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https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/floss-weekly-episode-776-dnsmasq-making-the-internet-work-since-1999/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 776: Dnsmasq, Making The Internet Work Since 1999 | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Podcasts"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"open source"
] | This week Jonathan Bennett and
Simon Phipps
sit down with
Simon Kelley
to talk about Dnsmasq! That’s a piece of software that was first built to get a laptop online over LapLink, and now runs on most of the world’s routers and phones. How did we get here, and what does the future of Dnsmasq look like? For now, Dnsmasq has a bus factor of one, which is a bit alarming, given how important it is to keeping all of us online. But the beauty of the project being available under the GPL is that if Simon Kelley walks away, Google, OpenWRT, and other users can fork and continue maintenance as needed. Give the episode a listen to learn more about Dnsmasq, how it’s tied to the Human Genome Project, and more!
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! Next week we’re chatting with Joshua Colp about dnsmasq.
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 | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6745137",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-03-28T00:54:54",
"content": "“But the beauty of the project being available under the GPL is that if Simon Kelley walks away, Google, OpenWRT, and other users can fork and continue maintenance as needed.”Like OpenSSL and Heartbleed.... | 1,760,371,965.573564 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/how-does-time-work-on-the-moon/ | How Does Time Work On The Moon? | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Science",
"Slider"
] | [
"lunar",
"lunar time",
"moon",
"moon base"
] | We’re looking to go back to the Moon. Not just with robots this time, but with astronauts, too! They’ll be doing all kinds of interesting things when they get there. Maybe they’ll even work towards establishing a more permanent presence for humanity on the lunar surface, in which case they’ll have to get up in the morning, eat breakfast, and get to work.
This raises the question—how does time work on the Moon?
As simple as they can be down here
, Earthly days and years have little meaning up there, after all. So what’s going on up there?
Tick Tock
On Earth, we have a great many time zones. At current count, they number around 40 or so. Officially, they’re pegged by their offset from Greenwich Mean Time. Some jurisdictions use offsets on a half-hour or quarter-hour, though the majority stick to whole hours for simplicity.
Why do we have all these time zones? It’s because humans like to peg their days to local solar conditions. We want 12 o’clock midnight to be roughly the middle of the night, and we want the sun roughly overhead at noon. Thus, we select time zones that enable this so our days make sense in line with our clocks. The numbers we assign to any given hour are ultimately arbitrary; the universe doesn’t care if we think it’s 9 o’clock or 37 o’clock. We’ve just got it set up how we like it, in a way that works for our societies.
On the Moon, all that becomes largely meaningless. It’s not subject to the same day/night cycle as the Earth, because it’s a wholly separate celestial body that’s up there doing its own thing. In light of that, the simplest answer is to simply use a convenient Earth time zone for timekeeping on Moon missions.
A digital visualization of the Sun as seen from the Apollo 16 landing site. With no atmosphere to scatter light, the sky on the Moon is always effectively dark. You’re just looking at outer space, even when the sun is beaming down like in this image. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Ernie Wright
That’s all well and good for short operations, or those involving robots, to a degree. For example, the Apollo missions didn’t care much about “Moon time.” With missions lasting a day at most on the surface, they weren’t on the Moon long enough for day/night cycles or their circadian rhythms to be a major concern.
If humanity is to establish a permanent presence on the Moon, though, things get more complicated. Our bodies tend to like operating on a 24 hour schedule. Our sleep can get messed up if we don’t observe typical day/night cycles, and that can lead to fatigue, health, and performance issues. Thus, it could be of great importance for a Moon colony to schedule its operations around local conditions.
There’s also the prospect of establishing a satellite navigation system for the Moon, similar to GPS and Galileo on Earth. The ESA has proposed
the Moonlight initiative,
which aims to provide navigational coverage for astronauts on the Moon with lunar-orbiting satellites. Satellite navigation is strongly dependent on accurate time keeping, so the question will be what timebase will the satellites run on?
The far side of the Moon is not actually dark at all. It’s just the side that faces away from us because the Moon is tidally locked with Earth. We had to develop spacecraft to get a look at it. Credit:
NASA, public domain
.
The Moon’s rotation isn’t much help here for generating a day/night cycle: It only rotates once for every 29.5 Earth days. Moon days are weeks long, followed by nights on the same timescale. Don’t be confused by the concept of the “dark side of the Moon,” either. That’s more about how part of the Moon isn’t visible from Earth. It’s more correctly termed the “Far side of the Moon,” because it gets just as much sunlight as the near side.
Given the lighting conditions on the Moon, there’s little hope for creating Earth-like solar time zones. Instead, space agencies would likely declare that astronauts should stick to one Earth time zone, and ignore local solar conditions. Given that humans couldn’t reasonably stay up for the light part of a full Moon day anyway, this could be a fine solution. Any given group of astronauts could choose the time zone most convenient for working with their support teams back home on Earth. For example, Indian crews may wish to stick to India Standard Time, while NASA’s astronauts would probably prefer to stay on Central Time with Mission Control in Houston. In these cases, crews would likely use strict schedules and perhaps even light assistance to maintain Circadian rhythms. This is already typical protocol on stations
like the ISS.
It does get dark on the Moon, which is why we see “phases” of the Moon from Earth. In this visualization, you can see the lit part of the Moon is largely facing away from the observer. Credit:
NASA, public domain
There could still be some value in establishing a system of Moon time, though. Astronauts would still need to track the local day-night cycle in different regions, as this would have all kinds of impacts on local operations. It could be that the Moon is divided up into a series of 12 or 24 regions, each of which is given a day that’s 24 “Moon hours” long. When planning work in a given area, astronauts could check the local Moon time to determine whether their work will occur at day or night.
It’s easy to imagine overlaying local Moon time and a home Earth time zone on a calendar or planning app of some kind. Thus, if you know you’re heading to a given region at Moon midday, local Moon time, you know you’ve got at least 8.125 Earth days of sunlight before you get to the local dark time. Converting between this and the astronaut’s chosen 24-hour home time zone would become a perennial bugbear, but a necessary part of living and working on the Moon.
For most of us reading this, we needn’t worry too much about Moon time. Launch technologies are still primitive enough that few if any of us will ever trod the lunar soil. For our children’s children, or their children, though, it could be a big deal. They’ll be planning moon raves in disused ice mines that kick off at the dead of midnight, Far Side Lunar Time (FSLT). They’re going to have a ball. | 46 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744696",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T14:15:24",
"content": "You use a Lunar calendar. Duh doy!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744846",
"author": "LordNothing",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T23:13:08"... | 1,760,371,965.361087 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/reprogrammable-transistors/ | Reprogrammable Transistors | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Science"
] | [
"doping",
"electric field",
"electrostatic",
"research",
"transistor"
] | Not every computer can make use of a disk drive when it needs to store persistent data. Embedded systems especially have pushed the development of a series of erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs) because of their need for speed and reliability. But erasing memory and writing it over again, whether it’s an EPROM, an EEPROM, an FPGA, or some other type of configurable solid-state memory is just scratching the surface of what it might be possible to get integrated circuits and their transistors to do.
This team has created a transistor that itself is programmable
.
Rather than doping the semiconductor material with impurities to create the electrical characteristics needed for the transistor, the team from TU Wien in Vienna has developed a way to “electrostatically dope” the semiconductor, using electric fields instead of physical impurities to achieve the performance needed in the material. A second gate, called the program gate, can be used to reconfigure the electric fields within the transistor, changing its properties on the fly. This still requires some electrical control, though, so the team doesn’t expect their new invention to outright replace all transistors in the future, and they also note that it’s unlikely that these could be made as small as existing transistors due to the extra complexity.
While the article from IEEE lists some potential applications for this technology in the broad sense, we’d like to see what these transistors are actually capable of doing on a more specific level. It seems like these types of circuits could improve efficiency, as fewer transistors might be needed for a wider variety of tasks, and that there are certainly some enhanced security features these could provide as well. For a refresher on the operation of an everyday transistor, though,
take a look at this guide to the field-effect transistor
. | 21 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744644",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T11:22:01",
"content": "Fixing security issues.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744670",
"author": "Heartsbreaker",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T12:39:14",
... | 1,760,371,965.418297 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/this-air-particulate-sensor-can-also-check-your-pulse-rate/ | This Air Particulate Sensor Can Also Check Your Pulse Rate | Lewin Day | [
"Parts"
] | [
"blood",
"heart rate",
"max30105",
"pulse",
"pulse oximeter",
"sensor"
] | The MAX30105 is an optical sensor capable of a great many things. It can sense particulate matter in the air, or pick up the blinking of an eye. Or, you can use it as a rudimentary way to measure your heart rate and blood oxygen levels. It’s by no means a medical grade tool,
but this build from [Taste The Code] is still quite impressive.
The MAX30105 contains red, green, and infrared LEDs, and a very sensitive light detector. The way it works is by turning on its different LEDs, and then carefully measuring what gets reflected back. In this way it can measure particles in the air, such as smoke, which is actually what it was designed for originally. Or, if you press your finger up against it, it can measure the light coming back from your blood and determine its oxygenation level. By detecting the variation in the light over time, it’s possible to pick up your pulse, too.
Getting this data out of the sensor is remarkably easy. One need only hook it up to a suitable microcontroller like the ESP8266 and use the MAX3010X library to talk to it. [Taste The Code] did exactly that, and also hooked up a screen for displaying the captured data. Alternatively, if you want the raw data from the sensor,
you can get that too
.
It should be noted that this build was done for educational purposes only. You shouldn’t rely on a simple DIY device for gathering useful medical data;
there are reasons the real gear is so expensive
, after all.
We’ve looked at this sensor before, too, not long after it first hit the market
. | 7 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744612",
"author": "Cs",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T08:38:53",
"content": "Neat, I questioned whether an air quality sensor would sample fast enough for heart rate monitoring, but it turns out the chip goes up to 3200 sampler per second",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"r... | 1,760,371,965.213256 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/real-hidden-messages-in-music/ | Documenting Real Hidden Messages In Music | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"cassette",
"data",
"hidden",
"music",
"programs",
"retrocomputing",
"satanic panic",
"vinyl"
] | During the 1980s, a moral panic swept across the landscape with the mistaken belief that there were Satanic messages hidden in various games, books, and music that at any moment would corrupt the youth of the era and destroy society as we knew it. While completely unfounded, it turns out that there actually were some hidden messages in vinyl records of the time although they’d corrupt children in a different way, largely by getting them interested in computer science.
[Dandu] has taken to collecting these historic artifacts
, preserving the music and the software on various hidden recordings.
While it was possible to record only programs or other data to vinyl, much in the same way that cassette tapes can be used as a storage medium, [Dandu]’s research focuses mostly on records, tapes, and CDs which had data included alongside music. This includes not only messages or images, but often entire computer programs. In some cases these programs were meant to be used with the accompanying music, as was the case for The Other Side Of Heaven by Kissing The Pink with a program for the BBC Micro. Plenty of other contemporary machines are represented here too including the ZX Spectrum, Atari, Apple II, and the Commodore 64. The documentation extends through the CD era and even into modern music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
The process of extraction and recovery is detailed for each discovery, making it a comprehensive resource for retro computing enthusiasts stretching from the 80s to now. There are likely a few hidden pieces of data out there hidden in various antique storage media that [Dandu] hasn’t found yet, either. You could even make your own records with hidden programs provided you have some musical and programming talents,
and a laser engraver for the record itself
. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744579",
"author": "Joe",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T05:07:56",
"content": "Evil hidden alongside music? You must be thinking of the malware Sony put on their CDs.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744710",
"author": "J.... | 1,760,371,965.47886 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/complex-organic-chemistry-in-sulfuric-acid-and-life-on-venus/ | Complex Organic Chemistry In Sulfuric Acid And Life On Venus | Maya Posch | [
"Science",
"Space"
] | [
"astrobiology",
"biochemistry"
] | Finding extraterrestrial life in any form would be truly one of the largest discoveries in humankind’s history, yet after decades of scouring the surface of Mars and investigating other bodies like asteroids, we still have found no evidence. While we generally assume that we’re looking for carbon-based lifeforms in a water-rich environment like Jupiter’s moon Europa, what if complex organic chemistry would be just as happy with sulfuric acid (H
2
SO
4
) as solvent rather than dihydrogen monoxide (H
2
O)? This is the premise behind a range of recent studies, with a
newly published research article
in
Astrobiology
by [Maxwell D. Seager] and colleagues lending credence to this idea.
Previous studies have shown that organic chemistry in concentrated sulfuric acid is possible, and that nucleic acid bases – including adenosine, cytosine, guanine, thymine and uracil which form DNA – are also stable in this environment, which is similar to that of the Venusian clouds at an altitude where air pressure is roughly one atmosphere.
In this new article
, twenty amino acids were exposed to the concentrations of sulfuric acid usually found on Venus, at 98% and 81%, with the rest being water. Of these, 11 were unchanged after 4 weeks, 9 were reactive on their side chains, much like they would have been in pure water. Only tryptophan ended up being unstable, but as the researchers note, not all amino acids are stable in water either.
The limitations of this research is of course that it was performed in a laboratory environment, with uncontaminated concentrated sulfuric acid, rather than the Venusian clouds with their trace elements of other gases – such as CO
2
– and the constant bombardment with meteors that have been shown to often be laced with such amino acids. Future research will take these variables into account, even as scientists cannot wait to get data from
upcoming Venus missions
, with better sensors that may just catch a glimpse of such organic chemistry in action. | 25 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744570",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T04:20:54",
"content": "The cosmic coincidence of the atmospheric pressure and temperature at a certain altitude on Venus both being Earthlike combined with the fact that our habitat atmosphere would be a lifting gas is too tempting.... | 1,760,371,965.907899 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/are-minimills-worth-it/ | Are Minimills Worth It? | Al Williams | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"Machine tool",
"mill",
"minimill"
] | These days, the bar for home-built projects is high. With 3D printers, CNC, and cheap service providers, you can’t get away with building circuits in a shoe box or an old Tupperware container. While most people now have access to additive manufacturing gear, traditional subtractive equipment is still a bit less common. [Someone Should Make That] had thought about buying a “minimill” but he had read that they were not worth it. Like a lot of us, he
decided to do it anyway
. The pros and cons are in the video you can watch below.
During setup, he covered a few rumors he’d heard about these type of mills, including they are noisy, have poor tolerances, and can’t work steel. Some of these turned out to be true, and some were not.
Consider a computer. Sure, you want the giant 100-core monster with gobs of memory. But if your choice is to have a quad-core 4GB machine or nothing, you should probably take the computer you can get.
Honestly, the minimill he is using looked perfectly serviceable to us. Of course, he seems very skilled and we expect the knowledge and experience of the operator makes a big difference no matter what kind of tool you are using. He also purchased a better tool holder which doubtlessly helped.
Of course, these minimills aren’t dirt cheap. If you want bargain basement, you can always
hack something together
. Or, spend a little more and
build something
at least somewhat comparable. | 64 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744518",
"author": "Cyna",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T23:24:38",
"content": "3D printers _are_ CNC!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744539",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T01:11:14",
"content"... | 1,760,371,965.685275 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/axxsolder-3-0-now-takes-usb-power-delivery/ | AxxSolder 3.0 Now Takes USB Power Delivery | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"soldering iron"
] | If you’re big into the soldering iron scene, you’ve probably heard of the AxxSolder project. Now, it’s been updated
with a whole host of nifty new features.
It’s AxxSolder 3.0!
If you’re not intimately familiar with AxxSolder, it’s an open-source iron design based around the popular JBC soldering iron tips. Relying on the STM32G431CBT6 to run the show, it comes in two versions—a lightweight portable design, and a desktop version based around the JBC ADS soldering iron stand. So far, so familiar.
The new 3.0 version adds new functionality, however. Where the previous model ran off any old DC power source from 9 to 26 volts, the new version can run off a USB Power Delivery supply. Thus, you can grab any old USB-PD device, like a laptop charger, and run your iron off that.
The new version also uses a larger color TFT screen with some buttons added on as an improved user interface. Thermal performance is improved, and it’s additionally capable of measuring the current draw by the tip, so you can monitor the performance of the iron in great detail.
We’ve featured the AxxSolder project previously
, too, along with
some other great soldering iron projects
. If you reckon you’ve just designed the hottest new soldering tool yourself,
let us know about it! | 12 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744514",
"author": "PaulDriver",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T22:55:03",
"content": "Seems umm expensive.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744527",
"author": "Conor Stewart",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T00:20:08",
... | 1,760,371,965.528265 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/cosmic-ray-detection-at-starbucks/ | Cosmic Ray Detection At Starbucks? | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"cloud chamber",
"cosmic ray"
] | Want to see cosmic rays? You might need a lot of expensive exotic gear. Nah. [The ActionLab] shows how a cup of coffee or cocoa can
show you cosmic rays
— or something — with just the right lighting angle. Little bubbles on the surface of the hot liquid tend to vanish in a way that looks as though something external and fast is spreading across the surface.
To test the idea that this is from some external source, he takes a smoke detector with a radioactive sensor and places it near the coffee. That didn’t seem to have any effect. However, a Whimhurst machine in the neighborhood does create a big change in the liquid. If you don’t have a Whimhurst machine, you can rub a balloon on your neighbor’s cat.
We aren’t completely sure this effect is from cosmic rays and we think no one is actually sure. There have been scientific papers written. What do you think? Is it convection? Cosmic rays? Or maybe just electric charges. Put a cup on and start experimenting.
If you want to reliably see cosmic rays, build
a cloud chamber
. All you really need is
a plastic bottle
. | 23 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744906",
"author": "Kalle",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T07:12:09",
"content": "Is there some add revenue involved for mentioning that particular chain of warm sugar-drinks ever so often here?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744... | 1,760,371,965.747864 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/galvanize-your-grip-on-grep-with-this-great-grep-guide/ | Galvanize Your Grip On Grep With This Great Grep Guide | Ryan Flowers | [
"News",
"Software Development"
] | [
"grep",
"linux",
"regex",
"regular expression",
"tutorial",
"unix"
] | These days, you can’t throw a USB stick without hitting something that’s running Linux. It might be a phone, an embedded device, or your TV. Either way, it’s running Linux, and somewhere along the line of the development of whatever your USB stick smacked into, somebody used the Global Regular Expression Print utility- better known as Grep. But what is Grep, and why do you need it? [
Anton Zhiyanov
] not only answers those questions but provides
Grep by example: Interactive Guide
to help you along.
Grep By Example is also available as a PDF Minibook, and a Grep playground helps you learn quickly.
To understand Linux, one must understand its commercial predecessor, Unix. One of the things that made Unix (and then Linux) unique was its philosophy: Write programs that work together, do one thing well, and handle text streams. This philosophy describes a huge number of programs, and one of these programs is Grep. It’s installed everywhere there’s a *nix installed, and once one becomes familiar with it, their command-line-fu reaches an all new level.
At its core, Grep is simply a bloodhound. It’s scent? A magical incantation called Regular Expressions. Regular Expressions (aka Regex) are simply a way of describing what a stream of text should look like. So when you feed
G
rep a bit of
R
egular
E
xpression, it
P
rints
only
the text that matches that expression. Neat, right?
The trouble is that Regex can be kind of hard, and Grep has various versions and capabilities that need to be learned. And this is where the article shines- it covers both in an excellent interactive tutorial that’ll help you become a Grep Guru in no time. And if you want to do a deeper dive, check out what it takes to
make your own Regex Engine from scratch
! | 12 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744879",
"author": "Andrew",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T03:27:26",
"content": "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I’ll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.– Jamie Zawinski",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,965.267832 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/trick-your-1970-pickup-truck/ | Trick Your (1970) Pickup Truck | Al Williams | [
"LED Hacks",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"ESP32",
"led",
"truck"
] | [Dave] wanted an old pickup, and he found a GMC Sierra Grande truck vintage 1970. While it had an unusual amount of options, there weren’t that many high-tech options over 50 years ago. The five-year-long restoration work was impressive, as you can see in the video below, but we were really interested in the
electronics part
. As [Dave] mentions, the truck was made when the Saturn V was taking people to the moon, but after his modifications, the truck has a lot more computing power than the famous rocket.
He was concerned that the taillights were not up to modern standards and that it would be too easy for someone using their cell phone to plow into the rear of the truck. So he broke out an ESP32 and some LEDs and made an attractive brake light that would have been a high-tech marvel in 1970.
The biggest problem was not significantly modifying the truck. The tailgate conceals an LED strip and the rest of the gear attaches to the trailer connector. By the end of the project, the truck will have a full-width brake light, special turn signals, and a bright white backup light.
If you read Hackaday, you can probably figure out how the project works. But it is a great
implementation
and a very good adaptation to a vintage vehicle. If you aren’t a car person, there is an obligatory appearance of a TRS-80 computer towards the end.
We’ve seen many projects like this for bicycles. Before you tell us that you can blink taillights with a 555, we’ll mention that
we know that
. | 24 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744853",
"author": "DainBramage",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T23:39:01",
"content": "Sweet truck!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744868",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T02:51:21",
"content": "... | 1,760,371,965.973104 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/2024-home-sweet-home-automation-sms-controlled-heating/ | 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: SMS Controlled Heating | Dave Rowntree | [
"contests",
"home hacks"
] | [
"2024 Home Sweet Home Automation",
"ds1820",
"gammu",
"heating",
"python",
"Raspberry Pi B+",
"sms",
"stepper motor",
"storage heater",
"UMTS"
] | Hackaday.io user [mabe42] works during the week away from their home city and rents a small apartment locally to make this life practical. However, the heating system, a night-storage system, is not so practical. They needed a way to remotely control the unit so that the place was habitable after a long winter commute; lacking internet connectivity, they devised a sensible solution to create an
SMS-controlled remote heating controller
.
The controller runs atop an old Raspberry Pi B inside a 3D-printed case. Seeing such an old board given a real job to do is nice. Connectivity is via a USB UMTS stick which handles the SMS over the cellular network. The controller knob for the heater thermostat (not shown) is attached via a toothed belt to a pully and a
28BYJ-48
5V geared stepper motor. Temperature measurement is via the ubiquitous DS1820 module, which hooks straight up to the GPIO on the Pi and works out of the box with many one-wire drivers.
The software is built on top of
Gammu
, which handles the interface to the UMTS device. Daily and historical temperature ranges are sent via SMS so [mabe42] can decide how to configure the heating before their arrival. The rest of the software stack is in Python, as per this
(German-language) GitHub project
.
While we were thinking about storage heating systems (and how much of a pain they are), we came across this
demonstration of how to build one yourself
. | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744810",
"author": "James Baker",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T20:30:59",
"content": "Great project, but I controlled my heating with an SMS mains switch I got off Aliexpress decades ago. (Just about to go defunct as we switch off 2G).Feels like this is all very overboard :D",
"par... | 1,760,371,966.35127 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/2024-hackaday-europe-workshops-announced-get-your-tickets/ | 2024 Hackaday Europe: Workshops Announced, Get Your Tickets | Elliot Williams | [
"cons",
"Hackaday Columns"
] | [
"2024 hackaday europe"
] | There are only a few weeks left until Hackaday Europe takes place in Berlin on April 13th and 14th. With only one
full
day of programming, we simply can’t run as many workshops as we do at Supercon, but what we do have should tickle your fancy. As if that weren’t enough, there will be at least a few other impromptu workshops and activities to distract you from the talks.
If you’re thinking of attending,
get your tickets now for both the event and the workshops of your choice
. There are only a few left, and workshops sell out like hotcakes.
Official Workshops
Jaap Meijers
Light modulation: Listening to Light, Seeing Sound
Ever wondered what light sounds like? In this workshop you will make the visible audible and the audible visible. By means of a small solar panel and loudspeaker you will discover the hidden frequencies that surround us. You will also experiment with sending music via visible light.
Paul Beech
Loud Bangs. Uncensored Robot Carnage.
You’ll be given a microcontroller, code examples and a bunch of wheels, mounts and other frills. With the support from a couple of tinkerers you have to build a robot to complete five simple tasks. Robots can be remote controlled or autonomous. Bonuses for autonomy. Prizes for innovation, hilarity and maybe even for completing the tasks.
Matt Venn
Tiny Tapeout
In this workshop you will get the opportunity to design and have manufactured your own design on an ASIC. You will learn the basics of how semiconductors are designed and made, the basics of digital logic, and how to use an online digital design tool to build and simulate a simple design. All participants will be able to get their design manufactured free of charge thanks to Efabless sponsorship. Physical chip and PCB are sold separately and are available to purchase during or after the workshop. Participants will need a laptop. Mouse strongly advised.
Unofficial Workshops
Kevin Santo Cappuccio
Building a Jumperless Probe and Poking Stuff
In this workshop, you’ll build your own personalized probe for a
Jumperless breadboard
and then use it to poke out some 7400-series logic circuits super quickly. You’ll also learn the ins-and-outs of using a Jumperless for other things. At the end, we’ll hold a race to see who can wire up a given circuit the fastest. Kevin will have Jumperless boards available for sale for those who want to take one home.
Bart Derudder
UV Tape Wall
Bart’s UV Tape walls have showed up at a number of European hacker conventions, and he’s volunteered to set one up for us! He’ll be running a short workshop to get the ball rolling for people to keep adding their own creations. No need to register, just bring your ideas!
Hackaday conferences are participatory, and we want you to bring whatever you’re interested in as well. If a Workshop isn’t your style, but you still have something to share, plan on giving a lightning talk Sunday morning! We’d love to hear what you’re up to. | 7 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744922",
"author": "Bob the builder",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T09:47:05",
"content": "Seems great, but a bit far, although I’m only one country over (Netherlands). It’s 240 euro’s driving, or a little over 300 flying. With hotel costs etc, it becomes a very expensive ordeal.",
... | 1,760,371,966.221209 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/retrotechtacular-build-your-own-dune-buggy-1970s-style/ | Retrotechtacular: Build Your Own Dune Buggy, 1970s Style | Jenny List | [
"Retrotechtacular",
"Slider",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"custom car",
"dune buggy",
"vw beetle"
] | The custom car phenomenon is as old as the second-hand car, yet somehow the decades which stick in the mind as their heyday are the 1960s and 1970s. If you didn’t have a dune buggy or a van with outrageously flared arches and an eye-hurting paint job you were nothing in those days — or at least that’s what those of us who were too young to possess such vehicles except as posters on our bedroom walls were led to believe.
Periscope Films
have put up
a period guide from the early 1970s on how to build your own dune buggy
, and can we just say it’s got us yearning to drive something just as outrageous?
Of course, auto salvage yards aren’t bursting with Beetles as donor cars in 2024, indeed the accident-damaged model used in the film would almost certainly now be lovingly restored instead of being torn apart to make a dune buggy. We’re taken through the process of stripping and shortening the Beetle floorpan, for which we’re thankful that in 2024 we have decent quality cutting disks, and watching the welder joining thin sheet metal with a stick welder gives us some serious respect for his skills.
Perhaps the part of this video most likely to raise a smile is how it portrays building a car as easy. Anyone who has ever hacked a car to pieces will tell you that’s the easy part, and it’s the building something from the pile of rusty parts which causes so many projects to fail. But given an accident damaged Beetle and a buggy kit in 1972 would we have dug in and given it a try? Of course!
We’ve
touched on the Beetle’s hackability
in the past, but some of us believe that
the crown of most hackable car rests elsewhere
. | 21 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744793",
"author": "Garth",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T19:55:12",
"content": "Made me flash back to Hey Hey We’re The Monkees who had a dune buggy and the cartoon Speed Buggy (in the 60s and early 70s). Miss those days….",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,966.286755 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/26/night-vision-the-old-way/ | Night Vision The Old Way | Al Williams | [
"History",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"night vision",
"photocathode"
] | Solid state electronics have provided lighter weight night vision units that work better than the old-fashioned gear that used photomultiplier tubes, but there was an even older technology as [Our Own Devices] shows us in a recent video. The
Metascope Type B
was a first-generation passive night vision viewer that relied on moonlight.
The video shows a 1946 technical paper from the Office of Scientific Research and Development with [Vannevar Bush] credited as the institute’s director. If that name sounds familiar, you may remember that he foresaw
hypertext
(
inspiring both [Doug Englebart]
and the creation of the Web).
The Type B was an improvement over the older Type A, which had been tested during the invasion of North Africa in 1942. The type A weighed less than two pounds and was much smaller than the type B. However, it didn’t work very well, so they stopped making them and did a redesign, which is what you see in the video. The type B weighed almost 5 pounds.
To use the metascope, you had to “charge” it with light and then wait. Eventually, you’d need to charge it again. The type B allowed you to charge one phosphor plate while using another one. When that plate became weak, you could swap the plates to continue using the device.
If you aren’t keen on the history, you can skip to just before the 15-minute mark of the video for the hardware examination. He doesn’t open the device, but that’s probably wise, given the nature, age, and rarity of the metascope.
Modern image sensors are very sensitive to infrared, and normal cameras usually have filters to keep them out. Not that you can’t
remove it
, of course. If you want to see something more modern, [Nick] built his own
AN/PVS-14 night vision scope
and you can too. | 7 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744749",
"author": "spaceminions",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T17:04:15",
"content": "“Solid state electronics have provided lighter weight night vision units that work better than the old-fashioned gear that used photomultiplier tubes”That’s news to me. The old night vision units tha... | 1,760,371,966.08747 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/3d-printing-with-ersatz-moon-dust/ | 3D Printing With (Ersatz) Moon Dust | Al Williams | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"filament",
"moon"
] | When the people of Earth set up bases on the moon, you can imagine that 3D printing will be a key enabling technology. Of course, you could ship plastic or other filament at great cost. But what if you could print with something you can already find on the moon? Like moon dust. NASA thinks it is possible and has been doing tests on doing just that. Now [Virtual Foundry] wants to let you have a shot at trying it yourself. It doesn’t really contain moon dust, but their
Basalt Moon Dust Filamet
has a similar composition. You can see a video about the material below.
