Toolduino is a simple software tool that lets you easily interact with Arduino hardware. With this software you can easily can test the circuits you create. The Arduino must be running the Firmata firmware that comes with the Arduino IDE. Things can’t get much easier for all kinds of hacks. You can just connect some →
Hardware developers familiar with the history of Ethernet in the enterprise may find themselves overwhelmed by the service diversity and complexity which must be addressed in applications for the local exchange carrier, long-haul or inter-exchange provider, and wireless operator. Analyze service complexity in a common Ethernet infrastructure article tasks Ethernet is called upon to perform →
Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide shows you horror beyond computer hacker imagination. If your PC looks anything like in those pictures then start cleaning your PC. If you are unsure how to properly clean your computer read Cleaning the computer and its components guide. Anyways a good idea to clean your computer at →
When Sony issued a recent PlayStation 3 update removing the device’s ability to install alternate operating systems like Linux, it did so to protect copyrighted content—but several research projects suffered collateral damage. Air Force may suffer collateral damage from PS3 firmware update. The Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York picked up 336 PS3 →
URL Hunter is an experimental keyboard-character based game played entirely in your browser’s URL bar. Go to URL hunter web page at http://probablyinteractive.com/url-hunter to see yourself. Is it a good game? Not really. The gameplay is pretty awful, and the concept is naturally pretty limited. But it’s clever and unusual. Great misuse of technology. Another →
Good grounds do not mean you will not get ground loop noise. The two are completely different balls of wax. No matter how much you sand the surface, no how good your connectors are, no matter how tight it is bolted down, you are still going to have ground loops. Having a ground loop does →
Troubleshooting grounding problems can be difficult at best. Especially on complex automation/instrumentation systems. Use your power system drawing or a system map to document as you go because these problems can be quite complex requiring some logic to figure out. The typical utility DC bus consists of a battery charger, a string of batteries, a →
Here are two interesting to look at robotics articles with video for this Friday: Basketball-Playing Robot Seals Will Rule Us All One Day shows a basketball-playing robot sea. This is a robot seal that can sink baskets at a 99 percent clip to a moving target basket. Google’s self-driving cars take TED attendees for a →
Are Star-Quad is well known in the audio industry as a good cable construction to use in demanding environments because its superior handling of EMI. And that reputation is based in science; the Canare document, for example, contains lots of claims which can be tested objectively, and all those claims are rooted in physics-based (reality-based) →
The DJ mixer crossfader was originally developed as a control for implementing smooth fades from one program source to another, but where did the idea come from? Evolution of the DJ Crossfader article tells the history and development of crossfader in DJ mixers. →