Quinn Dunki wrote a great article describing the conversion process of a 1980s-era Earmark into a bluetooth headset: The obvious thing is to convert it to a bluetooth headset for modern use, right? As I previously warned, converting a 1980s-era air traffic control headset into bluetooth headphones is probably the most hipster thing possible. Normally, […]
Category Archives: hacks
Atari 5200 Playstation 2 dual-shock controller adapter
Dr. Scott Baker has developed an adapter that allows you to use Playstation 2 analog controllers on an Atari 5200, that is available on gitHub: This adapter allows you to use a PS2 controller on an Atari 5200 gaming console. The 5200 was notable at the time for its use of analog joysticks, but the […]
Wyostat: Open source Thermostat Pt. 1
Kevin has been working on building his own thermostat, that is available on github: Does the world need another connected thermostat? When my thermostat went on the blink last winter, I looked at Nest, and Ecobee, and the other me-too thermostats, and I decided I would rather build my own. More details at baldwisdom.com.
A software only solution to the vexing Beagle Bone Black PHY issue
Josh Levine has a nice write-up about a software only workaround for the Beagle Bone Black PHY issue: Sometimes the Ethernet port on a Beagle Bone Black does not work on power up. It takes either a physical reset button press or a power cycle to fix it. This problem affects all BBB’s and until […]
Emulating a hardware ROM in real time with an STM32F4
ROM emulation using an STM32F4: I remember reading dhole’s Emulating a GameBoy Cartridge with an STM32F4 some time ago thinking that it had a lot of applications with respect to old computers. In that article a STM32F4 microcontroller ‘pretends to be a ROM chip for a gameboy’. At the start of a bus cycle, […]
Raspberry Pi virtual floppy for ISA (PC XT/AT) computers
Dr. Scott M. Baker wrote an article detailing how he turned a Raspberry Pi into a virtual storage device for ISA bus computers: I’m tired of carrying compact flash cards and/or floppies back and forth to my XT computer. I like to do development at my desk using my modern windows PC. While I can […]
Desoldering station
Stynus writes: Some time ago I bought a lot of Weller soldering irons at an auction for cheap. Between these where a few DSX 80 de-soldering irons. I also had an old Weller IG101 solder station (bought earlyer from another hobbyist), unfortunately I had no iron for this one and the DSX 80 could not be […]
AtPack: Atmel Pack parser, visualizer and fuse calculator
AtPack – Atmel Pack parser, visualizer and fuse calculator from Vagrearg: Looking for an up-to-date fuse-calculator for the Atmel(*) AVR chips has been something of a long search. There are several online versions, but they have not been updated to the new chips (like the ATmega328PB). When you have got an itch, you simply scratch […]
Converting a Seeburg 3WA wallbox into a remote for a modern music player
Dr. Scott M. Baker wrote an article detailing how he converted a Seeburg 3WA wallbox into a media player for his homebuilt audio player: A bit of background. These Wallboxes were used as remotes in diners and other locations back in the 1950s. You put your nickel, dime, or quarter into the Wallbox, which racks […]
Philips Hue – control anything hack
Fred writes: To be honest, my recent simple relay hack wasn’t really all that great. It just used the high power constant current output to drive a SSR. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. I decided that it was worth the effort to track down some more useful outputs and properly detect the desired state […]
PS2-TTLserial adapter for RC2014 and MIDI
Dr. Scott M. Baker published a new build: The original reason for this project is that I wanted to build a standalone RC2014 with keyboard and display. There is an official RC2014 serial keyboard, but I find it a little inconvenient for my big fingers and poor eyesight. I have plenty of old PS/2 keyboards […]
Feather M0 express supersizing
Dastels writes, “In my last post I described how I hacked a 2Mbyte SPI flash onto a Trinket M0 to give it the memory space for CircutiPython of one of the M0 Express boards. This time I supersized an M0 Express board, specifically a Feather M0 Express, although the same hack should work on a Circuit […]
Vintage MIDI: Roland MT-32, Roland SC-55, HardMPU, and an Xi 8088
Dr. Scott Baker writes: In this video, I decided to upgrade my home built PC from AdLib sound to MIDI. I tried out a couple different midi modules, the Roland MT-32 and the Roland SC-55. I learned that I’d need an MPU-401 or compatible ISA interface, and I explored the alternatives, eventually settling on the […]
Modifying a computer ATX power supply for higher output voltage
Kerry Wong wrote a post on his blog showing how he modified the 12V rail of a TL494 based ATX power supply to 14.6V for 4S LiFePO4 battery charging: To charge the 110Ah battery bank I built, I need a power supply that can provide at least 10A at 14.6V. Since I have many old […]
Multiface 128 recreation project
Steve Smith has been working on a Multiface 128 recreation project: On to the Multiface 128 recreation project. I have been attempting to find a source for an AT&Y SPEC-MATE, which is a lesser-known snapshot interface for the earlier Sinclair Spectrums. During my search, I came across 슬롯사이트, a website offering reviews and recommendations for […]
TS100 oscilloscope hack
Befinitiv wrote an article describing his modification to turn a TS100 soldering iron into an oscilloscope: As you can see in the video, you can use the soldering tip as your measurement probe. Coincidentally, a soldering iron has already a pretty good form factor for an oscilloscope. Here is a still picture of a UART waveform […]
Halogen floodlight SMT reflow
David Sanz Kirbis built his own reflow device with an halogen floodlight, that is available on Github: First test was to check the speed of the temperature rise inside a standard halogen floodlight. Reflow soldering temperature curves are quite demanding, and some adapted ovens can’t reach the degrees-per-second speed of the ramp-up stages of these curves. […]
Pulsecounting and deepsleep based IoT water meter
Tisham Dhar has written an article detailing his pulsecounting and deepsleep based IoT water meter project: I admit to being a tiny bit obsessed with monitoring utility bills and gathering data on my usage patterns blow-by-blow. The energy monitoring has reduced my electricity bills, so I wanted to have a go at the water usage. […]
Analog Discovery USB isolation
Bob writes: Back when I was deverloping the PSU burner, I wanted to have the Analog Discovery isolated from the common ground, to avoid noise and other issues. Since I did not have a way to do this, I ended up using a laptop on battery for measurements. But for long term, I needed […]
Hacking the DPS5005
Johan Kanflo’s OpenDPS project, a free firmware replacement for the DPS5005: This write up of the OpenDPS project is divided into three parts. Part one (this one) covers reverse engineering the stock firmware and could be of interest for those looking at reverse engineering STM32 devices in general. Part two covers the design of OpenDPS, […]