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lcamtuf’s thing

lcamtuf’s thing
A 15-minute intro to resin casting At one point in my life, I penned an epic, 110-page opus on hobby manufacturing.
8 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Investigating an "evil" RJ45 dongle Reverse-engineering hardware can be difficult -- but sometimes, all you need is a comfy armchair and...
7 months ago
80
7 months ago
Reverse-engineering hardware can be difficult -- but sometimes, all you need is a comfy armchair and some Google Translate.
lcamtuf’s thing
Choosing an op-amp for your project Just say no to LM741.
7 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Getting silly with C, part (void*)2 They won't be able to find bugs in your code if they can't figure out how it works.
7 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Against the hydraulic analogy The most popular tool for teaching electronics makes the trade harder to learn.
8 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Don't build a platform... unless? "Build a product, not a platform" is a common saying among tech entrepreneurs. But why do some...
7 months ago
67
7 months ago
"Build a product, not a platform" is a common saying among tech entrepreneurs. But why do some platforms succeed?
lcamtuf’s thing
UI is hell: four-function calculators One of the simplest and best-known computing devices on the planet is a fascinating study in...
7 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Weekend projects: Sketchy Sketch Making a nicer version of a forgotten, electronic Etch-A-Sketch toy.
7 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Real MLCCs (and inductors) have curves Linear components are pretty nonlinear -- and parasitics don't tell the whole story.
4 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Random object: Sony Mavica MVC-FD73 Floppy disk digital cameras, or why our views of technological progress are not always rooted in...
7 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
A 15-minute intro to involute gears Involute gears are everywhere: toys, kitchen appliances, cars. But what's so special about their...
9 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Working with OLEDs: SSD1353 & SSD1333 A quick intro to interfacing common OLED displays to bare-metal microcontrollers.
7 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
My approach to teaching electronics Explaining the reasoning behind my series of articles on electronics -- and asking for your...
4 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Why are sine waves so common? A simple question that takes some effort to answer in a satisfying way.
5 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
PCBs, ground planes, and you A closer look at a fashion trend in printed circuit board design.
7 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
What's the deal with magnetic fields? I apologize, but there won't be any Insane Clown Posse jokes in this article.
6 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Electricity and the speed of light If it's all just electromagnetic waves, why is electricity in a conductor moving slower than visible...
4 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Choosing a microcontroller RP2040, ESP32, AVR, PIC, STM32...? When it comes to hobby projects, there's plenty of choice and...
6 months ago
45
6 months ago
RP2040, ESP32, AVR, PIC, STM32...? When it comes to hobby projects, there's plenty of choice and just as much zealotry.
lcamtuf’s thing
Building a phosphorescence detector There's very little written about natural phosphorescence. Let's design a device that can spot it in...
9 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The marvelous disappearing capacitor The performance of photodiode amplifiers can be improved in a clever way.
8 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
AI in infosec: the future is now, old man I do my best to keep punditry off this blog, but I don't always succeed.
5 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Sierpiński triangle? In my bitwise AND? Exploring a peculiar bit-twiddling hack at the intersection of 1980s geek sensibilities.
3 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Meta: 5,000 I don't really do self-congratulatory posts, but bear with me just once.
6 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Lies, damned lies, and photodiodes Diffusion and drift currents: depending on what you're trying to do, photodiodes can be really fast...
8 months ago
41
8 months ago
Diffusion and drift currents: depending on what you're trying to do, photodiodes can be really fast or infuriatingly slow.
lcamtuf’s thing
Why do lemon batteries work? And chemistry, I guess
4 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
What's root mean square voltage? And how do we derive its value for sine waves?
5 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
How security teams fail There are mistakes most companies are more or less bound to make.
6 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
But good sir, what is electricity? A quick look at the physics of conductors, insulators, and electric charges.
6 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The Review Interior of a low-rise office park.
6 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The Afterlife AGENT: I am prescribing vardenafil 5 mg for you.
5 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
RAM: the forgotten history We owe computers not to Charles Babbage, but to the invention of electronically-controlled working...
10 months ago
36
10 months ago
We owe computers not to Charles Babbage, but to the invention of electronically-controlled working memory.
lcamtuf’s thing
The Rapture It’s fascinating how these vascular bundles, containing xylem and phloem, are arranged in a ring...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
It’s fascinating how these vascular bundles, containing xylem and phloem, are arranged in a ring located beneath the skin (periderm) and the cortex.
lcamtuf’s thing
meta: apologies for the spam... To explain: in several places in the UI, the platform encourages you to enable “subscriber chat” —...
6 months ago
35
6 months ago
To explain: in several places in the UI, the platform encourages you to enable “subscriber chat” — but doesn’t really explain what it does:
lcamtuf’s thing
Resistors, Johnson-Nyquist, nV/√Hz A major source of noise in electronic circuits is easy to understand. The unit we use to measure it...
4 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Analog filters, part 2: let it ring A continuation of the gentle intro to analog signal filtering. In today's episode: the Sallen-Key...
11 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Shining light on photodiodes Photodiodes are incredibly versatile, but commonly misused and misunderstood.
10 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Deep dive: the (in)stability of op-amps A closer look at op-amp feedback loops and the stability criteria for circuits that use them.
10 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The untimely demise of an image upscaler ML-based image enhancement models are great. Unfortunately, some of them are great only once.
12 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Random objects: Guycot & Jarre Early repeating handguns, or another unnecessary excursion into the bowels of history.
a year ago
lcamtuf’s thing
A 15-minute intro to hobby CNC In which the author tilts at windmills for a brief while.
11 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
How do wood finishes hold up? A quick 18-month experiment to shed light on traditional woodworking lore.
11 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Random objects: Intel Edison A glimpse of the missteps of x86 in the embedded world.
a year ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The 8-bit (MCU) manifesto Eight-bit microcontrollers aren't relics; they are a design philosophy. You might want to use them...
a year ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Weekend projects: getting silly with C C is beautiful yet full of horrors. Here's to uncovering its hidden depths.
a year ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The 101 of analog signal filtering Some intuition about this topic can be developed without summoning the ghost of Pierre-Simon...
a year ago
lcamtuf’s thing
Electric chainsaws and the gorge of misery Lithium batteries are great -- so why do mid-size electric power tools suck in 2024?
a year ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The Long Winter Interior of a vast cavern.
4 months ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The secret lives of snowblowers Yes, they throw snow. But the mechanical design of residential snowblowers is more interesting than...
a year ago
lcamtuf’s thing
The serious science of trolling LLMs The internet's oldest pastime finally has a purpose -- and it's more serious than AI companies would...
a year ago
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a year ago
The internet's oldest pastime finally has a purpose -- and it's more serious than AI companies would like to admit.
lcamtuf’s thing
Dispatches from the farm upstate Middle-aged computer expert opts to escape civilization, offers dubious life advice.
a year ago