Tux Machines

Open Hardware/Modding: Raspberry Pi, BliKVM PCIe, Retro Rotary Cellphone Kit, and More

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Sep 17, 2022

This week in KDE: It’s a big one, folks

Programming Leftovers

↺ Nokia N-Gage

Big Mouth Billy Bass

↺ Big Mouth Billy Bass

> One of the key aspects of this project was establishing how the existing animatronic fish worked. Online research revealed some details, usually with a view to controlling the fish with Alexa, whereas Kevin’s plan was to control the motors himself. However, a tear-down of Billy Bass’s components, in which Kevin stripped out the existing wiring, showed a relatively simple circuit with three motors.

BliKVM PCIe puts a computer in your computer

↺ BliKVM PCIe puts a computer in your computer

> This is the BliKVM PCIe, a full computer on a PCI Express card. This is an IP KVM (Internet Protocol Keyboard-Video-Mouse) that can be put inside another computer or server.

> Most server motherboards already have remote 'lights-out' management functionality built in. Most frequently this is referred to as IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface, but Dell calls it iDRAC, and HPE calls it ILO.

> But not all servers have it. And even if they do, sometimes you have to pay extra money to use it, or the version you have goes unmaintained and it would be a security risk to keep it running on your network.

> So that's where the BliKVM PCIe comes in.

Bringing a Open-Source Retro Rotary Cellphone Kit to Market

↺ Bringing a Open-Source Retro Rotary Cellphone Kit to Market

> In 2020, Justine Haupt turned a vintage rotary phone into a cellphone. When the project went viral, she started getting requests for turning the project into a product. After saying no for a while, she finally said yes.

> The result is the Rotary Un-Smartphone kit. In this video, Justine gives us a tour of the phone.

Autonomous Robotics Platform for Raspberry Pi Pico review

↺ Autonomous Robotics Platform for Raspberry Pi Pico review

> Kitronik’s Autonomous Robotics Platform caught our attention recently thanks to its usage of Raspberry Pi Pico, rather than the more common Raspberry Pi Model B or Zero models.

> The kit contains a robotics platform chassis with two TT motors pre-mounted. Two large yellow wheels are attached to the side, along with an ultrasonic sensor on the top and a line-following sensor underneath. Finally, a Pico or Pico W with a GPIO header soldered in can be mounted in the middle of the two motors. Four AA batteries are slotted in underneath to provide power to the motors and Pico.

Remember When Phones Were Cool?

↺ Remember When Phones Were Cool?

> Look at that thing! It’s so cool looking, isn’t it? Granted, it may not be the most accessible of devices, but damn they were cool.

> It got to point where you looked forward to the latest phone being released, because you literally had no idea what you would be getting.

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