Get A Remote Terminal With One Binary, One URL, And Zero Config

August 3, 2026 by 3 Comments

Launch a single static binary executable, send someone a QR code or URL (or failing that, text a numerical code or shout it across a room), and they’ll get an encrypted terminal in their browser. No VPN, no port forwarding, no firewall modifications, and no account setup required. It’s BitBang by [Rich LeGrand], and there is a lot to go through in this one.

The best part? It’s not actually limited to just firing off a terminal. It’s a whole open framework for establishing an encrypted peer-to-peer connection between two systems over WebRTC without needing either a trusted central authority, or any special network configuration.

The signaling server brokers the handshake, then has no further involvement. By design, it couldn’t see application data even if it wanted to. Click to enlarge.

Opening a remote terminal, transferring files, or accessing web apps on a remote machine’s network is done with bitbang-cli, an implementation of BitBang focused on providing simple, zero-config remote access.

Before we go on, we want to mention that BitBang does require a lightweight, trustless signaling server only to broker the initial connection, but more on that in a moment.

On the machine to be shared, one first downloads the binary. Easiest way to do that is to go to bitba.ng and download manually, or copy and paste the one-line installer to auto-detect one’s system, download the correct release, and verify the checksum.

After the binary is downloaded, simply run it in a terminal and receive a QR code to scan, a URL to copy & paste, or a numerical code if those are inconvenient. One the remote side, one accesses the signaling server and the connection is made — one gets a terminal on the target machine open in the browser tab, with added options for file sharing and accessing web applications on the target network.

The signaling server isn’t involved in authentication or encryption, and couldn’t see private data between the two ends even if it wanted to. Prefer not to use someone else’s regardless? Run your own local instance with bitbang-server.

Originally developed as an easy way to securely make telepresence robots reachable over the Internet with nothing more than a QR code, today it’s a whole framework.

It includes not just the remote-access tool mentioned above, but also a BitBang Octoprint plugin for cloud-free remote access to 3D printers, and bitbang-python is a library for turning local Python web applications into a URL that can be opened from anywhere.

We’re sure some of you are getting more than a few ideas from this. If it lets you bring a project over the finish line, let us know on our tips line.

Spotting Emacs In The Wild

August 3, 2026 by 7 Comments

Emacs is one of the big classic text editors, right up there next to vi. It’s famous for its interface and its ubiquity across the *nix world. It’s such a core piece of software in the coding world that it has showed up a fair few times in popular culture—and [Ian Y.E. Pan] has collated some of those appearances. 

Emacs played a role in The Social Network, the retelling of the origin story of Facebook (the social network everybody used to use). Notably, Mark Zuckerberg used the tool to slap together a script for scraping a website. It also appears in Tron: Legacy, Arctic Blast, and the tech TV comedy Silicon Valley—more than once, in fact.

Other appearances include comics, Japanese anime series Key The Metal Idol, and a few miniseries and documentaries to boot.

[Ian]’s list is unlikely to be exhaustive. Both because he hasn’t seen every movie or TV show ever made, and because you can make new content featuring Emacs references tomorrow if you so desire. Still, it’s fun to see some of the famous properties that have featured good ol’ Emacs.

Don’t hesitate to let us know if you happen to put together a similar list about vi. The tipsline is waiting.

Making A Retro(ish) Game Console From Scratch

August 2, 2026 by 3 Comments

As easy as it is to make a late 1980s-style game console using a modern microcontroller, there’s arguably more fun in doing things the traditional way. This is the challenge that [Throaty Mumbo] took upon himself when he embarked on his retro game console project, called simply the Game Console V2.

In the accompanying video the development process and other details are covered and demonstrated. Most notable perhaps are the proper cartridges with ROMs on a parallel bus rather than something like SD cards, and the absence of any modern ports including even VGA. This means only composite AV output like in the good old days of RF splitters and other assorted fun.

The NTSC output signal is generated by an RP2350 MCU in the form of the PGA-shaped PGA2350 breakout board that’s wired into a 6-bit R-2R network for RGB332 output via the RCA jack, while audio is fed into a PCM5102A I2S DAC. For controllers you get 4-pin Bulgin SA2367 connectors and an N64-compatible protocol.

It’s noted that the use of an RP2350B MCU is temporary, as the goal with the V3 version of the project is to take it into a proper 8- or 16-bit CPU direction. We’re certainly looking forward to seeing this next revision of what looks to be a pretty interesting game console.

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Easy Theremin Uses ESP32

August 2, 2026 by 3 Comments

The Theremin is that classic electronic musical instrument that makes those weeee-ohhhhh noises which were so popular in mid-century science fiction movies. Mid-last-century, that is, because this century is just beginning. In any case, you could build one with old-school analog electronics, or you could go a more modern route, as [ericCycles] did.

