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Using LineageOS For Phones And DIY Smart TVs Is Pretty Nifty

October 6, 2026 by 27 Comments

Although Android is essentially just another Linux distribution, most people only experience it in the form of the rather restrictive and proprietary versions found on smartphones, tablets and smart TVs. While this is probably fine for the average person, there’s also a lot to be said for the more pure Android experience in the form of LineageOS.

With this fully open and community-supported version of Android you’re free to muck about with your hardware to your heart’s content, without annoyances like unremovable bloatware apps and restrictions on e.g. enabling developer mode.

Even more fun is that there are ports of LineageOS to systems such as the Raspberry Pi SBC, including in the Android TV configuration. This means that not only can your ten year old Android phone get a make-over with a recent version of Android, you can also create your own Android TV-based smart TV without all the spying and other nasty things that commercial smart TVs love to do.

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How A British Engineer Homebrewed The Quietest Carbine

October 5, 2026 by 31 Comments

Hollywood has a lot to answer for when it comes to “silencers” on firearms. On screen, a suppressed pistol makes a pinging thud, and the bad guy in the next room flops to the floor. Real life is rather less cinematic. A suppressor takes the edge off the report, but it’s by no means quiet or silent. Hence why the term “silencer” is more of a colloquialism, and why “suppressor” is more appropriate.

Every so often, though, someone gets remarkably close to the movie version. The best-known example is probably the De Lisle carbine. A British commando weapon from the Second World War, it was cobbled together from bits and pieces and ended up being a stellar performer in the world of clandestine operations.

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The FPGA Chronicles: Open Source It

October 5, 2026 by 12 Comments

Last time, we looked at getting started with the GOWIN tools and a Tang Nano 20K FPGA. The software from GOWIN isn’t bad, but it isn’t open source, and there are a few oddities about it. In addition, simulation is through a third-party simulation package that has undergone some changes since an acquisition. There are tons of free simulation programs that are extremely good, and there is an open-source toolchain for the FPGA.

You could go grab everything you need piece by piece. But you don’t have to. There are several efforts to produce a toolchain from all the different pieces. We’re going to look at APIO.

APIO

APIO isn’t so much an FPGA toolchain project as it is an aggregator of toolchain projects. It reminded us of PlatformIO, and notes that it was inspired by it. It updates the tools you need, includes its own libraries, and gives you a common workflow across the FPGAs it supports.

You can download it for the command line, but you can also install it as a Visual Studio Code extension, which is what I did. You have to create a simple file that describes your project, and that’s about it.

Install Problems

Since APIO has its own libraries, it is possible that you will find some conflicts with your system libraries. In my case, the libreadline.so.8 file (in ~/.apio/bin/_internal) was causing problems that prevented anything from working. I simply renamed it out of the way, or you can just delete it. That took care of the problem.

Keep in mind that APIO just orchestrates a bunch of other tools like Yosys and GTKWave. Even if you have your own versions, APIO expects to use its private copies. For example, GTKWave on my system is a different version than the APIO copy, and if I try to read wave files without using APIO, I get error messages. You can, however, open a shell from the Tools/Misc menu of the APIO panel in Visual Studio Code.

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Hackaday Links: October 3, 2026

October 4, 2026 by 6 Comments

If you’re interested in aerospace, there’s an excellent chance you’ve heard the rumor that NASA is trying to get its SR-71 flying again. Or at the very least, they are interested in what exactly it would take to bring the iconic Mach 3+ spy plane back online.

The story started a couple of weeks ago when NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the agency would be reinvesting in their famed “X-Plane” experimental aircraft program in an effort to get “back in the business of flying high and fast again.” Not long after, keen-eyed observers noted that the SR-71 that had been sitting on the tarmac at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California had been moved to an unknown location. Several individuals who worked on the plane while it was operational have since claimed NASA representatives contacted them about potentially refurbishing it.

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Hackaday Podcast Episode 389: Spinning Lightfield Displays, And Jenny Visits A Blast Furnace

October 2, 2026 by 1 Comment

Another all-European podcast for you this week, as Elliot Williams is joined by Jenny List for an evening looking at the past week in Hackaday. And this week there is a particularly good selection to look at.

A while back we showed you a project that put synthetic aperture radar on a drone, generating extremely detailed imaging of the terrain beneath it. This week we had an update, in which an ingenious positioning accuracy fix gave it an astonishing increase in resolution. On top of that project we have 3D lightfield image display with the unexpected help of a Nipkow mechanical TV scanning drum. Geting your own microprocessor manufactured, DOOM in a database server, and a comprehensive array of unusual sensors in a tricorder project complete the picture.

Finally we have a couple of space stories and Jenny describing the preserved industrial delights of the Ruhr valley in Germany. You’ll want to go there, but first you’ll want to listen to the podcast.

Download it yourself in MP3. It’s wafer thin.

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Roman Telescope Saves Fuel, Doubles Mission

September 30, 2026 by 18 Comments

Contemplate the events that might end a space mission, and you might picture something dramatic: detonation on the pad, a dead guidance system, or micrometeoroids shattering delicate solar panels. More often, though, the ending is far more mundane. Plenty of perfectly healthy spacecraft have been retired simply because the fuel tanks ran dry. That’s why mission planners guard every kilogram of go juice so jealously, and why careful preparation in a mission is critical to long-term success.

Which brings us to NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Barely two weeks after its August 30 launch on a Falcon Heavy, the mission team announced that Roman now has enough fuel for at least 22 years of science operations. That’s well over double its original 10-year fuel budget. It’s a huge gain, so let’s explore how NASA pulled it off.

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Geothermal Cooling For New York’s Subways

September 29, 2026 by 26 Comments

You might think that if you dug some tunnels down into the ground where you could be out of the sunshine, that you might find them to be relatively cool and comfortable inside. Yet, fill those tunnels with trains and supporting equipment and millions of commuters, and you’ll instead find yourself sweltering in the heat.

New York’s subways are too hot for comfort, and have been for some time. Unfortunately, unlike any old regular building, you can’t just air condition a subway and call it done. Instead, authorities are looking for other solutions to beat the heat on the famous underground transit network.

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