Quick Hacks: Countersinking Screw Heads With 3D Laser Engraving

April 11, 2022 by Dave Rowntree 19 Comments

Here’s a fun quick hack from [Timo Birnschein] about using the 3D laser engraving (or ‘stamp’ engraving) mode of certain laser cutter toolchains to create a handy countersink shape in a laser-cut and engraved workpiece. Since [Timo] uses a small laser cutter to cut out and mark project boards for their electronics builds, having an extra messy, manual countersinking operation with subsequent clean-up seemed like a waste of time and effort, if the cutter could be persuaded to do it for them.

Designs are prepared in Inkscape, with an additional ‘3D engraving’ layer holding the extra processing step. [Timo] used the Inkscape feathering tools to create a circular grayscale gradient, leading up to the central cut hole (cuts are in a separate layer) which was then fed into Visicut in order to drive the GRBL-based machine, However, you could do it with practically any toolchain that supports laser power control during a rastering operation. The results look perfectly fine for regions of the workpiece not on show, at least, but if you’re only interested in the idea from a functional point of view, then we reckon this is another great trick for the big bag of laser hacks.

There have been a great number of laser cutting hacks here over the years, since these tools are so darn useful. The snapmaker machine can be a 3D printer, a CNC cutter and a laser cutter all in one, albeit not too perfect at any of those tasks, but the idea is nice. If you own a perfectly fine 3D printer, but fancy a spot of laser engraving (and you have good eye protection!), then you could just strap a 5W blue diode laser to it and get your fix.

A Pi Pico connected to a MYIR Z-turn board with a set of jumper wires

Need A JTAG Adapter? Use Your Pico!

April 11, 2022 by Arya Voronova 9 Comments

JTAG is a powerful interface for low-level debugging and introspection of all kinds of devices — CPUs, FPGAs, MCUs and a whole lot of complex purpose-built chips like RF front-ends. JTAG adapters can be quite obscure, or cost a pretty penny, which is why we’re glad to see that [Adam Taylor] from [ADIUVO] made a tutorial on using your Pi Pico board as a JTAG adapter. This relies on a project called XVC-Pico by [Dhiru Kholia], and doesn’t require anything other than a Pi Pico board itself — the XVC-Pico provides both a RP2040 firmware implementing the XVC (Xilinx Virtual Cable) specification and a daemon that connects to the Pico board and interfaces to tools like Vivado.

First part of the write-up is dedicated to compiling the Pico firmware using a Linux VM. There’s a pre-built .uf2 binary available in the GitHub repo, however, so you don’t have to do that. Then, he compiles and runs a daemon on the PC where the Pico is connected, connects to that daemon through Vivado, and shows successful single-stepping through code on a MYIR Z-turn board with a Xilinx XC7Z020. It’s worth remembering that, if your FPGA’s (or any other target’s) JTAG logic levels are 1.8V or 2.5V-based, you will need a level shifter between it and the Pi Pico, which is a board firmly in the 3.3V realm.

You just cannot beat the $3 price and the ease of setup. Pi Pico is shaping up to be more and more of a hardware multi-tool. Just a month ago, we covered how the Pico can work as a logic analyzer. A lot of that, we have the PIO peripherals to thank for — an assembly of state machines that even let you “bitbang” high-speed interfaces like DVI. If you’re interested in how PIO functions, there are some good write-ups around here. Lacking a Pi Pico, you can use this board’s bigger sister to interface with JTAG, too.

The shredder after being rebuilt, on the bench top, with the washing machine pulley driving it spinning. It has not yet been fed, but that's about to happen.

Shredder Rebuilt From The Ashes, Aims To Produce More Ashes

April 8, 2022 by Arya Voronova 16 Comments

What do you do when you buy a broken shredder and, upon disassembly, find its gears in pieces? You might reach towards your 3D printer – this one’s not that kind of shredder, however. [New Yorkshire Workshop] gives us a master class on reviving equipment and putting it to good use – this one’s assigned to help turn their cardboard stores into briquettes for their wood burner.

But first, of course, it had to be fixed – and fixed it was, the crucial parts re-designed and re-built around a sturdy wooden frame. It was made into a machine built to last; an effort not unlikely to have been fueled with frustration after seeing just how easily the stock gears disintegrated. The stock gear-based transmission was replaced with a sprocket and chain mechanism, the motor was wired through a speed controller, and a washing machine pulley was used to transfer power from the motor to the freshly cleaned and re-oiled shredder mechanism itself. This shredder lost its shell along the way, just like a crab does as it expands – and this machine grew in size enough to become a sizeable benchtop appliance.

After cutting loads of cardboard into shredder-fitting pieces, they show us the end result – unparalleled cardboard shredding power, producing bags upon bags of thinly sliced cardboard ready to be turned into fuel, making the workshop a bit warmer to work in. The video flows well and is a sight to see – it’s a pleasure to observe someone who knows their way around the shop like folks over at [New Yorkshire Workshop] do, and you get a lot of insights into the process and all the little tricks that they have up their sleeves.

The endgoal is not reached – yet. The shredder’s output is not quite suitable for their briquette press, a whole project by itself, and we are sure to see the continuation of this story in their next videos – a hydraulic briquette press was suggested as one of the possible ways to move from here, and their last video works on exactly that. Nevertheless, this one’s a beast of a shredder. After seeing this one, if you suddenly have a hunger for powerful shredders, check this 3D printed one out.

