Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

DIY Motorized Pendant Lights: A Tale of Trials and Triumphs

2025-04-23

Inspired by the rise-and-fall pendant lights of the late 20th century, the author embarks on a challenging DIY project to create motorized versions. The journey details the selection of motors, slip rings, and microcontrollers, alongside the mechanical and electrical design, and firmware development. Obstacles encountered and solutions implemented are meticulously documented. The final result is five remotely controlled pendant lights, with a discussion of lessons learned and future improvements.

(www.sallery.co.uk)

Hardware Mechanical Design

The Mystery of the 6502's Illegal Opcodes

2025-04-23

The MOS 6502, powering classics like the Commodore 64, Apple II, and NES, is famous for its 'illegal' opcodes: 105 undefined instructions out of 256. While many articles document their effects, this one delves into their origins. By analyzing the 6502's internal Programmable Logic Array (PLA), the author reveals how these undocumented instructions arise from the chip's design. Examples like the 'LAX' instruction (a combined LDA and LDX) and the 'KIL' opcodes (which halt the CPU) are explained, showcasing how the 6502's architecture unintentionally created functional, albeit undefined, instructions.

(www.pagetable.com)

Hardware

Sub-nanosecond Flash Memory Device Based on 2D Materials: Fabrication and Modeling

2025-04-23

Researchers fabricated a sub-nanosecond flash memory device based on two-dimensional (2D) materials (WSe2, graphene, and hBN). The fabrication process involved e-beam lithography, atomic layer deposition, and mechanical exfoliation. The device's structure and performance were characterized using atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. A quasi-2D model was developed to simulate the device's electrical characteristics, and its validity was experimentally verified. This research provides new avenues for developing high-performance, low-power next-generation flash memory devices.

(www.nature.com)

Hardware flash memory device modeling

Smartphone Fast Charging: A Deep Dive into Technologies and Standards

2025-04-22

This article delves into the world of smartphone fast charging, comparing various technologies and standards. From the benefits of slow charging to the intricacies of USB PD, Qualcomm Quick Charge, VOOC, SuperVOOC, and others, it explores the trade-offs between speed and battery health. The article highlights inconsistencies in advertised power ratings, the incompatibility of different fast-charging protocols, and the significant heat generation associated with high-wattage charging. Wireless charging technologies like Qi, MagSafe, and Qi2 are also examined, emphasizing their lower efficiency and heat generation compared to wired charging. The article concludes with recommendations for safe and effective charging practices to maximize battery lifespan.

(eb43.github.io)

Hardware smartphone charging

Hacking a Smart Bike's Dumb Lights: A DIY Repair

2025-04-22

The author's friend's smart bike, from a now-bankrupt company, had a frustrating problem: the lights only worked with the app, which was useless. After a cheap replacement light was stolen, the author decided to hack the bike's existing lights. Using a 3D printer and some basic soldering skills, he bypassed the app requirement by adding a simple button switch and upgrading the charging port to USB-C. The result? A functioning light controlled by a button, a testament to simple solutions and the limitations of over-reliance on software in smart devices.

(francisco.io)

Hardware

Dauug|36: A Secure 36-Bit Minicomputer Built for Longevity

2025-04-22

Dauug|36 is a 36-bit minicomputer architecture designed for owner-built CPUs, controllers, and minicomputers. It boasts a remarkably secure design, eschewing features like DRAM, memory caching, speculative execution, and out-of-order execution, thereby eliminating many common vulnerabilities (Rowhammer, Spectre, Meltdown, stack overflows). This open-source project requires only maker-scale assembly tools, making it buildable anywhere. Its simple design prioritizes security, aiming for a single build, lifetime device that needs no security updates. The key philosophy: low complexity equals high security.

(dauug.cs.wright.edu)

Hardware minicomputer

Logitech Raises Prices on Select Accessories Amidst Tariff Uncertainty

2025-04-22

Logitech has increased prices on up to 25% of its product catalog, likely due to tariffs on goods imported from China. A YouTube video by Cameron Dougherty details the price hikes, affecting 51% of Logitech's products with an average increase of 14%. Products like the MX Master 3S mouse and Pro Racing Wheel saw significant price jumps, while others, such as the MX Ergo and G703 gaming mouse, remained unchanged. This comes after Logitech withdrew its financial outlook due to tariff uncertainty, suggesting broader industry shifts. As a major peripheral manufacturer, Logitech's pricing often influences competitors. While some prices increased substantially, Amazon may offer better deals on some items.

(9to5mac.com)

Hardware

Hacking My Landlord's Boiler: A Replay Attack Story

2025-04-22

Frustrated with his apartment's inefficient and uneven heating system, the author devised a clever solution using a replay attack. Leveraging inexpensive SDRs (an RTL-SDR and a HackRF clone), he intercepted and replicated the 868MHz radio signals between the existing thermostat and boiler. This allowed him to remotely control the boiler's on/off state. Despite significant challenges, he successfully integrated this into Home Assistant, creating custom automations and using sensors to achieve comfortable temperature control.

