ESP8266 Coaster Keeps Your Drink Warm

January 27, 2023 by 5 Comments

Looking for the perfect winter desk accessory? [Wq] has created a beautiful coaster made out of PCBs  that can keep your drink warm with an internal heater. (Chinese).

An ESP8266 sits as the main controller, with an additional MQTT control option, where the whole unit is powered over a USB-C connection. On board PCB traces, in the shape of a Hilbert curve, create the heating element used to heat beverages placed on the coaster, where [Wq] reports a measured resistance of the PCB trace network at 1.2 ohms. [Wq] writes that an AON6324 MOSFET replaces the D4184 that was previously being used, but might need some testing to get working properly. There are two capacitive touch sensors which has a TTP223E capacitive touch controller attached to detect input, with a multi-colored FM-3528 RGB LED for user feedback.

We love the artistry that went into building the coaster. For adventurous hackers wanting to build their own, the bill of materials (BOM), source code and board files are all available. We’ve seen everything from coasters and to PCB reflow boards, so it’s nice to see experimentation with a combination of these ideas.

This Week In Security: GTA, Apple And Android, And Insecure Boot

January 27, 2023 by 11 Comments

When we first saw tweets about a security issue in Grand Theft Auto V, it sounded a bit like a troll. “Press ‘alt and f4’ to unlock a cheat mode”, or the hacker that claims to be able to delete your character. [Tez2]’s warning tweet that you shouldn’t play GTA Online without a firewall sounds like another of these online urban legends. But this one actually seems legit. NIST is even in on the fun, assigning CVE-2023-24059 for the exploit.

When playing an online game, other users send a “join request” to join the active session. This packets can contain malformed data which has been observed to crash the game client remotely. It’s believed, though not publicly confirmed, that it’s also a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability. It seems likely that this aspect will be added to some of the various cheat panels that are already widely used for this 10-year-old game. So now, rather than just giving your own character infinite ammo and health, you can inflict some havoc on other players, possibly up to corrupting their character files and getting them banned.

But why stop there? If we have code execution inside the game, what stops another player from launching a real attack? A video game isn’t sandboxed like a browser, and there’s nothing preventing a disk wiper attack or even a worm from compromising a bunch of players. The worst part is that it’s an old game, and even though there’s a large playerbase, it’s not guaranteed to get a fix. There’s at least one project aiming to be a firewall to prevent the issue. Continue reading “This Week In Security: GTA, Apple And Android, And Insecure Boot” →

Wolfenstein 3D, As You Never Imagined It.

January 27, 2023 by 21 Comments

When tracing the history of first-person shooting (FPS) games, where do you credit with the genesis of the genre? Anyone who played 3D Monster Maze on the Sinclair ZX81 might dare to raise a hand, but we’re guessing that most of you will return to the early 1990s, and id Software. Their 1992 title Wolfenstein 3D might not have been the first to combine all the elements, but it’s arguably the first modern FPS and the first to gain huge popularity. Back in 1992 it needed at least a VGA card and a 286 to run, but here in 2023 [jhhoward] has taken it back a step further. You can now slay virtual Nazis in 3D on an 8088 PC equipped with a lowly CGA card.

Whether the gameplay survives in the sometimes-bizarre CGA color schemes and whether it becomes too pedestrian on an 8088 remains as an exercise for the reader to discover, but it’s a feat nevertheless. The textures all need converting to CGA mode before they can be used and there are even versions for the shareware and paid-for versions of the game.  It’s possible that an 8088 may never be able to say yes to “Will it run DOOM?”, but at least now it can run the predecessor.

3D Printer Spool Roller Is Built For Giant Spools Of Filament

January 27, 2023 by 15 Comments

Most 3D printers come with a pretty basic filament holder — often little more than a bar to hang the spool on. [Ivan Miranda]’s 3D printers run bigger spools than most, though, so he had to craft an altogether more serious solution.

Unlike most of [Ivan]’s creations, the spool holder isn’t actually 3D printed. For this job, he turned to a laser cutter instead, cutting the parts out of 5 mm plywood. A handful of layers of wood bolt together to form the frame. The frame holds several bearings for the outer rims of the spool itself to ride on, allowing it to spin freely as the extruder tugs on the filament. Reducing the rolling resistance of the spool is key when working with such large, heavy spools, and reduces the chances of the filament not feeding properly.

It’s a tidy example of a tool built quickly and easily using a laser cutter. It pays to remember that while 3D printers are great, a laser cutter can often turn out parts in a short fraction of the time.

