Category Archives: Tech

Keyboard leds sound reactive

How much fun …. just wanted to share my recording

I’ve written some tools for my keyboard like a mqtt client, but this is someone else’s. But it gave me some ideas …

My keyboard is a Razer BlackWidow V3

G1200 Microscope

Another good suggestion by Bigred.

We are all getting older and electronics smaller. It’s hard to see if your soldering blobs are okay!
Those blobs can reflect the light in a way that it’s not visible anymore to check them.

So i took Bigreds advice, and bought a G1200 Microscope.
It’s a cheap but helpfull little gadget.

  • 1-1200 times zoom
  • 7inch screen (720p)
  • SDcard
  • Lipo battery
  • Recording on micro sdcard in 12 mega pixels pictures and 1080P Video.
    (even got a timer)
  • Focus button, and extra lights (There is a light source in de camera head, which can be adjusted by a knob)
  • When connecting to your pc, you get 3 options
    • PC Camera ( … so you can record using your pc with for example OBS)
    • Mass Storage, to read the SDCARD
    • Rec_mode ?!? – No idea yet

Below some examples:

Picture example
Video example

SDCard Access:

Access to the sdcard is a little hard. Connecting via Mass Storage is a solution. But i’ve put a little piece of tape to get the card in or out of the slot.

You can view the recordings on the Microscope itself. So i was wondering, can it play any other movie files?

I placed different MOV files on the sdcard, but the microscope skipped the ones i places on the sdcard myself.

I started to look at the metadata, and saw a Codec ID
“qt 2016.04.21 (qt )”

 mediainfo VID_001.MOV
General
Complete name                            : VID_001.MOV
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   2016.04.21 (qt  )
File size                                : 551 MiB
Duration                                 : 12s 0ms
Overall bit rate                         : 385 Mbps
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 1 frame
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 12s 0ms
Source duration                          : 12s 360ms
Bit rate                                 : 14.5 Mbps
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.280
Stream size                              : 20.8 MiB (4%)
Source stream size                       : 21.3 MiB (4%)
Language                                 : 33
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
mdhd_Duration                            : 12000

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Little
Format settings, Sign                    : Signed
Codec ID                                 : sowt
Duration                                 : 12s 0ms
Source duration                          : 12s 288ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 128 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Channel positions                        : Front: C
Sampling rate                            : 8 000 Hz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 188 KiB (0%)
Source stream size                       : 192 KiB (0%)
Language                                 : 33
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1
Encoded date                             : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date                              : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00

Tried to change this with ffmpeg, but it would not change the way i want.

ffmpeg -i VID_002.MOV -c copy -map 0 -brand 'qt   2016.04.21 (qt  )' VID_007.MOV

mediainfo VID_007.MOV
General
Complete name                            : VID_007.MOV
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   0000.02 (qt  )  <--------------- nope

Header of the movie clip
maybe i have to look into this … later

00000000  00 00 00 14 66 74 79 70  71 74 20 20 20 16 04 21  |....ftypqt   ..!|
00000010  71 74 20 20 00 00 00 08  77 69 64 65 01 57 c7 e4  |qt  ....wide.W..|
00000020  6d 64 61 74 00 00 01 d8  0c 00 00 00 4a 4b 4c 4a  |mdat........JKLJ|
00000030  19 00 00 00 80 07 00 00  38 04 00 00 01 00 00 00  |........8.......|
00000040  10 00 00 00 40 1f 00 00  00 20 00 00 01 00 00 00  |....@.... ......|
00000050  0c 00 00 00 73 6f 77 74  00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  |....sowt........|
00000060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|

MCH 2022

Back from the hackers event “May Contain Hackers”

MCH2022 is a nonprofit outdoor hacker camp taking place in Zeewolde, the Netherlands, July 22 to 26 2022. The event is organized for and by volunteers from the worldwide hacker community.

Knowledge sharing, technological advancement, experimentation, connecting with your hacker peers and hacking are some of the core values of this event.

MCH2022 is the successor of a string of similar events happening every four years since 1989.
These are GHPHEUHIPHALWTHHAROHM and SHA.

I’ve bin to several of these big events. Besides these big events are many different smaller events (wannull, ne2000 etc).

First one i’ve been was HIP97. I went with Bigred at that time.
I had to get the tickets at that time, he didn’t had a handle at that time. It was Monique who came up with his new nick.

After HIP97 there was HAL2001 WTH2005 and OHM2013 which i was present.
HAL2001 the whole ICEcrew was present, WTH a part of them, OHM a few and i was with a few PRUTS friends.