(blog.videah.net)

Hardware

Synology Locks Down NAS to Proprietary Drives: A User-Unfriendly Move?

2025-04-22

Synology's upcoming 2025 Plus series NAS devices will reportedly lock users to their own branded hard drives, sparking controversy. This move limits user choice, increases costs, and potentially makes drive replacements difficult. Compared to competitors like QNAP and TrueNAS, Synology's hardware feels outdated, and this drive-locking strategy further weakens its competitiveness. The author argues that this is a profit-driven decision sacrificing user experience, ultimately harming Synology's brand and market share.

(www.servethehome.com)

Hardware proprietary drives

Evertop: An Ultra Low-Power, Ultra Long-Battery Life Solar PC

2025-04-21

Evertop is a portable PC emulating an IBM XT with an 80186 processor and 1MB RAM, running DOS, Minix, and Windows 3.0. Its low-power microcontroller, e-ink display, dual 10,000mAh batteries, and power-saving features enable hundreds to thousands of hours of use on a single charge. A built-in solar panel ensures indefinite off-grid operation. It boasts a full array of peripherals including a keyboard, PS/2 ports, various graphics and audio support, serial ports, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and LoRa radio. Charging is versatile, with options for solar, DC input, and micro-USB, allowing simultaneous charging from multiple sources. A minimized version, Evertop Min, is also available.

(github.com)

Hardware

Review: Magewell Eco Capture Dual HDMI M.2 Video Capture Card

2025-04-21

This blog post reviews the Magewell Eco Capture Dual HDMI M.2 video capture card's performance on Linux. The author tests driver installation on x86 and ARM architectures and its compatibility with OBS and WebRTC applications. The card stably captures dual 1080p60 streams with excellent image quality and low latency. Installation in the M.2 slot is easy. While pricey, it's a great professional solution if purchased at a discounted rate.

(interfacinglinux.com)

Hardware video capture card

Siflower Unveils High-Performance Industrial-Grade SOC Gateway Chip: SF21H8898

2025-04-21

Siflower Communications has launched the SF21H8898, a high-performance industrial-grade SOC gateway chip built on TSMC's 12nm FFC process. It integrates a quad-core 64-bit RISC-V processor and a dedicated network processing unit (NPU) supporting L2/L3 hardware processing, IPv4/IPv6 dual stack, 20Gbps switching capacity, and full wire-speed forwarding. The chip boasts QSGMII, SGMII/HSGMII, and RGMII interfaces and supports IEEE 1588 PTP for precise time synchronization. External DDR3/DDR3L/DDR4 SDRAM and NAND/NOR SPI Flash are supported, along with high-speed interfaces like USB2.0 and PCIE2.0, and low-speed interfaces such as SPI, UART, I2C, and PWM. Ideal for enterprise and industrial control gateways.

(docs.banana-pi.org)

Hardware Gateway Chip Industrial IoT

Two-Year SSD Data Retention Test: Unexpected Results

2025-04-19

TechTuber HTWingNut conducted a two-year experiment testing the long-term data retention of SSDs. Four 128GB SATA SSDs were used, two new and two heavily used (exceeding their rated TBW). After two years, the new SSDs showed data integrity but a significant increase in error correction codes, indicating potential issues; while the used SSDs experienced file corruption and performance degradation. This highlights the risk of data loss in SSDs even when unplugged for extended periods and underscores the importance of regular backups.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Hardware Data Retention Data Integrity

DIY 360° LiDAR Scanner on a Raspberry Pi

2025-04-19

This project details the creation of PiLiDAR, a DIY 360° LiDAR scanner built on a Raspberry Pi 4. Using an LDRobot LD06/LD19/STL27L LiDAR, a Raspberry Pi HQ camera, and a stepper motor, this project leverages custom serial drivers, hardware PWM calibration, and image stitching techniques to achieve 360° panoramic scanning and 3D scene reconstruction. The project also covers GPIO configuration, I2C communication, software installation, and provides detailed steps and code examples. The resulting 3D point cloud data can be visualized and exported using Open3D.

(github.com)

Hardware LiDAR 3D Scanning

Trek and Electra Raise Bike Prices to Offset Tariffs

2025-04-18

Trek and Electra bicycle retailers received an email informing them of immediate price increases on most models due to a 10% tariff surcharge announced on April 2nd. Trek stated they minimized the impact on entry-level models and that the price increase includes backorders to avoid inventory rushes. Retailers will see increased inventory value and profit margins. Specialized Bicycles will separately list the 10% tariff surcharge on B2B invoices after May 1st.

