An SAO For Hams

October 21, 2024 by Al Williams 18 Comments

Generally speaking, the Hackaday Supercon badge will always have a place for SAO (rebranded as “Supercon add-ons”), and that makes sense. We did originate them, after all. This year, though, we’ve gone all in on SAO, and, in particular, we’ve asked to see more SAOs with communication capabilities. The standard has always had an I2C bus, but few people use them. I decided I wanted to set an example and cook up a badge for Supercon. Was it hard? Yes and no. I’ll share with you a little about the board’s genesis and the issues I found. At the end, I’ll make you a special offer, if you are going to Supercon.

The Idea

The front of the SAOGNR — the SAO connector is, of course, on the back

I’ve been a ham radio operator for a very long time. In fact, July was my 47th anniversary in the radio hobby. Well, that’s not true. It was my 47th year with a license. I had been listening to shortwave long before then. So, I wanted to do something with Morse code. You don’t have to know Morse code to get a license these days, but a lot of hams enjoy it.

I set out to do a simple board that would play some Morse code messages. But that’s just another blinking light LED with a buzzer on it, too. So, naturally, I decided it would also provide Morse code output for the I2C host. That is, the SAO could be used to convert ASCII to Morse code. Sounds simple, right? Sure.

Getting Started

I wanted to use a Raspberry Pi Pico but didn’t want to violate the SAO size requirements. Luckily, there’s an RP2040-Zero module that is quite tiny and looks more or less like a normal Pico. The two big differences are plusses: they have a reset button, and instead of a normal LED, they have a WS2812b-style LED.

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Breaking News: 2024 Supercon SAO Contest Deadline Extended

October 15, 2024 by Elliot Williams 1 Comment

More than a couple folks have written us saying that their entries into the Supercon Add-On Contest got caught up in the Chinese fall holidays. Add to that our tendency to wait until the last minute, and there still more projects out there that we’d like to see. So we’re extending the deadline one more week, until October 22nd.

If you’re just tuning in now, well, you’ve got some catching up to do. Supercon Add-Ons are another step forward in the tradition of renaming the original SAO. One of our favorite resources on the subject comes from prolific SAO designer [Twinkle Twinkie], and you can even download PCB footprints over there on Hackaday.io.

Don’t know why you want to make an SAO? Even if you’re not coming to Supercon this year? Well, our own [Tom Nardi] describes it as a low barrier to entry, full-stack hardware design and production tutorial. Plus, you’ll have something to trade with like-minded hardware nerds at the next con you attend.

We’ve already seen some killer artistic entries, but we want to see yours! We know the time’s tight, but you can still get in a last minute board run if you get started today. And those of you who are sitting at home waiting for boards to arrive, wipe that sweat from your brow. We’ll catch up with you next Tuesday!

2024 Hackaday Superconference Speakers, Round Two

September 25, 2024 by Elliot Williams 1 Comment

It’s honestly amazing the range of fascinating talks we have lined up for this year’s Supercon. From art robots that burp and belch to gliders returning from near-space, from hardcore DSP to DIY PCBs, and sketching with machines, Hackaday’s Supercon is like nothing else out there.

And in case you’re already coming, you don’t have a talk slot reserved, but you’ve still got something that you want to say, please sign yourself up for a Lightning Talk! In the spirit of the Lightning, we’ll be taking submissions up to the absolute last minute, and we will fit in as many short talks as possible, but when it does fill up, we’ll be giving priority to those who got in first.

We’ve got one more speaker announce coming up, and of course our keynote speaker and the badge reveal. Supercon will sell out so get your tickets now before it’s too late. So without further ado, here is our next round of stellar speakers!

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2024 Hackaday Supercon Workshop Tickets Go On Sale Now

September 24, 2024 by Elliot Williams 8 Comments

Our workshop ticket sales go live today at 8 AM PDT! If you’re coming to Supercon, and you’re interested, go get your workshop ticket before they all sell out!

There will be a change to this year’s workshop ticket limits. We heard our community’s feedback, and in the spirit of giving as many people as possible the opportunity to enjoy a workshop, we are limiting sign up to one workshop per attendee. If there are extra tickets by October 18th, we will allow folks to sign up for additional workshops.

If you register for more than one workshop we will refund you the ticket for the others based on the timestamp that you registered for each ticket (leaving only the ticket for the first workshop you registered for). We hope everyone understands our goal is to allow more people to experience a Supercon workshop due to limited space.

And of course, you can’t join in the workshops at Supercon without coming to Supercon. So get your tickets now if you haven’t already.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more speaker announcements!

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Supercon 2023: Reverse Engineering Commercial Coffee Machines

June 12, 2024 by Jenny List 15 Comments

There was a time when a coffee vending machine was a relatively straightforward affair, with a basic microcontroller doing not much more than the mechanical sequencer it replaced. A modern machine by contrast has 21st century computing power, with touch screens, a full-fat operating system, and a touch screen interface. At Hackaday Supercon 2023, [Kuba Tyszko] shared his adventures in the world of coffee, after reverse engineering a couple of high-end dispensing machines. Sadly he doesn’t reveal the manufacturer, but we’re sure readers will be able to fill in the gaps.

Under the hood is a PC running a Linux distro from a CF card. Surprisingly the distros in question were Slax and Lubuntu, and could quite easily be investigated. The coffee machine software was a Java app, which seems to us strangely appropriate, and it communicated to the coffee machine hardware via a serial port. It’s a tale of relatively straightforward PC reverse engineering, during which he found that the machine isn’t a coffee spy as its only communication with its mothership is an XML status report.

