«Вика-Д3». Суровые челябинские домофоны настолько суровы…

Приветствую всех!

Уверен, большинство из вас вряд ли когда-нибудь слышали про этот домофон. Существовали они в Каменске-Уральском, Челябинске, Магнитогорске и некоторых окрестных городах и исчезли так же тихо и незаметно, как и появились. По сравнению с другими тогдашними домофонами этот экземпляр был весьма интересен: полноценные ключи, цифровая линия связи, удобство использования и очень крутой дизайн под стать заводу-изготовителю.

Что же в этой штуке такого интересного и как она устроена? Сейчас и узнаем.

Avalue EPC-ASL Intel N97 fanless industrial mini PC is designed for 24/7 operation

Avalue Technology’s EPC-ASL is a rugged fanless industrial mini PC built around the Intel Processor N97. Designed for 24/7 operation and edge computing, the mini PC is suitable for industrial environments, such as smart manufacturing, retail, logistics, and surveillance. The PC supports up to 16GB DDR5 memory, dual 2.5GbE, and various I/O options, including six USB ports, dual RS-232, HDMI 2.0, and DisplayPort 1.4a for multi-display setups. Storage and expansion are supported by M.2 Key-B/E slots, which accommodate Wi-Fi 6E, LTE, 5G, or SSD modules for enhanced connectivity and storage. The system also includes TPM 2.0 security, +12V/24V DC input,...

Motors Make the Best Knobs With SimpleFOC

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=gKdGmkCgGkg

The worst thing about a volume knob is that, having connected it to a computer, it might be wrong: if you’ve manually altered the volume settings somewhere else, the knob’s reading won’t be correct. [I Got Distracted] has a quick tutorial on YouTube showing how to use a BLDC, a hall effect sensor, Pi Pico and the SimpleFOC library to make a knob with active haptic feedback and positioning.

We covered the SimpleFOC library a few years ago, but in case you missed it, it’s, well, a simple library for FOC on all of our favorite microcontrollers, from Arduino to ESP...

DL40N Fanless 1.3L Mini PC with Intel Twin Lake Processors

The DL40N is a fanless 1.3-liter mini PC powered by Intel Twin Lake processors and up to 16GB DDR5 memory. It supports triple 4K display output, dual 2.5G Ethernet, and multiple USB and COM ports for reliable 24/7 operation in applications such as factory automation, digital signage, kiosks, and more. Built on Intel’s Twin Lake […]

Virtium Embedded Artists Expands SoM Lineup with Renesas RZ/G3E Platform

Virtium Embedded Artists has introduced the RZ/G3E SoM, a system-on-module based on the Renesas RZ/G3E processor for industrial and medical human-machine interface applications. The module incorporates a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor running at 1.8 GHz, paired with a Cortex-M33 core at 200 MHz for real-time control. Graphics capabilities include support for dual Full HD displays […]

2025 Component Abuse Challenge: The Sweet Sound of a Choking Transformer

The Component Abuse Challenge is dragging all sorts of old, half-forgotten hacks out of the woodwork, but this has got to be the most vintage: [KenS] started using a transformer as a variable choke on his speakers 55 years ago.

The hack is pretty bone-dead simple. A choke is an inductor in an audio (or any other) circuit designed to, well, choke off higher-than-desired frequencies. We featured a deep dive a few years back if you’re interested. An inductor is a coil of wire, usually (but not necessarily) wound around a core of iron or ferrite. A transformer? Well, that’s also...

2025 Component Abuse Challenge: Load Cell Anemometer

When you think anemometer, you probably don’t think “load cell” — but (statistically speaking) you probably don’t live in Hurricane Country, which is hard on wind-speed-measuring-whirligigs. When [BLANCHARD Jordan] got tired of replacing professionally-made meteorological eggbeaters, he decided he needed something without moving parts. Whatever he came up with would probably qualify for the Component Abuse Challenge, but the choice of load cells of all things to measure wind speed? Yeah, that’s not what the manufacturer intended them for.

In retrospect, it’s actually a fairly obvious solution: take a plate of known area, and you’re going to get a specific force...

Holy Parachute out of Kirigami

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=6rrDW6YIbXI

If you have a fear of heights and find yourself falling out of an airplane, you probably don’t want to look up to find your parachute full of holes. However, if the designer took inspiration from kirigami in the same way researchers have, you may be in better shape than you would think. This is because properly designed kirigami can function as a simple and effective parachute.

Kirigami, for those unfamiliar, is a cousin of origami where, instead of folding, you cut slits into paper. In this case, the paper effectively folds itself after being dropped, which allows the structure to...

Resizeable BAR support on the Raspberry Pi

Resizeable BAR support on the Raspberry Pi

While not an absolute requirement for modern graphics card support on Linux, Resizeable BAR support makes GPUs go faster, by allowing GPUs to throw data back and forth on the PCIe bus in chunks larger than 256 MB.

In January, I opened an issue in the Raspberry Pi Linux repo, Resizable BAR support on Pi 5.

Meshtastic: A Tale of Two Cities

If I’m honest with myself, I don’t really need access to an off-grid, fault-tolerant, mesh network like Meshtastic. The weather here in New Jersey isn’t quite so dynamic that there’s any great chance the local infrastructure will be knocked offline, and while I do value my privacy as much as any other self-respecting hacker, there’s nothing in my chats that’s sensitive enough that it needs to be done off the Internet.

But damn it, do I want it. The idea that everyday citizens of all walks of life are organizing and building out their own communications network with DIY hardware and...