Dial-Up Is Still, Just Barely, A Thing

March 6, 2024 by 86 Comments

In an era dominated by broadband and wireless cellular networks, it might come as a surprise to many that dial-up internet services still exist in the United States. This persistence is not a mere relic of nostalgia — but a testament to the diverse and uneven nature of internet infrastructure across the country.

Yes, dial-up internet, with those screechy, crackly tones, remains a useful tool in areas where modern, high-speed internet services are either unaffordable or unavailable. Subscriber numbers are tiny, but some plough on and access the Internet by the old ways, not the new.

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A bias tee module added inside the Starlink terminal, connected to the pads where a GPS antenna used to be wired

GPS Antenna Mods Make Starlink Terminal Immune To Jammers

March 6, 2024 by 68 Comments

The Starlink receivers need positioning and precise timing information to function, and currently the best way to get that information is to use a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) such as GPS. Unfortunately, the antenna used for this secondary satellite connection leaves something to be desired. Of course, when it comes to solving Starlink problems, there’s no one best than [Oleg Kutkov], whose duty is to fix and improve upon Starlink terminals used in Ukraine — and when the specific problem is GPS bands getting jammed by the invading military, you better believe that a fix is due.

[Oleg] sets the scene, walking us through the evolution of GPS circuitry on the Starlink terminals. Then he shows us the simplest mods you can do, like soldering an improved passive antenna in place of the chip antenna currently being used. Then, he takes it up a notch, and shows us how you could attach an active antenna by using a bias tee module, a mod that would surely work wonders on more than just this device! Then, he brings out the test result tables — and the differences are impressive, in that the Starlink terminals with active antenna mods were able to get GPS signal in areas with active jamming going on, while the unmodified ones could not.

The post is exceptionally accessible, and a must read for anyone wondering about GPS antenna reception problems in customer-accessible devices. This is not the only Starlink hardware mod we’ve seen [Oleg] make, we’ve just covered his Starlink Ethernet port restoration journey that meticulously fixes Ethernet connectivity oversights in the newer models, and the blog also has an article about powering Starlink terminals without the need for PoE, so, do check it out if you’re looking for more!

Automated System Keeps Camper Van Air Fresh And Warm

March 6, 2024 by 22 Comments

Air quality has become a hot topic in recent years. [Ryan Stout] was interested in improving it in his camper van, and set about doing something about it. His solution was an automated system that provided cleaner air and better comfort to boot.

The concept was simple. [Ryan]’s system is based on an Arduino clone, and uses a SparkFun SCD40 as a CO2 sensor, and an MCP9808 for temperature. When the system detects excess carbon dioxide levels, it opens the MaxxAir fan in the camper by triggering it with an infrared signal. Similarly, when it detects excessively low temperatures inside the van, it kicks on a diesel furnace for heating. In a neat addition, to avoid the fan sucking in exhaust fumes, it also closes the fan in order to avoid exhaust fumes entering the camper unnecessarily. All the hardware was then  wrapped up in a simple 3D printed enclosure.

With this setup, [Ryan] has managed to cut the buildup of CO2 in his camper at night, and he credits this with reducing morning headaches when he’s out in the camper. We’d call that a win, to say nothing of the additional comfort created by the automatically-controlled heater! If you’re interested in something similar for your home HVAC system, we’ve got you covered.

Yuzu And Citra Emulators Shut Down After Legal Pressure From Nintendo

March 5, 2024 by 36 Comments

In a move that came rather like a surprise to many, the company behind the well-known Switch and 3DS emulators Yuzu and Citra – Tropic Haze LLC – as reported by PC Gamer has shutdown both projects and associated websites as part of a US$2.4M settlement with Nintendo with a last message left on the Yuzu website. This comes in the wake of Nintendo suing Tropic Haze LLC over the Yuzu emulator, claiming that there’s ‘no lawful way to use Yuzu’, as it requires files extracted from a real Switch device to decrypt game files. Although Citra is not part of the lawsuit, it being made by the same developers seems to have resulted in it getting axed along with Yuzu as collateral damage.

What makes this issue so legally hairy is that even though an emulator by itself isn’t illegal, requiring proprietary firmware and keys already gets one into contested territory about the legality of dumping said files from a console, even if you own it. This was already an issue with the first Playstation emulators, which require the Playstation BIOS image to even boot, but left the emulator developers mostly untouchable. What seems to have set off Nintendo’s lawyers here would seem to be the way that the Yuzu developers leaned into the copyright infringement (often incorrectly called ‘piracy’) angle, giving Nintendo’s legal team enough exposed flesh to launch a ballistic legal strike.

