Diverse Engineering Hacks Reveal User Experience and Safety Imperatives
TL;DR
- MEMS gyroscopes, when used with advanced noise and bias cancellation techniques, can accurately measure Earth's rotation, enabling their use as precise compasses by detecting directional orientation.
- Implementing assistive technology, such as audible notifications on radios, often results in a "curb-cut effect," making the product more user-friendly for everyone, not just those with specific needs.
- Old Kindle devices, running on Linux with accessible kernel sources, can be readily modified with minimal hardware effort, transforming them into versatile mini-computers for custom projects.
- The absence of balanced charging in modern power tool batteries, despite capable hardware, can lead to a significant capacity loss (up to 60%) due to cell voltage discrepancies.
- Early barcode scanners utilized simple analog electronics, employing a scanning laser and photodiodes to detect reflected light timing, which could be visualized on an oscilloscope.
- Electronic car door handles, lacking robust mechanical backups, pose a significant safety risk, as demonstrated by accidents where doors failed to open, prompting regulatory attention.
Deep Dive
The Hackaday Podcast episode 347 covers a diverse range of technical projects and discussions, highlighting practical engineering challenges and innovative solutions. The central theme is the ingenuity found in both personal projects and commercial product design, often revealing unexpected complexities and the critical importance of user experience and safety.
The episode delves into several key hacks, demonstrating how seemingly simple problems can lead to complex engineering. Elliot Williams discusses his personal journey with video color grading using LUTs and FFmpeg, illustrating how professional-level post-production can be achieved with accessible tools through a series of commands and image manipulation. Kristina Panos shares her extensive project of coding a personal library system based on barcodes, including the creation of custom EAN-13 barcodes for books lacking them. This project underscores the utility of barcode technology beyond commercial inventory, extending into personal organization and the development of custom software solutions.
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the practical application and limitations of sensors and hardware. Bertrand Salva's project to measure Earth's rotation using MEMS gyroscopes highlights the incredible sensitivity of modern sensors and the sophisticated techniques required to extract meaningful data from noise and bias. This hack not only demonstrates the Earth's rotation but also evolves into a method for determining true north, showcasing the potential for repurposing sensitive instrumentation. Similarly, the analysis of power tool batteries by Tool Scientist reveals a critical engineering oversight: the absence of cell balancing in high-end battery management systems, significantly impacting capacity and longevity. This oversight, despite capable hardware, points to a potential gap between engineering potential and implemented features, impacting user value.
The episode also touches upon user interface design and accessibility, particularly in the context of vehicles. The hack by Projects in Motion to retrofit physical heated seat controls in a modern vehicle addresses the frustration of relying solely on touchscreens, demonstrating how integrating custom hardware with vehicle CAN and LIN buses can restore essential functionality. This is further amplified by the discussion of the "curb cut effect," where assistive technologies, like an audible frequency indicator on an FM radio designed for the visually impaired, ultimately benefit all users by simplifying interaction and enhancing safety, particularly by reducing driver distraction.
Finally, the discussion on disappearing car door handles, particularly those on Teslas, serves as a stark warning about prioritizing form over function and the critical need for robust government regulation. The episode highlights how the absence of reliable mechanical backups in electronically actuated door handles has led to dangerous situations and fatalities, emphasizing that essential safety features should not be compromised by design trends. The potential for regulatory intervention, spurred by these incidents, underscores the ongoing tension between innovation and established safety standards.
Action Items
- Audit power tool battery management systems: Verify balance charging implementation for 3-5 battery models to prevent capacity loss and premature degradation.
- Design vehicle emergency door release: Implement a secondary mechanical release for electronic door handles, ensuring functionality without power.
- Create synth library for children: Develop a simplified, robust synth module with 4-8 note capacity and intuitive controls for ages 3+.
- Implement Kindle firmware customization: Solder three wires to establish a serial terminal on older Kindles for custom kernel development.
- Develop assistive radio features: Integrate audible notifications for power and frequency changes into an FM radio design for improved accessibility.
