Author Archives: Kerry Scharfglass

A Close Eye on Power Exposes Private Keys

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Hardware wallets are devices used exclusively to store the highly sensitive cryptographic information that authenticates cryptocurrency transactions. They are useful if one is worried about the compromise of a general purpose computer leading to the loss of such secrets (and thus loss of the funds the secrets identify). The idea is to move the critical data away from a more vulnerable network-connected machine and onto a device without a network connection that is unable to run other software. When designing a security focused hardware devices like hardware wallets it’s important to consider what threats need to be protected against. More …read more

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An Electromagnet Brings Harmony to this Waving Cat

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We’ve noticed waving cats in restaurants and stores for years, but even the happy bobbing of their arm didn’t really catch our attention. Maybe [Josh] had seen a couple more than we have when it occurred to him to take one apart to see how they work. They are designed to run indoors from unreliable light sources and seem to bob along forever. How do the ubiquitous maneki-neko get endless mechanical motion from one tiny solar cell?

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the prevalence and cost of these devices, the answer is quite simple. The key interaction is between a permanent magnet …read more

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Retro Rebuild Recreates SGI Workstation Demos On The Go

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When [Lawrence] showed us the Alice4 after Maker Faire Bay Area last weekend it wasn’t apparent how special the system was. The case is clean and white, adorned only with a big red button below a 7″ screen with a power switch around the back. When the switch is flicked the system boots to display a familiar animation and drops you at a menu. Poking around from here elicits a variety of self-contained graphics demos, some interactive. So this is a Raspberry Pi in a box playing videos, right? Not even close.

Often retro computing focuses on personal computer systems. …read more

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Open Source Calculator Teaches us about Quality Documentation

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Graphing calculators are one of those funny markets that never seem to change. Standardized testing has created a primordial stew of regulatory capture in which ancient technology thrives at modern retail prices while changing little. The NumWorks calculator certainly isn’t the first competitor to challenge the Texas Instruments dynasty with a more modern interface (and a design from this decade), but behind it’s subtle color pops and elegant lines lies the real gem; a fantastically well documented piece of open source hardware. The last time we wrote about the NumWorks, it was to demonstrate a pretty wild hack that embedded …read more

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Superb Wood Floor Inlay Shows Off Computer-Augmented Tools

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It’s been a few years since we first started hearing about “tools of the future changing the way we work” but this astounding whole-room floor inlay might be the best argument for them yet.

A couple of years ago we wrote a hands-on preview of a unique tool called the Shaper Origin. If a milling machine is classically defined as having a stationary tool head with moving stock, the Origin is the reverse. To use an Origin the user adheres specially marked tape to the stock material, then holds the origin down and moves it much like a hand router. …read more

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Circuit-Sword Delivers Retro Justice

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You can’t search for “retro gaming” without hitting a plethora of single board computers attached to all manner of controls, batteries, etc. Often these projects have an emphasis on functionality above all else but [Kite]’s Circuit-Sword is different. The Circuit-Sword is the heart of a RaspberryPi-based retro gaming machine with an enviable level of fit and finish.

Fundamentally the Circuit-Sword is a single board computer built around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3. We don’t see many projects which use a Compute Module instead of the full Pi, but here it is a perfect choice allowing [Kite] to useful peripherals …read more

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Color Spaces: The Model at the End of the Rainbow

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When I learned about colors in grade school everything started with red, yellow, and blue and getting fancier colors was easy. I mixed some blue into my yellow to get green, or into red to get purple, and so on. After painting enough terrifying “art” for my parents, this made intuitive sense. That is until my mind was blown by the revelation that this wasn’t always true! 

To make the same colors with light instead of paint I had to use red, green, and blue, not yellow. It was until much later when trying harness banks of RGB LEDs that …read more

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An LED Effect for Every Occasion

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Quality software development examples can be hard to come by. Sure, it’s easy to pop over to Google and find a <code> block with all the right keywords, but having everything correctly explained can be hit or miss. And the more niche the subject, the thinner the forum posts get. Bucking the downward trend [HansLuijten] provides an astoundingly thorough set of LED strip patterns in his comprehensive post titled Arduino LED strip effects.

Don’t let the unassuming title lead you astray from the content, because what’s on offer goes beyond your average beginner tutorial on how to setup a strand …read more

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The End of the Candy Rainbow

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About a decade ago [Windell Oskay] and [Lenore Edman] spun out of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories to work on CandyFab, an inexpensive 3D printer using sugar as its medium. Wondering what happened to CandyFab? It’s been nearly that long since we last wrote about their work and Maker technology has moved on. 3D printers run the gamut from very inexpensive to production ready. The CandyFab project and nascent company is now shuttered, but there is a epilogue with some interesting lessons.

First of all, the saga of the CandyFab series of printers (above on the same page) is worth a …read more

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Lockheed Shares Satellite Connectivity Options

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In an unusual turn of events, Lockheed Martin has released technical “payload accommodation information” for three of their satellite busses. In layperson’s terms, if you wanted to build a satellite and weren’t sure what guidelines to follow these documents may help you learn if Lockheed Martin has a platform to help you build it.

An opportunity to check out once-confidential information about satellites sounds like a perfect excuse to dig through some juicy documentation, though unfortunately this may not be the bonanza of technical tidbits the Hackaday reader is looking for. Past the slick diagrams of typical satellites in rocket …read more

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