Category: Electronics Videos
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scanlime055 – Pen Wiggler
On Diode Zone and YouTube: It’s a vibrating robot that draws using closed loop feedback. This video was made possible by my patrons, [https://patreon.com/scanlime] Project files: https://git.approximate.life/wiggler.git/
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scanlime054 – Terrible Button
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Teardown for the Ring doorbell camera. It’s not good.
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scanlime053 – Active Stylus Teardown
On Diode Zone and YouTube: What’s inside this “active stylus” and how does it work? No spoilers ;) Thanks to my patrons for making these videos possible.
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scanlime052 – Sewing Servo Mess
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Finally debugging an old project. It’s a mess but we can work with this.
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scanlime051 – Four Buttons
On Diode Zone and YouTube: In which one button gets four stylish buddies, via forward and reverse engineering. Thanks to my patrons for their continued support.
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scanlime050 – Perler Bead Shaker
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Briefly looking back at an old project where I tried to push the capabilities of the first 3D printer I had, the Makerbot Thing-o-Matic designed in late 2010. This project from 2011 was intended to be a full printer or sort and place machine for fusible “Perler” style plastic art…
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scanlime049 – iCEBreaker FPGA Quick Look
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Today’s video is about a package sent in by 1BitSquared with a prototype FPGA board. These boards are part of a new generation of open hardware which builds on a foundation of open source FPGA tools. At the time we streamed this live, the crowdfunding campaign was about to launch.…
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scanlime048 – Icestudio LED Matrix Driver Part 4
On Diode Zone and YouTube: In the fourth and final part of our HUB75-style display driver series, we make a cool demo in gateware using the modular driver! In this segment we’ll add a frame buffer and implement a video feedback plus munching squares effect in Verilog and Icestudio. scanlime048 – Icestudio LED Matrix Driver…
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scanlime047 – Icestudio LED Matrix Driver Part 3
On Diode Zone and YouTube: In the third part of our HUB75-style display driver in Verilog and Icestudio, we start looking at demoscene-style effects to implement next, and implement a gamma correction and dithering module to improve color quality. scanlime047 – Icestudio LED Matrix Driver Part 3 The Icestudio editor and the entire build toolchain…
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scanlime046 – Icestudio LED Matrix Driver Part 2
On Diode Zone and YouTube: In this second part of the HUB75-style display driver in Verilog and Icestudio, we’ll debug and reorganize the existing gateware into something modular that we can build upon, with nice and stable Binary Code Modulation for brightness control. scanlime046 – Icestudio LED Matrix Driver Part 2 The Icestudio editor and…
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scanlime045 – Icestudio LED Matrix Driver Part 1
On Diode Zone and YouTube: In this project we’ll be programming up some FPGA “gateware” using the visual Icestudio environment and the industry standard Verilog language, in order to display full color images on an inexpensive HUB75E-style LED video wall panel. This first video focuses on project bringup and just getting *something* on the screen,…
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scanlime044 – FPGA Quick Answer
On Diode Zone and YouTube: We’re doing some projects now with FPGAs, but first what even is that? This is a quick answer, compiled from the unscripted explanations I would give live. scanlime044 – FPGA Quick Answer Thank you so much for watching, subscribing, and sharing my videos. And a special thanks to my supporters…
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scanlime043 – Diode Zone
On Diode Zone and YouTube: What is Diode Zone? It’s a video site, a PeerTube instance, a friendly place you can post videos, and you can find out more in this collection of unscripted explanations from earlier live streams. Thank you so much for watching, subscribing, and sharing my videos. And a special thanks to…
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scanlime042 – New Isopod Colony
On Diode Zone and YouTube: You can hang out with the new isopod colony live, or check out time lapse recordings. The microscope mount is free on Thingiverse or Github. scanlime042 – New Isopod Colony Thank you so much for watching, subscribing, and sharing my videos. And a special thanks to my supporters on Patreon,…
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scanlime041 – Pineapple Slime Oscillator
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Assemble the Boldport Ananas with me, in a trippy music video full of fluorescent goo and disco ball motors! This is a fun electronics kit that calmly pulses its yellow LEDs with a set of transistorized ring oscillators. Thank you so much for watching, subscribing, and sharing my videos. And…
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scanlime040 – Test Jig Quick Look
