminum extrusion and printed adapters.
Those upgrades alone were enough to let [Alan] dive into some aluminum cutting, but he also wanted to address another gripe with his base build: the Z-axis backlash. The fix there was to add another lead screw nut on an adjustable carrier. By tweaking the relative angles of the two opposed nuts, almost all of the backlash was taken up. [Alan] also replaced the motor coupling on the Z axis with a Lovejoy-style coupler, to remove as much axial compliance as possible.
Along with the motion control mods, [Alan] improved work holding and added an enclosure to tame the chip beast, along with some upgrades to the control electronics. The results are pretty good and appear well worth the modest added expense. Maybe
a wireless controller
can be next on the upgrade list? | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756915",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T07:16:01",
"content": "For some reason the machines that are capable of milling aluminium or other hard materials are heavy and stiff.The tiny resonance, slack, or softness in machine body causes the end mill to vibrate which aga... | 1,760,371,923.075199 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/mitre-wants-the-feds-to-play-in-its-sandbox/ | Mitre Wants The Feds To Play In Its Sandbox | Al Williams | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"artificial intellegence",
"mitre"
] | If you haven’t worked with the US government, you might not know Mitre, a non-profit government research organization. Formed in 1958 by the U.S. Air Force as a company to guide the SAGE computer, they are often research experts who oversee government contracts or evaluate proposals. Now they are building a $20 millon “
AI Sandbox
” for the Federal government to build AI prototypes.
Partnered with NVidia, the sandbox will use an NVidia GDX SuperPOD system capable of an exaFLOP of 8-bit AI computation. Mitre reports this will increase their compute power for AI by two orders of magnitude.
Access to the sandbox will be through one of the six federally funded R&D centers that Mitre operates on behalf of the government. These include centers that support the FAA, the IRS, Homeland Security, Social Security, health services, and cybersecurity with NIST. Of course, the DoD is likely in that mix, too.
So what do they (or the government) think they are going to do with all this AI power? We don’t know. But we are sure we’ll see some colorful guesses in the comments. The fact that it is through the R&D centers makes us think an AI might soon be sifting through your taxes soon or maybe routing your next airplane ride. We aren’t sure if that makes us feel better or worse.
AI servers seem to be the
new supercomputer
. The scary part is that what one generation
considers a supercomputer
, the next generation carries in their pocket. | 18 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756884",
"author": "ben",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T02:26:42",
"content": "They’ll probably pull Dr. Sbaitso out of retirement for psychological profiling on automated background checks.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6756886",... | 1,760,371,923.197574 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/your-pi-from-anywhere/ | Your Pi, From Anywhere | Jenny List | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"raspberry pi connect",
"remote access",
"remote desktop"
] | The Raspberry Pi finds a use in a huge variety of applications, and in almost any location you could imagine. Sadly those who use those machines might not be in the same place as the machines themselves, and thus there’s the question of providing a remote connection between the two. This may not be a huge challenge to those skilled with Linux and firewalls, but to many Pi users it’s a closed book. So the Pi folks have come up with a painless way to connect to your Pi wherever it is, and it’s called
Raspberry Pi Connect
.
To use the service all you need is a Pi running the latest 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS, so sadly that excludes base model Zeros and older models. Sign in to the Raspberry Pi Connect server, follow the instructions, and you’re on your way. Under the hood it’s the well-known VNC protocol at work, with the connection setup being managed via WebRTC. The Pi servers are intended to act simply as connection facilitators for peer-to-peer traffic, though they are capable of handling through traffic themselves. It’s a beta service with a single server in the UK at the time of writing, though we’d expect both the number of servers and the offering to evolve over time.
We think this is a useful addition to the Pi offering, and we expect to see it used in all manner of inventive ways. Meanwhile
it’s a while since we had a look at connecting to a headless Pi
, but much of the information is still relevant. | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756892",
"author": "Erle Czar Mantos",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T03:44:26",
"content": "It would be nice to have this service but for SSH. And yes, I know cloudflare tunnels and ngrok exist.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "675... | 1,760,371,923.288428 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/z80s-from-the-80s-had-futuristic-design/ | Z80s From The ’80s Had Futuristic Design | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"CP/M",
"Z-80"
] | Ever heard of a Dutch company called Holborn (literally, born in Holland)? We hadn’t either, but [Bryan Lunduke]
showed us these computers from the early 1980s
, and we wondered if they might have appeared in some science fiction movies. They definitely look like something from a 1970s movie space station.
The company started out tiny and only lasted a few years. The Holborn 9100 looked like a minicomputer and, honestly, other than the terminal, looks more like an air conditioner or refrigerator. While it was a Z-80 system, it was clearly aimed at business. The processor ran at 3.5 MHz, there was 72K of RAM that could expand to 220 K — a whopping amount for the early ’80s. They also could accept loads of 8-inch floppies. It even had a light pen, which seems exotic today but was actually fairly common back then.
When we heard you could go to 220 K of memory, we assumed it used a version of CP/M or MP/M that understood bank switching. Nope. They developed their own multiuser operating system. The OS was totally in ROM, so finding out any details about it is difficult.
Their next computer was a cheaper version that only supported two terminals, the Holborn 7100. There were only 200 9100 systems sold (or at least, claimed to be sold), and presumably fewer of the stripped-down model.
By 1982, CP/M was rising, and the company realized that its OS was not catching on. That led to the Holborn 6100 which was a CP/M machine that could handle 192K of RAM. Same mod terminal, but a much smaller box that could pass for a floppy disk NAS today. They sold about 100 of these computers.
The next computer was to be the 6500, but the company filed for bankruptcy before any of them could be shipped. The bankruptcy proceedings revealed that the company had actually sold only 50 units of the 9100 and 7100 combined! They also had about $7 million in debt.
The post has lots of pictures, ads, and even an internal shot of one of the devices. You can imagine with 50 units in the wild, there is little left of the Holborn computers today. But if you happen to run across one, you should definitely rescue it!
Old computers are like actors. Some are remembered, and
some are forgotten
. Despite looking like a minicomputer, a typical mini of that era would have had
a bitslice CPU
, not a Z80. | 26 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756829",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T20:25:59",
"content": "Dang, look at that thing! High quality zeerust.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6756958",
"author": "Stephen",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T... | 1,760,371,923.984006 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/bluepad32-brings-all-the-controllers-to-your-mcu/ | Bluepad32 Brings All The Controllers To Your MCU | Tom Nardi | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"bluetooth",
"bluetooth gamepad"
] | As much as we enjoy spinning up our own solutions, there are times when you’ve got to look at what’s on the market and realize you might be out of your league. For example, take Bluetooth game controllers. Sure, you could make your own with a microcontroller, some buttons, and a couple joysticks. But between the major players like Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, as well as independent peripheral companies like 8BitDo, there’s some
seriously
impressive hardware out there that can be easily repurposed.
How, you ask? Well,
Bluepad32 by [Ricardo Quesada]
would be a great place to start. This Apache v2.0 licensed project allows you to easily interface with a wide array of commercially available BT controllers, and supports an impressive number of software and hardware platforms. Using the Arduino IDE on the ESP32? No problem. CircuitPython on Adafruit’s PyPortal? Supported. There’s even example code provided for using it on Linux and Mac OS. Sorry Windows fans — perhaps there’s a sassy paperclip or sentient dog built into your OS that can instruct you further.
A few of the controllers supported by Bluepad32.
The nature of the Bluetooth Human Interface Device (HID) protocol means that, at least in theory, pretty much all modern devices should be supported by Bluepad32 automatically. But even still, it’s hard not to be impressed by the official
controller compatibility list
. There’s also separate lists for Bluetooth
mice
and
keyboards
that are known to work with the project.
While it’s somewhat unlikely to be a problem in this particular community, there is an unusual quirk to this project which we think should at least be mentioned. Although Bluepad32 itself is free and open source software (FOSS), it depends on the
BTstack library
, which in turn uses a more ambiguous licensing scheme. BTstack is “open” in the sense that you can see the source code and implement it in your own projects, but its custom license precludes commercial use. If you want to use BTstack (and by extension, Bluepad32) in a commercial product, you need to contact the developers and discuss terms.
License gotchas aside, Bluepad32 is definitely a project to keep in the back of your mind for the future. You can always
build your own controller if you’re looking a challenge
, but you’ll have a hell of a time beating the
decades of testing and development Sony has put into theirs
. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756804",
"author": "M_B",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T18:36:39",
"content": "Nice was thinking about looking for something like this.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6756833",
"author": "Ben",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T20:3... | 1,760,371,923.642613 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/the-2024-business-card-challenge-starts-now/ | The 2024 Business Card Challenge Starts Now | Elliot Williams | [
"contests",
"Hackaday Columns",
"News"
] | [
"2024 Business Card Challenge",
"contest"
] | If you want to make circuits for a living, what better way to impress a future employer than to hand them a piece of your work to take home? But even if you’re just hacking for fun, you can still turn your calling into your calling card.
We are inviting you to submit your coolest business card hacks for us all to admire, and the top three entries will win a $150 DigiKey shopping spree. If your work can fit on a business card, create a project page for it over on Hackaday.io and enter it in the
2024 Business Card Contest
. Share your tiny hacks!
To enter, create a project for your hacked business card over at Hackaday IO, and then enter it into the 2024 Business Card Challenge by selecting the pulldown on the left. It’s that easy.
Honorable Mentions
Since we always get more fantastic submissions than we have prizes, we love to recognize entries that stand out. These Honorable Mention categories to highlight those who rise to the challenge.
Wafer Thin
: A “normal” business card is about 1 mm thick. That’s a tough ask for a fully functional project, but let’s just say that for this category, there’s no such thing as too thin. Let’s see what you can do.
Aesthetics
: This category is for you artists out there. Squeeze the most beauty possible into a business card form factor.
Madman Muntz
: Paper business cards are insanely cheap to produce – custom electronics projects, not so much. But clever component choice and corner cutting can go a long way. For this category, we’d like to see how inexpensively you can get your cards made.
Fun and Games
: Nothing says “work” like a business card. Flip the script with a business card that’s a toy at heart.
Utilitarian
: Can you actually get something useful done within the size limits? How much functionality can you fit in your wallet?
More Inspiration
Need some inspiration? Check out these business card projects on Hackaday.
Maybe one of the first business card hacks that we ever featured was Hackaday alum [Ian Lesnet]’s
How-To: Web Server On A Business Card
. This one’s probably a history lesson today, because it was done in the days of slow microcontrollers with no inbuilt WiFi. Check out that Ethernet dongle attachment!
Flashing forward to the present, [Ryan Chan] designed a business card that, in addition to his contact information, also
has a complete Tic-Tac-Toe game built in
. [Beast Devices]’s
smart business cards
do away with the battery entirely by drawing their power from NFC, and are probably eminently hackable too, thanks to those sweet test points for programming.
[Ian Lesnet]’s Webserver
[Beast Devices]’s cards harvest their power from your cellphone
[Michael Teeuw] ‘s card plays Tetris, sideways.
[Michael Teeuw] designed
these PCBs that sport small OLED screens to display contact info
and even have a hidden easter egg. [Alex.puffer]’s
card is classy and simple,
and nobody out there needs to ask if he could have done it simply with a 555 timer.
Now it’s your turn.
Head on over to Hackaday.io put your business card in the running
. The contest runs between Tuesday, May 7, 2024 09:00 am PDT and Tuesday, July 2, 2024 09:00 am PDT, so get going.
Thanks again to DigiKey for sponsoring this contest with the $150 prizes! | 22 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756794",
"author": "The Commenter Formerly Known As Ren",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T18:00:53",
"content": "Looking forward to seeing all the entries!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6756806",
"author": "Ostracus",
... | 1,760,371,923.81468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/256-core-risc-v-megacluster/ | 256-Core RISC-V Megacluster | Julian Scheffers | [
"computer hacks"
] | [
"CH32V003",
"cluster computing",
"RISC-V"
] | Supercomputers are always an impressive sight to behold, but also completely unobtainable for the ordinary person. But what if that wasn’t the case? [bitluni] shows us how it’s done with his
256-core RISC-V megacluster
.
While the CH32V family of microcontrollers it’s based on aren’t nearly as powerful as what you’d traditionally find in a supercomputer, [bitluni] does use them to demonstrate a property of supercomputers: many, many cores doing the same task in parallel.
To recap our previous coverage
, a single “supercluster” is made from 16 CH32V003 microcontrollers connected to each other with an 8-bit bus, with an LED on each and the remaining pins to an I/O expander. The megacluster is in turn made from 16 of these superclusters, which are put in pairs on 8 “blades” with a CH32V203 per square as a bridge between the supercluster and the main 8-bit bus of the megacluster, controlled by one last CH32V203.
[bitluni] goes into detail about designing PCBs that break KiCad, managing an overcrowded bus with 16 participants, culminating in a mesmerizing showcase of blinking LEDs showing that RC oscillators aren’t all that accurate. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756779",
"author": "haaad",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T17:04:49",
"content": "As cool as it is – it is not mega – this is not even kilo.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6756788",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp... | 1,760,371,923.695019 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/supercon-2023-makeithackin-automates-the-tindie-workflow/ | Supercon 2023: MakeItHackin Automates The Tindie Workflow | Arya Voronova | [
"cons",
"Featured",
"how-to"
] | [
"2023 Hackaday Supercon",
"automation",
"Tindie"
] | Selling your hardware hacks is a great way to multiply your project’s impact, get your creations into others’ hands, and contribute to your hacking-related budget while at it. If you’re good at it, your store begins to grow. From receiving a couple orders a year, to getting one almost every day – if you don’t optimize the process of mailing orders out, it might just start taking a toll on you.
That is not to say that you should worry – it’s merely a matter of optimization, and, now you have a veritable resource to refer to. At Supercon 2023, [MakeItHackin]/[Andrew]
has graced us with his extensive experience
scaling up your sales and making your shipping process as seamless as it could be. His experience is multifaceted, and he’s working with entire four platforms – Tindie, Lectronz, Etsy and Shopify, which makes his talk all that more valuable.
[MakeItHackin] tells us how he started out selling hardware, how his stores grew, and what pushed him to automate the shipping process to a formidable extent. Not just that – he’s developed a codebase for making the shipping experience as smooth as possible, and he’s sharing it all with us.
His research was initially prompted by Tindie, specifically, striving to make the shipping process seamless. If you go the straightforward way and use the Web UI to copy-paste the shipping data in your postal system, it’s going to take you a good few minutes, and it’s an error-prone process. This is fine for a couple orders a year, but when you’re processing dozens of orders at a time, it starts to add up. Plus, there’s a few issues – for instance, the invoices Tindie prints out, are not customizeable. As for Etsy, it is less than equipped for handling shipping at all, and you are expected to have your own system.
There are APIs, however – which is where automation can begin. The goal is simple – spending as little time as possible on shipping, and as much time as possible on designing hardware. He shows us a video with a simple demo – cutting down the shipping label creation time from a couple minutes, down to fourteen seconds. That alone is a veritable result, and, there’s more.
On the way there, he’s had to reverse-engineer a couple APIs. In the talk, you get a primer about APIs – how they work, differences between external and internal APIs, ways to tap into internal APIs and make them work your magic. APIs are one of the keys to having the shipping process run smoothly and quickly, and [MakeItHackin] teaches you everything, from managing cookies to using browser inspect element tools and Selenium.
Another key is having fun. [MakeItHackin] gives us another demo – an automated system that stays in your workshop, powered by a Raspberry Pi and assisted by an Arduino, which does the entire process from start to finish without human input, save for actually putting things into envelopes and taking them to the post office. Of course, the system is also equipped with flashing lights and sirens – there’s no chance you will miss an order arriving.
Then, he goes into customs and inventory management. Customs forms might require special information added to the label, which is all that much easier to do in an automated process completely under your control. As for inventory management, the API situation is a bit dire, but he’s looking into a centralized inventory synchronization system for all four platforms too.
The last part is about working with your customers as people. Prompt and personalized communication helps – some might be tempted to use “AI” chatbots, and [MakeItHackin] has tried, showing you that there are specific limitations. Also, careful with the temptation to have part of your shipping process be cloud-managed – that also means you’re susceptible to personal data storage-related risks, so it might be best to stay away from it.
In the end, we get a list of things to watch out for. For instance, don’t use your personal details on the envelope, whether it’s the “From” address or the phone number, getting substitute ones is well worth it to protect your privacy. On the practical side, using a label printer might turn out to be significantly cheaper than using an inkjet printer – remember, ink costs money, and, there’s a dozen more pieces of advice that any up-and-coming seller ought to know.
Of course, all this is but a sliver of the wealth of information that [MakeItHackin] shares in his talk, and we are overjoyed to have hosted it. If you’re looking to start selling your hardware, or perhaps you’re well on your way, find 45 minutes for this talk – it’s worth its metaphorical weight in gold. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6757036",
"author": "L-One-L-One",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T16:53:59",
"content": "Nice work! Time to create a JSON standard for orders and fulfilment APIs so that we can speak to all these platforms the same way (queue inhttps://xkcd.com/927/).Just to note a typo: it’s “lectronz” n... | 1,760,371,923.7475 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/imperva-report-claims-that-50-of-the-world-wide-web-is-now-bots/ | Imperva Report Claims That 50% Of The World Wide Web Is Now Bots | Maya Posch | [
"internet hacks"
] | [
"bots",
"cyber security",
"report"
] | Automation has been a part of the Internet since long before the appearance of the World Wide Web and the first web browsers, but it’s become a significantly larger part of total traffic the past decade. A recent
report by cyber security services company Imperva
pins the level of automated traffic (‘bots’) at roughly fifty percent of total traffic, with about 32% of all traffic attributed to ‘bad bots’, meaning automated traffic that crawls and scrapes content to e.g. train large language models (LLMs) and generate automated content as well as perform automated attacks on the countless APIs accessible on the internet.
According to Imperva, this is the fifth year of rising ‘bad bot’ traffic, with the
2023 report
noting again a few percent increase. Meanwhile ‘good bot’ traffic also keeps increasing year over year, yet while these are not directly nefarious, many of these bots can throw off analytics and of course generate increased costs for especially smaller websites. Most worrisome are the automated attacks by the bad bots, which ranges from account takeover attempts to exploiting vulnerable web-based APIs. It’s not just Imperva who is making these claims, the idea that automated traffic will soon destroy the WWW has floated around since the late 2010s as the ‘
Dead Internet theory
‘.
Although the idea that the Internet will ‘die’ is probably overblown, the increase in automated traffic makes it increasingly harder to distinguish human-generated content and human commentators from fake content and accounts. This is worrisome due to how much of today’s opinions are formed and reinforced on e.g. ‘social media’ websites, while more and more comments, images and even videos are manipulated or machine-generated. | 50 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756706",
"author": "Ale",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T11:14:02",
"content": "Here we welcome our new overlord Bot !",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6756709",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T11:33:04",
"c... | 1,760,371,924.071489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/07/reptrap-keeps-watch-over-our-cold-blooded-friends/ | RepTrap Keeps Watch Over Our Cold-Blooded Friends | Dan Maloney | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"game",
"pir",
"sensor",
"TOF",
"trail"
] | Wait a second, read that title again. This isn’t a throwback 3D printing project at all.
That’s “RepTrap” as in reptile trap
, and it’s a pretty clever way to study our cold-blooded friends in their natural habitat.
Now, game cameras — or trail cameras, if you’re less interested in eating what you see — are pretty much reduced to practice. For not that much money you can pick up one of these battery-powered devices, strap it to a tree, and have it automatically snap high-quality pictures of whatever wildlife happens to wander past. But nearly all of the commercially available game cameras have pyroelectric infrared sensors, which trigger on the temperature difference between a warm-blooded animal and the ambient temperature of the background. But what to do when you’re more interested in cold-blooded critters?
Enter [Mirko], who stumbled upon this problem while working with a conservation group in Peru. The group wanted to study snakes, insects, and other ectothermic animals, which are traditionally studied by trapping with pitfalls and other invasive techniques. Unable to rely on PIR, [Mirko] rigged up what amounts to a battery-powered light curtain using a VL53L4CD laser time-of-flight sensor. Mounted above the likely path of an animal, the sensor monitors the height of everything in its field of view. When an animal comes along, cold-blooded or otherwise, RepTrap triggers a remote camera and snaps a picture. Based on the brief video below, it’s pretty sensitive, too.
[Mirko] started out this project using an RP2040 but switched to an ESP32 to take advantage of Bluetooth camera triggering. The need for weatherproofing was also a big driver for the build; [Mirko] is shooting for an IP68 rating, which led to his interesting use of a Hall sensor and external magnet as a power switch. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756977",
"author": "Anon",
"timestamp": "2024-05-08T13:01:14",
"content": "Clever mechanism and beautiful design!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,371,924.109926 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/tokyo-atacama-observatory-opens-as-worlds-highest-altitude-infrared-telescope/ | Tokyo Atacama Observatory Opens As World’s Highest Altitude Infrared Telescope | Maya Posch | [
"Space"
] | [
"astronomy",
"telescope"
] | Cerro Chajnantor, site of TAO
Although we have a gaggle of space telescopes floating around these days, there is still a lot of value in ground-based telescopes. These generally operate in the visible light spectrum, but infrared ground-based telescopes can also work on Earth, assuming that you put them somewhere high in an area where the atmosphere is short on infrared-radiation absorbing moisture. The
newly opened
Universe of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) with its 6.5 meter silver-coated primary mirror is therefore placed on the summit of Cerro Chajnantor at 5,640 meters, in the Atacama desert in Chile.
This puts it only a few kilometers away from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), but at a higher altitude by about 580 meters. As noted on the University of Tokyo
project site
(in Japanese), the project began in 1998, with a miniTAO 1 meter mirror version being constructed in 2009 to provide data for the 6.5 meter version. TAO
features
two instruments (SWIMS and MIMIZUKU), each with a specific mission profile, but both focused on deciphering the clues about the Universe’s early history, a task for which infrared is significantly more suitable due to redshift. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756713",
"author": "make piece not war",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T11:44:24",
"content": "Excellent place for a suntan and losing some wheight – moslty water, and it comes with a breathless view of the desert.Did I mentioned the sushi place?Jockes aside, I can’t wait for what will b... | 1,760,371,924.153929 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/peering-inside-the-tang-fpga/ | Peering Inside The Tang FPGA | Al Williams | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"fpga",
"integrated logic analyzer"
] | [Grug] has been working with the Tang Nano 9K FPGA board. He wanted to use the Gowin Analysis Oscilloscope (GAO) to build an internal monitor into the device for probing internal points. The problem is that the documentation is a bit lacking, so he made a video
showing how to make it work
to help us all out.
The idea for this isn’t unique, although for some vendors, getting this capability requires you to buy a license or the free versions are limited. We were disappointed, as was [Greg], that he had to run Windows to get the software to work.
