Sega Meganet: Online Gaming In 1990

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=R3RsmtGFXk8

It’s easy to think of online console gaming as an invention of the 2000s. Microsoft made waves when Xbox Live dropped in 2002, with Nintendo and Sony scrambling to catch up with their own offerings that were neither as sleek or well-integrated.

However, if you were around a decade earlier, you might have experienced online console gaming much closer to the dawn of the Internet era. As far back as 1990, you could jump online with your Sega Mega Drive. But what did an online console feel like in the dial-up era?

The Sega Mega Drive was launched in Japan in October...

Anything Can Be A Router, If You Try Hard Enough

If you’re an American and you use the Internet at home, it seems probable that routers are going to be in short supply. The US government recently mandated all such devices be home grown for security reasons, which would be fine were it not that the US has next-to-no consumer-grade router manufacturing industry.

So if you’re in the US and you need a router, what can you do? [Noah Bailey] is here from Canada to point out that almost anything (within reason) in computer terms can be made to perform as a router.

The piece is really a guide to setting up...

Ask Hackaday: How Much Compute is Enough?

Over the history of this business, a lot of people have foreseen limits that look rather silly in hindsight– in 1943, IBM President Thomas Watson declared that “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” That was more than a little wrong. Depending on the definition of computers– particularly if you include microcontrollers, there’s probably trillions of the things.

We might as well include microcontrollers, considering how often we see projects replicating retrocomputers on them. The RP2350 can do a Mac 128k, and the ESP32-P4 gets you into the Quadra era. Which, honestly, covers the majority of daily...

Pixel Camera Puts Lo-Fi Images In The Palm Of Your Hand

Some things have an undeniable appeal, and lo-fi, pixelated Game Boy-camera-like images are one of them. In service of this, [Raul Zanardo] created his handheld pixel camera that goes the extra mile. It implements slick real-time pixel art filters and a number of other useful features.

For hardware, [Raul] uses a LilyGo T-Display S3 Pro which is an ESP32-based development board, camera, and color touchscreen display in a handheld form factor that vaguely resembles a chunky smartphone. The only change is swapping the stock camera for an OV3660-based camera...

OpenTitan Big Number (OTBN) Accelerator Hardware Extensions for Post-Quantum Cryptography – Extended Design Rationale

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Post-Failure Autopsy and Analysis of an LFP Battery

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=jPVTd8nui04

Recently [Kerry Wong] had one of his Cyclenbatt LiFePO4 batteries die after only a few dozen cycles, with a normal voltage still present on the terminals. One of the symptoms was that as soon as you try to charge it, the voltage goes up very rapidly to above 14 V due to what appears to be high internal resistance, and vice versa for discharging. In addition, the Bluetooth feature of the BMS appeared to have died as well, making non-invasive diagnostics somewhat tricky.

After gently cutting open the plastic case, [Kerry] was greeted by...

Raspberry Pi CM5 TV Stick Lite Adapts Compute Module 5 for HDMI Dongle Use

A compact carrier board referred to as the Raspberry Pi CM5 TV Stick Lite adapts the Compute Module 5 into a plug-in HDMI form factor. The design allows the module to connect directly to a display while requiring only USB-C power. The board targets portable or embedded use cases where minimizing cabling is a priority. […]

Every 3D Printable Film Camera, In One Place

For those of us who hack old cameras, the 3D printer has undoubtedly been a boon. High precision, or at least consistent precision, lightproof enclosures can be easily made and reproduced for others. As a result there are quite a few printable cameras out there, and we’ve featured our share here. We didn’t realize just how many there are without the work of [Sebastian] though, as he’s gathered together every one he can find in a glorious catalog of homemade photographic construction.

As a snapshot of the world of home made cameras it’s refreshing to see such a wide range of...

Raspberry Pi Introduces 3GB Pi 4 Amid Price Increases

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new 3GB variant of the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, priced at $83.75, alongside a set of price increases affecting multiple products across its lineup. The changes are attributed to a sharp rise in LPDDR4 memory costs, which the company reports have increased seven-fold over the past year. […]

Watch an Electro-Permanent Magnet In Action

https://invidious.privacyredirect.com/watch?v=FqN77SZF5zU

Electro-permanent magnets (EPMs) are pretty nifty concepts, and if you aren’t familiar with them, they are permanent magnets with the ability to be electrically switched on or off. Unlike an electromagnet — which maintains a magnetic field only while power is applied — an EPM can remain “on” even when power is removed. Want to see one work? There’s a video embedded below that shows one off, but if you’d like to know how they work, we have you covered.

Inside are two types of magnet, one of which is permanent and the other being a semi-hard magnet paired with an...