hack News - Page 7 of 14 - CNX Software

June 26, 2017June 26, 2017 by Karl Johnson - 4 Comments

Raiscube R2 3D Printer Review – Part 3: How to Install E3D Hotend Clone For Faster Prints

Karl here with the final article on Raiscube R2 3D printer for now. Going to talk about the challenges of this upgrade, and how to do it yourself. This has been one of the most frustrating projects that I have worked on. I set 3 goals for this upgrade: Simple as possible Least amount of modification to the printer ability to revert back I don’t feel like I met my goals but I feel like I made it 90%. Trying to meet the simple as possible with least amount of modifications is what caused me so much grief. What is needed E3D Hotend for $9.56 on GearBest Kapton Tape for $1.87 Thermal paste Rotary cutting tool (maybe hacksaw good luck with that) Shrink tube or electrical tape Wire 3 printed parts on Thingiverse Zip Ties & Velcro E3D Installation Steps Print 3 parts from Thingiverse above with 50% infill and .2 […]

June 20, 2017June 20, 2017 by Karl Johnson - No Comments

Raiscube R2 (Prusa I3 Clone) 3D Printer Review – Part 2: 3D Print Samples, E3D Clone Installation, Tips & Tricks

Karl here with part 2 Exploring Raiscube R2. That is the official name by Raiscube. Gonna look at some more prints. Some mistakes I made in first part and some simple mods. Maybe not so much mistakes but an oversight. Oversight / Mistake So in the first part of Raiscube Prusa i3 review, I mentioned there were not very good instructions, and they sent a blank SD card with the kit. I was wrong. On first inspection, it looked like a factory sealed SD card but it is not. It is an 8 GB card with videos, instructions, pictures, parts list, STL, and gcode files as well as an old version of Cura. Not blank at all with about 1.5 GB of files. It didn’t include settings but if you install the latest Cura, it just takes a little tweaking to print well. Official specs from SD card Brand RAISCUBE […]

April 11, 2017April 11, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

No Case for Orange Pi Zero or Other Tiny Development Boards? No problem: Use an Old Mouse

There now plenty of tiny ARM Linux boards, which are normally sold without case, but usually it’s not to hard to find a 3D printed case. But if you have small board, and don’t feel to purchase a case for it, there’s an other solution: use an old mouse. That’s exactly what Slider2732 has done with his Orange Pi Zero board to convert it to a mini PC running Armbian, or a game console running RetroOrangePi. So after the keyboard PC, here comes the mouse PC! So what did he exactly use for the mouse PC? Orange Pi Zero board An old Logitech mouse for the case and cable An 8GB micro SD card to flash the operating system A 4.3″ car reversing monitor (optional) acting as the display with composite input An Rii wireless keyboard/mouse, as the mouse function is not included with the mouse PC… A PAM8403 based […]

March 9, 2017March 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

NVIDIA Shield Android TV Gets Unofficial USB Tuner (ATSC/DVB) Support

NVIDIA Shield Android TV may only be available in a limited number of countries, but if you happen to live in a country where it’s officially sold, it can be one of the best options due its hard-to-beat price to performance ratio, and official Android TV software support from Google & Nvidia. One features it does not support out of the box is support for digital TV tuner, but linux4all has released an unofficial firmware image adding USB TV tuner support to Android TV (7.0) on Nvidia Shield Android TV 2015 and 2017 models. You’ll first need a supported tuner either Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD (DVB-C, DVB-T and DVB-T2), Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-850 (ATSC), Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-955Q (ATSC, QAM, Analog), or Sony PlayTV dual tuner (DVB-T). More tuners may be supported in the future. One you’ve got your tuner connected to Nvidia Shield Android TV, make sure you have the latest Android TV 7.0 OTA […]

March 3, 2017May 8, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 35 Comments

$12 AI Light ESP8266 based WiFi RGB Light Bulb Supports MQTT via ESPurna Open Source Firmware

AI-Thinker is famous in the maker world for their ESP8266 modules, but they’ve also recently launched a WiFi RGB light bulb that sells for about $12.5 and up on eBay and Aliexpress. Some people noticed, and bought samples online, including Xose Pérez (aka Tinkerman), ESPurna open-source firmware developer, who could confirm ESP8266 was used in the light bulb, did some investigations, and eventually added the light bulb into ESPurna, which means it can be managed using MQTT or a web interface. AI Light looks very similar to Philips Hue, but comes with WiFi instead of Zigbee. AI Light “M1636” key features: RGBW LED E27 bulb with 16.7M colors Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Encryption – AES Voltage Range – 110-240V LED Power – 5 watts WiFi Power Consumption – ≤0.3W Temperature Range – -5~45degree Humidity – ≤80% Certifications – FCC, CE, ROHS If you’re going to use the stock firmware, […]

February 22, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

RetroArch Game Emulator Can Now Run on Nintendo NES Classic Mini and Famicom Mini

Nintendo NES Classic Mini is a smaller replica of Nintendo NES with an HDMI output, and powered by an Allwinner R16 SoC. Nintendo has released a model with the same or similar hardware, but a different case for the Japanese market called Famicom Mini. Those two consoles are pre-loaded with about 30 games, and in theory you can’t add any more games. But as everything with an Allwinner processor, it can be hacked to match your needs, and people have already managed to add games using the micro USB connection and Hakchi2 script. What’s new is that you can now run RetroArch on the consoles, and probably on other Allwinner R16 platform such as the upcoming Banana Pi BPI-M2 Magic board, provided it’s connected to an LCD display. To achieve that, first you’ll need to install the latest Hakchi 2.12 tool with the procedure, clearly explained (with an older version) […]

January 27, 2017January 27, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Add a 2.5″ Hard Drive to Voyo VMac Mini mini PC with a $20 Custom SATA Cable

When I tore down Voyo VMac Mini mini PC, I noticed a 2.5″ mounting mechanism, and some weird 9-pin SATA connector, but since the hard drive would be so close to the components I assumed this specific case was not designed for a drive, but the board would be compatible. However, it’s now possible to purchase a $20 custom SATA cable from “Voyo Official Store” on Aliexpress to do just that.All you have to do is to open the case, connect the cable to the motherboard, and the hard drive, and mounting the hard drive to the mechanism with four screws. I’m not sure whether you should also use some kind of insulation between the drive and motherboard, as it will be really close, but the company does not mention anything about that. Cooling might also be an issue even though there’s a fan in the mini PC. It’s not […]

January 13, 2017January 18, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Xiaomi WiFi IP Cameras Hacked to Run RTSP Server, Disable Cloud Service

Xiaomi 720p and 1080p IP cameras include night vision, motion detection, WiFi connectivity, and can save videos locally, and send them to a cloud server in China for you to check your camera from anywhere. The 720p camera sells for about $50, while the 1080p camera goes for around $30 on GearBest and other websites, but comes with less IR LEDs and no optical zoom. [Update: The black version of the 720p camera goes for $29.99 on Amazon US] They works fine, but you need a specific mobile app to configure and control the camera, and if you’d rather not have the videos streamed to some server outside of your local network, github user “Fritz” has developed a set of scripts for the camera to disable cloud service, run a standard RTSP server, as well as HTTP and FTP servers on the camera. He did his work on Yi Ants […]