It isn’t cheap, but it is probably cheaper than going up there to get some yourself. At least for now. The company is known for making PLA with various metal and ceramic materials. Like their other filaments, you print it more or less like PLA, although you need a large hardened nozzle, and they suggest a prewarmer to heat the filament before going to the hot end.
They recommend printing at 210 °C and 135% flow rate. The material contains about 60% basalt, and after sintering at a very high temperature, the remaining material is all basalt.
This isn’t the first time we’ve looked at filament that
mixes in metal or ceramics
. We’ve seen
copper-laden filament from Virtual Foundry used to make rocket nozzles
. | 29 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6745079",
"author": "Martin",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T20:22:48",
"content": "This article sounds like an advertisement. No real life experience with the material just a link to the shop and a YouTube video from the manufacturer.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,371,966.161086 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/2024-home-sweet-home-automation-hexpod-climate-tracker-and-digital-nose/ | 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: [HEX]POD – Climate Tracker And Digital Nose | Dave Rowntree | [
"contests",
"hardware"
] | [
"2024 Home Sweet Home Automation",
"3d printed",
"BME688",
"ESP32",
"hexagon",
"SCD41",
"sensor fusion",
"SGP41",
"tensor flow"
] | [eBender] was travelling India with friends, when one got sick. Unable to find a thermometer anywhere during COVID, they finally ended up in a hospital. After being evacuated back home, [eBender] hatched an idea to create a portable gadget featuring a few travel essentials: the ability to measure body temperature and heart rate, a power bank and an illumination source. The scope evolved quite a lot, with the concept being to create a learning platform for environmental multi-sensor fusion. The
current cut-down development kit
hosts just the air quality measurement components, but expansion from this base shouldn’t be too hard.
ML for Hackers: Fiddle with that Tensor Flow
This project’s execution is excellent, with a hexagon-shaped enclosure and PCBs stacked within. As everyone knows,
hexagons are the bestagons
. The platform currently hosts SCD41 and SGP41 sensors for air quality, a BME688 for gas detection, LTR-308 for ambient light and motion, and many temperature sensors.
On top sits a 1.69-inch IPS LCD, with an OLED display on the side for always-on visualization. The user interface is completed with a joystick and a couple of buttons. An internal blower fan is ducted around the sensor array to pull not-so-fresh air from outside for evaluation. Control is courtesy of an ESP32 module, with the gory details buried deep in the extensive project logs, which show sensors and other parts being swapped in and out.
On the software side, some preliminary work is being done on training TensorFlow to learn the sensor fusion inputs. This is no simple task. Finally, we would have a complete package if [eBender] could source a hexagonal LCD to showcase that hexagon-orientated GUI. However, we doubt such a thing exists, which is a shame.
There are many air quality sensors on the market now, so we see a few hacks based on them, like this
simple AQ sensor hub
. Let’s not forget the importance of environmental CO2 detection; here’s
something to get you started
. | 10 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6745097",
"author": "BrightBlueJim",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T21:59:30",
"content": "The words “OLED” and “always-on” really don’t belong in the same sentence, unless the word “never” is also present. OLEDs, like their electroluminescent ancestors, have a limited lifetime, and it’s... | 1,760,371,966.562177 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/the-roller-ship-was-not-an-effective-way-to-cross-the-high-seas/ | The Roller Ship Was Not An Effective Way To Cross The High Seas | Lewin Day | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Misc Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"boat",
"drag",
"hydrodynamics",
"roller ship",
"ship"
] | Boats come in all shapes and sizes. We have container ships, oil tankers, old-timey wooden sailing ships, catamarans, trimarans, and all sorts besides. Most are designed with features that give them a certain advantage or utility that justifies their construction for a given application.
The roller ship, on the other hand, has not justified its own repeat construction. Just one example was ever built, which proved unseaworthy and impractical. Let’s explore this nautical oddity and learn about why it didn’t make waves as its inventor may have hoped.
Floater
Bazin’s roller ship at launch in St. Denis, France, as seen in the February 1897 edition of Cassier’s Magazine. Credit:
public domain
The basic idea of the roller ship was to get much of the ship’s body out of the water. This part of the concept was sound. Contact with the water creates a great deal of drag on a ship, so reducing the amount of the boat in the water would enable it to travel much faster. Many designs, like catamarans and hydrofoils, have cut drag by reducing the wetted area of the boat, and done so effectively. The roller ship, however, didn’t do it so well.
The roller ship used a number of large rollers on either side of the boat. Each roller was disc shaped, and tapered radially, having a vaguely lens-like shape. The rollers were hollow, and intended to provide floatation for the craft and propulsion. When stationary, the discs were essentially like a skinny hull. However, the rollers could be driven akin to large wheels on a road-going craft, which provided some forward drive. The roller ship design also featured a screw drive to aid in propulsive efforts.
The Ernest-Bazin roller ship, as depicted in La Nature, 1897. Credit:
public domain
Just one roller ship was ever built and made operational. French inventor Ernest Bazin built a working craft in 1896, naming it after himself. Weighing in at over 200 tons It was the culminating result of five years spent testing models to explore the concept. The craft featured six large rollers, three on each side. The rollers were driven in pairs, with each axle having a 50 horsepower engine. It was a large and imposing craft, some 40 meters long and 12 meters wide, with the main hull standing 4 meters above sea level.
The general hope was that the roller ship would slash travel times by virtue of its low-drag design. Sadly, an attempt to cross the English Channel in 1897 revealed that the roller design had one unforeseen drawback. In the water, the rollers tended to drag a great deal of water up with them as they rotated. Rather than turning quickly, the rollers labored and the craft could barely break
a dozen miles an hour according to a contemporary account.
Even for the late 19th century, that was slow.
A depiction of the roller ship concept in Cassier’s Magazine, 1897. The idea of a faster way to cross the ocean had enough value back then that it excited interest on both sides of the Atlantic. Credit:
public domain
Bazin wasn’t deterred, and later claimed to have solved the problems of the design. Sadly, he would pass away a short time later in 1898, leaving behind unfinished plans for an eight-disc ocean liner he believed could cross from Le Havre, France to New York in just 60 hours.
Ultimately, the roller ship was a mechanically complicated concept with no real benefit. Putting rollers in water didn’t make a craft more capable than simply designing a boat with narrow fixed hulls and a more traditional propulsion system. Beyond that, the hydrofoil would prove a far more useful way of cutting drag for ships with far less fuss. There are also questions around how stable the ship could possibly be with such a high center of gravity, with much of the weight sticking so high out of the water.
And yet, like so many other fanciful designs, it captured hearts and minds along the way. It ended up depicted in
all kinds of media,
showing up everywhere from
Nature
to
Scientific American.
And we still remember its example today! It’s proof of how much we appreciate an oddball design, even if it has no practical value whatosever. | 25 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6745028",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T18:06:44",
"content": "I seem to remember seeing something like it in Future Life magazine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6745034",
"author": "zx80",
"timestamp"... | 1,760,371,966.457656 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/sort-of-electromagnet-attracts-copper-aluminum/ | Sort Of Electromagnet Attracts Copper, Aluminum | Al Williams | [
"Science"
] | [
"electromagnet",
"magnet",
"shaded pole"
] | It is a common grade school experiment to wind some wire around a screw, power it up, and watch it pick up paper clips or other ferrous materials. It is also grade school science to show that neither an electromagnet nor a permanent magnet will pick up nonferrous items like copper or aluminum. While technically not an electromagnet, it is possible to build
a similar device that will weakly pull on copper and aluminum
, and [Cylo] shows us how it works in a recent video you can see below.
The device sure looks like an electromagnet made with magnet wire and a steel core. But when he shows the ends of the core, you’ll see that the side that attracts aluminum has a copper ring embedded in it. The coil is fed with AC.
The magnetic field from the coil induces an opposite field in the copper ring that is out of phase with the exciting field. The two fields combine to produce a force on the metal it interacts with. This is often referred to as a shaded pole, and the same technique can help AC motors self-start as well as hold in relays driven by AC. If you want to see much more about aluminum floating on a magnetic field, check out the 1975 video from [Professor Laithwaite] in the second video below.
You probably have a
shaded pole AC motor in your microwave oven
. Or, maybe,your
old 8-track player
. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6745082",
"author": "Am",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T20:27:43",
"content": "I wonder if the same principle scaled up can be used to collect fine gold from a river",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6745220",
"author": "soli... | 1,760,371,966.510044 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/japans-first-commercial-rocket-debuts-with-a-bang/ | Japan’s First Commercial Rocket Debuts With A Bang | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Slider",
"Space"
] | [
"commercial space",
"japan",
"JAXA",
"solid fuel rocket"
] | Though it suffered through decades of naysayers, these days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who would still argue that the commercialization of space has been anything but a resounding success for the United States. SpaceX has completely disrupted what was a stagnant industry — of the 108 US rocket launches in 2023, 98 of them were performed by the Falcon 9. Even the smaller players, such as Rocket Lab and Blue Origin, are innovating and bringing new technologies to market at a rate which the legacy aerospace companies haven’t been able to achieve since the Space Race.
So it’s no surprise that other countries are looking to replicate that success. Japan in particular has been following NASA’s playbook by offering lucrative space contracts to major domestic tech companies such as Mitsubishi, Honda, NEC, Toyota, Canon, Kyocera, and Sumitomo. Over the last several years this has resulted in the development of a number spacecraft and missions, such as the Hakuto-R Moon lander. It’s also laid the groundwork for exciting future projects, like the crewed lunar rover Toyota and Honda are jointly developing for the Artemis program.
But so far there’s been a crucial element missing from Japan’s commercial space aspirations, an orbital booster rocket. While the country has state-funded launch vehicles such as the H-IIA and H3 rockets, they come with the usual bureaucracy one would expect from a government program. In comparison, a privately developed and operated booster holds the promise of reduced costs and a higher launch cadence, especially if there are multiple competing vehicles on the market.
With the recent test flight of Space One’s KAIROS rocket, that final piece of the puzzle may finally be falling into place.
While the launch unfortunately failed shortly after liftoff
, the fact that the private rocket was able to get off the ground — literally and figuratively — is a promising sign of what’s to come.
Space One
Founded in 2018 with investments from Canon Electronics, IHI Corporation and, Shimizu Corporation, Space One is a private spaceflight company that aims to provide competitively priced “smallsat” launch services.
By operating from their own private launch site, known as Space Port Kii, Space One believes they can offer a shorter lead time from contract agreement to flight than other providers. Located on the southernmost point of Honshu island, there’s no shortage of open ocean to the East and South, making it a perfect location for launches to several orbital inclinations.
The key partners in Space One aren’t just investors, either. According to the company’s website, each one brings something unique to the table thanks to their industry experience. For example Canon’s experience in producing cost-optimized mass market devices is identified as one way the company hopes to reduce the cost of their rockets and spacecraft.
KAIROS
The KAIROS rocket, which is Greek for “right time”, is the first launch vehicle designed and built by Space One. It uses three solid-propellant stages to place 250 kilograms (550 pounds) into low Earth orbit, and stands approximately 18 meters (59 feet) tall on the launch pad.
Electron, KAIROS, and Falcon 9 rockets to scale.
In terms of physical scale and payload capacity, the closest competitor to the KAIROS would have to be
Rocket Lab’s Electron
, which is roughly the same height (depending on payload fairing) and only slightly narrower. The Electron can carry 300 kg (660 lb) to orbit, though it should be noted that its payload capacity has increased over time as the vehicle has been incrementally improved, which may yet be the case with KAIROS.
Neither rocket is designed to compete directly with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse. These smaller rockets are looking to provide bespoke launch services to satellites which have specific schedule or orbital requirements that SpaceX can’t match (at least, not for the same cost) with their “rideshare” missions which carry multiple small satellites to the same orbital inclinations and altitudes simultaneously.
With that in mind, the fact that KAIROS is using solid rocket engines could be seen as a considerable advantage. While more difficult to control during operation, solid fuel engines are far cheaper and easier to build than their liquid counterparts. They can also be stored for long periods of time, and be launched at a moment’s notice. For this reason, solid rocket engines have long been used for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and other rocket-propelled weapons.
While Space One’s ambitions are naturally peaceful, the same traits that are important for an ICBM (long storage time, high reliability, instant availability) are also beneficial if you’re looking to offer short turnaround orbital launches.
On Small Step…
KAIROS took to the sky for the first time on March 13th. While the rocket successfully cleared the launch pad, the flight termination system kicked in after roughly five seconds and completely destroyed the vehicle. At that point KAIROS hadn’t gained much altitude, so the wreckage fell back down onto the launch pad and ground equipment. There were no injuries, and the resulting fire was put out quickly.
As of right now, there’s been no official word on what caused the vehicle to self-destruct. Video of the flight, brief as it was, shows no obvious issues — the booster was flying straight and appeared to be stable. An investigation is ongoing, and hopefully we’ll know more soon.
In a statement to the press, Space One President Masakazu Toyoda said “We are taking what happened in a positive way and remain prepared to take up the next challenge”, while declining to categorize the launch as a failure.
While obviously not the result the company was hoping for, a first flight of a new rocket is always risky. Doubly so for a privately designed and built one. SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, Virgin Orbit, Astra, and Relativity Space all experienced failures during the inaugural launch of their respective rockets. In fact, most of them suffered several failures. Like those companies, the future of Space One is going to depend on what happens on the second, third, and fourth flight. | 11 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744978",
"author": "Colin",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T14:33:49",
"content": "Vid of the launch and explosionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AErsimi1X2c",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6745117",
"author": "craig",
... | 1,760,371,966.75528 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/3d-printing-real-wood-with-just-cellulose-and-lignin/ | 3D Printing Real Wood With Just Cellulose And Lignin | Maya Posch | [
"3d Printer hacks",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed wood",
"bioprinting",
"cellulose"
] | Although the components of wood – cellulose and lignin – are exceedingly cheap and plentiful, combining these into a wood-like structure is not straightforward, despite many attempts to make these components somehow self-assemble. A recent attempt by [MD Shajedul Hoque Thakur] and colleagues as
published in
Science Advances
now may have come closest to 3D printing literal wood using cellulose and lignin ink, using direct ink writing (DIW) as additive manufacturing method.
Microstructures of 3D printed wood after printing and post-printing operations. (Credit: Thakur et al., 2024)
This water-based ink was created by mixing TOCN (
tempo-oxidized
cellulose nanofiber), a 10.6 wt % aqueous CNC (cellulose nanocrystals) and lignin in a 15:142:10 ratio, giving it roughly the viscosity of clay. The purpose of having both TOCNs and CNCs is to replicate the crystalline and amorphous cellulose elements of wood-based cellulose.
This ink was printed from a syringe head (SDS-60) installed in a
Hyrel 3D Engine HR
3D printer. This printer is much like your average FDM printer, just targeting bioprinting and a wide range of heads to print and handle various attachments in a laboratory setting. The ink was extruded into specific shapes that were either freeze dried to get rid of the liquid component, or additionally also heated (at 180°C), with a third set of samples put into a hot press. These additional steps seem to promote the binding of the lignin and create a more durable result.
The produced samples were compared against the natural hardwood (balsa wood) which its ingredients were derived from. Not unlike with FDM printing, the heating and pressure seems to promote the annealing between the different layers, which themselves are somewhat similar to the growth patterns found in natural wood. Effectively, the more the samples were pressed in more directions, the better their properties, yet missing from the printed wood are the long fibers that naturally occur during the growth process.
Although promising, the researchers note that the involved steps of freeze drying and hot-press are energy intensive, not to mention cumbersome. These findings do raise the prospect of further developments of this basic ink formulation and post-processing methods which could making it more accessible and efficient. Perhaps one day DIW wood printing will become as much as a stable of hobby rooms and manufacturing facilities as FDM, SLS and SLA printing today. | 24 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744940",
"author": "Neverm|nd",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T11:40:32",
"content": "… I am not sure I understand… Trees, do it all on their own (and much more efficently). Why on Earth would you want to *print* wood ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,966.638029 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/27/automatic-position-reporting-over-hf-radio/ | Automatic Position Reporting Over HF Radio | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"APRS",
"gps",
"HF",
"high frequency",
"JS8Call",
"position",
"radio",
"raspberry pi",
"road trip",
"text"
] | While most of us carry cell phones that have GPS and other location services, they require a significant amount of infrastructure to be useful. Drive from Washington to Alaska like [Lonney] did a while back, where that infrastructure is essentially nonexistent, and you’ll need to come up with some other solutions to let friends and family know where you are.
A tool called the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) is fairly robust in the very high frequency (VHF) part of the amateur radio spectrum, but this solution still relies on a not-insignificant amount of infrastructure for the limited distances involved with VHF.
[Lonney] adapted a few other tools to get APRS up and running in the HF range
, letting his friends keep tabs on him even from the most remote locations.
The build relies on a second piece of software called JS8Call which is a text-based mode that allows radio operators to communicate “keyboard to keyboard”. It has a number of interesting features beyond this basic functionality though, including message forwarding. The software in [Lonney]’s build allows a small computer equipped with a GPS receiver to gather its location information, compose a brief message in JS8Call, and then send it to the APRS network in the high frequency (HF) portion of the spectrum which supports much further communications distances than VHF generally allows.
The build goes a little beyond the functionality of widely-available radio software, though. He’s also written scripts that automate a lot of the tricky parts of dealing with a car and
getting radios set up in one for a road trip
, including automatic startup and shutdown. Originally this was built with a Raspberry Pi but he’s since switched to a laptop. He’s also done some testing on various bands and found the 40-meter band to be the best compromise between activity and range, with more than enough of each to make the long trip again.
For those unfamiliar with JS8Call, we’ve touched on it briefly with a few builds like
this digital HF SDR transceiver
which supports the protocol, but the short story is that it’s built on another tool called FT8 which was originally designed for quick contacts using weak signals. JS8Call essentially expands the functionality of
this fairly revolutionary method of radio operation
. | 13 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744960",
"author": "Major Armstrong",
"timestamp": "2024-03-27T13:07:04",
"content": "We used ARPS to keep track of friends as they traveled in a snowstorm. Very useful .Bryan: Great Article, do one on Reverse Beacon. Net. Another excellent web-based app.",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,966.699077 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/the-cryotron-remembered/ | The Cryotron Remembered | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"cryotron",
"retrocomputing"
] | [Sean Haas] is a “dangerous freelance historian,” and his recent talk at the Vintage Computer Festival in Southern California covers the
cryotron
— a strange detour on the road to computers circa 1956. The NSA wanted a computer to break codes, but in 1956, there wasn’t much to pick from, especially since they wanted a very fast computer.
As you might expect from the name, a cryotron depends on superconductivity. The original device was a tantalum wire wrapped with a niobium wire coil. When the device is soaked in liquid helium, both wires become superconducting. The tantalum wire can carry way more current in that state unless the niobium coil generates a magnetic field, which kills the wire’s superconductivity. On the plus side, you have a relay-like switch that works with no moving parts. On the negative side, you need liquid helium.
General Electric produced one of the first integrated circuits containing a thin film cryotron, which was flat. While the switching was fast, it wasn’t as fast as it could be, so marrying the cryotron with a Josephson junction improved the device to where it could switch at less than 800 picoseconds. That isn’t all that remarkable today, but that was a technical feat in the 1950s and 1960s.
If you enjoy [Sean’s] talk, you might want to read the
original paper
from 1955 from [Dudley Buck]. We’ve looked back
at the device before
(and you can still
find the broken link
). Turns out you can do a lot with a
Josephson junction
. | 16 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744467",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T18:37:43",
"content": "I wonder what would happen if we revisited all these old-and-now-defuncted technologies, e.g betamax, DAT, cryotrons, etc etc. What our generation (and the ones to come) could still learn from it."... | 1,760,371,966.859176 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-pickle-pi/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Pickle Pi | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"chording",
"chording keyboard",
"Gherkin",
"Hokusai",
"Pi Zero 2",
"Raspberry Pi Pico",
"tablet",
"the Great Wave"
] | Image by [jefmer] via
Hackaday.IO
The unstoppable [jefmer] wrote in to alert me to
Pickle Pi
, their latest Keebin’-friendly creation. Why “Pickle Pi”? Well, the Pi part should be obvious, but the rest comes from the Gherkin 30% ortholinear keyboard [jefmer] built with Gateron Yellows and, unfortunately, second-choice XDA keycaps, as the first batch were stolen off of the porch.
If you’re wondering where the rest of the keys are, they are accessible by holding various keys rather than tapping them. Shift is Shift when
tapped
held, but becomes Enter when tapped. [jefmer] wrote out their entire project description on the thing in order to break in the Gherkin.
The brains of this acrylic sandwich tablet is a Pi Zero 2, with a Pro Micro for the keyboard controller. Although programs like Ghostwriter and Thonny work fine, Chromium is “painfully slow” due to the RAM limitations of the Pi Zero 2. On the upside, battery life is 7-8 hours depending on usage. Even so, [jefmer] might replace it with a Pi 4 — the current battery pack won’t support a Pi 5.
Manhattan’s Last Typewriter Shop Is the Lasting Type
Image by [Julia Gergely] via
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
You’d think, of all places, that Manhattan would be the last bastion of multiple typewriter sales and repair shops, but you’d be wrong.
There’s only one left, and they’re doing just fine, thank you.
The Gramercy Typewriter Company is on its second- and third-generation owners at this point, having opened in 1932. Abraham Schweitzer was looking for any work he could find during the Depression, and found a job sweeping up in a typewriter shop. He watched, he listened, and over time, got more responsibilities.
Then he decided to go out on his own, and started going door-to-door to service typewriters. Eventually, he needed space to store tools and supplies, and the Gramercy Typewriter Company was born. Although the storefront has changed a few times over the years, the name and the business practices remain the same as ever — they don’t take credit cards, and they mostly keep their customer database on index cards.
Today, the Schweitzers service about 30 machines per week to make their living. They also sell typewriters of all sorts, with manuals, electrics, and vintage machines going for anywhere from $245 to $1,000.
The Centerfold: the Great Wave
Image by [Gollum999] via
reddit
[Gollum999]
just went custom after ten years on a Roccat Ryos keyboard
, and they’re riding Hokusai’s Great Wave all the way from the desk mat to the keycaps. Now, I have a major personal affinity for all things Great Wave, and I might have to see about getting a set of those KAT Great Wave keycaps even if there is no ergo set.
Anyway, this is a Keychron Q3 with a Keychron Q0 Plus num pad, which looks fantastic on the left vis-à-vis the keycap gradient. I can’t even imagine how it would look on the right, other than wrong. Underneath all the kanji are 40 g Zeal Clickies in tactile mode, which means that the position of the click leaf is closer to 45 ° than the near 90 ° position of clicky mode. If you don’t know about these switches, they are for the adventurous and/or truly undecided as
they are able to assume linear, tactile, or clicky mode
. Surgery required, of course.
Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad?
Send me a picture
along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!
Historical Clackers: the Lambert
A Lambert 1 from 1902. Image by [Martin Howard] via
Antique Typewriters
If you’re a hunt and peck typist (and I’d venture to guess that many people were in 1896), then
the Lambert typewriter might be for you.
You see, the Lambert was meant to be poked at with one finger, ideally of the right hand. The left hand was reserved for the shift lever sticking out of the side. This lever can assume one of three positions, giving three characters for each key.
See that orb in the middle of the keyboard? That’s the space button. And that Saturn’s ring around the space button that holds the keys — the whole thing tilts whenever you press one.
In order to see what you’ve typed, you have to lift up the keyboard. But then again, obscuring the text in one way or another seems to be fairly typical for machines of this era. Be sure to check it out in action in the video below.
ICYMI: This Pico-Powered Chording Keyboard
Image by [akmnos22] via
Instructables
If you have limited use of your hands or just want to have a mouse hand and a keyboard hand for simplicity and extra desk space, you can’t beat
a chording keyboard such as this one
from [akmnos22].
Of course, you’ll have to learn chording, which means that you’ll now press combinations of keys instead of one-for-one to create characters. I understand it’s faster, and it certainly looks cool, though I’m not personally sold on learning how to type this way just for funsies. If you’re a regular chorder, let me know in the comments how long it took you to learn.
As you can (probably) see, the brain is a Raspberry Pi Pico, which we’ve seen in a lot of keyboards lately. Given their ample GPIO, the Pico is a great choice. In the write-up, [akmnos22] does a great job of explaining the build, making it easy to replicate if you’re so inclined.
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards?
Help me out by sending in a link or two
. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to
email me directly
. | 1 | 1 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744785",
"author": "CityZen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-26T19:33:49",
"content": "Great Wave keyboard needs a Great Wave wrist rest.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
}
] | 1,760,371,966.805096 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/dodge-the-weird-tripod-robot/ | Dodge, The Weird Tripod Robot | Lewin Day | [
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"camera",
"ESP32",
"ESP32-CAM",
"robot",
"tripod"
] | [hannu_hell] created Dodge as a “novel design of tripod.”
It’s a small robotic device quite unlike anything else we’ve seen of late. It’s intended to be a self-mobile camera platform that can move itself around to capture footage as needed.
Dodge is essentially a two-legged robot with a large flat “foot” in the center. When stationary, it rests on this flat foot. When it needs to move, it can raise this center foot and rest on its two outside legs. If Dodge needs to move, it can crab back and forth in a line with these two legs. If it wants to turn, it can return to resting on its center foot, and pivot about its central axis. It can thus rotate itself and use its two outer legs to move further as needed.
Dodge does all this while carrying an ESP32 Cam module. The idea is that it’s a small mobile tripod platform with a live camera feed. It reminds us of various small monitoring robots from cartoons and anime.
Ultimately, it’s an interesting take on robot locomotion. Rather than walking with two legs or four legs and dynamic stability, it takes full advantage of static stability instead.
We’ve seen some
wild roboticized camera rigs over the years
. Video after the break. | 13 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744437",
"author": "Evaprototype",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T15:55:50",
"content": "There was a robot toy that moved in a similar fashion but the legs used linkages. It was some kind of toy battlebot. But this one has a little more personality and a fun execution.",
"parent_id":... | 1,760,371,967.086751 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/user-beware-the-fine-line-between-content-and-code/ | User Beware: The Fine Line Between Content And Code | Tom Nardi | [
"Current Events",
"Featured",
"Security Hacks",
"Slider",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"kde",
"software repositories",
"theme"
] | Everyone loves themes. Doesn’t matter if it’s a text editor or a smart display in the kitchen, we want to be able to easily customize its look and feel to our liking. When setting up a new device or piece of software, playing around with the available themes may be one of the first things you do without giving it much thought. After all, it’s not like picking the wrong one is going to do something crazy like silently delete all the files on your computer, right?
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened a few days ago to [JeansenVaars] while trying out a Plasma Global Theme from the KDE Store.
According to their Reddit post
, shortly after installing the “Gray Layout” theme for the popular Linux graphical environment, the system started behaving oddly and then prompted for a root password. Realizing something didn’t seem right they declined, but at that point, it was already too late for all of the personal files in their home directory.
More Than Meets the Eye
So what happened? There remains some debate about exactly what caused things to go sideways, but one thing seems clear: the theme wasn’t
designed
to be malicious. While admittedly not very highly rated on the KDE Store, it still had nearly 3,800 downloads when [JeansenVaars] installed it, and we would have heard by now if all those folks had their home directories wiped out. A few Reddit users poked around in the source for “Gray Layout”, and found some potentially troubling lines, such as this one:
rm -Rf "$configFolder"
The troubled theme has since been removed.
This would certainly trigger a Bad Day depending on the value of
$configFolder
, but despite looking scary, others pointed out that this line actually comes from an upstream project and that there’s no obvious way this command could be directed towards the entire filesystem given the way the string was pieced together elsewhere in the code. But it was also noted that the theme in question was designed for an older version of KDE Plasma, and that there could be some weirdness going on there. Ultimately, it looks like [JeansenVaars] was just unlucky enough to stumble into an edge case somewhere.
But wait…you’re probably wondering why a graphical theme is running code in the first place. Surely a theme shouldn’t be responsible for anything more than changing some colors around and maybe swapping out the style of your title bars.
Well, you’d think so. It turns out that these so-called “Global Themes” actually have the ability to change pretty much the entire desktop experience, which includes installing new software components and running Bash scripts. Mix that with the ability for users to create and upload these themes for others, and you’ve got a recipe for trouble — intentional or otherwise.
Safety Not Guaranteed
In response to the Reddit discussion, the official
KDE Mastodon account made a post
which basically said they didn’t want any responsibility for the issue. After pointing out that Global Themes are created by the community, they go on to explain that by design they are able to run arbitrary code without warning. Given the security implications of this, the KDE team recommends users “exercise extreme caution” when downloading said content from the Store.
A few minutes later, the account made another post encouraging users to use the “Report” button in the KDE Store so they could “locate and quarantine defective software” as quickly as possible. The implication is clear: they don’t have the resources or methods to actually vet community-developed content as it comes in, so the users will have to do the leg work for them.
It’s a problem we’ve seen before
with similar distribution platforms, such as Python’s PyPi and JavaScript’s NPM. Once you allow users to upload whatever they wish to a repository, it’s only a matter of time before somebody abuses the system. In the case of PyPi and NPM it’s usually in the form of “typo-squatting”, where malicious software is uploaded under a misspelled version of a popular package’s name. It the attacker is clever, they can even duplicate the functionality of the real package — with a nasty “feature” or two added in, naturally.
Hit the wrong key while typing out the name of the software you want to install, and you could end up getting yourself in a bad situation without even realizing it. Better moderation could nuke these named-alike packages before they ever go public, but that takes time and energy that open source projects don’t always have available.
Of course, the key difference here is that you don’t have to make a mistake to download a malicious KDE Global Theme. An attacker just needs to hide some insidious functionality in an otherwise attractive theme, and users would download it willingly.