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View Episode Notes →Key Quotes
"And it ends up being two two lines and some GIMP in the middle that was my personal growth de jour nice"
Kristina Panos describes the process of color grading video footage using ffmpeg and GIMP. Panos highlights that what might seem like a complex, professional task can be achieved with a surprisingly simple command-line process and image editing, framing it as a personal learning achievement.
"I ended up just making 114 because i had 24 on my first page and then i had 30 on subsequent pages and it added up to 114 and i was like i'm done making barcodes and my husband was like i'll tell you what by the time you run out i will have made you a thing that generates barcodes i'm like okay cool nice"
Kristina Panos recounts the process of creating custom barcodes for her personal book library system. Panos explains the manual effort involved in generating these barcodes and the collaborative solution with her husband to automate the process, illustrating the practical challenges and personal satisfaction in such a project.
"The idea there is that because he's measuring down in kind of the least significant bit he's going to get one zero zero one zero one zero one you know like that and average those all together and hopefully get a number that's you know in between the relative number of ones and zeros gives you a value that's in between them and this also does some noise cancellation if there are random fluctuations in there"
Elliot Williams explains the methodology used in measuring Earth's rotation with MEMS gyroscopes. Williams details how averaging a large number of readings from the least significant bit of the sensor data helps to cancel out random noise and derive a more accurate measurement of the Earth's slow rotation.
"The microcontroller is obviously reading the individual cell voltages across and then never issuing the code to go into balance charging mode for whatever reason and i just love this because what he this is this is great hacking because he just fetches the data sheet for the bms and like decodes all of the i2c commands going across the line"
Elliot Williams discusses the investigation into whether Milwaukee's new "Forge" battery packs implement balance charging. Williams explains how by analyzing the communication between the microcontroller and the Battery Management System (BMS) chip, they could determine that the capability for balance charging was present but not being utilized by the firmware.
"The term for this phenomenon where assistive technology ends up being good for people who didn't need the accommodation just because it makes it simpler and easier to use and so this is called the curb cut effect named after the accessibility for people in wheelchairs you know how the curb dips down it turns out to be better for everybody nobody's stumping their toe when they walk up onto the sidewalk now"
Elliot Williams introduces the "curb cut effect" in the context of assistive technology. Williams explains that features designed for accessibility, like the lowered curbs for wheelchair users, often benefit a wider range of people by making products and environments more universally user-friendly.
"And it ends up being a very interesting kind of instrumentation problem if you want to talk about the accuracy of one of these sensors you might worry about it having some bias in it like it reads a spin in one axis too high and a spin in another axis too low and so he tries to knock that out of the system by taking two gyroscopes and putting them back to back and then he mounts the whole thing on a servo motor and he turns it 180 degrees and then he turns it 90 degrees and then he turns it another 180 degrees"
Elliot Williams describes a technique used to mitigate sensor bias in a project measuring Earth's rotation. Williams explains how by using two gyroscopes in a back-to-back configuration and rotating the assembly, the system can effectively cancel out inherent biases in the individual sensors.
Resources
External Resources
Books
- "The Unexpected Joys of Hacking an Old Kindle" by Tom Nardi - Mentioned as a Hackaday article detailing the process of modifying an old Kindle.
Articles & Papers
- "Barcodes, Lasers, and Fourier Transforms" (Usagi Electric) - Referenced as a video about barcode scanners that led to a discussion on barcodes.
- "Barcodes" by Adam Fabio (Hackaday) - Mentioned as an article about barcodes that Usagi Electric referenced in their video.
- "Microsoft Tag" - Discussed as a type of colored 2D barcode.
People
- Bertrand Salva - Mentioned for measuring Earth's rotation with two gyroscopes.
- Alistair - Mentioned for building a synth for a three-year-old.
- Adam Fabio - Mentioned as the author of a Hackaday article about barcodes.
- SN Carter - Mentioned for designing an assistive FM radio with audible notifications.