The build relies almost entirely on an ESP32 microcontroller with minimal supporting circuitry. Like any other Theremin, pitch and volume are controlled by moving hands closer or farther away from two antenna. In this case, the ESP32 uses its capacitive touch circuitry to detect effectively detect hand proximity to the two antenna in question, and uses those values to control the pitch and volume of a synthesized waveform. That waveform is then pumped out over the onboard digital-to-analog converter for playback on external speakers.

If you want to build a simple Theremin-like instrument quickly and easily, it’s hard to beat the simplicity on offer here. We’ve featured some other fun variants over the years, too, like this version that uses time-of-flight sensors for the human interface.

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Hackaday Links: August 2, 2026

August 2, 2026 by 1 Comment

About a month ago, we brought you word that the commercial rescue mission designed by Katalyst Space to save NASA’s Swift gamma-ray observatory had reached orbit and early indicators were looking good. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for things to start going sideways, and up until very recently, the situation seemed pretty dire. But according to an interview with Katalyst’s CEO published yesterday by Ars Technica, the company has made some impressive progress on getting things back under control.

For reasons unknown, the robotic vehicle started tumbling out of control last week. Shortly after that, mission controllers lost contact with Swift. After 24 hours without contact from the ground, the spacecraft automatically performed a sort of “hard reset” in an attempt to regain communications. That got it talking again, but somewhere along the way the craft overheated, which in turn cooked the control circuitry for the reaction wheels, which would usually be used to control its orientation. Not great, not terrible.

As of yesterday’s update, we now know that engineers have figured out a way to gimbal the thrust from the craft’s xenon-fueled electric thrusters — which were originally intended for orbit-raising — to counteract its spinning. It’s slow going as these thrusters don’t have a lot of kick, but it seems to be working. We’ll keep an eye on this one and let you know when we know more.

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An Automated Water Tank Controller

August 2, 2026 by 16 Comments

[Jumpor] lives in a part of India where the water infrastructure is a little frustrating to use. Water gets delivered to underground tanks outside of homes, and must then be regularly pumped into rooftop tanks prior to use inside the building. Typically, this pumping is handled manually—by switching on a pump and running it until water comes out of an overflow pipe to indicate the rooftop tank is full. [Jumpor] decided to improve this wasteful and time consuming process with a little automation project.

The build is based around an ESP32 microcontroller. It’s hooked up to an ultrasonic sensor which can measure the water level inside the rooftop water tank. When the sensor detects the level descending below a set point, the microcontroller fires a relay to trigger the lift pump to fill up the tank. Once the sensor detects the tank is full, the pump is shut off, saving liters of water compared to waiting for water to pour out of the overflow as an indicator of the same.

It’s a simple enough project, but [Jumpor] was sure to include the important practical considerations. Since the rig was being installed in a rental, it was desirable to not make any permanent modifications to the water system. Thus, a fresh cap for the water tank was modified to host the electronics and level sensor, such that the original could be replaced at a later date. Due consideration was also paid to things like avoiding crossing the minimum detection threshold of the sensor, which could lead to accidental overflows if not managed correctly.

The aim of this project was to ease the day to day burden of maintaining a basic utility. That’s the sort of project we love to see around these parts.

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Turning Fruits Into Ethylene And Ethane Refrigerant

August 2, 2026 by 7 Comments

One of the best parts about DIY chemistry and physics projects is that you get to decide how early in the supply chain you want to begin, such as with [Hyperspace Pirate]’s adventures in ethanol production from sugar fermentation. Although you can certainly just buy packs of sugar and yeast from the store and pretend that this will be helpful once the world embraces its Mad Max era, you may as well start with the stuff that actually grows on trees, like fruit.

While you could use the ethanol produced this way as ethanol fuel in combustion engines and the like, you can also turn the ethanol into ethylene and ethane. That way you can fill up your refrigerator, freezer, and air conditioner to keep your perishable foods and yourself fresh as the outside world descends into highly questionable fashion choices.

Even outside such a scenario it makes sense to generate your own ethane and ethylene, due to how much these refrigerants cost. Once you have the ethanol, some aluminium oxide catalyst at 350°C is enough to produce ethylene and water. Producing ethane is admittedly a bit more involved, requiring acetobacter bacteria to produce acetic acid, along with baking soda, a platinum anode and a few more odds and ends.

Producing butene and even longer chains from ethylene is also possible as a next step, but this gets even hairier than producing ethane from ethanol, so we’re likely to see this in a future update after all the low-hanging fruit has been harvested.

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