On Diode Zone and YouTube: I found these two test jigs for sale at a local business that was relocating. They would have been used as part of the quality assurance procedure for smart bike lights. Later we might go into more detail on the firmware, or repurpose the formidable hunks of metal for another…
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scanlime039 – Unboxing Cameras and LEDs, USB 3 and pre-UNIX
On Diode Zone and YouTube: In my live streams I’ve been inviting you to send me new reverse engineering projects at my P.O. box. In these videos, I’ll introduce a few of the items I’ve been receiving, with a bit of the mystery preserved! Thank you so much for watching, subscribing, and sharing my videos.…
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scanlime037 – Squishy Resistor Repair
On Diode Zone and YouTube: These wire-wound resistors have seen better days, and my trusty Orion Delta printer from SeeMeCNC needs a replacement heater. More recent printer designs use cartridge heaters, but this’ll be an oldschool repair with fresh resistors and silicone goop. After the repair, I’ll do a test print with time lapse! Thank…
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scanlime036 – DaveCAD Sticky Printer
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Some of you may know about a fancy CAD package used by a certain popular electronics rambler on utube, and I wanted a piece of that sweet handwritten design. Hanging with Tuco Crew one night, the tiger and I put this crack together. Milled linoleum printing block, 3D printed alignment…
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scanlime035 – Lite2Sound BC
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Is there a synthesizer in your LED, or a song in the shadows? Are your lights quiet or do they roar? This surface mount soldering kit from Boldport and Rare Waves will help you hear the audio-frequency signals that hitch a ride on any light source, whether it’s modulated LEDs…
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scanlime034 – Tiny Oven Kit
On Diode Zone and YouTube: This cute 3D soldering kit makes for a chill build video. The package comes our way as a crowdfunding reward, from pitching in to help Signal Ditch buy a reflow oven. Now we can all enjoy the sights and sounds of the build, but sadly I can’t share the sweet…
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scanlime033 – Robot Odyssey Full Playthrough
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Is this a YouTube first, a full play of the whole game? It’s a classic that many have lost patience for, including my childhood self. It’s like if Atari 2600 Adventure were full of digital logic puzzles. Let’s do this, play through from start to finish, and test the new…
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scanlime032 – Early Flyer View
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Tuco Flyer is actually flying now, so let’s see what it can do! This is a high-level update on where the project is at and what the next steps are. And cat! Lots of Tuco the cat. This project is open source hardware and software, you can get the code…
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scanlime031 – Zoom H2
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Just a quick video as I keep the equipment running: my Zoom H2 microphone was damaged thanks to some leaky batteries, but a brush and some Deoxit and isopropanol help me get it running again. Music for this episode is “Hot Drop Potato” by Jesse Spillane, licensed under CC BY…
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scanlime030 – Why Reverse a Gimbal
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Why do all this gimbal reversing? It works so nicely now, and I didn’t need to design the whole thing from scratch! Notes and tools are in GitHub: https://git.approximate.life/fygimbal.git/ https://github.com/TucoFlyer Music for this episode is “I Don’t See the Branches, I See the Leaves” by Chris Zabriskie, licensed under CC…
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scanlime029 – Bad Gear
On Diode Zone and YouTube: A winch gear split, taking a closer look and failing to repair it. How would you fix this nylon helical gear? Music for this episode is “パワーポイント” (Power Point) by Anonymous420, available under a CC0 1.0 Universal license. Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I can keep making these…
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scanlime028 – Four Winches
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Continuing our Tuco Flyer robotic camera project, this montage covers the remaining electronics assembly and bot calibration to get our winches flying a 1.5kg spool around the shop! Music for this episode is “Something Elated” by Broke For Free, licensed under CC BY 3.0, remixed slightly. Please consider supporting me…
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Smart Camera Gimbal Bot – scanlime:027
On Diode Zone and YouTube: In this episode, we’re building the Tuco Flyer bot itself, and giving it the power of computer vision so it can look around and follow my cat. Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I can keep making these vids! https://www.patreon.com/scanlime I’m also trying out Liberapay as an alternative to…
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Winch Bot – scanlime:026
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Finally some locomotion for the flying camera system, it’s a 3D printed 1-dimensional robot that knows how to hang out on a network and pull rope. Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I can keep making these vids! https://www.patreon.com/scanlime Subscribe to YouTube notifications or follow https://twitter.com/scanlimelive for live streaming…
