Ask Hackaday: Why Make Modular Hardware?

April 27, 2021 by Adam Zeloof 33 Comments

In the movies, everything is modular. Some big gun fell off the spaceship when it crashed? Good thing you can just pick it up and fire it as-is (looking at you, Guardians of the Galaxy 2). Hyperdrive dead? No problem, because in the Star Wars universe you can just drop a new one in and be on your way.

Of course, things just aren’t that simple in the real world. Most systems, be they spaceships or cell phones, are enormously complicated and contain hundreds or thousands of interconnected parts. If the camera in my Samsung phone breaks, I can’t exactly steal the one from my girlfriend’s iPhone. They’re simply not interchangeable because the systems were designed differently. Even if we had the same phone and the cameras were interchangeable, they wouldn’t be easy to swap. We’d have to crack open the phones and carefully perform the switch. Speaking of switches, the Nintendo Switch is a good counterexample here. Joycon break? Just buy a new one and pop it on.

What if more products were like the Nintendo Switch? Is its modularity just the tip of the iceberg?

Continue reading “Ask Hackaday: Why Make Modular Hardware?” →

Paper Pi Is An Ergonomic Cyberdeck Meant For Thumbs

April 27, 2021 by Kristina Panos 7 Comments

What’s the fastest way to master console stuff like screen or emacs? Force yourself to use it exclusively, of course. But maybe you’d be tempted to cheat with a desktop. We know we would be. In that case, you ought to build a console-only cyberdeck like this sweet little thing by [a8skh4].

This cyberdeck serves another purpose as well — the keyboard layout is Miryoku, so [a8ksh4] can get more practice with that at the same time. Fortunately, the layout is built for emacs.

Inside is a Raspberry Pi 4 and what looks to be an Arduino handling the keyboard input. The Paper Pi spotlights a 4.2″ e-ink screen between a split thumb keyboard that’s made of soft, silent, tactile switches.

Since they’re SMD, [a8ksh4] made clever use of header pins to get them to work with protoboard. As much as we love the keyboard, it would be awesome to see a few switches on the shoulders or even the back that make use of the rest of the fingers. Check out more build pictures in the gallery.

We love to see cyberdecks with split keyboards, because you shouldn’t have to sacrifice ergonomics in a portable computer. Here’s one that comes in three pieces, making it easy to get the spacing between the halves just right.

Via r/cyberdeck

Keep In Touch With Grandma, With This Lo-Tech Interface

April 25, 2021 by Jenny List 17 Comments

We have so many options through which to communicate with our friends and relatives during the lockdown, thanks to our smartphones and the number of apps that serve all possible needs. Impressive as they are though, a smartphone is not suitable for everyone. In particular older people can find them less easy to use, and the consequent loss of communication ability is addressed by [Manu] with the Yayagram, described in a thread of Spanish-language Tweets and later the thread was translated into English.

On the top of the box is a microphone with push-to-talk switch, a small thermal printer, and a set of 1/4″ jack sockets with associated jump lead. Each socket corresponds to a relative, and an audio message to that relative can be posted via Telegram simply by speaking into the microphone with the button pressed. Replies are then printed through the thermal printer. Meanwhile behind the scenes is a Raspberry Pi holding it all together.

We like the simplicity of the interface, and who wouldn’t want to ensure that their older relatives were able to keep in touch! But while the jump lead is a neat touch, we hope it’s not too difficult for extremely frail hands. It’s certainly not the first accessibility project for older people that we’ve seen.

Pi-Based Spectrometer Puts The Complexity In The Software

April 23, 2021 by Dan Maloney 43 Comments

Play around with optics long enough and sooner or later you’re probably going to want a spectrometer. Optical instruments are famously expensive, though, at least for high-quality units. But a useful spectrometer, like this DIY Raspberry Pi-based instrument, doesn’t necessarily have to break the bank.

This one comes to us by way of [Les Wright], whose homebrew laser builds we’ve been admiring for a while now. [Les] managed to keep the costs to a minimum here by keeping the optics super simple. The front end of the instrument is just a handheld diffraction-grating spectroscope, of the kind used in physics classrooms to demonstrate the spectral characteristics of different light sources. Turning it from a spectroscope to a spectrometer required a Raspberry Pi and a camera; mounted to a lens and positioned to see the spectrum created by the diffraction grating, the camera sends data to the Pi, where a Python program does the business of converting the spectrum to data. [Les]’s software is simple by complete, giving a graphical representation of the spectral data it sees. The video below shows the build process and what’s involved in calibrating the spectrometer, plus some of the more interesting spectra one can easily explore.

