Scratch Built Media Player Channels 1980s Design

September 15, 2019 by Tom Nardi 51 Comments

No, you aren’t looking at a 30 year old Teac graphic equalizer that somebody modified. The MWA-002 Network Music Player created by [GuzziGuy] is built entirely from new components, and easily ranks up there with some of the most gorgeous pieces of homebrew audio gear we’ve ever seen. Combining modular hardware with modern manufacturing techniques, this 1980s inspired build is a testament to how far we’ve come in terms of what’s possible for the dedicated hacker and maker.

The enclosure, though it looks all the world like a repurposed piece of vintage hardware, was built with the help of a CNC router. It’s constructed from pieces of solid oak, plywood, and veneered MDF that have all been meticulously routed out and cut. Even the front panel text was engraved with the CNC and then filled in with black paint to make the letters pop.

Internally, the MWA-002 is powered by a Raspberry Pi 3 running Mopidy to play both local tracks and streaming audio. Not satisfied with the Pi’s built-in capabilities, [GuzziGuy] is using a Behringer UCA202 to produce CD-quality audio, which is then fed into a TPA3116 amplifier. In turn, the output from the amplifier is terminated in a set of female jacks on the player. Just like the stereo equipment of yore, this player is designed to be connected to a larger audio system and doesn’t have any internal speakers.

The primary display is a 256×64 Futaba GP1212A02A FVD which has that era-appropriate glow while still delivering modern features. [GuzziGuy] says it was more difficult to interface with this I2C display than the LCDs he used in the past due to the lack of available libraries, but we think the final product is proof it was worth the effort. He bought both the VFD spectrum analyzer and LED VU meter as turn-key modules, but the center equalizer controls are completely custom; with dual MCP3008 ADCs to read the state of the sliders and the Linux Audio Developer’s Simple Plugin API (LADSPA) to tweak the Pi’s audio output accordingly.

We’re no strangers to beautiful pieces of audio gear here at Hackaday, but generally speaking, most projects involve modernizing or augmenting an existing device. While those projects are to be admired, the engineering that goes into creating something of this caliber from modular components and raw building materials is really an accomplishment on a whole different level.

A 4G Rover And The Benefits Of A Shakedown Mission

September 12, 2019 by Lewin Day 16 Comments

Many moons ago, in the shadowy darkness of the 1990s, a young Lewin visited his elder cousin. An adept AMOS programmer, he had managed to get his Amiga 500 to control an RC car, with little more than a large pile of relays and guile. Everything worked well, but there was just one problem — once the car left the room, there was no way to see what was going on.

Why don’t you put a camera on it? Then you can drive it anywhere!

—Lewin

This would go on to inspire the TKIRV project approximately 20 years later. The goal of the project is to build a rover outfitted with a camera, which is controllable over cellular data networks from anywhere on Earth. For its upcoming major expedition, the vehicle is to receive solar panels to enable it to remain operable in distant lands for extended periods without having to return to base to recharge.

The project continues to inch towards this goal, but as the rover nears completion, the temptation to take it out for a spin grew ever greater. What initially began as an exciting jaunt actually netted plenty of useful knowledge for the rover’s further development.

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Dissecting The TL-WR841N For Fun And Profit

September 12, 2019 by Tom Nardi 34 Comments

The TP-Link TL-WR841N isn’t a particularly impressive piece of hardware, but since it works decently well and sells for under $20 USD, it’s one of the most popular consumer routers on Amazon. Now, thanks to [TrendyTofu] of the Zero Day Initiative, we now have a concise step-by-step guide on how to hack your way into the newer versions of the hardware and take full control over this bargain WiFi device. This work was initially done to help test out reported vulnerabilities in the router’s firmware, but we’re sure the readers of Hackaday can come up with all sorts of potential uses for this information.

The story starts, as so many before it have, with a serial port. Finding the UART pads on the PCB and wiring up a level shifter was no problem, but [TrendyTofu] found it was only working one-way. Some troubleshooting and an oscilloscope later, the culprit was found to be a 1kΩ pull down resistor connected to the RX line that was keeping the voltage from peaking high enough to be recognized.

Once two-way communication was established, proper poking around inside the router’s Linux operating system could begin. It wasn’t a huge surprise to find the kernel was ancient (version 2.6.36, from 2010) and that the system utilities had been stripped to the absolute bare minimum to save space. Replacing the firmware entirely would of course be ideal, but unfortunately OpenWRT has dropped support for the newer hardware revisions of the TL-WR841N.

To teach this barebones build of Linux some new tricks, [TrendyTofu] used the mount command to find a partition on the system that actually had write-access, and used that to stash a pre-compiled build of BusyBox for MIPS. With a more complete set of tools, the real fun could begin: using GDB to debug TP-Link’s binaries and look for chinks in the armor. But feel free to insert your own brand of mayhem here.

You might think that in the era of the Raspberry Pi, abusing cheap routers to turn them into general purpose Linux boxes would be somewhat out of style. Frankly, you’d be right. But while the days of strapping Linksys WRT54Gs to remote controlled cars might be long be gone, there are still some routers out there interesting enough to make it worth dusting off this time-honored hardware hacker tradition.

RuneScape GBA Controller Is A Nostalgic Mash-Up

September 2, 2019 by Tom Nardi 4 Comments

For gamers, the early 2000s certainly stand out as a memorable era. The dawn of the 21st century ushered in the sixth generation of home video game consoles, with Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all releasing their systems within a few years of each other. Nintendo also released their Game Boy Advance at around the same time, representing a minor revolution for mobile gaming. On the PC front, a free-to-play MMORPG called RuneScape was redefining people’s expectations of browser-based software.