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bigclive’s LED Tree – scanlime:025
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Join me in assembling a surprise LED lighting kit from bigclive himself! Check out his channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/bigclivedotcom Subscribe to YouTube notifications or follow https://twitter.com/scanlimelive for live streaming announcements. I’m also streaming on Twitch now, at https://twitch.tv/scanlime Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I can keep making these vids!…
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Boldport Stringy Synthesizer – scanlime:024
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Last month’s Boldport Club kit was a collaboration with Madlab to produce this beautiful little guitar synthesizer kit, the Stringy! You can learn more about the Boldport Club and get your own delighful kits by signing up at https://www.boldport.club/ Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I can keep making…
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Intel Euclid Teardown – scanlime:022
On Diode Zone and YouTube: This is a teardown and quick look at the Intel Euclid, a new developer platform for robotics which combines an Atom CPU and RealSense depth cameras. This video was filmed in front of a live Internet audience. Stream archive: https://youtu.be/tIGvWYMwLzA or https://diode.zone/w/cfnNUPgeQEjFtY5cQxEBoC Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I…
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Feiyu Gimbal Serial Hack – scanlime:021
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Join this reverse-engineering journey where I wind through software and hardware in a Feiyu Tech Mini3D gimbal, in order to give it serial controls more suitable for my Tuco Flyer robot project. I start out by taking apart the wire protocol used by the settings app, then after accidentally breaking…
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scanlime:019 / Gimbal SDI Camera Mod
On Diode Zone and YouTube: This is a mechanical and electrical modification to the Feiyu Mini3D 3-axis brushless gimbal, so it can hold a Crazyfire HZ-100P SDI camera and LIDAR-Lite distance sensor. Now I can use this small and inexpensive gimbal for the new live streaming cat robot! Please consider supporting me on Patreon so…
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scanlime:018 / Tuco the Cat’s Robot
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Meet my cat, Tuco. He’s a polydactyl American Curl kitty who loves fetching nylon 1/4-20 bolts. This is a video introduction to the new project I’m building and streaming, a camera robot for interacting with Tuco online. Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I can keep making these vids!…
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scanlime:017 / Boldport #3, Cordwood Puzzle
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Assembling the Cordwood Puzzle, an electronics kit from the Boldport Club subscription service. It’s a close look at a relaxing build with a vintage look and delightfully unique design. Check out Saar’s work: https://www.boldport.com/ This video was filmed in front of a live Internet audience. Stream archives: Dec 2, 2016:…
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scanlime:016 / Shiny Blue Vacuum Fluorescent Pole Thing
On Diode Zone and YouTube: I’ve been streaming lots of live forward and reverse engineering lately, and I’m about to start editing some of the recent work into a multi-part series of videos! But this little self-contained project had been sitting partially-edited in my queue so long, I had to give it the finish it…
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scanlime:015 / Glitchy Descriptor Firmware Grab
On Diode Zone and YouTube: To understand a program, it helps to see it first. This episode is all glitching and USB, turning a chip’s environment against it to slurp out hidden code. Get the source and play along: https://git.approximate.life/facewhisperer.git/ The tool I use here is the ChipWhisperer. I’m not being paid or anything, I’m…
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scanlime:014 / Boldport #2 – Superhero
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Finally, another Boldport video! This time a short music video based on the Engineer Superhero kit, assembled in original form and in a variant that includes a coin cell to power the LED and a piezo button to charge the 2N7000 MOSFET gate and make the LED glow for a…
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scanlime:013 / Wacom Teardown and Schematic
On Diode Zone and YouTube: This time we’re looking at the protocol that powers Wacom’s wireless pens, and taking a deep look into the logic circuits (74xx!) that make them run. If you missed the last video, check it out for the big picture on how graphics tablets work: scanlime:012 / Graphics Tablet Primer for…
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scanlime:012 / Graphics Tablet Primer for Hackers
On Diode Zone and YouTube: This time we’re hurtling through the layers of technology that make a graphics tablet (pen tablet) work, from operating systems politics to electromagnetic induction. I’ll be looking closely at two tablets, the Wacom Intuos Pro and Huion H610PRO, and going into a full teardown on the Huion.