Now i was with my girlfriend, AND with Bigred again!
Loads of fun and memories. Had not seen Bigred since a inbetween hacker party at my place.
So ’97 and now ’22 .. jeez 25 years!

So MCH, it was great again.
Loads of stuff to do and to see.
Weather was … okay. Two days where really hot, one day some light rain but a load of wind. Our neighbours tent collapsed, beer tents where reenforced.
First campsite with a supermarket!
Music stage was awesome, lasers and fire!

I went to a lot of talks, even my girlfriend found some she was interested in.

This was the last time i’ve brought my “Windows free zone tape”
This big roll of tape was used on many occasions.
I got this roll somewhere < 2000, I did a search but couldn’t find anything mentioning it on the web. Maybe some archive.org entry?

  • Starting a Home Computer Museum (which i almost did in the past)
  • streaming 360 video (going to try this with my Vuze XR Camera)
  • Non-Euclidean Doom: what happens to a game when pi is not 3.14159…
    (Really enjoyed this one)
  • Hacking the genome: how does it work, and should we?
  • And more

Besides the talks i’ve done some workshops:

  • Micropython on the badge (see my other post)
  • Kicad – PCB designing

Meanwhile we where looking at all the villages and hackerspaces. Loads of interesting people to meet. Like our neighbour two tents futher, he was also a home-brewer, and he brought a minifridge with beer taps connected to it.

When back at our tent or Bigreds Campervan, we talked about differences now and then. New technology, what we’ve been upto in the last years and tinkering, loads of tinkering.

I’ve brough a big plastic container with .. ehh “things to do ….”

  • My 6502, bigred helped me debugging the 16*2 display.
    (Luckily his campervan was packed with electronics!)
    We cannibalized one of his projects for a display, and re-flashed his eeprom programming arduino to test my display. ( The arduino i had to reflash later to program a rom he had given me for my 6502. )
    Other toys he gave me: Print for the programmer, and a C64 Cartridge print for Exrom and Game.
  • Mini C64 with a little screen and raspberry zero.
  • 5050 ledstrip (didn’t had time to reprogram this for our mood-light)
  • Handheld gamehat: Bigred found some old games he played when he was young
  • Mikrotik router, because i wanted to make a dmz for my girlfriends laptop. (MS)
  • Playing around with my Vuze XR camera
  • Huskycam, which i’m planning to use on a racetrack
  • DVB-T DAB FM Stick, got some hints and tips from Bigred.
    (Note to myself … fix the antenna!)
  • My Arduino touch bagpipe player with i2c
  • The wifi deauther, which has a display which i wanted to use to make a programmable clock for my 6502. Using a rotary encoder and the display to control the speed in Hz.
  • I spend many hours playing with the Badge and Kicad

Wrote some 6502 assembly, arduino sketches, php, bash and micropython.

While playing around with the badge i got some things working easily.
Spinning logo and blinky leds.
Next goal to achieve was, to get the gyroscope to control the angle of spinning.
Most of the code worked, but the gyro values stayed zero!
(After many hours …. you have to start/enable the chip/measurements on the bno055 first! .. duh! )

I didn’t had my dev directory from my main battlestation synced in my nextcloud, so changing things for the 6502 was a b*tch.
Used vasm and acme to generate a bin file to use to fill the rom.
Didn’t like the eeprom programmer program, because i could not easily check the rom contents.
Have to look into that later on.

While learning to use Kicad, which i only had been using to draw schematics (besides fritzing) , i learned to create a pcb.
Which gave me the idea to make a print for the power-on-reset for the 6502. Which is going to be the first PCB by ordering, instead of the old skool messing around with DIY print making. (see next post)

….. Oh, why my display was not working?
I even connected my 8bit logic analyzer to the pins of the display.

Everything was correct.
But i didn’t use a variable resistor for the contrast. Just a simple resistor i could find. Luckily … bigreds stash.
All those hours debugging, all for one resistor!
(I have to mention, we had a suspicion halfway. But it was too hot and we where too lazy to go to Bigred’s campervan, to get a potentiometer. )

Goodies from Bigred

MCH2022 Badge

Almost … friday will be the day i’ll attend May Contain Hackers.
Besides the awesome villages and talks.

UPDATE: 20220727
UPDATE: 20220812

You get a hackable badge, this one is more amazing as previous versions.

I can’t wait to have a go at this cool gadget. I personally could do without the pcb fancy design.