The software seems capable, although we were interested in how much of the chip’s resources the integrated logic analyzer uses. We know from experience that being able to have a bird’s eye view of the signals inside the FPGA greatly simplifies debugging.
The Tang boards contain GWIN-1 FPGAs with different gate counts. We assume this software will work with any of the devices, regardless of the size. We’d love to know how to make this work on Linux, even if it takes a VM or WINE. In addition, the program has a number of options and features that either don’t work or aren’t clear what they are supposed to do. If you have any insight on any of this, be sure to share it with [Greg] and the rest of us.
We’ve rolled
our own version of this
that is portable. We’ve looked at this
FPGA before
and it is dirt cheap. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756696",
"author": "Harvie.CZ",
"timestamp": "2024-05-07T10:42:42",
"content": "I’d also like to mention Project Apicula 🐝: bitstream documentation for Gowin FPGAshttps://github.com/YosysHQ/apicula",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id... | 1,760,371,924.209625 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/retrotechtacular-how-not-to-use-hand-tools/ | Retrotechtacular: How Not To Use Hand Tools | Dan Maloney | [
"Retrotechtacular",
"Slider"
] | [
"army",
"military",
"pliers",
"retrotechtacular",
"screwdrivers",
"tools"
] | Whatever you’re doing with your hand tools, by the US Army’s lights, you’re probably doing it wrong. That seems to be the “Green Machine’s” attitude on pliers and screwdrivers, at least, the main stars of
this 1943 War Department training film
on the horrors of tool abuse.
As kitschy as the film might be, they weren’t wrong. That’s especially true about the dreaded slip-joint pliers, which seem to find their way onto everyone’s list of unloved tools and are shown being used for their true purpose — turning nuts and bolt heads from hexagons into circles. Once that gore is wrapped up, we’re treated to the proper uses of pliers, including the fascinating Bernard-style parallel jaw pliers. We can recall these beauties kicking around the bottom of Dad’s tool kit and being entranced by the mechanism used to keep the jaws parallel and amplify the force applied. Sadly, those pliers are long gone now; Tubalcain did
a great review of these pliers
a few years back if you need a refresher.
A selection of screwdrivers gets the same treatment, complete with dire warnings against using them as prybars and chisels. Also against the Army Way is using the wrong size screwdriver for the job, lest you strip the head of the screw or break the tool itself. It has to be said that the Plomb Tool Company of Los Angeles, which produced the film, made some fantastic-looking screwdrivers back in the day. The square shanks on some of those straight screwdrivers are enormous, and the wooden handles look so much more comfortable than the greebled-up plastic nonsense manufacturers seem to favor these days. Also interesting is the reference to the new-fangled Phillips screw, not to mention the appearance of a
Yankee-style spiral ratcheting screwdriver
, another of Dad’s prized acquisitions that thankfully is still around to this day.
What strikes us about these military training films is how many of them were produced. No subject seemed too mundane to get a training film made about it, and so many were made that one is left wondering how there was any time left for soldiering after watching all these films. But really, it’s not much different today, when we routinely pull up a random YouTube video to get a quick visual demo of how to do something we’ve never tried before. The medium may have changed, but visual learning is still a thing. | 48 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756620",
"author": "Jon H",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T23:05:14",
"content": "I figure there could be lots of tools “any idiot can use” that seem to be self-explanatory, for which there may actually be a “best practice” way to use them that isn’t self-evident.",
"parent_id": null... | 1,760,371,924.291274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/upgrading-a-cheap-lx-2bups-ups-board-to-fix-fatal-flaws/ | Upgrading A Cheap LX-2BUPS UPS Board To Fix Fatal Flaws | Maya Posch | [
"Battery Hacks"
] | [
"Li-ion",
"powerbank",
"Uninterruptible Power Supply",
"ups"
] | Cheap uninterruptable power supply (UPS) boards that take Li-ion cells of some description seem to have cropped up everywhere the past years. Finding use in applications such as keeping single-board computers ticking along in the case of a power failure, they would seem to be a panacea. Unfortunately most of these boards come with a series of fatal flaws, such as those that [MisterHW] found in an LX-2BUPS board obtained from AliExpress. Worst of all was the deep discharge of the Li-ion cells to below 2 V,
which took some ingenuity
and hard work to fix this and other problems.
The patched up XR2981 boost IC with MCP809 reset IC installed. (Credit: [MisterHW])
This particular board is rated for 5V at 3A, featuring the all too common TP4056 as charging IC and the XYSemi XR2981 boost converter. Since there is no off-switch or other protections on the board, the XR2981 will happily keep operating until around 2.6V, at a rather astoundingly high idle power consumption. Because of this the fixes mostly concentrated on optimizing the XR2981, by using better resistor values (R7, R8, R9), as well as adding a 3.15V MCP809 reset IC, to reduce idle power usage of the boost converter and disable it below a safe cell voltage.
The final coup de grâce was the eviction of the red LED (D6) and replacing it with the blue LED from D2, to stop the former from draining the cell as well. With these changes in place, no-load power usage dropped from nearly 900 µA to just over 200 µA, while preventing deep discharge. Although this board now has a second life, it does raise the question of what the point of these cheap UPS boards is if you have to spend money and time on reworking them before they’re somewhat acceptable. What is your go-to solution for these boards? | 30 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756590",
"author": "jawnhenry",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T20:52:40",
"content": "“…What is your go-to solution for these boards?”Easy–don’t use them under any set of circumstances.…Unless you have a death wish…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
... | 1,760,371,924.361688 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/non-contact-scope-probe-costs-nearly-nothing/ | Non Contact Scope Probe Costs Nearly Nothing | Al Williams | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"oscilloscope probe",
"test equipment"
] | [IMSAI Guy] wants you to build
a non-contact scope probe
. The cost? Assuming you have a bit of wire and a regular scope probe, it won’t cost you anything. Why do you want such a thing? You can see what he does with it in the video below.
The probe is really just a coil with little slip-over coils that grab it. You can stick it on and remove it just as easily, so you don’t have to sacrifice the probe for normal use. It won’t give you high-accuracy readings, but if you want to sniff around a circuit without directly connecting to it, it will do the trick. If you are too lazy to make a coil, you can even clip a ground lead to the probe tip, although that won’t work quite as well.
There are many variations on this theme that are useful when you don’t want to actually contact what you are probing. For example, a thin insulating cap or coating over the scope probe can allow you to capacitively couple to the circuit under test.
This is a trick we’ve seen before, but — honestly — not lately. It is a great thing to have in your virtual toolbox and if you don’t have a real one and you need it, they take just a second to make. You might even be able to repurpose a ground spring with a little effort.
While these probes will pick up EMI, if that’s what you want to measure, you can
do better
. What we really want is a free
differential probe
, but we haven’t found one of those yet. | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756604",
"author": "H Hack",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T21:26:40",
"content": "I have my special Ouija scope for contactless probing. Just ask the magic smoke of old for the values.It’s always wrong though so I wouldn’t recommend it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"repl... | 1,760,371,924.400286 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/retrogadgets-the-ageia-physx-card/ | Retrogadgets: The Ageia PhysX Card | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Retrocomputing",
"Slider"
] | [
"gpu",
"physx"
] | Old computers meant for big jobs often had an external unit to crunch data in specific ways. A computer doing weather prediction, for example, might have an SIMD (single instruction multiple data) vector unit that could multiply a bunch of numbers by a constant in one swoop. These days, there are many computers crunching physics equations so you can play your favorite high-end computer game. Instead of vector processors, we have video cards. These cards have many processing units that can execute “kernels” or small programs on large groups of data at once.
Awkward Years
However, there was that awkward in-between stage when personal computers needed fast physics simulation, but it wasn’t feasible to put array processing and video graphics on the same board. Around 2006, a company called Ageia produced the PhysX card, which promised to give PCs the ability to do sophisticated physics simulations without relying on a video card.
Keep in mind that when this was built, multi-core CPUs were an expensive oddity and games were struggling to manage everything they needed to with limited memory and compute resources. The PhysX card was a “PPU” or Physics Processor Unit and used the PCI bus. Like many companies, Ageia made the chips and expected other companies — notably Asus — to make the actual board you’d plug into your computer.
The Technology
The chip had 125 million transistors on a 0.13 micron process. With 128 megabytes of 733 MHz GDDR3 memory, the board needed an extra power connector that could draw 20 watts. The price was around $300. Quite a bit for a card that did absolutely nothing without specialized software.
There was a physics engine, NovodeX, that could handle game physics for developers using either the chip or a software stack, so we presume that’s what most gamemakers would use.
Of course, today, a 20 watt GPU with an extra power connector isn’t enough to make you look up from your screen. But times were different then. According to contemporary reports, the chip has a two terabit per second memory bandwidth. Watch the demo vide below. It won’t knock your socks off, but for a computer system nearly twenty years ago, it was pretty good.
Aftermath
So what happened? Well, the company caused quite a stir, although it isn’t clear how many people ponied up to get better performance on a handful of games. The boards were a thing for only about two years. Ultimately, though, NVidia would buy Ageia and adapt its technology to run on NVidia hardware, and so some part of it lives on today as software, and you might find some games that still boast extra PhysX features.
If you want to see a direct comparison of before and after hardware acceleration, check out the video below. Don’t forget to note the frame rates in the bottom right corner.
These days, you are more likely to get heavy processing via CUDA or OpenCL. While
GPU architectures vary
, they will all outperform this early entry into hardware acceleration. | 27 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756497",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T17:16:29",
"content": "Physics still is one of those underused things compared to everything else. And most likely AI will be the thing that gets preferential treatment.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,371,924.643827 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/spend-an-hour-in-the-virtual-radio-museum/ | Spend An Hour In The Virtual Radio Museum | Al Williams | [
"History",
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"museums",
"vintage electronics"
] | You have an hour to kill, and you like old communication technology. If you happen to be in Windsor, Connecticut, you could nip over to the
Vintage Radio and Communication Museum
. If you aren’t in Windsor, you could watch [WG7D’s] video tour, which you can see below.
The museum is a volunteer organization and is mostly about radio, although we did spy some old cameras if you like that sort of thing. There was also a beautiful player piano that — no kidding — now runs from a vacuum cleaner.
One notable piece of gear was an old tube tester of the sort you used to see in pharmacies, and the guide mentioned that they have 100,000 tubes in storage! If you are a ham radio operator, you’ll appreciate the vintage code gear and teletypes. The amount of old gear here is impressive, including unusual record players, movie theater projectors, and lots more.
The guides are clearly not used to having someone like [WG7D] in the museum as they explained things like Morse code and magic eye tubes. If you happen to be in the area, we are sure a real tour would be better than a video, but we did enjoy the virtual visit, too.
If you are planning a museum trip, don’t miss the
Obsolete Technology Museum
or the
Large Scale Systems Museum
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756453",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T16:19:23",
"content": "It’s interesting how much it looks like the Pavek radio museum in Minneapolis. There must be something about the use case.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"co... | 1,760,371,924.528709 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/the-computers-of-voyager/ | The Computers Of Voyager | Dan Maloney | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [] | After more than four decades in space and having traveled a combined 44 billion kilometers, it’s no secret that the Voyager spacecraft are closing in on the end of their extended interstellar mission. Battered and worn, the twin spacecraft are speeding along through the void, far outside the Sun’s influence now, their radioactive fuel decaying, their signals becoming ever fainter as the time needed to cross the chasm of space gets longer by the day.
But still, they soldier on, humanity’s furthest-flung outposts and testaments to the power of good engineering. And no small measure of good luck, too, given the number of nearly mission-ending events which have accumulated in almost half a century of travel. The number of “glitches” and “anomalies” suffered by both Voyagers seems to be on the uptick, too, contributing to the sense that someday, soon perhaps, we’ll hear no more from them.
That day has thankfully not come yet, in no small part due to the computers that the Voyager spacecraft were, in a way, designed around. Voyager was to be a mission unlike any ever undertaken, a Grand Tour of the outer planets that offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to push science far out into the solar system. Getting the computers right was absolutely essential to delivering on that promise, a task made all the more challenging by the conditions under which they’d be required to operate, the complexity of the spacecraft they’d be running, and the torrent of data streaming through them. Forty-six years later, it’s safe to say that the designers nailed it, and it’s worth taking a look at how they pulled it off.
Volatile (Institutional) Memory
It turns out that getting to the heart of the Voyager computers, in terms of schematics and other technical documentation, wasn’t that easy. For a project with such an incredible scope and which had an outsized impact on our understanding of the outer planets and our place in the galaxy, the dearth of technical information about Voyager is hard to get your head around. Most of the easily accessible information is pretty high-level stuff; the juicy technical details are much harder to come by. This is doubly so for the computers running Voyager, many of the details of which seem to be getting lost in the sands of time.
As a case in point, I’ll offer an anecdote. As I was doing research for this story, I was looking for anything that would describe the architecture of the Flight Data System, one of the three computers aboard each spacecraft and the machine that has been the focus of
the recent glitch
and
recovery effort
aboard Voyager 1. I kept coming across a reference to a paper with a most promising title: “Design of a CMOS Processor for use in the Flight Data Subsystem of a Deep Space Probe.” I searched high and low for this paper online, but it appears not to be available anywhere but in a special collection in the library of Witchita State University, where it’s in the personal papers of a former professor who did some work for NASA.
Unfortunately, thanks to ongoing construction, the library has no access to the document right now. The difficulty I had in rounding up this potentially critical document seems to indicate a loss of institutional knowledge of the Voyager program’s history and its technical origins. That became apparent when I reached out to public affairs at Jet Propulsion Lab, where the Voyagers were built, in the hope that they might have a copy of that paper in their archives. Sadly, they don’t, and engineers on the Voyager team haven’t even heard of the paper. In fact, they’re very keen to see a copy if I ever get a hold of it, presumably to aid their job of keeping the spacecraft going.
In the absence of detailed technical documents, the original question remains: How do the computers of Voyager work? I’ll do the best I can to answer that from the existing documentation, and hopefully fill in the blanks later with any other documents I can scrape up.
Good Old TTL
As mentioned above, each Voyager contains three different computers, each of which is assigned different functions. Voyager was the first unmanned mission to include distributed computing, partly because the sheer number of tasks to be executed with precision during the high-stakes planetary fly-bys would exceed the capabilities of any single computer that could be made flyable. There was a social engineering angle to this as well, in that it kept the various engineering teams from competing for resources from a single computer.
Redundancy galore: block diagram for the Command Computer Subsystem (CCS) used on the Viking orbiters. The Voyager CCS is almost identical. Source:
NASA/JPL
.
To the extent that any one computer in a tightly integrated distributed system such as the one on Voyager can be considered the “main computer,” the Computer and Command Subsystem (CCS) would be it. The Voyager CCS was almost identical to another JPL-built machine, the Viking orbiter CCS. The Viking mission, which put two landers on Mars in the summer of 1976, was vastly more complicated than any previous unmanned mission that JPL had built spacecraft for, most of which used simple sequencers rather than programmable computers.
On Voyager, the CCS is responsible for receiving commands from the ground and passing them on to the other computers that run the spacecraft itself and the scientific instruments. The CCS was built with autonomy and reliability in mind, since after just a few days in space, the communication delay would make direct ground control impossible. This led JPL to make everything about the CCS dual-redundant — two separate power supplies, two processors, two output units, and two complete sets of command buffers. Additionally, each processor could be cross-connected to each output unit, and interrupts were distributed to both processors.
There are no microprocessors in the CCS. Rather, the processors are built from discrete 7400-series TTL chips. The machine does not have an operating system but rather runs bare-metal instructions. Both data and instruction words are 18 bits wide, with the instruction words having a 6-bit opcode and a 12-bit address. The 64 instructions contain the usual tools for moving data in and out of registers and doing basic arithmetic, although there are only commands for adding and subtracting, not for multiplication or division. The processors access 4 kilowords of redundant
plated-wire memory
, which is similar to magnetic core memory in that it records bits as magnetic domains, but with an iron-nickel alloy plated onto the surface of wires rather than ferrite beads.
The Three-Axis Problem
On Voyager, the CCS does almost nothing in terms of flying the spacecraft. The tasks involved in keeping Voyager pointed in the right direction are farmed out to the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem, or AACS. Earlier interplanetary probes such as
Pioneer
were spin-stabilized, meaning they maintained their orientation gyroscopically by rotating the craft around the longitudinal axis. Spin stabilization wouldn’t work for Voyager, since a lot of the science planned for the mission, especially the photographic studies, required a stable platform. This meant that three-axis stabilization was required, and the AACS was designed to accommodate that need.
Voyager’s many long booms complicate attitude control by adding a lot of “wobble”.
The physical design of Voyager injected some extra complexity into attitude control. While previous deep-space vehicles had been fairly compact, Voyager bristles with long booms. Sprouting from the compact bus located behind its huge high-gain antenna are booms for the three radioisotope thermoelectric generators that power the spacecraft, a very long boom for the magnetometers, a shorter boom carrying the heavy imaging instruments, and a pair of very long antennae for
the Plasma Wave Subsystem
experiment. All these booms tend to wobble a bit when the thrusters fire or actuators move, complicating the calculations needed to stay on course.
The AACS is responsible for running the gyros, thrusters, attitude sensors, and actuators needed to keep Voyager oriented in space. Like the CCS, the AACS has a redundant design using TTL-based processors and 18-bit words. The same 4k of redundant plated-wire memory was used, and many instructions were shared between the two computers. To handle three-axis attitude control in a more memory-efficient manner, the AACS uses index registers to point to the same block of code multiple times.
Years of Boredom, Minutes of Terror
Rounding out the computers of Voyager is the Flight Data Subsystem or FDS, the culprit in the latest “glitch” on Voyager 1, which was traced to
a corrupted memory location
and nearly ended the extended interstellar mission. Compared with the Viking-descended CCS and AACS, the FDS was to be a completely new kind of computer, custom-made for the demands of a torrent of data from eleven scientific experiments and hundreds of engineering sensors during the high-intensity periods of planetary flybys, while not being overbuilt for the long, boring cruises between the planets.
One of the eight cards comprising the Voyager FDS. Covered with discrete CMOS chips, this card bears the “MJS77” designation; “Mariner Jupiter Saturn 1977” was the
original name of the Voyager mission
. Note the D-sub connectors for inter-card connections. Source:
NASA/JPL
.
It was evident early in the Voyager design process that data-handling requirements would outstrip the capabilities of any of the hard-wired data management systems used in previous deep space probes. This led to an initial FDS design using the same general architecture as the CCS and AACS — dual TTL processors, 18-bit word width, and the same redundant 4k of plated-wire memory. But when the instruction time of a breadboard version of this machine was measured, it turned out to be about half the speed necessary to support peak flyby data throughput.
Voyager FDS. Source:
National Air and Space Museum.
To double the speed, direct memory access circuits were added. This allowed data to move in and out of memory without having to go through the processor first. Further performance gains were made by switching the processor design to CMOS chips, a risky move in the early 1970s. Upping the stakes was the decision to move away from the reliable plated-wire memory to CMOS memory, which could be accessed much faster.
The speed gains came at a price, though: volatility. Unlike plated-wire memory, CMOS memory chips lose their data if the power is lost, meaning a simple power blip could potentially erase the FDS memory at the worst possible time. JPL engineers worked around this with brutal simplicity — rather than power the FDS memories from the main spacecraft power systems, they ran dedicated power lines directly back to the radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) powering the craft. This means the only way to disrupt power to the CMOS memories would be a catastrophic loss of all three RTGs, in which case the mission would be over anyway.
Physically, the FDS was quite compact, especially for a computer built of discrete chips in the early 1970s. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find many high-resolution photos of the flight hardware, but the machine appears to be built from eight separate cards that are attached to a card cage. Each card has a row of D-sub connectors along the top edge, which appear to be used for card-to-card connections in lieu of a backplane. A series of circular MIL-STD connectors provide connection to the spacecraft’s scientific instruments, power bus, communications, and the
Data Storage Subsystem (DSS)
, the digital 8-track tape recorder used to buffer data during flybys.
Next Time?
Even with the relative lack of information on Voyager’s computers, there’s still a lot of territory to cover, including some of the interesting software architecture techniques used, and the details of how new software is uploaded to spacecraft that are currently almost a full light-day distant. And that’s not to mention the juicy technical details likely to be contained in a paper hidden away in some dusty box in a Kansas library. Here’s hoping that I can get my hands on that document and follow up with more details of the Voyager computers. | 71 | 27 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756415",
"author": "Pat",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T14:24:22",
"content": "The risk in using CMOS memory was well-founded, as it turns out. As far as I know, the CCS/AACS have been happily running for nearly 50 years without a hiccup, whereas *both* Voyagers have lost portions of th... | 1,760,371,924.764899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/midi-bookmark-marks-the-spot-where-work-and-play-intersect/ | MIDI Bookmark Marks The Spot Where Work And Play Intersect | Kristina Panos | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"bookmark",
"capacitive touch",
"ESP32",
"midi"
] | Have you ever wanted to take a break from reading or studying to just rock out for a few blissful minutes? If you’re anything like us, you like to rock out most of the time and take the occasional break to do your reading. Either way, you really can’t go wrong with this
MIDI bookmark from [Misfit Maker].
This slick little bookmark may look 3D printed, but it’s all carefully-cut foam board in two thicknesses. Even the keys are made foam board — they’re just wrapped in carbon fiber so they look extra cool.
Underneath that carbon fiber is a layer of aluminium tape to make them capacitive. [Misfit Maker] recommends using copper tape instead because it allows for wires to be soldered directly to the keys.
The brains of this beauty is in the form of an ESP32 which is controlling an MPR-121 capacitive touch sensor. If you’d like to make one of these for yourself, there are plenty of helpful GIFs embedded in the thorough write-up. Be sure to check out the brief demo after the break.
If you want to easily MIDI-fy something and use touch inputs, you can’t really go wrong with the Raspberry Pi Pico, which does capacitive touch natively.
Check out this MIDI kalmiba to learn more. | 3 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756370",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T11:37:17",
"content": "This is a catch 22.If you bookmark a page you cant play the keyboard?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6756499",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp... | 1,760,371,924.577599 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/the-history-of-the-worlds-first-planetarium/ | The History Of The World’s First Planetarium | Al Williams | [
"Space"
] | [
"optics",
"planetarium"
] | It shouldn’t be a surprise that the
idea of a planetarium
originated with an electrical engineer, [Oskar von Miller] from the Deutsches Museum in Munich. According to [Allison Marsh] in IEEE Spectrum, he thought about the invention in 1912 as a way to demonstrate astronomical principles to the general public. While it seems obvious today that you can project the night sky onto a dome, it was a novel thought in 1912. So novel that the Carl Zeiss company first told [von Miller] to take a hike. But they eventually reconsidered and built the first planetarium, the Model I.
The engineer for Zeiss was a mechanical engineer by the name of [Walther Bauersfeld]. He was familiar with mechanical devices — orreries — that tracked the motion of the stars and planets. The goal was to translate those movements into a moving projection of light.