- Ellie Ferretti - Mentioned for a Supercon Design Lab talk on making game onboarding more assistive.
- Leon - Mentioned for building a DIY TENS machine tailored for hands.
- Jason Torchinsky - Mentioned for a discussion on the history and safety of airplane toilets.
- Tom Nardi - Mentioned for writing an article about hacking an old Kindle.
- Luann - Mentioned for a rant about disappearing car door handles and automotive regulations.
Organizations & Institutions
- Hackaday - Mentioned as the source of articles and the podcast itself.
- Fremont, CA - Mentioned as the location of a vintage computer festival.
- Audi - Mentioned as a manufacturer that has experimented with disappearing door handles with mechanical backup.
- Fiat - Mentioned as a manufacturer that has experimented with disappearing door handles with mechanical backup.
- Tesla - Mentioned in relation to issues with retractable car door handles and their lack of mechanical backup.
Tools & Software
- FFmpeg - Mentioned as a video manipulation tool used for color grading.
- GIMP - Mentioned as an image editor used for tweaking color tables.
- Arduino Inventor's Kit - Mentioned as the initial hardware used for a baby's first synth project.
- Elegoo Nano - Mentioned as a component used in a baby's first synth project.
- ESP32 S3 - Mentioned as a microcontroller used in a vehicle retrofit for heated seats.
- WireViz - Mentioned for creating diagrams for vehicle wiring.
- BMI 160 - Mentioned as a type of MEMS gyroscope used for measuring Earth's rotation.
- T5767 FM Stereo Module - Mentioned as a component in an assistive FM radio.
- ATmega328 - Mentioned as a microcontroller used in an assistive FM radio.
- ATmega2560 - Mentioned as a microcontroller used in an analog polyphonic synth.
Websites & Online Resources
- Hackaday.com/podcast - Mentioned as the location to submit guesses for the "What's That Sound" segment.
- Hackaday.io - Mentioned as a platform where a project related to using MEMS gyroscopes as a compass is linked.
Other Resources
- Video LUTs (Lookup Tables) - Discussed in the context of color grading video footage.
- EAN 13 format - Mentioned as a barcode format used for personal book collections.
- UPC-A - Mentioned in relation to barcode sync bits.
- MEMS Gyroscopes - Discussed as sensors capable of measuring Earth's rotation.
- Foucault Pendulum - Mentioned as a device that demonstrates Earth's rotation.
- MIDI messages - Mentioned as output from a baby's first synth project.
- OLED display - Mentioned as providing visual feedback on a baby's first synth.
- Helium Neon Laser - Discussed as a type of laser historically used in barcode scanners.
- CAN Bus - Mentioned as a communication protocol used in modern vehicles for seat controls.
- LIN Bus - Mentioned as a communication protocol used in modern vehicles for seat controls.
- Lithium-ion cells - Discussed in the context of battery balancing in power tool batteries.
- Curb Cut Effect - Mentioned as a phenomenon where assistive technology benefits everyone.
- PCB Hydrofoils - Mentioned as custom-made water sensors for hydrofoils.
- Retrograde Clock - Described as a clock where hands move backward and then reset.
- Crookes Radiometer - Used as an analogy for an acoustic radiometer.
- TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nervous Stimulation) - Discussed as a pain relief mechanism.
- Polyphonic Synth - Described as an analog synth with eight voice cards.
- Vacuum Assisted Toilets - Mentioned as a technology used in airplane toilets since the 1980s.
- PTFE lined bowls - Mentioned as a component of airplane toilet bowls.
- Honey Truck - Mentioned as a vehicle used to empty airplane waste tanks.
- ADB (Android Debug Bridge) - Mentioned as a tool for updating Kindle firmware.
- Linux Kernel - Discussed in the context of hacking old Kindles.
- Electronic Door Handles - Discussed in relation to safety concerns and potential regulation.
- Glow in the dark safety pulls - Mentioned as a safety feature for car trunks.