What’s in a Name?
In response to the ongoing debate, KDE developer David Edmundson posted an article to his blog entitled
Trusting content on the KDE Store
. In it, he explains that the ability for Global Themes to execute arbitrary code is necessary, and can’t realistically be limited without reducing functionality. Rather than a technical issue, David believes this is more of a communication problem.
As he sees it the real issue is that users don’t expect something called a theme to be able to run code on their machine, and as such, don’t approach them with the same caution they would normal software packages. He believes a clearer indication that installing a Global Theme might make unexpected changes to your system would help differentiate them from more traditional “dumb” themes.
Long term, David says the KDE Store should have a separate section for anything that has the ability to run code on the user’s computer. So in other words, a theme that’s capable of installing new packages wouldn’t be listed alongside a pack of simple wallpapers. Even farther out, he says they’ll need to look into ways of auditing user-submitted content, as well as improve their sandboxing to limit what themes and plugins are actually able to do.
Frankly, it all sounds like a nightmare to us. We’re not in the business of telling folks what to do with their computers, but at least for the time being, we’d probably steer clear of any KDE Global Themes. | 29 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744398",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T14:09:00",
"content": "I mean, by definition a theme should not be allowed to mess with files in your systems, right? that’s a flaw right there.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"... | 1,760,371,967.035269 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/a-65-in-1-the-2024-way/ | A 65-in-1 The 2024 Way | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"breadboard",
"education",
"germanium",
"radio shack",
"science fair",
"stem"
] | If necessity is the mother of invention, nostalgia must be its stepmother, or its aunt at the very least. The desire to recreate long-obsolete devices simply because they existed while we were growing up is a curious trait, but one that’s powerful enough to drive entire categories of hardware hacking — looking at you, retrocomputing buffs.
Hardware nostalgia isn’t all about 6502s and Z80s, though. Even more basic were the electronic toys of the 1970s, such as
the Radio Shack 65-in-1 kit that [Tom Thoen] is currently recreating
. The 65-in-1 was a breadboarding kit aimed at the budding electrical engineer, with components mounted to colorful cardboard by spring terminals. The included “lab manual” had circuits that could be quickly assembled using a handful of jumper wires. It was an endlessly fascinating toy that undoubtedly launched many careers, present company included.
The original 65-in-1 was $21.95 in 1976, or about $120 today.
While the passage of time may not have dulled [Tom]’s memories of his original 65-in-1, technology has marched on, meaning that certain allowances had to be made to create a modern version. He wisely eschews the cardboard for PCBs, one for each of the major component blocks provided in the original, and uses female header connectors in place of the springs. Component choice is tailored for the times; gone are the ferrite rod antenna and variable capacitor of the original, as well as the incandescent lamp, which is replaced by an LED that would have been a significant fraction of the kit’s $21.95 price back in 1976. There’s no BOM yet, so we can’t say for sure if any of the transistors are germanium, but it’s clear that there aren’t any of the old TO-1 cans. But dismay not, originalists, for the meter, relay, CdS photocell, and “solar battery” all made the final cut.
[Tom] has done some beautiful work here, with more to come. We imagine that 3D printing could be used to recreate some details like the original Morse key and speaker grille. We love the laser-engraved backing board, too, as it captures some of the charm of the original’s wooden box. This isn’t the only
love for the “Science Fair” brand
we’ve seen lately, either; the nostalgia seems to be contagious. | 63 | 32 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744351",
"author": "tony",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T11:05:33",
"content": "I had one from RS. However it also had either a 555 chip or a 741. Can’t remember. I loved making the LED blink circuit.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,371,967.193061 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/25/retro-hackintosh-made-from-retro-parts/ | Retro Hackintosh Made From Retro Parts | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"3d printed",
"apple",
"case",
"emulator",
"floppy disk",
"mac",
"mac Classic",
"macintosh",
"mini vmac",
"retro",
"retrocomputing"
] | Apple as a company, has staked most of its future around being a “walled garden” where it controls everything from the hardware up through the user experience. In some ways this is good for users; the hardware is generally high quality and vetted by the company creating the software, making for a very uniform experience. This won’t stop some people from trying to get Apple’s operating systems and other software running on unapproved hardware though. These “Hackintosh” computers were much more common in the Intel era
but this replica goes even further back to the Macintosh era
.
Originally [Kevin] had ordered an authentic Macintosh with the intent of getting it working again, but a broken floppy disk drive and lack of replacement parts turned this project into a different beast. He used the Mac instead as a model for a new 3D-printed case, spending a ton of time sanding, filling, and finishing it to get it to look nearly indistinguishable from the original. The hardware going in this replica is an old Linux-based thin client machine running the
Mini vMac
operating system, with a modified floppy drive the computer uses to boot. A hidden SD card slot helps interface with modern computers. The display is a modern LCD, though a sheet of acrylic glued to the front panel replicates a bit of the CRT curve.
Click through to read on!
While in the end, the build uses an emulator to get the Mac operating system running, the video is worth a watch if not simply for the incredible amount of work [Kevin] put into replicating the overall aesthetic of the original compact macs. The only thing missing is a decade or two of plastic yellowing to give it the full retro feel of computers from this era. If you prefer a more modern take on retro electronics, have a look at
this Macintosh which uses an iPad for the screen instead
.
Thanks to [hypercube33] and [Joe] for the tip! | 20 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744325",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T08:28:50",
"content": "That’s really cute, I like how the chassis was being preserved and how the original input devices can be used. :)On the other hand, it’s an emulator box, still.How about re-plicating the original hardware ... | 1,760,371,967.330446 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/retrotechtacular-right-to-repair-1987/ | Retrotechtacular: Right To Repair 1987 | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Retrotechtacular"
] | [
"Osborne 1"
] | In 1987, your portable Osborne computer had a problem. Who you gonna call? Well, maybe the company that made “
The Osborne Survival Kit
,” a video from Witt Services acquired by the Computer History Museum. The narrator, [Mark Witt], tells us that they’ve been fixing these computers for more than three years, and they want to help you fix it yourself. Those days seem long gone, don’t they?
Of course, one thing you need to know is how to clean your floppy drives. The procedure is easy; even a 10-year-old can do it. At least, we think [William Witt] is about 10 in the video. He did a fine job, and we wonder what he’s up to these days.
The next step was taking the machine apart, but that required adult supervision. In some cases, it also took a soldering iron. As a byproduct, the video inadvertently is a nice tear-down video, too.
We remember lugging systems like this around. Your phone is worth hundreds or thousands of these old machines and fits in your pocket. But we still love this old iron. There are some pretty advanced repairs covered later in the video like adjusting the drive speed or replacing the keyboard (with slightly older Daniel). The monitors were prone to jitter and that repair is in there, too.
We can’t imagine a computer seller today asking us to drill a hole in the case to attach an external monitor connector. To tell the truth, we kind of miss that. At the end of the video are bits of another video from Witt about building an XT-compatible computer. That was about $30 — quite a bit in the 1980s. We don’t know how much the Osborne video cost.
If you make it to the end of the video, you may have the urge to rewind it before returning it to the rental store. No need, though. It’s YouTube.
We wonder what [Mark] would think of an
Osborne 1 case with a Raspberry Pi brain
. While the Osborne was the first well-known luggable computer, there were a few other
huge sort-of portable computers
around that time.
Thanks [Stephen Walters] for the tip! | 26 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744317",
"author": "Joshua",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T07:22:08",
"content": "Hm. To me it’s the most normal thing in the world. I guess I’m getting old.The boy does fine in the video, as well, I think, judging by my own memories.Way back in the 80s/90s, many of us kids did tinker w... | 1,760,371,967.263085 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/building-a-tiny-organic-swimming-pool-with-natural-filtering/ | Building A Tiny Organic Swimming Pool With Natural Filtering | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"greenhouse",
"pool",
"water"
] | When we think of swimming pools, we typically think of large fiberglass, plastic, or concrete constructions full of pristine, clear water. They’re usually maintained in this state with the regular addition of chlorine or other chemical. These kill biological stuff and help filter out dirt and other detritus. However, [David] likes to do things differently, as he demonstrates
with a tiny plunge pool built inside his greenhouse.
The basic construction starts with digging a hole and building up a wall with concrete and bricks. There’s nothing particularly controversial there. It’s roughly 2 meters by 3 meters by 0.8 meters deep. To help the pool maintain heat, there’s a layer of foam insulation in the bottom, while the water is held inside a black liner.
Rather than traditional chemical methods, however, [David] relies on organic methods to maintain the pool. He explains how he uses an aquarium pump to create a “bubble filtered” pool that draws water through a gravel bed to maintain it and keep it clear. It’s a very natural setup, with multiple plants in the water to make it as organic as can be. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see at a luxury island resort, but [David’s] got one right in his very own greenhouse. [David] explains the organic filtering concept in greater detail
on his website.
We’ve featured some pool hacks before, too,
though more traditional ones than this.
Video after the break.
[Thanks to Keith Olson for the tip!] | 19 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744287",
"author": "Eric",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T03:03:23",
"content": "Seems like a lot of work to avoid needing to treat them with chemical regularly. OTOH less problem for your skin if people are sensitive to chemical.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": ... | 1,760,371,967.393597 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/hackaday-links-march-24-2024/ | Hackaday Links: March 24, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"Arcturus",
"astronomy",
"captcha",
"CME",
"coronal mass ejection",
"eclipse",
"hackaday links",
"human",
"noaa",
"NoVA",
"oopsie",
"polymer",
"prominence",
"resin",
"satellite",
"shellac",
"sunspot",
"totality"
] | Way to rub it in, guys. As it turns out, due to family and work obligations we won’t be able to see
the next Great American Eclipse
, at least not from anywhere near the path of totality, when it sweeps from Mexico into Canada on April 8. And that’s too bad, because compared to
the eclipse back in 2017
, “Eclipse 2: Solar Boogaloo” is occurring during
a much more active phase in the solar cycle
, with the potential for some pretty exciting viewing. The sun regularly belches out gigatons of plasma during coronal mass ejections (CMEs), most of which we can’t see with the naked eye because not only is staring at the sun not a great idea, but most of that activity occurs across the disk of the sun, obscuring the view in the background light. But during the eclipse, we — oops, you — might just get lucky enough to have a solar prominence erupt along the limb of the sun that will be visible during totality. The sun has been quite active lately, as reflected by the relatively high
sunspot number
, so even though it’s an outside chance, it’s certainly more likely than it was in 2017. Good luck out there.
Those of us not in the path of totality in two weeks aren’t all out of luck, though —
we still might have a chance to see a star go nova
. And no, this won’t be
the much-anticipated supernova death of Betelgeuse
, which despite
ominous portents to the contrary
is still probably thousands of years away. Instead, what’s coming up is the latest outburst in a repeating 80-year cycle of novas in the constellation Corona Borealis, or the Northern Crown. The system has a binary star called T Coronae Borealis, a white dwarf and a red giant locked in a death spiral with each other. Normally the red giant dominates, but about every 80 years the white dwarf sucks enough material from the red giant to start really shining, markedly increasing the luminosity of the system. Current predictions are for the nova to start somewhere between now and September. Finding it should be easy, as long as you live in the Northern Hemisphere; just find Arcturus —
“Follow the arc to Arcturus”
— and then continue the arc to the nearby U-shaped assembly of stars that make up the Northern Crown. The nova will be visible to the naked eye in that constellation. It won’t be supernova spectacular, but hey — it’s something.
And wrapping up space news this week, we stumbled across a story about
a no good, very bad day for someone at Lockheed Martin back in 2003
. The accident involved the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NOAA N-Prime satellite, which was under construction at the time. During a maneuver to turn the satellite from vertical to horizontal, the satellite crashed onto the cleanroom floor, resulting in $135 million in damages. A post-mortem analysis revealed that a technician had removed 24 bolts from the “turn-over cart” while it was in storage, but failed to document the fact. Lumping it all on that poor tech isn’t fair, though, since the N-Prime team didn’t bother to check whether the bolts were installed before flipping the bird. The repaired satellite eventually made it to orbit as NOAA-19 in 2009, and is still in service 15 years later. Not too bad for something that could very easily have been junked.
Are you worried that you have too many non-humans in your life? No, we’re not talking about people with too many cats or an undue attachment to their “Fur Babies,” but to those of us with too many bots in our lives, especially on social media. Luckily, there’s an easy way to check if your online interlocutors are actually humans:
R U Human
. It’s a site that lets you create a custom URL that you can forward to suspected bots, who have to fill in their name and complete a Captcha. If they pass the test, their verification is recorded for you to inspect. We’re rarely a fan of filling out Captchas and are loathe to force someone else to do so, but such are the times we live in, apparently.
And finally, if you’re not just a little grossed out by the way shellac is produced, you probably will be once you realize how much of the natural thermoplastic you consume in a year. We’d learned long ago that shellac is produced by the lac bug (
Kerria lacca
), but seeing just how it’s harvested is fascinating. Not to mention the fact that lac farmers are very much in the animal husbandry business, with insects being their livestock rather than goats or chickens. The amount of manual work that goes into harvesting, cleaning, melting, and purifying shellac is incredible, as is the number of products it ends up in, including candies, pharmaceuticals, and citrus fruits. Yum! | 6 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744270",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T23:19:12",
"content": "Lockheed Martin’s turn to pull a Boeing Bolt event.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744361",
"author": "make piece not war",
"tim... | 1,760,371,967.438302 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/a-dial-phone-sips-asterisk/ | A Dial Phone SIPs Asterisk | Jenny List | [
"Phone Hacks"
] | [
"asterisk",
"dial phone",
"pbx",
"SIP",
"slic"
] | An endless source of amusement for those of advancing years can come from handing a rotary phone to a teenager and asking them to dial a number with it. It’s rare for them to be stumped by a piece of technology, after all. [Mnutt]’s 4-year-old son had no such problems when he saw rotary phones at an art exhibition, so what was a parent to do but wire the phone to an Asterisk PBX
with shortcut numbers for calls to family and such essential services as a joke line, MTA status, or even a K-pop song
.
It’s possible to hook up a pulse dial phone with a SLIC module and a microcontroller, but in this case, a Grandstream SIP box did the trick. These are all-in-one devices that implement a SIP client with a physical connection, and older ones will talk to pulse dialers as well as the more usual tone dialing phones. The phone in question is a vintage American model. Writing this from Europe we were surprised to find a little simpler inside than its transatlantic counterparts of the same era.
An Asterisk install on a Raspberry Pi completed the project, and thus it became a matter of software configuration. It’s a useful run-through for Asterisk dilettantes, even if you haven’t got a 4-year-old.
Perhaps you have an old payphone or two
! | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744257",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T21:45:28",
"content": "All Grandstream ATA boxen support pulse dialling, but you may have to enable the support on their HTTP control interface",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"co... | 1,760,371,967.493324 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/an-asic-for-a-secret-file/ | An ASIC For A Secret File | Jenny List | [
"Parts"
] | [
"ASIC",
"bitluni",
"tinytapeout"
] | Some time over a decade ago, the arrival of inexpensive PCB fabrication revolutionised the creation of custom electronics on a budget. It’s now normal for even the smallest projects we feature here to have a professional PCB, which for those of us who started by etching their own with ferric chloride is nothing short of a miracle. When it comes to the ultimate step in custom electronics of doing the same for integrated circuits though, it’s fair to say that this particular art is in its infancy. The TinyTapeout project is a collaborative effort in which multiple designers have the chance to make their own ASIC as a single tile on a chip along others, and
[Bitluni] had the chance to participate
. His ASIC? A secret file which could be read through his ESP32 to VGA board.
The video below the break then is both the tale of the secret file project, and that of
TinyTapeout
itself, which is a clever design involving an on-board microcontroller that selects the tile and manages the bus. This revision is
Tiny Tapeout 3
, which includes 249 tiles of contributor-generated circuitry
holding a diverse array of projects
.
The secret file itself is a motion GIF, compressed down until the point at which it will just fit on a tile. We’ll preserve the fun by not reveling what it us, but you probably won’t be surprised when you see it in the video.
We’ve featured TinyTapeout more then once, not least when
[Matt Venn] gave a talk about it for Supercon 2022. | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744237",
"author": "elwing",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T19:23:38",
"content": "fail if not a rickroll…",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744310",
"author": "elwing",
"timestamp": "2024-03-25T05:52:12",
"c... | 1,760,371,967.536779 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/concrete-clears-its-own-snow/ | Concrete Clears Its Own Snow | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"concrete",
"drexel",
"heat",
"ice",
"infrastructure",
"melt",
"parrafin",
"phase change",
"plow",
"road",
"salt",
"sidewalk",
"snow"
] | Humans are not creatures well suited to cold environments. Without a large amount of effort to provide clothing, homes, and food to areas with substantial winters, very few of us would survive. The same is true of a lot of our infrastructure since things like ice, frost heave, and large temperature swings can all negatively impact buildings, roadways, and other structures. A team at Drexel University in Pennsylvania has created
a type of concrete they hope might solve some issues with the material
in cold climates.
Specifically when it comes to sidewalks and roadways, traditional methods of snow and ice removal such as plowing and salting are generally damaging to the surface material, with salting additionally being damaging to vehicles. Freeze-thaw cycles aren’t kind to these surfaces either. This concrete, on the other hand, contains a low-temperature liquid paraffin which releases heat when it has a phase change, from a liquid to a solid. By incorporating the material into the concrete, it can warm itself as temperatures drop, maintaining a temperature above freezing to melt ice and snow. The warming effect isn’t indefinite, but lasts a significant amount of time during testing.
Right now the concrete has only been used in test samples at the university, but as various levels of government look for more environment and wallet-friendly alternatives to plowing and salting roads this could be a major sea change in this area. The concrete also has difficulty melting heavy snow. As long as adding paraffin to the aggregate isn’t cost-prohibitive this could be a help in reducing costs for other snow removal methods; even if it doesn’t eliminate them. If you can’t wait for your city to start using this material for your local bike paths, you might want
to try your hand at building something like this bicycle-based snowplow
. | 26 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744227",
"author": "cplamb",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T17:54:35",
"content": "Most roadways around here use asphalt mix instead of concrete because concrete doesn’t stand up well to winter conditions.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,371,967.605869 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/fail-of-the-week-a-potentially-lethal-tattoo-removal-laser-power-supply/ | Fail Of The Week: A Potentially Lethal Tattoo Removal Laser Power Supply | Dan Maloney | [
"Fail of the Week"
] | [
"corrosion",
"ebay",
"fail of the week",
"laser",
"power supply",
"smps",
"tattoo"
] | Caveat emptor
is good advice in general, but in the wilds of eBay, being careful with what you buy could be life-saving. To wit, we present [Les Wright]’s
teardown and very ginger power-up of an eBay tattoo-removal laser power supply
.
Given that [Les] spent all of around $100 on this widowmaker, we’re pretty sure he knew what he was getting himself into. But he likely wasn’t quite prepared for the scale of the sketchiness this thing would exhibit. The deficiencies are almost too many to number, starting with the enclosure, which is not only made completely of plastic but assembled from individual sheets of flat plastic stock that show signs of being glued together by hand. Even the cooling water tank inside the case is pieced together this way, which probably led to the leaks that corroded the PCBs. Another assembly gem is the pair of screws the big energy storage capacitor is jammed under, presumably to hold it in place — because nothing says quality like a BOM that can’t spring for a couple of cable ties. Click through the break to read more and see the video.
As for the electronics, things got a little spicy when [Les] bravely powered this thing up. The power entry, devoid of ground wiring, incidentally, emitted a shower of sparks when switched on. The PCB was full of surprises, from resistors with outer coating blasted away to shorted semis and capacitors. [Les] replaced those, cleaned up the water damage, and gave it another go. To his surprise, he found that it worked well enough to power
his previous and less lethal eBay find
, and with a minimum of magic smoke released. It did, however, manage to strike an arc inside the laser tube’s flash lamp from time to time, an unusual and undesirable failure mode that would likely melt the tube if [Les] wasn’t so fast on the e-stop. Fun times.
It seems like the best use of this nasty little beast is as a cautionary tale: if you ever decide to get rid of that regrettable ink, you might want to quickly check over the equipment beforehand. | 8 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744217",
"author": "Matt Cramer",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T16:23:56",
"content": "I wonder where you should connect the ground wire, as this power supply has no obvious place for it. Perhaps it should go into the water tank, so when the water leaks it can serve as a grounded chassi... | 1,760,371,967.709906 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/obfuscated-c-8080-emulator-ported/ | Obfuscated C 8080 Emulator Ported | Al Williams | [
"Retrocomputing",
"Software Development"
] | [
"8080",
"CP/M",
"IOCCC"
] | [Oscar] is no stranger to writing hard-to-read C code. While most of us do that by accident, there are those who strive to write the most unreadable code and enter it in the IOCCC — the International Obfuscated C Code Contest. One of his winning entries was
a single C function that emulates an 8080
. With a few support files, the plucky little emulator will run CP/M.
The emulator won best in show, but that was in 2006. Things have changed a bit and [Oscar] has updated the code so that you can continue to try it if you want to give yourself a headache reading code. The portability isn’t a CPU issue — modern CPUs will happily run code from 2006. The problem is the compiler and operating system. Compilers are much stricter these days, and Linux needs a little extra coaxing to give access to the input stream the way the faux computer needs it.
If you want to puzzle out the code, don’t read any further. Spoilers ahead! The code has an array of 64K representing all the memory an 8080 can use without some bank-switching scheme. After that, a loop simply has to read the array, determine the opcode, and perform the operation. The registers are in the o array. Why o? Well, it is supposed to be obfuscated, remember?
The emulator needs two binary files: one containing a stripped-down BIOS system and the other Tiny Basic. Alternatively, you can download a file that will run CP/M, including Wordstar.
If you prefer running on real hardware,
slip one of these
in your pocket. If obfuscation isn’t your thing, run
CP/M on nearly anything
with more readable code. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744212",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T15:21:08",
"content": "Ha ha very clever and I love the use of { and } to make that big “8080”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6744228",
"author": "I Alone Possess the Truth... | 1,760,371,967.75508 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/24/its-never-been-easier-to-build-a-wifi-controlled-rc-car/ | It’s Never Been Easier To Build A WiFi-Controlled RC Car | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"ESP8266",
"radio control",
"wifi"
] | Today, wireless-enabled microcontrollers are everywhere and can be had for just a few bucks. You can use them to build all kinds of connected projects more cheaply than ever before. [ROBO HUB] demonstrates this well with an incredibly simple WiFi-controlled RC car build.
The build is based around an NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller, paired with an L293D motor driver. This lets the microcontroller drive brushed DC motors for differential drive. Power is courtesy of three 18650 lithium-ion batteries. These parts are assembled into a 3D-printed car of sorts with four wheels. The drivetrain is rather odd, with gear motors installed on the two front wheels, and simple brushed DC motors installed on the two rear wheels. The motors on each side are paired together so the vehicle has tank-style steering.
Meanwhile, the ESP8266 is programmed so it can be controlled via a smartphone app. The touchscreen controls are not as elegant as toy RC cars of years past, but it’s pretty good for a cheap DIY build.
It’s a fairly simple project and one that any high-school student could follow along to learn something. Projects like these can be a great way to learn about everything from mechanics to electronics and even basic programming. It may not be complicated, but that makes it a great learning tool. We see a ton of projects like this on the regular, and every time they’re built, somebody is picking up some new skills.
We’ve been talking about WiFi-controlled RC cars for a long time.
Way back when
it was nowhere near this easy. Video after the break. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744169",
"author": "Ewald",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T08:42:13",
"content": "URL:https://www.instructables.com/Make-3d-Printed-Smartphone-Controlled-Wi-Fi-Car/The glueing makes me cringe; for me the brackets should be bolted to you know they are mounted square on the platform.",
... | 1,760,371,967.855115 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/interactive-cake-takes-your-picture/ | Interactive Cake Takes Your Picture | Lewin Day | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"cake",
"camera"
] | [Abigail] is a confectionery roboticist, and [Hazal] is a developer advocate at a robotics company.
The two met recently and decided to collaborate on a smart cake, with amusing results.
The resulting cake not only looks like a camera it also
has
a camera inside.
When the camera detects people in its field of view, a NeoPixel is lit up in green to signal it’s spotted something. If you so desire, you can then hit a button and the cakera (cake-camera, keep up) will take your photo.
The cake itself looks to be a sponge of some sort with fondant used to create the camera housing and a surround for the preview screen. Inside the cake is a standard photo-booth style setup built with a Raspberry Pi. The Pi is responsible for taking photos with a USB cam. It does this when instructed via an arcade button acting as the shutter release. After taking a photo, the Pi prints out a receipt with an Adafruit thermal printer. This provides the user a number they can use to receive their photo afterward.
We’ve seen some neat cakes before, too
. If you’ve been hacking on cakes, either edible or theoretical, we might just want to know more.
Drop us a line
! | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744157",
"author": "david",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T05:09:08",
"content": "In Soviet Russia, cake photographs YOU!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6744195",
"author": "0xdeadbeef",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T12:48:52",
... | 1,760,371,967.802527 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/clever-e-ink-driver-does-32-levels-of-grey-avoids-update-flicker-and-more/ | Clever E-Ink Driver Does 32 Levels Of Grey, Avoids Update Flicker, And More | Donald Papp | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"anti-flicker",
"displays",
"dithering",
"e-ink",
"e-paper",
"greyscale"
] | There’s a lot to like about E-Ink displays, and you might be about to like them even more with [antirez]’s
MicroPython driver for the Badger 2040
(or any display based on the UC8151 / IL0373) because it brings all kinds of useful features to your next project.
E-Ink displays are great. They are high contrast, daylight-readable, and require zero power to maintain a displayed image. But a few things come with the territory: displays have slow refresh rates compared to other display types, expect flickering during screen changes, and the displays are monochrome. [Antirez]’s new driver not only provides a
MicroPython
interface but goes in some fantastic directions that challenge those usual drawbacks.
Probably the most striking is the ability to display greyscale images without relying on dithering, which means the results avoid the charmingly gritty
look
of old-school dithering. Dithering has its place, but it’s not always the best choice, so options are great.
Similarly, display flicker may be a small price to pay for some, but if the obvious flicker is too boorish and crude-looking one can use an
anti-flicker refresh mode
that greatly limits flickering at the cost of update speed. Over time some image ghosting will accumulate which necessitates an occasional whole-screen refresh, but the effect is overall much nicer when updating something like a clock face.
How is this all done? It turns out that the controller chips for these displays are highly configurable, and it’s possible to do much more than simply drive the display in known-good and completely approved modes. It’s also entirely possible to permanently damage one’s display by doing so. Part of what makes [antirez]’s work so appealing is that he has already done the work finding workable configurations.
His driver is designed using computed LUTs (look-up tables) that make using and exploring alternative refresh modes easy and efficient, invaluable for exploring the capabilities of a patented, poorly documented technology like E-Paper displays.
We’ve seen the Badger 2040 E-Ink display in a
teapot timer
and a
custom macropad
, and [antirez]’s
uc8151_micropython
project is a fantastic step forward. And don’t miss another of [antirez]’s clever microcontroller hacks:
playing audio without a DAC
. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744177",
"author": "Tom",
"timestamp": "2024-03-24T09:20:05",
"content": "It’s always great to see that someone comes along with new thoughts to solve old problems.I wish there would be a less flicker refresh solution for the Inkplate2. It was supposed to be used as a name badge fo... | 1,760,371,968.024842 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/building-a-tribute-version-of-mattels-vertibird-toy/ | Building A Tribute Version Of Mattel’s VertiBird Toy | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"mattel",
"VertiBird"
] | Mattel had a ton of hit toys in the 20th century. In the early 1970s, the VertiBird was one of them, letting kids pretend to fly a helicopter in circles on their loungeroom floor. An original VertiBird can be hard to come by these days, but what if you could make your own? Well,
[Gord Payne] did just that!
The design of the VertiBird is simple enough that it’s easy to replicate with a 3D printer. It features a helicopter on a rod that spins around a central base. The helicopter itself has a rotor powered by a motor, with variable speed control to vary the lift it produces. The helicopter’s flight can be controlled in a circular path around the base using throttle and pitch controls. [Gord’s] build was inspired by
an earlier replica from [Luke J Barker]
and borrows some parts from it, too. However, this build uses an ATTiny85 microcontroller to control the helicopter’s tilt and direction with the aid of a servo.
It’s great to see this classic toy recreated from scratch, particularly given the enormous cost of original sets these days. It’s also great fun to watch [Gord]
execute an aerial rescue
with the toy, too. Video after the break. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744125",
"author": "DerAxeman",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T23:55:49",
"content": "One of my favorite toys as a kid. Right up until someone stepped on it.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744152",
"author": "Observer",
... | 1,760,371,967.974028 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/tiny-signal-generator-revealed/ | Tiny Signal Generator Revealed | Al Williams | [
"Teardown"
] | [
"arbitrary waveform generator",
"test equipment",
"uni-t"
] | There was a time when test equipment was big and heavy. Those days are gone, and [Kiss Analog] shows us the inside of a
Uni-T UTG962E arbitrary waveform generator
. The device is truly tiny. You might think this is due to the dense packing of the circuit board. However, one board is packed but the other board seems to have a high degree of integration on one IC. You can check out the video below.
The main processor is some sort of ARM — we think an STM32F-series part. The markings were hard to make out under the microscope.
Even for a piece of modern gear, relays are hard to beat for electrically switching things accurately and with low noise. The boards have some fancy traces to control impedance or propagation delay. There wasn’t much analysis of the internals, but it was still interesting to see inside. If you want to see more of the box in action, he’s got a
few earlier videos
that feature the device.