The practical realization of the projector required two independent projection spheres. One projected the stars and moved as a unit. It also held a cage that moved differently with projectors for the planets. Other separate projectors handled things like the Milky Way. There were 180 stars and the orbit of Saturn, just as an example was over 11 meters in diameter.
Even the domed projection room required innovative design. All of this would be easy with modern computers, but doing it all with gears seems quite a task. World War I slowed progress, but the Deutsches Museum committee saw an early demonstration of the device in late 1923. They were impressed.
Of course, the planetarium went on to become a…well, a star of science museums. Of course, there were improvements over time. Today, there are more than
4,000 planetariums
worldwide. While [von Miller] and the Zeiss company made the first modern planetarium, mechanical devices date back to the time of [Archimedes], although they weren’t optical. However, in 1229, Emperor Frederick II acquired a tent with holes in it representing stars that rotated to show the movement of heavenly bodies.
Want to build your own private planetarium? [Gabby]
did.
You might want to
grab some magnets
. | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756341",
"author": "Kalten",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T08:19:11",
"content": "Typo, should that not be “plane-arium”?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6756343",
"author": "gde",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T08:44:12... | 1,760,371,925.00129 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/a-portable-dlna-server-hack-helps-you-tame-openwrt/ | A Portable DLNA Server Hack Helps You Tame OpenWRT | Arya Voronova | [
"home entertainment hacks",
"how-to",
"Software Hacks",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"gl-inet",
"GL-MT300Nv2",
"MiniDLNA",
"openwrt"
] | A good amount of hacks can be done with off-the-shelf hardware – what’s more, it’s usually available all over the world, which means your hacks are easier to build for others, too. Say, you’ve built something around a commonly available portable router, through the magic of open-source software. How do you make the fruits of your labour easy to install for your friends and blog readers? Well, you might want to learn a thing or two from [Albert], who shows us
a portable DLNA server built around a GL-MT300N-V2 pocket router.
[Albert]’s blog post is a tutorial on setting it up, with a pre-compiled binary image you can flash onto your router. Flash it, prepare a flash drive with your media files, connect to the WiFi network created by the router, run the VLC player app, and your media library is with you wherever you go.
Now, a binary image is good, but are you wondering how it was made, and how you could achieve similar levels of user-friendliness in your project? Of course,
here’s the GitHub repository with OpenWRT configuration files
used to build this image, and build instructions are right there in the README. If you ever needed a reference on how to make commonly available OpenWRT devices do your bidding automagically, this is it.
This is an elegant solution to build an portable DLNA server that’s always with you on long rides, and, think of it, it handily beats a typical commercialized alternative, at a lower cost. Want software upgrades? Minor improvements and fixes? Security patches? Everything is under your control, and thanks to the open-source nature of this project, you have a template to follow. There won’t always be a perfectly suited piece of hardware on the market, of course, as this elegant
dual-drive Pi-based NAS build
will attest. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756334",
"author": "IsRadioKill",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T07:08:33",
"content": "Gli.net makes some cool hardware. I know the Beryl model (sp?) Has an SD card slot that you can use for the same purpose, plus you can then plug a USB cellular modem into the USB port and share that w... | 1,760,371,924.908359 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/poking-atomic-nuclei-with-lasers-for-atomic-clocks-and-energy-storage/ | Poking Atomic Nuclei With Lasers For Atomic Clocks And Energy Storage | Maya Posch | [
"Science"
] | [
"atomic clock",
"energy storage",
"nuclear isomer"
] | Although most people are probably familiar with the different energy levels that the electron shells of atoms can be in and how electrons shedding excess energy as they return to a lower state emit for example photons, the protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei can also occupy an excited state. This nuclear isomer (metastable) state is a big part of radioactive decay chains, but can also be induced externally. The trick lies in hitting the right excitation wavelength and being able to detect the nuclear transition, something which researchers at the Technical University of Wien have now
demonstrated
for thorium-229.
The findings by [J.Tiedau] and colleagues were
published
in
Physical Review Letters
, describing the use of a vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) laser setup to excite Th-229 into an isomer state. This isotope was chosen for its low-energy isomeric state, with the atoms embedded in a CaF
2
crystal lattice. By trying out various laser wavelengths and scanning for the signature of the decay event they eventually detected the signal, which raises the possibility of using this method for applications like new generations of much more precise atomic clocks. It also provides useful insights into nuclear isomers as it pertains to tantalizing applications like high-density energy storage.
Although the difference in the amount of energy between the stable and semistable isomer state of a nucleus is minor in absolute terms, when compared to chemical and other forms of energy storage it can be significantly larger. Storing and releasing this energy has been the subject of research going back decades, with a
2008 paper
by [E. P. Hartouni] at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on
178m2
Hf in particular concluding that it was ‘highly improbable’ to become a practical form of energy, but this has not kept research on the topic from progressing.
One consideration here is that the number of nuclear isomers is massive, and their properties are quite distinct, as noted in a
2024 review paper
by [Bhoomika Maheshwari] and colleague, along with the realization that we still miss a lot of fundamental understanding on the topic of these nuclear states. In a
2021 research paper
by [Yuanbin Wu] and colleagues the long-term energy storage potential and controlled release of energy in a
93m
Mo isomer is studied, using electron beams as the trigger. Although still early days, this kind of research may be the path to many new technologies related to time-keeping, computing and energy storage. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756304",
"author": "Truth",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T04:21:10",
"content": "So shine light (of the correct energy) on unstable atoms can split some atoms?I have not clicked on the link yet.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "675... | 1,760,371,924.949017 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/hackaday-links-may-5-2024/ | Hackaday Links: May 5, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"aspen",
"basic",
"cartoon",
"chrome",
"clone",
"experimenting",
"firefox",
"hackaday links",
"hope",
"hydrophone",
"kit",
"languages",
"programming",
"quaking",
"radio shack"
] | It may be hard to believe, but
BASIC turned 60 this week
. Opinions about the computer language vary, of course, but one thing everyone can agree on is that Professors Kemeny and Kurtz really stretched things with the acronym: “Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code” is pretty tortured, after all. BASIC seems to be the one language it’s universally cool to hate, at least in its current incarnations like Visual Basic and VBA. But back in 1964, the idea that you could plunk someone down in front of a terminal, or more likely a teletype, and have them bang out a working “Hello, world!” program with just a few minutes of instruction was pretty revolutionary. Yeah, line numbers and GOTO statements encouraged spaghetti code and engrained bad programming habits, but at least it got people coding. And perhaps most importantly, it served as a “gateway drug” into the culture for a lot of us. Many of us would have chosen other paths in life had it not been for those dopamine hits provided by getting that first BASIC program working. So happy birthday BASIC!
Speaking of gateways, we’ve been eagerly following
the “65 in 24” project
, an homage to the “65 in 1” kits sold by Radio Shack back in the day. These were the hardware equivalent of as BASIC to a lot of us, and just as formative. Tom Thoen has been lovingly recreating the breadboard kit, rendering it in PCBs rather than cardboard and making some updates in terms of components choices, but staying as true to the original as possible. One thing that the original had was the “lab manual,” a book containing all 65 circuits with schematics and build instructions, plus crude but charming cartoons to illustrate the principles of the circuit design. Tom obviously needs to replicate that to make the project complete, and while schematics are a breeze in the age of EDA, the cartoons are another matter.
He’s making progress on that front
, though, with the help of an art student who is really nailing the assignment. Watch out, Joe Kim!
Last week we mentioned HOPE XV is coming in July. This week,
a partial list of talks was released
, and there’s already a lot of interesting stuff scheduled. Supercon keynote alums Mitch Altman and Cory Doctorow are both scheduled to appear, along with a ton of others. Check out the list, get your proposals in, or just get your tickets.
If an entire forest is composed of a single tree, does it make a sound?
Yes it does
, and
it’s kind of weird
. The tree is called Pando, which is also weird, and it’s the largest living individual organism by biomass on Earth. The quaking aspen has 47,000 stems covering 100 acres (40 hectares) of Utah, and though it does a pretty good job of looking like a forest, the stems are genetically identical so it counts as a single organism. Quaking aspens are known to be a noisy tree, with leaves that rattle together in the slightest breeze. That pleasant sound isn’t just for us to enjoy, however, as sound artist Jeff Rice discovered by sticking a hydrophone down into one of Pando’s many hollow stems. The sound of the leaves banging together apparently gets transmitted down the stems and into the interconnected root system. At least that’s the thought; more rigorous experiments would be needed to confirm that the sound isn’t being mechanically coupled through the soil.
And finally, we’re in no position to cast stones at anyone for keeping a lot of browser tabs open, but
keeping almost 7,500 Firefox tabs going
seems a bit extreme. And yet a software engineer going by the handle Hazel just can’t bring herself to close any tabs, resulting in an epic restore session when her browser finally gave up the ghost. Panic set in at first when Firefox refused to reload all the tabs, accumulated over the last two years, but eventually the browser figured it all out and Hazel was back in business. Interestingly, Firefox doesn’t really use up too much memory to keep al those tabs open — only 70 MB. Compare that to Chrome, which needs 2 GB to keep a measly 10 tabs open. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756336",
"author": "Gérald",
"timestamp": "2024-05-06T07:43:49",
"content": "Well… I have currently 4290 tabs in Firefox/macOS (without counting a few thousands i lost with a Firefox crash a few years ago). When i work an a project or make research about a subject, i can open a few... | 1,760,371,925.139258 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/this-windows-installer-installs-linux/ | This Windows Installer Installs Linux | Jenny List | [
"Linux Hacks",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"linux",
"OS install",
"windows"
] | It may be a very long time since some readers have installed a copy of Windows, but it appears at one point during the installation there’s a step that asks you which OS version you would like to install. Normally this is populated by whichever Windows flavours come on the install medium, but [Naman Sood] has other ideas. How about
a Windows installer with Alpine Linux as one of the choices
? Sounds good to us.
You can see it in action in the video below the break. Indeed Alpine Linux appears as one of the choices, followed by the normal Windows licence accept screen featuring the GPL instead of any MS text. The rest of the installer talks about installing Windows, but we can forgive it not expecting a Linux install instead.
So, the question we’re all asking is: how is it done? The answer lies in a WIM file, a stock Windows image which the installer unpacks onto your hard drive. The Linux distro needs to be installable onto an NTFS root partition, and to make it installable there’s a trick involving the Windows pre-installation environment.
This is an amusing hack, but the guide admits it’s fragile and perhaps not the most useful. Even so, the sight of Linux in a Windows installer has to be worth it. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756250",
"author": "Andrew Singleton",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T20:37:53",
"content": "Some good old fashioned tomfoolery. I love it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6756255",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-05... | 1,760,371,925.188704 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/building-a-rocket-engine-from-scratch/ | Building A Rocket Engine From Scratch | Al Williams | [
"Space"
] | [
"rocket engine"
] | There is a reason building a rocket engine is harder than most things you want to build. If you are building, say, a car, your goal is to not have it explode. If you are building a bomb, you want that to explode. But a rocket engine needs to explode just enough and not a bit more. That’s tough,
as [Ryan Kuhn] discovered
. He’s behind ABL’s E2 rocket, a LOX/kerosene engine for small vehicle launches. You can catch a video of the engine’s qualification tests below.
[Ryan] shares many of the problems encountered from many problems, each requiring finetuning of the design. True, there are plenty of publicly available NASA documents about what works and doesn’t work for rocket engines, but that can only take you so far. You can’t learn to bowl by reading about bowling, and you can’t design a successful rocket on paper just by reading about what others have done.
The post is long, but it is a rare glimpse into what goes into a major engineering project like this. [Ryan] started with a blank page, and the team created almost everything outside of some commodity parts, such as bearings, seals, and sensors. They even built all their own test infrastructure and software.
So, while you might never get the chance to build a rocket engine on this scale, just looking inside the process is fascinating. Who knows? It might help you with your next model rocket project.
Even
starting a rocket engine
can be a challenge. Today, we have many interesting fabrication techniques, but engines from the Shuttle and Apollo eras had to resort to some interesting tricks to get
the precision parts they needed
. | 14 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756220",
"author": "Paul",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T17:31:16",
"content": "And at the other end of the scale is Homer Hickam’sRocket boysaka October Sky, (not to be confused by other more recent things of the same names). Good book, decent movie.",
"parent_id": null,
"dept... | 1,760,371,925.236274 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/hive-monitor-is-the-bees-knees/ | Hive Monitor Is The Bee’s Knees | Kristina Panos | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"bee hive",
"beehive",
"bees",
"ESP32",
"hive monitoring",
"strain gauge"
] | Beekeeping is quite the rewarding hobby. There’s delicious honey and useful wax to be had, plus you get the honor of knowing that you’re helping to keep the bee population surviving and thriving. [Ben Brooks] likes to keep tabs on the hive, but doesn’t like the idea of opening it up more often than necessary. After a couple of beekeeping rodeos,
[Ben] decided to build his own tracker to get reports on the health and the activity of the hive through Home Assistant.
This hive tracker features a light sensor, a temperature sensor, and three strain gauges to measure the weight. There would be four, but a mouse decided to take a bite of the wires in the most nightmarish place to repair.
Everything runs off of an ESP32, and there’s an external antenna involved because the hive is nearly out of Wi-Fi range. The strain gauges are the affordable bathroom-scale type, and [Ben] has extras for if and when the number of hives goes up.
We like the combination of hard work and simplicity going on here — [Ben] milled and drilled the PCB himself, and used phone plugs to connect the temperature and weight sensors. Unfortunately, the plugs make the strain gauges a little finicky, so [Ben] says he would probably use screw terminals next time, or might be soldering the wires sooner rather than later. Consider this one a work in progress, and keep watching for updates as [Ben] works out the kinks.
Interested in beekeeping, but don’t want to build a traditional hive?
Check out this beehive in a bottle. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756197",
"author": "Rey",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T15:04:04",
"content": "WiFi near bees? Such a bad idea…https://ehtrust.org/new-study-wi-fi-frequency-harms-honeybee/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6756207",
"author... | 1,760,371,925.291605 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/this-robot-picks-locks-if-youre-very-patient/ | This Robot Picks Locks, If You’re Very Patient | Dan Maloney | [
"lockpicking hacks",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"cylinder",
"key",
"lock",
"locksport",
"picking",
"pin",
"security",
"stepper"
] | We all know the Hollywood trope of picking a lock with a paperclip, and while it certainly is doable, most reputable locks require slightly more sophisticated tools to pick effectively. That’s not to say that wire is off the table for locksports, though, as
this cool lock-picking robot
demonstrates.
The basics behind [Sparks and Code]’s design are pretty simple. Locks are picked by pushing pins up inside the cylinder until they line up with the shear plane, allowing the cylinder to turn. Normally this is done a pin at a time with a specialized tool and with a slight bit of torque on the cylinder. Here, tough, thin, stiff wires passing through tiny holes in a blade shaped to fit the keyway are used to push all the pins up at once, eliminating the need to keep tension on the cylinder to hold pins in place.
Sounds simple, but in practice, this looks like it was a nightmare. Getting five wires to fit into the keyway and guiding them to each pin wasn’t easy, nor was powering the linear actuators that slide the wires in and out. Applying torque to the lock was a chore too; even though tension isn’t needed to retain picked pins, the cylinder still needs to rotate, which means moving the whole picking assembly. But the biggest problem by far seems to be the fragility of the blade that goes into the keyway. SLA might not be the best choice here; perhaps the blade could be made from two thin pieces of aluminum with channels milled on their faces and then assembled face-to-face.
The robot works, albeit very slowly. This isn’t [Sparks and Code]’s first foray into robot lock picking.
His previous version
attempted to mimic how a human would pick a lock, so this is really thinking outside the box. | 17 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756176",
"author": "H Hack",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T12:33:34",
"content": "Also, if you don’t know the lockpicking lawyer, this is your lucky day (a la xkcd.com/1053)https://www.youtube.com/@lockpickinglawyer/videos",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,925.342778 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/05/dune-3d-open-source-3d-parametric-modeler-from-the-maker-of-horizon-eda/ | Dune 3D: Open Source 3D Parametric Modeler From The Maker Of Horizon EDA | Maya Posch | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"3D CAD",
"Dune3D",
"Horizon EDA"
] | When coming from the world of Autodesk and kin’s proprietary CAD solutions, figuring out which FOSS 3D CAD solution is the right one can be a real chore, as none of them are on the same level. This is what the author of the Horizon EDA software – [Lukas K.] – struggled with as well when he decided to make his own 3D CAD package, called
Dune 3D
. Per the
documentation
for Dune 3D, it’s effectively the solver and workflow from
SolveSpace
, the Open CASCADE geometry kernel and the user interface from Horizon EDA wrapped up into a single package.
So why not just use FreeCAD or contribute to it? [Lukas]’s main gripes appear to be the issues with the topological naming problem (TNP) in FreeCAD, as well as the modal sketcher that’s limited to 2D, with no constraints in 3D for extrusions. With the recent version 1.1 release it seems to be picking up new features and fixes, and
installing it
is very easy on Windows with an installer. For Arch there’s an AUR package, and other Linux seems to get a Flatpak if you’re not into building the software yourself.
As for the UI, it’s got a definite MacOS vibe to it, with most of the functionality hidden from the main view. Fortunately some
tutorials
are available to get you started, but it remains to be seen where Dune 3D lands compared to FreeCAD, OnShape and others. As a sidenote, the name is probably not going to help much when asking Google for answers, courtesy of a certain vaguely well-known book with associated movies and series. | 52 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756130",
"author": "mista4a",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T09:12:18",
"content": "> it remains to be seen where Dune 3D lands compared to FreeCADIt would take a large amount of conscious effort to make the former even approach the levels of flaming garbageness of freecad",
"parent_... | 1,760,371,925.431406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/risc-os-gets-an-update/ | RISC OS Gets An Update | Jenny List | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"archimedes",
"arm",
"raspberry pi",
"RiscOS"
] | There should be rejoicing among fans of the original ARM operating system this week, as
the venerable RISC OS received its version 5.30 update
. It contains up-to-date versions of the bundled software as well as for the first time, out-of-the-box WiFi support, and best of all, it can run on all Raspberry Pi models except the Pi 5. If you’ve not encountered RISC OS before, it’s the continuing development of the OS supplied with the first ARM product, the Acorn Archimedes. As such it’s a up-to-date OS but with an interface that feels like those of the early 1990s.
We like RISC OS here, indeed
we reviewed the previous version this year
, so naturally out came the Hackaday Pi 3 and an SD card to run it on. It’s as smooth and quick as it ever was, but sadly try as we might, we couldn’t get the Pi’s wireless interface to appear in the list of available network cards. This almost certainly has more to do with us than it does the OS, but it would have been nice to break free from the tether of the network cable. The included Netsurf 3.11 browser is nippy but a little limited, and just as it was during our review, sadly not capable of editing a Hackaday piece or we’d be using it to write this.
It’s great to see this operating system still under active development, and we can see that it so nearly fulfills our requirement here for a lightweight OS on the road. For those of us who used the original version, then called Arthur, it’s a glimpse of how desktop computing could, or perhaps even should, have been. | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756122",
"author": "Rob",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T08:38:40",
"content": "Make sure you have the drivers installed from herehttps://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-piThen configure the drivers in networking with a tick select DHCP save reset, it will appear on the i... | 1,760,371,925.47676 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/giving-your-kicad-pcb-repository-pretty-pictures/ | Giving Your KiCad PCB Repository Pretty Pictures | Arya Voronova | [
"PCB Hacks",
"Software Development"
] | [
"github",
"Github Actions",
"gitlab",
"KiCAD",
"kicad integration"
] | Publishing your boards on GitHub or GitLab is a must, and leads to wonderful outcomes in the hacker world. On their own, however, your board files might have the repo look a bit barren; having a picture or two in the README is the best. Making them yourself takes time – what if you could have it happen automatically? Enter kicad-render, a
GitHub
and
GitLab
integration for rendering your KiCad projects by [linalinn].
This integration makes your board pictures, top and bottom view, generated on every push into the repo – just embed two image links into your README.md. This integration is made possible thanks to the new option in KiCad 8’s
kicad-cli
– board image generation, and [linalinn]’s code makes KiCad run on GitHub/GitLab servers.
For even more bling, you can enable an option to generate a GIF that rotates your board, in the style of
that one [arturo182] demo
– in fact, this integration’s GIF code was borrowed from that script! Got a repository with many boards in one? There’s
an option
you could make work for yourself, too.
All you need to do is to follow a couple of simple steps; [linalinn] has documented both the GitHub and GitLab integration. We’ve recently talked about
KiCad integrations
in more detail, if you’re wondering what else your repository could be doing! | 25 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756086",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T02:33:44",
"content": "But before you can show a project, you have to find it…The “KiCad Project Explorer” is a little search engine to find KiCad projects (and more)https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-project-explorer/44440https:... | 1,760,371,925.737235 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/ham-radio-paddles-cost-virtually-nothing/ | Ham Radio Paddles Cost Virtually Nothing | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"ham radio",
"morse code"
] | If you don’t know Morse code, you probably think of a radio operator using a “key” to send Morse code. These were — and still are — used. They are little more than a switch built to be comfortable in your hand and spring loaded so the switch makes when you push down and breaks when you let up. Many modern operators prefer using paddles along with an electronic keyer, but paddles can be expensive. [N1JI] didn’t pay much for his, though. He took paperclips, a block of wood, and some other scrap bits and
made his own paddles
. You can see the results in the video below.
When you use a key, you are responsible for making the correct length of dits and dahs. Fast operators eventually moved to a “bug,” which is a type of paddle that lets you push one way or another to make a dash (still with your own sense of timing). However, if you push the other way, a mechanical oscillator sends a series of uniform dots for as long as you hold the paddle down.
Modern paddles tend to work with electronic “iambic” keyers. Like a bug, you push one way to make dots and the other way to make dashes. However, the dashes are also perfectly timed, and you can squeeze the paddle to make alternating dots and dashes. It takes a little practice, but it results in a more uniform code, and most people can send it faster with a “sideswiper” than with a straight key.
Don’t like radio? Use
Morse Code as your keyboard
. Want to
learn code
? It isn’t as hard as you think. | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756063",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T23:58:12",
"content": "Reminds me of my “telepgraph key” that I had built with a cake fork about ten years ago! :DBtw, to those of you looking for a nice elbug.. ETM-3 or ETM-4 used to be popular.They’re heavy (nice! doesn’t mov... | 1,760,371,925.603729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/3d-printing-in-custom-pla-with-a-tpu-core/ | 3D Printing In Custom PLA With A TPU Core | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"composite filament",
"custom filament",
"PLA",
"resizing",
"TPU"
] | [Stefan] from CNC Kitchen explored an unusual approach to a multi-material print by
making custom PLA filament with a TPU core
to make it super-tough. TPU is a flexible filament whereas PLA is hard almost to the point of being brittle. The combo results in a filament with some unusual properties, inviting some thoughts about what else is possible.
