Hackaday Podcast 072: Robo Golf Clubs, Plastic Speedboats, No-Juice Flipdots, And Super Soakers

June 19, 2020 by Dan Maloney No comments

With Editor-in-Chief Mike Szczys on a well-earned vacation, Staff Writer Dan Maloney sits in with Managing Editor Elliot Williams to run us through the week’s most amazing hacks and answer your burning questions. What do you do when you can’t hit a golf ball to save your life? Build a better club, of course, preferably one that does the thinking for you. Why would you overclock a graphing calculator? Why wouldn’t you! Will an origami boat actually float? If you use the right material, it just might. And what’s the fastest way to the hearts of millions of kids? With a Super Soaker and a side-trip through NASA.

Take a look at the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Direct download (60 MB or so.)

Continue reading “Hackaday Podcast 072: Robo Golf Clubs, Plastic Speedboats, No-Juice Flipdots, And Super Soakers” →

3D Printed DIY Neuralyzer

June 19, 2020 by Orlando Hoilett 3 Comments

We agree with you. We can never have enough cosplay hacks. And the ones that include some electronics element definitely have a special place in our hearts. That’s why when we ran across [Maddogg0’s] 3D printed Neuralyzer on Instructables, we knew we had to share.

You may recall [How to make’s] DIY Neuralyzer that we featured a few weeks ago which required more of a metal-working approach. [Maddogg0’s] design might be a bit more convenient for those of you that have a 3D printer, but no machine shop.

We love the elegant simplicity of [Maddogg0’s] design. The entire enclosure is printed in two halves that are held together by magnets. One half of the enclosure houses a single coin cell battery and a tiny circuit board for holding the LEDs in place, really giving the Neuralyzer some shine. In true maker fashion, [Maddogg0] released the necessary design files on TinkerCAD so anyone can reuse, remix, and reshare.

Whichever design you fancy, [Maddogg0’s] or [How to make’s], be careful not to point the Neuralyzer at yourself and always remember to wear your sunglasses!

This Week In Security: HaveIBeenPwned And Facebook Attack Their Customers

June 19, 2020 by Jonathan Bennett 27 Comments

We’re fans of haveibeenpwned.com around here, but a weird story came across my proverbial desk this week — [Troy Hunt] wrote a malicious SQL injection into one of their emails! That attack string was a simple ';--

Wait, doesn’t that look familiar? You remember the header on the haveibeenpwned web page? Yeah, it’s ';--have i been pwned?. It’s a clever in-joke about SQL injection that’s part of the company’s brand. An automated announcement was sent out to a company that happened to use the GLPI service desk software. That company, which shall not be named for reasons that are about to become obvious, was running a slightly out-of-date install of GLPI. That email generated an automated support ticket, which started out with the magic collection of symbols. When a tech self-assigned the ticket, the SQL injection bug was triggered, and their entire ticket database was wiped out. The story ends happily, thanks to a good backup, and the company learned a valuable lesson. Continue reading “This Week In Security: HaveIBeenPwned And Facebook Attack Their Customers” →

Up Your Home Network Performance – Build Your Own Router!

June 19, 2020 by Lewin Day 118 Comments

Internet connections continue to increase in speed, and for a lucky few, it’s possible to get a Gigabit fibre connection at home. However, if you’re intending to use this connection to its fullest, you might find that your off-the-shelf router has become a bit of a bottleneck. [Wes Fenlon] of PC Gamer had this very problem, and found the perfect workaround – building a custom router instead!

The main problem with commodity routers is a lack of processing power. With networks growing ever faster, the hardware in routers hasn’t kept up with the needs of demanding power users. To solve this, [Wes] grabbed an old PC he had lying around, packing a quad-core i5 CPU and 16 GB of RAM. Fitted with an enterprise-grade 4-port Gigabit LAN card, and running ~~Netgear’s~~ (Sorry commenteers!) Netgate’s pfSense routing software, the old machine has enough power to be complete overkill for the application.

