Open Hardware/Modding: Reverse-engineering, ESP32, PCB, and More
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Ken Shirriff ☛ Reverse-engineering a three-axis attitude indicator from the F-4 fighter plane
We recently received an attitude indicator for the F-4 fighter plane, an instrument that uses a rotating ball to show the aircraft's orientation and direction. In a normal aircraft, the artificial horizon shows the orientation in two axes (pitch and roll), but the F-4 indicator uses a rotating ball to show the orientation in three axes, adding azimuth (yaw).1 It wasn't obvious to me how the ball could rotate in three axes: how could it turn in every direction and still remain attached to the instrument?
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Hackaday ☛ An ESP32 Delivers Perfect Slot Car Control
If your memory of slot cars as a childhood toy is of lightweight controllers with wire-wound rheostats inside, then you’re many years behind the state of the art when it comes to competitive slot car racing. In that world the full force of modern electronics has been brought to keeping the car on the road, and as an example here’s [Maker Fabio] with a cutting edge controller that has an ESP32 at its heart.
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Hackaday ☛ Man-in-the-Middle PCB Unlocks HP Ink Cartridges
It’s a well-known secret that inkjet ink is being kept at artificially high prices, which is why many opt to forego ‘genuine’ manufacturer cartridges and get third-party ones instead. Many of these third-party ones are so-called re-manufactured ones, where a third-party refills an empty OEM cartridge. This is increasingly being done due to digital rights management (DRM) reasons, with tracking chips added to each cartridge. These chip prohibit e.g. the manual refilling of empty cartridges with a syringe, but with the right tweak or attack can be bypassed, with [Jay Summet] showing off an interesting HP cartridge DRM bypass using a physical man-in-the-middle-attack.
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ARRL ☛ Amateur Radio and Robot Play Ball!
“Approximately 30 minutes before ‘showtime,’ the team discovered a number of hardware issues that occurred during transport, followed by the complete destruction of the main servo wiring system during a subsequent test,” he said. “Cell phone calls and texts could not handle the communication chaos, and we had to resort to our established amateur radio simplex frequency to coordinate equipment and logistics in those final minutes. The team was spread out between the field, stands, and merchandise table in the upper deck area. Without radios, there likely would not have been enough time to coordinate efforts to get the job done...but in the end, the team was able to pull it off.”