Hackaday Links: May 24, 2026

May 24, 2026 by Tom Nardi 5 Comments

If your first-generation Chromecast was acting a little wonky this week, don’t worry. Contrary to fears online, the 2014 device hasn’t been excommunicated by Google. In a statement to Ars Technica, a rep for the search giant explained that the issue, which was keeping the devices from being able to stream video from services like Netflix, was temporary and should now be resolved. That said, the OG Chromecast hasn’t officially been supported since 2023, so it’s not clear how much longer they will remain operational. Google be Google, after all.

After resisting for years, this week, Mozilla finally relented and brought Web Serial to Firefox. While there’s been some debate about the wisdom of letting the Internet directly talk to hardware gadgets, anyone who’s flashed Meshtastic or configured their Betaflight-powered drone from the browser can attest to how convenient it is. In the announcement, Mozilla acknowledges that “most folks won’t use this API”, but points out that the “community of builders and tinkerers” (that’s us!) is sure to be excited about the news. They’ve even teamed up with Adafruit to ensure their web-based microcontroller workflows are compatible in Firefox 151 and beyond. If you give it a shot, let us know how it goes.

Speaking of hardware support, the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) recently picked up a couple of big-name sponsors. As reported by It’s FOSS, this week, Lenovo, Dell, and HP have signed on as Premier-level sponsors to the tune of $100,000 per year. For those unfamiliar, LVFS offers a central repository where hardware vendors can upload firmware updates. On the client side, fwupd can be used to pull these updates down automatically without having to hunt around on each vendor’s website. The experienced players don’t need a service like LVFS, but it’s certainly one of those quality-of-life improvements that make the desktop experience a bit more accessible.

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NoiseCloud: Storing Data On YouTube

May 24, 2026 by Zoe Skyforest 46 Comments

Storage is expensive these days, whether you’re looking at the prices of spinning rust or magic little sticks of silicon. But what if there was some benevolent overlord that you could trick into giving you unlimited storage? That’s where Noisecloud comes in.

Created by [Lucas], Noisecloud is a tool that lets you use YouTube as a form of effectively-unlimited file storage. It works by taking whatever file data you have on hand, and turns it into frames of digital noise that can be stored and transported as an MP4 file and uploaded to YouTube. The encoding process involves first compressing the data with gzip, then packaging it into a high-constrast series of video frames that are then encoded with FFmpeg. Video containers can be produced in various resolutions, all the way down to 640×360 @ 30 fps. There’s also a special “TikTok mode” which is optimised to best preserve data on short form sites that use vertical orientation as default. More commentary from the creator is available via the supporting article on Github.

It’s probably not a practical way to store your files, given the fussy encoding and decoding required to actually use the data. However, it’s an interesting proof of concept that explores how data can be stashed in unexpected places via publicly-accessible services. We’ve explored similar work before, too.

Adorable ASCII Aquarium Lives On Your Desk

May 24, 2026 by Donald Papp 24 Comments

[Kert Gartner]’s ASCII Aquarium turns a cheap yellow display (CYD) into a tiny simulated aquarium, complete with ASCII sea creatures each with their own behaviors. There’s all kinds of options and even timekeeping functionality, so the miniature water world can also pull its weight as a desk clock.

The fish and other animal movements are not a series of canned animations; each creature has its own behaviors and responses to things like feeding, which is accomplished by tapping on the screen. A hidden menu offers a wide range of configuration and display options, and there’s even an option to export screen contents as bitmaps.

Add a 3D-printed enclosure and the whole thing looks like a pretty nice weekend project. There’s even a display flip mode, just in case you have a spare 50 mm beamsplitter kicking around.

It’s a very clever use of a CYD that shows how good color and graphics can look when one designs with the hardware’s capabilities (and limitations) in mind.

The CYD is an ESP32-based development board with integrated touchscreen display, and is known for its affordable price and wide availability. This one would look great next to a CYD electric jellyfish.