An arbitrary waveform generator is not hard to make, but it is difficult to build one with good performance over a wide range of circumstances. We’ve done
a cheap version
. We
aren’t the only ones
. | 5 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744090",
"author": "eb4fbz",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T20:41:47",
"content": "MCU is GD32F207ZGT6",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6744107",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T22:22:19",
"content": "I’ve go... | 1,760,371,968.062763 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/new-pens-for-old-plotters/ | New Pens For Old Plotters | Jenny List | [
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"alps",
"atari",
"pen",
"plotter",
"plotter pen"
] | Finding consumables is an ever-present problem facing anyone working with old computer hardware. Many of these devices ceased manufacture decades ago and what old stock remains is invariably degraded by time. [Retrohax] has encountered it with the pens for an Atari plotter, a machine that uses an ALPS mechanism that appears in more than one 1980s machine. The original pens had dried out beyond the ability to refill, so
he takes us through the process of finding replacements
.
Sadly there are no equivalent modern pens ripe for modification, so whatever replacement he used would have to involve a little lateral thinking. He thought salvation was at hand in the form of multicolor ballpoint refills of the type where the ink is in an easily cuttable plastic tube. [Retrohax] and was able to make a 3D-printed holder for a cut-down ballpoint refill. Sadly the pressure required for a good line from a ballpoint was much higher than the original pens, so he was back to square one. Then he happened upon gel pens and tried the same trick with a gel pen refill. This gave instant success and should provide a valid technique for more than just this ALPS mechanism.
If you haven’t got a classic plotter to hand, never fear.
You can have a go at making your own
. | 17 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744050",
"author": "Erik Johnson",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T17:09:26",
"content": "I’ve had success re-inking them with coloured sharpies+IPAhttps://i.imgur.com/3nTCHxu.jpeg",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744156",
"... | 1,760,371,968.262859 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/its-about-time/ | It’s About Time | Elliot Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Rants",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"newsletter",
"programming",
"time zone"
] | I’m pretty good with time zones. After all, I live in Germany, Hackaday’s server is in Los Angeles, and our writers are scattered all over the globe. I’m always translating one time into another, and practice makes (nearly) perfect. But still, it got me.
I was in the states visiting my parents, when Daylight Saving Time struck, but only in the USA. Now all my time conversions were off by an hour, and once I’d worked through the way the sun travels around the globe, I thought I had it made. And then my cell phone started reporting a time that was neither CEST nor EDT, but a third time zone that was an hour off. Apparently some cell towers don’t transmit time zone information, and my phone defaults to UTC. Who knew? For a short while, my phone lied to me, the microwave oven clock in the hotel lied to me, and I felt like I was going nuts.
But this all got me thinking about clocks and human time, and possibly the best advice I’ve ever heard for handling it in your own programs.
Always
keep time in something sensible like UNIX time – seconds elapsed since an epoch – because you don’t have to worry about anything more than adding one to a counter every second. When and if you need to convert to or from human times, you can write the function to do that simply enough, if you don’t already have a library function to do so.
Want to set an alarm for 2 hours from now? That’s easy, because you only need to add 7,200 seconds, and you don’t need to worry about 59 wrapping around to 0 or 23:59 to 0:00. Time math is easy in seconds. February 29th? That’s just another 86,400 seconds. It’s only us humans who make it complicated.
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
! | 52 | 18 | [
{
"comment_id": "6744007",
"author": "John",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T14:16:38",
"content": "To get epoch (timestamp) in Linux from the command line or in a bash scriptdate +%s",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744008",
"author": "John"... | 1,760,371,968.361182 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/a-low-cost-rom-programmer-with-an-ai-twist/ | A Low-Cost ROM Programmer With An AI Twist | Dan Maloney | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"6502",
"65uino",
"eeprom",
"programmer",
"rom",
"T480",
"W27C512"
] | There are 0x10 ways to look at ROM programmers: they’re either relatively low-cost tools that let you quickly get about the business of programming vintage ROMs and get back to your retrocomputing activities, or they’re egregiously overpriced on a per-use basis. [Anders Nielsen] seems to land in the latter camp, firmly enough that he not only designed
a dedicated ROM programmer for his 65uino ecosystem
, but also suffered the indignities of enlisting ChatGPT to “help” him program the thing.
We’ll explain.
[Anders]’ 65uino project
has been going on for a while, with low-cost ROM programming only the latest effort. To his way of thinking, a $60 or $70 programmer might just be a significant barrier to those trying to break into retrocomputing, and besides, he seems to be more about the journey than the destination. He recently tackled the problem of
generating the right programming voltages
; here he turns his attention to putting that to work programming vintage ROMs like the W27C512.
Doing so with a 6502-based Arduino-compatible microcontroller requires some silicon calisthenics, including a trio of shift registers to do the addressing using a minimum of GPIO. As for the ChatGPT part, [Anders] thought asking the chatbot to help write some of the code would be a great way to increase his productivity.
We thought so too
, at least once, and like us, [Anders] concluded that while perhaps helpful in a broad sense, the amount of work you put into checking a chatbot’s work probably exceeds the work saved. But no matter, because in the end the code and the hardware came together to create a prototype ROM programmer for only about $10 worth of parts.
True, the resulting circuit is a bit complex, at least on a breadboard. It should clean up nicely for an eventual PCB version, though, one that plugs right into the 65uino board or even other microcontrollers. Either way, it could make creating custom ROMs for the 65uino a little more accessible. | 11 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743986",
"author": "Crawford Griffith",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T11:13:24",
"content": "Sixteen ways to look at programmers? (0x10 hex = 16 decimal). Maybe 0b10 ?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6743991",
"author": "... | 1,760,371,968.204738 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/23/the-electromagnetic-field-2024-badge-is-a-little-different/ | The Electromagnetic Field 2024 Badge Is A Little Different | Jenny List | [
"cons"
] | [
"badge",
"badgelife",
"EMF camp"
] | It’s a problem that faces every designer of an event badge: how to make something that won’t simply become a piece of e-waste once the last attendee has gone home. Various events have had badges with extra sensors, ones designed to be dev boards, and ones that try to do useful software tasks, but this year’s Electromagnetic Field in the UK has a different take.
Its badge is designed to be used across multiple events
, with the badge itself being a hub for event-specific add-ons.
To achieve this feat, the Tildagon badge is a hexagonal hub with an expansion port on every side. Each of these sports an edge connector, and the corresponding part of the add-on is simply part of the PCB. The ‘hexpansions’ as the add-ons are called, don’t even have to have electronics, at their simplest they can even be cut from a piece of card. The brain of the outfit is an ESP32-C3 sporting a round LCD. Of course, and it has the usual buttons and LEDs.
We applaud the sentiment behind making a badge live beyond the event, and we expect that this won’t be the only take on a reusable badge we’ll see over the coming events. We’re guessing those edge connectors will add to the BoM cost though, which is why this probably will be the first EMF badge for which there will be a modest charge. We look forward to seeing it for real, meanwhile,
they also published some technical info
alongside the announcement linked above. | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743977",
"author": "Christoph",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T10:03:08",
"content": "The badge specifications mention : “ESP32-S3 microcontroller with 2MB of PSRAM and 8MB of flash”.So it’s not an ESP32-C3. It makes quite a difference in performance.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth... | 1,760,371,968.409138 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/wico-boss-joystick-modded-to-use-cherry-mx-keyboard-switches/ | Wico Boss Joystick Modded To Use Cherry MX Keyboard Switches | Lewin Day | [
"Games",
"Peripherals Hacks"
] | [
"Cherry Blue",
"Joystick",
"wico"
] | The Wico Boss joystick was one of the better designs of the 1980s. Yours truly had one, and put it through many brutal hours of Amiga-based gameplay. [Drygol] was recently asked if he could alter some of these sticks to be even clickier than stock,
and jumped at the change to do some modding.
[Drygol]’s idea was to swap out the original microswitches in the sticks for keyboard switches instead. In particular, the idea was to use the Cherry MX Blues which have a particularly nice click to them. But this wasn’t just going to be a straight swap. Instead, since the hardware was retro and preservation was desired, the modification had to be reversible.
The result was a drop-in 3D-printed bracket that holds four Cherry switches around the joystick’s central bauble. Thus, when the stick is moved, it actuates the keyboard switches with a satisfying click. A 12mm tactile switch was also installed in the base to be activated by the fire button. Then, it was a simple matter of tidying up some of the sticks during reassembly and wiring up the original cables to the new switches.
It’s a neat way to give an old-fashioned digital joystick a new lease on life. This would be a particularly great mod for
tired sticks
with worn out microswitches, too. Hilarious archaic marketing video after the break. They really are whacko for Wico. | 5 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743987",
"author": "Chris Hansen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T11:20:54",
"content": "How is that better than WSAD or using arrow keys?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744094",
"author": "kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang",
"... | 1,760,371,968.452023 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/generative-ai-now-encroaching-on-music/ | Generative AI Now Encroaching On Music | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Artificial Intelligence",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"artificial intelligence",
"ChatGPT",
"generative AI",
"large language model",
"lyrics",
"music",
"suno",
"vocals"
] | While it might not seem like it to a novice, music turns out to be a highly mathematical endeavor with precise ratios between chords and notes as well as overall structure of rhythm and timing. This is especially true of popular music which has even more recognizable repeating patterns and trends, making it unfortunately an easy target for modern generative AI which is capable of analyzing huge amounts of data and creating arguably unique creations.
This one, called Suno, does just that
for better or worse.
Unlike other generative AI offerings that are currently available for creating music, this one is not only capable of generating the musical underpinnings of the song itself but can additionally create a layer of intelligible vocals as well.
A deeper investigation of the technology by Rolling Stone
found that the tool uses its own models to come up with the music and then offloads the text generation for the vocals to ChatGPT, finally using the generated lyrics to generate fairly convincing vocals. Like image and text generation models that have come out in the last few years, this has the potential to be significantly disruptive.
While we’re not particularly excited about living in a world where humans toil while the machines create art and not the other way around, at best we could hope for a world where real musicians use these models as tools to enhance their creativity rather than being outright substitutes,
much like ChatGPT itself currently is for programmers
. That might be an overly optimistic view, though, and only time will tell. | 62 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743925",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T02:19:36",
"content": "It will always (or for a very long time) be the auditory equivalent of AI art, all square in aspect ratio and full of the absolute average qualities and glossy finish of Artstation or Pixiv, because AI is at h... | 1,760,371,968.6031 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/roll-your-own-dro-with-an-added-twist/ | Roll Your Own DRO With An Added Twist | Dave Rowntree | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"dro",
"kivy",
"machine tools",
"python",
"raspberry pi",
"rs485",
"stepper motor",
"stm32"
] | When using a manual machine tool such as a lathe or milling machine, there can be a lot of pressure to read the position and feed the axes at the correct rate. That’s why modern machines typically have some form of digital read-out (DRO). [Stefano Bertelli] has created a
simple Raspberry Pi based DRO with an additional twist
, that of a linked motor drive output.
Realtime encoder position reading and motor control are best done with a dedicated microcontroller, ideally with a proper RTOS.
The axes that need to be monitored should be mechanically attached to a position sensor like a linear encoder or a rotary type. Using a linear sensor with a linear axis instead of a rotary encoder on the downstream dial is better. For the readout unit, [Stefano] used a WaveShare 7-inch touchscreen module with a Raspberry Pi 3 for the UI of the readout unit. The Pi has
a custom-designed HAT
, that performs power conditioning and provides a robust RS485 interface. Connected via that RS485 link is another
custom PCB based on an STM32F411
with a few supporting power supplies and interfacing components. The job of this board is to interface to the position encoders, reading positioning pulses using interrupts. There is an additional stepper motor drive courtesy of a ULN2003 Darlington driver to allow the control of a single motorised axis. An additional motor driver module is required, which should be no surprise since driving a milling machine axis will require a fairly beefy motor. This
GitHub repo
contains the FreeRTOS-based firmware for this board. This motor drive has the ability to be connected to a measuring axis in a programmable way, enabling one axis to be adjusted to follow or jump in controlled steps with another. This feature can significantly simplify certain types of machining operations, as [Stefano] elaborates in the video.
Lastly, the Raspberry Pi runs a simple
Python application
with
Kivy
for the GUI. As [Stefano] explains in the video below, this makes debugging and modification quite simple.
Adding DROs to an older machine is an obvious but valuable hack. Here’s
another way to do it
. If that’s too much work, then you could just
hack a digital readout calliper in there
.
Thanks to [paulvdh] for the tip! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743975",
"author": "Drew B",
"timestamp": "2024-03-23T09:46:45",
"content": "Wow! This is an impressive project. Thank you for sharing.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6744262",
"author": "paulvdh",
"timestamp": "2024-0... | 1,760,371,968.504866 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/youtuber-builds-onewheel-with-tracks-instead-and-its-not-great/ | YouTuber Builds Onewheel With Tracks Instead And It’s Not Great | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"balance",
"balancing board",
"onewheel",
"tracks",
"wheel"
] | The one-wheel is a triumph of modern sensor and control technology. That made it possible to sense the acceleration and position of a platform with a single wheel, and to control that single wheel to keep the platform stable and level, even in motion. [RCLifeOn] has now taken that same concept and made it more hilarious
by swapping out the wheel for a track.
The original idea was to build an electric snowboard, which worked just okay. Then, it morphed into a tank-based one-wheel instead. It’s a bit silly on the face of it, because a track is more stable than a wheel. That’s because instead of balancing on a small flattened spot of a tire, it’s got a wider, flatter footprint. But that means there’s no real need for balancing control as the track is statically stable.
The 3D-printed track assembly is driven by a powerful brushless motor via a gear drive for additional torque. Riding it is difficult on 48-volt power as it easily throws [RCLifeOn] off the board with its raw torque. At 24 volts, however, it was just barely ridable with some practice. But it was ultimately pretty terrible. It was either not moving at all, or jerking so hard that it was impossible to stay on the thing.
We’d like to see this concept tried again, perhaps with
a rubber track
and a more refined controller. Video after the break. | 15 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743871",
"author": "Dude",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T20:43:42",
"content": "Change the throttle pot into a logarithmic one instead of a linear, and all bets are it becomes perfectly easy to ride.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,968.656489 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/build-yourself-a-vacuum-tube-vu-meter/ | Build Yourself A Vacuum Tube VU Meter | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"audio",
"VU meter"
] | Volume unit (VU) meters are cool — it’s an undeniable fact. For some reason, humans just dig lights that flash along with sounds. You can build a VU meter using LEDs, or bulbs if you’re trapped in 1972. Or, you could use special vacuum tubes. [mircemk] did just that
in their latest VU meter project
.
The 6E2 vacuum tube is the part for the job in this case. You might think a specialist tube like this is expensive, but they can be had for just a few dollars from online retailers. They were often used as tuning indicators, but here, they’re used as a responsive VU meter instead. However, instead of a single bar going up and down, you get a pair of bars that raise to meet in the middle.
[mircemk] explains all the circuitry required to drive the tubes, and how to hook them up to create a two-channel stereo VU meter. The final circuit largely relies on a transistor, a diode, some passive components, and a DC-DC boost supply to generate 250 V for the tubes.
The final result looks pretty neat, particularly as it’s built into an old-school blue project box.
We’ve seen similar projects from [mircemk] before, too. | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743850",
"author": "Per Jensen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T19:00:51",
"content": "The blue “project box” is actually hand built for each of these projects. It’s PVC foamboard glued together IIRC :)",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,968.695434 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/chording-keyboard-leaves-your-mouse-hand-free/ | Chording Keyboard Leaves Your Mouse Hand Free | Kristina Panos | [
"Raspberry Pi"
] | [
"chording",
"chording keyboard",
"Raspberry Pi Pico"
] | [akmnos22] was getting tired of moving one hand to the mouse and back to the keyboard. Rather than integrating mouse controls into a keyboard,
they decided to really lean in and create a chording keyboard
— one that creates characters with combinations of key presses, like playing chords on a piano.
This project was inspired in part by
the Infogrip BAT
, which has graced these pages before. Much like the BAT, this uses a total of seven Cherry MX switches: one for each finger, and three for the thumb. In order to get the placement just right for you, [akmnos22] suggests laying your hand in a comfortable position on a piece of paper and marking where your fingers naturally rest, then importing these markings into CAD software to decide where the key switch holes should be.
The brains of this operation is a Raspberry Pi Pico, which provides more than enough GPIO pins to do the job. [akmnos22] does a nice job of explaining exactly how to put one of these together, from the design concept through the programming process and how to actually chord on the thing.
Would you rather chord with two hands?
It might be even faster. | 12 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743596",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T23:20:18",
"content": "I wonder how much it could be improved by adding a key that you could palm with the base of your pinky, like the way a lot of people use the control key to keep from having to stray too far from the home row."... | 1,760,371,970.83162 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/vastly-improved-servo-control-now-without-motor-surgery/ | Vastly Improved Servo Control, Now Without Motor Surgery | Donald Papp | [
"how-to",
"Robots Hacks"
] | [
"actuator",
"cascade control",
"pid control",
"robotics",
"servo"
] | Hobby servos are great, but they’re in many ways not ideal for robotic applications. The good news is that [Adam] brings the latest version of his
ServoProject
, providing off-the-shelf servos with industrial-type motion control to allow for much, much tighter motion tracking than one would otherwise be limited to.
Modifying a servo no longer requires opening the DC motor within.
The PID control system in a typical hobby servo is very good at two things: moving to a new position quickly, and holding that position. This system is not very good at smooth motion, which is desirable in robotics along with more precise motion tracking.
[Adam] has been working on
replacing the PID control with a more capable cascade-based control scheme
, which can even compensate for gearbox backlash by virtue of monitoring the output shaft and motor position separately. What’s really new in this latest version is that there is no longer any need to perform surgery on the DC motor when retrofitting a servo; the necessary sensing is now done externally.
Check out the build instructions
for details.
The video (embedded just below) briefly shows how a modified servo can perform compared to a stock one, and gives a good look at the modifications involved. There’s still careful assembly needed, but unlike the
previous version
there is no longer any need to actually open up and modify the DC motor, which is a great step forward. | 13 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743532",
"author": "Craig",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T20:25:13",
"content": "WOW – I haven’t seen a project as good as this one in a while. This one is going places!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6743661",
"author": "Edam... | 1,760,371,970.415981 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/a-binary-version-of-the-engima-machine/ | A Binary Version Of The Enigma Machine | Lewin Day | [
"3d Printer hacks"
] | [
"cryptography",
"enigma",
"enigma machine"
] | The Enigma machine is the most well-known encryption tool used by German forces in World War II, mostly because it was so famously cracked by the Allies to great effect. Like many hackers, [christofer.jh] was intrigued by the design of the Enigma,
and felt compelled to build a binary version of his own
design.
The original Enigma machine was designed to scramble the 26 letters in the Latin alphabet. This design is altogether simpler. Instead of 26 letters, it will scramble 1s and 0s of binary code based on the initial settings of the scrambler rings.
To send a message encoded with the machine, you must first translate your text into binary. You can use any method, and [christofer.jh] suggests a simplified one himself. Then, digit by digit, you push a button corresponding to the 1s and 0s of your message, check the output, note it down, and then push the lever to advance the rings. Enter the next digit, and so on. Decoding then involves setting up the machine in the same initial state and entering the ciphertext to get the message back out.
It’s an amusing little design and one that could be a good laugh to assemble for those interested in classical cryptographic methods. Design files are there so you can print your own if you so desire.
Or, check out some previous Enigma projects from the pages of Hackaday. | 11 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743611",
"author": "Vestas",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T23:55:41",
"content": "Saving everyone the hassle, the model files are only available if you sign up for a “Bambu” account on the hosted website.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment... | 1,760,371,970.515859 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/why-x86-needs-to-die/ | Why X86 Needs To Die | Julian Scheffers | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Rants",
"Slider"
] | [
"arm",
"CPU architecture",
"RISC-V",
"x86"
] | As I’m sure many of you know, x86 architecture has been around for quite some time. It has its roots in Intel’s early 8086 processor, the first in the family. Indeed, even the original 8086 inherits a small amount of architectural structure from Intel’s 8-bit predecessors, dating all the way back to the 8008. But the 8086 evolved into the 186, 286, 386, 486, and then they got names: Pentium would have been the 586.
Along the way, new instructions were added, but the core of the x86 instruction set was retained. And a lot of effort was spent making the same instructions faster and faster. This has become so extreme that, even though the 8086 and modern Xeon processors can both run a common subset of code, the two CPUs architecturally look about as far apart as they possibly could.
So here we are today, with even the highest-end x86 CPUs still supporting the archaic
8086 real mode
, where the CPU can address memory directly, without any redirection. Having this level of backwards compatibility can cause problems, especially with respect to multitasking and memory protection, but it was a feature of previous chips, so it’s a feature of current x86 designs. And there’s more!
I think it’s time to put a lot of the legacy of the 8086 to rest, and let the modern processors run free.
Some Key Terms
To understand my next arguments, you need to understand the very basics of a few concepts. Modern x86 is, to use the proper terminology, a CISC, superscalar, out-of-order Von Neumann architecture with speculative execution. What does that all mean?
Von Neumann architectures are CPUs where both program and data exist in the same address space. This is the basic ability to run programs from the same memory in which regular data is stored; there is no logical distinction between program and data memory.
Superscalar CPU cores are capable of running more than one instruction per clock cycle. This means that an x86 CPU running at 3 GHz is actually running
more
than 3 billion instructions per second on average. This goes hand-in-hand with the out-of-order nature of modern x86; the CPU can simply run instructions in a different order than they are presented if doing so would be faster.
Finally, there’s the speculative keyword causing all this trouble. Speculative execution is to run instructions in a branching path, despite it not being clear whether said instructions should be run in the first place. Think of it as running the code in an
if
statement before knowing whether the condition for said
if
statement is true and reverting the state of the world if the condition turns out to be false. This is inherently risky territory because of
side-channel attacks
.
But What is x86 R
eally?
8086 block diagram
by Harkonnen2
AMD’s Zen 4 architecture block diagram
Here, you can see block diagrams of the microarchitectures of two seemingly completely unrelated CPUs. Don’t let the looks deceive you; the Zen 4 CPU
still
supports “real mode”; it can still run 8086 programs.
The 8086 is a much simpler CPU. It takes multiple clock cycles to run instructionsa: anywhere from 2 to over 80. One cycle is required per byte of instruction and one or more cycles for the calculations. There is also no concept of superscalar or out-of-order here; everything takes a predertermined amount of time and happens strictly in-order.
By contrast, Zen 4 is a monster: Not only does it have four ALUs, it has three AGUs as well. Some of you may have heard of the Arithmetic and Logic Unit before, but Address Generation Unit is less well known. All of this means that Zen 4 can, under perfect conditions, perform four ALU operations and three load/store operations per clock cycle. This makes Zen 4 a factor of two to ten faster than the 8086 at the same clock speed. If you factor in clock speed too, it becomes closer to roughly five to seven orders of magnitude. Despite that, the Zen 4 CPUs still supports the original 8086 instructions.
Where the Problem Lies
The 8086 instruction set is not the only instruction set that modern x86 supports. There are dozens of instruction sets from the well-known floating-point, SSE, AVX and other vector extensions to the obscure PAE (for 32-bit x86 to have wider addresses) and vGIF (for interrupts in virtualization).
According to [Stefan Heule]
, there may be as many as 3600 instructions. That’s more than
twenty times as many instructions as RISC-V has
, even if you count
all
of the most common RISC-V extensions.
These instructions come at a cost. Take, for example one of
x86’s oddball instructions
:
mpsadbw
. This instruction is six to seven bytes long and compares how different a four-byte sequence is in multiple positions of an eleven-byte sequence. Doing so takes at least 19 additions but the CPU runs it in just two clock cycles. The first problem is the length. The combination of the six-to-seven byte instruction length and no alignment requirements makes fetching the instructions a lot more expensive to do. This instruction also comes in a variant that accesses memory, which complicates decoding of the instruction. Finally, this instruction is still supported by modern CPUs, despite how rare it is to see it being used. All that uses up valuable space in cutting-edge x86 CPUs.
In RISC architectures like MIPS, ARM, or RISC-V, the implementation of instructions is all hardware; there are dedicated logic gates for running certain instructions. The 8086 also started this way, which would be an expensive joke if that was still the case. That’s where
microcode
comes in. You see, modern x86 CPUs aren’t what they seem; they’re actually RISC CPUs posing as CISC CPUs, implementing the x86 instructions by translating them using a mix of hardware and microcode. This does give x86 the ability to update its microcode, but only to change the way existing instructions work, which has mitigated things like
Spectre
and
Meltdown
.
Fortunately, It Can Get Worse
Let’s get back to those pesky keywords:
speculative
and
out-of-order
. Modern x86 runs instructions out-of-order to, for example, do some math while waiting for a memory access. Let’s assume for a moment that’s all there is to it. When faced with a divide that uses the value of
rax
followed by a multiply that overwrites
rax
, the multiply must logically be run after the divide, even though the result of the multiply does not depend on that of the divide. That’s where
register renaming
comes in. With register renaming, both can run simultaneously because the
rax
that the divide sees is a different physical register than the
rax
that the multiply writes to.
This acceleration leaves us with two problems: determining which instructions depend on which others, and scheduling them optimally to run the code as fast as possible. These problems depend on the particular instructions being run and their solution logic gets more complicated the more instructions exist. The x86 instruction encoding format is so complex
an entire wiki page
is needed to serve as a TL;DR. Meanwhile, RISC-V needs only two tables
(1)
(2)
to describe the encoding of all standard instructions. Needless to say, this puts x86 at a disadvantage in terms of decoding logic complexity.
Change is Coming
Over time, other instruction sets like ARM have been eating at x86’s market share. ARM is completely dominant in smartphones and single-board computers, it is growing in the server market, and it has even become the primary CPU architecture in Apple’s devices since 2020. RISC-V is also progressively getting more popular, becoming the most widely adopted royalty-free instruction set to date. RISC-V is currently mostly used in microcontrollers but is slowly growing towards higher-power platforms like
single-board computers
and even
desktop computers
. RISC-V, being as free as it is, is also becoming the architecture of choice for today’s computer science classes, and this will only make it more popular over time. Why? Because of its simplicity.
Conclusion
The x86 architecture has been around for a long time: a 46-year long time. In this time, it’s grown from the simple days of early microprocessors to the incredibly complex monolith of computing we have today.
This evolution has taken it’s toll, though, by restricting one of the biggest CPU platforms to the roots of a relatively ancient instruction set, which doesn’t even benefit from small code size like it did 46 years ago. The complexities of superscalar, speculative, and out-of-order execution are heavy burdens on an instruction set that is already very complex by definition and the RISC-shaped grim reapers named ARM and RISC-V are slowly catching up.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t hate x86 and I’m not saying it has to die today. But one thing is clear: The days of x86 are numbered. | 209 | 50 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743438",
"author": "Adrian",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T17:21:32",
"content": "What’s the point? How does x86’s continued existence and evolution prevent you from using your favorite architecture?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id":... | 1,760,371,971.07016 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/magnetic-power-cable-makes-mobility-scooter-much-better/ | Magnetic Power Cable Makes Mobility Scooter Much Better | Kristina Panos | [
"Parts",
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"assistive technology",
"mobility",
"mobility scooter",
"xlr"
] | Sometimes, you have to wonder what major manufacturers of assistive tech are thinking when they design their products. [Niklas Frost]’s father has MS and uses an electric mobility scooter to get around. It’s a good solution to a terrible problem, except it stops short of the most important part — the charging scheme. Because of the aforementioned mobility issues, [Niklas]’s father can’t plug and unplug it without assistance. So much for independence.
And so [Niklas] gave it some thought and
came up with an incredibly easy way that Dad can charge his scooter.
It’s even non-intrusive — all it took was a handful of off-the-shelf components and some 3D printed parts to make what’s essentially an extension cord between the charger and the scooter. Really, there’s nothing more to it than three 10 A magnetic connectors, an XLR female port, an XLR male connector, and some very helpful plastic.
Something interesting to note: [Niklas] spent a year or so tinkering with a robot that could drive the plug over to the charger and plug it in. A book on the subject made him destroy that robot, however, when
he realized that he was being driven more by cool technologies than solving the problem at hand.
Within a few days of changing course, [Niklas]’ dad was charging his own scooter.
Now, if [Niklas] wants to see about making the scooter move a whole lot faster,
we have just the thing. | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743413",
"author": "Michael Kohne",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T15:50:27",
"content": "The scooter manufacturer was thinking they didn’t want to significantly increase their testing and regulatory burden. For a manufacturer to design a new electrical connector is quite expensive.They ... | 1,760,371,970.651721 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/the-long-strange-trip-to-us-color-tv/ | The Long Strange Trip To US Color TV | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"History"
] | [
"CBS",
"Color TV",
"ntsc",
"RCA",
"tv"
] | We are always fascinated when someone can take something and extend it in a clever way without changing the original thing. In the computer world, that’s old hat. New computers improve, but can usually run old software. In the real world, the addition of stereo to phonograph records and color to photography come to mind.
But there are few stories as strange or wide-ranging as the path to provide color TV. And it had to be done in a way that a color set could still get a black and white picture and black and white sets could still watch a color signal without color. You’d think there would be a “big bang” moment where color TV burst on the scene — no pun involving color burst intended. But there wasn’t. Instead, there was a long, twisted path with many competing interests and ideas to go from a world in black and white to one tinted with color phosphor.
Background
In 1928,
Science and Invention
magazine had plans for building a mechanical TV (although not color)
It is hard to imagine, but John Logie Baird transmitted color images as early as 1928 using a mechanical scanner. Bell Labs had a demonstration system, also mechanical, in 1929. Baird broadcast using his system in 1938. Even earlier, around 1900, there were attempts to create mechanical color image systems. Those systems were fickle or impractical, though.
Electronic scanning was the answer, but World War II froze most consumer electronics development. Baird showed an electronic color system in late 1944. However, it would be 1953 before NTSC (the National Television System Committee) adopted the standard color TV signal for the United States. It would be almost 20 years later before SECAM and PAL were standardized in other parts of the world.