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Large Language Model Can Help You Develop For The Amiga

March 5, 2024 by 13 Comments

Developing for the Amiga used to involve reading dense programming manuals and trial and error. In contrast, developing these days can be as simple as barking orders at ChatGPT to spit you out some Python code. However, that technique doesn’t work so well for Amiga languages, as ChatGPT hasn’t read much about the now-ancient platform. However, as covered by AmigaNews, there is now a ChatGPT model trained specifically on Amiga development. Enter Amiga Guru.

The work of [Cameron Armstrong], Amiga Guru was built after his early experiments with ChatGPT spat out non-functional gibberish when Amiga-compatible code was requested. The model has been trained on a corpus of official Amiga programming manuals, third-party books, and even the documentation for AmigaOS 3.2 and 4.1.

Using the model yourself requires a subscription to ChatGPT Plus, which prevents this writer from testing it directly. However, it makes sense that having been directly trained on Amiga manuals, it would be more capable at answering Amiga programming queries than conventional ChatGPT 4.

It’s easy to see the value of such a system. Learning to program for older platforms can be hard, with less resources available for new learners. Having an AI to help could be useful for some eager to develop for the 68K-based machine.

If you’d like to try Amiga Guru, you can access it via this link. Be sure to let us know how you go, and whether you think it has any value for speeding up your own Amiga development. Otherwise, if you’ve been doing anything else nifty with the platform that Commodore bought and paid for, don’t hesitate to let us know!

[Thanks to Stephen Waters for the tip!]

RGB LED Disco Ball Reacts To Sound And Color

March 5, 2024 by 3 Comments

Although disco music and dancing may be long dead, the disco ball lives on as a staple of dance parties everywhere. [Tim van de Vathorst] spent a considerable amount of time reinventing the disco ball into something covered with RGB LEDs that reacts to sound and uses a color sensor to change hue based on whatever it’s presented with.

[Tim] started by modeling the disco ball after a soccer ball with a mixture of pentagons and hexagons. Then it was off to the laser cutter to cut it out of 3mm plywood sheets. Once assembled, [Tim] added LED strips across all the faces and wired them up. Then it was time to figure out how to hold the guts together inside of the ball. Back to the drawing board and laser cutter [Tim] went to design a simple two-piece skeleton to hold the Raspberry Pi and the power supply.

In order to do some of the really interesting effects, [Tim] had to make sure that the faces were divvied up correctly in code. That was difficult and involved a really big array, but the result looks worth the trouble. Finally, [Tim] covered the ball in white acrylic to diffuse the LEDs. As you will see in the build/demo video after the break, the ball turned out really well. The only real problem is that the camera doesn’t work very well without light, which is something good parties are usually short on. [Tim] might add a spotlight or something in the future.

Do you prefer the mirrored look of the standard disco ball? Peep the tiny one in this Disco Containment Unit.

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Making A Crystodyne Radio With Zinc Oxide And Cat’s Whiskers

March 5, 2024 by 19 Comments
Zinc negative resistance oscillator circuit. (Credit: Ashish Derhgawen)
Zinc negative resistance oscillator circuit. (Credit: Ashish Derhgawen)

During the first half of the 20th century radio technology was booming, albeit restricted by the vacuum tube technology of the time which made radios cumbersome in size and power needs. The development of a solid state alternative to the vacuum tube was in full swing, but the first version pioneered by [Oleg Losev] in the form of crystal radios failed to compete. Even so these ‘crystal radios’ laid much of the groundwork for subsequent research. The ease of creating this type of radio also makes it a fun physics experiment today, as [Ashish Derhgawen]  demonstrates in a blog post.

In the January 1925 issue of Radio News the theory  of the circuit is explained by [Oleg Losev] himself (page 1167). At the core is a material capable of negative resistance, as a non-linear (non-Ohmic) material, which means that the current passing through them decreases as voltage increases over part of their I-V curve. This enables it to work as an amplifier or oscillator. After the cessation of research on crystal radio technology by [Losev] and others, the negative resistance diode was rediscovered in 1957 with the tunnel diode.

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