Øyvind Dahl writes, “I just hacked a 75 year old radio into an iPhone dock. I used a simple amplifier circuit, parts from an old speaker, an Arduino, some LEDs and a mini dock plug.” You can find more info on the build at Øyvind’s Build Electronic Circuits website. Via the contact form.
Author Archives: the machinegeek
Parallax Propeller C learning system
Parallax has revamped their tutorials for learning to program the Propeller in C. You can find a number of programming tips and examples as well as links to the SimpleIDE open source programming tool for use with Propeller C on the Learn.Parallax.C site. For more information on the SimpleIDE download their 33 page PDF User […]
Tutorial: Kali Linux with GNU Radio, GQRX and RTL-SDR dongle
If you’ve tried to install GNU Radio from binaries without success, this video from NeedSec is for you. He demonstrates how to intall GNU Radio on Kali Linux from source, and confirms operation of the RTL-SDR dongle using GQRX radio receiver software.
Dancing Lego and Five Servos
Pierre Villeneuve writes about his Dancing Lego robot project: Its based on my Raspberry Pi, five servo motors, and Lego parts stolen from my son’s collection. The robot dances to some pretty groovy music, and there is a special appearance by Lego Batman. In addition to the Pi, he uses a hardware 16-channel 12-bit PWM […]
PSoC 4 Pioneer Kit annotation component file
I If you are getting started with Cypress Semiconductor’s new PSoC 4 Pioneer Kit dev board here’s an interesting addition to the standard IDE. It’s a library of useful annotation components and macros by Cypkees, who describes: “The PSoC 4 Pioneer Kit component is an annotation component with active wire terminals to show how external […]
HackManhattan’s Nordic nRF51822 breakout board
Guan Yang of HackManhattan informs us of his efforts in working with a Bluetooth low energy component: This amazing component is the Nordic nRF51822 that was released last year and is now available for order from Mouser. It’s a Bluetooth Low Energy system-on-chip that includes a transceiver and a Cortex-M0 microcontroller. Here’s a breakout board […]
NASA Centennial Challenge to test civilian drone/aircraft avoidance systems
If you need any more confirmation that drones are destined to become a part of everyday civilian life, here it is. NASA has announced the selection of Dayton, Ohio based Development Projects Inc. to manage a new Centennial Challenge prize competition involving unmanned aircraft systems in 2014. The purpose of the contest, known as the […]
Internet census maps usage via network of open embedded devices
A security research group has completed an Internet census revealing interesting facts on usage. According to the abstract by the crew from Carna Botnet, While playing around with the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) we discovered an amazing number of open embedded devices on the Internet. Many of them are based on Linux and allow login […]
TI Deal: MSP430 ZIF socket target board
TI is offering the MSP-TS430PW24 24-pin target socket board for $30 while supplies last. The board normally retails for $89. The MSP-TS430PW24 is a standalone ZIF socket target board used to program and debug the MSP430 in-system through the JTAG interface or the Spy Bi-Wire (2-wire JTAG) protocol. The development board supports all MSP430AFE2xx Flash […]
KiCad video tutorials
Tom from Numato Labs writes: We have launched a new KiCad tutorial video series at the Numato Labs’ Youtube channel. Hoping this would help the KiCad learners out there. Via the contact form.
DIY 3d laser scanner
Alessandro Grossi developed this DIY 3d scanner. The primary ingredients in this project are readily available and include a line laser, an Arduino, stepper motor, stepper motor driver (up to 12800 steps), 12V power supply, IR LED and a digital SLR camera. While he wrote the image processing script for Matlab, he notes that it […]
Embedded Pi bridges R-Pi or STM32 with Arduino shields
The crew at Element 14 has announced the release of a combo R-Pi/STM32 interface board compatible with Arduino shields. The Embedded Pi is based on the STMicroelectronics STM32F103 MCU and is open-source (see Technical Documents for schematic, layout and BOM). It can operate as a bridge between Raspberry Pi and Arduino shields and in standalone […]
Reusing old Java ME devices in hacking projects
In this video from the Oracle Learning Library, Vinicius Senger and Marcelo Quinta demonstrate how to repurpose old Java ME mobile devices in hardware hacking projects. This talk, which was originally presented at last October’s Oracle Open World conference in San Francisco, concentrates on different ways to use Java ME for educational purposes, as well […]
24VAC to 5VDC Conversion
Ray Wang wrote this post about voltage conversion from 24VAC to 5VDC. Voltage conversion from 24VAC to 5VDC is quite useful, because a lot of home automation devices use 24VAC, including sprinkler solenoids, home surveillance systems etc. Having a conversion module makes it easy to use a single power supply, without a separate 5V adapter […]
Declassified NSA doc: Untangling the Web
In this newly declassified document entitled “Untangling the Web: a guide to internet research”, the NSA drops the docs on the governemnt’s view of internet research resources. (The information is a bit dated as this is the 2007 edition.) Untangling the Web was released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request by […]
DART programming language
DART is a new programming language for building structured web apps. DART is a new JavaScript replacement language. DART is a ground-up re-imagining of what JavaScript should be. It requires its own runtime environment (which Google makes available for free under the three-clause BSD license) and has its own syntax and libraries. DART is an […]
Open source JTAGulator identifies OCD connections
Famed hardware hacker Joe Grand has released his latest open source project, the JTAGulator. This tool assists hardware hackers in identifying on-chip debugging (OCD) and/or programming connections from test points, vias, or component pads on a target piece of hardware. It interfaces with your computer via USB communicating through any terminal program. It’s based on […]
Zylin tiny open source CPU on FPGA
If you’re interested in experimenting with a tiny CPU implemented in an FPGA, we found this interesting article on using the Zylin Tiny CPU. AMR wanted a really small CPU core to handle things like loading ROMs from SD card. It had to take up a minimal number of logic elements and be easy to […]
The Liberator: 3D-printed pistol
Cody R. Wilson is a 25-year-old University of Texas law student working to build semiautomatic weapons using 3D printers. As depicted in this video, his efforts thusfar have concentrated on the part of an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle known as the lower receiver (the part whose sale and possession is regulated federally in the USA.) Recently […]
ATmega 644 based VGA adapter
Ryan Fanelli and David Hartino, students in Cornell University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering program, have written a detailed explanation of their ATmega 644 based VGA adapter. The pair developed this “homemade video card” as their final project in the program, pushing the envelope on MCU clock cycle optimization using only a handful of TTL logic […]