DEC’s LAN Bridge 100 was a major milestone in the history of Ethernet which made it a viable option for the ever-growing LANs of yesteryear and today. Its history is also the topic of a recent video by [The Serial Port], in which [Mark] covers the development history of this device. We previously covered the LANBridge 100 Ethernet bridge and what it meant as Ethernet saw itself forced to scale from a shared medium (ether) to a star topology featuring network bridges and switches.

Featured in the video is also an interview with [John Reed], a field service network technician who worked at DEC from 1980 to 1998. He demonstrates what the world was like with early Ethernet, with thicknet coax (10BASE5) requiring a rather enjoyable way to crimp on connectors. Even with the relatively sluggish 10 Mbit of thicknet Ethernet, adding an Ethernet store and forward bridge in between two of these networks required significant amounts of processing power due to the sheer number of packets, but the beefy Motorola 68k CPU was up to the task.

To prevent issues with loops in the network, the spanning tree algorithm was developed and implemented, forming the foundations of the modern-day Ethernet LANs, as demonstrated by the basic LAN Bridge 100 unit that [Mark] fires up and which works fine in a modern-day LAN after its start-up procedure. Even if today’s Ethernet bridges and switches got smarter and more powerful, it all started with that first LAN Bridge.

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hackaday.com/2024/08/27/decs-l…

Battery management is a tedious but necessary problem that becomes more of a hassle with lithium-ion technology. As we’re all very aware, such batteries need a bit of care to be utilized safely, and as such, a huge plethora of ICs are available to perform the relevant duties. Hackaday.IO user [Erik] clearly spent some time dropping down the same old set of ICs to manage a battery in their applications, so they created a drop-in castellated PCB to manage all this.

The little board, measuring just a smidge over 22 x 16mm, packs a fair amount of capability, with an ATTiny1616 to make it customisable. The Injoinic tech IP2312, which is intended to be supplied from USB sources, takes care of charging with a programmable current set by a resistor, as is typical. The battery output is switched by a beefy MOSFET, with the output first passing through a measurement resistor and being sensed by an INA219 bidirectional current monitor. This might be useful for monitoring charging via the microcontroller. An APX803 low-voltage lockout/supervisor IC enables an LD56100 LDO to ensure no load is supplied to the battery below the low-voltage threshold. This is important! This provides a 3.3V rail to all the other ICs on the board, which is always on when the battery voltage is high enough. Utilising interrupts in the ATTiny firmware means the controller remains mostly asleep, consuming as little power as possible and preserving battery standby time. Temperature measurement is courtesy of the TMP102 with a ADS1015 quad channel 12-bit delta-sigma ADC also wedged in for some auxiliary sensing. These additional analog channels are not actually used by the module but are presented on the IOs. These could be very handy for detecting external inputs relevant to battery management with some custom Arduino-compatible firmware.

Implementation-wise, [Erik] provides PCB footprint details for both Eagle and KiCAD and an example application circuit detailing hookup and programming. So long as you ensure the UDPI pin in connected to a UART as shown in the application circuit, developing and uploading custom application code should be simple. Check out the project GitHub for more details.

Topics of power management and batteries are plentiful. Here’s a nice, hackable power meter for starters. Here’s an interesting story about extracting perfectly useable LiPo cells from perfectly useless disposable vapes and, finally, a possible method for mitigating electrode damage due to constant current charging.

hackaday.com/2024/08/27/hardwa…

Qual è stata l’incidenza di attacchi e incidenti informatici nel corso del mese di luglio? I cyber criminali sono andati in vacanza o hanno approfittato del momento particolare per incrementare le proprie azioni? A rispondere a queste domande ci pensa l’Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale e, nello specifico, il CSIRT, la sua articolazione tecnico-operativa che, […]
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The post Sole, mare e malware: l’estate della cybersecurity appeared first on InsideOver.

Monorails aren’t just the core reason why The Simpsons remains on air after thirty-six seasons, twenty-six of which are unredeemable garbage. They’re also an interesting example of oddball rail travel which has never really caught on beyond the odd gadgetbahn project here and there. [Hyperspace Pirate] recently decided to investigate the most interesting kind of monorail of all—the gyro stabilized type—on a small scale for our viewing pleasure.

The idea of a gyro-stabilized monorail is to use active stability systems to allow a train to balance on a single very thin rail. The benefits of this are questionable; one ends up with an incredibly expensive and complex rail vehicle that must always run perfectly or else it will tip over. However, it is charming to watch in action.

[Hyperspace Pirate] explains how the monorail vehicle uses control moment gyroscopes to keep itself upright. The video also explains the more common concept of reaction wheels so the two systems can be contrasted and compared. It all culminates in a wonderful practical demonstration with a small 3D-printed version of a 20th-century gyro monorail running on a 24″ track.

