Author: Zoe Skyforest

3689 Articles

A Red Ring Light Show For Your Xbox 360

December 16, 2024 by 6 Comments

The Red Ring of Death (RROD) was the bane of many an Xbox 360 owner. The problem was eventually solved, mostly, but memories of that hellish era lurk in the back of many a gamer’s mind. For a more cheery use of those same status lights, you might appreciate “Lightshow” from [Derf].

The concept is simple enough. It’s a small application that runs on an Xbox 360, and allows you to test the individual LEDs that make up the Ring of Light indicator, along with the main power LED. If you want to test the lights and see each segment correctly lights up as green, yellow and red, you can.

Alternatively, you can have some fun with it. [Derf] also programmed it to flash along to simple four-channel MIDI songs. Naturally, Sandstorm was the perfect song to test it with. It may have been the result of a simple throwaway joke, but [Derf] delivered in amusing fashion nonetheless.

Lightshow is an entry for Xbox Scene Modfest 2024; it’s nice to see the community is still popping off even in this era of heavily-locked-down consoles. We’ve featured some other useful 360 hacks in recent months, too. Video after the break.

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It’s Critical: Don’t Pile Up Your Fissionable Material

December 12, 2024 by 52 Comments

Nuclear fission is a powerful phenomenon. When the conditions are right, atomic nuclei split, releasing neutrons that then split other nuclei in an ongoing chain reaction that releases enormous amounts of energy. This is how nuclear weapons work. In a more stable and controlled fashion, it’s how our nuclear reactors work too.

However, these chain reactions can also happen accidentally—with terrifying results. Though rare, criticality incidents – events where an accidental self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurs – serve as sobering reminders of the immense and unwieldy forces we attempt to harness when playing with nuclear materials.

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Creating A Radiation King Radio In The Real World

December 10, 2024 by 14 Comments

If you’re a fan of the Fallout series of games, you’ve probably come across a Radiation King radio before. In the game, that is, they don’t exist in real life. Which is precisely why [zapwizard] built one!

Externally, the design faithfully recreates the mid-century design of the Radiation King. It’s got the louvered venting on the front panel, the chunky knobs, and a lovely analog needle dial, too. Inside, it’s got a Raspberry Pi Zero which is charged with running the show and dealing with audio playback. It’s paired with a Pi Pico, which handles other interface tasks.

It might seem simple, but the details are what really make this thing shine. It doesn’t just play music, it runs a series of simulated radio stations which you can “tune into” using the radio dial. [zapwizard dives into how it all works—from the air core motor behind the simulated tuning dial, to the mixing of music and simulated static. It’s really worth digging into if you like building retro-styled equipment that feels more like the real thing.

It’s not just a prop—it’s a fully-functional item from the Fallout universe, made manifest. You know how much we love those. If you’re cooking up your own post-apocalyptic hacks, fictional or non-fictional, don’t hesitate to let us know.

A Simple Robot For Learning About Robotics

December 9, 2024 by 6 Comments

Robots are super interesting, but you probably shouldn’t start learning about them with a full-sized industrial SCARA arm or anything. Better to learn with something smaller and simpler to understand. This simple Arduino-powered robot is called Bug, and it aims to be just that.

The design comes to us from [Joshua Stanley]. It’s based around the ubiquitous Arduino Uno, paired with a motor control and I/O shield for more connectivity. The robot uses treads for locomotion—each side has two wheels wrapped in a belt for grip. The robot has a small DC gearmotor driving each belt so it can be driven forwards, backwards, and steered differentially. To perceive the world, it uses an off-the-shelf ultrasonic transceiver module, and an NRF24L01 module for remote control. All this is wrapped up in a basic 3D-printed housing that positions the ultrasonic modules effectively as “eyes” which is kind of cute, all in all.

Despite its small size and simple construction, Bug gets around perfectly well in testing on an outdoor footpath. It even has enough torque to flip itself up at full throttle. For now, [Joshua] notes it’s a glorified remote control car, but he plans to expand it further with more functionality going forward.

We see lots of educational robots around these parts, like this nifty little robot arm. Video after the break.

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PlayStation Motherboard Sanded And Scanned, But There’s More To Do

December 9, 2024 by 14 Comments

If you want to reverse engineer the boards in a modern console, you’d better have a lab, a lot of fancy gear, and a good few months to dedicate to the task. The humble PlayStation, on the other hand, is more accessible in this regard. [Lawrence Brode] pulled one apart and started documenting it as part of a grander quest for console understanding.

