Exploring The World Of Nintendo 3DS Homebrew

April 28, 2021 by Tom Nardi 20 Comments

When Nintendo officially ended production of the 3DS in September 2020, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. For one thing, some variation of the handheld system had been on the market since 2011. Which is not to say the product line had become stagnant: the system received a considerable mid-generation refresh, and there was even a more affordable variant introduced that dropped the eponymous stereoscopic 3D effect, but nearly a decade is still a fairly long life in the gaming industry. Of course Nintendo’s focus on the Switch, a hybrid device that blurs the line between console and handheld games, undoubtedly played a part in the decision to retire what could effectively be seen as a competing product.

While putting the 3DS out to pasture might have been the logical business move, a quick check on eBay seems to tell a different story. Whether it’s COVID keeping people indoors and increasing the demand for at-home entertainment, or the incredible library of classic and modern games the system has access to, the fact is that a used 3DS in good condition is worth more today than it was when it was brand new on the shelf this time last year.

I’ve certainly made more expensive mistakes.

In short, this was the worst possible time for me to decide that I finally wanted to buy a 3DS. Then one day I noticed the average price for a Japanese model was far lower than that of its American counterpart. I knew the hardware was identical, but could the firmware be changed?

An evening’s worth of research told me the swap was indeed possible, but inadvisable due to the difficulty and potential for unexpected behavior. Of course, that’s never stopped me before.

So after waiting the better part of a month for my mint condition 3DS to arrive from the land of the rising sun, I set out to explore the wide and wonderful world of Nintendo 3DS hacking.

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Gorgeous 6502 Celebrates Craftsmanship Of The Early Homebrewers

April 21, 2021 by Dan Maloney 36 Comments

The days when a computer had a front panel bristling with switches and LEDs are long gone, and on balance that’s probably for the better in terms of ease of use, raw power, and convenience. That’s not to say there aren’t those who long for the days of flipping switches to enter programs, of course, but it’s a somewhat limited market. So unless you can find an old IMSAI or Altair, chances are you’ll have to roll your own — and you could do a lot worse than this aluminum beauty of a 6502 machine.

The machine is named PERSEUS-8 by its creator, [Mitsuru Yamada]. It follows earlier machines bearing the PERSEUS badge, all of them completely homebrewed and equally gorgeous. The PERSEUS-8 would have been an impressive machine had it come along 45 years ago — the 2 MHz version of the 6502, a full 16-bit memory address space, and 16 kB of battery-backed RAM. But the mechanical and electrical construction methods and the care and craftsmanship taken are where this build really shines. The case is fabricated out of aluminum sheets and angles and looks like it could have come from a server rack. The front panel is to die for — [Mitsuru] carefully brushed the aluminum before drilling the dozens of holes needed for the toggle switches and LEDs. And the insides are equally lovely — socketed chips neatly arranged on perfboard with everything wired up using period-correct wirewrap methods. Even the labels, both on the front panel and even on the motherboard, are a joy to behold.

Builds like this are the ones that really inspire us to take the extra steps needed to make our projects not only work, but also to be beautiful. We’ve seen this kind of craftsmanship from [Mitsuru] before — recall this serial terminal that never was, or the machine that came before the PERSEUS-8.

DIY I2C Tester

March 23, 2021 by Chris Lott 26 Comments

[Dilshan] built a dedicated I2C tester which allows for I2C bus control over USB using simple commands such as init, read, write, etc. The Linux kernel has had I2C driver support for a couple of decades, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a computer or laptop with a I2C connector (excluding Bunnie Huang’s Novena hacker’s laptop, of course). This tester does require a Linux host, and his programs use libusb on the computer side and V-USB on the embedded side.

[Dilshan] put a lot of time into building this project, and it shows in the build quality and thorough documentation. With its single-sided PCB and all thru-hole construction, it makes a great beginner project for someone just getting into the hobby. At the heart of the tester is an ATmega16A in a 40-pin PDIP package (despite the Microchip overview page calling it a 44-pin chip), supported by a handful of resistors and transistors. Schematics are prepared in KiCad, code is compiled using gcc and avr-gcc, and he provides a label for the enclosure top. The only thing missing is information on the enclosure itself, but we suspect you can track that down with a little sleuthing (or asking [Dilshan] himself).

If you use I2C quite a lot, give this project a look. Easy to build, useful in the lab, and it looks nice as well. We have featured [Dilshan]’s work over the years, including this logic pattern generator and his two-transistor-on-a-breadboard superheterodyne receiver.