Spacelab’s Mitra 125 MS

May 24, 2026 by Al Williams 4 Comments

[Ken Shirriff] does some of the most interesting teardowns. This time, he’s looking at a French-built minicomputer called the Mitra 125 MS from around 1980. In particular, it was the computer inside Spacelab, a European lab that could fit in the back of the Space Shuttle.

As you might expect, the computer doesn’t contain a microprocessor. Instead, it is a series of cards and, in this post, [Ken’s] looking at the ALU that allows the computer to perform math operations.

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Meet The Raven: An Atari Clone Computer Based On The Motorola 68060

May 24, 2026 by Maya Posch 9 Comments

Some people who have a hankering to run GEM/TOS applications might just fire up an emulator, or maybe coax an old Motorola 68k-based Atari ST system back to life. Then there are people like [Anders Granlund], for whom hard mode is a way of life and making a custom mainboard around a genuine 68060 CPU and associated peripherals is a reasonable approach to pick. Thus quoth the Raven project.

The project commenced in 2024, when [Anders] started a thread on it over at the Exxos Forum which thus became pretty much the project log for the endeavor.

Both RAM and ROM ICs are on SIMM sticks, which seems like a pretty nifty idea compared to the typical socketed or soldered-in approach here, allowing for up to 48 MB of RAM and 16 MB of ROM.

On the custom ATX-compatible mainboard you get a total of 4 ISA slots, as well as everything from YM2149 audio, IDE HDD and legacy Atari peripheral support. All of which fits in a standard ATX case with an ATX power supply. If this tickles your fancy, you can find the design files for the current A1 board revision, though you will have to source your own ICs.

With all of it assembled you can run Atari’s TOS with its GEM UI, or the modern equivalent in the form of FreeMiNT.

Designing A Printable Cyclone Dust Separator For 99.95% Efficiency

May 24, 2026 by Maya Posch 12 Comments

Filtering sawdust out of an airflow is easy until you try to do it with cyclone separation, but the obvious appeal here is of course not spending a fortune on filters. Over the years we have thus seen a lot of DIY takes on this concept alongside commercial offerings. Recently [Ruud] of the [Capturing Dust] YouTube channel gave it a fresh shake with a claimed 99.95% filtering efficiency that outperforms a commercial solution.

As a starting point the commercial and very succinctly named Oneida Air Super Dust Deputy Cyclone Separator was used, which retails for about $179 and claims a 99.9% filtrating rate of fine dust and debris. Based on its design a 3D model was created and printed with an FDM printer.

Initially only about a 98% rate was measured, but after some investigation this appeared to be due to the incoming and exciting airflows interfering. One tweak later to add some separation between the flows and a lot of testing of different configurations a final design was settled on that would seem to be rather quite efficient compared to the commercial option.

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Putting Version 7.1 Of The Direct Granules FDM Extruder Through Its Paces

May 23, 2026 by Maya Posch 11 Comments

Whether you’re using granules or filament, FDM printing relies heavily on a consistent flowrate of the extruder. This is also the challenge with [HomoFaciens]’s direct granule extruder. Version 7.1 here refines some parameters before being put through a number of printing tests to see how close it comes to something you’d want to use for production.

There’s also an accompanying blog post, on which the project files can be found for those who are playing along at home.

A big part of this V7.1 change was to simplify the design for manufacturing, removing the brass insert of V7.0, instead requiring some manual labor using a drill bit and a hand reamer to get the inside of the extruder tube just right.

The section with the heating element was also extended, though this didn’t have as much of an effect as expected. During testing the overall results were actually pretty good, with the extruder able to keep up with bridging tests while the feared air bubbles from air intruding into the tube remained absent.

On the Prusa Mk4 FDM printer, there are some definite limitations on testing features like input shaping resulting in wavy patterns in some rest prints, but for upcoming tests a different FDM printer will be used which should more clearly show the potential of this extruder design.

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