If you’re studying mechanical engineering this is a great project to pore over to see theoretical principles put into obvious practice. Video after the break.

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hackaday.com/2024/08/27/buildi…

One of our favorite parts of Hackaday Supercon is seeing all the incredible badge add-ons folks put together. These expansions are made all the more impressive by the fact that they had to design their hardware without any physical access to the badge, and with only a few weeks’ notice. Even under ideal conditions, that’s not a lot of time to get PCBs made, 3D print parts, or write code. If only there was some standard for badge expansions that could speed this process up…
The SAO Wall at Supercon 2023
But there is! The Simple Add-On (SAO) standard has been supported by the Supercon badges since 2019, and the 2×3 pin connector has also popped up on badges from various other hacker events such as HOPE and DEF CON. There’s only one problem — to date, the majority of SAOs have been simply decorative, consisting of little more than LEDs connected to the power pins.

This year, we’re looking to redefine what an SAO can be with the Supercon Add-On Contest. Don’t worry, we’re not changing anything about the existing standard — the pinout and connector remains the same. We simply want to challenge hackers and makers to think bigger and bolder.

Thanks to the I2C interface in the SAO header, add-ons can not only communicate with the badge, but with each other as well. We want you to put that capability to use by creating functional SAOs: sensors, displays, buttons, switches, rotary encoders, radios, we want to see it all! Just make sure you submit your six-pin masterpiece to us by the October 15th deadline.

Best of the Best

What’s in it for the winners? Why, nothing short of Hackaday immortality: we’ll put the top SAOs into production and distribute them to each attendee at Hackaday Europe in 2025. Because we actually have to get these things made, entries will have to meet all of the manufacturing requirements outlined on the Hackaday.io page Contest page to qualify.

In addition to a single Best Overall winner, we’ll be picking a top entry for each of the following categories:

• Functional: This challenge is about pushing the envelope for SAOs, so for this category we’ll be looking for the most capable add-on.
• Fine Art: We’ve seen some absolutely gorgeous SAOs over the years, so even though we’re largely pushing for function over form this year, we still want to acknowledge the incredible artistry that goes into them.
• Fun: It’s not all about business. SAOs are often a bit tongue in cheek, with many referencing online memes or parts of hacker culture. If you want to win in this category, you’ll need to lighten up a bit.

Honorable Mention

We know this community too well to believe you’ll all stick to the predefined categories, so as usual in our contests, we’ll be keeping an eye out for entries that best exemplify the following Honorable Mention categories.

• Coolest Toys: We’re suckers for interesting parts, so the SAO selected for this category will be the one with the most unique or impressive electronic components onboard.
• Light Show: We want to challenge the idea that SAOs are just for blinking LEDs, so naturally, at least one of you is going to go against the grain and add as many LEDs as possible.
• Most Ambitious: Sometimes, it’s the thought that counts. Whether or not the final product worked as expected, the SAO selected for this category will be the one that took the biggest swing.
• Best Communication: Getting SAOs to talk to the badge and each other is what this contest is really all about, so we’re looking for the one example that really ran with the concept.
• Least Manufacturable: SAOs often employ design or assembly hacks (like mounting LEDs upside-down) that don’t scale well. In this category we’re looking for hand-crafted masterpieces. To quote Hunter S. Thompson, “A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production.”

A Little Inspiration

There’s no shortage of gorgeous SAOs out there already, just search Hackaday.io or Tindie, and you’ll come up with dozens of badge add-ons that you didn’t even know you needed until right now. But as for examples of functional SAOs that do more than just blink LEDs…that’s quite a bit harder. We weren’t joking when we said they’ve been quite rare so far.

But we can point you towards a couple resources that should help you get started. Our own [Arya Voronova] wrote up her tale of creating a Jolly Wrencher SAO back in 2022 that goes over the basics, and we’d also recommend taking a look at her ongoing “I2C for Hackers” series of articles if you need to brush up on the communication side of things. If you need some pointers on the artistic front, you can’t go wrong following in the footsteps of [TwinkleTwinkie]. His Supercon 2019 talk PCB Art is Pain is a fantastic look at pushing the envelope of PCB design and production, and his Hackaday.io post about backlighting board art is required reading around these parts.

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2024-08-25 20:16:14

thanks to Jeff Nimp for hosting three works by me @ remmerder.blogspot.com:

click & enjoy

remmerder.blogspot.com/2024/08…

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#000000 #asemic #asemicWriting #dissemination #marginalia #materialiVerbovisivi #remmerder #scritturaAsemica #testiDiMgInRete #testiDiMgOnline #threeVisuals #untitled #verboVisualStuff #visualWork

Marco Giovenale

    Untitled, 2024    Untitled, 2013  Untitled, 2011 (?)   https://differx.tumblr.com   https://slowforward.net

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