Of course, these are all analog standards. The world’s gone digital now, but for nearly 50 years, analog color TV was the way people consumed TV in their homes. By 1941, NTSC produced a standard in the United States, but not for color TV. TV adoption didn’t really take off until after the war. But by 1950, the US had some 6 million TV sets.
This was both a plus — a large market — and a negative. No one wanted to obsolete those 6 million sets. Well, at least, the government regulators and consumers didn’t. But most color systems would be incompatible with those existing black and white sets.
Practicality
In addition, a practical solution for home use couldn’t use expensive optics or precisely adjusted mechanics. RCA demonstrated a system in 1940 that used three black and white screens with color filters, each projecting to the same screen to get a dim color image. Although these kinds of projectors were among the first big-screen TVs available decades later, the technology of the time made three tubes and receivers prohibitively large and expensive.
Some thought of combining three guns into one picture tube, which would turn out to be the right answer. However, the tubes of the day were not very precise. To match a monochrome tube, the electron guns would need to focus on a spot three times smaller than a monochrome picture tube.
This was impractical in the 1940s, so people experimented with hybrid systems that used a single monochrome screen and some disk or mirror to pass the picture through a color filter at the exact right time. Since the system showed a picture three times per frame, the frame rate had to increase, making things incompatible with existing receivers. Baird’s 1940 demonstration did just this, but even he admitted that the mechanics were not really practical.
CBS vs NBC
Meanwhile CBS was experimenting with a system from Hungarian Peter Carl Goldmark. It was also partially mechanical and used a disk with color filters spinning at 1,200 RPM. The FCC and the press got a demo in 1940.
In 1941, NBC — then owned by RCA — started its own color broadcasts. There were no color sets, though, and the signals wouldn’t work with an old TV, so unless you were invited by NBC to watch, you couldn’t see it. And then the war was starting, so most color TV would go on hold until later.
Telechrome and Others
Baird was working on Telechrome, which used two electron guns aimed at either side of a phosphor plate. By necessity, this could only produce two colors, so the picture wasn’t perfect. There were plans to create a three-gun system, but Baird died in 1946, and that was the end of Telechrome.
There were a few other similar systems up through the 1950s. The Geer tube used tiny pyramids, where each side had a different color of phosphor. The Penetron had three layers of phosphor and increased the beam strength to light up the top layers. There were others.
Post War
After the war, it was clear that color TV would come. The FCC was worried about channel space and created the UHF band. At the time, everyone thought that color TVs would be unusable for old black and white transmitters and vice versa, so the idea was VHF would stay black and white, and UHF would house color stations until all the old transmitters were gone.
If you were handy, you could build your own converter for CBS color (see
Radio Electronics, January 1951
).
CBS improved its system, which showed 144 fields per second at 405 lines of resolution. Philco and Color Television, Inc. also had systems. The FCC was to pick, but RCA declined to demonstrate the technology it was working on during the 1948 meetings of the Joint Technical Advisory Committee (JTAC).
In 1949, JTAC endorsed the CBS system, and RCA showed their system, which allowed black-and-white programs and receivers to continue working. The FCC, however, said the Color Television Inc. and RCA systems were flawed and approved the CBS system in late 1950.
CBS had one color camera and had used it in the early part of 1950 to broadcast a few hours of programs to TVs installed in public buildings. However, even after approval, they had to wait for an RCA lawsuit to conclude before starting broadcasting in earnest.
The CBS Debacle
The CBS system used six color filters.
In the middle of 1951, color TV was officially on the air using the CBS system. Unfortunately, there were virtually no color TV sets, and the signal wasn’t compatible with black and white receivers. There were some
adapters
, but they were not generally popular. CBS eventually bought a TV maker and produced CBS-Columbia color sets late in 1951.
They shipped 200 sets, and only 100 were sold. A month later CBS decided to shut it down — possibly by request of the government due to the Korean War. CBS bought back the handful of receivers to prevent a possible lawsuit. David Sarnoff of RCA claimed the Korean War excuse was just that — an excuse to allow CBS to gracefully get out from under an unworkable business.
The RCA Concept
Georges Valensi was the directory of the CCIF, part of the ITU.
RCA used a 1938 invention from a Frenchman, Georges Valensi, to pull off its compatible color signal. The system took the color information from three cameras and generated a luminance signal that was — essentially — a black-and-white image using the normal standard.
Valensi’s original system also produced a chroma signal consisting of the blue minus the luminance and the red minus the luminance signal. A black-and-white TV tuned to the luminance on one channel, while a color set would pick up both signals using two frequencies.
In the color receiver, you would add the luminance or subtract from it to recover all three color channels. The downside, though, was that it required two different frequencies. In addition, RCA’s early attempts used projection, which was weak and difficult to align. RCA wanted to develop a color picture tube and reportedly spent $100 million to do so. The Geer tube was first, but RCA eventually successfully produced a pre-war invention from German Werne Flechsig.
Fleshcsig’s tube used a shadow mask to prevent, for example, the green beam from hitting a red phosphor dot. The downside is that the shadow mask also reduced the intensity of the beams, which required a more energetic electron gun. That’s why color TVs had much higher voltages than black-and-white sets.
In 1949, RCA broadcast the TV show “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” in color, although only the FCC had the equipment to view it. The FCC still did not approve the system.
Reenter the NTSC
The 37-tube RCA CT-100 would set you back $1,000 in 1954 dollars!
The NTSC decided to reform to reconsider the color TV problem. The FCC was opposed and even accused enginers that favored the RCA or similar systems as being “in a conspiricy against the public interest.” The NTSC worked on a system based on RCA’s design starting in 1950 and broadcasts tests in 1951. The system used a subcarrier to transmit the chroma signal, meaning it required no additional bandwidth and would continue to work with the millions of TVs already in people’s homes. Early in 1953, CBS testified to Congress that they were out of the color TV business, and this allowed NTSC to seek approval, which they got at the end of 1953.
The original monochrome signal was refreshed at 60 Hz, the same as the US powerline frequency. A color signal, however, refreshes at 59.94 Hz, which most sets could easily accommodate, and reduces interference between the color signal and sound. The color information appears on two 3.58 MHz (actually, 3.578545 MHz) carriers that are 90 degrees out of phase and then carrier suppressed. The resulting sine wave varies in amplitude based on color saturation and phase based on color hue. Adding this signal to the luminance — the normal black-and-white signal — results in a normal video signal that also contains the color information.
Lots of tubes inside!
Most TVs have a trap to keep the color information from showing up on the screen, but very old TVs may lack this. The only other issue is a phase reference to measure the chroma signal against. On the “back porch” of the video signal’s horizontal sync pulse, there are a few cycles of the unmodulated color subcarrier. The audio is also encoded on a subcarrier at 4.5 MHz using FM.
To make everything fit in a 6 MHz TV channel, the transmitter suppresses the lower sideband (but does not remove it). The lower sideband occupies 1.25 MHz. The upper sideband is 4.2 MHz wide and contains the chroma signal about 3.58 MHz away from the center. The audio is FM modulated at 4.5 MHz with a 25 kHz deviation. There’s also a 250 kHz guard band at the bottom, giving a total of 6 MHz. If you want a good introduction to NTSC video, [John] has a good video talking about NTSC output on a Z80 you can see below.
Adoption
Of course, there were few sets and not a lot of color programming. The 1954 Tournament of Roses Parade was in color, and the 1956 season of the Perry Como Show was, too, or at least most of it was. The RCA TK-41 color cameras needed bright lights and were expensive to operate.
It would be over a decade before most network shows were in color and the cost of color sets made them practical. For example, in 1954 a color TV was selling for around $1,200 — quite a bit of money back then. Westinghouse reportedly sold 30 sets in the first month of sales.
By 1964, only 3.1% of US homes with a TV had a color set. It was 1972 before color TV sales exceeded black-and-white, and that same year, the percentage of homes with color was more than half.
Of course, in the early 2000s, everything went digital, and all of this was moot. There are no more black-and-white sets unless you turn down the color control.
When you think about it, the ability to shoehorn a color signal on a black-and-white signal is remarkable. Even more so when you think of all the manipulation required without the sophisticated techniques we’d use today to generate precise frequencies and times.
While we’ve talked about
NTSC
many times, we don’t always dig through the whole history. Of course, there’s also the
history of the rest of the world
, which we didn’t even scratch in this post. | 48 | 21 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743396",
"author": "Paul F",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T14:39:10",
"content": "If you are near Columbus, Ohio you need to check out the Early Television Museum in Hilliard.https://www.earlytelevision.org/It’s worth the visit if you have any interest in the history of TV.",
"paren... | 1,760,371,970.609592 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/your-voice-assistant-doesnt-have-to-be-cloudy/ | Your Voice Assistant Doesn’t Have To Be Cloudy | Lewin Day | [
"home hacks"
] | [
"home-assistant",
"smart home",
"voice assistant"
] | Voice assistants are neat — they let us interface with computers without having to bother with touching them at all. Still, many decry the perceived privacy intrusion these devices present, as they’re always trucking data off to corporate servers for all kinds of opaque reasons. Building your own standalone assistant is a way to get around that,
and that’s precisely what [Tristram] did.
The build is based on an ESP32 Lyrat development board. Unlike most devboards, this one has two 3 watt audio outputs and mics on board, making it perfect for a build like this one. The Lyrat was paired with some NeoPixel LEDs and a pair of Dayton Audio 1.5″ speakers to enable it to interact with the user both audibly and visually.
[Tristram] steps through not only how to set up the voice assistant, but also how to build it into a simple and attractive enclosure that won’t unduly stand out in the average house. The Lyrat simply has to be flashed with firmware that enables it to work as a voice aid with Home Assistant platform.
If you’re unfamiliar, Home Assistant is a smart home architecture that you can run yourself on your own hardware, without having everything live in the cloud of some murky corporation.
Home Assistant has grown in popularity in recent years as a less intrusive smarthome solution. You can even use it to
monitor your hot tub
! Video after the break. | 24 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743356",
"author": "Zoe Nagy",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T11:26:10",
"content": "But 6sec latency seems a lot.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6743386",
"author": "Mark S",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T13:48:31",
... | 1,760,371,970.301326 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/hackaday-podcast-episode-263-better-dcma-ai-spreadsheet-play-and-home-assistants-your-way/ | Hackaday Podcast Episode 263: Better DMCA, AI Spreadsheet Play, And Home Assistants Your Way | Al Williams | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"Hackaday Podcast"
] | No need to wonder what stories Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Al Williams were reading this week. They’ll tell you about them in this week’s podcast. The guys revisit the McDonald’s ice cream machine issue to start. This week, DIY voice assistants and home automation took center stage. But you’ll also hear about AI chat models implemented as a spreadsheet, an old-school RC controller, and more.
How many parts does it take to make a radio? Not a crystal radio, a software-defined one. Less than you might think. Of course, you’ll also need an antenna, and you can make one from lawn chair webbing.
In the can’t miss articles, you’ll hear about the problems with the x86 architecture and how they tried to find Martian radio broadcasts in the 1920s.
Miss any this week? Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, leave your comments!
Direct download in DRM-free MP3.
Where to Follow Hackaday Podcast
Places to follow Hackaday podcasts:
iTunes
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
YouTube
Check
out our Libsyn landing page
Episode 263 Show Notes:
News:
You Should Be Allowed To Fix McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines, Say Federal Regulators
What’s that Sound?
Al managed to guess the sound this week. Can you?
Take your shot
for a chance to win a Hackaday Podcast T-shirt.
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
Your Voice Assistant Doesn’t Have To Be Cloudy
Year of the Voice – Chapter 5 – Home Assistant
GitHub – dscripka/openWakeWord
Learn AI Via Spreadsheet
Breadboard SDR Doesn’t Need Much
2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: A DIY SCADA Smart Home
An Affordable And Programmable PLC
A 1960s PLC Gives Up Its Secrets
Humble Arduino As PLC
PLCs In Your Browser
Super-Portable, Tunable VHF Antenna
Quick Hacks:
Elliot’s Picks:
DIY Pocket PONG Breaks The Mobile Spell
Cute CO2 Gauge Tells You When To Crack A Window
Repairing A Gear With A Candle (and Some Epoxy)
Al’s Picks:
Faux Silkscreen On A PCB Made With A Laser Cutter
Modern Microcontroller Boosts Classic Logic Analyzer To New Heights
Thrift Store CD Rack Turns Into Small Parts Storage Playground
Can’t-Miss Articles:
Why X86 Needs To Die
The I960: When Intel Almost Went RISC
The Hunt For Alien Radio Signals Began Sooner Than You Think
All Quiet On The West Virginia Border: The National Radio Quiet Zone
The Great Moon Hoax — No Not That One! | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743824",
"author": "Elliot Williams",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T16:51:06",
"content": "Welcome to the annual daylight-savings-time-in-America-but-not-yet-in-Europe edition!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6743836",
"author":... | 1,760,371,970.460675 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/r-c-smoke-grenade-rolls-with-the-changes/ | R/C Smoke Grenade Rolls With The Changes | Kristina Panos | [
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"DRV8833",
"grenade",
"motors",
"movie prop",
"Seeed Xiao SAMD21"
] | [Davis DeWitt] gets to do something that many of us only dream of — build cool working props for movies. This time, the director asked for
a realistic smoke grenade
that can roll up to a mark and stop on it every take, pouring out smoke the entire time.
[Davis] decided on a hamster ball-esque design that uses a pair of motors that he can control remotely, plus the innards from a vape pen and a tiny fan to distribute the smoke. The motors spin 3D printed wheels using printed gears attached to the shafts, which drive the whole assembly forward or backward.
In order to get everything to fit inside the printed canister, [Davis] had to use the smallest components he could find, like the Seeed Xiao SAMD21 and the DRV8833 motor driver. The whole thing is powered by a pair of 18650s, which, as you might imagine, really factored into the weight distribution scheme. In this case, the batteries act as a pendulum and keep the inner assembly level and not spinning wildly inside the canister.
Finally, it was time for the smoke grenade aesthetics. After what seemed like endless sanding, priming, and masking, [Davis] had a really good-looking smoke grenade that just needed some vinyl lettering and fake wear-and-tear to be complete. Be sure to check it out in action after the break.
We don’t see a lot of grenades around here, but
when we do, they’re often keyboards. | 9 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743833",
"author": "hello",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T17:25:19",
"content": "Nice but it looks more like a cigarette than a smoke bomb",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6743863",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timest... | 1,760,371,970.782315 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/this-week-in-security-loop-dos-flipper-responds-and-more/ | This Week In Security: Loop DOS, Flipper Responds, And More! | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"News",
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"android",
"Fortigate",
"Loop DOS",
"This Week in Security"
] | Here’s a fun thought experiment. UDP packets can be sent with an arbitrary source IP and port, so you can send a packet to one server, and could aim the response at another server. What happens if that response triggers another response? What if you could craft a packet that continues that cycle endlessly? That is essentially
the idea behind Loop DoS
(Denial of Service).
This unique avalanche of packets has been managed using specific implementations of several different network services, like TFTP, DNS, and NTP. There are several CVEs being used to track the issue, but
CVE-2024-2169
is particularly odd, with the description that “Implementations of UDP application protocol are vulnerable to network loops.” This seems to be a blanket CVE for UDP, which is particularly inappropriate given that
the first DoS of this sort was first reported in 2009 at the latest
.
More details
are available in a Google Doc
. There some interesting tidbits there, like the existence of cross-protocol loops, and several legacy protocols that are vulnerable by design. The important thing to remember here is you have to have an accessible UDP port for this sort of attack to take place, so if you’re not using it, firewall it.
Flipper Flips Back
We’ve covered the saga of the Flipper Zero vs the Canadian government, in the context of car theft. The short version is that Canada has seen an uptick of car thefts from organized crime. Rather than meaningfully dealing with this problem, the Canadian government went looking for scapegoats, and
found the Flipper Zero
.
Well now,
Flipper has responded
, and put simply, the message is “stop the madness”. There has never been a confirmed case of using a flipper to steal a car, and it’s very unlikely it’s ever happened. On a modern car with proper rolling-code security, it’s not meaningfully possible to use the Flipper Zero for the theft. The two primary ways criminals
actually
steal cars are with dedicated keyfob repeaters and CAN bus hackers.
There is
a petition to sign
, and for Canadians, Flipper suggests contacting your local member of parliament.
Data-only EoP
In a post on the state of modern exploitation,
[Connor McGarr] explores the world of post-shellcode
Elevation of Privilege (EoP) exploits. Why are we talking about exploitation without shellcode? Namely because the latest and greatest of Windows kernel hardening: kCET, kCFG, and HVCI. That’s kernel Control-flow Enforcement Technology, kernel Control Flow Guard, and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity. Those technologies together essentially guarantee that any area of kernel memory can either be writable or executable, but not both. That’s a pretty hard limit.
So what’s left? Apparently a lot. Starting with the simplest, a data-only exploit, an attacker can sniff the token of a system process and use it to elevate their own. The rest of the post is an in-depth treatment of how an attacker process can sniff and manipulate its way to a nearly kernel-level position. Impressive stuff.
Fortinet Old and New
We have
a deep dive into a Forticlient vulnerability, CVE-2023-48788
, a SQL injection in the
FcmDaemon
process. The vulnerable field here was “FCTUID”, and a
WAITFOR DELAY
message was enough to prove it was the vulnerability. Turning this into an RCE is trivial thanks to the extremely helpful
xp_cmdshell
function of Microsoft SQL server. That’s off by default, but can be turned back on… via SQL statements. *sigh* It’s a bit jarring to cover Microsoft’s stellar work on hardening the Windows kernel, only to find old cruft in their SQL server still causing problems like this.
And then there’s the newer Fortinet issue, in the Fortigate SSL VPN.
Researchers at Assetnote give us all the details
on how they tracked this one down, starting with patch diffing and fuzzing the likely vulnerable endpoint. That led to a crash, which was a great start, but even a Ghidra decompile wasn’t quite enough to work out how to turn the crash into an exploit. What was really needed was to hook a debugger to the crashing function.
And that gets into the hack before the hack. As typically happens, the Assetnote folks had to take a system image and backdoor it to get true root access and a usable system terminal. That was an adventure in itself. With that done, GDB did its magic, revealing that the crash they found was nearly useless for exploitation. But a bit of manipulation with leading 0s in the packet that caused the crash, and they had a primitive: The bytes
0x0a0d
could be written to the stack, at a mostly controlled location. Is that enough for an exploit? Just two bytes?
When you can send packets that get stored on the heap, and you have a debugger to watch what happens, it turns out that
is
enough. A return pointer was chosen, that could be corrupted with this two-byte write, to jump program execution through a gadget right into a carefully controlled heap location. Write the payload that pops
/bin/sh
, and victory! Except, remember all that hacking they did on their test copy of Fortigate? One of those steps was replacing the
/bin/sh
binary with something useful. After a bit more wrangling, and borrowing a function or two from the system SSL library, the exploit was finally finished, using a nodejs reverse shell. Whew! At least
fixes are available
.
How To ROP
Have you always wondered how Return Oriented Programming (ROP) actually works in the context of writing an exploit?
[Vandan Pathak] has the step-by-step guide for the rest of us
. The very basic explanation is that you manipulate the return address of a function, to jump to an unintended function. One of the most popular tricks is to jump into libc, the standard C library.
Bits and Bytes
Today I learned about a nifty security feature for Linux, as well as
an exploit to bypass it
. USBGuard is a ruleset to allow and deny USB devices. The trick is that not every USB device is what it claims to be, like a Raspberry Pi or Arduino in gadget mode.
In the same manner as the detailed exploit write-ups above, Github has published
an impressive hack of the Pixel 8
, that uses GPU memory to bypass the ARM Memory Tagging Extension. We’re out of room to cover this one in depth, but it’s worth a read.
And finally, Linux hit a new milestone: We’ve got malware. The
Canonical Snap Store has a problem with hosting fake Bitcoin wallet apps
. Such a malicious app was removed back in February, but it looks like the bad penny has turned up again. But this time it was a whole dime. Ten malicious wallets on the Snap Store. For a very long time the Linux ecosystem has been trustworthy as a place to not get malware, specifically if installing software from system repositories. Unfortunately, the Snap Store does not seem to be such a trustworthy software source. Caveat Emptor and Downloader Beware. | 8 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743791",
"author": "Bunsen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T14:51:43",
"content": "Canonical is enshittifying? Fetch my fainting couch with the surprised pikachu pillows.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6744131",
"author":... | 1,760,371,970.358873 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/ai-image-generation-meets-virtual-dress-up/ | AI Image Generation Meets Virtual Dress Up | Donald Papp | [
"Machine Learning",
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"ai image generator",
"Diffusion",
"virtual try-on"
] | Image generators have really taken off thanks to machine learning, and all kinds of new ideas have been turned on in people’s heads as a result.
OOTDiffusion
is one such project, its job being to allow virtual try-ons of clothing by combining a picture of a person and an item of clothing, and doing so in a coherent way.
A model sporting a
2021 Remoticon
shirt.
When it comes to AI image generators, maintaining consistency of a particular subject in a picture while changing or combining other parts of the image isn’t a trivial task. (If you’re unfamiliar with the basics of how diffusion-type AI image generators work,
we have you covered
.)
Virtual try-on of clothing is not a new idea, but it’s also far from being a completely solved problem. It’s easy to feed a system high-quality images of people and clothing and ask it to combine them, but the outputs rarely emerge with all their limbs intact, figuratively speaking.
OOTDiffusion addresses the two big challenges in this area: making sure the outputs look natural and realistic, and preserving as much of the garment’s appearance and qualities as possible in the process.
It seems to to a very good job, and you can try it for yourself in the
online demo
. Check out the
research paper
for more details, and the GitHub repository provides all the code if you’d like to get a little more hands-on. | 17 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743799",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T15:26:37",
"content": "I like the concept but clothing sizes and shapes are far from uniform. Without 3d model of the person, the item of clothing, and a catalog of fabric properties then you won’t really get what it will look l... | 1,760,371,971.129628 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/22/open-ht-surgery-gives-cheap-transceiver-all-band-capabilities/ | Open HT Surgery Gives Cheap Transceiver All-Band Capabilities | Dan Maloney | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"amateur radio",
"firmware",
"ham",
"handy talkie",
"HF",
"ht",
"Quansheng",
"shortwave",
"SI4732",
"ssb",
"uv k5"
] | Watch out, Baofeng; there’s a new kid on the cheap handy talkie market, and judging by
this hardware and firmware upgrade to the Quansheng UV-K5
, the radio’s hackability is going to keep amateur radio operators busy for quite a while.
Like the ubiquitous Baofeng line of cheap transceivers, the Quansheng UV-K5 is designed to be a dual-band portable for hams to use on the 2-meter VHF and 70-centimeter UHF bands. While certainly a useful capability, these bands are usually quite range-limited, and generally require fixed repeaters to cover a decent geographic area. For long-range comms you want to be on the high-frequency (HF) bands, and you want modulations other than the FM-only offered by most of the cheap HT radios.
Luckily, there’s a fix for both problems, as [Paul (OM0ET)] outlines in the video below. It’s a two-step process that starts with installing a hardware kit to replace the radio’s stock receiver chip with the much more capable Si4732. The kit includes the chip mounted on a small PCB, a new RF choke, and a bunch of nearly invisible capacitors. The mods are straightforward but would certainly benefit from the help of a microscope, and perhaps a little hot air rework. Once the hardware is installed and the new firmware flashed, you have an HT that can receive signals down to the 20-meter band, with AM and SSB modulations, and a completely redesigned display with all kinds of goodies.
It’s important to note that this is a receive-only modification — you won’t be transmitting on the HF bands with this thing. However, it appears that the firmware allows you to switch back and forth between HF receive and VHF/UHF transceive, so the radio’s stock functionality is still there if you need it. But at $30 for the radio and $12 for the kit, who cares? Having a portable HF receiver could be pretty handy in some situations. This looks like yet another fun hack for this radio; we’ve seen a few recently, including
a firmware-only band expansion
and even a Trojan that adds
a waterfall display and a game of
Pong
.
Thanks to [KC] for the tip. | 35 | 15 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743698",
"author": "ytrewq",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T09:01:03",
"content": "> It’s important to note that this is a receive-only modification — you won’t be transmitting on the HF bands with this thing.It’s still very useful given the unreasonable price of HF full mode capable por... | 1,760,371,971.791421 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/video-poker-takes-your-money-in-10-lines-of-basic/ | Video Poker Takes Your Money In 10 Lines Of BASIC | Donald Papp | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"basic",
"contest",
"poker",
"retro",
"vintage"
] | It wasn’t easy, but [D. Scott Williamson] succeeded in implementing
Jacks or Better Video Poker
in 10 lines of BASIC, complete with flashing light and sound! Each round, one places a bet then plays a hand of 5-card draw, hoping to end up with Jacks or better.
This program is [Scott]’s entry into the 2024
BASIC 10 Liner Contest
, which at this writing has concluded submissions and expects to announce results on April 6th 2024. Contestants may choose any 8-bit computer system BASIC, and must implement their program within ten lines of code (classically limited to 80 characters per line, but there are different categories with different constraints on line width.)
10 lines of BASIC is truly an exercise in information density.
We’ve seen impressive 10-line BASIC programs before, like
this re-implementation of the E.T. video game
. (Fun fact: while considered one of the worst video games of all time, there’s a compelling case to be made that while it was a flop, it was ahead of its time and
mostly just misunderstood
.)
These programs don’t look much like the typical BASIC programs many of us remember. They are exercises in information density, where every character counts. So we’re delighted to see [Scott] also provides a version of his code formatted and commented for better readability, and a logical overview that steps through each line.
He spends a little time talking about the various challenges, as well. For example, hand ranking required a clever solution. IF…THEN conditionals would rapidly consume the limited lines of code, so hands are ranked programmatically. The 52-card deck is also simulated, rather than simply generating random cards on the fly.
The result looks great, and you can watch it in action in the video, just under the page break. If this sort of challenge tweaks your interest, there’s plenty of time to get started on next year’s
BASIC 10 Liner Contest
. Fire up those emulators! | 14 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743679",
"author": "Matthew Begg",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T06:47:06",
"content": "Good luck to everyone in this year’s BASIC 10 liner contest. Don’t forget to checkout all the entries including the two I’ve submitted this year – Hardware Hustle (inspired by a Hackaday article on t... | 1,760,371,971.490214 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/weird-things-to-do-with-fpgas/ | Weird Things To Do With FPGAs | Al Williams | [
"FPGA"
] | [
"fpga",
"ring oscillator",
"rng",
"strain gauge"
] | There’s an old joke about how can you find the height of a building using a barometer. One of the punchlines is to drop the barometer from the roof and time how long it takes to hit the ground. We wonder if [Alexlao512] had that in mind when he wrote a post about
unconventional uses of FPGAs
. Granted, he isn’t dropping any of them off a roof, but still. The list takes advantage of things we usually try to avoid such as temperature variation, metastability, and the effects of propagation delays.
For example, you probably know that hooking up an odd number of inverters into a loop forms an oscillator—the so-called ring oscillator. The post discusses how you can use an oscillator like that to measure propagation delay or even as a strain gauge. If you put pressure on the FPGA chip, the frequency of the ring oscillator will subtly vary.
While metastability isn’t usually our friend, apparently it is if you are trying to make a truly random number generator as a source of entropy. We also usually frown on depending on subtle process variations between devices. However, you can actually measure those variations to generate a physical fingerprint that can used as a
unique ID
for a particular device.
There’s more including using FPGA interconnects as onboard antennas. Very out of the box — or maybe we should say in the package — thinking!
We actually talked about the
strain gauge thing
nearly a decade ago. Need to learn FPGAs? Our
boot camp
can be your gateway.
Thanks [Patrick] for the tip. | 5 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743674",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2024-03-22T06:03:25",
"content": "@Alexlao512 said:Frequency SynthesisWhile there are PLLs for clock generation on an FPGA, it is possible to create a PLL on an FPGA usable for radio frequency frontends with some external components. In the... | 1,760,371,971.379333 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/a-tape-echo-for-anyone/ | A Tape Echo For Anyone | Jenny List | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"cassette",
"echo machine",
"tape echo"
] | If you’ve ever looked into how artists from the 1960s made their music, you’ll learn about the many inventive ways in which the tape recorder enabled new effects. One of the simplest of those is the tape echo, as distinct from a reverb which introduces the many delayed echoes of a large auditorium, an echo provides a single delayed version of the original. It’s something [Mark Gutierez] shows us
as he makes a tape echo from a cheap Walkman-style cassette player
. It’s hardly the highest quality of its ilk, but it does the job.
The player in question sports the ubiquitous Chinese mechanism that’s the last still in production. It has a radio incorporated which he doesn’t use, but for all that it has only a permanent magnet erase head rather than one driven from the bias oscillator. He first puts another head in the space between the record head and the pinch roller, then further modifies the cassette so a loop can be pulled out of the side of it, moving all heads off-board. As you can see in the video below the break it’s in no way high-fidelity, but with a couple of Eurorack mixer kits added on it makes for an interesting effect.
If you can lay your hands on a reel-to-reel machine, you can make
a more traditional echo machine
. | 8 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743126",
"author": "CapnBeyond",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T16:42:20",
"content": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAR5hFTrZ0g&t=941s",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6743173",
"author": "Brett",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T1... | 1,760,371,971.831408 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/the-hunt-for-alien-radio-signals-began-sooner-than-you-think/ | The Hunt For Alien Radio Signals Began Sooner Than You Think | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"History",
"Original Art",
"Science"
] | [
"radio",
"radio transmission",
"SETI"
] | Every 26 months, Earth and Mars come tantalizingly close by virtue of their relative orbits. The closest they’ve been in recent memory was a mere 55.7 million kilometers, a proximity not seen in 60,000 years when it happened in 2003.
