Open Hardware/Modding: Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 18, 2023

• Meteor beacon for astronomy

  Raspberry Pi monitors the beacon’s output power, dump power, PA voltage, PA temperature, and back-up battery voltage. It also runs a web interface so you can check on the status of the beacon from the comfort of the indoors. We love the night sky as much as the next person, but we also really love the indoors.

• Infinity dodecahedron puts on a mesmerizing light show

  This is an infinity mirror in the form of a dodecahedron, which is a regular polyhedron with 12 sides. Each face is a one-way mirror facing inwards, so light inside reflects while the user can see through the faces. The frame, which follows the edges between faces, contains inward-facing LEDs. The light from those LEDs bounces off the of them mirrors inside the dodecahedron, resulting in an interesting lighting effect. That effect is enhanced by the animations of the RGB LEDs.

• Digital European roulette wheel takes advantage of charlieplexing

  Multiplexing is a common technique for driving a grid of LEDs and it works by setting the rows and columns to either HIGH or LOW. An LED will only turn on if its row is HIGH and its column is LOW (or vice-versa, depending on the LED’s orientation). This means a microcontroller can control a number of LEDs equal to the number of column pins multiplied by the number of row pins. An 8×8 grid (16 pins) can therefore contain 64 LEDs.

  Charlieplexing is more complicated, but allows for far more LEDs. That number is equal to the number of pins (N) squared, minus the number of pins (N). So with 16 pins, a microcontroller could control 240 LEDs (16^2 – 16). This works because of a pair of pins can control two LEDs (one for each flow direction), and two pairs can control their two LEDs each plus another pair. That extends, resulting in a schematic that looks like a pyramid. Jeremy Cook has an in-depth explanation of charlieplexing here if you want to know more.

• New OnLogic Helix 401 integrates Alder Lake CPUs

  OnLogic launched a fanless mini-PC based on 12th Gen Hybrid-Core processors for industrial IoT applications. The Helix 401 offers 4x 4K simultaneous displays, 2x GbE LAN ports and supports Red Hat Linux.

• Conversation with Kyle Rankin, President, Purism and Matthias Kirschner, President at Free Software Foundation Europe.

  Matthias Kirschner, President at Free Software Foundation Europe, recently launched Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream. This children’s book is delightfully illustrated by Sandra Brandstätter.

  Kyle Rankin, President caught up with Matthias Kirschner to talk about the inspiration behind the book and the need to raise awareness about free software. Here is the snapshot of the email interview.

  Kyle: Children’s literature has a long history of fables, such as with Grimm and Aesop that serve as either cautionary tales (be careful going into the forest!) or moral lessons (slow and steady wins the race). Your story takes a similar approach, but in the modern age with a modern set of lessons. What fables inspired you when writing this story?

• Elecrow Meteor Screen 10.1″ IPS Capacitive Touch Screen with RGB Animated light review

• AMD Xilinx KR260 Robotics Starter Kit: Democratizing Smart Robots | HotHardware

• How to Steal a Tesla, AI On Your Pi, Linux Desktop: Future, - SOCKS5 Your Burp – PSW #776 | SC Media

  In the security news: AI on your PI, no flipper for you, stealing Tesla's by accident, firmware at scale, the future of the Linux desktop, protect your attributes, SOCKS5 for your Burp, TPM 2.0 vulnerabilities, the world's most vulnerable door device and hiding from "Real" hackers, sandwiches, robot lawyers, poisonis epipens, and profanity in your code! All that, and more, on this episode of Paul’s Security Weekly!