Introducing the PineNote

This month brings news that many of you have been waiting years for - we’re introducing the PineNote, a high-end e-ink device based on the powerful Quartz64 single board computer.

OsmoDevCall: "GSM-R and how it differs from GSM"

I've presented on GSM-R and how it differs from GSM as part of the OsmoDevCall talk series on Osmocom and related technology.

You can find the video recording at https://media.ccc.de/v/osmodevcall-20210813-laforge-gsm-r

The History of LUNA

Note: This is a crosspost of a Cynthion update on Crowd Supply: https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/luna/updates/the-history-of-luna

Ten years ago this summer I quit my day job at a radio research lab and made Great Scott Gadgets (GSG) my full-time job. I dedicated myself and the company to our mission: to put open source tools into the hands of innovative people. One of the first things I did at that time was to make a list of products I was interested in making. That list included “USB swiss army knife”. I didn’t know how to make such a thing at the time,...

Open Source Clair de Lune

Note: This is a crosspost of a Cynthion update on Crowd Supply: https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/luna/updates/open-source-moon-music

Open source is at the heart of everything Great Scott Gadgets does. When we design hardware, we publish the KiCad design files, firmware, and software under open source licenses. We try to ensure the documentation, tutorials, research papers, and videos we publish are openly licensed as well. It is the GSG way. While preparing for this Crowd Supply campaign, we took our commitment to open source even further by ensuring the music used in our campaign video is openly available too.

As we started thinking about our campaign video,...

Метеостанция на Banana Pi M64 (Linux, C#, Docker, RabbitMQ, AvaloniaUI)

Статей о создании метеостанции на базе Arduino не счесть. Можно сказать, если статья про метеостанцию, то это про микроконтроллеры Arduino, ESP32 или STM32. Но только не в этот раз. Будем запускать метеостанцию на Banana Pi BPI-M64 под Linux, без использования Arduino-подобных оберток в виде WiringPi, на C# .NET5. Пример метеостанции является демонстрацией встраиваемого решения работы с GPIO, датчиками и вывода пользовательского интерфейса напрямую на LCD. В решении используется: Linux (Armbian) — основная ОС, .NET и C# — платформа для создания прикладного ПО, AvaloniaUI — графической интерфейс с интерактивными графиками и анимацией, Docker — инструмент для развертывания, управления, доставки приложений, RabbitMQ...

LUNA's USB-C Connectors

Note: This is a crosspost of a Cynthion update on Crowd Supply: https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/cynthion/updates/q-and-a-session-on-luna-hardware-connectivity

Hi, friends!

As community manager for Great Scott Gadgets, one of my favourite tasks is finding answers to questions that come in through email, Twitter, GitHub, and Discord. Thankfully you all are great at asking questions, especially about the USB Type-C connectors on LUNA! In this blog post Michael Ossmann responds to most of the USB Type-C queries I’ve received (and asked) about LUNA in the last few weeks.

Kate’s original...

Домашняя Звезда Смерти — это возможно

И снова здравствуйте. Честно говоря, я планировал писать эту статью в самую последнюю очередь, планируя сначала рассказать о более «приземленных» вещах, тянул время. Но вот наступил критический момент, когда тянуть уже дальше некуда.
Бывало, задавали вопросы, а можно ли построить самостоятельно Звезду Смерти в домашних условиях, обладая знаниями лазерной техники. При всей абсурдности и глупости этого вопроса ответ на самом деле – «можно». По крайней мере, действующий макет в уменьшенном масштабе. Который даже стрелять лазерным излучением будет.

LUNA enclosure progress

Note: This is a crosspost of a Cynthion update on Crowd Supply: https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/luna/updates/a-look-at-current-progress-on-lunas-case-and-a-contest

Initially, we planned on creating a laser-cut acrylic enclosure for LUNA. We had started sketching out a design when Michael Ossmann saw the beautiful design work Timon of Diodes Delight did on the milled aluminum case for Glasgow. Mike contacted Timon right away to ask for his design help as we knew a milled aluminum case would be a high quality option, more durable and protective than our original layered acrylic idea. Soon after, Timon accepted our request and started working on a case.

We have worked with Timon...

OsmoDevCall: "High-Level intro to IMS, VoLTE & VoWiFi"

I've presented a talk High-Level intro to IMS, VoLTE & VoWiFi as part of the OsmoDevCall talk series on Osmocom and related technology.

You can find the video recording at https://media.ccc.de/v/osmodevcall-20210723-laforge-ims-volte-vowifi

Harald "LaF0rge" Welte: Notfallwarnung im Mobilfunknetz + Cell Broadcast (Teil 2)

[excuse this German-language post, this is targeted at the current German public discourse]

Ein paar Ergänzungen zu meinem blog-post gestern.

Ich benutzt den generischen Begriff PWS statt SMSCB, weil SMSCB strikt genommen nur im 2G-System existiert, und nur ein Layer ist, der dort für Notfallalarmierung verwendet wird.

Natürlich sind spezielle, nationale Deutsche Katastrophenschutz-Apps auch nützlich! Aber diese sollten allenfalls zusätzlich angeboten werden, nachdem man erstmal die grundlegende Alarmierung konform der relevanten internationalen (und auch EU-)Standards via Cell Broadcast / PWS realisiert. Man sagt ja auch nicht: Nachrichtensendungen braucht man im Radio nicht mehr, weil man die bereits im Fernsehen hat. Man will auf allen...