Cross-section of 3D print using white PLA with a red TPU core.
[Stefan]’s video covers a few different filament experiments, but if you’d like to see the TPU-PLA composite you can
skip ahead to 18:15
. He first creates the composite filament by printing an oversized version on a 3D printer, then re-forming it by running it through a
Recreator
to resize it down to 1.75 mm.
We have seen this technique of printing custom filaments before, which is useful to
create DIY multi-color filaments in small quantities
right on a 3D printer’s print bed with no special equipment required. This is an effective method but results in filament with a hexagonal profile, which works but isn’t really ideal. By printing his custom composite at 4 mm diameter then resizing the filament down to 1.75 mm, [Stefan] was able to improve overall printability.
That being said, TPU and PLA have very different characteristics and don’t like to adhere to one another so the process was pretty fiddly. TPU-cored PLA might be troublesome and uncooperative to make, but it can be done with some patience and fairly simple equipment.
Despite the difficulties, test prints were pretty interesting. PLA toughness was roughly doubled and under magnification one can see a lattice of TPU strands throughout the prints which are unlike anything else. Check it out in the video, embedded below. | 11 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756044",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T22:04:35",
"content": "The test used is called Charpy impact testhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charpy_impact_testAnd I’m not sure whether it’s result are very representative in this case. My first guess is that the PLA breaks f... | 1,760,371,925.859555 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/almost-making-a-camera-sensor-from-scratch/ | Almost Making A Camera Sensor From Scratch | Jenny List | [
"chemistry hacks"
] | [
"Copper Oxide",
"schottky diode",
"semiconductor"
] | On our travels round the hardware world we’ve encountered more than one group pursuing the goal of making their own silicon integrated circuits, and indeed we’ve seen [Sam Zeloof] producing some of the first practical home-made devices. But silicon is simply one of many different semiconductor materials, and it’s possible to make working semiconductor devices in a less complex lab using some of the others. As an example, [Breaking Taps] has been working with copper (II) oxide,
producing photodiodes,
and coming within touching distance of a working matrix array.
The video below the break is a comprehensive primer on simple semiconductor production and the challenges of producing copper (II) oxide rather than the lower temperature copper (I) oxide. The devices made have a Schottky junction between the semiconductor and an aluminium conductor, and after some concerns about whether the silicon substrate is part of the circuit and even some spectacular destruction of devices, he has a working photodiode with a satisfying change on the curve tracer when light is applied. The finale is an array of the devices to form a rudimentary camera sensor, but sadly due to alignment issues it’s not quite there yet. We look forward to seeing it when he solves those problems.
As we’ve seen before,
copper oxide isn’t the only semiconductor material outside the silicon envelope
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756002",
"author": "echodelta",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T18:10:31",
"content": "What about a bunch of photo diodes and a sheet of pref-board? A not quite homebrew way but good for a science fair project. You will need a big lens, save that box projection TV you find at the curb.I’v... | 1,760,371,927.412525 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/tool-building-mammals/ | Tool-Building Mammals | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"diy or buy",
"newsletter",
"probes",
"tools"
] | It’s often said of us humans that we’re the only “tool-using mammals”. While not exclusive to the hacker community, a bunch of us are also “tool-building mammals” when we have the need or get the free time. I initially wanted to try to draw some distinction between the two modes, but honestly I think all good hackers do both, all the time.
We were talking about the cool variety of test probes on the podcast, inspired by Al Williams’
piece on back probes
. Sometimes you need something that’s needle-thin and can sneak into a crimp socket, and other times you need something that can hold on like alligator clips. The infinite variety of jigs and holders that make it easier to probe tiny pins is nothing short of amazing. Some of these are made, and others bought. You do what you can, and you do what you need to.
You can learn a lot from looking at the professional gear, but you can learn just as much from looking at other hackers’ bodge jobs. In the podcast, I mentioned one of my favorite super-low-tech hacks: making a probe holder out of a pair of pliers and a rubber band to hold them closed. Lean this contraption onto the test point in question and gravity does the rest. I can’t even remember where I learned this trick from, but I honestly use it more than the nice indicator-arm contraptions that I built for the same purpose. It’s the immediacy and lack of fuss, I think.
So what’s your favorite way of putting the probe on the point? Home-made and improvised, or purpose-built and professional? Or both? Let us know!
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
! | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755969",
"author": "Reluctant Cannibal",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T14:34:13",
"content": "‘humans that we’re the only “tool-using mammals”’ …… What about the chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins, otters and beavers that use tools?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies":... | 1,760,371,927.466032 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/how-does-the-raspberry-pi-rack-up-against-a-mini-pc/ | How Does The Raspberry Pi Rack Up Against A Mini PC? | Jenny List | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"intel",
"N100",
"Pi 5"
] | When the first Raspberry Pi came out back in 2012 it was groundbreaking because it offered a usable little Linux machine with the proud boast of a $25 dollar price tag. Sure it wasn’t the fastest kid on the block, but there was almost nothing at that price which could do what it did. Three leap years later though it’s surrounded by a host of competitors with similar hardware, and its top-end model now costs several times that original list price.
Meanwhile the cost of a “real” x86 computer such as those based upon the Intel N100 has dropped to the point at which it almost matches a fully tricked-out Pi with storage and peripherals, so
does the Pi still hold its own
? [CNX Software] has taken a look.
From the examples they use, in both cases the Intel machine is a little more expensive than the Pi, but comes with the advantage of all the peripherals, cooling, and storage coming built-in rather than add-ons. They rate the Pi as having the advantage on expandability as we’d expect, but the Intel giving a better bang for the buck in performance terms. From where we’re sitting the advantage of the Pi over most of its ARM competition has always been its good OS support, something which is probably exceeded by that on an x86 platform.
So, would you buy the Intel over the high-end Pi? Let us know in the comments. | 61 | 25 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755930",
"author": "James Honey",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T11:12:29",
"content": "I bought an N100 based pc to dual boot windows and Linux. It was a nightmare. I struggled with audio over HDMI support amongst other issues. That, coupled with a lack of GPIO, I don’t think we’re quit... | 1,760,371,927.848729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/04/rog-ally-sd-card-slot-fix-shines-light-on-ptc-fuse-failure-modes/ | ROG Ally SD Card Slot Fix Shines Light On PTC Fuse Failure Modes | Arya Voronova | [
"Games",
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"fuse",
"micro sd",
"rog ally"
] | The Asus ROG Ally is a handheld that, to our pleasant surprise, has attracted a decently sized modding community. Recently, we’ve stumbled upon
a Reddit post
investigating a somewhat common failure mode of this handheld — the microSD card slot going out of order, where an inserted card fails to be recognized, pretty irritating to encounter. Now, it turns out, this is down to a certain model of PTC fuses being failure-prone.
It makes sense to fuse the SD card slot. The cards are dense pieces of technology that are subject to some wear and tear in daily use. As such, it’s not unheard of that a microSD card can short-circuit internally — heating up to the point of melting plastic and giving people severe burns. Given that such a card is typically connected to a beefy 3.3 V rail, any mass-manufactured device designer could want to put a fuse between the 3.3 V rail and the card. However, on some ROG Ally batches, a certain make of the fuse is used, that appears to be likely to develop faults: the fuse’s resistance increasing dramatically during the card’s normal operation, with the SD card being supplied subpar power as a result.
There’s a fair bit of investigating happening in the comment section, with people posting oscilloscope captures, using breakouts to tap the SD card, and figuring out the fuse part numbers for the affected models. As for Reddit’s solution, it’s short-circuiting the fuse with a piece of thin wire — we would probably source a suitable fuse and solder it on top of the faulty one.
This isn’t the first
ROG Ally modification
we’ve covered so far
, and given the activity we’re seeing, it’s unlikely to be our last. | 9 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755917",
"author": "MushiMasterGinko",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T08:45:10",
"content": "Please don’t jumper a fuse meant for protection. You can simply apply solder to both sides of the jumpered fuse. The heat or solder will reset it. Mine and others works perfectly fine now",
"... | 1,760,371,927.5064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/heres-how-that-disney-360-treadmill-works/ | Here’s How That Disney 360° Treadmill Works | Donald Papp | [
"Robots Hacks",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"omnidirectional",
"treadmill",
"vr"
] | One thing going slightly viral lately is footage of Disney’s “HoloTile” infinite floor, an experimental sort of 360° treadmill developed by [Lanny Smoot]. But how exactly does it work? Details about
that
are less common, but [Marques Brownlee] got first-hand experience with HoloTile and has
a video all about the details
.
HoloTile is a walking surface that looks like it’s made up of blueish bumps or knobs of some kind. When one walks upon the surface, it constantly works to move its occupant back to the center.
Whenever one moves, the surface works to move the user back to the center.
Each of these bumps is in fact a disk that has the ability spin one way or another, and pivot in different directions. Each disk therefore becomes a sort of tilted wheel whose edge is in contact with whatever is on its surface. By exerting fine control over each of these actuators, the control system is able to create a conveyor-belt like effect in any arbitrary direction. This can be leveraged in several different ways, including acting as a sort of infinite virtual floor.
[Marques] found the system highly responsive and capable of faster movement that many would find comfortable. When walking on it, there is a feeling of one’s body moving in an unexpected direction, but that was something he found himself getting used to. He also found that it wasn’t exactly quiet, but we suppose one can’t have everything.
How this device works has a rugged sort of elegant brute force vibe to it that we find appealing. It is also quite different in principle from
other motorized approaches
to simulate the feeling of walking while keeping the user in one place.
The whole video is embedded just below the page break, but if you’d like to jump directly to [Marques] explaining and showing exactly how the device works, you can
skip to the 2:22 mark
. | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755861",
"author": "Ryan Timothy Vasquez",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T05:18:17",
"content": "how? I would like to see schematics and motor specs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6755888",
"author": "WonkoTheSaneUK",
... | 1,760,371,927.997393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/google-removes-risc-v-support-from-android/ | Google Removes RISC-V Support From Android | Maya Posch | [
"News"
] | [
"google android",
"RISC-V"
] | Last year the introduction of RISC-V support to the Android-specific, Linux-derived Android Common Kernel (ACK) made it seem that before long Android devices might be using SoCs based around the RISC-V ISA, but it would seem that these hopes are now dashed. As
reported by Android Authority
, with a series of recently accepted patches this RISC-V support was stripped again from the ACK. While this doesn’t mean that Android cannot be made to work on RISC-V, any company interested would have to do all of the heavy lifting themselves, which might include Qualcomm with their
recently announced
RISC-V-based smartwatch Snapdragon SoC.
No reason was provided by Google for this change, and the official statement from Google to Android Authority says that Google is not ready to provide a single supported Android Generic Kernel Image (GKI), but that ‘Android will continue to support RISC-V’. This change however, removes RISC-V kernel support from the ACK, and since Google only certifies Android builds which ship with a GKI featuring an ACK, this effectively means that RISC-V is not supported at this point, and likely won’t be for the foreseeable future.
As
discussed
on Hacker News, a potential reason might be the very fragmentary nature of the RISC-V ISA, which makes a standard RISC-V kernel very complicated if you want to support more than a (barebones) profile. This is also
supported
by a RISC-V mailing list thread, where ‘expensive maintenance’ is mentioned for why Google doesn’t want to support RISC-V. | 20 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755848",
"author": "Jon Mayo",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T03:10:54",
"content": "I consider this anti-competitive behavior. As it is an intentional action designed to help Google’s partners and harm RISC-V vendors that do not have a close relationship with Google.I’m not a lawyer, an... | 1,760,371,928.053831 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/a-vernier-take-on-a-3d-printer-extruder-indicator/ | A Vernier Take On A 3D Printer Extruder Indicator | Donald Papp | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"diy",
"extruder",
"indicator",
"Vernier"
] | A common way to visualize that a 3D printer’s extruder motor — which feeds the filament into the hot end — is moving is to attach a small indicator to the exposed end of the motor’s shaft. As the shaft turns, so does the attached indicator.
Small movements of the motor are therefore turned into larger movements of something else. So far, so simple. But what about visualizing very small extrusions, such as those tiny ones made during ironing?
[Jack]’s solution is
a Vernier indicator for the extruder
. Even the smallest movements of the extruder motor’s shaft are made clearly visible by such a device, as shown in the header image above.
Vernier scales
are more commonly found on measurement tools, and the concept is somewhat loosely borrowed here.
The usual way these lightweight indicators are attached is with a small magnet, and you can
read all about them and see examples here
.
This new design is basically the same, it simply has a background in a contrasting color added into the mix. [Jack]’s design is intended for the Bambu A1 printer, but the idea can be easily adapted. Give it a look if you find yourself yearning for a bit more visibility in your extruder movements. | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755850",
"author": "KDawg",
"timestamp": "2024-05-04T03:20:33",
"content": "I just used a dot from a paint pen, and its on a idler pully driven by the filament I don’t really care that much, besides the motor is going to move whether the filament does or not.I am not really here t... | 1,760,371,927.649486 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/follow-the-red-ball-wobble-disk-roaster-to-coffee-excellence/ | Follow The Red Ball Wobble Disk Roaster To Coffee Excellence | Kristina Panos | [
"cooking hacks"
] | [
"coffee roaster",
"wobble disk",
"wobble disk roaster"
] | If you’ve never considered roasting your own coffee at home, you may be surprised to learn that it can be done in a few minutes with a regular popcorn popper and not much else. After all, you only really need two things to roast coffee: heat, and constant agitation to distribute that heat evenly. While the popcorn popper provides both, it’s easy to end up with semi-uneven roasts, probably because the beans are mostly just spinning around and not being tossed as well as they could be. Eventually, one might want a more advanced machine, and that’s where something like
[Larry Cotton]’s latest wobble disk roaster
can step in.
For starters, this machine roasts more beans than the average popcorn popper in a single throw — the maximum is 350g, or just over three-quarters of a full pound, which is way more than the average popcorn machine will hold. It essentially consists of a heat gun pointed upwards at a sieve full of green coffee beans that are being constantly pushed around by a motorized wobbling disk. As the heat blows, the large metal disk does figure eights through the beans, keeping the heat nice and even. So where does the red ball come in? It’s at the bottom, keeping the flying bean skins (chaff) from entering the heat gun’s fan motor.
Toward the end of the short video after the break, you’ll see a diagram showing all the parts of this roaster. If that’s not enough for you,
here’s a build guide for a previous wobble disk roaster
(PDF) that should be quite helpful in building either version.
If you want to see some of Larry’s previous machines,
we’ve got ’em.
And then you can let Hackaday Editor-in-Chief [Elliot Williams] tell you
all about roasting at home. | 9 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755767",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T20:13:27",
"content": "I assume an air fryer wouldn’t generate enough heat?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6755773",
"author": "Greg Taranto",
"timestam... | 1,760,371,927.933441 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/plasma-cutter-gets-cnc-treatment-at-low-cost/ | Plasma Cutter Gets CNC Treatment At Low Cost | Bryan Cockfield | [
"cnc hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"budget",
"cnc",
"modification",
"plasma cutter",
"torch",
"welding",
"yeswelder"
] | [Daniel] has been metalworking on a budget for a while now. Originally doing things like plasma cutting on old bricks, he used his original plasma cutter to make an appropriate plasma cutting table complete with a water bath which we presume was not only safer but better for his back. Since then he’s stepped up a little more with what
might be the lowest-cost CNC plasma cutter that can reliably be put together
.
The CNC machine uses a handheld plasma cutting torch as its base, which uses a blowback start mechanism making it usable in an automated CNC setup without interfering with the control electronics. This is a
common issue with other types of plasma cutters
not originally meant for CNC. The torch head only needs slight modifications to fit in a 3D printed housing designed for the CNC machine which involves little more than slightly changing the angle of the incoming copper tubing and wire and changing the location of the trigger.
With those modifications done, the tool head is ready to be mounted to the CNC machine. [Daniel] has put together a bill of materials for building the entire project for less than $400, which includes the sub-$200 plasma cutter. It’s an impressive bit of sleuthing to get the price down this low, but if you’re still using your plasma cutter by hand on bricks in the yard like [Daniel] used to do
make sure to check out that DIY plasma cutting table he built a few years ago too
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755786",
"author": "Logan Hopkins",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T20:59:19",
"content": "So I work with 10 CNC grinding machines at my part of the factory. Does someone have an answer for what CNC stands for? This question comes from my previous experience in PLC robot arms and never he... | 1,760,371,927.892419 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/my-space/ | My Space | Jenny List | [
"Featured",
"Hackerspaces",
"Slider"
] | [
"hacker culture",
"hackerspace",
"hackerspaces"
] | If I could name one thing which has been the most transformative for our community over the last couple of decades, it would have to be the proliferation of hackerspaces. Ostensibly a place which provides access to tools and machinery, these organisations have become so much more. They bring together like-minded people, and from such a meeting of minds have come a plethora of high quality projects, events, and other good things.
Just What Is A Hackerspace?
A Hacky Racer takes shape in the MK Makerspace workshop
Hackerspaces loosely come in many forms, from co-working spaces or libraries who have invested in a 3D printer and imagine themselves to be a hackerspace, through to anarchist collectives in abandoned warehouses who support their city’s alternative communities with technology. For me, hackerspaces must be community organisations rather than for-profit ones, so for the purposes of this article I’m not referring to closely-allied commercial spaces such as FabLabs.
So a good hackerspace for me is a group of tech enthusiasts who’ve come together, probably formed a non-profit association, and rented a dilapidated basement or industrial unit somewhere. The tools and machines inside aren’t shiny and new but they mostly work, and round that fridge stocked with Club-Mate you’ll find a community of friends, people who don’t think it’s odd to always want to know how things work. In a good hackerspace you’ll have found your place, and you can be much more than you would have been alone.
I visit plenty of hackerspaces across Europe as I wander the continent on an Interrail pass. I’m a member of three of them at the moment, though my main home in the UK is at Milton Keynes Makerspace. I’ve sat on recycled sofas drinking caffeinated beverages in more cities than I can count, and along the way I’ve seen close-up the many different ways a hackerspace can be run. I’ve seen spaces falling apart at the seams, I’ve seen ones a little too regimented for my taste, and others with too much of an emphasis on radical ideology, but mostly I’ve seen spaces that get it about right and I feel at home in. So perhaps it’s time to sit down and talk about what I think makes a good hackerspace. What is my space?
It’s More Than Just The Space
The bright lights of Hackerspace Gent, during NewLine 2021.
Unsurprisingly, the space itself is secondary to how good a hackerspace is, though there are some that are lucky enough to have amazing premises. In Milton Keynes we share for the moment
a large industrial unit
with an organisation which provides a social and workshop space for old guys, and while that means we have a huge workshop, it’s not that which makes the space a good one to be a member of, instead that’s the community. But even the community is a fragile entity in a hackerspace, as what works for one section may not work for another. At this point what makes a
really
good hackerspace differentiates itself from the rest, and it’s worth going into why.
The flavour of a hackerspace starts from its very beginning when a group of geeks have that first meeting in a pub somewhere, though at that point they probably don’t realise it. They face a choice as to how the space is run, whether for example it follows the consensus model, the laid-back board model, or a more direct management model. Quite a few of the first wave of European hackerspaces followed the consensus model, while more recent ones have taken a board-based approach in which the general membership get their say in choosing the board but not in how the space is run. In my experience of being a member of a consensus-based space the drama level was simply too high for my tastes, and I think that had a detrimental effect on both the community and the continuity of the space. By comparison the board-based spaces seem to be much more stable, and being a member is more enjoyable.
It’s possible then for a group of people to start a hackerspace with good governance and an active community. But they’re not finished yet, and in describing why I think that I may be about to descend into a zone which will be controversial for some. Perhaps I should start with a remark I made a few months ago to a friend in the hackerspace community; that I knew of at least four women who had been put off by their space. To be clear, the space in question is great, it’s a favourite of mine that has done all the right things to make a sustainable community that’s a joy to spend time in. It’s not even fair to point the finger at this space alone, I’m certain I could find many other great spaces with exactly the same issue. Putting it simply, the hackerspace community so often isn’t providing the environment needed to attract the people it should, and if my saying that offends you then It’s a fair guess you don’t manage your hackerspace’s membership. No space can afford to turn away members, yet that’s what many are doing. It’s the how and the why that we should be doing better as a community.
Sometimes We Don’t See Ourselves As Others Do
This was OxHack’s textile room circa 2017, temporary office for your scribe.
The question of broadening the appeal of a hackerspace has been a concern of mine ever since I walked into my first hackerspace over a decade ago. Hackerspaces can be intimidating places if you’re not one of the in crowd, and it only takes one thing to turn someone away for good. It’s easy to unwittingly form an impenetrable clique, or to have members place themselves as barriers to entry without realising it, by gatekeeping access to tools or equipment. Add to that another of the things which bind us, that many of us including me are not neurotypical, and even a well-run hackerspace can feel insensitive, alien, and downright hostile. We can definitely do better than this, and if we do so then our spaces can only become stronger.
How to tackle this probably depends to a great extent on circumstances. In some cases the equipment on offer can affect the type of people attracted. As an example
BioCurious Labs
, a makerspace for biotech in Silicon Valley, attracts a different crowd – more artists, scientists, and other bright, curious people from a wider array of backgrounds than the more usual technology-focused hackerspace. The best approach to this problem I’ve seen for myself came from an unexpected angle, in starting a textile operation. This wasn’t through some old-fashioned notion that women sew, but to attract members who would normally never consider a hackerspace, namely those mostly older women who
do
knit or sew. The aim of their presence was to subtly change the atmosphere to the extent that prospective members such as those women who found themselves put off would find it more welcoming. My first hackerspace in Oxford did this with some success, and I am very pleased to have seen it spontaneously happening in MK, too.
So given the above, what is my space? It’s one where the running of the space doesn’t get in the way of being a member, and the atmosphere doesn’t put me off being a member in the first place. My space where I’m from in the UK is
Milton Keynes Makerspace
, and when I’m not on my travels around Europe, it’s home. I’ll put the kettle on. | 29 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755737",
"author": "Saint Aardvark the cCarpeted",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T17:33:32",
"content": "Well put!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6755745",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T18:03:48",
"content": ... | 1,760,371,927.582871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/hackaday-podcast-episode-269-3d-printed-flexure-whegs-el-cheapo-bullet-time-and-a-diy-cell-phone-sniffer/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 269: 3D Printed Flexure Whegs, El Cheapo Bullet Time, And A DIY Cell Phone Sniffer | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | This week, it was Kristina’s turn in the hot seat with Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams. First up in the news —
the results are in for the 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation contest!
First and second place went to some really gnarly, well-documented hacks, and third went to the cutest pill-dispensing robot you’ll probably see before you hit the retirement home. Which was your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
Kristina’s lil’ wallet of extender probes, courtesy of Radio Shack.