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scanlime:011 / Ultrasonic Transducer
On Diode Zone and YouTube: This video takes a close look at those little chirping sonar cylinders that might have helped your robot avoid bumping into furniture. They’re sort of like a microphone or a speaker, but looking closer they seem more like a tiny tuning fork with a hat.
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scanlime:010 / Protek B8010FD Function Generator
On Diode Zone and YouTube: I had another video planned, but today the yak stack needed tending after my trusty 10 MHz signal generator started buzzing horribly. Today’s video will be a teardown, repair, and mini-review of the 2007 vintage Protek B8010FD.
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scanlime:009 / Flame Effect
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Let’s use the glow discharge in a flicker flame bulb to make some weird neon art. This video is a photographic tour and rebuild of a simple glowthing made from a novelty light bulb and an old CCFL backlight inverter. It might have left me with more questions than answers…
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scanlime:008 / Boldport #1 – Pease
On Diode Zone and YouTube: I jumped at the opportunity to get hardware in the mail from another like-minded art hacker. In this video I’ll unbox the kit, assemble it delicately, and finally I’ll have to make some squiggles and beeps with it. Link to Saar’s Boldport Club: www.boldport.com/club You can also hear more from…
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scanlime:007 / USB Disk Recorder Part 2
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Continuing the adventures from Part 1, this video wanders along several tangential paths, trying to get some data out of this device worthy of reversing. This time we spend a bit more time in IDA looking for Z80 code, tinker with SCSI trying to break things, and we even do…
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scanlime:006 / USB Disk Recorder Part 1
On Diode Zone and YouTube: This time I find something in my junk drawer with a few teeth marks on it, and it leads to a weirdly specialized CPU built on a super oldschool core.
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scanlime:005 / Microphone Receiver
On Diode Zone and YouTube: I take apart a Pyle PDWM1940 wireless microphone receiver, searching for a way to make the output less noisy. Meanwhile, I’ll be using the same receiver for filming.
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scanlime:004 / Electronic Whiteboard hacking
On Diode Zone and YouTube: My friends at Tangible Interaction sent some electronic whiteboard hardware to take apart. In this video I’ll start to look at the transmitters, receivers, and communication protocol.
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scanlime:003 / Robot Odyssey DS
On Diode Zone and YouTube: A quick look back at my partially complete console port of an old DOS game. Source on github:https://git.approximate.life/robot-odyssey-ds.git
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scanlime:002 / Coastermelt Part 2
On Diode Zone and YouTube: Part 2 in the series on hacking optical drives for fun! Source code at https://git.approximate.life/coastermelt.git
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scanlime:001 / Coastermelt Part 1
On Diode Zone and YouTube: The first in a series about reverse engineering optical drives for fun and maybe laser graffiti.