(www.bicycleretailer.com)

Hardware bikes

Synology Locks Down Plus Series NAS to Proprietary Hard Drives

2025-04-17

Synology's new Plus Series NAS systems, aimed at SMBs and advanced home users, now require the use of Synology-branded hard drives to access the full feature set. While non-Synology drives can be used for storage, crucial features like drive health monitoring, deduplication, lifespan analysis, and automatic firmware updates are disabled. This move, justified by Synology as improving performance and reliability and mitigating risks like recent Seagate fraudulent HDD issues, forces users to buy directly from Synology or certified suppliers. This limits choice and potentially increases costs for smaller businesses. A workaround exists by migrating drives from older systems, but this isn't practical for most users.

(www.tomshardware.com)

Hardware

Milwaukee M18 Battery Teardown: A Battle with 0402 Components

2025-04-17

This detailed blog post documents a multi-month reverse engineering project of discarded Milwaukee M18 batteries. The author faced numerous challenges, from disassembling the battery casing and identifying tiny components like Texas Instruments MSP430G2744 microcontroller and BQ76925 battery monitor IC, to meticulously mapping the circuit board and deciphering the communication protocol between the battery and charger. The author shares their findings, including the surprising lack of cell balancing and details of the 2000 baud communication protocol. This is a fascinating deep dive into hardware reverse engineering, perfect for those interested in the intricacies of battery technology and electronics.

(quagmirerepair.com)

Hardware battery

Atari 1200XL: The Short-Lived 8-Bit Champion

2025-04-17

The Atari 1200XL, the third in Atari's 8-bit computer line, aimed to replace the increasingly expensive Atari 800 and compete with the Commodore 64. Featuring 64K RAM and a sleek 1980s design, its $800 price tag and incompatibility with popular software like Letter Perfect doomed it to a short lifespan, discontinued after only six months. Despite this, its excellent keyboard and fixable compatibility issues make it a sought-after collectible today, even retaining practical use.

(www.goto10retro.com)

Hardware 8-bit

The Terak 8510/a: A Forgotten Graphics Computer

2025-04-16

This article details the Terak 8510/a, a personal computer from the late 1970s. Based on the PDP-11/03 processor, it boasted advanced graphics capabilities and was widely used for teaching Pascal programming in colleges. The Terak 8510/a had a profound influence on computer history, considered one of the first personal computers with a bitmap display, and involved in the development of early CAD software and MacPaint. The article also recounts the author's experience collecting Terak hardware and software, and his plans to develop a Terak emulator.

(www.threedee.com)

Hardware

The End of Moore's Law and the Growing Heat Problem in Chips

2025-04-16

The slowdown of Moore's Law has led to increasing power density in chips, making heat dissipation a critical bottleneck affecting performance and lifespan. Traditional cooling methods are insufficient for future high-performance chips, such as the upcoming CFET transistors. Researchers have developed a new simulation framework to predict how new semiconductor technologies affect heat dissipation and explored advanced cooling techniques, including microfluidic cooling, jet impingement cooling, and immersion cooling. System-level solutions, such as dynamically adjusting voltage and frequency, and thermal sprinting, also aim to balance performance and heat. Future backside functionalization technologies (CMOS 2.0) like backside power delivery networks, backside capacitors, and backside integrated voltage regulators, promise to reduce heat by lowering voltage but may introduce new thermal challenges. Ultimately, solving the chip heat problem requires a multidisciplinary effort, with system technology co-optimization (STCO) aiming to integrate systems, physical design, and process technology for optimal performance and cooling.

(spectrum.ieee.org)

Hardware chip cooling semiconductor technology

Apple Declares 2018 Mac mini and iPhone 6s as Vintage

2025-04-15

Apple updated its vintage product list, adding the 2018 Mac mini and iPhone 6s. This means these devices will receive more limited service and repairs. The iPhone 6s, initially launched in 2015, remained a budget option until 2018. The 2018 Mac mini was the last Intel-based Mac mini before Apple's transition to Apple silicon. A product is considered "vintage" five years after its last sale date and "obsolete" after seven years, at which point Apple ceases parts and repair provision.

(www.macrumors.com)

Hardware Vintage Products

Web Tool Generates Amazfit Band 7 Watch Faces

2025-04-15

The author bought a cheap Amazfit Band 7 and wanted to create custom watch faces. Finding the process tedious, they built a web tool that generates the necessary digit and symbol images from a chosen font, size, color, and other parameters. This simplifies Amazfit Band 7 customization and can be used for other purposes. The tool is available at gingerbeardman.com/amazfit/.

