Taking a break from his usual prodding at suspicious AliExpress USB chargers, [DiodeGoneWild] recently had a gander at what used to be a good USB charger. The Anker 737 USB charger prior to its autopsy. Before it went completely dead, the Anker 737 GaNPrime USB charger which a viewer sent him was capable of up […]
Theoretically bicycle rental services are a great thing, as they give anyone the means to travel around comfortably without immediately having to rent a car, hail a taxi or brave whatever the local public transport options may be. That is until said services go out of business and suddenly thousands of increasingly more proprietary and […]
Once a printed circuit board (PCB) has been assembled it’s rather hard to look inside of it, which can be problematic when you have e.g. a multilayer PCB of an (old) system that you really would like to dissect to take a look at the copper layers and other details that may be hidden inside, […]
If you talk about Starlink, you are usually talking about the satellites that orbit the Earth carrying data to and from ground stations. Why not? Space is cool. But there’s another important part of the system: the terminals themselves. Thanks to [DarkNavy], you don’t have to tear one open yourself to see what’s inside. The […]
Ever wondered what happens when you insert a bill into a vending machine? [Janne] is back with his latest project: reverse engineering a banknote validator. Curious about how these common devices work, he searched for information but found few resources explaining their operation. To learn more, [Janne] explored the security features that protect banknotes from […]
Recently [Colin Leroy-Mira] found himself slipping into a bit of a rabbit hole while investigating why only under Apple II MAME emulation there was a lot of flickering when using the (emulated) Apple II MouseCard. This issue could not be reproduced on real (PAL or NTSC) hardware. The answer all comes down to how the […]
The fact that modern-day x86 processors still pretty much support the same operating systems and software as their ancestors did is quite a feat. Much of this effort had already been accomplished with the release of the 80386 (later 386) CPU in 1985, which was not only the first 32-bit x86 CPU, but was also […]
Historically, efforts to create original games and tools, port over open source emulators, and explore a game console’s hardware and software have been generally lumped together under the banner of “homebrew.” While not the intended outcome, it’s often the case that exploring a console in this manner unlocks methods to run pirated games. For example, […]
This project by [Miro] is awesome, not only did he build a replica Enigma machine using modern technologies, but after completing it, he went back and revised several components to make it more usable. We’ve featured Enigma machines here before; they are complex combinations of mechanical and electrical components that form one of the most […]
The PET opened, showing the motherboard. (Credit: Ken Shirriff) An unavoidable part of old home computer systems and kin like the Commodore PET is that due to the age of their components they will develop issues that go far beyond what was covered in the official repair manual, not to mention require unconventional repairs. A […]