The side benefit of this method is configurability. pfSense has a far more powerful set of options than most common routers. It’s config page also runs far more smoothly, too. There’s also the possibility to run all sorts of useful plugins, like router-level ad blockers and traffic monitoring utilities.

Overall, it’s a great way to repurpose a surplus machine and improve your network performance on the cheap. Others have tried similar builds, too. It has us contemplating the possibilities for our own networks at home!

Strike A Solder Joint Behind Enemy Lines

June 19, 2020 by Danie Conradie 43 Comments

Imagine you’re out behind enemy lines in WW2, setting up demolition charges that may save the lives of your fellow soldiers. How do we make a solid connection between wires that will last? One of the solutions that were used by the OSS and SOE, the predecessors to the CIA and British Secret Service, were self soldering sleeves that could be lit like a match. [ElementalMaker] managed to get his hands on a box of these sleeves, and found that they work incredibly well, even after more than half a century.

The sleeves consist of a copper tube with solder and flux inside, and wax-covered pyrotechnic compound around the outside. A small blob of striker compound similar to a match head is used to set the soldering process in motion, using the striker surface on the outside of the oversize matchbox that the sleeves are packed in. The pack that the [ElementalMaker] got was made in 1964, but is supposedly no different from those used in WW2.

When lit, the pyrotechnic compound does not create any flame, it only smolders, probably to make it safer to use, and avoid detection at night. As the solder inside the sleeve melts, the operator is supposed to push the wires further into the tube to make them overlap. Although [ElementalMaker] didn’t cut open the sleeves, it definitely looks like a good joint, with solder oozing from the ends. Check out the video after the break! If you want to get your hands on a pack of these sleeves, it looks like a military surplus store in the UK managed to source some.

As horrible as war is, it’s undeniable that it inspires some creative innovations. Like soldiers hacking together parts from multiple guns to serve their immediate needs, or making guns shoot through spinning propellers without damaging them. Continue reading “Strike A Solder Joint Behind Enemy Lines” →

Capture The Flag, Along With The Game Data

June 18, 2020 by Kristina Panos 7 Comments

With events of all sizes on hold and live sports mostly up in the air, it’s a great time to think of new ways to entertain ourselves within our local circles. Bonus points if the activity involves running around outside, and/or secretly doubles as a team-building exercise, like [KarelBousson]’s modernized version of Capture the Flag.

Much like the original, the point of this game is to capture the case and keep it for as long as possible before the other team steals it away. Here, the approach is much more scientific: the box knows exactly who has it and for how long, and the teams get points based on the time the case spends in any player’s possession.

Each player carries an RFID tag to distinguish them from each other. Inside the case is an Arduino Mega with a LoRa shield and a GPS unit. Whenever the game is afoot, the case communicates its position to an external Raspi running the game server.

If you haven’t met LoRa yet, check out this seven-part introductory tutorial.

Boston Dynamics’ Spot Robot Gets A Price Tag: $75 Grand

June 18, 2020 by Donald Papp 65 Comments

One of Spot’s features is the ability to navigate real-world environments. This has not historically been a strong point for robots.

Not long ago, Boston Dynamics’ Spot finally went on sale, meaning the dog-like robot can now be purchased online. Previously it was available only to be leased by early adopters willing to pay to see what the robot had to offer. Pricing was tucked behind an NDA, and Spot could be only leased and not actually purchased — until now.

From a hobbyist’s perspective, Spot’s price is of course eye-watering; the cost of the accessories even more so. It would be perfectly understandable to ask what good is a robotic dog and what makes it worth such a cost?

From an industrial equipment point of view, the cost is perhaps less shocking. Maybe it’s a reminder that from an industrial and commercial perspective, the price of a thing matters mainly in relation to what kind of benefits it can bring, and what kind of price or savings can be hung on that.

Hackers being hackers and free from having to worry about such things, some choose to make their own four-legged robot pals with no winning lotto tickets, juicy grants, or enormous R&D budgets needed.