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Solder Pot From The Kitchen

April 5, 2022 by Al Williams 15 Comments

We aren’t shy of dangerous projects, but, then again, a large cooking pan full of lead solder might be a bit much, even for us. It goes without saying that you should be extremely careful and you won’t want to use any of the cookware again for any other purpose. You can see the build in the video below.

On the one hand, it isn’t hard to make a solder pot. All you need is a container that won’t melt and a heat source. But it seems like molten metal should be in something a little harder to tip over. The real story here is the technique for using the solder pot as the build is dead simple: a cheap hot plate and an iron skillet are all it takes.

Why do you want a solder pot? They are useful. As [Coalpeck] shows, you can use them to dip solder a through hole PCB easily enough. They are great, too, if you want to tin a lot of wires. They also can do a great job of removing parts from a board or a connector. Check out the old, but good video of a commercial unit removing a PCB connector after the main video.

We thought the temperature measurement technique of letting newspaper turn brown was interesting. Granted, a commercial solder pot big enough to be useful isn’t cheap. You can, though, get smaller pots (50-80 mm) for under $50. These will usually have a tray to catch spills and will be harder to tip over by accident. Not that you won’t want to be careful, though. If you do attempt this, we suggest you use a pan with no handle and set it in an outer pan to catch any overflow. But if you spill a few pounds of molten solder on your workbench, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

We’ve covered several homebrew solder pots over the years but, mysteriously, all the original websites are gone. We hope they are OK. We did look at a host of desoldering techniques that include the solder pot. Or ditch the pot of hot lead and try one of [Bil Herd]’s methods.

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Confessions Of A Crimpoholic

April 4, 2022 by Dan Maloney 80 Comments

Hi, my name is Dan and I’m a crimpoholic.

Honestly, I didn’t know I was a serial abuser of crimping tools until this weekend. I’ve been working on a small solar power system, and on Saturday I found myself struggling to get the BMS installed on the battery. I bought a Bluetooth dongle to connect the BMS to a smartphone app for checking the individual cells of the battery. I assumed it would just plug right into the UART port on the BMS, but alas — different connectors. So off I went to my bench, looking for a sensible way to make the connection.

My first thought was to simply log the connector off the dongle and solder the leads to the traces on the PCB right below the UART port. But then I saw that the pins in the port looked like 0.1″ pitch, so I rummaged through my stash to see what I could find. To my surprise, I had not only a kit of 0.1″ female crimps and housings, but I also had the crimping tool for them! I had no memory of making the purchase, but I thanked my lucky stars that I did, and got on with the job.

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SAMD11 Provides Two Serial Ports For Price Of One

April 4, 2022 by Tom Nardi 22 Comments

While the average computer user likely hasn’t given much thought to the lowly serial port in decades, the same can’t be said for the hardware hacker. Cheap serial-to-USB adapters are invaluable for snooping debug ports or programming chips, and if you ask us, you can never have too many laying around the bench. [Quentin Bolsée] loves them so much that he’s even figured out how to build a dual-port adapter with a SAMD11C14 microcontroller.

As [Quentin] explains in the write-up, this isn’t just some kind of Y-cable. When connected to the host computer, the adapter shows up as two distinct serial ports, each with independent settings for things like baud rate and parity. This handy little gadget will let you tap into the serial ports of two devices simultaneously if you’re looking to do some Hollywood-style hacking, but more practically, it allows you to establish a debug and programming interface to the same board using just one USB connection.

[Quentin] milled a custom PCB for his adapter, which we have to say looks phenomenal, but those with more limited equipment at home should be able to send the MIT licensed board files off for production. He’s also provided the source code for the SAMD11C14’s firmware, so you’ve got everything you need to spin up your own version of this neat tool.

Two ports not enough for your parallel hacking needs? Believe it or not, we’ve also seen a quad USB-to-serial adapter that you can put together, though it’s a considerably more complex circuit.

The BluePill board used for this hack, wired to the DYMO RFID reader, after all the wires for this hack have been soldered onto the BluePill board.

#FreeDMO Gets Rid Of DYMO Label Printer DRM

March 30, 2022 by Arya Voronova 49 Comments

DYMO 550 series printer marketing blurb says “The DYMO® LabelWriter® 550 Turbo label printer comes with unique Automatic Label Recognition™”, which, once translated from marketing-ese, means “this printer has DRM in its goshdarn thermal stickers”. Yes, DRM in the stickers that you typically buy in generic rolls. [FREEPDK] didn’t like that, either, and documents a #FreeDMO device to rid us of yet another consumer freedom limitation, the true hacker way.

The generic BluePill board and two resistors are all you need, and a few extra cables make the install clean and reversible – you could definitely solder to the DYMO printer’s PCBs if you needed, too. Essentially, you intercept the RFID reader connections, where the BluePill acts as an I2C peripheral and a controller at the same time, forwarding the data from an RFID reader and modifying it – but it can also absolutely emulate a predetermined label and skip the reader altogether. If you can benefit from this project’s discoveries, you should also take a bit of your time and, with help of your Android NFC-enabled phone, share your cartridge data in a separate repository to make thwarting future DRM improvements easier for all of us. Continue reading “#FreeDMO Gets Rid Of DYMO Label Printer DRM” →