However, we’ve been playing close attention to Mars for longer than that. All the way back in 1924, astronomers and scientists were contemplating another close fly by from the red planet. With radio then being the hot new technology on the block, the question was raised—should we be listening for transmissions from fellows over on Mars?
I Got Too Excited When I Thought You Were Around
A telegram sent by the secretary of the Navy regarding National Radio Silence Day. via
The National Archives
Flashback to 1924, a time when the cosmos was less understood but no less marveled at. Earth and Mars were drawing near, and with that, an ambitious, albeit quaint by today’s standards, attempt to probe the Red Planet for signs of life was set into motion. It wasn’t with the sophisticated rovers or orbiters of the modern era. Instead, the plan was to keep out a listening ear for potential Martian radio broadcasts.
The backdrop to this interplanetary eavesdropping was a world captivated by the possibilities that have all but been dashed today. It’s funny to think, but 100 years ago, astronomers and scientists knew much less about the solar system. The idea that Mars was not just another speck in the sky but a world teeming with life, perhaps even civilizations, was still a somewhat viable one.
By 1924, theories of canals on Mars and potential intelligent life were on the books. They weren’t necessarily widely believed, but they were a topic of scientific discussion in recent decades that hadn’t outright been disproved. Increasing knowledge of the planets was beginning to suggest to scientists that our neighbouring rocks might be uninhabitable, but the matter wasn’t by any means settled.
Despite the growing skepticism within the scientific community, the hope of contacting Martian life lingered. So, in 1924, as Earth and Mars drew close like cosmic neighbors leaning over a fence, the U.S. orchestrated a grand gesture, just on a chance—National Radio Silence Day.
The idea was that terrestrial radio transmissions should be hushed as much as possible such that any Martian transmissions might better be heard by radio operators. Citizens were urged to quiet their radio transmissions for the first five minutes of every hour. US naval stations were instructed to lend Earth’s ears to the cosmos, noting and reporting “any electrical phenomenon” of unusual character across “as wide band frequencies as possible.” This was all in the hope that someone, somewhere might hear a faint howdy or hello from a Martian. It was a moment of wide-eyed optimism. The hope was to hear a crackle from a speaker. Some distant sound that told us somebody else was out there.
Mars has a stunning but barren landscape. Today, such photos are commonly available. Back in 1924, astronomers had seen nothing even close to this. Credit: NASA
The day was actually promoted as a 36-hour long period from August 21 to August 23. The United States Naval Observatory went as far as using a small airship to raise a radio receiver 3 km (1.8 miles) into the air for better reception. A Professor David Peck Todd had been charged with clearing the airwaves, and persuaded the Army and Navy to log observations over the three-day period. He was
allegedly less successful
in convincing private broadcasters, who were reluctant to wind back operations for so long.
Alas, with ears turned to the sky, the cosmos remained silent. Either the people of Mars were too busy to contact us, or they didn’t want to make new friends. Or, as we assume today, there were simply no Martians to begin with. No Martian dispatches were received, and Earth was left to ponder the silence.
It’s easy to look back and think about what a long shot it really was. A bunch of low-tech receivers hoping to pick something up on relatively low-frequency bands, listening out for a transmission from a planet drier than an Appalachian summer. But that’s all with the benefit of hindsight. If you were back in 1924, and knew what they knew back then, could you have resisted firing up your receiver for a listen?
The Modern Age
Today, we understand much more about the harsh realities of Mars, its barren landscapes, and thin atmosphere offering scant hospitality for life as we know it. We’re pretty certain nobody’s kicking around over there, and we’re not listening out for their Top 40 stations or diplomatic calls to establish relations with Earth.
Arecibo is just one of many radio telescopes used to hunt for signals of extraterrestrial origin. It’s now defunct, but the search goes on. Credit: H. Schweiker/WIYN, CC-BY-SA 4.0
And yet the search for extraterrestrial intelligence goes on. It’s so much more sophisticated now, with scientists hunting for emissions in different frequencies and aiming radio telescopes into patches of sky we think most likely might harbor some new friends. By the 1990s, systems like the Billion-channel Extraterrestrial Array (BETA) were monitoring hundreds of millions of radio channels at once with multiple antennas automatically investigating any candidate signals captured for further investigation. After the letdown of the
Wow! Signal
, scientists adapted new techniques to better capture potential signals from space and rule out those that came from Earth. We’ve even
made our own transmissions
in an attempt to reach out directly to other species.
As of yet, we’re yet to find definitive evidence that anyone else is in this big old universe with us. Some find that a comfort, while others find it lonely. At its heart, humanity is a social species. One that has always dreamed and wondered about who might be living on the other side of those mountains on the horizon. We’ve had that answer to that question for a long time now. As for who lies beyond the neighbourhood of our star system? We’ll be watching and wondering for some time yet. | 22 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743096",
"author": "TG",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T14:39:19",
"content": "I wonder what it was like to live in an era where we were on the verge of space exploration and still believed Venus was a jungle planet. So much promise, such adventure.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": ... | 1,760,371,971.609766 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/commodore-chessmate-replica-runs-on-the-esp32/ | Commodore CHESSmate Replica Runs On The ESP32 | Maya Posch | [
"Games",
"Retrocomputing"
] | [
"ChessMate",
"commodore"
] | The Commodore CHESSmate chess computer might not be terribly well known, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of being reproduced. If anything it is more important, as it gives more people an opportunity to use one of these devices, yet beyond a purely emulated experience the real user interface is harder to experience.
This is where
[Michael Gardi]’s modernized replica
provides a highly accessible version, consisting of a custom PCB with an ESP32 as the brains of the system. Although decidedly overkill next to the 6502 in the original CHESSmate, it makes the project far easier for others to assemble as it contains few components that shouldn’t be readily available.
The ESP32 is mounted on a small daughterboard which plugs into the main PCB with the buttons, LEDs and indicators. The whole stack is then inserted into the 3D printed reproduction case. These 3D models along with the ESP32 port of the CHESSmate firmware can be found in the
GitHub repository
, along with a minimalist frame and a ‘CHESSmate Lite’ version as alternative enclosure options for those who somehow don’t appreciate the delightful 1980s aesthetics.
We
covered the Commodore CHESSmate
last year, including a
highly faithful reproduction
built by [Hans Otten], which [Michael] read the day after meeting [Peter Jennings], the author of MicroChess (which the CHESSmate uses internally) at an event at York University. Taking this as a sign, he set to work on this particular project.
We’re not sure if there’s really a cosmic force directing [Michael] towards his next project, but if there is, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank it for doing a fantastic job so far. | 9 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743065",
"author": "Panondorf",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T12:42:27",
"content": "“not terribly well known”I think I remember these things being all over the place when I was little.Thanks for the reminder just how long it’s been.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies... | 1,760,371,971.548594 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/arduino-gear-shift-indicator-finds-em-so-you-wont-grind-em/ | Arduino Gear Shift Indicator Finds ‘Em So You Won’t Grind ‘Em | Dan Maloney | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"arduino",
"design",
"gear shift",
"hall sensor",
"manual transmission",
"simulator",
"wokwi"
] | Now, it’s been a shamefully long time since we’ve driven a car with a manual transmission, but as we recall it was pretty straightforward. It certainly didn’t require a lot of help with the shifting pattern, at least not enough to require a technical solution to know what gear you’re in. But then again, we suspect that’s not really the point of
[upir]’s latest build
.
Oh sure, it’s pretty cool to display your current gear selection on a little LCD screen using an Arduino. And [upir] promises a follow-up project where the display goes inside the shifter knob, which will be really cool. But if you take a look at the video below, you’ll see that the real value of this project is the stepwise approach he takes to create this project. [upir] spends most of the time in the video below simulating the hardware and the code of the project in
Wokwi
, which lets him make changes and tune the design up before committing anything to actual hardware.
That turned out to be particularly useful with this build since he chose to use analog Hall sensors to detect the shift lever position and didn’t know exactly how that would work. Wokwi let him quickly build a virtual prototype for one sensor (using a potentiometer as a stand-in, since the simulator lacked a Hall sensor model), then quickly expand to the four sensors needed to detect all six gear positions.
By the time his simulation was complete, the code was almost entirely written. [upir] also walks us through his toolchains for both designing the graphics and laying out the PCB, a non-trivial task given the odd layout. We particularly enjoyed the tip on making smooth curved traces around the oval cutout for the shift lever in the board.
The video below is on the longish side, but it’s chock full of great little tips. Check out some more of [upir]’s work, like
his pimped-out potentiometer
or
his custom animations on 16×2 LCDs
. | 75 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743007",
"author": "Dave the Driver",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T08:18:39",
"content": ">a follow-up project where the display goes inside the shifter knobThat strikes me as being pretty dumb, when a lot of learning to drive is about learning to use your hands without looking down. W... | 1,760,371,971.725167 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/repairing-a-gear-with-a-candle-and-some-epoxy/ | Repairing A Gear With A Candle (and Some Epoxy) | Al Williams | [
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"epoxy",
"epoxy casting",
"gear"
] | You have a broken gear you need to fix, but there’s no equivalent part available. That’s the issue [Well Done Tips] faced with a plastic gear from a lawnmower. While we’d be tempted to scan the gear, repair the damage in CAD and then 3D print a new one, we enjoyed hearing about
his low-tech solution
. In addition to the write up, there’s a video showing the process you can watch below.
The idea is pretty simple. Using a piece of pipe and melted candle wax, he prepared a mold of an undamaged section of the gear. Then he cast epoxy resin in place to recreate the missing pieces. There are a few tricks, like putting holes in the remaining part of the gear so the epoxy flows into the existing part. Depending on the gear’s purpose and original material, you might be able to just use it as-is. However, you could also use the repaired gear as a template to create another mold and then cast an entire gear from resin or even metal if you can cast metal.
You can argue whether
resin is better or worse than PLA
, but of course, it depends on the kind of resin—photopolymers are different from epoxy resins you’d use for this sort of thing. If you think you might like to make your new
gear out of aluminum
, you might find some inspiration in a previous post. | 19 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742992",
"author": "Jan-Erik",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T06:52:37",
"content": "An alternative to epoxy is super glue and baking soda, it really is surprisingly strong. Check tutorials on Youtube!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id"... | 1,760,371,971.436406 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/your-text-needs-more-jpeg/ | Your Text Needs More JPEG | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Software Hacks"
] | [
"compression",
"dct",
"discrete cosine transform",
"fft",
"fourier transform",
"javascript",
"JPEG",
"lossifizer",
"lossy",
"text"
] | We’ve all been victims of bad memes on the Internet, but they’re not all just bad jokes gone wrong. Some are simply bad as a result of being copies-of-copies, as each reposter adds another layer of compression to an already lossy image format like JPEG. Compression can certainly be a benefit in areas like images and videos, but [Michal] had a bit of a fever dream imagining this process applied to text. Rather than let the idea escape,
he built the Lossifizer to add JPEG-like compression to text
.
JPEG compression uses a system similar to the fast Fourier transform (FFT) called the discrete cosine transform (DCT) to reduce the amount of data in an image by essentially removing some frequency information. The data lost is often not noticeable to the human eye, at least until it gets out of hand. [Michal]’s system performs the same transform on text instead, with a slider to control the “amount of JPEG” in the output text. The code for this script uses a “perceptual” character map, clustering similarly-looking and similarly-sounding characters next to each other, resembling “leet speak” from days of yore, although at high enough compression this quickly gets out of hand.
One of the quirks that [Michal] discovered is that certain AI chat bots have a much less difficult time interpreting this JPEG-ified text than a human probably would have, which provides a bit of insight into how some of these algorithms might be functioning under the hood. For some more insight into how JPEG actually works on images,
we posted about a deep dive into the image format a while back
. | 22 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742975",
"author": "David",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T04:02:58",
"content": "Note_tI self: _don’t pIst coMmenTs.Ir Hackaday while druNKThat’s “11.9” compression of “Note to self: Don’t post comments on Hackaday while drunk.”",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [... | 1,760,371,972.02064 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/breadboard-sdr-doesnt-need-much/ | Breadboard SDR Doesn’t Need Much | Al Williams | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"sdr",
"software-defined radio"
] | [Grug Huhler] built a simple Tayloe mixer and detector on a breadboard. He decided to extend it a bit to be a
full-blown software defined radio (SDR)
. He then used WSJT-X to monitor FT8 signals and found that he could pick up signals from all over the world with the little breadboard system.
A Raspberry Pi Pico generates a quadrature clock that acts as the local oscillator for the radio. All the processing of the input signal to a quadrature signal is done with a 74LV4052A, which is nothing more than an analog multiplexer. In principle, the device takes a binary number from zero to three and uses it to connect a common signal to one of four channels. There are two common lines and two sets of four channels. In this case, only half of the chip is in use.
An antenna network (two resistors and a capacitor) couples the antenna to one of the common pins, and the Pi
generates two square waves
, 90 degrees out of phase with each other. This produces select signals in binary of 00, 01, 11, and 10. An op amp and a handful of passive components couple the resulting signals to a PC soundcard, where the software processes the data. The Pi can create clocks up to about 15 or 20 MHz easily using the PIO.
The antenna is a 20-meter-long wire outside, and that accounts for some of the radio’s success. There are several programs than can work with soundcard input like this and [Grug] shows Quisk as a general-purpose receiver. If you missed the first video explaining the Tayloe mixer design, you can catch it below the first video.
This isn’t the
first breadboard SDR
we’ve seen, but they all use different parts. We’ve even seen
a one-bit SDR with three components total (not including the microcontroller)
. Seriously. | 10 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742957",
"author": "Steven-X",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T01:08:57",
"content": "I bought 2 Soft Rock kits I really need to put together!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6743044",
"author": "solipso",
"timestamp... | 1,760,371,971.964699 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/21/apple-vision-pros-secret-to-smooth-visuals-subtly-substandard-optics/ | Apple Vision Pro’s Secret To Smooth Visuals? Subtly Substandard Optics | Donald Papp | [
"Virtual Reality"
] | [
"AVP",
"blurry",
"hmd",
"optics",
"vision pro",
"vr"
] | The displays inside the Apple Vision Pro have 3660 × 3200 pixels per eye, but veteran engineer [Karl Guttag]’s
analysis of its subtly blurred optics
reminds us that “resolution” doesn’t always translate to
resolution
, and how this is especially true for things like near-eye displays.
The Apple Vision Pro lacks the usual visual artifacts (like the
screen door effect
) which result from viewing magnified pixelated screens though optics. But [Karl] shows how this effect is in fact hiding in plain sight: Apple seems to have simply made everything just a wee bit blurry thanks to subtly out-of-focus lenses.
The thing is, this approach of intentionally de-focusing actually works very well for consuming visual content like movies or looking at pictures, where detail and pixel-to-pixel contrast is limited anyway.
Clever loophole, or specification shenanigans? You be the judge of that, but this really is evidence of how especially when it comes to things like VR headsets, everything is a trade-off. Improving one thing typically worsens others. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why
VR monitor replacements are actually a nontrivial challenge
. | 32 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743331",
"author": "Foldi-One",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T10:05:13",
"content": "I wonder if that blur is why some users are reporting the Apple Vision Pro is more tiring than other VR headsets on the eyes than their usual VR setup. It would make some sense to me, with the eye tryin... | 1,760,371,972.082518 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/these-keycaps-are-100-recycled-plastic/ | These Keycaps Are 100% Recycled Plastic | Kristina Panos | [
"green hacks"
] | [
"injection molding",
"keycaps",
"plastic recycling",
"recycled plastic"
] | Artisan keycaps are generally meant to replace your Escape key, though they can be used anywhere you like (as long as they fit, of course). Keycap maker [tellybelly] of jankycaps has been experimenting with making keycaps out of 100% recycled plastic, and
offers an interesting post detailing their development and production process.
What do you do when normal injection molding tooling is out of your budget, and silicone molds simply won’t do? You turn to 3D printing if you can. In this case, [tellybelly] and company found a resin designed to withstand high temperatures.
[tellybelly] was able to design the mold using a plethora of online resources, and even verified the flow using a special program. Although the first two versions worked, they had some flaws. Third time’s the charm, though, and then it was time to sort plastic and fire up the shredder.
After heating up the shreds to 200 °C or so, it was time to start the injecting. This part isn’t exactly a cakewalk — mixing different plastics together can vary the workable temperature range that doesn’t degrade the plastic. Although it sounds like the end, [tellybelly] reports that they spent just as much time here as they did at the drawing board, experimenting with pressure on the mold, various cool-down methods, and how long to wait before opening the mold.
Via
reddit | 4 | 2 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743301",
"author": "Dwayne!",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T06:51:39",
"content": "They look like it too. 😬",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6743419",
"author": "Gravis",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T16:13:30",
... | 1,760,371,972.123386 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/you-should-be-allowed-to-fix-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-say-federal-regulators/ | You Should Be Allowed To Fix McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines, Say Federal Regulators | Lewin Day | [
"News",
"Repair Hacks"
] | [
"doj",
"FTC",
"ice cream machine",
"McDonald's"
] | Editors Note:
According to our infallible record keeping, this is the 50,000th post published on Hackaday! We weren’t sure this was the kind of milestone that required any drawn out navel-gazing on our part, but it does seem significant enough to point out. We didn’t pick any specific post to go out in this slot, but the fact that it ended up being a story about the right to repair ice cream machines seems suitably hacky for the occasion.
The McDonald’s ice cream machine is one of the great marvels of the modern world. It’s a key part of our heavily-mechanized industrial economy, and it’s also known for breaking down as often as an old Italian automobile. It’s apparently illegal to repair the machines unless you’re doing so with the authority of Taylor, the manufacturer. However, as reported by
The Verge
,
The FTC and DOJ may soon have something to say about that.
Things are coming to a head as the Copyright Office contemplates whether to carve out new exemptions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The legislation is widely reviled by many for making it illegal to circumvent copy protection, an act that is often required to maintain or repair certain equipment. As a result customers are often locked into paying the original manufacturer to fix things for them.
Both the FTC and DOJ have have
filed a comment
with the Copyright Office on the matter. The language will warm the cockles of your heart if you’re backing the right-to-repair movement.
Changes in technology and the more prevalent use of software have created fresh opportunities for manufacturers to limit Americans’ ability to repair their own products. Manufacturers of software-enabled devices and vehicles frequently use a range of restrictive practices to cut off the ability to do a “DIY” or third-party repair, such as limiting the availability of parts and tools, imposing software “locks,” such as TPMs, on equipment that prevent thirdparty repairers from accessing the product, imposing restrictions on warranties, and using product designs that make independent repairs less available.
The agencies want new exceptions to Section 1201 of the DMCA to allow repair of “industrial and commercial equipment.” That would make it legal to tinker with McDonald’s ice cream machines, whoever you are. The hope is this would occur along with a renewal of exceptions for “computer programs that control devices designed primarily for use by consumers and computer programs that control motorized land vehicles, marine vessels, and mechanized agricultural vehicles.”
Brush up on the finer details of icecreamgate
in our previous coverage.
This could be a grand time for change. Enough is enough— McDonald’s ice cream machines have been down for too long! Video after the break.
Thanks to [Todd Zebert] for the tip! | 23 | 11 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743275",
"author": "Antron Argaiv",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T02:11:58",
"content": "Will this DMCA exception need to be renewed every (3?) years? Or will it be permanent? Because exempting “commercial and industrial” equipment from DMCA is a huge (positive) change.",
"parent_id... | 1,760,371,972.272729 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/floss-weekly-episode-775-meshtastic-central/ | FLOSS Weekly Episode 775: Meshtastic Central | Jonathan Bennett | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Podcasts"
] | [
"FLOSS Weekly",
"Meshtastic",
"open source"
] | This week, Jonathan Bennett and
Rob Campbell
chat with
Ben Meadors
and
Adam McQuilkin
to talk about what’s new with Meshtastic! There’s a lot. To start with, your favorite podcast host has gotten roped into doing development for the project. There’s a new Rust client, there’s a way to run the firmware on Linux Native, and there’s a shiny new web-based flasher tool!
—
meshtastic.org
—
https://flasher.meshtastic.org/
—
https://discord.com/invite/ktMAKGBnBs
AJ:
—
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-mcquilkin
—
https://www.adammcquilkin.com/
Ben:
—
https://github.com/thebentern
—
https://github.com/sponsors/thebentern
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! Next week we’re chatting with Simon Kelley about dnsmasq.
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 | 4 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743259",
"author": "Kelly",
"timestamp": "2024-03-21T00:23:16",
"content": "I’m confused – Zigbee is a flop, a failure and any of us that tried it know that. The power consumption, the firmware bugs, the dozens of F/W loads depending on node use – Digi is terrible. RIP Zigbee.Next…... | 1,760,371,972.169275 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/diy-rc-controller-built-with-old-school-parts/ | DIY RC Controller Built With Old-School Parts | Lewin Day | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"radio control",
"rc"
] | Once upon a time, RC transmitters were expensive units that cost hundreds of dollars even at the low end. Now, you can get them pretty cheaply, or, you can choose to build your own.
[Phytion] did just that.
The design isn’t based around a modern microcontroller, nor does it rely on WiFi or Bluetooth connections. Instead, it’s a little more old school. It’s built using the HT12E parallel-to-serial encoder chip, and the HT12D decoder chip for the receiver. The controller uses a pair of HT12Es on the transmitter, and a pair of HT12Ds on the receiver. These accept inputs from a pair of analog joysticks and encode them as serial data. However, they essentially just act as digital joysticks in this design. The HT12Es feed into an STX882 module which transmits the data from the HT12Es over 433 MHz. Another STX882 module receives this signal, and passes it through HT12Ds for decoding.
At the receiving end, one joystick can turn four outputs on or off depending on whether it is pushed up, down, left or right. A channel select switch then allows it to do the same for four further outputs. The second joystick just mirrors the operation of the first. It’s just intended to make controlling something like an RC car easier by allowing one stick to be pushed forwards and backwards, and the other left and right.
You don’t see many designs like this anymore. Realistically, it’s possible to get far more functionality out of a design
based on an ESP32 or similar wireless-capable chip
. However, this one doesn’t require any complicated handshaking and powers up instantly, which is a nice bonus. Plus, it’s always interesting to see alternative designs tried out in the wild. Video after the break. | 16 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743201",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T20:09:18",
"content": "I once made a remote control system from ground up (not looking at any code nor using third party codes), using a pair of ATMEGA328 and 433Mhz transceivers.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_3vzpvni... | 1,760,371,972.216362 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/2024-home-sweet-home-automation-a-diy-scada-smart-home/ | 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: A DIY SCADA Smart Home | Dave Rowntree | [
"contests",
"home hacks"
] | [
"2024 Home Sweet Home Automation",
"Arduino Mega 2560",
"Arduino Uno",
"grafana",
"home automation",
"Modbus",
"mqtt",
"nodered",
"plc",
"Raspberry Pi 3",
"SCADA"
] | Touch-screen control and monitoring
Supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, systems sit in the background in industrial settings, performing all kinds of important jobs but in an ad-hoc setup, depending on the precise requirements of the installation. When we think about home automation systems, they’re pretty much the same deal: ad-hoc systems put together from off-the-shelf components and a few custom bits thrown in. [Stefan Schnitzer] clearly has significant knowledge of SCADA in an industrial setting and has carried this over into their home for
their entry into the Hackaday 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation Contest
.
Having
built their own home from the ground up
, [Stefan] could run wiring and add sensors anywhere needed whilst working on the interior, giving a clean, full custom installation covering lights, heating, ventilation, even
the robot vacuum cleaner and the cat feeder. No dodgy conduits and visible wiring runs!
SCADA systems are designed in a hierarchical manner
, which makes them easy to understand. At the bottom of the hierarchy, which is level 0, we have the physical variables and control mechanisms that include things like room temperature control, door lock status and the cat feeder. Above this is level 1, the physical interface between levels 0 and 2. This level 1 hardware is based around a collection of Arduino UNOs and Mega2560s, keeping costs low. One extra, fancy addition was a
Pixtend I/O board
, which connects directly to the level 2 hardware, a Raspberry Pi3, which forms the SCADA supervisor and runs the web server for direct low-level control, as well as the Modbus TCP driver for the ethernet modules used on the Arduinos. This Pi also runs the MQTT broker and the
Codesys software PLC
. Finally, levels 3 and 4 are the coordination/production layers and are implemented with another Raspberry Pi3 that runs NodeRed and Grafana. InfluxDB is used for local data storage. This Pi also receives images from the IP cameras placed around the area and any connections to services outside the home.
We don’t get DIY PLC hacks too often;
this one is from 2016
, but still relevant. If you’re wondering how to secure all this complexity, we had a
hack chat on this subject
a few years back. | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743189",
"author": "Renan Marques Avelar Valente",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T19:41:27",
"content": "Very very well made, but its 2024, centralized controls (a massive amount of wires getting out of a single cabinet is out of fashion). Can you imagine running a hot wire from every re... | 1,760,371,972.602695 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/20/the-lunar-odyssey-moon-landings-from-the-1960s-to-todays-attempts/ | The Lunar Odyssey: Moon Landings From The 1960s To Today’s Attempts | Maya Posch | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Space"
] | [
"lunar lander",
"Moon landing"
] | With the recent string of lunar landing attempts, it’s interesting to consider how much things have changed – or stayed the same – since the first soft landing attempts in the 1960s with the US Ranger and USSR Luna landers. During the 1950s the possibility of landing a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface was investigated and attempted by both the US and USSR. This resulted in a number of lunar lander missions in the 1960s, with the US’s Ranger 3 and 5 missing the Moon, Ranger 4 nearly missing it but instead crashing into the far side of the Moon, and eventually the USSR’s Luna 9 making the first touchdown on the lunar surface in 1966 after a string of USSR mission failures.
What’s perhaps most interesting was how these first US and USSR spacecraft managed to touch down, with
Luna 9
opting to inflate a landing airbag and bounce until it came to a halt. This approach had doomed Luna 8, as its airbag got punctured during inflating, causing a hard crash. Meanwhile the US’s
Surveyor 1
was the first US spacecraft to land on the Moon, opting to use a solid-fuel retrorocket to slow the craft down and three liquid-fueled vernier thrusters to prepare it for a drop down from 3.4 meters onto the lunar surface.
Now, nearly 60 years later, the landers we sent regularly make it to the lunar surface, but more often than not end up crashing or toppling over into awkward positions. How much have lunar landings really changed?
Sad Tumbles
JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) after its tumble, as captured by a camera on
one of its payloads
.
When Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C lander
Odysseus
made its way to the Moon this year on February 15, as part of the
IM-1
(NASA’s CLPS-2) mission, tensions were high. The month before, Japan’s
SLIM
(Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lunar lander had made a more or less soft touch-down on the lunar regolith, except for it tripping and falling over. The ironic part here was perhaps that SLIM had been carefully designed to enable the most precise landing on the Moon’s surface, combining a database of the landing site with detailed imaging to automatically land it within 100 meters of its intended landing site.
This included identifying potential hazards while hovering above the surface at about 50 meters. Unfortunately, this was the moment when one of the two main engine nozzles detached, causing the navigation computer to struggle to stay on course using the single main engine and the smaller thrusters. Ultimately the spacecraft ended up faceplanting into lunar regolith, causing its solar panels to end up facing largely away from the Sun and possibly causing additional damage. Despite this crippled state, SLIM still managed to more or less complete its mission – even surviving the lunar night – while highlighting how close the mission came to total failure.
The NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission which proceeded IM-1 suffered an even more dramatic fate, when this CLPS-1 mission (Astrobotic’s
Peregrine
) suffered a catastrophic loss of propellant shortly after being inserted into a lunar injection orbit (LIO) by the launch vehicle. This led to the mission being aborted and after abandoning the LIO, the lander instead burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere after a six day sight-seeing tour around the planet. The cause of this failure was traced back to a valve which failed to fully close, causing an overpressure event that blew out part of the fuel system.
Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C lander ‘Odyssey’ at a 30 degree angle. (Credit: Intuitive Machines)
With these incidents in mind, IM-1’s Nova-C spacecraft geared up for landing on February 21st of 2024. During the commissioning burn on its course to the Moon only an issue with the star tracker had been reported, which gave some hope for a good outcome if no further issues cropped up. Once in lunar orbit, however, it was discovered that the laser rangefinder that was supposed to have guided the spacecraft to the surface could not be used, as before launch a safety switch had not been flipped, leaving the spacecraft effectively blind. An onboard payload called the Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) was used to compensate for this loss, but without the full integration into the board computer and the lower NDL refresh rate compared to the original laser rangefinder instrument, it meant a gamble.
Shockingly, it seemed that the lander had initially
touched down successfully
and was communicating with Earth. That’s when the ground team realized that something was off, as the communication was faint. Ultimately it was found that the use of the NDL instead of the laser rangefinder had apparently resulted in a too fast descent rate, with one or more of the landing legs getting snapped off as the spacecraft skidded across the surface before tipping over onto an externally mounted oxygen tank at a roughly thirty degree angle.
At this angle, the communication with Earth is severely compromised, and few of its solar panels received enough light to charge the battery, but this was sufficient for science operations. By tweaking the communication equipment, the data rate could be increased as well, but much like SLIM the spacecraft had come very close to complete mission failure. By February 29 the spacecraft shut down for the lunar night after a week on the surface, with a possible revival if it survives the freezing temperatures.
Lander Evolution
China’s Chang’e 3 lunar lander, as photographed by its Yuzu rover. (Credit: CNSA)
Although the basic concept of landing a spacecraft on the Moon has not changed since the 1960s, improvements have been made in terms of landing precision and automation. Yet the
list of moon missions
paints a harrowing picture of the success rate in the 21st century. While orbiters rarely fail any more, landers remain tricky unless you happen to be China, with this nation having launched three lunar landers (
Chang’e 3
, 4 and 5), all of which succeeded, including the
Chang’e 5
sample return mission. This sample return mission was the first (successful) one since Luna 24 in 1976.