Then it’s on to What’s That Sound. Kristina failed once again, but you will probably fare differently. Can you get it? Can you figure it out? Can you guess what’s making that sound? If you can, and your number comes up, you get a special Hackaday Podcast t-shirt.
Then it’s on to the hacks, beginning with a DIY cell phone sniffer and a pen that changed the world. Then we talk bullet time on a budget, the beautiful marriage of 3D printing and LEGO, and, oh yes, flexure whegs. Finally, we get the lowdown on extender probes, and posit why it’s hard to set up time zones on the Moon, relatively speaking.
Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Download and savor at your leisure
.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 269 Show Notes:
News:
2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: The Winners Are In
What’s that Sound?
Fill out this form with your best guess
, and you might win!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Turn Your Qualcomm Phone Or Modem Into Cellular Sniffer
This Is How A Pen Changed The World
Possibly The Cheapest Way To Film In Bullet Time
Bullet Time On A Budget With The Raspberry Pi
In A Way, 3D Scanning Is Over A Century Old
3D-Printed Macro Pad Plate Is LEGO-Compatible
3D Printed Wheels Passively Transform To Climb Obstacles
PaTS-Wheel by Khoopr – Thingiverse
Build An Amphibious Robot Using Pool Noodles For Wheels
2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: Spray Bottle Turret Silences Barking
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
Singleboard: Alpha Is A Very Stylish Computer On A Single PCB
Tiny Arduino Drone Even Has An FPV Camera
Simplest Speaker Oscillator, Now Even Simpler
Tiny Prisms Let You See What Lies Beneath A BGA Chip
Kristina’s Picks:
T3rminal Cyberdeck Has Looks To Die For
Building A Mechanical Keyboard As A Learning Project
Hack In Style With This Fallout Cyberdeck
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Upgrade Your Test Probes
NASA Is Now Tasked With Developing A Lunar Time Standard, Relativity Or Not
How Does Time Work On The Moon? | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756093",
"author": "Taper",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T05:09:45",
"content": "I have two of those Radio Shack probe tip wallets; I think I got one in the big going out of business sales, but the first I got when they still seemed like they were a business. The alligator clip and plu... | 1,760,371,928.096817 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/put-more-korry-in-your-flight-sim-switches/ | Put More Korry In Your Flight Sim Switches | Dan Maloney | [
"LED Hacks",
"Parts"
] | [
"annunciator",
"cockpit",
"flight simulator",
"indicator light"
] | Never underestimate how far some flight simulator aficionados will go with their builds. No detail is too small, and every aspect of the look and feel has to accurately reflect the real cockpit. As a case in point, check out
these very realistic Korry buttons
that [Santi Luib III] built for an Airbus A320 simulator.
Now, you might never have heard of a “Korry button” before, but chances are you’ve seen them, at least in photos of commercial or military aircraft cockpits.
Korry
is a manufacturer of switches and annunciators for the avionics industry, and the name has become shorthand for similar switches. They’ve got a very particular look and feel and are built to extremely high standards, as one hopes that anything going into a plane would be. That makes the real switches very expensive, far more so than even the most dedicated homebrew sim builder would be comfortable with.
That’s where [Santi] comes in. His replica Korry buttons are built from off-the-shelf parts like LEDs and switches mounted to custom PCBs. The PCB was designed for either momentary or latching switches, and can support multiple LEDs in different colors. The assembled PCBs snap into 3D printed enclosures with dividers to keep light from bleeding through from one legend to the other.
The lenses are laser-cut translucent acrylic painted with urethane paint before the legends are engraved with a laser. The attention to detail on the labels is impressive. [Santi]’s process, which includes multiple coats of sealers, gets them looking just right. Even the LEDs are carefully selected: blue LEDs are too bright and aren’t
quite
the proper shade, so [Santi] uses white LEDs that are dimmed down with a bigger resistor and a light blue photographic gel to get the tint just right.
These buttons are just beautiful, and seeing a panel full of them with the proper back-lighting must be pretty thrilling. If civil aviation isn’t your thing, check out
this A-10 “Warthog” cockpit sim
, and
the cool switches
needed to make it just right.
Thanks to [mip] for the tip. | 20 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755719",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T15:39:50",
"content": "“No detail is too small, and every aspect of the look and feel has to accurately reflect the real cockpit.”Bumpable controls.https://uk.news.yahoo.com/boeing-787-nosedive-caused-flight-223200715.html",
... | 1,760,371,928.315328 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/this-week-in-security-default-passwords-lock-slapping-and-mastodown/ | This Week In Security: Default Passwords, Lock Slapping, And Mastodown | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"fuzzing",
"linux",
"lockpickinglawyer",
"This Week in Security"
] | The UK has the answer to all our IoT problems:
banning bad default passwords
. Additionally, the new UK law requires device makers to provide contact info for vulnerability disclosures, as well as a requirement to advertise vulnerability fix schedules. Is this going to help the security of routers, cameras, and other devices? Maybe a bit.
I would argue that default passwords are in themselves the problem, and complexity requirements only nominally help security. Why? Because a good default password becomes worthless once the password, or algorithm leaks. Let’s lay out some scenarios here. First is the static default password. Manufacturer X makes device Y, and sets the devices to username/password
admin
/
new_Complex_P@ssword1!
. Those credentials make it onto a default password list, and any extra security is lost.
What about those devices that have a different, random-looking password for each device? Those use
an algorithm to derive that password from the MAC address and/or serial number
. That may help the situation, but the algorithm can be retrieved from the firmware, and most serial numbers are predictable in one way or another. This approach is better, but not a silver bullet.
So what would a real solution to the password problem look like? How about no default password at all, but no device functionality until the new password passes a
cracklib
complexity and uniqueness check. I have seen a few devices that do exactly this. The requirement for a disclosure address is a great idea, which we’ve talked about before regarding the similar EU legislation.
Lock Vulnerabilities
Vulnerabilities and bypasses aren’t unique to software. They are, however, much harder to patch in hardware. Take for instance, the
Mul-T-Lock SBNE12
padlock. This lock really looks like it was carefully made to be secure. If you’re not familiar with [LockPickingLawyer]’s videos, the two minutes it takes him to pick this lock is a ringing endorsement. However, the lock does have a weakness, and LPL challenges us to figure it out. I’ll give you a hint, that the problem can be seen during the lock teardown at 2:25. See below the video for the explanation.
The problem here
is demonstrated by [Trevor], AKA @McNallyOfficial
. It’s the springs. The retainer pin is also the lock pin, and that pin is held in place by a pair of springs. The lock is probably designed such that you can lock the shackle without the key, and that means that there is enough play in those springs to slip the pin over the locking lip. Just a good smack in the right place uses the inertia of the locking pin to compress the springs and slip the shackle. It’s a bit disconcerting how many locks can be opened this way.
Fuzzing!
First up we have
a walk-through to setting up a function fuzzing run with American Fuzzy Loop (AFL)
. First let’s cover *why* you might want to do this. We’re looking for vulnerabilities, and the scenario [Craig Young] lays out is one where we have a binary listening for HTTP calls on port 8080, and using some internal code to parse the request bodies. We want to throw a bunch of weird data at that parser to see how it breaks, and using real HTTP requests is way too slow when compared to direct function calls.
AFL is quite clever about its approach, particularly when you run it with “instrumentation”, or injected code that tracks what target code is being run in response to the AFL input. This allows AFL to track what fuzzing input resulted in exercising new target code paths. (It did something new, make a note!) That only works when re-compiling a program from source. The approach to use with a pre-compiled binary is to run it under QEMU so AFL can spy on execution. And in this case, that executable into a shared library to get to the target function directly.
To make that bit of magic work, the Library to Instrument Executable Files (LIEF) is used. When given the function address, this spits out a cooked shared object
.so
file. The actual harness is a bit of trivial code to call into that function and capture the output. And with that, you can start throwing interesting fuzz data at compiled code.
Fuzzing the Kernel
The Linux kernel has support for NVMe-oF, or Non-Volatile Memory express over Fabric, a high speed data storage link that can run over fiber, Ethernet, or simple TCP. That TCP support is interesting, as it means the kernel itself is opening INET sockets directly, which is why
[Alon Zahavi] found it a juicy target for finding vulnerabilities
. Because we’re talking the kernel, we can’t just trivially connect AFL like above. Thankfully there’s a fuzzer that’s written specifically for kernel fuzzing:
syzkaller
.
This one is a bit more complicated, and code has to be added for each subsystem that is supported. But NVME-oF is a supported module. The kernel also has the KCOV subsystem, for collecting coverage data during a run. It took quite a bit of work to add all the necessary bits, but [Alon] but the time in, and came up with 5 nice bug finds in the targeted code. Nice!
Water Hacking
We’ve looked at reported hacks against water treatment plants in the past, and so far there has been lots of splash, and very little substance. That hasn’t kept government agencies from
beating the proverbial wardrum
about attacks. That said, there is a lot of room for improvement in how these critical systems are secured. Apparently there was one actual breach that caused a tank to overflow, and a second attempt, where
37,000 credential were stuffed into a public-facing firewall
over a span of about four days. If our critical systems actually have Internet-facing login pages, then something has truly gone wrong in a fundamental way.
Windows Registry Continued
The ongoing dive into the Windows registry
continues over at Google Project Zero
. This time with a blast from the past: The registry as it was in Windows 3.1. Way back then it was strictly for file type handling and OLE and COM object handling. Then Windows NT came along with NT 3.1, and started stuffing more and more setting data into the registry. Today, we’re at a crazy 100,000 lines of registry code in the Windows kernel. It’s no wonder this struck Project Zero as a good place to look for Windows vulnerabilities.
Mastodown
We got a bit of a chuckle out of this one, as
the folks at It’s FOSS are asking readers not to share links to itsfoss.com stories on Mastodon
. Why? Because apparently posting a link to Mastodon triggers a micro-DDOS, as each of the federated Mastodon instances pull a copy of the linked site, to generate a preview. The Mastodon code currently uses a random delay of up to 60 seconds to mitigate the issue. But for some sites that’s just not enough, and the traffic spike from multiple servers pulling a preview copy can be enough to take the site temporarily offline.
A
bit of research was done back in 2022
, which found that a moderately well-connected Mastodon server would generate just shy of 400 page loads per minute, when a link was shared. It’s likely those numbers are higher now, but still unlikely to be the sort of volume that a post going viral on a link aggregator would generate. Put another way, this seems to be a smaller problem than the classic “Slashdot Effect”.
So on one hand, it would be nice if the Mastodon project could puzzle out a way to keep every federated server from having to pull an independent copy of the site just to generate a preview. But on the other hand, a site that is actively trying to attract attention and visitors needs to be big enough to handle this level of traffic. But for now, at least for “It’s FOSS”, if you want to post a link to Mastodon, please Mastodon’t.
[Editor’s note: Hackaday has a pretty robust CDN. Toot away!]
Bits and Bytes
Hopefully you’re aware that there are malicious images on Docker Hub. Some images mine cryptocurrency in the background, while others try to steal credentials.
Researchers at Jfrog have found a class of repositories that plant malicious links
in their descriptions. From phishing, to malware, to straight up spam, these repositories are a real pain, and make up nearly 20% of the Docker Hub library. That apparently doesn’t even include the cryptocurrency miners. Oof. It’s probably a good idea to stick to the “Trusted Content” section of Docker Hub.
Nettitude Labs got their hands on a Cisco C195 email security appliance, and
went through the steps to make it fully their own
. That includes BIOS modification to run arbitrary code, finding a command injection attack in the Cisco firmware, building a full exploit, and finally running Doom on the box. It’s an epic hack and a great write-up.
And finally,
HPE Aruba has published fixes for four critical vulnerabilities
that allow unauthorized attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected devices. In a refreshing turn of events, these aren’t being used in-the-wild, and there hasn’t been any public Proof-of-concept code published yet.
The HPE advisory
has a few more details. As always, expect these to eventually get exploited in the wild. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755703",
"author": "limroh",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T14:23:54",
"content": "> Just a good smack in the right place uses the inertia of the locking pin to compress the springs and slip the shackle.“just” put another mechanism in the lock where when the shackle is lowered into the l... | 1,760,371,928.258871 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/dual-screen-mod-for-the-rog-ally-handheld/ | Dual-Screen Mod For The ROG Ally Handheld | Arya Voronova | [
"handhelds hacks"
] | [
"gaming console",
"handheld gaming console",
"rog ally",
"screen upgrade"
] | In our continuing coverage of the ROG Ally modding community, we would be amiss to not mention a seriously impressive mod — a
dual screen project for the x86 gaming handheld by [YesItsKira]
! Single screen devices can feel cramped, and this mod is a prime example of a dedicated hacker taking things into her own hands. In particular, the mechanics of this mod are done wonderfully, thanks to a custom-designed 3D printed Ally back cover.
The second screen connects through a USB-C port, held above the main screen by a sturdy printed hinge at whatever angle you want it. As a pleasant surprise, it’s also touch-enabled! The mod is fully open source and well documented — everything you need to print is
published on Thingiverse,
a detailed assembly guide with pictures is on GitHub, and
the BOM
is at the bottom of the guide.
Apart from printed parts, you only need a few things off Amazon, it’s that easy to source. Electronics-wise, this mod uses a Raspberry Pi-suited HDMI screen, wiring it up through an integrated USB-C dock; which means you can still charge your handheld while using the dual-screen solution!
Interested in modifications for your ROG Ally, but not quite ready to bolt on a second display? Check out this
phenomenally documented battery upgrade from an iFixit staffer
that we recently covered. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755678",
"author": "Jan",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T11:17:44",
"content": "“Single screen devices can feel cramped…”That sentence made me smile. As a kid of the 80’s I am pleased and amazed with everything that has a build in screen bigger then 320×200 and weighs less then 10kg. Now... | 1,760,371,928.364094 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/03/mudlink-is-making-uart-data-links-more-reliable/ | MUDLink Is Making UART Data Links More Reliable | Lewin Day | [
"Software Hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"serial",
"uart"
] | Many of us have used UARTs to spit data from one system or chip to another. Normally, for quick and dirty maker projects, this is good enough. However, you’ll always get the odd dropped transmission or glitch that can throw a spanner in the works if you’re not careful. [Jake Read] decided to work on a system that could use UARTs while being far more reliable.
Enter MUDLink.
MUDLink is a library that works with an Arduino’s UART port and stacks on a bit of protocol to clean things up. It uses a packetized method of sending data to ensure that transmissions are received reliably as intended by the sender. Packets are framed using a method called Consistent Overhead Byte Stuffing, which is a nice lightweight way of doing so. The system also uses CRC16-CCITT as an error checking mechanism. There’s also an ack-and-retransmit system for ensuring any dropped transmissions are repeated and received successfully.
If you need reliable UART transmissions without too much overhead, you might want to look at what Jake is doing.
It’s a topic we’ve looked at before, too
. | 20 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755660",
"author": "First",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T09:25:35",
"content": "@Lewin Day“Video after the break.” – A copy past error?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6755704",
"author": "Al Williams",
"timestamp... | 1,760,371,928.214081 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/diyotaku-gives-old-devices-a-new-life/ | [DiyOtaku] Gives Old Devices A New Life | Arya Voronova | [
"handhelds hacks",
"Nintendo DS Hacks",
"Nintendo Hacks",
"Phone Hacks",
"Playstation Hacks",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"Nintendo DS",
"restoration"
] | Sometimes we get sent a tip that isn’t just a single article or video, but an entire blog or YouTube channel. Today’s
channel, [Diy Otaku],
is absolutely worth a watch if you want someone see giving a second life to legendary handheld devices, and our creator has been going at it for a while. A common theme in most of the videos so far – taking an old phone or a weathered gaming console, and improving upon them in a meaningful way, whether it’s lovingly restoring them, turning them into a gaming console for your off days, upgrading the battery, or repairing a common fault.
The hacks here are as detailed as they are respectful to the technology they work on. The recent video about
putting a laptop touchpad into a game controller,
for instance, has the creator caringly replace the controller’s epoxy blob heart with a Pro Micro while preserving the original board for all its graphite-covered pads. The touchpad is the same used in an earlier video to
restore a GPD Micro PC
with a broken touchpad, a device that you can see our hacker use in a later video running FreeCAD, helping them design a 18650 battery shell for a
PSP about to receive a 6000 mAh battery upgrade.
These are the kinds of rebuilds you do to devices you value, and this is only reinforced by restoration videos peppered into the list. This
Nintendo DS Lite restoration video
is half an hour of [DiyOtaku] taking care of an old legendary handheld, with complete disassembly, cleaning the shell with a toothbrush, and then complete reassembly while not missing a single screw. Here’s a video on
restoring a Nokia N73,
and the next video is about
giving it a USB-C charging port
, so you’re not bound by old proprietary charger cabling – the kind of mod you would do for a device that matters to you.
The more we look into this channel, the more it keeps giving, and the level of care put into these devices is heartwarming. If you’re always looking for more videos to play as you solder your latest projects together, this channel is undoubtedly an underappreciated highlight, rarely breaking thousand views, but going on strong nevertheless. If devices getting a second life is what keeps you going, check out a near-hundred articles we have
filed away under ‘restoration’
. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755687",
"author": "Gordon M Shephard",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T12:07:36",
"content": "While I applaud any effort to reduce the electronic waste stream, the emphasis on gaming (here and elsewhere) makes me wonder if we aren’t already in Wall-E’s world.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,928.637765 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/dont-object-to-python-objects/ | Don’t Object To Python Objects | Al Williams | [
"Software Development"
] | [
"object oriented",
"python"
] | There’s the old joke about 10 kinds of programmers, but the truth is when it comes to programming, there are often people who make tools and people who use tools. The Arduino system is a good example of this. Most people use it like a C compiler. However, it really uses C++, and if you want to provide “things” to the tool users, you need to create objects. For example, when you put Serial in a program, you use an object someone else wrote. Python — and things like Micropython — have the same kind of division. Python started as a scripting language, but it has added object features, allowing a rich set of tools for scripters to use. [Damilola Oladele] shows the ins and outs of
object-oriented Python
in a recent post.
Like other languages, Python allows you to organize functions and data into classes and then create instances that belong to that class. Class hierarchies are handy for reusing code, customizing behavior, and — through polymorphism — building device driver-like architectures.
For example, you might build a class for temperature sensors and then create specialized subclasses for different specific sensors. The code to convert the sensor reading to degrees would live in each subclass. However, common code, such as getting an average of several samples, could be used in the main class. Even more importantly, any part of your code that needs a temperature sensor will just deal with the main class and won’t care what kind of sensor is actually in use except, of course, when you instantiate the sensor.
Python’s implementation of object orientation does have a few quirks. For example, if you create a class variable, it can be read from a subclass without specifying scope like you’d expect. But if you try to write to it from a subclass, you create a new variable for that particular subclass, which then hides the parent class version.
Still, objects can make your tools and libraries much more reusable, and Python makes it relatively easy compared to some other languages. If you want to see how objects can improve common constructs
like state tables
, you’ll have to read a different language. If you want to see an admittedly hairy Python example, check out VectorOS, the operating system for the
2023 Hackaday Supercon badge
. | 24 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755603",
"author": "CMH62",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T03:05:40",
"content": "I object to objects being an object in that title! 😆",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6755604",
"author": "Al Williams",
"timestamp": "2024-05... | 1,760,371,928.779729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/start-your-creepy-jack-o-lantern-project-early-this-year-with-gourdan/ | Start Your Creepy Jack-O-Lantern Project Early This Year With Gourdan | Lewin Day | [
"Holiday Hacks"
] | [
"animated",
"eyes",
"following eyes",
"halloween",
"holiday hacks",
"jack-o-lanterns"
] | For a lot of us, projects take time, and they have to be squeezed in around the regular chores of real life. Thus, if you’re starting your Halloween builds
after
the holiday displays have already hit the stores, you’re probably too late. We’re here to implore you to start building early this year—and you can take inspiration
from a great pumpkin called Gourdan.
Gourdan is the work of [Braden Sunwold]. It’s a pumpkin with a fearsome visage and creepy eyes that follow you around the room. This is achieved thanks to a Raspberry Pi 3 nestled within Gourdan’s gourdy body. Gourdan’s eyes are a pair of 1.54-inch LCDs which display animated eyes. Thus, no mechanical wizardry is required here—it’s all done digitally. A camera attached to the Raspberry Pi tracks people with the aid of OpenCV, and the eyes are created and animated with the help of
Adafruit example code.
There’s never a better time to start hacking for Halloween than right now. And hey, who knows—your neighbour might have kicked off in January, so they’ll have an almighty head start. They could have something really impressive in the works!
And don’t forget—you can always send us your holiday hacks, whatever the time of year! Just hit up the
tipsline
. Happy making! | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755769",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-05-03T20:15:32",
"content": "Might be something they show on the Vegas Sphere.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,371,928.673206 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/bypass-poe-and-power-your-starlink-terminal-directly/ | Bypass PoE And Power Your Starlink Terminal Directly | Arya Voronova | [
"how-to",
"Reverse Engineering"
] | [
"PoE",
"psu hack",
"Starlink"
] | Sometimes, you will want to power a device in a way it wasn’t designed for, and you might find that the device in question is way too tailored to the original power source. Today, [Oleg Kutkov] is here to
give us a master class
on excising unnecessary power conversion out of your devices, with the Starlink terminal as an example. This device can only be officially powered from 48V PoE, but can technically work from about 12V – and, turns out, many people want to mount a Starlink terminal to their cars.
[Oleg] shows us the power circuit of the Starlink terminal, explaining which component is responsible for what, and gives us a block diagram. Then, he shows you the 12V rail that all internal components actually draw power from, and where to feed power into it. Plus, he warns you about possible caveats, like having to disable the builtin 12V regulator to prevent it from backfeeding-induced damage. If you’re looking to modify a similar device, this tutorial gives you heaps of insight on what you might need on your foray.
Thinking to modify your own Starlink terminal, perhaps, and wondering about the power consumption? [Oleg] has current consumption graphs for you, collected with a data logger for Uni-T UT800
of his own design,
providing detailed figures on just how much energy you ought to supply to power the terminal from 12V, and where to (not) get it. After all, even a seemingly suitable power supply
might not do. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755564",
"author": "Jason",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T22:15:32",
"content": "How many years have costumers been asking for a vehicle solution from starlink?Right now seems that with the version 3 residential kit you can actually buy an off the shelf power supply to feed the router b... | 1,760,371,928.598202 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/cute-solar-power-gauge-brightens-the-day/ | Cute Solar Power Gauge Brightens The Day | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"esp32c3",
"h-bridge",
"solar",
"solar gauge",
"solar monitoring",
"stepper"
] | What’s the first thing you want after installing solar? All the sunshine you can get, of course. Especially if you did it in the wintertime. And what would be more fun than monitoring your power generation, especially leading up to the equinox, or start of spring? Probably not much, especially if you built
a cute solar power gauge
like [Ben] did to keep him from obsessively checking his phone.
