Year: 2020

Poking Around The Wide World Of Bluetooth

January 30, 2020 by 8 Comments

Bluetooth is a technology with a very interesting history. When it first came around in the late 1990s, it promised to replace the mess of wires that was tucked behind every desk of the day. Unfortunately, the capabilities of early Bluetooth didn’t live up to the hype, and it never quite took off. It wasn’t until the rise of the smartphone more than a decade later that Bluetooth, now several versions more advanced, really started to make sense.

As [Larry Bank] explains in a recent blog post, that means there’s a whole lot to learn if you want to really understand Bluetooth hacking. For example, the Bluetooth versions that were used in the 1990s and 2000s are actually a completely different protocol from that which most modern devices are using. But the original protocol, now referred to as “Classic”, is still supported and in use.

That means to really get your head wrapped around working with Bluetooth, you need to learn about the different versions and all the tools and tricks associated with them. To that end, [Larry] does a great job of breaking down the primary versions of Bluetooth and the sort of tools you might find yourself using. That includes microcontrollers such as the ESP32 or Arduino Nano 33 BLE.

But the post isn’t just theory. [Larry] also goes over a few real-world projects of his that utilize Bluetooth, such as getting a portable printer working with his Arduino, or figuring out how to use those tiny mobile phone game controllers for his own purposes. Even if you don’t have these same devices, there’s a good chance that the methods used and lessons learned will apply to whatever Bluetooth gadgets you’ve got your eye on.

Readers may recall [Larry] from our previous coverage of his exploits, such as his efforts to increase the frame rate of the SSD1306 OLED display or his wireless bootloader for the SMART Response XE. Whenever we see his name pop up in the Tip Line, we know a fascinating hardware deep dive isn’t far behind.

Understand Linux Htop Visually

January 30, 2020 by 33 Comments

If you want to know exactly what’s going on in your Linux system, some of you might reach for top. For the connoisseur of system monitors, nothing less than htop will do. Not familiar with htop? [Umer Mansoor] did a beautiful job of explaining it graphically.

We’ve mentioned htop in a previous Linux Fu, but we’ve never gotten a chance to dig into it. And now, we don’t have to.  Like top, the htop program is still text-based, but it has a much nicer interface with colors, and easier way to send signals to processes, and support for tree displays. You can even use the mouse with it if you want to.

[Umer] did a lot of work to take screenshots of htop at work and annotate them. Sure, you could read the man page, but we think this is a lot better.

Of course, there are other improvements to top. Glances is pretty interesting, for example. For serious system administration help, you can try Webmin or Cockpit.

Retrotechtacular: Teasmade

January 30, 2020 by 70 Comments

We’re used to our domestic appliances being completely automated in 2020, but not so long ago they were much simpler affairs. Not everything required a human to run it though, an unexpected piece of electromechanical automation could be found in British bedrooms. This is the story of the Goblin Teasmade, an alarm clock with a little bit extra.

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NFC For Your Home Automation

January 30, 2020 by 26 Comments

If home automation in the IoT era has taught us anything, it is that no one wants to run wires. Many of us rent, so new cabling is not even an option, even if we wanted to go that route. If you want a unique sensor, you have to build your own, and [tmkThings] wanted an NFC scanner at his front door. Just like arriving at work, he scans his credentials, and the door unlocks automagically.

Inside a little white box, we find an ESP8266 speaking Wifi attached to a PN532 talking NFC, and both are familiar names on these pages. The code, which is available on GitHub, links up with IFTTT and MQTT. For the security-minded, we won’t see this on your front door, but you can trigger your imagination’s limit of events from playing your favorite jams at the end of the day to powering down all the televisions at bedtime.

NFC hacks are great because they are instantly recognizable and readers are inexpensive, but deadbolt hacking is delightful in our books.

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The Spitzer Space Telescope Ends Its Incredible Journey

January 30, 2020 by 34 Comments

Today, after 16 years of exemplary service, NASA will officially deactivate the Spitzer Space Telescope. Operating for over a decade beyond its designed service lifetime, the infrared observatory worked in tandem with the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal previously hidden details of known cosmic objects and helped expand our understanding of the universe. In later years, despite never being designed for the task, it became an invaluable tool in the study of planets outside our own solar system.

