HackSpace #70

In the last year or so, AI has been pushing forwards at almost every level. Neural networks have been squeezed down to fit on small microcontrollers to allow them to sift data for interesting anomalies. At the same time, data centres are being loaded up with specialist hardware to craft realistic images (such as the one on this issue’s cover). AI is a constantly evolving topic that has long been the preserve of universities. It has now broken out of academia and is living amongst us. It’s possible to train systems on your own data to think in the ways you want them to, tap into language systems so advanced they almost seem sentient, or pluck fully-formed images from a silicon brain. Some people claim that this AI will be…

hsmag.cc/CrosberryPi We’ve seen cyberdecks built out of Geiger counters, flight cases, and other rugged boxes, all suitable for hacking on the go in the increasingly likely event of a nuclear apocalypse. What we’ve never seen before is a cyberdeck housed in a vintage record player. Enter, the Crosberry Pi. It’s housed in a Crosley portable record player and, brilliantly, it uses the original speakers and tone and volume knobs. Computing power is provided by a Raspberry Pi 4, and there’s a trackball mouse, mechanical keyboard, and a 10.1-inch screen for all your interface needs.…

hsmag.cc/MemoryBox Reddit user Kind-Rope5478 built this video player using a Raspberry Pi 4, a touchscreen, a pair of 5 W 2-inch speakers, an NFC card reader, and a couple of other bits and bobs. Videos are stored on NFC cards, and play automatically when the card is inserted into the side of the machine. We’ve seen this kind of thing before, but what caught our eye is the beautiful oak woodwork and brass screws; apparently the maker only had access to hand tools and an old drill-press, but even so, we think there’s a great mid-century aesthetic here. What makes this build so special, however, is that the code for reading the cards, playing the videos, and displaying the date, time, and a randomly chosen quotation, was all written by…

hsmag.cc/TinyStirlingEngine Stirling engines provide a way to turn heat into linear, then rotary motion. They were invented around the time of the steam engine, but never took off to the same degree; nowadays they’re making a comeback as a way of turning heat from the sun into something more harvestable. This example, with its incredibly small 0.02cc engine, won’t be powering a sustainable future for us, but it does give us a brilliant insight into just how accurately a skilled machinist can make things out of metal. You really have to watch the video to get a sense of the scale of the engine. We watched fairly unimpressed for a few minutes until a giant pencil hove into view, suddenly giving us a sense of scale and wonder. For example,…

hsmag.cc/ArcReactorClock We like a Marvel prop, and we like knowing what time it is, so we love this clock built into an Iron Man-style arc reactor. Based heavily on the work of YR3Design, this clock by Jégé l’ingé is a masterpiece of 3D-printed snap-to-fit parts, held together with glue and a bit of decorative copper wire. It’s connected to the internet via an ESP32, and uses an RGB LED ring plus a pair of blue LEDs to light up the clock display in the centre of the ring. It’ll take power either from a phone charger or from a computer’s USB port, and it flashes every time an hour passes. Marvel-lous!…

hsmag.cc/HelmOfEredin Starting with a jigsaw, Oleksandr Hrytsai cuts cross sections out of what looks like 2 cm thick oak boards, then laminates them into the approximate shape of a helmet. Then the magic begins. Using a pleasingly low-tech tool – a small angle grinder – he carves away the steps on the inside of the helmet to make a smooth surface, then switches to smaller grinding machines and hand tools to shape the exterior of the helm. Watching Oleksandr at work is incredibly therapeutic: seeing the shape emerge out of the wood is just amazing. Like so many craftspeople, the tools he uses are cheap and readily available; the rare magic comes from the skills of the maker. We’re in awe of the spatial awareness it must take to turn…