Then I wondered: Can you actually reprogram a character while it is being displayed? Like you may expect in such an old chip, the #HD44780 does *not* latch the customized character anywhere. Instead, every time it scans out the characters to the LCD, it reads the bitmap from RAM again.

That means that if one of the customized characters is in use, it updates immediately on the display when changing it via the parallel #Programming interface.

I don't think anyone has ever these displays to show a 40-band live spectrogram of the music playing on their laptop, but I did now.

3/3

#Electronics #DIY

do I know any infosec folks with experience in industrial systems who are looking for work?

one of the companies I interviewed at before accepting a job elsewhere has a big heap of industrial security assessment work upcoming, and not much in the way of internal resources to handle it, so there's an opportunity for either a contract or permanent role.

UK based, remote work, possibility of international contracting.

hit me up if you're looking and I'll pass on your details.

We've just released direct @kicad integration for PartsBox! Now you can use your parts library right in #kicad with proper substitute handling and automatic BOM matching when importing designs back into PartsBox. No more wasting time hunting for the right passives — just design and let PartsBox help you.

Available for ALL users, including free accounts!

See the blog post (https://partsbox.com/blog/kicad-integration-05-2025.html) for more information. Enjoy!

Some of my open-source automotive diagnostics work is about to disappear in less than 24 hours, as I just received my first ever DMCA takedown notice for my repository:

https://github.com/jglim/ODB

@ham_bitious I created an alternate firmware for this family of radio modules and recently confirmed support for SA818S. I mostly recommend it if you have an interest in 4-FSK modes which are otherwise not possible with the stock firmware: https://github.com/OpenRTX/sa8x8-fw/

@lofty Don't forget to eat a banana.

this is the third revision of the MNT Reform Next motherboard, assembled today by @theawesomerandomness. the biggest notable changes from the second rev: upgrade from RP2040 to RP2350A as the main system controller chip, and a different main charger/dc-dc chip+layout. will work on bringup tomorrow.

@abraxas3d There would be special place in my drawer for it next to my favorite T-shirt representing a book publisher: https://nostarch.com/death-metal-t-shirt-2018

Would you look at that, it's tmp.0ut Volume 4! Happy Friday, hope you enjoy this latest issue!

https://tmpout.sh/4/

Had some fun testing Ricardo Nunes's 12bit SAR ADC on #TinyTapeout 7 this afternoon.

A SAR ADC is a nice mixed signal example, with the digital section coordinating the binary search of an internal DAC, homing in on the input signal.

Glad I could test it myself and see it working!

If anyone is hiring a remote engineer, I'm available. I have extensive experience in circuit design, schematic capture, and layout as well as parts sourcing and design for manufacture. I also have experience designing mechanical parts and enclosures for 3D printing and injection molding. I've also designed and sourced packaging, including both graphical and dimensional components. I'm proficient in the use of KiCAD, Fusion360, etc. I also write firm/software in a limited selection of languages.

I guess we'll do a #namethatchip here at Mastodon. Looking to ID the whole package.

This came out of a two-die package with custom marking; both dies were made by Renesas. Die markings in top left read: 24, (c) Renesas electronic corp., 2012. Markings in bottom right read: PMF.

Please boost for reach!

#electronics #reverseengineering

mnt reform motherboard 3.0 d-2 picked and placed today by @theawesomerandomness. now we just have to add a few connectors

Good tools are made of bugs: How to monitor your Steam Deck with one byte.
Finding and exploiting two vulnerabilities in AMD's UEFI firmware for fun and gaming.
A Christmas gift in February, brought to you by the incredible @pwissenlit 🫶

https://blog.quarkslab.com/being-overlord-on-the-steam-deck-with-1-byte.html

Building a mini SDR with custom silicon.

I combined a couple of projects from TT6 and TT7 and receive some FM modulated signals !

Go watch the video if that sounds cool : https://youtu.be/ynHy9gpcBgc

Working on a new #FPGA blog post this evening. I'll be sharing the draft with my sponsors in the next few days. @yosyshq

"Yosys and nextpnr have excellent support for Lattice ECP5 FPGAs. However, without using the ECP5 PLL (phase-locked loop), you're stuck running at the speed of your dev board oscillator. This post outlines the frequency capabilities of the ECP5 PLL and provides several practical examples to get you started with generating custom clock frequencies."

@mossmann I attended ShmooCon for something like fifteen years and these recent conferences with mandatory masking were the *only* ones where I didn't catch ShmooFlu (or worse). Thanks for making the final event even more memorable: Your talk was just what I needed to revisit an unfinished Facedancer project and finally explore Cynthion + Packetry.

I know some of you are here for the tapes, right? So, more experiments with DIY tapes!

First, a GIF of actually making the tape - applying Fe3O4 over regular scotch tape.

Fe3O4 - black iron oxide or Mars Black - actually resulted in a very good tape!

I've made a few recordings and posted them on YouTube. I have no cable to capture the audio from the reel deck, so:

0) No tape, audio playback from my laptop over Elizabethan's tube amplifier - sort of a baseline of the quality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSGPdbGg2f4

1) Playing the very same song from Fe3O4 tape that I made this evening - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl1x1X-kgWU

2) And now Fe3O4 tape made out of paper and glue - it sheds like crazy, the glue needs to be replaced or baked https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K4qBm3tucTI

Cleaning up the Fe3O4 - black pigment - from all over the desk was not fun. Thank you my beloved @yottatsa for helping a lot with it. If I were to use paper tape again, I'd run the whole length of the tape between two sponges before running it in the deck.

@plaes Also, here is a video of someone modifying one to use with a Raspberry Pi (without proper signal conditioning?) to demonstrate the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P973CsFnMd8