Open Hardware/Modding: Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and More
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Restoring a 19th-century telephone with Raspberry Pi
The rotary dial performs its original function, and the original wires are now connected directly to the Raspberry Pi GPIO. Mark is a genius and wrote code that converts the pulses made by turning the dial into digits that the phone SIM card mounted on the GSM HAT can recognise.
As if this weren’t enough cleverness for one project, Mark also added speed-dial functionality and caller ID. If the code recognises a telephone number it has dialled before, it speaks the person’s name through the speaker while the phone is ringing.
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Battery Eliminator Bible: what's in that classic console AC adapter
This is hardly exhaustive, but I promised a list of amperage, voltage and polarity for the wallwarts with my classic game consoles here. I've included both the AC adapter's nominal rating and measured voltage with no load to give you an idea of tolerances, keeping in mind that electronics do age. However, please note that using this list is completely at your own risk: I take no responsibility for frying your machine if you wire it wrong or I measured it wrong. If the machine is highly valuable and it takes batteries, maybe you should just use batteries instead of taking a (small) chance on my competency.
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Meet your new GPS system: Starlink
At no time did the team attempt to break the encryption used by Starlink, instead they were interested in the various synchronisation sequences – predictable repeating signals that assisted with the coordination between satellite and ground receiver.
Each sequence also contains information related to the satellite’s distance and velocity. Humphreys and his team found that the Starlink satellites transmitting approximately four sequences every millisecond “that’s just wonderful for dual use of their system for positioning,” Humphreys opined.
Based on current analysis, the team estimates that they can achieve ground precision of around 30m, but if they could get the Starlink team to cooperate and add data related to each satellite’s position in the synchronisation stream, they could refine the accuracy to less than 1m.
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This jack-o’-lantern farts pumpkin spice whenever someone gets close | Arduino Blog
Halloween is just a week away and that means two things: jack-o’-lanterns decorating front stoops around the world and the sudden proliferation of pumpkin spice-based products. Pumpkin spice isn’t a spice made from pumpkin, but rather a spice used in pumpkin pies. As we all know, farmers harvest pumpkin spice from pumpkin farts. That inspired The Man Cave YouTube channel to build this jack-o’-lantern that toots pumpkin spice whenever someone gets close.
The Man Cave wasn’t able to acquire a real farting pumpkin (Starbucks keeps those under lock and key), so they were forced to build an artificial recreation that expels Febreze pumpkin spice-scented air freshener. They started by carving a jack-o’-lantern from a mundane, non-flatulent pumpkin. That got a face with an expression that conveys the general sentiment of “sorry about my delightfully aromatic gas.”