Author Archives: the machinegeek

3D printing in alternative filaments

Rich Olson of Nothing Labs has posted a presentation on 3d printing in “alternative” filaments besides PLA. He writes, “I specifically cover soft PLA, Taulman Nylon 618, PET, Taulman “T-glase” (PETT), Layoo-d3, Laybrick and bri-tech PLA 45. The presentation gets into optimal print settings / tips for each filament. I also briefly touch on casting […]

Codebender web-based Arduino coding tool

Codebender is a web-based programming tool for Arduino. ” Traditionally, you would need to install an IDE, which includes all the necessary software, find and install the correct drivers, set permissions, etc. It can take 10-60 minutes. Or it can be a total mess. With Codebender, you can program your Arduino straight from your browser. […]

TI LDC1000 inductance-to-digital converter

Manuel Garbe draws attention to a new inductance-to-digital converter chip known as the LDC1000 from TI. This should eliminate the need for Hall effect sensors and magnets, providing contactless sensing with immunity to non-conductive interferences. Here’s a link to a good explanatory article from EDN. The datasheet can be downloaded from TI. Via the contact […]

DEFCON video: Hacking Driverless Vehicles

In this presentation from the recent Defcon 21 conference, Zoz Brooks provides an overview of the current state of civil driverless vehicles and what hackers or miscreants might do to mess with them. Topics covered include common sensors, decision profiles and their potential failure modes that could be exploited. While many remember Zoz as co-host […]

One Time Password (OTP) doorlock

Luca Dentella has just published his latest project, an Arduino-based door lock you can open using time-based OTP codes (compliant to the RFC 6238). “The simplest way to generate those codes is the use of Google Authenticator, a free mobile app. I’ve also prepared a simple webpage you can use to configure (scanning a QRCode) […]

MSP430F5529 USB LaunchPad evaluation kit

TI has announced their latest LaunchPad evaluation kit. The new MSP430F5529 USB LaunchPad Evaluation Kit includes USB 2.0-enabled MSP430F5529 16-bit MCU (up to 25 MHz), 128KB Flash, 8KB RAM and a 12 Bit SAR ADC. Also included are eZ-FET lite (the open source onboard debugger with application UART) and the standard 40 pin LaunchPad connector […]

Arduino announces new Arduino Yun board

The Arduino crew has announced the Arduino Yun. This latest addition to the Arduino family is a “combination of a classic Arduino Leonardo (based on the Atmega32U4 processor) with a Wifi system-on-a-chip running Linino (a MIPS GNU/Linux based on OpenWRT). We embedded the Linux machine directly on the PCB of the Arduino Leonardo and we […]

Homebrew lab agitator from salvaged CD-ROM parts

Rohit Gupta cannibalized parts from an old PC and made a lab agitator from a salvaged CD-ROM drive. “It is a homebrew replacement for a chemistry lab shaker that prevents sedimentation. It has variable shaking rates and also an end stop detection to enhance the stability of the machine overall. It is quite useful when […]

OLED Backpack updates

Ed informs us that there have been a number of improvements on the OLED backpack from Fried Circuits! It’s turning into a fairly complete logging tool, now including multiscreen support (cycle between six screens with various readings), energy measurement (measuring charge in Wh and Ah), and interrupt-based reading. You can find details and updated information […]

Silvercrest (Lidl) TwinTalker 4810 446MHz PMR radio teardown

Joe Desbonnet acquired a Silvercrest (Lidl) TwinTalker 4810 PMR radio and decided to explore under the hood. PMR radios are a European equivalent of low power Family Radio Service and General Mobile Radio Service walkie-talkies used in the USA, but operate on the 446 MHz frequency band. Most use analog FM, though commercially targeted models […]

RTL-SDR spectrum analyzer for BeagleBone Black using ViewRF software

Stephen Ong previously released this video demonstrating the use of RTL-SDR dongle with the BeagleBone dev board to function as a spectrum analyzer. The software making this possible is known as ViewRF and Stephen has now released the instructions and code links for this project.

Vote in the 2013 Hackerspace Challenge

Radio Shack and Popular Mechanics are sponsoring a Hackerspace Challenge designed to determine which of two competing finalists best exemplifies the theme ” From something old, make something new.” The contest pits the Milwaukee Makerspace Morgifying Marble Manipulation Machine (aka: M6) against Inspiration Labs’ Police Callbox Lander (a Biofeedback-Controlled Game) with the winner taking a […]

Reversing CedarX and open Allwinner driver

Tsvetan reports some good news for the open source community: a group of hackers (jemk, wingrime, nove) worked on the reverse engineering of CedarX and an open source driver for Allwinner chips is on the way! Details on these efforts and links can be found at Olimex. Via the contact form.

HP laptop security flaw discovered using RTL-SDR

Cronek reports discovering a security flaw in the microphone on certain HP laptops. Using his RTL-SDR dongle and SDR# he observed unusual signals around 24 MHz. He discovered that his HP EliteBook 8460p laptop computer was continuously and unintentionally transmitting the audio from the built in microphone at 24 MHz in FM modulation anytime the […]

FriedCircuits inline voltage/current tester board

Edouard gives us a preview of the new version of the in-line voltage/current tester board by FriedCircuits. He reports that the board is also compatible with the OLED Backpack (requires separate USB power source.) Via the contact form.

MiniBasic on STM8

Joaquim reports, “Since I have the STM8S-Discovery I wanted to make a simple version of a BASIC interpreter for it. Had initially thought about converting BASIC to run on the ZX80 STM8S but eventually put that idea aside. Luckily I found this version on the net (Arduino Basic), and after some adaptation could include new […]

Change HC-05 Bluetooth module settings via AT commands

TechBitar writes, “This is a utility that shows how to change the settings of the ubiquitous HC-05 Bluetooth module using the AT command set. The HC-05 comes with a rich set of AT commands to perform various tasks such as changing the module’s default settings including changing the pass code, the device name, and the […]