Now, thanks to modern technology and the expert guidance of [TiKevin83], these varied bits of video game history can be used in conjunction for maximum rose-tinting effect. Using homebrew software on the GameCube and a healthy collection of wires and adapters, the GBA can be used as a controller for your adventures through the realm of Gielinor. After nearly two decades, the dreams of gamers everywhere have come true.

Well, that might be a stretch. In fact, we’d wager that nobody in human history has ever looked at the GBA and thought it would be a particularly good controller for an MMORPG. Watching the video after the break, it’s not hard to see why. Using the handheld system’s digital pad to control the mouse in RuneScape looks to be precisely as clunky as you’d imagine. But of course, that’s hardly the point.

So how is it accomplished? A homebrew tool for the GameCube’s “Game Boy Player” accessory allows the GBA, when connected to the console via the appropriate adapter cable, to mimic a standard controller. Once the GBA is running in this mode, it can then be connected to the computer using a Wii U to USB adapter. Finally, the program JoyToKey is used to map the GBA’s buttons to mouse and keyboard input for “Old School” RuneScape.

If you’d like to do something similar but aren’t quite committed enough to collect up all the Nintendo-branded ephemera this method requires, you may be interested in this DIY adapter that allows the venerable GBA to be used as a standard Bluetooth controller.

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Process Characterization On The Cheap With A Custom Test Rig

September 2, 2019 by Lewin Day 8 Comments

Testing is a key part of any product development cycle. Done right, it turns up unknown bugs and problems, and allows for them to be fixed prior to shipment. However, it can be a costly and time-consuming process. The [Bay Libre] team needed to do some work on power management, but the hardware required was just a little on the expensive side. What else does a hacker do, but build their own?

Enter the Thermo-Regulated Power Measurement Platform. It’s a device designed to control the die temperature of a chip during process characterization. This is where a chip, in this case the iMX8MQ, is run at a variety of temperatures, voltages, and frequencies to determine its performance under various conditions. This data guides the parameters used to run the chip in actual use, to best manage its power consumption and thermal performance.

The rig consists of a Peltier element with controller, a heatsink, and a fan. This is lashed up to a series of Python scripts that both control the chip temperature and run through the various testing regimes. Thanks to this automation, what would normally be a day’s work for an engineer can now be completed in just two hours.

Through a few smart component choices, the team accomplished the job at around one-tenth of the cost of commercial grade hardware. Granted, the average hacker probably won’t find themselves doing process characterization for cutting-edge silicon on a regular basis. Still, this project shows the value in building custom hardware to ease the testing process.

Testing is key to success in production. Custom jigs can make for light work when large orders come in, and we’ve run a primer on various testing techniques, too.

Running Doom On A Doomed GPS

September 1, 2019 by Ted Yapo 14 Comments

What’s the first thing you think of when you see an old GPS navigation system for sale cheap at a garage sale? Our research indicates that 100% of people would wonder if it could run Doom; at least that’s what we conclude from the single data point we have, anyway. [Jason Gin] asked and answered the question — with a resounding yes — about his recent acquisition.

The unit in question is a Magellan RoadMate 1412 running Windows CE. After some playing, [Jason] found that simply connecting the unit to a computer via USB caused all the application files to appear as a FAT-formatted volume. Replacing the obviously-named “MapNavigator.exe” with a copy of TotalCommander/CE allowed browsing around the filesystem.

This revealed that much was missing from the CE install, including the Explorer shell and command prompt. Either could be used to launch Doom with the required command-line arguments. Luckily, [Jason] had another trick ready, namely using MortScript (a scripting engine) to launch the Doom executable. This worked like a charm, and after a few tweaks, he now has a dedicated demo box.

We say “demo box” instead of “Doom machine” because without a keyboard, you can’t actually play the game — only view the demo. In a valiant attempt, he connected a USB OTG connector, but the GPS doesn’t seem to recognize input devices, only USB storage devices. Keep at it, [Jason], we’d love to see you crack this one!

[Jason] is no stranger to hacking Windows CE devices. Last time we checked in, the target was a KeySight DSO1102G oscilloscope.

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Trimmed Dreamcast Board Makes For Perfect Portable

August 27, 2019 by Tom Nardi 4 Comments

In the last year or so we’ve been seeing an array of portable game system builds based around “trimmed” Wii motherboards which have literally been cut down to a fraction of their original size. It turns out that most of the board is dedicated to non-essential functions, with the core Wii system contained within one specific area that can be isolated with a steady hand. But as [Gman] shows in his latest build, the same concept can also be applied to the Sega Dreamcast.

But of course, there’s a bit more to it than just taking a hacksaw to a Dreamcast motherboard. [Gman] had to supplement the trimmed system with quite a bit of additional hardware, such as a power management board he originally designed for portable Wii projects.

Other components were specifically built for this project. For example there’s a custom PCB that handles emulating the Dreamcast controller using a PIC32MZ microcontroller. He’s also using a LM49450 to pull digital audio from the motherboard over I2S, completely bypassing the analog output.

While not currently functioning, [Gman] also included an SPI OLED display and the hardware necessary to emulate basic functionality of the system’s unique Visual Memory Unit (VMU) right in the front of the system. We’re looking forward to seeing him revisit this feature in the future when he’s got the software side of things worked out.

The Nintendo 2DS inspired enclosure is completely 3D printed. A Prusa i3 with textured PEI bed was used to achieve the gorgeous dappled look on the system’s front panel, while the buttons were done on a Form 2 SLA printer. With a mold made from the printed buttons, [Gman] was able to cast the final pieces using a variety of colors until he found a combination he was happy with.

If you’re not Team Sega and would rather hack up your own tiny versions of Nintendo’s hardware, look no further than this fully functional trimmed Wii built into an Altoids tin.