At the heart of this build is the affordable Seeed Xiao ESP32C3, which controls an equally cost-effective automotive stepper via an L293D H-bridge driver. Then it was just a matter of hooking it into Home Assistant. As power is generated by the solar system, the cute little sun on the gauge rises and shows the kilowattage gained.
Unfortunately there’s no real data sheet for the stepper, so [Ben] opted to use the 5 V from the USB that’s powering the ESP32. However, it seems like this might not be enough power because the gauge appears to drift a bit. To fix this, [Ben] runs the
stepper_init
script twice a day, which cranks the dials all the way forward then all the way backward before settling on the last known value.
Are you interested in solar?
Here’s how you can build a small power system. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755538",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T20:06:50",
"content": "Those steppers do not need an H-bridge. They can be driven directly from microcontroller GPIO pins. Or there is a custom driver chip if you must. In regards to documentation, there is quite a lot out there... | 1,760,371,928.962358 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/3d-printed-wheels-passively-transform-to-climb-obstacles/ | 3D Printed Wheels Passively Transform To Climb Obstacles | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"robot",
"wheel",
"wheg"
] | Wheels do a great job at rolling over all kinds of terrain, particularly if you pair them with compliant tires. However, they’re not perfect, and can get stumbled by things like large vertical steps. Enter the PaTS-Wheel — a compliant mechanism
that can tackle such obstacles with ease.
The PaTS-Wheel takes advantage of printable flexural hinges. Under regular conditions, it exists as a simple round wheel. However, when presented with a step obstacle, its individual segments can bend and flex to grab on to the step and hoist the vehicle up. It all happens passively as a result of the wheel’s structure, no actuators or control system are needed to achieve this action.
The video below does a great job of explaining the concept in raw engineering terms, as well as showing it in action. If you really want to drill down though, dive into the research paper. The design outperformed smooth wheels and whegs in climbing ability, and was able to match smooth wheels in simple tests of flat ground power consumption. The results are very impressive.
We’ve seen other transforming wheels before,
like these wheg-like constructions
, but nothing so passive and elegant as these. Video after the break. | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755465",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T16:08:51",
"content": "I’d had a similar thought a while ago, nice to see it tested, and in this case it working better than I’d expected it to.Though I do wonder if it will really prove fit for much use in the real world – a... | 1,760,371,928.719146 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/nasa-is-now-tasked-with-developing-a-lunar-time-standard-relativity-or-not/ | NASA Is Now Tasked With Developing A Lunar Time Standard, Relativity Or Not | Lewin Day | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Original Art",
"Slider"
] | [
"coordinated lunar time",
"ltc",
"lunar",
"lunar time",
"moon",
"nasa",
"The Moon"
] | A little while ago, we talked about the concept of timezones and the Moon. It’s a complicated issue, because on Earth, time is all about the Sun and our local relationship with it. The Moon and the Sun have their own weird thing going on, so time there doesn’t really line up well with our terrestrial conception of it.
Nevertheless, as humanity gets serious about doing Moon things again, the issue needs to be solved. To that end, NASA has now
officially been tasked with setting up Moon time
– just a few short weeks after we
last talked about it
! (Does the President read Hackaday?) Only problem is, physics is going to make it a damn sight more complicated!
Relatively Speaking
You know it’s serious when the White House sends you a memo. “Tell NASA to invent lunar time, and get off their fannies!”
The problem is all down to general and special relativity. The Moon is in motion relative to Earth, and it also has a lower gravitational pull. We won’t get into the physics here, but it basically means that time literally moves at a different pace up there. Time on the Moon passes on average 58.7 microseconds faster over a 24 hour Earth day. It’s not constant, either—there is a certain degree of periodic variation involved.
It’s a tiny difference, but it’s cumulative over time. Plus, as it is, many space and navigational applications need the utmost in precise timing to function, so it’s not something NASA can ignore. Even if the agency just wanted to just use UTC and call it good, the relativity problem would prevent that from being a workable solution.
Without a reliable and stable timebase, space agencies like NASA would struggle to establish useful infrastructure on the Moon. Things like lunar satellite navigation wouldn’t work accurately without taking into account the time slip, for example. GPS is highly sensitive to relativistic time effects, and indeed relies upon them to function. Replicating it on the Moon is only possible if these factors are accounted for. Looking even further ahead, things like lunar commerce or secure communication would be difficult to manage reliably without stable timebases for equipment involved.
Banks of atomic clocks—like these at the US Naval Observatory—are used to establish high-quality time standards. Similar equipment may need to be placed on the Moon to establish Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC). Credit:
public domain
Still, the order to find a solution has come down
from the top.
A memo from the Executive Office of the President charged NASA with its task to deliver a standard solution for lunar timing by December 31, 2026. Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) must be established and in a way that is traceable to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). That will enable operators on Earth to synchronize operations with crews or unmanned systems on the Moon itself. LTC is required to be accurate enough for scientific and navigational purposes, and it must be resilient to any loss of contact with systems back on Earth.
It’s also desired that the future LTC standard will be extensible and scalable to space environments we may explore in future beyond the Earth-Moon system itself. In time, NASA may find it necessary to establish time standards for other celestial bodies, due to their own unique differences in relative velocity and gravitational field.
The deadline means there’s time for NASA to come up with a plan to tackle the problem. However, for a federal agency, less than two years is not exactly a lengthy time frame. It’s likely that whatever NASA comes up with will involve some kind of timekeeping equipment deployed on the Moon itself. This equipment would thus be subject to the time shift relative to Earth, making it easier to track differences in time between the lunar and terrestrial time-realities.
The US Naval Observatory doesn’t just keep careful track of time, it displays it on a big LED display for people in the area. NASA probably doesn’t need to establish a big time billboard on the Moon, but it’d be cool if they did. Credit:
Votpuske, CC BY 4.0
Great minds are already working on the problem, like Kevin Coggins, NASA’s space communications and navigation chief. “Think of the atomic clocks at the U.S. Naval Observatory—they’re the heartbeat of the nation, synchronizing everything,” he said in an interview. “You’re going to want a heartbeat on the moon.”
For now, establishing CLT remains a project for the American space agency. It will work on the project in partnership with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State and Transportation. One fears for the public servants required to coordinate meetings amongst all those departments.
Establishing new time standards isn’t cheap. It requires smart minds, plenty of research and development, and some serious equipment. Space-rated atomic clocks don’t come cheap, either. Regardless, the U.S. government hopes that NASA will lead the way for all spacefaring nations in this regard, setting a lunar time standard that can serve future operations well. | 82 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755406",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T14:12:48",
"content": "Such a simple concept spirals into such complicated (necessary) ways to get solved. This is what is beautiful about science, it is not always in front of our eyes, it is not always intuitive.",
... | 1,760,371,929.229563 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/1-tinyml-board-for-your-ai-sensor-swarm/ | $1 TinyML Board For Your “AI” Sensor Swarm | Arya Voronova | [
"Machine Learning",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"machine learning",
"neural network"
] | You might be under the impression that machine learning costs thousands of dollars to work with. That might be true in many cases, but there’s more to machine learning than you might think. For instance, what if you could shower anything with a network of cheap machine-learning-enabled sensors? The
1 dollar TinyML project
by [Jon Nordby] allows you to do just that. These tiny boards host an STM32-like MCU, a BLE module, lithium ion power circuitry, and some nice sensor options — an accelerometer, a pair of microphones, and a light sensor.
What could you do with these sensors? [Jon]
has talked a bit
about a few commercial and non-commercial applications he’s worked on in his ML career, and tells us that the accelerometer alone lets you do human presence detection, sleep tracking, personal activity monitoring, or vibration pattern sensing, for a start. As for the sound input, there’s tasks ranging from gunshot or clapping detection, to coffee roasting process tracking, voice and speech detection, and surely much more. Just a few years ago, we’ve seen machine learning used to
comfort a barking dog while its owner is away.
Bottom line is, you ought to get a few of these in your hands and start playing with ML. You still might need a bit of beefier hardware to train your code, but it gets that much easier once you have a network of sensors waiting for your command. Plus, since it’s an open source project, you’ll have a much easier time adding on any additional capabilities your particular application might need.
These boards are pretty cost-optimized,
which makes it possible for you to order a couple dozen without breaking the bank. The $1 target is BOM cost, especially if you opt to not include one of the pricier sensors. You can assemble these boards yourself, or get them assembled at a fab of your choice for barely a cost increase. As for software, they will work with
the emlearn framework.
Everything is on GitHub
— from KiCad sources to Jupyter notebooks. As for Hackaday.io, there are five worklogs of impressive insight — the microphone worklog alone will
teach you about microphone amplification
in low-power conditions while keeping the cost low. Not as price-constrained and want to try on some image processing tasks? Here’s a beautiful
Pi Pico ArduCam board
with a camera and a TFT screen. | 23 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755378",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T12:07:49",
"content": "US$1 in BOM with a STM32 and BLE? hardly believe it. Nevertheless, neat project, might give it a try.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "675538... | 1,760,371,929.027468 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/building-a-mechanical-keyboard-as-a-learning-project/ | Building A Mechanical Keyboard As A Learning Project | Lewin Day | [
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"keyboard",
"mechanical keyboard",
"peripherals",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | [Thomas Rinsma] wanted to learn about designing PCBs. Thus, he set about a nifty project that would both teach him those lessons and net him something useful in the process.
The result was kb1, a mechanical keyboard of his own design!
You might think [Thomas] would have started with a basic, barebones design, but he didn’t shy away from including some neat features. His keyboard has a “tenkeyless” layout, and uses Cherry MX-style switches, as has become the norm in the mechanical keyboard world. It has a 16×2 LCD display for user feedback, a rotary encoder, and it even has an RGB backlight for every key thanks to SK6812 addressable LEDs. Running the show is a Raspberry Pi Pico, equipped with the
KMK firmware.
The board actually uses twin PCBs as the enclosure, which is a nifty trick.
It’s remarkably fully featured for a first time build. | 2 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755362",
"author": "Cheese Whiz",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T11:19:39",
"content": "That’s a nice-looking build, cheers!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6755367",
"author": "Rudy vK",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T11:33:25",
... | 1,760,371,929.30727 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/t3rminal-cyberdeck-has-looks-to-die-for/ | T3rminal Cyberdeck Has Looks To Die For | Kristina Panos | [
"Cyberdecks",
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"18650 battery",
"18650 cell",
"cyberdeck",
"pisugar",
"raspberry pi"
] | One of the greatest things about the hacker ecosystem is that whole standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants thing. Somebody makes something and shares it, and then someone else takes that thing and remixes it, sometimes making it objectively better. For their
T3rminal cyberdeck
, [calebholloway08] was inspired by a number of projects and came up with something that looks simply fantastic.
Whether you want to call this beauty a cyberdeck or a mobile PC, the guts are what you might expect — a Raspberry Pi 4, an affordable mini keyboard, and a touch screen. But this one took some doing, as in [calebholloway08] had to do
a little bit of surgery on the Pi 4
, the PiSugar S plus power supply platform, and the display. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from standing on the shoulders of giants, as [calebholloway08] provides (or guides you towards) clear instructions for all three mods.
One thing [calebhollway08] would have done differently was to use something other than a 18650 battery for power, like a 21700. The question is, what will you do differently?
Maybe this is a little too small for you. If so,
check out this EMP-protected cyberdeck. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755370",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T11:43:54",
"content": "Really love the way they made the case look, simple but it gives it a bit of style, and will help it stand out if (or more likely) when it gets buried in the in the charging pile on the corner of the de... | 1,760,371,929.270793 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/a-primer-on-optical-storage-data-preservation/ | A Primer On Optical Storage Data Preservation | Arya Voronova | [
"Reviews"
] | [
"cd",
"data preservation",
"dvd"
] | Picking a storage medium for data preservation can be a conflicting time. Sure, they say optical storage tends to last, but it can’t be as straightforward as just burning everything onto Blu-Rays, right?
Here’s a paper from Canadian Conservation Institute,
teaching you the basics of using compact disks for data storage, it appears, without missing a single detail, and taking about ten minutes to read.
Here, you will learn about the different kinds of disks available and how their manufacturing-inherent qualities affect their preservation capabilities. Are dual-layer DVDs better than single-layer ones, or is it the opposite? How do CDs compare? And what about Blu-Ray disks? Wonder no more, here you will get answers to questions you didn’t known to ask. Data preservation is a game of numbers to preserve numbers, and this paper also outlines how to properly record, store, and test your disks to raise your chances.
Whether you’re only looking to delve into data preservation, or trying to improve your own policies, this looks like is a perfect document for you. After all, if you’re not aware of the best practices, you might end up having to
digitize
old
floppies
or
even LaserDisks
– not that those aren’t fun journeys to read about, of course, and we recommend it. Data preservation isn’t just about optical disks, of course – it’s
a practice with a rich history. | 18 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755276",
"author": "rclark",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T03:08:03",
"content": "Thanks for the link. Good info.At least here at home, I am swimming in disk space, so there is no need for a ‘Data Preservation’ plan in the sense of having a ‘set of optical disks’ or ‘tapes’ of old data... | 1,760,371,929.359773 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/floss-weekly-episode-781-resistant-to-the-wrath-of-god/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 781: Resistant To The Wrath Of God | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"Holepunch",
"open source",
"peer-to-peer"
] | This week Jonathan Bennett and
Doc Searls
sit down with
Mathias Buus Madsen
and
Paolo Ardoino
of Holepunch, to talk about the Pear Runtime and the Keet serverless peer-to-peer platform. What happens when you take the technology built for BitTorrent, and apply it to a messaging app? What else does that allow you to do? And what’s the secret to keeping the service running even after the servers go down?
Holepunch (the company behind Pear Runtime):
https://www.holepunch.to
Pear Runtime Website –
https://pears.com/
Launch Press Release –
https://pears.com/news/holepunch-unveils-groundbreaking-open-source-peer-to-peer-app-development-platform-pear-runtime/
Twitter –
https://twitter.com/Pears_p2p
Documentation –
https://docs.pears.com
Keet –
http://www.keet.io
Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show
right in the Hackaday Discord
? Have someone you’d like use to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us!
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 | 9 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755302",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2024-05-02T05:50:22",
"content": ">What happens when you take the technology built for BitTorrent, and apply it to a messaging app?Everyone gets the message – except for one word in the middle since the original sender went offline.",
"p... | 1,760,371,929.410161 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/tiny-prisms-let-you-see-what-lies-beneath-a-bga-chip/ | Tiny Prisms Let You See What Lies Beneath A BGA Chip | Dan Maloney | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"acrylic",
"bga",
"inspection",
"optics",
"PMMA",
"prism",
"total internal reflection"
] | Compared to through-hole construction, inspecting SMD construction is a whole other game. Things you thought were small before are almost invisible now, and making sure solder got where it’s supposed to go can be a real chore. Add some ball grid array (BGA) chips into the mix, where the solder joints are not visible by design, and inspection is more a leap of faith than objective proof of results.
How it works.
Unless, of course, you put the power of optics to work, as [Petteri Aimonen] does with
this clever BGA inspection tool
. It relies on a pair of tiny prisms to bounce light under one side of a BGA chip and back up the other. The prisms are made from thin sheets of acrylic; [Petteri] didn’t have any 1-mm acrylic sheet on hand, so he harvested material from a razor blade package. The edge of each piece was ground to a 45-degree angle and polished with successively finer grits until the surfaces were highly reflective. One prism was affixed to a small scrap of PCB with eleven SMD LEDs in a row, forming a light pipe that turns the light through 90 degrees. The light source is held along one edge of a BGA, shining light underneath to the other prism, bouncing light through the forest of solder balls and back toward the observer.
The results aren’t exactly crystal clear, which is understandable given the expedient nature of the materials and construction employed. But it’s certainly more than enough to see any gross problems lying below a BGA, like shorts or insufficiently melted solder. [Petteri] reports that flux can be a problem, too, as excess of the stuff can crystalize between pads under the BGA and obstruct the light. A little extra cleaning should help in such cases.
Haven’t tackled a BGA job yet? You might want to
get up to speed
on that. | 16 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755193",
"author": "Ward",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T20:05:14",
"content": "Clever! I have also used a piece of reflective material (front surface mirror, mylar, chromed steel) held at a 45 degree angle at the edge of the IC to inspect ball compression under a stereo microscope.",
... | 1,760,371,929.463151 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/manta-an-open-on-fpga-debug-interface/ | Manta: An Open On-FPGA Debug Interface | Arya Voronova | [
"FPGA",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"amaranth",
"debug interface",
"ethernet",
"fpga",
"logic analyser",
"logic analyzer",
"uart",
"verilog"
] | We always can use more tools for FPGA debugging, and the
Manta project by [Fischer Moseley]
delivers without a shadow of a doubt. Manta lets you add a debug and data transfer channel between your computer and your FPGA, that you can easily access with helpfully included Python libraries.
With
just a short configuration file
as input, it gives you cores you add into your FPGA design, tapping the signals of interest as an FPGA-embedded logic analyzer, interacting with registers, and even letting you quickly transfer tons of data if you so desire.
Manta is
easy to install,
is developer-friendly, has been designed in Amaranth, and is fully open source as you would expect. At the moment, Manta supports both
UART
and
Ethernet
interfaces for data transfer. As for embedding the Manta cores into your project, they can be exported to both Amaranth and Verilog. You should
check out the documentation website
— it contains everything you might want to know to
get started
quick.
The Manta project has started out as our hacker’s
MIT thesis,
and we’re happy that we can cover it for you all. FPGA-embedded logic analyzers are a fascinating and much-needed tool, and we’ve had our own [Al Williams] tell you about
his on-FPGA logic analysis journey! | 30 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755210",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T20:50:39",
"content": "Logic analyzer projects to poke around inside FPGA’s are fairly common (The Manta project names a few others), but from what I have seen they tend to have a very sparse frontend.I find it quite strange th... | 1,760,371,929.52844 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/programming-ada-packages-and-command-line-applications/ | Programming Ada: Packages And Command Line Applications | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Software Development"
] | [
"ada",
"programming",
"software"
] | In the previous installment in this series
we looked at how to set up an Ada development environment, and how to compile and run a simple Ada application
. Building upon this foundation, we will now look at how to create more complex applications, along with how to parse and use arguments passed to Ada applications on the command line (CLI). After all, passing flags and strings to CLI applications when we launch them is a crucial part of user interaction, as well as when automating systems as is the case with system services.
The way that a program is built-up is also essential, as well-organized code eases maintenance and promotes code reusability through e.g. modularity. In Ada you can organize subprograms (i.e. functions and procedures) in a declarative fashion as stand-alone units, as well as embed subprograms in other subprograms. Another option is packages, which roughly correspond to C++ namespaces, while tagged types are the equivalent of classes. In the previous article we already saw the use of a package, when we used the
Ada.Text_IO
package to output text to the CLI. In this article we’ll look at how to write our own alongside handling command line input, after a word about the role of the binding phase during the building of an Ada application.
Binding And Linking
The main task of the binder in GNAT is to
perform elaboration
. In most languages a linker is run immediately after the compiler, linking together the compiled code objects using defined and exported symbols into a finished binary. In contrast, the goal of elaboration is to take the output of the compiler and determine (elaborate) the way that the units fit together using information written into
.ali
files (short for Ada Library Information) by the compiler. If no errors are detected, the binder generates a main program, which is compiled and linked together with the other object files into the final binary.
The main advantage of this approach is that of consistency, as in e.g. C and C++ it is possible to link incompatible objects, resulting in strange behavior and quaint crashes that make no sense until you realize that for example you were using the wrong header files to go with a particular library. When it comes to linking against libraries or object files written in another language than Ada, this elaboration process is bypassed, and issues may not crop up until the first time that the application is executed. Although Ada defines support for easy interfacing with C, COBOL and Fortran (and C++ in GNAT) via the Interfaces package, this is a trade-off to keep in mind.
We’ll look at interfacing with other languages in an upcoming article, but for now we will consider just pure Ada code.
Starting An Argument
The string of text that we pass along with the application name to the shell is parsed and made available inside the application code as a collection of text fragments, split by the spaces between them. Using this data in an efficient fashion can be somewhat tricky, especially if we wish to provide the user with the ability to specify flags and data specific to these flags. For this reason you may wish to use an existing library or similar which provides features like defining a help message and automatic parsing of flags.
As an example of this, the
Sarge project
that I wrote for C++ and Ada provides these features, along with an example project which we can analyze along with the library code. The Ada version comes in the form of a single package called
Sarge
, which we can then use with the application:
with Sarge;
Because unlike the C++ version, Ada Sarge is only contained in a package and not a tagged type, we do not create an instance. This means that to for example set a flag which the library should parse, we write the following:
Sarge.setArgument(+"h", +"help", +"Get help.", False);
This will instruct Sarge to look for the long (
-h
) and short (
--help
) flags. The boolean
false
indicates that we are not expecting a string to follow this flag. The
+
prefix on the string literals in the argument list is not a standard feature of Ada, but a renamed function to convert bounded strings to unbounded strings:
function "+"(S : in String) return Unbounded_String renames Ada.Strings.Unbounded.To_Unbounded_String;
The default string type in Ada is a bounded string, meaning that it has a fixed length. Since we do not know beforehand what the length of a flag name or CLI argument string is going to be, we use unbounded strings from the
Ada.Strings.Unbounded
package. Since Ada is a strongly typed language, the conversion from a bounded string literal to an unbounded string has to be performed explicitly, yet we do not wish to type the same long function name over and over. Ergo we rename it to a simple function called
+
that gets put in front of string literals, which handles this almost invisibly.
Helpful Parsing
We’re now ready to parse the CLI input, which is handled by a simple call to Sarge:
if Sarge.parseArguments /= True then
put_line("Couldn't parse arguments...");
return;
end if;
This also demonstrates the way that in Ada comparisons are denoted, with ‘equals’ being
=
and ‘not equal’ being
/=
, as compared to the assignment operator being
:=
. With this if/else statement we make sure that Sarge had no problems parsing the CLI input using the
parseArguments()
function. As this function is too long to list here, feel free to look at
the whole file here
, while I’ll point out the salient bits here.
The functions we’re interested in are in the
Ada.Command_Line
package, which gives us access to whatever the shell has passed on to our application, such as the executable name:
execName := +Ada.Command_Line.command_name;
Here again we convert the bounded string into an unbounded string, before moving on to filtering for flags. Short flags start with a single single dash, while long flags start with a double dash. While not an Ada standard, this is a fairly conventional way to pass flags across platforms. This enables us to differentiate the two types of flags, as we check each CLI argument in a loop, as in this condensed version of the actual function:
for arg_i in 1..Ada.Command_Line.argument_count loop
arg := +Ada.Command_Line.Argument(arg_i);
if Ada.Strings.Unbounded.Slice(arg, 1, 1) = "-" then
if Ada.Strings.Unbounded.Slice(arg, 1, 2) = "--" then
-- Long form of the flag.
