Yep. I feel that way about most of the abstraction layers that keep getting added. It’s feels a bit suffocating. Getting down to this level of simplicity always feels… pure. Like going hiking after being stuck in a busy city.
This specific bot is part of a whole class called BEAM bots. They all have a similar design philosophy, but this was always my favorite one.
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_ro...
I definitely pulled a lot of the spirit of this design approach when creating the OMG Cable. Fun little “you can’t do that” hacks, extreme minimalism, focus on aesthetics, etc. So it was pretty cool finding this little bot in storage just now!
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One of the FLEDs decayed a bit faster than the other, and they are no longer balanced. That means one eye will always be too slow to charge up the circuit and steer the opposite direction.
Sure, you could add calibration components to compensate for any imbalance, but it’s not as minimal.
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The FLEDs aren’t designed to act as tiny solar panels, we are just using them “off label”. The solar performance of the FLEDs slowly decays and at different rates.
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Here is a video of this bot in action.
Notice how it is only kicking one of its legs? That’s a direct consequence of the Flashing LEDs hack & 20 years of time passing.
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Here is the circuit design.
Whichever “eye” generates more power will be the first to trigger the rest of the circuit, which dumps the entire main capacitor into the corresponding “leg”. And the whole process starts over.
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The “brain” is as minimal as possible. A lot of people would use a microcontroller for this functionality (ESP32, RP2040, etc) which give you millions of transistors to work with.
This little bot uses 4 transistors! 2 handle the left side of the body, 2 handle the right.
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A fun hack is how it sees! The green “eyes” are Flashing LEDs. FLEDs have a quirk: they produce voltage when you shine light into them. Whichever eye is pointed more towards the sun will charge up those little blue “front hands” (capacitors) first, which tells the “brain” to where to steer.
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The solar panel on its back charges up the large capacitor of the “abdomen”. Then steers toward light by kicking one of the rear legs (tiny motors pulled from a pager/phone).
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This bot’s duty is to find its food & get as much of it as it can. aka: keep pointed at the sun & walk toward it.
The design constraints: no PCB or structural components! The physical structure must come only from the functional components. That means lots of free form soldering. 😎
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I just found this little solar robot bug I made 20 years ago.
It captures many qualities:
- Art & Design Constraint
- electrical hacks, using components “the wrong way”
- extreme minimalism for max results
Also, something interesting changed while it sat for 20 years!
Let me explain…
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Yikes. When did this start happening? Or was it always a thing, but the recent market contraction forcing it to magnify?
I have been out of the game for the last year, and really grateful for the timing with how miserable the market is for everyone I know in RT space. But still trying to keep tabs.
Holy shit they actually fixed the kerning.
It got silently updated in the brand guide. www.war.gov/Brand-Guide/
Gotta pick your battles with the Department of War! 😂
We used to be a real country. We used to care about kerning.
Ok, this thing is pretty cool.
Embedded Linux with 2.4ghz, 5ghz, & 6ghz radios. Easily replaceable battery. And most importantly, it feels solid in your hands.
Well done Hak5 crew!
Wifi Pineapple Pager is going to become a favorite for a lot of people when the preorders start shipping.
My Darknet Diaries episode is live! Of all the interviews I have done, this is probably the easiest to listen to because Jack is a great storyteller.
darknetdiaries.com/episode/161/
YT: youtu.be/W81oWOf_RiE
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7tiH...
iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
Every time I travel, I let people charge their devices. Totally harmless.
They never know who I am or what I normally do with USB cables, but maybe one day… 😂
This lady’s phone died a few min into a 5hr flight. I just wanted her to enjoy her time.
OMG Cable - Woven Black
Now available hak5.org/omg
Digital shopping cart test.
Are you seeing posts about how the “real” factories in China are selling the products for cheap in response to the trade war / tariffs?
That’s all fake. It’s mostly old videos that knockoff shops were making. Likely being pushed now to get in before $800 De Minimis exemption goes away + disinfo.
They chose to do option B. That’s it. That’s the whole story.
It’s been near impossible to find accurate info on all the tariff stories lately because of how everyone covers it. But at the same time, it’s cool to see some exposure to a world that almost everyone ignores.
🧵4/n
The goods got a redux’d tariff but the system didn’t have this update. AKA: they’d be OVERcharging the tariffs.
2 options:
A: overcharge & handle it later with corrections (a PSC)
B: skip the live entry & do the ESF a few days later after. By then, the correct tariff info is in the system.
🧵3/n
When a shipment comes in, CBP issues a Cargo Release & does an Entry Summary Filing. The ESF is where all the customs $ gets handled. Both tend to happen at once, which is called a “live entry”, but the ESF can also happen within 10 days of the CR. Including after delivery!
🧵2/n
Not a single $ was lost over this “glitch”. But you’d believe so because everyone spreading it has no experience here.
Explanation in thread below:
🧵1/n
I’m tired! I want to rest for a bit! I didn’t know how to swim when I jumped into the deep end of the pool. I’ve yet to get out of the pool for a breath, But now the pool has become an ocean and I’m doing marathon swimming.
But yea that’s exactly what I am doing 😂😭
I’ve been in a state of perpetual drowning for 5+ years now. Luckily it has all added up to make navigating 2025 easier than otherwise. Especially the chip shortage & pandemic.
But that also means I just want to… not.
Sadly, that won’t work. An assembled PCB with a microcontroller is not a microcontroller. And I can only assume “I’m exempt!” labels are gonna get heavy scrutiny.