The popular descent method for lunar landings is akin to that pioneered by US Ranger spacecraft, with active control down to the surface, albeit without the last harrowing drop of the Ranger spacecraft. This involves one or more engines that allow the spacecraft to reduce its velocity relative to the lunar surface, while thrusters provide attitude control. Especially in the low gravity environment of the Moon, this approach should allow for relatively easy and precise landings.
Even so, this landing method failed for Israel’s
Beresheet
lander, which crashed due to a gyroscope issue causing the main engine to be turned off prematurely, leading to the spacecraft lithobraking into the Moon at 500 km/h. India’s
Chandrayaan-2
mission was a partial success, with the
Vikram
lander lithobraking into the Moon at about 210 km/h, attributed to a range of software and other issues.
Image of Vikram lander on the lunar surface taken by the Pragyan rover at 1104 IST, 30 August 2023 from 15 meters away (Credit: ISRO)
JAXA’s
OMOTENASHI
mini-lander attempted a hybrid landing in 2022 with both a solid-fuel retrorocket and an airbag, but this lander never got close to a landing attempt, due to what appears to be a failure with its solar panel. Later that year, a private Japanese company called
ispace
attempted a landing with their
Hakuto-R
spacecraft. This lander was lost during the landing attempt on April 25th, 2023, when it seems the onboard computer dismissed the radar altimeter data as faulty, and kept hovering at an altitude of 5 km until its propellant was exhausted.
Following these failures, India managed to nail the landing of the second iteration of
Vikram
with the
Chandrayaan-3
mission, making it also the first spacecraft to land near the lunar South Pole, in what is likely to be the
first of many missions
to target this part of the Moon. In between this mission and the SLIM,
Peregrine
and IM-1 missions, Russia also attempted a last hurrah by
reviving the Soviet-era Luna program
with the Luna 25. This lander did however end up lithobraking into the Moon due to an issue with its maneuvering engines while trying to establish a lunar orbit, causing it to intersect with the Moon instead.
Future Outlook
Although the period between the late 1970s and the beginning of the 2000s can be considered a lost period in terms of Moon missions, it would seem that things are ramping up once more. Interestingly, we have seen mostly newcomers (India, Japan, China) making a mark, while established parties with 20th-century lunar exploration experience have been largely absent (US), or the rumors of their revival (USSR’s Luna program) have been grossly overstated. What hasn’t changed, however, is that landing a spacecraft on the Moon still isn’t easy.
Whereas China in particular has demonstrated that good engineering and testing can give you a solid shot at successful missions, others have found their missions beset by technical problems that should have been either caught during testing, or have been part of a pre-launch checklist. Although the SLIM and IM-1 missions in particular managed to get their mission completed, this was ultimately more due to luck, with other landers less lucky.
As we can expect to see more lunar lander missions in the near future, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly these harsh lessons are learned, with perhaps landing a spacecraft on the Moon becoming routine rather than a harrowing experience amidst the scattered remnants of previously failed landings. | 21 | 7 | [
{
"comment_id": "6743160",
"author": "Clovis Fritzen",
"timestamp": "2024-03-20T17:42:44",
"content": "I once read the Thomas Kelly’ “Moon lander”https://www.amazon.com.br/Moon-Lander-Developed-Apollo-Module/dp/1588342735telling the history of the actual moon lander with apollo 11; worth the read."... | 1,760,371,972.541086 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/cute-co2-gauge-tells-you-when-to-crack-a-window/ | Cute CO2 Gauge Tells You When To Crack A Window | Kristina Panos | [
"Microcontrollers"
] | [
"co2",
"CO2 gauge",
"ds3225",
"ESP32-S2",
"servo",
"Wemos S2 mini"
] | [Cyrill] has a good home automation scheme going: there are a number of physical switches set around the place that control the essential functions. The only problem is that in the winter time, this results in a great deal of phone checking as [Cyrill] tries to monitor the CO
2
level. Tired of all this screen time, [Cyrill] set about to create
an incredibly cute (and useful) Co
2
monitor
that plainly shows the current level and how bad it is, relatively speaking.
A large servo and an ESP32-S2 make up the guts of an analog CO2 sensor.
Behind that adorable face is a DS3225 servo being driven by a Wemos S2 mini, both of which [Cyrill] happened to have handy. Although the 25 Kg servo may be complete overkill for the situation, [Cyrill] reports that it is quieter than your average AliExpress alternatives, which makes it well worth it in our book. Then it was on to Inkscape to make the gauge itself. [Cyrill] says they’re an Inkscape noob, but that face could have fooled us.
Finally, it was time to integrate it into Home Assistant to get readings from the CO
2
sensors. This was easier said than done, but [Cyrill] does a nice job of explaining how to get the ESP32-S2 up and working.
If you’re out there monitoring CO levels in your home,
beware of fake sensors
that cropped up during the height of the pandemic and are likely still at large. | 25 | 10 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742893",
"author": "Tweepy",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T20:06:49",
"content": "Very nice, but random noise will drive you nuts during the night.I would use a cheap galvometer/voltmeter, driven by a simple analog/pwm_Write()",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
... | 1,760,371,972.705941 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/2024-home-sweet-home-automation-a-piano-controlled-smart-home/ | 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: A Piano-Controlled Smart Home | Kristina Panos | [
"contests",
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"2024 Home Sweet Home Automation",
"home-assistant",
"midi",
"midi piano",
"piano"
] | There’s a scene in
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
where a little flap in the wall flips down to reveal a small organ embedded there. Gene Wilder plays a bit of Rachmaninoff on the organ, and the giant door to the chocolate room slowly creaks open.
Once [Nathan Orick] got this into his head, he couldn’t get it out, and had to
give it a go in his own home
. Regrettably there’s no chocolate rooms in the house, so he’s using various chords and melodies to do things like control the lights and the TV, as you’ll see in the video after the break. Although this one may have started as a joke of a home automation scheme, [Nathan] thinks it turned out pretty solid, and so do we.
He already had the piano and a Raspberry Pi Zero lying around, so getting this up and running was mostly about connections and code. Speaking of connections, [Nathan] was hard-pressed to find a micro-USB to USB-B cord, so he ended up splicing one together. Simple enough. The harder part was getting Linux to recognize the keyboard, but all it took was touching all the pins with a multimeter, evidently. What’s a project without a little magic?
And not only did it show up, Linux went to the trouble of registering it as a MIDI device all on its own. Once [Nathan] obtained the port number, he had data printing to the console every time he played a note. Then it was mostly a matter of writing code to interact with MIDI data and track the notes as they’re played, and put it all together with Home Assistant. Be sure to check out the brief demo after the break. | 7 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742868",
"author": "Yeah, I'm Old",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T18:47:35",
"content": "There was an episode of “Wild, Wild West” where Doctor Lovelace is controlling a steam-powered murderbot by playing an organ. If I recall correctly, it was one of the early episodes, before the show... | 1,760,371,972.641255 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/pcb-design-review-esp32-s3-round-lcd-board/ | PCB Design Review: ESP32-S3 Round LCD Board | Arya Voronova | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"PCB Hacks",
"Skills"
] | [
"design review",
"ESP32",
"ESP32-S3",
"round display"
] | For our next installment, I have a lovely and daring PCB submitted by one of our readers, [Vas]. This is
an ESP32-S3 board
that also has an onboard round TFT display, very similar to the one
we used on the Vectorscope badge
. The badge is self-sufficient – it has an ESP32, it has a display, a programming connector, two different QWIIC ports you could surely use as GPIOs – what’s not to love?
This is a two-layer board, and I have to admit that I seriously enjoy such designs. Managing to put a whole lot of things into two layers is quite cool in my book, and I have great fun doing so whenever I get the opportunity. There’s nothing wrong with taking up more layers than needed – in fact, if you’re concerned about emitted/received noise or you have high-speed interfaces, four-layer is the way to go. But making complex boards with two layers is a nice challenge, and, it does tend to make these boards cheaper to manufacture as a very nice bonus.
Let’s improve upon it, and support [Vas]’s design. From what I can see looking at this board, we can help [Vas] a lot with ease of assembly, perhaps even help save a hefty amount of money if they go for third-party PCBA instead of sitting down with a stencil – which you could do with this board pretty easily, since all of the components on it, save for the display, are the ones you’d expect JLCPCB to stock.
Open It Up
The board is designed in Eagle, but I was surprised just how well it imported into KiCad using nothing else but the built-in “File=>Import Non-KiCad Project” dialog. As an Eagle refugee in the past, it warms my heart, because I know Eagle could never reach this sort of featurefulness at the time.
top layer
bottom layer
After you import it, open the board viewer and press B to refill the GND zones – the board might look a little scuffed, but I’d be comfortable ordering one for myself as-is! The schematic has imported pretty well too. There are some labels that didn’t import neatly, but there’s nothing I can see that is broken. All the footprint names are present too – helpful for reviewing component choices.
Once again, the board is impressive. I like it a lot – it includes some great features, like ESD diodes on the RST and BOOT buttons for the ESP, separation of the USB VBUS and GND, and a JST-SH power connector for any portable applications. It also has some component choices we ought to discuss.
Component Choices
On the left, you can see the two QWIIC connectors that surely work as GPIO expansions in a pinch, and on the right, there’s a JST-PH connector that has power. Next to the QWIIC connectors, you will notice some tiny components – yep, those are 0201 resistors, and there are quite a few of these. The problem with these is that they’re a bother to assemble compared to everything else on the board, they can significantly add to cost if you do PCBA. And they are not even strictly necessary in places where they’re found.
Here’s my take on the resistors. If you are worried that the resistor will interfere with the JST-SH plug being inserted, worry not – this appears to be a footprint for a vertical JST-SH SMD socket, I don’t see how it could be otherwise, considering the 0201 placement. Now, this is not the only place where 0201 resistors are found – let’s take a look at the footprint assignment window for a summary.
before, with replacement resistors for scale
after
There are some things that immediately spring out. For all 0201 resistors, I’ve taken a look at the board, and it’s not clear to me why they couldn’t be 0402 – especially given how small Kicad’s 0402 footprints are compared to Eagle’s 0402 footprints. Also, I’ve replaced all capacitors 1 uF and lower to 0402, and all capacitors larger than that to 0603. I’ve left some resistors 0603 or higher, in places where it looks like they could be replaced by a ferrite bead in practice, which is what I think was the designer’s intention with both microUSB power/data pins and the 3.3 V input on the ESP.
Last thing I will note – it’s not clear to me why I2C bus pullups are different, but I trust the board’s creator. However, 1 kΩ seems way too intense of a value for I2C, from what I’ve seen, especially given so many QWIIC sensors have pullups on them too. So, you could easily replace one of the pullup pairs, or unite them both to something like 1.8 kΩ, the I2C pullup value used by Raspberry Pi with great success, or 3.3 kΩ, the default QWIIC value.
Component Placement
When I flip this board in 3D viewer (hotkey:F), there’s one thing that instantly comes to my mind, and it’s that the bottom side could be completely clean! In fact, if I understand it right, it’s best that it would be – otherwise, there would be parts under the TFT display, which I feel like would be a mechanical failure point. And parts under the display, there indeed are – at three points, so unless you make a custom standoff or use a healthy amount of foam tape, it’ll be a mechanical bother. Let’s see if we can fix this.
I am surprised to see that Eagle footprints are noticeably larger than their KiCad footprints – specifically the 0402s. On such a cramped board, this really makes a difference, as I will show later. Let’s tackle the top left corner with ESP power filtering first. After replacing the footprints and stacking them closer together, it becomes possible to move the RST capacitor and pullup, freeing up one of the three spots on the back.
Next, a second spot on the back, near the microUSB connector. First, there are two 0 Ω resistors on the USB pair on the back – with a bit of power trace pushing on the top layer, this is moveable to the front, together with the ESD diodes to ground also on the back layer. The three resistors you can see next to them, however, are a bit of a different story, because they belong to the switching regulator.
The main problem with the switching regulator section is that the feedback resistors are on the other side. If you’re doing a 2-layer design with a switcher, and this design has two of them, it’s important to provide the switcher with a good ground plane – something that I’m inclined to say feels missing here. However, there isn’t much space – or, there wasn’t, until I replaced the footprints with KiCad ones, and a bunch of space has freed up on the right.
With that space, we can do great things already – but we can free up even more! Here’s something you might notice – there’s no apparent reason why GPIO48 and GPIO45 have to be used, so I opt to remap them to different pins. This lets us remove the entire bottom row of the ESP pads, since there’s no reason to solder to them – this is a good technique if you want to put many traces onto two layers. This lets me replace it with a silkscreen rectangle. This might belong on the Fab layer, but it’s easier for me to hide F.Fab and B.Fab right now to reduce visual clutter, and I need to see this – it can be easily moved later.
With the free space, we can move power traces to the top, which lets us move the switching inductor and the switching chip to the right – moving the feedback resistors to a top layer, and clearing up the ground plane on the back. Now, the only thing left is the LED driver for the display backlight – just one chip and one inductor.
This is something I’m inclined to leave as an exercise to the reader – I’ve shown quite a bit already. I’m also wondering about the actual characteristics of the display. Does it actually need a boost driver for the LED, or is it sufficient to add a series resistor and power it from the input power rail? If the display has a single-series LED backlight, the driver shouldn’t be necessary, and it isn’t uncommon to drive such backlight using an NPN transistor and a GPIO.
top layer has plenty of space,
while on the bottom, hardly any space is used
And a last note about something that might bite – the MicroUSB port has a “PCB edge” marking, but it isn’t actually at the edge. This means you can’t use MicroUSB connectors that have “lips”, so you have to watch out that you don’t accidentally buy some of those – they are popular. This is also something that wouldn’t be an issue with USB-C, and manufacturing boards with microUSB in 2024 is a bit passé – but Git says this board was designed two years ago, so I will give it a pass.
Cheaper, Flatter, Lovely As Ever
In all, this PCB review should help decrease the production cost for the board. We replaced 0201 parts with bigger and cheaper parts, united the BOM values, and moved bottom layer parts onto the top layer – at least, most of them, but this should already let us avoid dual-side assembly fees. Cleaning up the switching regulator design should help a lot with electrical noise as well as performance.
I thank [Vas] for sharing this design with us, and I hope that this design got its shot at existence as a real-world PCB already – the round displays are nice to play with, and I can imagine it being a pretty fun badge to wear, especially paired with a suitable battery! | 6 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742895",
"author": "Tweepy",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T20:10:08",
"content": "Great article for eagle import.Watch for antenna keepout as they are meant to stay keepout: even a non-present SD card is a no go! (so are tracks opening the ground of a 2 layers around the antenna)",
... | 1,760,371,973.136545 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/running-power-and-data-over-just-two-wires/ | Running Power And Data Over Just Two Wires | Lewin Day | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"bicycle",
"communication",
"data",
"dc",
"powerline communication"
] | When you’re hooking up equipment across a vehicle, you’re often stuck sending power and data to and from things like sensors or actuators. The more wires you have to run, the more hassle, so it’s desirable to get this number as low as possible. That’s an especially big deal in the world of cycling electronics, where every additional gram is considered a drawback. To this end, companies have developed two-wire methods of sending power and data together, and now, [Keith Wakeham]
has devised his own way of doing so.
[Keith] was inspired by Shimano’s E-Tube system which is fairly fancy in its encoding schemes, but he went his own way. His concept relied on old-school On-Off Keying methods to take a signal and capacitively couple a signal into power lines. He explains the theory behind the method, and shares schematics that can be used to actually communicate over power lines. Then, he shows off the real hardware that he built to test the concept for himself.
The results? Good! [Keith] was able to maintain speeds of 57,600 bits/second even with an electrically-noisy gear motor operating on the lines. That’s more then enough for all kinds of applications.
If you’ve got your own
data-over-powerline hacks
, don’t hesitate to
let us know
. | 50 | 16 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742828",
"author": "Pat",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T16:07:35",
"content": "I’ve done this as well, based on some old EE article, but there are a few things to note:1. You want really low reverse leakage current on the diodes that lead into the peak/average detector. There are plenty... | 1,760,371,972.786832 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/the-greenhouse-effect-isnt-for-greenhouses/ | The Greenhouse Effect Isn’t For Greenhouses | Lewin Day | [
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Science"
] | [
"climate change",
"global warming",
"greenhouse",
"greenhouse gas"
] | Think of a greenhouse. It’s a structure with glass walls that lets light in and traps heat, all for the benefit of the plants inside. As for how it works, that’s elementary! It’s all down to the greenhouse effect… right?
Alas, no. So many of us have been mislead. Let’s rexamine how we
think
greenhouses work, and then explore what’s actually going on.
Green Me Up Scotty
It’s warmer inside, but it’s not because of infrared radiation! Credit:
Владимир Иванов, Public domain
While it’s true that greenhouses create a controlled environment conducive to plant growth, the science behind how they work is a tale often mistold. It all comes down to
misconceptions around the greenhouse effect.
In reality, the greenhouse effect is not how greenhouses work at all. Instead, it’s an analogy we use to help explain the concept of the Earth retaining additional heat from sunlight. In the case of our planet, sunlight comes to Earth, and a great deal of that is shortwave radiation—visible light. Much of that light is absorbed by the Earth and reradiated as longer-wavelength infrared radiation. So-called “greenhouse gases” in Earth’s atmosphere capture that infrared radiation rather than letting it float back off into space. The higher the concentration of greenhous gases in the atmosphere, the more heat is trapped, and Earth warms up as a result. The “greenhouse effect”.
It turns out greenhouses work great even if you build them out of materials that are transparent to infrared. The Eden Project in Cornwall is a great example of this, using plastic ETFE cells in its construction. Credit:
A1Personage, public domain
The naming of the greenhouse effect has led many to assume that greenhouses work the same way. After all, greenhouses are full of plants that absorb sunlight, right? And some of that is re-radiated as heat. Further supporting the idea is the fact that greenhouses are traditionally made of glass. Glass tends to absorb infrared radiation rather than letting it pass through—much like greenhouse gases in our atmosphere! It all makes sense!
And yet, that’s not how greenhouses really work at all. The tell is that you can build a greenhouse out of polyethylene. Unlike glass, polyethylene is quite transparent to the thermal wavelengths of infrared. If greenhouses relied on trapping infrared radiation for warmth, they wouldn’t work with the plastic at all. But they do!
Greenhouses aren’t really about radiation at all. Instead, they’re all about controlling convection instead.
Picture a bare patch of ground. As the sun shines on it, it heats up. The warm ground in turn heats up the air above it. The warmer air expands and becomes less dense, and rises up from the ground. It’s replaced by cooler air which again saps heat from the ground and through convection, carries away more heat in turn. In some cases, this effect can create a large rising column of warm air called a thermal—which is often enjoyed by gliders, hang gliders, and several species of birds.
Commercial greenhouses use a variety of methods to strictly control temperature and humidity for the best possible growing results. Goldlocki,
CC BY-SA 3.0
Now picture that same patch of ground, but there’s a greenhouse sitting on top of it. The greenhouse and the ground warm up by the heat of the sun. However, this time, the air can’t go anywhere. The air trapped in the greenhouse keeps picking up energy from the sun all day, and from the ground at night. Without being able to flow anywhere, all that heat is trapped by the walls of the greenhouse. Thus, the greenhouse becomes warmer, and stays warmer, than the surrounding air. It’s all about preventing convection, not blocking radiation.
Airflow, or the lack of it, is key to how a greenhouse works. In fact, to control temperature in a greenhouse, ventilation is vital. It’s also important for regulating humidity and ensuring a supply of fresh air for photosynthesis of the plants inside. To this end, many greenhouses feature roof vents, side vents, and fans to expel excess heat and moisture and to draw in cooler, drier air when necessary.
Of course transparency still plays a role in the greenhouse. It allows the sun’s rays to penetrate the building and be absorbed by the plants inside. This is key for photosynthesis, and for raising the internal temperature in the first place.
It’s interesting how the simple choice of name for a widely-understood environmental effect could so skew the common understanding of how greenhouses work. The misconception obviously is further supported by the fact that it
sounds
right, but as we all know—in science,
sounds right
is rarely the same as actually right.
You can now use this nifty misconception as your go to “well actually…” fact when you’re trying to be annoying at a dinner party. You’re welcome! | 22 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742807",
"author": "Javier Lomas",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T14:15:21",
"content": "Fascinating topic, isn’t?At night and even before sunset heat transmission in the format of long wave radiation from the bottom of the greenhouse towards the roof play a significant role in the plant... | 1,760,371,972.93571 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/photoresistors-provide-air-gap-data-transfer-slowly/ | Photoresistors Provide Air Gap Data Transfer, Slowly | Bryan Cockfield | [
"Security Hacks"
] | [
"air gap",
"optoisolation",
"photoresistor"
] | One of the simplest ways of keeping a computer system secure is by using an air gap — that is, never actually connecting the system to the network. This can often include other peripherals like USB drives and other removable storage as well, so getting information to and from secure (or compromised) systems behind air gaps can often present a challenge. But assuming you have local access to the computer and your parts bin handy,
these optical solutions from [Nikolay] can allow data transfer to or from such off-line computers
.
[Nikolay]’s specific use case for this project is to transfer small amounts of information to or from computers that may be compromised in some way, or computers that might otherwise be dangerous to connect to other equipment. There’s actually several methods described in the project, the first involves temporarily attaching a photoresistor to the computer’s screen which has been wired into the remains of a USB keyboard. A script running on the compromised machine translates data into a series of white and black squares. The sensors can detect these patterns much like playing
Duck Hunt
on an old CRT television and transmit the data across the air gap with reasonable certainty nothing harmful crossed with it.
The second is essentially a DIY optoisolator arrangement, where the audio output of the compromised computer is used to flash an LED by way of a simple transistor circuit. On the receiving side, a photoresistor connected to the audio input picks up the flashing LED as sound. The whole thing is enclosed in a black plastic box, and with the appropriate software, [Nikolay] says it can transfer 345 bytes per second between the two machines.
While the methods detailed by [Nikolay] certainly aren’t fast, they could still be extremely useful in a number of cases. He’s also set up all of the code so that it’s ready to go as soon as the diodes and transistors are soldered together. A friendly reminder to all, though, that although it’s definitely a step in the right direction
an air gap isn’t an impenetrable wall of security
. | 50 | 17 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742752",
"author": "nrdev",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T11:05:50",
"content": "While I see some interest in the proof of concept, I don’t see a real case where this would be handy…While you have complete access to the computer, assuming you want to keep it air gapped, it would make mo... | 1,760,371,972.871864 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/19/modern-microcontroller-boosts-classic-logic-analyzer-to-new-heights/ | Modern Microcontroller Boosts Classic Logic Analyzer To New Heights | Lewin Day | [
"classic hacks",
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"hewlett packard",
"HP",
"test equipment"
] | [Ted Fried] recently
found a beautiful HP 1600A/1607A logic analyzer set
. State of the art in 1975, it looks like glorious Space Age equipment today. He decided to hook it up some modern gear to put it through its paces.
Wanting to give the equipment a proper shakedown, he enlisted a Teensy 4.1 to spit a deluge of logic at the HP unit. The microcontroller was tasked with generating 32 data signals along with two clock outputs to give the analyzer plenty to analyze. The HP 1600A handled this no problem, so [Ted] kept tinkering.
His next feat was to explore the addressable “MAP” function of the unit, which allowed writing to the 64×64 pixel display. The Teensy 4.1 was easily able to send images to the display, but [Ted] isn’t stopping there. He’s got plans to do the usual thing and get Bad Apple going on the hardware.
Getting a logic analyzer to analyze logic isn’t much of a hack, sure. But it’s instructive of how to approach working with such hardware. If you want to spit a bunch of logic out fast, a Teensy 4.1 is a great choice because it’s got a ton of IO and a ton of clock cycles to tickle it with.
We enjoyed seeing this old piece of hardware light up the phosphors once more. If you’ve got your own projects going on with classic bits of HP test gear, don’t hesitate to
let us know! | 5 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742743",
"author": "macsimski",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T09:58:18",
"content": "Damn. The 1607A. I have been looking for the ne for ages now, to complement my own 1600A. Using the memory map for this is kinda cute.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
... | 1,760,371,973.178249 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/diy-pocket-pong-breaks-the-mobile-spell/ | DIY Pocket PONG Breaks The Mobile Spell | Kristina Panos | [
"Games"
] | [
"buzzer",
"esp32-C3",
"melting plastic",
"pong",
"potentiometer"
] | [Minikk], aka [Athul] is about to enter 10th grade and reports that they and their contemporaries are eschewing boring mobile games for 90s stuff and
old games like PONG
. Well, we already knew the 90s were back, but it’s nice to see that even older stuff is coming along with it. The kids are alright.
Whether you want to play alone or with a friend, it’s a classic to have in your pocket for sure. The brains behind this 70s-era operation is a Seeed Xiao ESP32-C3, which takes input from the two potentiometers and outputs the game on a 128 x 64 OLED. There’s also a small buzzer for when the ball hits the paddle, or you or your friend slips one past the goalie.
Our favorite part of this build has to be the DIY rivets that hold the OLED in place. [Athul] built posts into the enclosure that get heat-smashed into place with a soldering iron. Pretty neat, huh?
PONG is a specific thrill, certainly. How can it be more thrilling?
Maybe with LEDs instead of a screen?
Just a thought. | 8 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742710",
"author": "DavidO",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T06:45:50",
"content": "— How can it be more thrilling?With sheep:https://youtu.be/vGOGOxtN2lM?t=60",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6742725",
"author": "Davidp",
... | 1,760,371,973.082862 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/learn-ai-via-spreadsheet/ | Learn AI Via Spreadsheet | Al Williams | [
"Artificial Intelligence"
] | [
"ChatGPT",
"spreadsheet"
] | While we’ve been known to use and abuse spreadsheets in the past, we haven’t taken it to the level of [Spreadsheets Are All You Need]. The site provides
a spreadsheet version of an “AI” system
much like ChatGPT 2. Sure, that’s old tech, but the fundamentals are the same as the current crop of AI programs. There are several “lesson” videos that explain it all, with the promise of more to come. You can also, of course,
grab the actual spreadsheet
.
The spreadsheet is big, and there are certain compromises. For one thing, you have to enter tokens separately. There are 768 numbers representing each token in the input. That’s a lot for a spreadsheet, but a modern GPT uses many more.
As this is written, there are only two lesson videos and a general walk-through video for people who already understand the AI architecture and just want to know how the spreadsheet works. We are hoping to see more, but since you have the spreadsheet, you can also work ahead if you have the courage to do so. The two existing lessons show a high-level overview and a unit on tokenization.
We like the idea of putting complex topics into understandable spreadsheets. You won’t really use them, but you can easily dissect them. We’ve given that treatment to
DSP
and
CPUs
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742701",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T05:05:20",
"content": "768? Wow! Bring us back to our days of typing in numbers from a program listing in a magazine.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6742855",
"... | 1,760,371,973.218586 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/faux-silkscreen-on-a-pcb-made-with-a-laser-cutter/ | Faux Silkscreen On A PCB Made With A Laser Cutter | Lewin Day | [
"Tool Hacks"
] | [
"laser cutter",
"marking",
"pcb"
] | If you’re getting PCBs professionally made, silkscreen usually comes free as part of the package. However, if you’re making your own, the job is on you. [Tony Goacher] makes his own PCBs on a CNC router, so he’s not getting any silkscreening as part of that bargain. But he wondered—
could he do something analogous with a laser cutter?
The answer is yes. The silkscreen layer was first exported from DesignSpark, with the file then sent to LightBurn to prep it for laser cutting. The board outline layer was first engraved on to a piece of scrap as an alignment aid. Then, the board was placed in the laser cutter, with the silkscreen scorched directly on to the fiberglass.
The results are encouraging, if imperfect. [Tony] says he ran at “quite fast speed at quite high power.” The markings are all there, but they’re a little melty and difficult to read. He noted at lower speeds and lower power, the results were a bit more readable.
PCBs aren’t really an ideal engraving or laser marking material, but this technique could be servicable for some
basic markings on DIY PCBs
. We look forward to seeing how [Tony] improves the process in future. Video after the break. | 13 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742664",
"author": "BT",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T23:23:41",
"content": "Far from my area of expertise but I wonder if you could coat the PCB with… something… and laser engrave the coating for a higher definition result?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
... | 1,760,371,973.313272 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/using-a-framework-mainboard-for-a-custom-gaming-handheld/ | Using A Framework Mainboard For A Custom Gaming Handheld | Maya Posch | [
"laptops hacks"
] | [
"diy handheld",
"Framework laptop"
] | The nearly final prototype case for the handheld Framework-based gaming system. (Credit: TommyB, YouTube)
Building your own handheld gaming console has been a popular project for many years, but recently it has become significantly easier to get a lot of power into a small package. Like many others, [TommyB] made his own Raspberry Pi SBC-based handheld in the past, which results in a rather bulky and underpowered package. A more performant solution would be to stuff laptop guts into a handheld case, but until Framework came onto the scene this wasn’t easy and would get you a sloppy one-off solution. With [TommyB]’s
current handheld project
he uses a standard Framework laptop mainboard, along with the official battery to get a very capable gaming system.
Getting the ergonomics and fit for the components just right took many tries, but eventually a prototype shell was designed that fits the Framework mainboard, the battery, twin Framework speakers, an 8″ LCD panel from Waveshare (connected via USB-C to HDMI) and mechanical switches for the buttons. These switches connect to an RP2040-based board that runs the
GP2040-CE
firmware, allowing the operating system to detect it as an XBox controller. Although still far from finished, it shows just how beneficial standard laptop parts are, with a massive gap in the market where Framework could make its own handheld shell available. We’re looking forward to [TommyB] demonstrating the finished version of his Framework handheld, and the inevitable upgrade from the 11th-gen Intel mainboard to one of the sparkling new mainboards with even better specs.
