Name that Ware, October 2025

The Ware for October 2025 is shown below.

Thanks to Juan C. for contributing this curious ware!

I really can’t get enough of how the whole device is integrated with a multi-layer stacked PCB. I imagine that inside the middle of the stack there could be some interesting circuitry going on, too.

I redacted one part number to try and make things a smidge more challenging; at least, an LLM wasn’t able to outright guess the ware when that part number was omitted (but of course, the spirit of the game is to sharpen the wetware sitting on your shoulders by trying...

Winner, Name that Ware September 2025

The Ware from September 2025 is a Hotronic AF 75 time base corrector. Really great comment thread, it was fun to read the sleuthing work and thought process behind the guesses. And yah, those SRAM chips make me nostalgic – I remember how expensive those were! Back when 32kiB cost real money.

A couple folks had guessed a time base corrector out of several possibilities, but I like how Guy Dunphy backed his guess up with an explanation of how it works. So, I’ll give Guy the prize this month. Congrats, drop me an email to collect your prize!

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Precision Clock Acrylic Case

[Hardware] Smoked acrylic upgrade for the Precision Clock Mk IV

Tiny Continuity Tester

This is a simple continuity tester, based on an ATtiny202, a piezo buzzer, and an LED, for checking circuit wiring or tracing out the tracks on a PCB:

The Tiny Continuity Tester based on an ATtiny202.
The piezo speaker is on the reverse of the board.

It has a low threshold resistance of 50Ω to avoid false positives, and passes less than 0.1mA through the circuit under test, to avoid affecting sensitive components. It's powered from a small button cell, and automatically switches itself off when not in use, avoiding the need for an on/off switch.

I design many of my projects for...

Why do some radio towers blink?

Why do some radio towers blink? .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

One day on my drive home, I saw three towers. One of them had a bunch of blinking white lights, another one had red lights that kind of faded in and out, and the third one, well, it wasn't doing anything. I'm lucky to have a radio engineer for a dad, so Dad:...

Возможно это провал: разгоняем до 400 герц

Стараясь держаться правила — одна статья в неделю — я, с красными глазами после работы, всё же закончил этот текст. Понимая, конечно, что в пятничный вечер его вряд ли кто-то прочитает. Но правило есть правило. Приятных вам выходных.

HackRF Pro Production Timeline Update

Since our previous timeline update, we have encountered additional unexpected delays in our production progress. These delays are the result of a necessary hardware revision to account for MacOS users. During late stage testing, our team encountered issues with USB signaling on Mac devices, and while able to find potential workarounds, agreed that the next step would be to modify the PCB design to address this issue. HackRF Pro will ship as r1.2.1, our final revision. We decided that this revision was imperative to ensure that all users could have an equal user experience with HackRF Pro, regardless of operating...

АМС-100Ф. «Народный» кассовый аппарат двухтысячных

Приветствую всех!

Когда-то давно я уже рассказывал про устройство и работу кассовых аппаратов с фискальной памятью.

Так уж вышло, что один из имевшихся у меня экземпляров я тогда так и не показал, хотя на самом деле его воистину можно назвать одним из символов касс той эпохи. Что же в нём такого примечательного? Сейчас и узнаем.

CannonBall-SE: A CannonBall Fork focused on Experience

12 years in the making, CannonBall‑SE brings OutRun to DIY arcade cabs with CRT shaders, revised audio, and native builds for Raspberry Pi & Windows