Mounting computers on wooden boards

Putting a Pentium 4 rig, power supply and all, on piece of plywood for easy hanging.

Autodesk: How to lose loyal EAGLE customers

A few days ago, Autodesk has announecd that the popular EAGLE electronics design automation (EDA) software is moving to a subscription based model.

When previously you paid once for a license and could use that version/license as long as you wanted, there now is a monthly subscription fee. Once you stop paying, you loose the right to use the software. Welcome to the brave new world.

I have remotely observed this subscription model as a general trend in the proprietary software universe. So far it hasn't affected me at all, as the only two proprietary applications I use on a regular basis during the last decade are...

Some thoughts on 33C3

I've just had the pleasure of attending all four days of 33C3 and have returned home with somewhat mixed feelings.

I've been a regular visitor and speaker at CCC events since 15C3 in 1998, which among other things means I'm an old man now. But I digress ;)

The event has come extremely far in those years. And to be honest, I struggle with the size. Back then, it was a meeting of like-minded hackers. You had the feeling that you know a significant portion of the attendees, and it was easy to connect to fellow hackers.

These days, both the number of attendees and...

33C3 talk on dissecting cellular modems

Yesterday, together with Holger 'zecke' Freyther, I co-presented at 33C3 about Dissectiong modern (3G/4G) cellular modems.

This presentation covers some of our recent explorations into a specific type of 3G/4G cellular modems, which next to the regular modem/baseband processor also contain a Cortex-A5 core that (unexpectedly) runs Linux.

We want to use such modems for building self-contained M2M devices that run the entire application inside the modem itself, without any external needs except electrical power, SIM card and antenna.

Next to that, they also pose an ideal platform for testing the Osmocom network-side projects for running GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSPA cellular networks.

You can find the Slides and the Video...

Contribute to Osmocom 3.5G and receive a free femtocell

In 2016, Osmocom gained initial 3.5G support with osmo-iuh and the Iu interface extensions of our libmsc and OsmoSGSN code. This means you can run your own small open source 3.5G cellular network for SMS, Voice and Data services.

However, the project needs more contributors: Become an active member in the Osmocom development community and get your nano3G femtocell for free.

I'm happy to announce that my company sysmocom hereby issues a call for proposals to the general public. Please describe in a short proposal how you would help us improving the Osmocom project if you were to receive one of those free femtocells.

Details of this proposal can be...

Sonoff special offer on banggood for WiFi Sonoff relay

Tthere is a special offer on SONOFF module on Banggood from today until 10th of January. You can buy the module for under $6, $5.99 ( 5.79 if you order it from mobile application).
The SONOFF module is produced by Itead.cc and can be used with their mobile app eWeLink or you can write your own software.
The core of the module is the ESP8266 and is connected to a 5V relay capable of 10A ( I will not bet on that)
I already ordered few of them and I am planning to put my own software so in the end I can...

Raspberry Pi VGA HAT, 24-bit 1080p

The Raspberry Pi VGA Board by lo-tech.co.uk offers a high quality 24-bit colour display at 1080p.

Amazon's Echo DOT 2 controls ESP8266

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LQ2GrqlbJ5Q/0.jpg

Since Amazon's Echo Dot 2 can control the Belkin's WeMos why not emulate it with this Esp8266 .
ESP after is connected to the WiFi network will start an UDP server on address 239.255.255.250 port 1900 and an HTTP server on its own IP address and port 80. Alexa on "Alexa, discover my devices " will send UDP on multicast address/port and the ESP will reply with its configuration (IP/PORT). 
Echo Dot 2 will get the setup.xml from ESP on provided IP and Port.
From now on the Echo cand send SendBinaryState command that will end up in trigger a GPIO.
SSDP protocol is...

Accessing 3GPP specs in PDF format

When you work with GSM/cellular systems, the definite resource are the specifications. They were originally released by ETSI, later by 3GPP.

The problem start with the fact that there are separate numbering schemes. Everyone in the cellular industry I know always uses the GSM/3GPP TS numbering scheme, i.e. something like 3GPP TS 44.008. However, ETSI assigns its own numbers to the specs, like ETSI TS 144008. Now in most cases, it is as simple s removing the '.' and prefixing the '1' in the beginning. However, that's not always true and there are exceptions such as 3GPP TS 01.01 mapping to ETSI TS 101855. ...

Open Hardware IEEE 802.15.4 adapter "ATUSB" available again

Many years ago, in the aftermath of Openmoko shutting down, fellow former Linux kernel hacker Werner Almesberger was working on an IEEE 802.15.4 (WPAN) adapter for the Ben Nanonote.

As a spin-off to that, the ATUSB device was designed: A general-purpose open hardware (and FOSS firmware + driver) IEEE 802.15.4 adapter that can be plugged into any USB port.

This adapter has received a mainline Linux kernel driver written by Werner Almesberger and Stefan Schmidt, which was eventually merged into mainline Linux in May 2015 (kernel v4.2 and later).

Earlier in 2016, Stefan Schmidt (the current ATUSB Linux driver maintainer) approached me about the situation that ATUSB hardware was frequently asked for,...