2011
Build an Ioniser in Under $10
A Do it Yourself project to help remove dust particles in your room. A completely open-source hardware project which you can download and use for free.
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 3,046 posts.
Hardware & Electronics
Any year
2012
2013
Open Hardware on Its Own Doesn’t Solve the Trust Problem
A few years ago, Sean ‘xobs’ Cross and I built an open-source laptop, Novena, from the circuit boards up, and shared our designs with the world. I’m a strong proponent of open hardware, because sharing knowledge is sharing power. One thing we didn’t anticipate was how much the press wanted to frame our open hardware…
2014
2015
My Business Card Runs Linux
I’m an embedded systems engineer. I spend a lot of my free time looking for things I could use in future designs, or things that tickle one of my fancies.
2016
Reviewing Bad Schematics as EE Interview Tactic
help your EE candidates strut their stuff
2017
2018
A new cycle-stepped 6502 CPU emulator
TL;DR: The how and why of the new 6502 emulator in the chips project.
2019
ZedRipper: A 16-core Z80 laptop
Meet the ZedRipper – a 16-core, 83 MHz Z80 powerhouse as portable as it is impractical. The ZedRipper is my latest attempt to build a fun ‘project’ machine, with a couple of goals in mind:
2020
The Nintendo Switch Switch
Yesterday I had the idea that it would be cool if I turned a Nintendo Switch (will be referred to as NX to avoid confusion as NX is the code name for the Nintendo Switch ) console into an actual network switch. I thought about it a bit and realized that it would be doable in hardware at least, since the NX docking…
2021
Instructions per cycle: AMD Zen 2 versus Intel
The performance of a processor is determined by several factors. For example, processors with a higher frequency tend to do more work per unit of time. Physics makes it difficult to produce processors that have higher frequency. Modern processors can execute many instructions per cycle. Thus a 3.4GHz processor has 3.4…
2022
How Radar Works
Radar is one of the most versitile sensors we have to determine what is happening in an environment. Some common applications include air traffic control, weather prediction, automated driver assist, astronomy and terrain mapping. Given that these applications have wildy varying requirements on resolution, range and…
2023
Raspberry Pi 4 WiFi stops working at 2560 x 1440 screen resolution
This is part of a series of posts on the design and technical steps of creating Himblick , a digital signage box based on the Raspberry Pi 4.
2024
Off-Grid Cyberdeck: Raspberry Pi Recovery Kit
Short, medium, and long form tech projects. Detailed photos and build logs with benefits for paid subscribers.
2025
Hidden Cam Above Bluetooth Pump Skimmer
Tiny hidden spy cameras are a common sight at ATMs that have been tampered with by crooks who specialize in retrofitting the machines with card skimmers. But until this past week I’d never heard of hidden cameras being used at gas pumps in tandem with Bluetooth-based card skimming devices.
2026
2027
2028
2029
Writing userspace USB drivers for abandoned devices
I recently found some USB devices on eBay (Epiphan VGA2USB LR) that could take VGA as input and present the output as a webcam. Given that I was keen on the idea of not needing to lug out a VGA monitor ever again and there was claimed Linux support I took the risk and bought the whole job lot for about £20 (25 USD).
2030
TROS: IBM mainframes stored microcode in transformers
I recently came across a Transformer Read-Only Storage (TROS) module that stored microcode in an IBM System/360 mainframe computer. This unu...
2031
Cooling off your Raspberry Pi 4
Read up about how you can cool off your Raspberry Pi 4 and drop a few degrees. I compare several cooling solutions including firmware updates.
2032
2033
Explaining 4K 60Hz Video Through USB-C Hub
USB-C offers exciting new capabilities, including external monitors connected through the USB port. USB-C converters to DisplayPort or HDMI are common and inexpensive. USB-C hubs with external monitor support are also common, but understanding their capabilities and limitations can be extremely confusing. Some are…
2034
The 16-Inch MacBook Pro
After my first day with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, I’m very optimistic about it.
2035
The Sad End of Intel Desktop Boards
As previously discussed on this blog, Intel decided to quit the desktop board business in 2013. What has not been discussed is how Intel treated the buyers of the last generation (i.e. 8-series Lynx Point chipsets) of those boards. Since I have now acquired two of those boards, DZ87KLT-75K and DQ87PG, I had an…
2036
All Magic Leap Patents Have Been Assigned to J.P. Chase Morgan as Collateral
Just A Quick Note Today on Magic Leap 2+ Month Old News Things have been very quiet lately with respect to Magic Leap. So quiet, that apparently the assignment of all of Magic Leap patents over 2 m…
2037
IBM, sonic delay lines, and the history of the 80×24 display
What explains the popularity of terminals with 80×24 and 80×25 displays? A recent blog post " 80x25 " motivated me to investigate this. The ...
2038
An always-available, online-capable Raspberry Pi in your pocket
These days, I’m building a lot of hardware projects based on the ubiquitous Raspberry Pi mini computer. Especially with the Raspberry Pi Zero W (an even tinier version, with the W denoting the wifi-capable version), you can have one anywhere and can power it from any USB power source.
2039
Raspberry Pi 4 as a USB-C peripheral
I’ve previously blogged about using Pi Zero (and Zero W) devices as USB Gadgets. This allows them to be powered and accessed via one of the micro USB sockets and it shows up as both a CD-Driv…
2040
Homebrew Cray-1A
As part two ( see previous attempt ) of my ongoing series in ‘computational necromancy,’ I’ve spent the last year and a half or so constructing my own 1/10-scale, binary-compatible, cycle-accurate Cray-1. This project falls purely into the “because I can!” category – I was poking around the internet one day looking…