Continue reading “3D Printer Spool Roller Is Built For Giant Spools Of Filament” →

Lego Guitar Is Really An Ultrasonically-Controlled Synth

January 26, 2023 by 4 Comments

The phrase “Lego Guitar” can be a stressful one to hear. You might imagine the idea of strings under tension and a subsequently exploding cloud of plastic shrapnel. This build from the [Brick Experiment Channel] eschews all that, thankfully, and is instead a digital synth that only emulates a guitar in its rough form factor.

The heart of the build is a Lego Mindstorms EV3 controller. It’s acts as the “body” of the guitar, and is fitted with a Lego “fretboard” of sorts. A slide is moved up and down the fretboard by the player. The EV3 controller detects the position of the slide via an ultrasonic sensor, and uses this to determine the fret the user is trying to play. The button the user presses on the controller then determines which of five “strings” the user is playing, and the selected note is sounded out from the EV3’s internal speaker. It’s strictly a monophonic instrument, but three different sounds are available: a bass guitar, a rock guitar, and a solo guitar, with all the fidelity and timbre of a 90s Casio keyboard.

It’s a fun and silly instrument, and also kind of difficult to play. The slide mechanism doesn’t offer much feedback, nor are the EV3 buttons intended for dynamic musical performance. Regardless, the player belts out some basic tunes to demonstrate the concept. We doubt you’d ever be able to play Through The Fire and Flames on such a limited instrument, but [Brick Experiment Channel] used their editing skills to explore what that might sound like regardless.

We’ve seen some other great synth guitars before, too. Modern microcontrollers and electronics give makers all kinds of creative ways to build electronic instruments with unique and compelling interfaces. Some are more successful than others, but they’re all fun to explore. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Lego Guitar Is Really An Ultrasonically-Controlled Synth” →

Four images in one. Top left is an image of four individuals in a room with whiteboards and desks in the background along with various clutter on the floor. Over the people is a wireframe overlay of their poses. The image on the top right is just the wireframe people on a black background. Bottom left image is of a single individual standing in a room with the pose wireframe overlay. Bottom right image is the single pose wireframe on a black background.

Tracking Humans With WiFi

January 26, 2023 by 45 Comments

In case you thought that cameras, LiDAR, infrared sensors, and the like weren’t enough for Big Brother to track you, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have found a way to track human movements via WiFi. [PDF via VPNoverview]

The process uses the signals from WiFi routers for an inexpensive way to determine human poses that isn’t hampered by lack of illumination or object occlusion. The system produces UV coordinates of human bodies by analyzing signal strength and phase data to generate a 2D feature map and then feeding that through a modified DensePose-RCNN architecture which corresponds to 3D human poses. The system does have trouble with unusual poses that are not in the training set or if there are more than three subjects in the detection area.

While there are probably applications in Kinect-esque VR Halo games, this will probably go straight into the toolbox of three letter agencies and advertising-fueled tech companies. The authors claim this to use “privacy-preserving algorithms for human sensing,” but only time will tell if they’re correct.

If you’re interested in other creepy surveillance tools, checkout the Heat-Sensing Crotch Monitor or this Dystopian Peep Show.

Binary Watch Rocks A Bare PCB With Pride

January 26, 2023 by 18 Comments

Most of us learn to read digital clocks first, which display the time in obvious numbers. Analog clocks are often learned later, with the hands taking our young brains a little longer to figure out. Once you’ve grown into a 1337h4XX0r, though, you’re ready to learn how to read a binary watch. Then you can build your own, just like [taifur] did.

The watch rocks a simplistic, bare bones design with the PCB acting as the body of the device itself. It’s not great for water resistance, or even incidental contact, but it’s a sharp look with the golden traces on display. The heart of the operation is a ATmega328P, as seen in the popular Arduino Uno, and it’s paired with a DS3231M real-time clock module to keep accurate time. 13 SMD LEDs are charged with displaying the time in binary format, with [taifur] choosing to spec a classic red color for the build. The watch is powered via a CR2032 coin cell, which you’re best advised not to swallow. So far, [taifur] has found the watch will last for over a month before the battery is tapped out.

It’s a fun build, and one that looks good when paired with a classic NATO watch strap in green. If, however, you desire a watch that definitely won’t last a month on a single coin cell, you can always build a Nixie watch instead. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Binary Watch Rocks A Bare PCB With Pride” →