(blog.gingerbeardman.com)

Hardware Custom Watch Faces Web Tool

DIY 10MHz-15GHz VNA: Outperforming Cheap Commercial Models

2025-04-15

The author designed and built a 10MHz-15GHz vector network analyzer (VNA) that outperforms all existing low-cost VNAs. This four-receiver VNA supports advanced calibration methods like unknown-thru calibration and boasts over 120dB isolation. The article details the design process, covering architecture, directional couplers, receiver, ADC, FPGA, PCB design, and CNC-machined enclosure. Testing demonstrates excellent measurement accuracy and stability, accurately characterizing devices like bandpass filters and varactor diodes. While couplers require manual assembly, the total component cost is around $300 (excluding taxes and shipping), showcasing exceptional value.

(hforsten.com)

Hardware Vector Network Analyzer Hardware Design High-Frequency Measurement

My $91 PowerMac G4 MDD Repair Odyssey: A Tale of Woe and Triumph

2025-04-14

The author acquired a cheap PowerMac G4 MDD, only to find it missing RAM, HDD, and a PRAM battery. After a frantic parts hunt and assembly, the machine booted, but the noise was deafening. Attempting a fan replacement, the author broke the original fan, forcing the purchase of a high-performance replacement. While the noise issue was solved, the new fan roared. The entire journey was a hilarious mix of unexpected problems and eventual success, offering a valuable lesson in vintage hardware repair.

(loganius.org)

Hardware Repair

KickSmash32: Open-Source Amiga ROM Replacement Module

2025-04-12

KickSmash32 is an open-source Kickstart ROM replacement module for Amiga 3000 and 4000 systems. Supporting up to 8 independent flash banks, it allows ROM programming and switching via Amiga command-line utilities or a Linux host utility (USB-C). Optional host file services enable easy file transfers between the Amiga and host PC. Comprehensive documentation and build instructions are provided. Note that due to inconsistent ROM socket layouts across Amiga models, KickSmash32 is only compatible with Amiga 3000 and the original Amiga 4000.

(github.com)

Hardware ROM replacement

32-bit RISC-V Processor Built from Molybdenum Disulfide

2025-04-11

Researchers have created a groundbreaking 32-bit RISC-V processor using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a significant advancement in 'beyond silicon' hardware. Unable to dope MoS2 like silicon to adjust threshold voltage, they cleverly used different metal wiring (aluminum and gold) and embedding materials. Machine learning optimized transistor combinations. The resulting processor, with 5900 transistors, boasts a 99.8% chip-level yield, despite slower speeds, and implements the full 32-bit RISC-V instruction set. While initially limited to low-power applications like sensors, its future potential is vast.

(arstechnica.com)

Hardware Molybdenum Disulfide Beyond Silicon

The Mystery of the Strobe Dots on Your Turntable

2025-04-10

Those little dots on your turntable aren't just for looks; they're a clever speed-checking mechanism! The 'stroboscopic effect' lets you visually verify your turntable's RPM accuracy. A quick glance tells you if the platter is spinning at the correct speed. Jumping or drifting dots? Time to check your motor or pitch slider. This article explains the physics behind this handy feature and how to use it to ensure your vinyl plays perfectly.

(www.djmentors.com)

Hardware turntable stroboscopic effect vinyl

Dissecting the British BS 1363 Plug & Socket: A Safety Masterpiece

2025-04-10

This article delves into the safety features of the British Standard BS 1363 plug and socket system. The design emphasizes safety shutters protecting live and neutral contacts, and mandates a fuse within the plug to prevent overcurrent. Details like preventing accidental unplugging and a safe disconnection sequence are also highlighted. Various BS 1363 plugs and sockets are showcased, including RCD-protected sockets and military variants, offering a detailed look at their safety and design philosophy.

(www.plugsocketmuseum.nl)

Hardware plug

Corebooting My Thinkpad T420: A Tale of Woe

2025-04-09

This post details the author's arduous journey of installing Coreboot on a Thinkpad T420. From the painstaking disassembly of the robust laptop, to wrestling with finicky IC clip connections and battling UEFI compatibility issues during Coreboot compilation, the process proved exceptionally challenging. While the author ultimately succeeded in flashing Coreboot and achieved faster boot times, several functionalities, including Windows XP booting, the hardware clock, and other payloads, are now broken. The author expresses uncertainty about continued Coreboot usage unless a CPU upgrade is pursued.

(lilysthings.org)

Hardware

Improving GPD Pocket 4 Speaker Sound: PipeWire and Convolution DSP Magic

2025-04-09

Modern laptop speakers rely heavily on digital signal processing (DSP) to sound good. The author measured the frequency response of the GPD Pocket 4's built-in speakers using Room EQ Wizard, revealing a noticeable resonance peak at ~4kHz causing harshness. By generating a convolution filter's impulse response with REW and leveraging the PipeWire audio server, the author compensated for this flaw, significantly improving sound quality, mirroring similar optimizations done by the Asahi Linux project for Apple Silicon MacBooks.

(kittenlabs.de)

Hardware convolution DSP

Category: Hardware