We appreciate the simplicity and the utility of this design, as well as its adaptability. Rather than using machined aluminum, the spectroscope holder and Pi cam bracket could easily be 3D-printer, and we could also see how the software could be adapted to use a PC and webcam.

Continue reading “Pi-Based Spectrometer Puts The Complexity In The Software” →

Visual Raspberry Pi With Node-Red And TensorFlow

April 22, 2021 by Al Williams 13 Comments

If you prefer to draw boxes instead of writing code, you may have tried IBM’s Node-RED to create logic with drag-and-drop flows. A recent [TensorFlow] video shows an interview between [Jason Mayes] and [Paul Van Eck] about using TensorFlow.js with Node-RED to create machine learning applications for Raspberry Pi visually. You can see the video, below.

The video doesn’t go into much detail since it is only ten minutes long. But it does show how easy it is to do things like identify images using an existing TensorFlow model. There is a more detailed tutorial available, as well as a corresponding video, which you can see below.

Continue reading “Visual Raspberry Pi With Node-Red And TensorFlow” →

PiStorm Brings Modern Muscle To The Amiga

April 19, 2021 by Lewin Day 40 Comments

The Amiga, well known as the best and greatest computer ever designed, is nonetheless a platform of yesteryear. Its 68K, and later PowerPC, architectures have both been abandoned by the mainstream, and its attractive grey industrial design no longer graces store shelves. That doesn’t mean the platform is dead however, with diehard shredders like [Claude Schwarz] working hard to keep it alive with projects like PiStorm.

PiStorm is a Motorola 68K CPU emulator, running on a Raspberry PI 3A. The Pi uses its GPIOs to interact with a CPLD chip, which acts as the logic glue to allow the modern single board computer to emulate the Amiga’s original processor. However, it’s more than just an easy way to replace or upgrade a CPU. It also offers additional features, like retargetable graphics acceleration, SCSI disk emulation, and the ability to run whatever Kickstart ROM you so desire.

While the initial work has been done on a Pi 3A, [Claude] has also demonstrated some of the basic functionality running on a Pi CM4 too. The benchmarks are more fierce than a Beyoncé Super Bowl half time show, so if you need grunt on your classic Amiga, this could be the way to go. As a bonus, files to build your own are readily available on Github, which should make it a mite more accessible than other Amiga accelerator boards.

We wonder whether this accelerator could be used to hook the Amiga up to Spotify, a la this previous build. Likely, time will tell. Video after the break.

Continue reading “PiStorm Brings Modern Muscle To The Amiga” →

Heavy Metal Cyberdeck Has An Eye Towards Expansion

April 15, 2021 by Tom Nardi 17 Comments

Whether we’re talking about Gibson’s Sprawl or our increasingly dystopian reality, one of the defining characteristics of a cyberdeck is that it can be easily customized and upgraded over time. While a few of the builds we’ve covered over the last couple of years have focused more on style than substance, we really appreciate the designs that embrace the concept of modularity to make sure the system can evolve to meet the changing demands of hacking on the go.

To that end, the M3TAL from [BlastoSupreme] is a perfect example of what a cyberdeck should be. Naturally it’s got the cyberpunk aesthetics we’ve come to expect, but more importantly, it’s designed so modifications and repairs are as quick and painless as possible. The trick is the use of a 2020 aluminum extrusion frame, which allows external panels and components to be attached anywhere along the length of the deck using T-Nuts. Similarly, by mounting internal components to “sleds” that ride between the pieces of extrusion, the electronics can easily be removed or swapped out as complete modules.

The M3TAL is currently outfitted with a Raspberry Pi 4 and a pair of 26650 batteries.

Furthering the idea of expandability, [BlastoSupreme] included an authentic 3.5 floppy drive on the M3TAL that allows him to pack an incredible 1.44 MB onto each rugged and portable disk. OK, so maybe the floppy drive isn’t terribly impressive compared to 2021 tech, but it does seem oddly appropriate for a cyberdeck. On the opposite side of the deck there’s a RetroCART slot, which cloaks modern USB devices in clunky faux cartridges. This provides a unified physical format for everything from removable storage to microcontrollers and software defined radio receivers.

Continue reading “Heavy Metal Cyberdeck Has An Eye Towards Expansion” →