  • Espressif ESP32 Wrover-E with 16MB of flash storage and paired with 8MB of PSRAM, for front-end badge computing and compatibility with the badge.team ecosystem back to the 2017 SHA badge.
  • Lattice ICE40UP5K FPGA for hardware-accelerated graphics and user FPGA hardware designs.
  • Raspberry Pi RP2040 for advanced USB communication and board management.
  • 2Ah LiPo battery to give you a full day of fun on a charge.
  • 16-bit DAC with stereo output to headphone socket, onboard mono speaker.
  • ILI9341 2.2 inch TFT display with a 240 by 320 pixel resolution.
  • Bosch BNO055 orientation sensor.
  • Bosch BME680 environmental sensor.
  • The usual array of addressable LEDs.
  • SAO and Qwiic expansion connectors, FPGA PMOD expansion, plus onboard prototyping area.

Downloadable apps, micro python, Arduino ide programming.
All kinds of GPIO pins, leds buttons, sound.
Check out https://hatchery.badge.team/

You can play with this virtually here!
https://wokwi.com/projects/335445228923126356

So much potential! Great start for a DIY project.

I won’t post about the workings, thats all well documented online.
I shall post about the hacks/findings i personally did.

UPDATE: 20220727
Made a micropython program to keep your NameTag level to the ground (Better version)

UPDATE: 20220812

Someone made a 8bit logic analyser using the pmod connector !

Colleage at work brings a Freecom Internet Radio

Big mistake 😉 It a Linux ARM system with Busybox

Less do some searching on the web.
Ah .. enable telnet

Open in a browser:

http://192.168.1.x/admin/cgi-bin/debug.cgi

I was controlling my colleage’s music from the next room

Enable telnet:

Connect and install Pong:

telnet 192.168.1.x (username root)
# wget http://agilo.acjs.net/files/mppong/setup.sh
# chmod 755 setup.sh
# ./setup.sh
# ./start.sh
# ./start.sh musicpal # For the normal player

Links i have to look into:
https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/arm/musicpal.html

Old phones, organisers and gadgets

Old ones

  • Ericsson PF768?
  • One in between ?? with fancy wood cover
  • Nokia 7110 (Symbian)
  • Nokia 7650 (Symbian 6)
  • Nokia 6630 (Symbian  8)
This is not the one .. but simular .. still looking if i can find this one

Playing around with these i made a :

  • MMS server
  • Wap server
  • SMS gateway
  • Netsaint ( pre check_mk/icinga/nagios ) web thingy

Androids

  • G1 – First android phone (2009)
  • HTC Desire Z (2011)
  • Nexus (2013)
  • OnePlusOne (2015)
  • Realme (2019)
G1, HTC, Nexus and OnePlusOne
Current phone

Work phones

  • ??
  • Iphone for work ( stopped using this crap )
    • (funny story, got more for cheap to embed in my flightsim dash)
  • Sony Xperia XZ for work

Organizers

  • Multiple sharps
  • Xircom Rex
  • Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 (Linux)
  • Nokia 770

Organizing programs

  • Hyper (dos) – hyplus.exe (1989)
  • Twiki/Foswiki
  • Google docs
  • Joplin (Current)

Macro Buttons

A box with macro buttons for your PC using Arduino Leonardo

#include <Keypad.h> // matrix read
#include <Keyboard.h> // keyboard out

#define ENABLE_PULLUPS // fuck the resistors
#define NUMBUTTONS 25 // matrix
#define NUMROWS 5 // matrix rows
#define NUMCOLS 5 // matrix cols

int analog1 = A3;
int analog2 = A7;


int inPinctrl = 3;  // function ctrl, pull to vcc
int inPinalt = 4;  // function alt, pull to vcc 
int valctrl = 0;    // variable to store shifter
int valalt = 0;    // variable to store shifter
int joyx = 0;
int joyy = 0;

//define the symbols per key
char buttons[NUMROWS][NUMCOLS] = {
  {'q','w','e','r','t'},
  {'y','u','i','o','p'},
  {'a','s','d','f','g'},
  {'h','j','k','l','z'},
  {'x','c','v','b','n'},
};
// q-1 (star)      e-zoomin    r-prev t-up
// y-2 u-clearstar             o-open p-down
// a-3 (rate)      d-zoomreset f-full g-left
// h-4 j-clearrate             l-esc  z-right
// x-5 c-slideshow v=zoomout   b-next

//    14 16 10 9  8 
// 21 q  y  a  h  x  
// 20 w  u  s  j  c
// 19 e  i  d  k  v 
// 18 t  p  g  z  n
// 15 r  o  f  l  b 

byte rowPins[NUMROWS] = {16,20,19,18,15}; //connect to the row pinouts of the keypad
byte colPins[NUMCOLS] = {14,7,10,9,8}; //connect to the column pinouts of the keypad

