Month: October 2005

Overclocking A Linksys NSLU2

October 4, 2005 by 14 Comments

slug

[Roo] seems to think we’ve been neglecting the NSLU2 or “slug”. It’s true we have spent a lot of time fawning over the Linksys WRT54G instead. The slug is definitely worthy of attention though. It is a small network appliance with two USB ports that you are supposed to attach disk drives to for simple network storage. Add a little custom firmware and you’re free to use the USB ports for whatever you want.

The XScale processor in the slug comes underclocked from the factory. Following the instructions on the NSLU2-Linux wiki you can pop one resistor off of the circuit board to restore the full 266Mhz. Benchmarks, temperature, and power consumption after the change are covered.

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Hackaday Links

October 4, 2005 by 17 Comments

If you’re a Mac user you might want to check out our friend C.K.’s experience with the slug. He’s got links to some other good resources.

I’m surprised how many times the 200Gb Nano got submitted when it has photo credits like: “Photoshopped from ArsTechnica. Remove if sued.“

I got a new toy in the mail yesterday. My eyes have never been happier. I used this coupon (expires 10/6).

Yes, there is a fake PSP patcher out there. [tomskag]

[dangel] says he has a better AJAX chat system. It doesn’t work for me at all.

[Sp3cial Person] made a Hack-A-Day EvoX skin.

Bit-tech got a first hand look at a High Dynamic Range monitor. [thanks Geoff]

[tX] put together a Java API search as both a web form and konfabulator widget.

A new version of SyncTunes has been released. You can use it to sync your non-iPod music players with Mac iTunes. [Quafboy]

[drasko]’s eBay – Google maps mashup Good for finding items close to you that would be expensive to ship.

[razor]’s Ultimate iPod dock features far too many toothpicks for my taste.

The tip line

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PSP Firmware Guide

October 3, 2005 by 32 Comments

psp
If [Fluke]’s comment is correct, then the Sony PSP 2.01 firmware is already in the wild. Here is a handy Hack-A-Day guide so you can tell at a glance whether you should upgrade your firmware. All you have to do is compare the firmware version number to the previous release:

  • If the first digit has changed (1.5 -> 2.0) then Sony has gotten around to adding a major feature that should have been available since the product’s initial release (web browser). Thanks to the magic of firmware upgrades manufacturers can leave lots of features out of product launches.

  • If the second digit has changed (1.0 -> 1.5) then Sony has released the hardware in your country. The games aren’t region-locked so there is really no reason for the launch delay.

  • If the third digit has changed (2.00 -> 2.01) then Sony has decided that you’ve been having entirely too much fun with your hardware without their help and are determined to re-break it.

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Hackaday Links

October 2, 2005 by 7 Comments

First a request: I know some of you have had some experience hacking together Greasemonkey scripts. Jim Hanas over at Hanasiana has a quick project he needs help with. Go ask him for the details.

The Nano cases keep rolling in: Here is [Atonomie]’s leather Nano case. Use the template to get a head start on your own case.

More CSS/Javascript/Ajax fun:
CSS/Javascript chat room [wtanaka]
Custom Ajax homepage [Andrew]
[ondras]’s universal SQL & er-diagram designer

[Biggs] built a remote shutter release for his 350D out of a mouse.

Custom Slim Devices control boxes by [chrisla]

[colin]’s super cheap laptop cooler

A ton of laptop photo frames [rob]

[eitan]’s Zen Micro Altoids case

Magnetic levitation demonstrator

[Jonathan Zornow]’s guide for abusing iDVD

Cheat sheet for getting a human operator [hazar via In4mador]

The tip line

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GBA Variometer

October 2, 2005 by 12 Comments

vario

Variometers are used by para/hang gliders to measure their vertical climb/sink rate. This data helps pilots find and catch thermals. The software runs on a flash ROM cartridge and captures flight data. The data from up to 50 stored flights can be recalled later. The altimeter is a simple pressure transducer that plugs into the link port on the Gameboy Advance.

[thanks Sean2e]

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Rocket Altimeter Project

October 1, 2005 by 7 Comments

rocket

This project is a really simple accelerometer based altimeter. The assembled board only weighs 10grams; the power supply is an additional 6grams. The data collection is done by a Basic Stamp II. It records 1 second before and 11 seconds after it detects the initial launch thrust. On their first launch they got some legitimate looking data (it would have been nice if they had an inclinometer to compare it to). The second launch resulted in a catastrophic engine failure on the pad. It’s a shame they couldn’t do more testing, but at least they’ve got video. Schematics and source code natch.

The photo above is from a recent BoingBoing post on high power rocketry.