Frequency! It’s an important thing to measure, which is why [Jacques Pelletier] built a frequency counter some time ago. The four-function unit is humble, capable, and also an entry into our 2025 One Hertz Challenge!

The build began “a long while ago when electronic parts were still available in local stores,” notes Jacques, dating the project somewhat. The manner of construction, too, is thoroughly old-school. The project case and the sweet red digits are both classic, but so is what’s inside. The counter is based around 4553 BCD counter chips and 4511 decoder ICs. Laced together, the logic both counts frequency in binary-coded decimal and then converts that into the right set of signals to drive the 7-segment displays. Sample time is either 1 Hz or 0.1 Hz, which is derived from an 8MHz oscillator. It can act as a frequency meter, period meter, chronometer, or a basic counter. The whole build is all raw logic chips, there are no microprocessors or microcontrollers involved.

It just goes to show, you can build plenty of useful things without relying on code and RAM and all that nonsense. You just need some CMOS chips and a bucket of smarts to get the job done!

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When film all came in rolls, it was fairly easy to play with the frame of the image. Companies like Hasselblad (and many others) made camera backs that would expose longer strips of 35 mm film to create stunning panoramic images in one single shot. [snappiness] wanted to bring that style of camera into the digital age, and ended up with a 2-in-1 Sony-based frankencamera.

Sensors just aren’t readily available in the wide aspect ratio [snappiness] was looking for, and even if they were, bare sensors are hugely expensive compared to consumer cameras. Lacking the budget for high-res scientific CMOS, [snappiness] did what any of us would do, and hacked two Sony A7ii full-frame mirrorless cameras together to get a combined 24x72mm sensor frame.

Conceptually, the hack is really very simple: a 3D print acts like a T-fitting, with the two cameras held parallel off the arms of the T and the lens making the shaft. Inside, the only optics are a pair of mirrors serving as a beam splitter. Each camera sees half the FOV of the lens in its corresponding mirror, which means the images can be stitched together later to make the double-wide pictures [snappiness] is after.

Of course both cameras must be triggered at the same time, but with what looks like a headphone splitter and an aftermarket remote shutter button, that part works perfectly. The optics, not so much– as always with conceptually simple projects, the devil is in the details, and here it’s the mirror alignment where you’ll find Old Nick. [snappiness] made no provision for adjustments, so everything needed to be designed and built with very stringent tolerances. Somewhere along the way, those tolerances were exceeded; as a result, the two cameras don’t share a focal plane.

That means half the composite image will always be out of focus, or that the main lens needs to be refocused and two snaps taken, rather defeating the point the frankencamera. If [snappiness] attempts a version two, perhaps an adjustment mechanism to focus each sensor would be in order. Still, even if it didn’t work perfectly, he’s proven that the idea is sound, and we can’t imagine many people will see this and argue it isn’t a hack.

The world of film did make all of this easier, perhaps– we’ve seen large-format film cameras out of lego, and a panorama made from four full rolls of 35 mm film. If you know of any other great photography hacks– film or digital– don’t hesitate to send us a tip.

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Sometimes, there are too many choices in this world. My benchtop function generator can output a sine, square, or saw wave anywhere from 0.01 Hz up to 60 MHz? Way too many choices. At least, that’s what we suspect [Phil Weasel] was thinking when he built this Analog 1 Hz Sinewave Generator.

A KiCad rendering of [Phil]’s design[Phil]’s AWG (which in this case stands for Anything as long as it’s a 1 Hz sine Wave Generator) has another unique feature — it’s built (almost) entirely with op-amps. A lot of op-amps (37, by our count of the initial schematic he posted). His design is similar to a Phased Locked Loop (PLL) and boils down to a triangle wave oscillator. While a 1 Hz triangle wave would absolutely satisfy judges of the One Hertz Challenge, [Phil] had set out to make a sine wave. Using a feedback loop and some shaping/smoothing tricks (and more op-amps), he rounded off the sharp peaks into a nice smooth sine wave.

Sometimes we make things much more complicated than we need to, just to see if we can. This is one of those times. Are there much simpler ways to generate a sine wave? Yes — but not exclusively using op-amps! This entry brings stiff competition to the “Ridiculous” category of the 2025 One Hertz Challenge.

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A universal feature of traveling Europe as a Hackaday scribe is that when you sit in a hackerspace in another country and proclaim how nice a place it all is, the denizens will respond pessimistically with how dreadful their country really is. My stock response is to say “Hold my beer” and recount the antics of British politicians, but the truth is, the grass is always greener on the other side.

There’s one thing here in dear old Blighty that has me especially concerned at the moment though, and perhaps it’s time to talk about it here. The Online Safety Act has just come into force and is the UK government’s attempt to deal with what they perceive as the nasties on the Internet, and while some of its aspirations may be honourable, its effects are turning out to be a little chilling.

As might be expected, the Act requires providers to ensure their services are free of illegal material, and it creates some new offences surrounding sharing images without consent, and online stalking. Where the concern lies for me is in the requirement for age verification to ensure kids don’t see anything the government things they shouldn’t, which is being enforced through online ID verification. There are many reasons why this is of concern, but I’ll name the three at the top of my list.

As always, Ali has you covered.
As anyone who has helped their non technical friends secure their networks will tell you, nothing boosts technical expertise more than presenting a 13-year-old with an online restriction. It’s already been shown how a tech-savvy kid can use an AI generated fake ID to watch online smut, and I am thus certain that the Act just won’t work. Kids will trade ways to get round it just like they traded floppies full of dodgy JPGs in the playground back in the ’90s.

The scope of the Act extends way beyond merely the porn sites you might expect, so your average Brit is going to find themselves uploading their drivers’ licence or passport an awful lot. The probability of a data breach involving all that valuable data will approach one, and all those identities will be compromised. Making more laws won’t stop this happening, after all the very definition of a criminal is a person with a disregard for the law.

And finally, that broad scope is catching all manner of inoffensive and blameless online communities who don’t have the resources to put the age verification and other measures in place. Your classic car forum, a support group for people with mental health problems, even possibly Wikipedia. Of course it’s important to protect children from inappropriate content, but killing the British internet for everyone else shouldn’t be a side effect.

This issue is likely to rumble on for a while in the UK, as at the time of writing a petition for its reform stands around 350k signatures. Thus a further parliamentary debate seems very likely, and no doubt we’ll see a few of our overlords wriggling a little to avoid the inevitable repercussions. You can sign it if you’re a Brit, and meanwhile if you’d like to restore access to the internet that the rest of the world sees, you can join the hordes of Brits running to acquire VPN access.

Palace of Westminster header image: Diliff, CC BY-SA 2.5.

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