//initialize an instance of class NewKeypad
Keypad buttbx = Keypad( makeKeymap(buttons), rowPins, colPins, NUMROWS, NUMCOLS); 


void setup() {

  Serial.begin(115200); // debug out baud
  pinMode(inPinctrl, INPUT);    // sets the digital pin 3 as input
  pinMode(inPinalt, INPUT);    // sets the digital pin 4 as input
  digitalWrite(inPinctrl, HIGH);       // turn on pullup resistors
  digitalWrite(inPinalt, HIGH);       // turn on pullup resistors
  Keyboard.begin();        // keyb starter
}



void loop() { // loop the program

  CheckAllButtons(); // check tha buttons

}


void CheckAllButtons(void) {
  joyx = analogRead(analog1);
  joyy = analogRead(analog2);
  Serial.println(joyx);
  Serial.println(joyy);
  if (joyx > 900) { 
      Keyboard.press(KEY_UP_ARROW);
      delay(150);
      Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }
  if (joyx < 200) { 
      Keyboard.press(KEY_DOWN_ARROW);
      delay(150);
      Keyboard.releaseAll();      
  }
  if (joyy > 900) { 
      Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ARROW);
      delay(150);
      Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }
  if (joyy < 200) { 
      Keyboard.press(KEY_RIGHT_ARROW);
      delay(150);
      Keyboard.releaseAll();
  }

  
  char key = buttbx.getKey();

  if (key != NO_KEY)  {
      valctrl = digitalRead(inPinctrl);   // read the function pin
      valalt = digitalRead(inPinalt);   // read the function pin
      Serial.write(valctrl);  // debug
      Serial.println();  // enter
      Serial.write(valalt);  // debug
      Serial.println();  // enter
      Serial.write(key);  // debug
      Serial.println();  // enter
      // button 1 
          if (key == 'q') {
            if (valctrl == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
            }
            if (valalt == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT); 
            }
           Keyboard.press('1');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button 2
          if (key == 'y') {
            if (valctrl == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
            }
            if (valalt == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT); 
            }
           Keyboard.press('2');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button 3
          if (key == 'a') {
            if (valctrl == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
            }
            if (valalt == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT); 
            }
           Keyboard.press('3');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button 4
          if (key == 'h') {
            if (valctrl == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
            }
            if (valalt == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT); 
            }
           Keyboard.press('4');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button 5
          if (key == 'x') {
            if (valctrl == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
            }
            if (valalt == 0) { // function shifter active?
               Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT); 
            }
           Keyboard.press('5');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button i - clear rate
          if (key == 'i') {
           Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
           Keyboard.press('0');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button k - clear label
          if (key == 'k') {
           Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ALT); 
           Keyboard.press('0');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button v - slideshow
          if (key == 'v') {
           Keyboard.press(KEY_ESC); 
           Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
           Keyboard.press('s');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button t - zoomin
          if (key == 't') {
           Keyboard.press('+'); 
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button g - zoomreset
          if (key == 'g') {
           Keyboard.press('*');
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
      // button n - zoomout
          if (key == 'n') {
           Keyboard.press('-'); 
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
//r  o  f  l  b
      // button r - prev
          if (key == 'r') {
           Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
           Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_ARROW); 
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
           
      // button o - open
          if (key == 'o') {
           Keyboard.press(KEY_RETURN); 
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
           
      // button f - full
          if (key == 'f') {
           Keyboard.press('f'); 
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
           
      // button l - esc
          if (key == 'l') {
           Keyboard.press(KEY_ESC); 
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
           
      // button b - next
          if (key == 'b') {
           Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); 
           Keyboard.press(KEY_RIGHT_ARROW); 
           delay(150);
           Keyboard.releaseAll();
          }
           





          
  }
}

Ordered a powerbank, got a drugs delivery? (not really)

I ordered a powerbank a while ago, which had to be shipped from china.

I got this, and tought “I’ve been scammed”

A adaptor without label/manual and NOT what i’ve ordered

So i send a mail to the place i’ve ordered from, this was their answer.

You need to unscrew the adapter, in which you will find your ordered product.
Your product has been shipped in this way since they can still be difficult at customs.
And then the shipping will take longer again.

Opening the adaptor:

My order

Staircase pictures

Maybe you also have a white area to fill, here is a suggestion.

For years we collected picture frames, weird and ugly.
We wanted to have a collection of images in our staircase, to fill the white area.
The images are all something we like, have interest in or are personal.

It needed to be on 3 walls, so here was my first design.

Around the corner picture frame i made

Working on the NS train displays

Working to get the Dutch Railways Signs working.

I was working on the backend, but frequently was asked to help working on the boards.

I can’t post any other pictures, because they are revealing to much information

I’ve worked on the boards, backend and a peer2peer VPN solution

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