[Lawrence’s] ultimate goal is to create a portable PlayStation using original hardware. That is, rather than cannibalizing an existing console, he wants to build an original portable from scratch. He needed to understand the PlayStation to recreate it, so he started by analyzing the original hardware.

The first part of [Lawrence’s] quest was to try and reverse engineer the PlayStation motherboard itself. The 1990s console has the benefit of only using a two-layer PCB, meaning it’s far easier to trace out than more modern multi-layer designs. [Lawrence] started with a damaged console, pulled out the motherboard, and stripped off all the components. He then cleaned the board, scanned it, and then sandblasted it to remove the solder mask.

He’s begun the work of tracing out signals, and next on the agenda is to create a new custom PCB that’s compatible with the original PlayStation hardware. You can grab his work via GitHub if you’re interested. [Lawrence] is also excited about the possibilities of grabbing the 24-bit RGB signal heading into the GPU and using it for an HDMI output conversion in the future.

It’s always an exciting time in the PlayStation community; we see lots of great hacks on the regular. If you’re cooking up your own, don’t hesitate to drop us a line!

Electric Bike Uses No Electronics, Weird Motor

December 9, 2024 by 24 Comments

E-bikes combine a bicycle with a big lithium battery, a speed controller, and a motor. What you get from that combination is simple, efficient transportation. [Tom Stanton] wanted to build an e-bike himself, but he did it without any of the fancy electronic components. But the real gem? The weird janky motor he built to run it.

The concept is simple. An e-bike is electric, in that it has an electric motor and a source of electric power. However, [Tom] intended to eliminate the electronic parts—the speed controller, any battery balancing hardware, and the like. Just think no transistors and microchips and you’ve got the right idea. Basically, [Tom] just built an e-bike with motor weak enough that it doesn’t need any fancy throttle control. He can just turn the motor hard on or off with a switch.

The bike is built around a reed switch motor. This uses magnets on a rotor, which interact with a reed switch to time pulses of electricity to coils which drive the motor. [Tom] wound the coils and built the motor from scratch using 3D printed components. The project quickly ran into problems as the reed switch began to suffer degradation from arcing, which [Tom] solved with some innovative tungsten contacts.

Controlling the bike is pretty simple—there’s just a switch connecting a capacitor bank to the motor to provide power on command. No electronics! However, [Tom] has also neatly set up the motor to charge a bank of supercapacitors when coasting downhill. In this regard, the bike can store power on a descent and then use it for a boost when required later on. Between the weird motor and the weedy capacitor bank, it doesn’t do much, but it does work.

If he’s looking for a more potent power source, perhaps the answer is already out on the street — in the form of a battery pack salvaged from the cells in discarded vapes.
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The London Underground Is Too Hot, But It’s Not An Easy Fix

December 4, 2024 by 92 Comments

The London Underground is an iconic piece of Victorian era engineering. What started in 1863 quickly became a core piece of infrastructure that would define the modern character of the British capital. It’s grown and changed immensely in the many years that have passed. Sadly, increasing patronage and more trains have created problems that the original designers never envisaged.

Deep in those London tunnels lies an engineering challenge. The Tube is literally cooking itself. Every day, millions of commuters descend into a network of tunnels that have been absorbing heat since the reign of Queen Victoria. Those clay-lined tubes have been soaking up excess thermal energy like a giant underground radiator, and now they’re giving it back with interest. The tunnels are simply too hot, and cooling them down is inordinately difficult.

The Perfect Storm of Thermal Chaos

The Tube’s heat problem isn’t just about one thing gone wrong – it’s about everything gone wrong at once. When Victorian engineers designed these tunnels, cooling wasn’t a major consideration. The tight, compact tunnels were built deep, nestled in the clay beneath London. In the early days, temperatures in the Underground were considered comfortably low.

“The Underground’s the only spot for comfort when the days are hot; it is cooler below.” – London Underground poster, 1926

Originally, the clay surrounding the tunnels sat at around 14°C, acting as a heat sink for the network. However, over the years, with more trains coming and going and more heat pouring in, the temperature has risen. It now typically sits anywhere from 19° to 26 °C. That’s just the earth around the tunnels, though. Air temperatures are worse—hitting as high as 47°C during a 2006 heatwave. The problem has been a continual bugbear of the beloved Tube, with concerns that future heatwaves could see temperatures rise ever higher. Continue reading “The London Underground Is Too Hot, But It’s Not An Easy Fix” →