Pi Pico Provides Practical PlayStation Pointing

July 12, 2022 by 13 Comments

It’s not immediately clear to us why one would need a mouse for the original PlayStation (though we’re sure there’s no shortage of folks eager to jump down into the comments and tell us), but if you ever desire adding improved pointing capabilities to the nearly three decade old console, this project from [Vojtěch Salajka] is certainly one to keep an eye on.

The aptly named “USB to PlayStation Mouse” project does exactly what it sounds like — adapts a generic USB mouse into an input device for Sony’s classic console. Putting one together requires a Raspberry Pi Pico, a 5 V DC-DC USB boost module with female USB-A connector, and a sacrificial controller or peripheral to provide the cable and proprietary connector.

With the hardware assembled per the simple wiring diagram, you just plug the Pico into your computer and copy over the firmware file. [Vojtěch] notes that you’ll need to unplug the mouse before attempting to upload the firmware, presumably because the data pins on the two USB ports have been tied together.

Don’t worry about having to find some obscure title to try out your new peripheral either, [Vojtěch] says the mouse works in the system’s main menu if you boot it without a disc in the drive. Now all you need is a few Raspberry Pi Pico PlayStation Memory Cards to complete the whole set.

Hackable OSHW CardClock Demands Attention

July 12, 2022 by 12 Comments

When examining a project, it’s easy to be jaded by a raw parts list. When the main component is an ESP8266, we might say “oh, another 8266 project. yawn!” But we’re certain that when you take a look at [Will Fox]’s Foxie CardClock, it’ll surely grab your attention.

As if all those beautiful LEDs weren’t enough, the rest of the device’s specifications are quite impressive. The core components might be common, but what often separates such projects is the software. With Over The Air updates supported via ArduinoOTA, updates are a snap. A light sensor helps to keep all those LEDs at a sane level, and a once-per-minute synchronization via NTP keeps the time accurate. Even if power is lost, a super-capacitor can hold the time accurate for up to two days with the built in RTC module. There’s even provisions for setting the time using the buttons on the front panel should you want to keep the gadget offline.

The entire project is open source, with the hardware released under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 and the firmware source code distributed as GPLv3. Users are encouraged to hack and modify the design, and all the information you need to build one of your own is available in the project’s GitHub repository. [Will] also offers a pre-assembled version of the clock for just $45 USD, but unfortunately it seems to be out of stock at the time of this writing.

If credit card sized hacks are your chosen area of interest, you will appreciate this crystal radio made from an actual Credit Card. Thanks to [Abe] for submitting the Tip!

Airbus A380 Completes Flight Powered By Cooking Oil

July 12, 2022 by 79 Comments

Fossil fuels are making news for all the wrong reasons of late. Whether it’s their contribution to global climate change or the fact that the price and supply hinges on violent geopolitics, there are more reasons than ever to shift to cleaner energy sources.

In the world of aviation, that means finding a cleaner source of fuel. A test earlier this year took place in pursuit of that very goal, where an Airbus A380 airliner was flown solely on fuel derived from cooking oil.

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A Handy Tester For A Mountain Of PS/2 Keybords

July 12, 2022 by 16 Comments

The hacking life is not without its challenges, and chief among these is the tendency to always be in acquisition mode. When we come across a great deal on bulk equipment, or see a chance to rescue some obscure gear from the e-waste stream, we generally pounce on it, regardless of the advisability.

We imagine this is why [Nathan] ended up with a hoard of PS/2 keyboards. Seriously, there are like thousands of the things. And rather than lug a computer to them for testing, [Nathan] put together this handy Arduino-based portable tester to see which keyboards still have some life left in them. The video below goes into detail on the build, but the basics are pretty simple — an Arduino, a 16×2 LCD display, and a few bits and bobs to run it off a LiPo pack and charge it up. Plus, of course, a PS/2 jack to plug in a keyboard and power it up. Interestingly, the 16×2 display is an old Parallax unit, from the days when RadioShack still existed and sold their stuff. That required a little effort to get it working with the Arduino, but in the end it works like a charm — plug in a keyboard and whatever you type shows up on the screen.

Of course, it’s hard to look at something like this, and that mountain of keyboards in the background, and not scheme up ways to really automate the whole test process. Perhaps an old 3D printer with a stylus mounted where the hot end would go could press each key in turn while the tester output is recorded — something like this Wordle-bot, but on a keyboard scale. That kind of goes against [Nathan]’s portability goal, but it’s still fun to think about.

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Open Firmware For PinePhone LTE Modem – What’s Up With That?

July 12, 2022 by 30 Comments

In their monthly announcement, among all the cool things Pine64, they talked about the open firmware for PinePhone’s LTE modem. The firmware isn’t fully open – a few parts remain closed. And Pine emphasizes that they neither pre-install nor officially endorse this firmware, and PinePhones will keep shipping with the vendor-supplied modem firmware image instead.

That said, the new firmware is way more featureful – it has less bugs, more features, decreased power consumption, and its proprietary parts are few and far between. I’d like to note that, with a special build of this firmware, the PinePhone’s modem can run Doom – because, well, of course.

And with all that, it’s become way easier to install this firmware – there’s fwupd hooks now! You can think of fwupd as the equivalent of Windows Update for firmware, except not abusive, and aimed at Linux. A perfect fit for keeping your open-source devices as functional as they can be, in other words.

What’s the deal? If open firmware is that much cooler, why don’t more of our phones have open firmware options available? Continue reading “Open Firmware For PinePhone LTE Modem – What’s Up With That?” →

Even DOOM Can Now Run DOOM!

July 12, 2022 by 30 Comments

For years now, the standard test of any newly hacked piece of hardware has been this: can it run DOOM? id Software’s 1993 classic first-person shooter has appeared on everything, but here’s one from [kgsws] that’s a bit special. It’s DOOM, running inside DOOM itself.

So how has this feat been achieved? There’s a code execution exploit inside the original DOS DOOM II executable, and that has been used to run the more modern Chocolate Doom within the original. It appears as an in-game texture, giving an odd effect as if it’s being watched in a cinema.

The video below the break shows the game-in-game in action, but the real value lies in its in-depth description of the exploit, that takes us through some of the inner workings of the game and ably explains what’s going on. It finishes up with a specially made cinema WAD in which to play DOOM-in-DOOM, and even Hexen-in-DOOM. Pick up your trusty chainsaw, it’s going to be a long night.

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Automate Internet Life With Python

July 12, 2022 by 19 Comments

Most of us are adept enough with computers that you know what they can easily do and what they can’t. Invent a new flavor of ice cream? Not easy. Grab the news headlines related to Arduinos from your favorite news feed? Relatively easy. But, of course, the devil is in the details. FreeCodeCamp has a 3-hour course from [Frank Andrade] that dives into the gory details of automating web tasks using Python and a variety of libraries like Path, Xpath, and Selenium. You can watch the course, below.

Topics start off with grabbing tables from websites and PDFs. But it quickly graduates to general-purpose web scraping and even web automation. These techniques can be very useful for testing browser-based applications, too.

By the end, you’ve created an executable that grabs news every day and automatically generates an Excel report. There’s also a little wind down about WhatApp automation. A little something for everyone. We also greatly approved of [Frank]’s workspace which appears in the background. Looks like he would enjoy reading Hackaday.

Honestly, while we’ve seen easier methods of automating the browser, there’s something appealing about having the control something like Python affords. Sure beats building hardware to simulate a human-in-the-loop.

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