A Look Inside The Creative MB-10 MIDI Blaster

March 3, 2026 by No comments

Before it became viable to distribute and play music tracks on home computers, the use of FM and Wavetable synthesis was very common, with MIDI Wavetable-based devices like the Roland MT-32 and SC-55 still highly sought after today. The Creative Midi Blaster MB-10 that [Yeo Kheng Meng] reviewed and tore down for an analysis isn’t quite as famous or sought after, but it provides a good example of what Creative Labs was doing at the time in this space.

Released in 1993, it definitely has more of a popular style vibe to it than the utilitarian Roland devices, even if this means highly impractical curves. In the list of features it claims Roland MT-32 emulation, which would have made it quite a bit more useful to the average user, including gamers of the era. Games like DOOM supported these MIDI devices for audio, for example.

In terms of price only the Roland SC-55ST comes close to the MB-10, similarly dropping a screen and a host of features. In terms of features the MB-10 claims far fewer instruments than the SC-55 variants, with even with the slightly higher priced SC-55ST massively outgunning it in raw specs. So would you ever buy the MB-10 back then and consider it a ‘good deal’? If $100 in 1990s money was worth losing full MIDI compatibility for, then it seems the answer was ‘yes’.

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Back To Basics: Hacking On Key Matrixes

March 3, 2026 by 2 Comments

A lot of making goes on in this community these days, but sometimes you’ve just gotta do some old fashioned hacking. You might have grabbed an old Speak and Spell that you want to repurpose as an interface for a horrifyingly rude chatbot, or you’ve got a calculator that is going to become the passcode keypad for launching your DIY missiles. You want to work with the original hardware, but you need to figure out how to interface all the buttons yourself.

Thankfully, this is usually an easy job. The vast majority of buttons and keypads and keyboards are all implemented pretty much the same way. Once you know the basics of how to work with them, hooking them up is easy. It’s time to learn about key matrixes!

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Building A Hackerspace Entry System

March 3, 2026 by 11 Comments

A hackerspace is a place that generally needs to be accessed by a wide group of people, often at weird and unusual hours. Handing around keys and making sure everything is properly locked up can be messy, too. To make it easy for hackers to get in to [Peter]’s local hackerspace, a simple electronic system was whipped up to grant access.

The combined use of QR code & PIN adds a layer of security.

The basic components of the system are a keypad, a QR code and barcode scanner, a stepper motor, an Arduino Nano, and a Raspberry Pi. The keypad is read by an Arduino Nano, which is also responsible for talking to a stepper motor driver to actuate the lock cylinder.

The system works on the basis of two-factor authentication. Regular users authenticate to enter by presenting a QR code or barcode, and entering a matching PIN number. The system can also be set up for PIN-only entry on a temporary basis.

For example, if the hackerspace is running an event, a simple four-digit pin can allow relatively free access for the duration without compromising long-term security. Actual authentication is handled by the Raspberry Pi, which takes in the scanned barcode and/or PIN, hashes it, and checks it against a backend database which determines if the credentials are valid for entry.

While it’s not technically necessary for a project like this — in fact, you could argue it’s preposterously overkill — we have to take particular note of the machined aluminum enclosure for the keypad. Mere mortals could just run it off on their 3D printers, but if you’ve got access to a CNC router and a suitably chunky piece of aluminum, why not show off a bit?

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Building A Dependency-Free GPT On A Custom OS

March 3, 2026 by 4 Comments

The construction of a large language model (LLM) depends on many things: banks of GPUs, vast reams of training data, massive amounts of power, and matrix manipulation libraries like Numpy. For models with lower requirements though, it’s possible to do away with all of that, including the software dependencies. As someone who’d already built a full operating system as a C learning project, [Ethan Zhang] was no stranger to intimidating projects, and as an exercise in minimalism, he decided to build a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) model in the kernel space of his operating system.