Thanks to [Keith Olson] for the tip. | 7 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742675",
"author": "stanczyk",
"timestamp": "2024-03-19T01:04:45",
"content": "This isn’t the first or the last attempt. Each one has its faults and strengths.https://youtu.be/dDPA2LtZ6RI?si=hDqHEGNLGPVKCNTyhttps://youtu.be/NTkb0HOr6Qk?si=thU03-Iral_Ah1Nh",
"parent_id": null,
... | 1,760,371,973.266347 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/proper-routing-makes-for-many-happy-return-paths/ | Proper Routing Makes For Many Happy Return Paths | Dan Maloney | [
"PCB Hacks"
] | [
"current loop",
"eda",
"emc",
"emi",
"pcb",
"return path",
"RF",
"routing",
"signal",
"trace"
] | Here’s a question for you: when your PCB has a ground plane layer, where do return signals flow? It seems like a trick question, but as [Kristof Mulier] explains,
there’s more to return path routing
(
alternate link
in case you run into a paywall) than just doing a copper pour and calling it a day.
Like so many other things in life, the answer to the above question is “it depends,” and as [Kristof] ably demonstrates in this concise article, the return path for a signal largely depends on its frequency. He begins by explaining current loop areas and how they factor into the tendency for a circuit to both emit and be susceptible to electromagnetic noise. The bigger the loop area, the worse things can get from a noise perspective. At low frequencies, return signals will tend to take the shortest possible path, which can result in large current loop areas if you’re not careful. At higher frequencies, though, signals will tend to follow the path of minimal energy instead, which generally ends up being similar to the signal trace, even if it has a huge ground plane to flow through.
Since high-frequency signals naturally follow a path through the ground plane that minimizes the current loop, that means the problem takes care of itself, right? It would, except that we have a habit of putting all kinds of gaps in the way, from ground plane vias to isolation slots. [Kristof] argues that this can result in return paths that wiggle around these features, increasing the current loop area to the point where problems creep in. His solution? Route all your signal return paths. Even if you know that the return traces are going to get incorporated into a pour, the act of intentionally routing them will help minimize the current loop area. It’s brilliantly counterintuitive.
This is the first time we’ve seen the topic of high-frequency return paths tackled.
This succinct demonstration
shows exactly how return path obstructions can cause unexpected results.
Thanks to [Marius Heier] for the tip. | 18 | 12 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742603",
"author": "Pat",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T19:31:28",
"content": "Not the best example there, though – if you care about that trace so much you shouldn’t be swapping layers if you can avoid it, period, especially on a 4-layer board where the impedance between top/gnd and bo... | 1,760,371,973.366465 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/the-f-number-on-a-lens-means-something-who-knew/ | The F Number On A Lens Means Something? Who Knew! | Jenny List | [
"digital cameras hacks",
"Featured",
"Interest",
"Slider"
] | [
"camera",
"F number",
"f-stop",
"lens"
] | The Raspberry Pi has provided experimenters with many channels of enquiry, and for me perhaps the furthest into uncharted waters it has led me has come through its camera interface. At a superficial level I can plug in one of the ready-made modules with a built-in tiny lens, but as I experiment with the naked sensors of the HD module and a deconstructed Chinese miniature sensor it’s taken me further into camera design than I’d expected.
I’m using them with extra lenses to make full-frame captures of vintage film cameras, in the first instance
8 mm movie cameras
but as I experiment more, even 35 mm still cameras. As I’m now channeling the light-gathering ability of a relatively huge area of 1970s glass into a tiny sensor designed for a miniature lens, I’m discovering that maybe too much light is not a good thing. At this point instead of winging it I found it was maybe a good idea to learn a bit about lenses, and that’s how I started to understand what those F-numbers mean.
More Than The Ring You Twiddle To Get The Exposure Right
The F-number range of a 1990s Sigma consumer-grade zoom lens.
I’m not a photographer, instead I’m an engineer who likes tinkering with cameras and who takes photographs as part of her work but using the camera as a tool. Thus the f-stop ring has always been for me simply the thing you twiddle when you want to bring the exposure into range, and which has an effect on depth of field.
The numbers were always just numbers, until suddenly I had to understand them for my projects to work. So the first number I had to learn about was the F-number of the lens itself. It’s usually printed on the front next to the focal length and expressed as a ratio of the diameter of the light entrance to the lens focal length. Looking around my bench I see numbers ranging from 1:1 for a Canon 8mm camera to 1:2.8 for a 1950s Braun Paxette 35 mm camera, but it seems that around 1:1.2 is where most 8 mm cameras sit and 1:2 is around where I’m seeing 35 mm kit lenses. The F-stop ring controls an adjustable aperture, and the numbers correspond to that ratio. So that 1:2 kit lens is only 1:2 at the F2 setting, and becomes 1:16 at the F16 setting.
Fighting Too Much Light
My Raspberry Pi camera is focused on the focal plane of a Minolta Super 8 movie camera.
My problem is that I’m trying to match a CMOS sensor with a very high sensitivity per unit area against lens systems designed for film, which at the relatively low ISO numbers of 8 mm movie film, has a much lower sensitivity per unit area. 8 mm film is a fantastic medium which provides an aesthetic like no other, but even its most diehard adherent wouldn’t disagree that light levels are of huge importance when using it.
I had some failed experiments with putting the CMOS sensor at the focal point of the camera, but in the end found a far more effective technique of using an M12 screw-in lens as a macro lens to focus on the original focal point from behind. This is great, but has the result that all of that extra light intended for an ISO 50 frame of 8 mm movie film instead lands on a Raspberry Pi sensor designed for a much smaller lens. I need to make it deliver equivalent light to that F number being much higher, but I want my digital cartridge to just drop into an unmodified camera, so I can’t mess about with camera apertures. The solution is to apply a neutral density filter, in effect an attenuator, to the front lens ring. Not ideal, but it’s the best I’ve got.
So this has been my journey into the numbers on the front of a camera lens, and also my journey into understanding how they help me in merging old and new cameras on the cheap. If you’re a seasoned photographer you’ll be wondering how it took me so long, but I hope some of you will have learned something new. If one day I can film a Hackaday report on a vintage Super 8 camera with a digital cartridge, it will all have been worthwhile. | 59 | 19 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742553",
"author": "Steven Clark",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T17:34:30",
"content": "So you accidentally reinvented the speedbooster?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6742561",
"author": "Mike W0BTU",
"timestamp": "2024-03... | 1,760,371,973.481461 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/the-chandra-x-ray-observatory-faces-shutdown-in-fy2025-budget/ | The Chandra X-Ray Observatory Faces Shutdown In FY2025 Budget | Maya Posch | [
"News",
"Space"
] | [
"Chandra",
"space telescope",
"x-ray"
] | The Chandra X-ray Observatory started its mission back in 1999 when Space Shuttle
Columbia
released it from its payload bay. Originally, it was supposed to serve only a five-year mission, but it has managed twenty-four years so far and counting, providing invaluable science along with the other Great Observatory: the Hubble Space Telescope. Unfortunately, NASA’s
FY2025 budget
now looks to threaten all space telescopes and Chandra in particular. This comes as part of the larger
FY2025 US budget
, which sees total funding for NASA increase by 2%, but not enough to prevent cuts in NASA’s space telescope operations.
NASA already
anticipated this cut in 2023
, with funding shifting to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (infrared spectrum, scheduled for 2027). Since Hubble is a joint operation with ESA, any shortfalls might be caught this way, but Chandra’s budget will go from 68.3M USD in FY2023 to 41.4M USD in FY2025 and from there plummeting to 5.2M USD by FY2029, effectively winding down the project and ending NASA’s
flagship X-ray astronomy
mission. This doesn’t sit well with everyone, with a website called
Save Chandra
now launched to petition the US government to save the observatory, noting that it still has a decade of fuel for its thrusters remaining and it also has stable mission costs.
Much like Hubble, Chandra is operating well past its original design life and has had to be patched back together on a few occasions. Despite this, both are essential tools for astronomy and related fields, with the loss of either a big blow. Even though Chandra would not be actively decommissioned, its science mission would come to an end, with only a vague hope remaining of an eventual revival in a future budget.
Unfortunately, the scientific community doesn’t have a big voice in the US Congress. Still, those who are in the US can follow the instructions on the
Save Chandra
website to contact their Congressional Representative or Senator. Other options include signing the community letter to NASA and Congress and, of course, making your dissatisfaction known on social media. With enough of a push from the community, perhaps Chandra can continue to do science until 2030.
Space telescopes sometimes
need glasses
. Keeping them funded is
often a struggle
. | 30 | 9 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742522",
"author": "Cody",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T15:35:49",
"content": "Sounds like politics. Don’t plan cuts for useless things and sya with the budget cut you need to cut usefull things rather than the useless ones to play for more money. Typical fief behavior. It should be... | 1,760,371,973.602702 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/keebin-with-kristina-the-one-with-the-offset-stem-keycaps/ | Keebin’ With Kristina: The One With The Offset-Stem Keycaps | Kristina Panos | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Peripherals Hacks",
"Slider"
] | [
"keyboard photos",
"offset keycaps",
"Topre"
] | Image by [Leo_keeb] via
reddit
Love it or hate it, I think this is a really cool idea.
[Leo_keeb] has designed a new set of keycaps for the Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB).
The keycaps’ stems are offset to the left or right in order to turn this once-staggered keyboard into an ortholinear object.
So, how do they feel? There is a slight wobble to them, according to [Leo_keeb] — it’s a bit like pressing the left or right side of Tab. But the actuation is smooth, they say.
As you can see, these resin keycaps weren’t designed with the typical Cherry MX profile in mind, they are made for the Topre capacitive key switches of the HHKB. (No, those aren’t weird rubber domes.)
When I asked about sharing the STLs, [Leo_keeb] advised me that they might be willing to release STLs for Cherry MX switches in the US layout if there is enough interest.
Make Your Photos Suck Less
Image by [CaviteTech] via
YouTube
If you want to share your keyboard builds with the world, you’re obviously going to need to take a few pictures, especially if you want to end up here.
[CaviteTech] is here to tell you that your current keyboard photos (probably) suck, and
offers part one of a new series on taking great ones.
You can check out the short video below.
So far, the advice seems solid: use a couple of props, and consider using a desk mat. Take pictures in the best light you can, and go outside if you have to, but shoot in the shade. As far as the shots themselves go, [CaviteTech] likes to take more than they think they’ll need, starting with a top-down shot and moving into side profile and angled shots. Finally, they suggest taking a few shots with one or more keycaps removed in order to show off the switches. This might be as important as good lighting, if you ask me. Check out part one below.
The Centerfold: Cherry, Box Navies, and a marantz
Image by [Xabdeth] via
reddit
How often do you see
vintage Cherry keyboards with aftermarket key caps
? Not that often, I suspect, but [Xabdeth] is definitely forgiven in my book for tricking out this
G80-1000
. The keycaps look appropriately vintage, anyway. I’m not exactly sure, but I think they are Rome GMKs. Underneath that, the very loud Kailh Box Navies. The marantz has been in the family since 1978.
Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad?
Send me a picture
along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!
Historical Clackers: Going Postal
Image via
The Classic Typewriter Page
No, this machine wasn’t meant to be used in post offices. The best guess out there regarding the name is that
the Postal was supposed to be a good typewriter for correspondence.
Works for me.
Following in the footsteps of
the previous Keebin’
, this is another affordable portable compared to standard-sized machines which cost around $100. The Postal premiered in 1902 for $25 ($27.50 if you wanted the veneered oak case). I think it looks cooler without.
In today’s dollars, that’s almost $800
compared to the equivalent of three grand for a standard machine.
The Postal company touted this machine the “only” low-priced typewriter with a universal keyboard (as in QWERTY), powerful manifolding, and mimeograph stencil cutting. Alas, the machine was quite popular in the US and abroad.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
As Antikey Chop points out
, the Postal looks like the unholy union of a
Blickensderfer
, a Franklin, a
Hammond
, and a Keystone. As much as it may resemble the Blickensderfer, the Postal has a ribbon instead of an ink roller, and of course, it has a QWERTY keyboard instead of the DHIATENSOR layout. But the fundamental mechanism is more like the Hammond: each key press raises slightly on one of the long, thin index pins behind and above the keyboard. Then the typewheel rotates until the feeler arm hits the raised-up index pin, and
then
the typewheel goes to the printing point and prints.
ICYMI: Cheap Business Keyboard Makes You Look Anything But
I think [sporewoh] is guaranteed to be king of the next meetup with
this teeny inexpensive keyboard they were able to make for about $5 total.
The secret sauce is in the microcontroller — the CH552T, which costs about a dollar and only requires two capacitors to get running.
The other secret is in the switches. This isn’t [sporewoh]’s first tiny-keyboard rodeo, and so they did a cost analysis of the previous build and found that the most expensive bit is by far the switches. Where [sporewoh] once used Panasonic EVQP0N02Bs, they switched them out for G-Switch GT-TC063F-H035-L30 SMD switches because they are slightly cheaper.
Unfortunately, that choice would come back to haunt [sporewoh], because they require greater travel and actuation force, and are scratchy and unreliable to boot. Another trick to keep the cost down — the overall board is less than 100 mm x 100 mm, which triggers a discount at a certain PCB fab house.
Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards?
Help me out by sending in a link or two
. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to
email me directly
. | 3 | 3 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742516",
"author": "Joseph Eoff",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T14:56:10",
"content": "“Alas, the machine was quite popular in the US and abroad.”What’s wrong with the Postal typewriter having been popular in the US and other parts of the world?https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionar... | 1,760,371,973.535457 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/ancient-instrument-goes-digital-the-digi-gurdy/ | Ancient Instrument Goes Digital: The Digi-Gurdy | Donald Papp | [
"Musical Hacks"
] | [
"digi-gurdy",
"hurdy gurdy",
"instrument",
"laser cut",
"midi",
"music"
] | The hurdy-gurdy is a fascinating string instrument dating from sometime around the 10th century. There is an active community of modern enthusiasts, but one can’t simply walk into a music shop and buy one. That’s where [XenonJohn] and the
Digi-Gurdy
come in, bringing some nice features while maintaining all the important elements of the original.
The mechanical keys and crank of the Hurdy-Gurdy are preserved in this modern digital incarnation.
The hurdy-gurdy works by droning strings with a rotating wheel, and the player applies pressure to those strings via keys to play combinations of notes. Here’s
a video demonstrating what it sounds like to play one
, and one can see a conceptual resemblance to bagpipes, among other things.
The Digi-Gurdy is a modern electronic version that maintains the mechanical elements while sending MIDI signals over USB. It has options for line-out or headphone output. A thriving online community has shaped its development since its inception years ago.
We hope this leaves you wanting to know more because [XenonJohn] has
loads
of details to share. The main website at
digigurdy.com
is jam-packed with information about this instrument and its construction, and
the project page on Hackaday.io
has more nitty-gritty design details and source files for those who crave hardware specifics.
If [XenonJohn]’s name sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve admired his work on
DIY self-balancing vehicles
over the years. He also submitted
an earlier version as an entry into the Hackaday Prize
. His careful attention to detail shines through. Check out the two videos (embedded just below the page break): the first demonstrates the Digi-Gurdy, and the second shows off the construction and insides. You’d think a MIDI hurdy-gurdy would be unique, but, actually, we’ve seen
more than one
. | 12 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742476",
"author": "NQ",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T12:30:16",
"content": "Perfect chance to have an on the fly swap of the drone note.",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6742513",
"author": "Howard West",
"timestamp": "2024... | 1,760,371,973.788498 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/18/rnode-a-portable-unrestricted-digital-radio/ | RNODE: A Portable Unrestricted Digital Radio | Dave Rowntree | [
"Radio Hacks"
] | [
"3d printed",
"APRS",
"cryptography",
"LiliyGo",
"LoRa",
"LXME",
"Nomad",
"reticulum",
"Sideband",
"u.fl"
] | RNode
is an open source, unrestricted digital radio transceiver based on — but not limited to — the
Reticulum cryptographic networking stack
. It is another interesting project in what we might call the “Federated application” space in that it is intended to be used with no central controlling body. It can be used in a LAN or WAN context with the Reticulum network when operating in network adaptor mode, but it also has other use cases.
Essentially, RNode is a software project running on a
LilyGO LoRa32 board wrapped up in a snazzy-looking 3D-printed case
. Just make sure to grab a version of the board with an u.FL connector in place or somewhere to solder one. If it comes with an SMA connector, you will want to remove that. The device can be standalone, perhaps attached to a mobile device via Wi-Fi, but it needs to be hooked up to a laptop for the really interesting applications. When
set to TNC mode
, it can act as an APRS gateway, which allows you to access packet radio BBSs and all that fun stuff.
Other supported applications are
Sideband
and
the Nomad Network
, both
LXMF
clients for messaging over secure peer-to-peer networks. Finally, the LilyGo board is a LoRa device that can act as a general-purpose LoRa sniffer, useful for finding communication dead spots. One fun idea is the “bootstrap console,” accessible via any Wi-Fi-enabled RNode and contains the basic information needed to construct other RNode devices. This is hosted on the device, so no internet access is required. But you need access to the spare parts, tools, and something with a screen to read it on. Still, it’s an interesting concept enabled by modern embedded devices having plenty of storage on tap.
The idea of using LoRa for communications at the human level is not a new one. We covered this
nice blackberry-esque build not long ago
. If you want to know how far you can go with LoRa,
check this out
.
Thanks [Adam] for the tip! | 10 | 4 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742652",
"author": "Bob",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T22:10:21",
"content": "Is this a clone of meshtastic or is meshtastic a clone of this?Either way:https://xkcd.com/927/",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6742658",
"auth... | 1,760,371,974.023304 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/17/thrift-store-cd-rack-turns-into-small-parts-storage-playground/ | Thrift Store CD Rack Turns Into Small Parts Storage Playground | Dan Maloney | [
"Misc Hacks"
] | [
"3d printing",
"cd",
"drawer",
"organization",
"shop",
"small parts",
"storage"
] | What in the world could an accessory for an obsolete audio medium possibly have to do with keeping all your unruly bits and pieces in order? First of all, we’re not sure the CD is quite dead yet; we’ve got about a thousand of them packed away somewhere, and we’re pretty sure they’ll be back in style again one of these days. Until then, though,
the lowly CD rack might be just what you need to get your shop under control
.
As [Chris Borge] relates the story, he stumbled over this CD rack at a thrift sale and quickly realized its potential. All it took was some quick design work and a bit of 3D printing. Okay, a lot of 3D printing, including some large, flat expanses for the drawer bottoms, which can be a problem to print reliably. His solution was simple but clever: pause the print and insert a piece of stiff card stock to act as the drawer bottom before continuing to print the sides. This worked well but presented an adhesion problem later when he tried to print some drawer dividers, so those were printed as a separate job and inserted later.
Sadly, [Chris] notes that the CD format is not quite
Gridfinity
compatible, but that’s not a deal breaker. He also doesn’t provide any build files, but none are really necessary. Once you’ve got the basic footprint, what you do with your drawers is largely dependent on what you’ve got to store. The video below has a lot of ideas for what’s possible, but honestly, we’re looking at all those little parts assortment kits from Bojack and Hilitchi piled up in a drawer and just dreaming about the possibilities here. Add a
voice-activated, LED inventory locator
, and you’d really have something. Off to the thrift store! | 15 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742421",
"author": "Old school",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T06:52:14",
"content": "dude?! really?! obsolete…dead…eclipsed….let me tell you CDs is as far as I got and as far as I will go techwise – screw streaming – it’s a Biggus Corous corp daa suck machine.I’m staying on CDs (and DV... | 1,760,371,973.733627 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/17/shotaro-kanedas-motorcycle-for-real/ | Shôtarô Kaneda’s Motorcycle, For Real | Jenny List | [
"Transportation Hacks"
] | [
"akira",
"anime",
"kaneda",
"motorcycle"
] | For fans of the iconic anime
Akira
, there’s only one way to traverse the mean streets of post-apocalyptic neo-Tokyo, and that’s the futuristic mount of motorcycle gang leader Shôtarô Kaneda. It’s a low-down feet-forward machine with, we’re told, “Ceramic double-rotor two-wheel drive,” which we’re guessing is some kind of hybrid electric drive with what sounds like a gas-turbine motor. Over the years, there have been a few different attempts to create a real version of Kaneda’s bike, and we’re pleased to see
the latest from ヲタ工房「ポンちゃンネル」
(Ota Kobo “Ponchanner”). It uses a twin-cylinder Kawasaki motor in an entirely custom-made frame, with dual single-sided swingarms front and rear and hub-centre steering.
The full build in the video below the break is pretty long but well worth a watch, and it includes a lot of very highly skilled metalwork. It’s an interesting choice not to attempt to make a direct replica of Kaneda’s bike. Still, we think some of the differences are dictated by this being very much a roadworthy and everyday-rideable machine.
As is usually the case with these builds, as far as we can see, it has two chains and a rotor somewhere under the seat to get the drive under the rider. To replicate the original’s steering action, there’s a complex linkage at the front. The body panels are fabricated in stainless steel to a very high standard, and we particularly like the pop-out centre stand.
We’ve hoped for years that the arrival of hub-centre electric motors with useful quantities of power will revitalise the narrow field of Kaneda bike builds, and indeed,
there seems to be someone building just that for sale
. Meanwhile, we think this one is about the pinnacle of the art when it comes to internal combustion models. It seems attendees of a Japanese motorcycle show agree with us.
If you don’t know the original bike,
this video should educate you
. Once you build this, you only need an
anime holographic assistant
. If you prefer your
motorcycles more old-school
, that’s another possible build. | 25 | 14 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742391",
"author": "Akolzol.com",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T02:03:16",
"content": "look so nice! love it!",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": [
{
"comment_id": "6742555",
"author": "Ostracus",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T17:40:13",
... | 1,760,371,973.87916 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/17/hackaday-links-march-17-2024/ | Hackaday Links: March 17, 2024 | Dan Maloney | [
"Hackaday Columns",
"Hackaday links",
"Slider"
] | [
"ai",
"architecture",
"Avi Loeb",
"blender",
"Coriolis",
"extraterrestrial",
"gemini",
"google",
"hackaday links",
"industrial automation",
"prompt engineering",
"seismic",
"spin gravity",
"spoofing",
"SR-71",
"starship",
"wifi"
] | A friend of ours once described computers as “high-speed idiots.” It was true in the 80s, and it appears that even with the recent explosion in AI, all computers have managed to do is become faster. Proof of that can be found in
a story about using ASCII art to trick a chatbot into giving away the store
. As anyone who has played with ChatGPT or its moral equivalent for more than five minutes has learned, there are certain boundary conditions that the LLM’s
creators
lawyers have put in place to prevent discussion surrounding sensitive topics. Ask a chatbot to deliver specific instructions on building a nuclear bomb, for instance, and you’ll be rebuffed. Same with asking for help counterfeiting currency, and wisely so. But, by minimally obfuscating your question by rendering the word “COUNTERFEIT” in ASCII art and asking the chatbot to first decode the word, you can slip the verboten word into a how-to question and get pretty explicit instructions. Yes, you have to give painfully detailed instructions on parsing the ASCII art characters, but that’s a small price to pay for forbidden knowledge that you could easily find out yourself by other means.
While on the topic of high-speed idiocy, it seems like Google’s new Bay View Campus suffers from
a few design deficiencies
that are causing headaches for the Gemini AI team working there. According to workers there, the 600,000 square foot (55,700 square meters) building has terrible WiFi coverage, to the point where they’re resorting to Ethernet cables and WiFi hotspots on their phones to get work done or just going outside to get some signal. Employees blame the unique roof of the building, which almost looks like an anechoic chamber. It’s a striking building, to be sure, but it would probably be better if people could actually get some work done in it.
If this week’s installment of “Stuff Elon Says,” it looks like
future Mars-bound Starships will feature spin gravity
for the comfort and health of their passengers. “Even a tiny gravity vector is better than none,” says Elon, but we’re not too sure. The current generation of Starship is about 9 meters in diameter, which is pretty big as spacecraft go but still not that big. So someone 1.7 meters tall standing inside a spinning Starship will span about 37% of the radius, which is probably going to feel really weird — full spin gravity at the feet, but less than a third of that at their head. We suppose it would be tolerable lying down against the inner surface, but standing seems like it might be a recipe for puking all the way to Mars. And that’s not to mention the Coriolis forces. No thanks!
Bad news for Avi Loeb this week, as
a preprint apparently pokes holes in some of the seismic data
the Harvard astrophysicist used to classify a 2014 meteorite as interstellar in origin. Benjamin Fernando, a planetary seismologist at Johns Hopkins, analyzed data from seismometers in Papua New Guinea and found a periodicity to the data that appears to correlate with the comings and goings of trucks on a nearby road. One would think that this would have been accounted for by whoever runs the sensors at some point in the past, but maybe not? Loeb, who has become something of an outcast in astronomy circles for his speculations on extraterrestrial civilizations, shot right back, noting that the primary data he used to estimate the origin of the 2014 meteor was satellite imagery and that the seismic data was only supportive of its interstellar origins. He also stands behind the chemical analysis of the material recovered from the putative impact site, which seems to suggest the stuff came from a “magma ocean” on an exoplanet with an iron core. As
we recently opined
, Loeb does seem to have the numbers on his side, but he still has a lot of work to do to make his case.
Last week
, we dropped a link for a fascinating virtual tour of the coolest airplane ever built, the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. This week, we were pleased to find
a full behind-the-scenes explanation
of the process used to create the video by Jake O’Neal, the artist behind the Animagraffs channel. The amount of work he did creating the model of the Blackbird is just mind-boggling, and the level of detail he managed to pull from some “copies-of-copies” images and fuzzy photographs is astounding. We’d have thought the bulk of the work would have been in Blender, but it seems like the time he spent researching the plane vastly outweighed the time spent building the model. There are some fantastically retro source docs in the video, too, which any aviation buff needs to check out.
And finally, this brief video of
a fully automatic flap-disc machine
caught our eye because — well, just because! We used to work in laboratory automation, which is sorta-kinda similar to industrial automation, and the satisfaction of turning a manual process into something that machines can do quickly and reliably is hard to explain. The machine in this video is a great example of the creativity automation engineers have to employ to make the things we need to run our lives even remotely affordable. Enjoy! | 16 | 6 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742396",
"author": "Adrian",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T02:32:05",
"content": "No fan of Loeb, but I think the paper only challenges the area where Loeb was searching for the spherules. The claim of interstellar origin of the meteorite is based on different data than the seismometer ... | 1,760,371,973.93611 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/17/rp2040-boot-loader-is-a-worm/ | RP2040 Boot Loader Is A Worm | Chris Lott | [
"Raspberry Pi",
"Tech Hacks"
] | [
"bootloader",
"Cornell University",
"hunter adams",
"robot swarm",
"rp2040",
"virtual fencing",
"worms"
] | [Hunter Adams] has written a
secondary bootloader
for the RP2040 that uses an IR link and
can be extended
to behave like a polite worm virus. This allows the easy updating of a large cluster of co-located RP2040-based controllers. This could be handy in applications like swarm robotics or virtual cattle fencing. The project he demonstrates in the two videos ( below the break ) uses a pair of IR transmitters/receivers. But he purposely wrote the boot loader to be independent of the serial link, which could be infrared, radio, audio, or just wires.
Not only did [Hunter] make a boot loader, but he documented the entire
boot process of the RP2040 chip
. Whether or not you need a secondary bootloader, this is an excellent resource for understanding how the RP2040 responds to power cycling and resets. The boot loader code is available at his
GitHub repository
.
You may recall that [Hunter] is the lecturer of Cornell University’s
Designing with Microcontroller
classes, whom we’ve mentioned before. We’ve also covered some of his students’ projects as well, like
these air drums
and
this CoreXY pen plotter
. | 8 | 5 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742369",
"author": "Drone",
"timestamp": "2024-03-18T00:10:28",
"content": "“This could be handy in applications like swarm robotics or virtual cattle fencing.”Virtual Fencing is cool, especially when used for herds of humans.Here is a nifty online virtual cattle fencing cost calcu... | 1,760,371,973.977374 | ||
https://hackaday.com/2024/03/17/simple-ntp-clock-uses-custom-rgb-7-segment-displays/ | Simple NTP Clock Uses Custom RGB 7-Segment Displays | Lewin Day | [
"clock hacks"
] | [
"clock",
"ntp",
"time-keeping"
] | A great majority of hackers build a clock at some point. It’s a great way to get familiar with electronics and (often) microcontrollers, and you get to express some creativity along the way. Plus, you get something useful when you’re done! [Tadas Ustinavičius] recently trod this well-worn path and
built a neat little NTP clock of their own.
The build uses an ESP 12F as the core of the operation. It’s charged with querying an NTP time server via its WiFi connection in order to maintain accurate timekeeping around the clock. For display, it drives a series of custom 7-segment displays that [Tadas] built using 3D-printed housings. They use WS2812B addressable LEDs and thus can display a rainbow of colors.
For initial configuration, the phone creates its own WiFi hotspot with a web interface for changing settings. Once configured, it connects to the Internet over WiFi to query an NTP server at regular intervals.
It’s a simple build that does a simple job well. Projects like these can be very valuable, as they teach you all kinds of useful skills. If you’ve been working on your own clock design, don’t hesitate to
let us know.
You can use a microcontroller,
relays
, or even
a ball
. | 14 | 8 | [
{
"comment_id": "6742293",
"author": "steelman",
"timestamp": "2024-03-17T17:57:05",
"content": "For initial configuration, the phone creates its own WiFi hotspotPhone?",
"parent_id": null,
"depth": 1,
"replies": []
},
{
"comment_id": "6742299",
"author": "Kelly",
"timest... | 1,760,371,974.160797 |
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