In a way what seems almost surprising is how relatively straightforward and ordinary this machine is. We’re used to quirky embedded platforms with everything far more locked down than this. Meanwhile if hacking vending machines is your thing, you can find a few previous stories on the topic.

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2024 Hackaday Europe Call For Participation Extended

February 22, 2024 by Elliot Williams 4 Comments

Good news, procrastineers! A few folks asked us for a little more time to get their proposals together for our upcoming 2024 Hackaday Europe event in Berlin, and we’re listening. So now you’ve got an extra week – get your proposals for talks or workshops in before February 29th.

[Joey Castillo]’s awesome custom touchpad

Hackaday Europe is a two-day event taking place April 13th and 14th in Berlin, Germany. Saturday the 13th is the big day, with a full day of badge hacking, talks, music, and everything else. We’ve got the place booked until 2 AM, so get your sleep the night before. Sunday is a half-day of brunch, lightning talks, and showing off the badge hacks from the day before. And if you’re in town on Friday the 12th, we’ll be going out in the evening for drinks and dinner, location TBA but hopefully closer than where we ended up last year!

The badge is going to be a re-spin of the Supercon badge for all of you who couldn’t fly out to the US last November. There are no secrets anymore, so get your pre-hacks started now. We’ve seen some sweet all-analog hacks, some complete revisions of the entire firmware loadout, and, of course, all sorts of awesome hardware bodged onto it. Heck, we even saw Asteroids and DOOM. But we haven’t seen any native Jerobeam Fenderson-style oscilloscope music. You’ve got your homework.

What to Bring?

A few other people have asked if they could bring in (art) projects to show and share. Of course! Depending on the scale, though, you may need to contact us beforehand. If it’s larger than a tower PC, get in touch with us, and we’ll work it out. Smaller hacks, projects in progress, and anything you want to bring along to show and inspire others with, are, of course, welcome without any strings attached.

What else might you need? A computer of your choice and a micro USB cable for programming the badge. There will be soldering stations, random parts, and someone will probably be able to lend you nearly any other piece of gear, so you can pack light if you want to. But you don’t have to.

If you’d like to attend but you don’t have tickets yet – get them soon! Space is limited, and we tend to sell out. Or better yet, submit a talk and sneak in the side door. We’d love to hear what you’ve got going on, and we can’t wait to see you all.

Hackaday Europe 2024 Is On, And We Want You!

February 5, 2024 by Elliot Williams 21 Comments

Hackaday Europe is on again for 2024, and we couldn’t be more excited! If you’re a European hacker, and have always wanted to join us up for Supercon in the states, here’s your chance to do so without having to set sail across the oceans. It’s great to be able to get together with our continental crew.

Just like last time, we’ll be meeting up in Berlin at Motionlab, Bouchestrasse 12 for a weekend of talks and workshops. On paper, the event runs April 13th and 14th, but if you’re in town on Friday the 12th, we’ll be going out for drinks and socializing beforehand. Saturday starts up at 9 AM and is going to be full of presentations, with food throughout and our own mix of hacking and music running until 2 AM. Sunday starts up a little bit later with brunch and as many lightning talks as we can fit into the afternoon.

And as always, we want you to bring a project or two along to show and tell. Half the fun of an event like this, where everyone is on the same wavelength, is the mutual inspiration that lurks in nearly every random conversation. It’s like Hackaday, but in real life!

So without further ado: get your tickets right here! We have a limited number of early-bird tickets at $70, and then the remainder will go on sale for $142 (plus whatever fees).

Call for Participation

So who is going to be speaking at Hackaday Europe? You could be! We’re also opening up the Call for Participation right now, both for talks and for workshops. Whether you’ve presented your work live before or not, you’re not likely to find a more appreciative audience for epic hacks, creative constructions, or you own tales of hardware, firmware, or software derring-do.

Workshop space is limited, but if you want to teach a group of ten or so people your favorite techniques or build up a swarm of small robots, we’d love to hear from you.

All presenters get in free, of course, and we’ll give you an early-bird price even if we can’t fit you into the schedule. So firm up what you’d like to share, and get your proposal in before Feb 22.

The Badge

Part of the fun of an event like this is sharing what you’re working on with a rare like-minded crowd. True story: we came into last year’s Hackaday Berlin event with a raw idea for our own Superconference badge, that we needed to have done by November. Talks with [Schneider] about the lovely badge for the Chaos Communications Camp inspired us to use those sweet round screens, and a chat with [Stefan Holzapfel] convinced us of the possibility to run an audio DAC at DC.

So it’s fitting that we’ll be bringing the Vectorscope badge to Berlin, with some new graphics of course. If you didn’t catch it at Supercon, it’s a emulation of an old-timey X-Y mode oscilloscope and a DAC to drive it in software. Folks had a great time hacking it at Supercon, and you will too. It’s analog, it’s digital, and it’s got room for a lot of art. We’d love to see what you bring to it!

Thanks and See You Soon!

Of course, we can’t put on an event like this without help from our fantastic sponsors, so we’d like to say thanks to DigiKey for sponsoring not only the stateside Superconference, but also Hackaday Europe 2024. And as always, thanks to Supplyframe for making it all possible.

April is coming up fast, so get your proposals in and order your tickets now! We can’t wait to see you all.