O Brother, What Art Thou?

September 9, 2025 by 19 Comments

Dedicated word processors are not something we see much of anymore. They were in a weird space: computerized, but not really what you could call a computer, even in those days. More like a fancy typewriter, with a screen and floppy disks. Brother made some very nice ones, and [Chad Boughton] got his hands on one for a modernization project.

The word processor in question, a Brother WP-2200, was chosen primarily because of its beautiful widescreen, yellow-phosphor CRT display. Yes, you read that correctly — yellow phosphor, not amber. Widescreen CRTs are rare enough, but that’s just different. As built, the WP-2200 had a luggable form-factor, with a floppy drive, ̶m̶e̶c̶h̶a̶n̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ clacky keyboard, and dot-matrix printer in the back. Continue reading “O Brother, What Art Thou?” →

Business Card Ouija board

This Ouija Business Card Helps You Speak To Tiny Llamas

September 9, 2025 by 7 Comments

Business cards, on the whole, haven’t changed significantly over the past 600-ish years, and arguably are not as important as they used to be, but they are still worth considering as a reminder for someone to contact you. If the format of that card and method of contact stand out as unique and related to your personal or professional interests, you have a winning combination that will cement yourself in the recipient’s memory.

In a case study of “show, don’t tell”, [Binh]’s business card draws on technological and paranormal curiosity, blending affordable, short-run PCB manufacturing and an, LLM or, in this case, a Small Language Model, with a tiny Ouija board. While [Binh] is very much with us in the here and now, and a séance isn’t really an effective way to get a hold of him, the interactive Ouija card gives recipient’s a playful demonstration of his skills.

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The Android Linux Commander

September 9, 2025 by 7 Comments

Last time, I described how to write a simple Android app and get it talking to your code on Linux. So, of course, we need an example. Since I’ve been on something of a macropad kick lately, I decided to write a toolkit for building your own macropad using App Inventor and any sort of Linux tools you like.

I mentioned there is a server. I wrote some very basic code to exchange data with the Android device on the Linux side. The protocol is simple:

  • All messages to the ordinary Linux start with >
  • All messages to the Android device start with <
  • All messages end with a carriage return

Security

You can build the server so that it can execute arbitrary commands. Since some people will doubtlessly be upset about that, the server can also have a restrictive set of numbered commands. You can also allow those commands to take arguments or disallow them, but you have to rebuild the server with your options set.

There is a handshake at the start of communications where Android sends “>.” and the server responds “<.” to allow synchronization and any resetting to occur. Sending “>#x” runs a numbered command (where x is an integer) which could have arguments like “>#20~/todo.txt” for example, or, with no arguments, “>#20” if you just want to run the command.

If the server allows it, you can also just send an entire command line using “>>” as in: “>>vi ~/todo.txt” to start a vi session.

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Give Your Twist Connections Some Strength

September 9, 2025 by 44 Comments

We’ve all done it at some time — made an electrical connection by twisting together the bare ends of some wires. It’s quick, and easy, but because of how little force required to part it, not terribly reliable. This is why electrical connectors from terminal blocks to crimp connectors and everything else in between exist, to make a more robust join.

But what if there was a way to make your twist connections stronger? [Ibanis Sorenzo] may have the answer, in the form of an ingenious 3D printed clamp system to hold everything in place. It’s claimed to result in a join stronger than the wire itself.

The operation is simple enough, a spring clamp encloses the join, and a threaded outer piece screws over it to clamp it all together. There’s a pair of 3D printable tools to aid assembly, and a range of different sizes to fit different wires. It looks well-thought-out and practical, so perhaps it could be a useful tool in your armoury. We can see in particular that for those moments when you don’t have the right connectors to hand, a quick 3D print could save the say.

A few years ago we evaluated a set of different ways to make crimp connections. It would be interesting to subject this connection to a similar test. Meanwhile you can see a comprehensive description in the video below the break.

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FreeCAD Foray: From Brick To Shell

September 9, 2025 by 18 Comments

Over a year ago, we took a look at importing a .step file of a KiCad PCB into FreeCAD, then placing a sketch and extruding it. It was a small step, but I know it’s enough for most of you all, and that brings me joy. Today, we continue building a case for that PCB – the delay is because I stopped my USB-C work for a fair bit, and lost interest in the case accordingly, but I’m reviving it now.

Since then, FreeCAD has seen its v 1.0 release come to fruition, in particular getting a fair bit of work done to alleviate one of major problems for CAD packages, the “topological naming problem”; we will talk about it later on. The good news is, none of my tutorial appears to have been invalidated by version 1.0 changes. Another good news: since version 1.0, FreeCAD has definitely become a fair bit more stable, and that’s not even including some much-needed major features.

High time to pick the work back up, then! Let’s take a look at what’s in store for today: finishing the case in just a few more extrusions, explaining a few FreeCAD failure modes you might encounter, and giving some advice on how to make FreeCAD for you with minimum effort from your side.

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A thick, rectangular device with rounded corners is shown, with a small screen in the upper half, above a set of selection buttons.

Further Adventures In Colorimeter Hacking

September 9, 2025 by No comments

One of the great things about sharing hacks is that sometimes one person’s work inspires someone else to take it even further. A case in point is [Ivor]’s colorimeter hacking (parts two and three), which started with some relatively simple request spoofing to install non-stock firmware, and expanded from there until he had complete control over the hardware.

After reading [Adam Zeloof]’s work on replacing the firmware on a cosmetics spectrophotometer with general-purpose firmware, [Ivor] bought two of these colorimeters, one as a backup. He started with [Adam]’s method for updating the firmware by altering the request sent to an update server, but was only able to find the serial number from a quality-control unit. This installed the quality-control firmware, which encountered an error on the device. More searching led [Ivor] to another serial number, which gave him the base firmware, and let him dump and compare the cosmetic, quality-control, and base firmwares.

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Turning A $2 IKEA Lantern Into A Stylish Enclosure

September 9, 2025 by 35 Comments

It’s fair to say that the average Hackaday reader enjoys putting together custom electronics. Some of those builds will be spaghetti on a breadboard, but at some point you’ll probably have a project that needs a permanent case. If you’re looking for a small case for your latest creation, check out [Julius Curt’s] modification of an IKEA Vårsyren lantern into a customizable enclosure!

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