A Few Of My Favorite Things: Amateur Radio

January 21, 2021 by Jenny List 50 Comments

Hackaday has among its staff a significant number of writers who also hold amateur radio licenses. We’re hardware folks at heart, so we like our radios homebrew, and we’re never happier than when we’re working at high frequencies.

Amateur radio is a multi-faceted hobby, there’s just so much that’s incredibly interesting about it. It’s a shame then that as a community we sometimes get bogged down with negativity when debating the minutia. So today let’s talk about a few of my favourite things about the hobby of amateur radio. I hope that you’ll find them interesting and entertaining, and in turn share your own favorite things in the comments below.

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Full 8-Bit Computer On Breadboards

November 23, 2020 by Bryan Cockfield 13 Comments

Getting into a big electronics project often involves the use of specialized tools, namely the use of some sort of soldering iron or other way to apply solder to often intricate, tiny, and heat-sensitive parts. While it’s best to learn to pick up this skill at some point, it’s not always necessary, even for big, complicated projects like [DerULF1]’s full 8-bit computer that he built entirely on breadboards.

For a fully featured 8-bit computer, this build goes deep into the details of how the computer works. The clock allows programs to be stepped through one cycle at a time, and even the memory can be individually accessed with a set of switches. There are plenty of other interesting features as well, such as using registers to access extra memory. It features an SPI port and PS/2 keyboard controller and also loads programs from an SD card.

The build was inspired by some of [Ben Eater]’s projects which famously focus on using logic gates and TTL chips to perform complex tasks, such as another breadboard computer which plays snake on a small display. It’s certainly a great way to learn about the inner function of computers, and better still that no soldering is required. But you may need a few extra breadboards.

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ATMega328 SSB SDR For Ham Radio

May 27, 2020 by Danie Conradie 23 Comments

The humble ATmega328 microcontroller, usually packaged as an Arduino Uno, is the gateway drug for millions of people into the world of electronics and embedded programming. Some people just can’t pass up the challenge of seeing how far they can push the old workhorse, and it looks like [Guido PE1NNZ] is one of those. He has managed to implement a software-defined SSB ham radio transceiver for the HF bands on the ATMega328, and it looks like the project is going places.

The radio started life as a QRP Labs QCX, a $49 single-band CW (morse code) HF transceiver kit that is already one of the cheapest ways to get on the HF bands. [Guido] reduced the part count of the radio by about 50%, implementing much of the signal processing digitally on the ATmega328. On the transmitter side, the SSB signal is generated by making slight frequency changes to a Si5351 clock generator using 800kbit/s I2C, and controlling a very efficient class-E RF power amplifier with PWM for about 5W of output power. The increased efficiency means that there is no need for the bulky heat sink usually seen on SSB radios. The radio is continuously tunable from 80m to 10m (3.5 Mhz – 30 Mhz), but it does require plugging in a different low pass filters for each band. Continue reading “ATMega328 SSB SDR For Ham Radio” →

Breadboard Computer Plays Snake On Character Display; Also In A Browser!

April 26, 2020 by Sven Gregori 4 Comments

If building a homebrew computer on a breadboard is your thing, you’re most certainly familiar with [Ben Eater], whose design of using nothing but logic gates has served as inspiration for many replicas over the years. [visrealm] took the concept and expanded upon it, even adding a 16×2 LCD that let’s you play Snake by moving a single pixel on the character display!

Making the most of tiny resolution is impressive — it’s a difficult constraint for the game field. But there are other tricks at work as well. [visrealm] uses different intensities to distinguish between the snake and its food which is kind of a dark pixel in the demo shown after the break. But what stands out most is that the breadboard build is really only half of the story. In addition, [visrealm] built an entire emulator that resembles his actual breadboard design, which can be programmed and used via browser, giving WebAssembly a whole new meaning. While that’s convenient for anyone interested to play around with these breadboard computers, but lacks the patience to build one themselves, it also functions as the real one’s programming environment. In addition, an ESP8266 is used to load a new program directly via WiFi.

All the code and some build notes are available on GitHub, and if you’re looking for a nifty LCD emulator for your web site, there’s a standalone repository for that as well. But in case you need a better display option for your own breadboard computer, how about adding a VGA connector? And if you don’t build your own yet, it’s never too late to start.

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