-- First delete the preceding dashes.
arg := Ada.Strings.Unbounded.Delete(arg, 1, 2);
if not argNames.contains(arg) then
Ada.Strings.Unbounded.Text_IO.put_line("Long flag " & arg & " wasn't found");
return False;
end if;
flag_it := argNames.find(arg);
args(argNames_map.Element(flag_it)).parsed := True;
end if;
end if;
end loop;
There’s quite a bit going on in this loop, but essentially we’re reading each of the argument values passed on the CLI starting at index 1 (because 0 is always the executable name), looping until we hit the number of total arguments, after which the loop terminates. Each argument is again converted to an unbounded string, after which we check in a comparison whether it starts with a dash. If it does, we can check if it’s a short or long flag type. In this condensed version we only look for the long form, but the short version is similar.
If it’s an unknown flag (i.e. not set via
setArgument
), then we bail out and return false. In the full version we also ensure that if a flag requires a value to follow it that this is the case. The flags and values are stored in both a map and vector, which are two of the standard library containers.
Contained Arguments
The output from the Sarge test application with the -h flag.
When we set a flag to look for in Sarge, it is added to the
argNames
map, as well as the
args
vector, with the latter containing the full Record (like a struct in C). The map is used to provide an easily searchable index into the vector which contains the records. Since this topic has us diving pretty deep into containers in Ada, this will be covered in depth in the following article in this series.
We’ll finish this article by quickly covering how the Sarge API is used to access the parsed CLI arguments. As can be seen in the screenshot, we can request the total number of found flags, and query per flag whether it was found, or directly obtain its value (if any) if it was found. This then allows us to act upon any found flag, as well as a trailing text segment (e.g. a file path), making something like Sarge into a modular package that can be used with any CLI-based application without having to write all of the code again just to parse CLI arguments.
As said, in the next installment we’ll look at the use of Ada standard containers, as well as record types. Feel free to sound off in the comments about any related topics that you’d like to see covered. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755182",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T19:40:57",
"content": "“Ada.Strings.Unbounded.Text_IO.put_line(…”Thank goodness they didn’t think of calling the language Lovelace instead of Ada. The irony of such as verbose language having such a short name!",
"parent_id": nu... | 1,760,371,929.576555 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/this-arduino-is-feeding-the-fishes-2/ | This Arduino Is Feeding The Fishes | Lewin Day | [
"Arduino Hacks",
"home hacks"
] | [
"fish",
"fish feeder"
] | Depending on the species, a fish can be a fairly low-maintenance pet. But of course even the most laid back of creatures needs to eat, so you’ll have to make sure to feed them regularly. If you’re a fish owner who would like to simplify tending to your creatures, you might find value
in this project from [CrazyScience].
This fish feeder is based on an Arduino Uno, the 8-bit microcontroller development board which has done so much for so many. The Arduino drives a stepper motor, which rotates a 3D printed disc mechanism for dispensing food. Each slot of the disc is loaded with a small amount of fish food, so that when it rotates, a slot dumps its contents through a slot into the water.
Activating the system is as easy as a wave of the hand. That’s thanks to an ultrasonic sensor, which detects movement close by, and triggers the food delivery mechanism in turn. We’d love to see this upgraded with a timer mode too, though it would require the addition of a real-time clock module to the humble Arduino Uno.
It’s a simple project, but one that teaches all kinds of useful skills, from programming to design and 3D printing. We just worry that the fish bowl in the demo is a far too small for fish to remain healthy.
We’ve seen some other similar projects before, too. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755120",
"author": "captnmike",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T16:43:14",
"content": "Building a timer into a stock UNO is easy to do and the food could be dispensed on a regular basis",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6755260",
"a... | 1,760,371,929.619891 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/supercon-2023-jose-angel-torres-on-building-a-junkyard-secure-phone/ | Supercon 2023: Jose Angel Torres On Building A Junkyard Secure Phone | Arya Voronova | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"2023 Hackaday Supercon",
"cell phone",
"china",
"reverse engineering"
] | If you ever wondered just what it takes to build a modern device like a phone, you should have come to last year’s Supercon and
talked with [Jose Angel Torres].
He’s an engineer whose passion into investigating what makes modern devices tick is undeniable, and he tells us all about where his forays have led so far – discovering marvels that a Western hacker might not be aware of.
Six years ago, he has moved to China, having previously been responsible for making sure that their Chinese subcontractors would manufacture things in the right ways. Turns out, doing that while being separated by an ocean set up more than just the timezone barriers – they were communicating between different worlds.
[Jose] tells us of having learned Chinese on the spot, purely from communicating with people around him, and it’s no wonder he’s had the motivation! What he’s experienced is being at the heart of cycle of hardware life, where devices are manufactured, taken apart and rebuilt anew. Here’s how he tapped into that cycle, and where he’s heading now.
One day, he sat down with his phone, connected to a computer, ADB prompt open, and enabled a logging routine. He saw a myriad of debug messages scrolling past – despite the phone being, for all intents and purposes, turned off, it was still alive. That made him think – now, what makes a phone tick? Which parts of it are responsible for this activity? How much control do you have over this, and can you replace these parts?
To get to the core of these questions, he headed down into dark places, where phones are taken apart, their motherboards laid bare, people working away with hot air guns and tweezers in hand. Trays of freshly desoldered BGAs, to be put into bespoke testing jigs and verified, so that they can be repackaged into tapes anew and resold to customers unconcerned with an increased failure rate.
On the streets where blocks are entirely owned by different companies, in stores overflowing with parts you couldn’t imagine to have existed, he has met a handful of friendly faces, each introducing him to different facets of the hardware world – from Macbook repairs that are officially not supposed to happen, to full-board reverse-engineering services.
If you need a PCB taken apart layer by layer, component by component, carefully imaged, and turned into CAD files, here is where you can get this done. What about a phone? What if you wanted to rebuild a phone? Well, not only can you fully reverse-engineer its PCB here, but they have tons of custom tooling for all the even somewhat popular models.
He glanced at a Huawei phone he’s just recently had bought, and decided to use it as a case study. The Ifixit diagrams can tell you about every single component on it, but only here can you walk up to a table and see piles and bins full of all sorts of different components for this specific model. Need a specific BGA? Here’s where you get a strip of them for $10.
What if you want to recreate the entire manufacturing process for a specific phone, from schematic to test jig, complete with all the different little parts like custom antennas and shells? That’s where you refer to a reverse-engineering company. This kind of company will take an example board, desolder all components, sand off all layers to get to even the internal copper, put all that data into a digital format. All passives that are taken off? Measured with an LCR meter. All ICs? Carefully documented, and, again, you can get a strip of them for $10. After a few weeks of work, you get Gerber files and Altium sources you can modify to add any feature the board might be missing. A schematic usually not included, but you can pay for it to be rebuilt too. And, of course, you get a BOM. Now, this is most of what you need to get a batch of identical phones assembled, starting from just one.
Now, what about if you need some test fixtures for bringup? Here, you can even use a phone of the same model as a test fixture – extend the connectors with separate FPCs, and use that second phone to test any of the different components you might be working on. All of these practices tie into the smaller seller culture, where every part you buy is marked with a seller’s stamp, so you can try and bring it back for a refund if it’s faulty.
[Jose] ends by showing a small curiosity he’s found – an I2C-connected daughterboard for a certain phone lineup, that almost, just barely, fits the SAO standard, with proximity and ambient light sensors on it. If you ever wanted to build a secure phone, you want to understand it, and if you want to understand what makes a phone tick, China will give you insights from the place this phone was born. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755101",
"author": "Jouni",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T15:15:57",
"content": "I would like to have a totally open source smart phone with such ICs that we can trust that doesn’t do trickery behind curtains (such as the modem).Also I would like to see single Git repo for ALL the code.... | 1,760,371,929.665426 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/pssst-wanna-buy-an-old-supercomputer/ | Pssst… Wanna Buy An Old Supercomputer? | Jenny List | [
"computer hacks",
"News"
] | [
"auction",
"sgi",
"supercomputer"
] | If you spend your time plotting evil world domination while stroking your fluffy white cat in your super-villain lair, it’s clear that only the most high-performance in computing is going to help you achieve your dastardly aims. But computers of that scale are expensive, and not even your tame mad scientist can whistle one out of thin air. Never mind though, because if your life lacks a supercomputer,
there’s one for sale right now in Wyoming
.
The Cheyenne Supercomputer was ranked in the top 20 of global computing power back in 2016, when it was installed to work on atmospheric simulation and earth sciences. There’s
a page containing exhaustive specs
, but overall we’re talking about a Silicon Graphics ICE XA system with 8,064 processors at 18 cores each for a total of 14,5152 cores, and a not inconsequential 313,344 GB of memory. In terms of software it ran the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server OS, but don’t let that stop you from installing your distro of choice.
It’s now being sold on a government auction site in a decommissioned but able to be reactivated state, and given that it takes up a LOT of space we’re guessing that arranging the trucks to move it will cost more than the computer itself. If you’re interested it’s standing at a shade over $40,000 at the time of writing with its reserve not met, and you have until the 3rd of May to snag it.
It’s clear that the world of supercomputing is a fast-moving one and this computer has been superseded. So whoever buys it won’t be joining the big boys any time soon — even though it remains one heck of a machine by mere mortal standards. We’re curious then who would buy an old supercomputer, if anyone. Would its power consumption for that much computing make it better off as scrap metal, or is there still a place for it somewhere? Ideas? Air them in the comments. | 87 | 33 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755046",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T11:32:22",
"content": "You mean the one used for the Stargate? Sign me up!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6755094",
"author": "Jace",
"timestamp": "2024... | 1,760,371,930.055357 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/01/cheap-musical-tesla-coil-put-through-its-paces/ | Cheap Musical Tesla Coil Put Through Its Paces | Lewin Day | [
"High Voltage"
] | [
"musical tesla coil",
"review",
"Singing Tesla coil",
"tesla coil"
] | Once upon a time, musical Tesla coils were something you primarily saw at high-voltage hobby meets. They’ve become more popular in recent years, and now you can even buy cheap examples online.
[mircemk] decided to buy one and gave it a whirl.
The device comes with a power supply capable of delivering 2 amps at 48 V. It’s a solid-state design, relying on SMD MOSFETs to generate high-voltage, high-frequency output that makes the sparks we all know and love. The pancake coil is key to the design, and is made using a trace on the PCB — a neat technique compared to making one with a laborious winding operation.
The coil can be used to simply generate sparks, or it can be modulated musically. In this mode of operation, it’s intended to be driven by square wave audio for simplicity’s sake. As seen
in [mircemk]’s video
, the sound quality is pretty decent for a cheap device, and the Super Mario theme is readily recognizable. As a guide, he also demonstrates how to drive the device using an Arduino set up for square wave audio output.
If you prefer to build your own singing Tesla coil,
you can go that route instead
. Or, you could buy one of these and hack it, and drop us a line with
what you come up with
! Similar devices are
all over the ‘net
. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6755222",
"author": "rclark",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T21:44:56",
"content": "I like! I have a plasma ball already, but this looks a little more interesting as it snaps and pops in a ‘small’ area out in the open so to speak. Fit in a home/office environment perfectly :D Going to ... | 1,760,371,929.86106 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/simplest-speaker-oscillator-now-even-simpler/ | Simplest Speaker Oscillator, Now Even Simpler | Dan Maloney | [
"Parts"
] | [
"audio",
"diaphragm",
"oscillator",
"speaker"
] | It never fails. Lay down some kind of superlative — fastest, cheapest, smallest — around this place and someone out there says, “Hold my beer” and gets to work. In this case, it’s
another, even simpler audio oscillator
, this time with just a loudspeaker and a battery.
Attentive readers will recall
the previous title holder
was indeed pretty simple, consisting only of the mic and speaker from an old landline telephone handset wired in series with a battery. Seeing this reminded [Hydrogen Time] of a lucky childhood accident while experimenting with a loudspeaker, which he recreates in the video below. The BOM for this one is even smaller than the previous one — just a small speaker and a battery, plus a small scrap of solid hookup wire. The wire is the key; rather than connecting directly to the speaker terminal, it connects to the speaker frame on one end while the other is carefully adjusted to just barely touch the flexible wire penetrating the speaker cone on its way to the voice coil.
When power is applied with the correct polarity, current flows through the wire into the voice coil, which moves the cone and breaks the circuit. The speaker’s diaphragm resets the cone, completing the circuit and repeating the whole process. The loudspeaker makes a little click with each cycle, leading to a very rough-sounding oscillator. [Hydrogen Time] doesn’t put a scope on it, but we suspect the waveform would be a ragged square wave whose frequency depends on the voltage, the spring constant of the diaphragm, and the spacing between the fixed wire and the voice coil lead.
Yes, we realize this is stretching the definition of an audio oscillator somewhat, but you’ve got to admit it’s simple. Can you get it even simpler? | 21 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754975",
"author": "Miles",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T05:48:33",
"content": "I’d argue a bimetallic circuit breaker, AKA turn signal flasher is technically one.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6754978",
"author": "ono",
... | 1,760,371,929.927027 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/making-beer-like-its-1574-for-science-and-heritage/ | Making Beer Like It’s 1574, For Science And Heritage | Donald Papp | [
"Beer Hacks"
] | [
"beer",
"brewing",
"heritage",
"historical"
] | Are you interested in the history of beer, food science, or just a fan of gathering “um, actually” details about things? Well you’re in for a treat because FoodCult (exploring Food, Culture, and Identity in early modern Ireland) has a fantastic exhibition showcasing their
recreation of beer last brewed in the sixteenth century
by putting serious scientific work into it, and learning plenty in the process.
A typical historical beer of middling strength was around 5% alcohol by volume, similar to a modern-day lager.
The recipes, equipment and techniques are straight from what was used at Dublin Castle in the late 1500s. This process yielded very interesting insights about what beer back then was really like, how strong it was, and what was involved in the whole process.
Documentation from the era also provides cultural insight. Beer was often used to as payment and provided a significant amount of dietary energy. Dublin Castle, by the way, consumed some 26,000 gallons per year.
In many ways, beer from back then would be pretty familiar today, but there are differences as well. Chief among them are the ingredients.
While the ingredients themselves are unsurprising in nature, it is in fact impossible to 100% recreate the beer from 1574 for a simple reason: these ingredients no longer exist as they did back then. Nevertheless, the team did an inspired job of getting as close as possible to the historical versions of barley, oats, hops, yeast, and even the water.
That’s not all. Period-correct brewing techniques and equipment — all carefully made by hand — also provided an authentic process as well as insight into the fact that beer-making required a variety of unique skills and craftsmanship.
How did it turn out? Very well! The team successfully produced Dublin Castle beer from 1574, and repeated the process a few times with ingredient variations to help understand and highlight what makes the original distinctive. The finished Dublin Castle beer had a hazy, golden appearance due to added oats and minimal filtering. It tasted like a mild, light, present-day bitter with an alcohol content between 4.5-5%.
Beer brewing is something still enjoyed by many today, and even
homebrewers can leverage technology into the process
. Homebrewing can be considerably more “hacky” that that, however. A suitably motivated hacker can
brew beer using only a coffee maker and ingredients found on a moderately-sized research vessel
.
[via
Phys.org
] | 14 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754973",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T05:43:08",
"content": "Anyone noticed, young people these days are drinking a lot less?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6754980",
"author": "ono",
"time... | 1,760,371,930.155153 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/3d-printed-macro-pad-plate-is-lego-compatible/ | 3D-Printed Macro Pad Plate Is LEGO-Compatible | Kristina Panos | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Toy Hacks"
] | [
"3D printed lego sort of",
"keyboard",
"keyboard plate",
"lego",
"LEGO-compatible",
"macro pad"
] | We love LEGO, we love keyboards, and when the two join forces, we’re usually looking at a versatile peripheral that’s practically indestructible. Such seems to be the case with [joshmarinacci]’s
LEGO-compatible 3D-printed plate for a three-key macro pad.
For a first foray into scratch-built keyboard construction, we think this is pretty great.
The idea here is threefold: the plate holds the switches in place, negates the need for a PCB, and makes it possible to build the case completely out of LEGO. In fact, [joshmarinacci]’s plan for the keycaps even includes LEGO — they are going to 3D print little adapters that fit the key switch’s stem on one side, and the underside of a 2×2 plate on the other.
Although [joshmarinacci]’s plan is to design a PCB for the next version, there is plenty to be said for combining the plate and the PCB by printing guides for the wires,
which we’ve seen before.
We’ve also seen LEGO used to create
a keyboard stand that fits just right.
Via
KBD | 2 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754946",
"author": "Daniel F. Larrosa",
"timestamp": "2024-05-01T02:31:42",
"content": "It is a great idea, for prototyping or building special “one of a kind” keyboards, for example for use by the handicapped.I have done something similar, with laser cut wooden “modules” with LEGO... | 1,760,371,930.524696 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/the-cheapest-usb-blaster-ever-thanks-to-ch552/ | The Cheapest USB Blaster Ever, Thanks To CH552 | Arya Voronova | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Parts",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"CH552",
"USB blaster"
] | Here’s
a CH552G-based USB Blaster project
from [
nickchen
] in case you needed more CH552G in your life, which you absolutely do. It gives you the expected IDC-10 header ready for JTAG, AS, and PS modes. What’s cool, it fits into the plastic shell of a typical USB Blaster, too!
The PCB is flexible enough, and has all the features you’d expect – a fully-featured side-mounted IDC-10 header, two LEDs, a button for CH552 programming mode, and even a UART header inside the case. There’s an option to add level shifter buffers, too – but you don’t have to populate them if you don’t want to do that for whatever reason!
The Hackaday.io page
outlines all the features you are getting, though you might have to ask your browser
to translate from Chinese.
Sadly, there’s no firmware or PCB sources – just schematics, .hex, BOM, and Gerber .zip, so you can’t fix firmware bugs, or add the missing USB-C pulldowns. Nevertheless, it’s a cool project and having the PCB for it is lovely, because you never know when you might want to poke at a FPGA on a short notice. Which is to say, it’s yet another CH552 PCB you ought to put in your PCB fab’s shopping cart! This is not the only CH552G-based programming dongle that we’ve covered – here’s
a recent Arduino programmer
that does debugWire, and here’s like
a dozen more different CH552G boards,
programmers and otherwise. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754891",
"author": "Elliot White",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T21:38:05",
"content": "I’ve been using CH55x microcontrollers for a while now and used to put a program button on the PCB like in this project, but realized that the button didn’t have to be on the board so I built a tool ... | 1,760,371,930.102175 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/possibly-the-cheapest-way-to-film-in-bullet-time/ | Possibly The Cheapest Way To Film In Bullet Time | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks"
] | [
"bullet time",
"freeze frame",
"toy camera"
] | When
The Matrix
hit the cinemas back in 1999 it started a minor revolution with its use of so-called “Bullet time” — a freeze-frame technique in which the action could move round a momentarily frozen subject. It’s filmed using an array of cameras in an arc, something which was pretty expensive back then but is now within the reach of almost anyone. Just how cheaply bullet time can be filmed is shown by [3DSage], who
turned nine toy cameras into a budget bullet time rig
.
The cameras themselves are what you might expect for the princely sum of nine dollars, but as he points out, their low-resolution video has a certain charm. Some iteration was required to produce the rig without fouling their flip-out screens, and he found that the video quality was far better than their still image quality. But eventually he was able to extract the required array of frames and stitch them together with a video interpolator for the required effect. His cat is a handsome creature from any angle, we can now reveal.
The video below the break has all the details, and while we couldn’t spot quite the same camera he used on our local version of the online shop he used, there seem to be plenty of similar cheap devices should you wish to try it for yourself. Either way, this cost much less than
the previous budget bullet time contender
. | 19 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754855",
"author": "Mark Topham",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T18:48:22",
"content": "Nice.I follow an account on tiktok, a studio does a lot of photoshoots with light rigs and bullettime multi-camera shots. Their stuff is pretty cool. Mostly using Canon equipment since everyone else m... | 1,760,371,930.305597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/singleboard-alpha-is-a-very-stylish-computer-on-a-single-pcb/ | Singleboard: Alpha Is A Very Stylish Computer On A Single PCB | Lewin Day | [
"computer hacks",
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"ESP32",
"headless",
"single board computer"
] | When we think single-board computers, we normally envision things like the Raspberry Pi. But Arduboy creator [Kevin Bates] has recently come up with his own take on the SBC that’s a bit like a modernized take on the early computers of the 1980s.
Introducing Singleboard: Alpha.
The build has an incredibly pleasing form factor — it’s a single PCB with a capacitive keyboard etched right into the copper. The brains of the Singleboard is an ESP32, which provides plenty of grunt as well as wireless connectivity. Display is via a small LCD, currently configured with a green-on-black terminal that looks fantastic.
You’re not gonna run a fully-fledged GUI operating system on this thing, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be useful. We could imagine a device like this being a flexible wireless terminal for
working with headless systems
, for example, and it would be a charming one at that. | 34 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754823",
"author": "Andrew Singleton",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T16:41:48",
"content": "On the one hand undeniably cool wit hthe batteyr clipped via plug meaning I could theoretically swap out for something that would stow behind it in a printed case, and there is indeed a cool fact... | 1,760,371,930.484393 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/2024-home-sweet-home-automation-the-winners-are-in/ | 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: The Winners Are In | Tom Nardi | [
"contests",
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider"
] | [
"2024 Home Sweet Home Automation",
"Hackaday Contests",
"home automation"
] | Home automation is huge right now in consumer electronics, but despite the wide availability of products on the market, hackers and makers are still spinning up their own solutions. It could be because their situations are unique enough that commercial offerings wouldn’t cut it, or perhaps they know how cheaply many automation tasks can be implemented with today’s microcontrollers. Still others go the DIY route because they’re worried about the privacy implications of pushing such a system into the cloud.
Seeing how many of you were out there brewing bespoke automation setups gave us the idea for this year’s
Home Sweet Home Automation contest
, which just wrapped up last week. We received more than 80 entries for this one, and the competition was fierce. Judging these contests is always exceptionally difficult, as nearly every entry is a standout accomplishment in its own way.
But the judges forged ahead valiantly, and we now have the top three projects which will be receiving $150 in store credit from the folks at DigiKey.
First: SCADA Smart Home
The judges ultimately gave the top spot to this
automation project from [stefan.schnitzer]
, which stands out by being designed around the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) concept that’s most commonly used to control industrial processes. This multi-level hierarchy separates the lowest level “field devices” such as environmental sensors and stepper motors for operating valves from the upper level supervisory devices, which in this case are Raspberry Pis which host a visually striking HTML user interface that can be accessed from tablets or smartphones.
The documentation for this build goes back several years, and it’s fascinating to read through how different devices were brought onto the system. The interoperability with OctoPrint, allowing the home automation display to show variables such as extruder temperature and time remaining, was a particularly nice touch.