While there’s been no cataclysmic failure aboard the spacecraft, currently more than 260 million kilometers away from Earth, the years have certainly taken their toll on Spitzer. The craft’s various technical issues, combined with its ever-increasing distance, has made its continued operation cumbersome. Rather than running it to the point of outright failure, ground controllers have decided to quit while they still have the option to command the vehicle to go into hibernation mode. At its distance from the Earth there’s no danger of it becoming “space junk” in the traditional sense, but a rogue spacecraft transmitting randomly in deep space could become a nuisance for future observations.

From mapping weather patterns on a planet 190 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major to providing the first images of Saturn’s largest ring, it’s difficult to overstate the breadth of Spitzer’s discoveries. But these accomplishments are all the more impressive when you consider the mission’s storied history, from its tumultuous conception to the unique technical challenges of long-duration spaceflight.

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Unique Clock Finally Unites Hackers And Sequins

January 30, 2020 by 24 Comments

We’ve all seen the two-color sequin fabrics you can “draw” on by dragging your finger over so the pieces flip to the other color. It’s fun stuff to play with, and very popular with the kids right now, but if you asked us if the material had any practical application we’d have said no. But that was before we saw this clever clock created by [Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi] that he calls Sequino.

Since a clock (at least one that only shows hours and minutes) doesn’t need to refresh very quickly, [Ekaggrat] thought that the sequin material could work as a display. Of course the tricky part is figuring out how to actually draw on it reliably. It can’t be done from the back, and since the sequins are plastic, you can’t use a magnet. The only way to do it is with a robotic “finger” and some very slick kinematics.

The most obvious feature of the Sequino is the belt drive that goes the length of its cylindrical shape. When the two motors connected to the belt are turning in the same direction, the pointer is moved left or right. But when the motors turn in opposite directions, the tension on the belt forces the pointer to extend and contact the sequins. It’s like an H-bot , but with the shortest ever Y axis. The front bar is moved up and down with rotating rings inside of the device. It will probably make a lot more sense once you watch the video of it in operation after the break.

[Ekaggrat] says this project was developed as part of his quest to build “doodle clocks” that draw out the time continuously. The advantage of using the sequin fabric is that it shouldn’t be damaged by repetitive use, an issue he’s tried to solve via photonic means in the past.

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SMA-Q2 Smart Watch Is Completely Hackable

January 30, 2020 by 30 Comments

The search for the ultimate hacker’s smart watch probably won’t end any time soon. [emeryth] has nominated another possible candidate in the form of the SMA-Q2, and has made a lot of progress in making it accessible.

Also known as the SMA-TIME, the watch is based around the popular NRF52832 Bluetooth SoC, with a colour memory LCD, accelerometer, and a heart rate sensor on the back. The main feature that makes it so easy to hack is the stock bootloader on the NRF52832 that works with generic Nordic upload tool, making firmware upgrades a breeze via a smart phone. Unfortunately the bootloader itself is locked, so it must be completely wiped to gain debugging access. The hardware configuration has also been well reverse engineered with all the details available.

Custom main board with a NRF52840 module

[emeryth] has most of the basic features working with his custom firmware, although it’s still in the early stages. He designed a new watch face that includes weather updates and basic audio controls. The 3-bit display’s power consumption has also been reduced by only refreshing the necessary parts. The heart rate sensor outputs the raw waveforms, and it’s pretty accurate after a bit of FFT and filtering magic. Built-in tap and tilt detection is available on the accelerometer, which works well, but strangely doesn’t appear to have been used in the stock firmware.

Unfortunately the original enclosure design that used screws was dropped for glued version. It’s still possible to open without breaking anything, just a bit more difficult. [emeryth] Another hardware hacker named [BigCorvus] has even designed a completely new open-source main board with a NRF52840 module and heart rate sensor on a small flex PCB, with everything up on GitHub.

We really hope the community takes a liking to this watch, and look forward to seeing some awesome hacking. This is an excellent addition to the list of candidates for the perfect hacker’s smart watch that [Lewin Day] has already investigated . We also see a lot of DIY smart watches including one with a beautiful wood-filled 3D printed housing and another with LED matrix display.