As with a number of other small demonstration LLMs, this was inspired by [Andrej Karpathy]’s MicroGPT, specifically by its lack of external dependencies. The first step was to strip away every unnecessary element from MooseOS, the operating system [Ethan] had previously written, including the GUI, most drivers, and the filesystem. All that’s left is the kernel, and KernelGPT runs on this. To get around the lack of a filesystem, the training data was converted into a header to keep it in memory — at only 32,000 words, this was no problem. Like the original MicroGPT, this is trained on a list of names, and predicts new names. Due to some hardware issues, [Ethan] hasn’t yet been able to test this on a physical computer, but it does work in QEMU.

It’s quite impressive to see such a complex piece of software written solely in C, running directly on hardware; for a project which takes the same starting point and goes in the opposite direction, check out this browser-based implementation of MicroGPT. For more on the math behind GPTs, check out this visualization.

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C64 Gets A Modern Interactive Disassembler

March 2, 2026 by No comments

If you want to pull apart a program to see how it ticks, you’re going to need a disassembler. [Ricardo Quesada] has built Regenerator 2000 for just that purpose. It’s a new interactive disassembler for the Commodore 64 platform.

Naturally, Regenerator 2000 is built with full support for the 6502 instruction set, including undocumented op-codes as well. It’s able to automatically create labels and comments and can be paired with the VICE C64 emulator for live debugging. You can do all the usual debug stuff like inspecting registers, stepping through code, and setting breakpoints and watchpoints when you’re trying to figure out how something works. It can even show you sprites, bitmaps, and character sets right in the main window.

Files are on Github if you’re ready to dive in. You might find this tool to be a useful companion to C64 assembly tools we’ve featured previously, as well. If you’re pulling off your own retro development hacks, be sure to notify the tipsline.

[Thanks to Stephen Waters for the tip!]

NASA Uses Mars Global Localization As GNSS Replacement For The Perseverance Rover

March 2, 2026 by 12 Comments

Unlike on Earth there aren’t dozens of satellites whizzing around Mars to provide satellite navigation functionality. Recently NASA’s JPL engineers tried something with the Perseverance Mars rover that can give such Marsbound vehicles the equivalent of launching GPS satellites into Mars orbit, by introducing Mars Global Localization.

Although its remote operators back on Earth have the means to tell the rover where it is, it’d be incredibly helpful if it could determine this autonomously so that the rover doesn’t have to constantly stop and ask its human operators for directions. To this end the processor which was originally used to communicate with its Ingenuity helicopter companion was repurposed, reprogrammed to run an algorithm that compares panoramic images from the rover’s navigation cameras with its onboard orbital terrain maps.

Much like terrain-based navigation as used in cruise missiles back on Earth, this can provide excellent results depending on how accurate your terrain maps are. This terrain mapping process used to be done back on Earth, but for the past years engineers have worked to give the rover its own means to perform this task.

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Pan-Tilt Head For Camera Motion Control

March 2, 2026 by No comments

Historically, moving and pointing a camera while filming was the job of a highly-skilled individual. However, there are machines that can do that, enabling all kinds of fancy movement that is difficult or impossible for a human to recreate. A great example is this pan-tilt build from [immofoto3d.]

The build uses a hefty cradle to mount DSLR-size cameras or similar. It’s controlled in the tilt axis by a chunky NEMA 17 stepper motor hooked up to a belt drive for smooth, accurate movement. Similarly, another stepper motor handles the pan axis, with an option for upgrade if you have a heavier camera rig that needs more torque to spin easily. Named Gantry Bot, it’s an open-source design with source files available, so you can make any necessary tweaks on your own. You will have to bring your own control mechanism, though—telling the stepper motors what to do and how fast to do it is up to you.

It’s a heavy-duty build, this one, and you’ll really want a decent metal-capable CNC to get it done, along with a 3D printer for all the plastic pieces. With that said, we’ve featured some other similar builds that might be more accessible if you don’t have a hardcore machine shop in the basement. If you’ve got your own impressive motion rig in the works, be sure to notify the tipsline!