Second: 15 Years Of Automation
In an
extremely
close second is the awe inspiring automation system built up by
[Bernard Kerckenaere] over the last 15 years
. While the project wasn’t documented in real-time (to be fair, Hackaday.io didn’t exist in 2009), [Bernard] does an impressive job of explaining the origins of his system and bringing us up to speed on how things were built out over the years.
It all starts with two kilometers of CAT6 being pulled throughout the house, with a total of 164 individual runs. Just 22 of those are used for TCP/IP networking, the remaining 122 are used to carry power and data to sensors and devices all over the house using RS-485. Each 24-port patch panel contains four Arduinos in custom PCBs to act as intermediates between all of the downstream devices and the Raspberry Pi which runs the whole show.
By his final tally, the system includes more than 30 individual sensors, 8 thermostats, 29 lights, 3 dimmers, 17 wall sockets, 6 blinds, two electronically locked doors, plus the garage door. Oh, and there’s a centralized audio system that pumps tunes from the media server out to 10 speakers through 5 amplifiers. [Bernard] is definitely putting every meter of that CAT6 to good use in this system.
Third: Pill Dispenser Robot
Compared to the massive whole-house undertakings that battled it out for the top two spots, this cute little bot might seem a bit out of place. But the judges were all all blown away by the
incredible documentation [M. Bindhammer] put together
for this project to help with their medication schedule.
Technically speaking, just the robot’s central rotary mechanism could have gotten the job done. But the hope is that this more anthropomorphic dispenser, complete with an OLED display for a face and a speech synthesis module, can make a daily medication regimen a little more pleasant. There’s a clear application here for elderly patients who may require more frequent reminders about when and why they need to take their medicine.
Honorable Mentions
As usual, we had a few special categories for this contest. In addition to their base numerical rating, the judges were told to keep an eye out for projects they felt best exemplified the spirit of each one.
Creature Comforts: Smart Apartment Ventilation
Comfort is key in making where you live truly feel like home, so the
Smart Apartment Ventilation system from [Nik Reitmann]
was a perfect choice for this category.
While he did have the ability to manually control the ventilation system in his apartment, [Nik] wanted to automate it so it would bring in fresh air in the mornings and evenings as a mater of routine, and also kick on anytime the temperature started to get too high indoors. But being an apartment, he couldn’t exactly rip out the old system — whatever he did had to be removable and make no permanent changes to the integrated system.
By reverse engineering the ventilation controller’s front panel, he was able to sneak an ESP8266 into the mix and take control of the system as if the buttons were being pressed physically. He was even able to pull power from the wall mounted panel, so there’s no addition wiring needed. With the new electronics housed in a 3D printed enclosure that surrounds the original unit, it makes for an exceptionally clean installation.
Efficiency: Water Heater Automation
Due to an unstable local electrical infrastructure, [Rogan Dawes] was looking to maximize the effectiveness of his home solar system. Noting that one of the biggest energy drains was the water heater, the goal of this project was to
automate the unit
so it would adjust the target temperature of the water depending on the current power situation. For example, if the grid is functioning and there’s ample power, the water heater will be set to its maximum temperature. But if the house is running on battery power, the temperature will be lowered to conserve energy.
In terms of hardware, [Rogan] is using a Sonoff THR320 to control the resistive element in the heater, and an ATTiny85 to read the current temperature via a thermistor. The status of the home’s electrical system was already being monitored through the inverter, so all that was left to do was pull everything together within Home Assistant.
Rube Goldberg: Hands Free Chess Clock
While there’s something to be said for keeping things simple, it’s no secret that we’re big fans of the convoluted here at Hackaday. If there’s a more complex way to do something, we’re all about it. This
automatic chess clock from [Mykolas Juraitis]
is a particularly fine example. Not everyone
needs
a CUDA-enabled chess clock running on a
NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano
, but if you’re the kind of person who takes their game seriously, you’ll certainly appreciate its features.
The speedy single-board computer, specifically designed for machine learning applications, powers both voice and image recognition software. You can operate the clock using fairly complex voice commands, and thanks to OpenCV, it’s able to track the process of the game and run it through a chess engine to determine who’s currently winning.
All The Data: Mobile Home Power Monitoring
With energy costs on the rise, it’s becoming more important than ever to keep a close eye on your home’s utilization. But what if your home isn’t tied down to one spot, and there’s no permanent grid wiring to tap into?
That was the unique situation that [Tom Goff] had to face when his father-in-law asked him if there was a way he could
see how much energy his RV was using
when plugged in at the camp site. This called for a system that could be easily removed and installed, was robust enough to handle life on the road, and of course, capable of safely handling 230 VAC.
The resulting device does the heavy lifting with an ESP32 and a PZEM-004T electrical energy monitor module, with an OLED display to show information on the front panel. But the real killer feature here is the Bluetooth connection, which is tied to a smartphone application. This lets the user check their current energy consumption without having to go physically look at the box.
While it was designed for RVs and mobile homes, it’s not hard to see how the electronics could be used to monitor the energy usage back at home. You wouldn’t technically need the heavy duty enclosure in that case, but it does make the installation look that much more professional.
Retrofit: Smart Underfloor Heating Controller
Finally, we have the
Smart Underfloor Heating Controller from [Red Tuka]
. This impressively engineered upgrade adds remote control capabilities to an existing warm water heating system by operating the dozen valves which direct water throughout the house.
This is accomplished with twelve MOSFETS, which are in turn connected to the board’s ESP8266 via a MCP23017 I2C I/O expander. In addition, for each valve there’s also a DS18B20 temperature sensor that connects up along the right-hand side of the board. While there’s a lot happening on this one PCB, [Red] did an excellent job of keeping it all orderly, and we especially like the status LEDs for the valve MOSFETS.
New Year, New Challenges
Didn’t get time to enter this contest? Is home automation not your thing? No worries — this is just the first of many contests we’ll be running in 2024. We promise there will be plenty of opportunities to get some free parts out of the fine folks at DigiKey over the year is over.
Stay tuned to Hackaday for the announcement of our next contest shortly. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754809",
"author": "RunnerPack",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T15:28:32",
"content": "Was “over the year is over” meant to be “before the year is over” perhaps?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6754828",
"author": "rclark",
"... | 1,760,371,930.362536 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/turn-your-qualcomm-phone-or-modem-into-cellular-sniffer/ | Turn Your Qualcomm Phone Or Modem Into Cellular Sniffer | Arya Voronova | [
"Phone Hacks",
"Reverse Engineering",
"Wireless Hacks"
] | [
"2g",
"2G network",
"3g",
"4g",
"5g",
"cellular sniffing",
"qualcomm"
] | If your thought repurposing DVB-T dongles for generic software defined radio (SDR) use was cool, wait until you see QCSuper, a project that
re-purposes phones and modems to capture raw 2G/3G/4G/5G
. You have to have a Qualcomm-based device, it has to either run rooted Android or be a USB modem, but once you find one in your drawers, you can get a steady stream of packets straight into your Wireshark window. No more expensive SDR requirement for getting into cellular sniffing – at least, not unless you are debugging some seriously low-level issues.
It appears there’s a Qualcomm specific diagnostic port you can access over USB, that this software can make use of. The 5G capture support is currently situational, but 2G/3G/4G capabilities seem to be pretty stable. And there’s a good few devices in the
“successfully tested” list
– given the way this software functions, chances are, your device will work! Remember to
report whether it does or doesn’t,
of course. Also, the project is seriously rich on instructions – whether you’re using Linux or Windows, it appears you won’t be left alone debugging any problems you might encounter.
This is a receive-only project, so, legally, you are most likely allowed to have fun — at least, it would be pretty complicated to detect that you are, unlike with transmit-capable setups. Qualcomm devices have pretty much permeated our lives, with Qualcomm chips nowadays used even in the ever-present SimCom modules, like
the modems used in the PinePhone.
Wondering what a sniffer could be useful for? Well, for one, if you ever need to debug
a 4G base station you’ve just set up,
completely legally, of course. | 16 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754757",
"author": "Roger from Fulchester Hackerspace",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T11:52:40",
"content": "Nice …. so I’m guessing I could legally sniff my own unencrypted data from one of my external 4G devices by way of IP address? …. or how would I filter through all the other traf... | 1,760,371,930.413113 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/30/squeeze-another-drive-into-a-full-up-nas/ | Squeeze Another Drive Into A Full-Up NAS | Jenny List | [
"Network Hacks"
] | [
"nas",
"PCI-E",
"ssd"
] | A network-attached storage (NAS) device is a frequent peripheral in home and office networks alike, yet so often these devices come pre-installed with a proprietary OS which does not lend itself to customization. [Codedbearder] had just such a NAS, a Terramaster F2-221, which while it could be persuaded to run a different OS, couldn’t do so without an external USB hard drive. Their solution was elegant, to create a new backplane PCB which took the same space as the original but
managed to shoehorn in a small PCI-E solid-state drive
.
The backplane rests in a motherboard connector which resembles a PCI-E one but which carries a pair of SATA interfaces. Some investigation reveals it also had a pair of PCI-E lanes though, so after some detective work to identify the pinout there was the chance of using those. A new PCB was designed, cleverly fitting an M.2 SSD exactly in the space between two pieces of chassis, allowing the boot drive to be incorporated without annoying USB drives. The final version of the board looks for all the world as though it was meant to be there from the start, a truly well-done piece of work.
Of course, if off-the-shelf is too easy for you,
you can always build your own NAS
. | 14 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754737",
"author": "lamalas",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T10:34:09",
"content": "Hats off.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6754738",
"author": "Alphatek",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T10:36:44",
"content": "Very impressive... | 1,760,371,930.575053 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/29/you-can-use-visual-studio-code-to-write-commodore-64-assembly/ | You Can Use Visual Studio Code To Write Commodore 64 Assembly | Lewin Day | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"c64",
"commodore 64",
"retro"
] | Once upon a time, you might have developed for the Commodore 64 using the very machine itself. You’d use the chunky old keyboard, a tape drive, or the 1541 disk drive if you wanted to work faster. These days, though, we have more modern tools that provide a much more comfortable working environment. [My Developer Thoughts] has shared a guide on how to develop for the Commodore 64
using Visual Studio Code on Windows 11.
The video starts right at the beginning from a fresh Windows install, assuming you’ve got no dev tools to start with. It steps through installing git, Java, Kick Assembler, and Visual Studio Code. Beyond that, it even explains how to use these tools in partnership with VICE – the Versatile Commodore Emulator. That’s a key part of the whole shebang—using an emulator on the same machine is a far quicker way to develop than using real Commodore hardware. You can always truck your builds over to an actual C64 when you’ve worked the bugs out!
It’s a great primer for anyone who is
new to C64 development
and doesn’t know where to start. Plus, we love the idea of bringing modern version control and programming techniques to this ancient platform. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Stephen Walters for the tip!] | 18 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754698",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T06:33:09",
"content": "“or the 1541 disk drive” and had $400 to spend for one back then. $1200 when adjusted for inflation, that was an expensive drive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,371,930.738359 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/29/sound-and-water-make-weird-vibes-in-microgravity/ | Sound And Water Make Weird Vibes In Microgravity | Donald Papp | [
"Musical Hacks",
"Science"
] | [
"audio",
"microgravity",
"sound waves",
"water"
] | NASA astronaut [Don Pettit] shared a short video from an experiment he performed on the ISS back in 2012, demonstrating
the effects of sound waves on water in space
. Specifically, seeing what happens when a sphere of water surrounding an air bubble perched on a speaker cone is subjected to a variety of acoustic waves.
The result is visually striking patterns across different parts of the globe depending on what kind of sound waves were created. It’s a neat visual effect, and there’s more where that came from.
[Don] experimented with music as well as plain tones, and found that cello music had a particularly interesting effect on the setup. Little drops of water would break off from inside the sphere and start moving around the inside of the air bubble when cello music was played. You can see this in action as part of
episode 160 from SmarterEveryDay (cued up to 7:51)
which itself is about exploring the phenomenon of how water droplets can appear to act in an almost hydrophobic way.
This isn’t the first time water and sound collide in visually surprising ways. For example, check out the
borderline optical illusion
that comes from pouring water past a subwoofer emitting 24 Hz while the camera captures video at 24 frames per second. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6756202",
"author": "soma",
"timestamp": "2024-05-05T15:19:53",
"content": "Water Make Weird Vibeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,371,930.615182 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/29/this-is-how-a-pen-changed-the-world/ | This Is How A Pen Changed The World | Kristina Panos | [
"History",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"ballpoint",
"ballpoint pen",
"bic",
"bic cristal"
] | Look around you. Chances are, there’s a BiC Cristal ballpoint pen among your odds and ends. Since 1950, it has far outsold the Rubik’s Cube and even the iPhone, and yet,
it’s one of the most unsung and overlooked pieces of technology ever invented.
And weirdly, it hasn’t had the honor of trademark erosion like Xerox or Kleenex. When you ‘flick a Bic’, you’re using a lighter.
It’s probably hard to imagine writing with a feather and a bottle of ink, but that’s what writing was limited to for hundreds of years. When fountain pens first came along, they were revolutionary, albeit expensive and leaky. In 1900, the world literacy rate stood around 20%, and exorbitantly-priced, unreliable utensils weren’t helping.
In 1888, American inventor John Loud created the first ballpoint pen. It worked well on leather and wood and the like, but absolutely shredded paper, making it almost useless.
One problem was that while the ball worked better than a nib, it had to be an absolutely perfect fit, or ink would either get stuck or leak out everywhere. Then along came László Bíró, who turned instead to the ink to solve the problems of the ballpoint.
Bíró’s ink was oil-based, and sat on top of the paper rather than seeping through the fibers. While gravity and pen angle had been a problem in previous designs, his ink induced capillary action in the pen, allowing it to write reliably from most angles. You’d think this is where the story ends, but no. Bíró charged quite a bit for his pens, which didn’t help the whole world literacy thing.
French businessman Marcel Bich became interested in Bíró’s creation and bought the patent rights for $2 million ($26M in 2024). This is where things get interesting, and when the ballpoint pen becomes incredibly cheap and ubiquitous. In addition to thicker ink, the secret is in precision-machined steel balls, which Marcel Bich was able to manufacture using Swiss watchmaking machinery. When released in 1950, the Bic Cristal cost just $2. Since this vital instrument has continued to be so affordable, world literacy is at 90% today.
When we wrote about the Cristal
, we did our best to capture the essence of what about the pen makes continuous, dependable ink transmission possible, but the video below goes much further, with extremely detailed 3D models.
Thanks to both [George Graves] and [Stephen Walters] for the tip! | 80 | 31 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754612",
"author": "Hirudinea",
"timestamp": "2024-04-30T00:02:34",
"content": "I guess it does take balls to change the world.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6754689",
"author": "hexa6six",
"timestamp": "202... | 1,760,371,930.853899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/29/tiny-arduino-drone-even-has-an-fpv-camera/ | Tiny Arduino Drone Even Has An FPV Camera | Lewin Day | [
"drone hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"drone",
"multirotor"
] | In the turmoil of today’s world, drones are getting bigger, badder, and angrier. [Max Imagination] has gone the other way with his work, though,
building a teeny Arduino drone that can fit in the palm of your hand.
Even if you have a small hand!
The drone is based around an Arduino Pro Mini, and uses an MPU6050 IMU for motion sensing and flight control. Communication with the drone is via an NRF24L01. Four small coreless motors are used for propulsion, driven by tiny MOSFETs, and the whole assembly is run via a teeny 220 mAh lithium-polymer battery. Oh, and there’s an FPV camera so you can put on some goggles and see where it’s going!
Control is via MultiWii software, written specifically for building multirotor craft. [Max] flies the craft using a controller of his own creation, again using an NRF24L01 for communication.
It’s a neat build, and a titchy one too!
Tiny drones have a character all their own
, even if they can’t really stand up to windier outdoor environments. Video after the break. | 15 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754567",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-04-29T20:11:33",
"content": "Seen this instructable earlier today, seen the buzz in the comments. Did not understand what its differential is.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_... | 1,760,371,930.92338 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/29/a-ch552g-devboard-in-case-you-missed-it/ | A CH552G Devboard In Case You Missed It | Arya Voronova | [
"Microcontrollers",
"Parts"
] | [
"CH552",
"devboard"
] | We might just never get tired of covering cool small cheap MCUs, and CH552G sure fits this description. Just so you know, here’s a Hackaday.io project you should check out –
a CH552G devboard
that’s as simple as it sufficient, in case you needed a tangible reminder that this chip exists, has a lively community, and is very much an option for your projects.
The devboard design by [Dylan Turner] is so straightforward, it’s almost inspiring – a square of PCB with the chip in the center and plenty of empty space for your mods.
Everything is open-source
with
KiCad sources stored on GitHub.
The most lovely aspect of this board, no doubt, is having the pin mapping written on the bottom, with all the alternate pin functions – you won’t have to constantly glance at the datasheet while wiring this one up. Plus, of course, there’s the microUSB port for programming, and the programming mode button that a few CH552 projects tend to lack.
It’s simple, it’s self-documenting, it’s breadboardable, and it’s definitely worth putting into the shopping cart at your PCB fab of choice. Oh, and there are bringup instructions on GitHub, in case you need them. Whether you want to prototype
the cheapest macropad
or
keyboard
ever, or perhaps
a reflow hotplate,
the CH552 delivers. If these CH552 projects aren’t enough to light your fire, here are
a dozen more. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754536",
"author": "zoobab",
"timestamp": "2024-04-29T18:35:28",
"content": "Otherwise you a breakout board:http://zoobab.com/ch552g-blink",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6754547",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timest... | 1,760,371,930.964629 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/29/upgrade-your-test-probes/ | Upgrade Your Test Probes | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Slider",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"multimeter probes",
"probes"
] | One of the most basic tools for tinkering with electronics is a multimeter. Today, even a cheap meter has capabilities that would have been either very expensive or unobtainable back in the 1970s. Still, even then, a meter was the most affordable way to do various tasks around the shop. Is this cable open? Are these two wires shorted? What’s the value of this resistor? Is the circuit getting power? Is the line voltage dropping? You can answer all those questions — and many more — with a basic meter. But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed much over the years: probes. That’s a shame because there are a lot of useful options.
The probes that came with your meter probably have much in common with the probes a 1970-era meter had. Yeah, the banana plugs probably have a little plastic cover, and the plastic itself might be a little different. Parts are small these days, so the tips might be a little finer than older probes. But if you sent your probes back in time, few people would notice them.
The Blinders Syndrome
One problem is that those probes are usually good enough. We’ve all clipped an alligator clip to a test probe. I’ve even fashioned super pointy probes out of syringes. Years ago, I bought an expensive kit with many attachments I rarely use, like little hooks and spade lugs. Then, I happened to go down the wrong aisle at Harbor Freight.
Back probes ready for action.
In the automotive section, I noticed a tidy plastic box labeled “22 pc. back probe kit.” I’d never heard the term “back probe,” but it was clearly some sort of wire. It turns out the kit has a bunch of very fine needles on banana jacks and some patch cables to connect them to your meter.
They are “back probes” because you can jam them in the back of connectors next to the wire. There are five colors of needles, and each color set has three items: a straight needle, a bent needle, and a 90-degree bend needle.
I’d never heard of this, and that started me down the rabbit hole of looking at what other exotic probes were out there. If you search the usual sources for “back probe,” you’ll see plenty of variations. There are also tons of inexpensive probe kits with many useful tips for different situations. Like everything, the price was much lower than I had paid for the rarely used kit I bought years ago. The only thing I really use out of that kit are the test hook clips and you can buy those now for a few bucks that just push over your probes.
Choices
Wire-piercing probe works best for larger wires.
You could probably use the needles to stick through insulation, too. But if that’s your goal, they make piercing clip test probes specifically for that purpose. A little plastic holder has a hook for your wire and a needle that threads in to penetrate the wire.
These alligator clips fit over most probes.
I also picked up some little alligator clips that slide over standard 2mm probe tips. These are very handy and prevent you from having to clip a lead to your probe so you can clip the other end to the circuit. However, if you look for a “test lead kit,” you’ll find many options for about $20. One kit had interchangeable probe tips, alligator clips, spades, SMD tweezers, and tiny hooks for IC legs. The alligator clips on the one I bought are the newer style that has a solid insulating body — not the cheap rubbery covers. They feel better and are easier to handle, too.
Breadboarding
Some of the accessories in the test probe kit.
Of course, you can
make your own solderless breadboard jumpers
, and you’ve probably seen that you can buy jumpers of various kinds. But if you search, you can even find test probes with breadboard wire ends. The other end will terminate in a test hook or alligator clips. You can also get them with banana plugs on the end to plug right into your meter. You can usually find versions with the male pin for a breadboard or a female receptacle for connecting to pins.
Of course, we love
hacking components to fit on breadboards
. We’ve also seen
custom slip-on adapters
, which are worth checking out if you are looking to up your probe game. | 23 | 13 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754502",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-04-29T17:22:33",
"content": "This is one of the electrical engineering areas that I feel we are not quite there yet. I mean, different approaches exist because not one is good enough.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
... | 1,760,371,931.154963 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/04/29/make-3d-scenes-with-a-holodeck-like-voice-interface/ | Make 3D Scenes With A Holodeck-Like Voice Interface | Donald Papp | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"3d",
"holodeck",
"voice control",
"vr"
] | The voice interface for the holodeck in
Star Trek
had users create objects by saying things like “create a table” and “now make it a metal table” and so forth, all with immediate feedback. This kind of interface may have been pure fantasy at the time of airing, but with the advent of AI and LLMs (large language models) this kind of natural language interface is coming together almost by itself.
A fun demonstration of that is [Dominic Pajak]’s demo project called
VoxelAstra
. This is a WebXR demo that works both in the Meta Quest 3 VR headset (just go to
the demo page
in the headset’s web browser) as well as on desktop.
The catch is that since the program uses OpenAI APIs on the back end, one must provide a working OpenAI API key. Otherwise, the demo won’t be able to do anything. Providing one’s API key to someone’s web page isn’t terribly good security practice, but there’s also the option of running the demo locally.
Either way, once the demo is up and running the user simply tells the system what to create. Just keep it simple. It’s a fun and educational demo more than anything and will try to do its work with primitive shapes like spheres, cubes, and cylinders. “Build a snowman” is suggested as a good starting point.
Intrigued by what you see and getting ideas of your own? WebXR can be a great way to give those ideas some life and looking at how someone else did something similar is a fine way to begin. Check out another of [Dominic]’s WebXR projects:
a simulated BBC Micro, in VR
. | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6754482",
"author": "shinsukke",
"timestamp": "2024-04-29T16:21:39",
"content": "I am thoroughly impressedNow all that remains in my life is to buy a computer which can do this, and an AI TTS engine hooked up to an LLM locally and then become a hermit",
"parent_id": null,
"d... | 1,760,371,931.08661 |
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