RaspberryPi Mod Recreates Authentic Game Boy Feel

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DMGPlus, another Game Boy replicator. A wondrous labor of love!

Taking a Raspberry Pi and sticking it in the housing of a Game Boy isn’t a new project, though most of these retrofits were undoubtedly more modern than the original handheld console. They usually had more buttons, backlit color TFTs, and ran off modern Li-ion batteries. A project on Spritesmods named the DMGPlus is interested in utilizing the Pi in a stealthier way; instead of using it to update the older console, the DMGPlus is recreating how playing one of the first handheld game consoles used to feel.

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iToronto’s Raspberry Pi Pico-Powered GPS Data Logger Makes Use of an Upcycled Pill Bottle Housing

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Designed to fit in a pill bottle with a 3D-printed lid keeping everything in place, this GPS logger keeps track of its creator’s hikes.
Pseudonymous maker “iToronto” has shown off a build that repurposes an old pill bottle to create a compact, battery-powered GPS logger — driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico board.

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Aaron Christophel’s Open Source Tool Unprotects, Reads, and Flashes Any nRF52 From an ESP32

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Designed to unlock protected nRF52 SoCs, Christophel’s tool follows on from a similar exploit discovered for protected STM8 chips.

Developer Aaron Christophel has released a tool to read and write the internal flash of any part in the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52 family — using little more than a low-cost Espressif ESP32 microcontroller.

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Hosting and Website issues #GoDaddy @GoDaddy @GoDaddyHelp

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Please forgive us as we deal with issues with our current hosting provider.
We’ve been with GoDaddy for 17 years, since 2004. In the past 3 years we’ve encountered several issues with our hosting platform with GoDaddy.
Initially the problems began with being unable to access the GoDaddy portal for managing our hosted websites. Several tickets with GoDaddy had been opened, they would review and proclaim there was no issue on their side. We provided screen shots and videos from several computers across various states showing the issue and that we could not manage our site.
The blame was fully put on us by GoDaddy.
Fast forward to 2 months ago, GoDaddy support informed us we cannot manage our sites as we were on their legacy platform and we needed to purchase a new hosting plan and migrate our site. While attempting to juggle a full time job and manage our site, we had not found time to do so. We were then notified we would be moving to the new hosting platform automatically. Keep in mind, this is something GoDaddy told us they could not do and we would have to purchase a new package and different plan.
None-the-less, the migration to the new hosting platform was completed earlier this week.

Once complete, we attempted to update PHP and WordPress, no matter what options we choose on the GoDaddy platform to update PHP, WordPress would still reflect the older version. Back to GoDaddy support we go…
The initial rep the morning of 7/13/21, told us “Just go ahead and update WordPress, this will resolve the PHP issues and cause PHP to update.
Against our better judgement, we followed GoDaddy supports guidance, this again has proven to be a bad choice. Upon doing so, WordPress updated beyond the supported PHP version we were currently forced to use with GoDaddy. Thus leaving our website in limbo and certain aspects of the site would not function.
Of course this started a new support ticket with GoDaddy. Support Ticket #2 for July 13th started with the support staff telling us we should not have upgraded WordPress, even though it was GoDaddy Support that insisted we do so. They then informed us, they cannot assist and do not have access to the site or folders on the site. The direction given by GoDaddy support was to reinstall WordPress as an “Application” in their portal and then overwrite this with a backup we had made earlier in the day.
Upon doing so, it of course took the site down, so off to the restore process via the GoDaddy Portal. After 3 attempts to restore the data and it failing in the portal with a JSON error, support case #3 was opened on the morning of July 14th. At this point the rep stated we should not have overwritten the original website, thus again for the 3rd time GoDaddy support contradicts their own support reps.
The new rep stated they were unable to assist in repairing the damage done, and during the conversation they closed the chat out and forced me over to a different rep, where I had to repeat everything I’ve been dealing with in just trying to update PHP and get our site back online.

It was at this point we turned to Twitter and @GoDaddyHelp as well as a phone call into GoDaddy support. Twitter seemed to have been a failed endeavor, taking GoDaddy nearly 4 hours to even acknowledge the message, yet in the meantime a competitor Skystra Cloud was able to respond in less than 10 minutes offering support and hosting services.
The phone support rep was able to help with most things, and everything he stated yet again contradicted everything each support rep from GoDaddy had stated prior, unfortunately at this point things had been so messed up that even once the site was back online and functional, a large portion of our plugins were corrupted. This includes items such as our Downloads section and Paypal Check out services in our shop.
4 Hours in @GoDaddyHelp via Twitter states “Looks like the site is back up”, with out actually confirming with us, or if the issues have been fully resolved, so we provided them said details, and that we are still somewhat dead in the water. 2 hours after, @GoDaddyHelp responds asking for a DM with details of the issues we are encountering. These were provided well over 2 hours, and still no response, no acknowledgement of receipt, no effort to inform us they are actively looking into it, not one reply.

We will continue to provide you, our users, with details as this mess unfolds. And we are hoping to move services after 17 years with GoDaddy, and the utter abysmal lack of support we have received.
Stay Tuned!

Can you 3D Print with Trimmer Line?!

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Trimmer Line from the hardware store resembles 3D printing filament very closely and is often made from tough Nylon. Could this be an option for 3D printing filament? Let me show you if it and how it works and how strong 3D prints from Trimmer Line are!

IMPORTANT: Please make sure to only 3D print trimmer line in well-ventilated areas where you’re not constantly present. As some of you pointed out, some materials that are not primarily intended for 3D printing can release TOXIC FUMES when heated! https://www.instructables.com/Is-3D-P…

A USB Cable Tracer

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Test and diagnose your USB cables with this Arduino-based device.

While USB (Universal Serial Bus) connections are in many ways a huge improvement over the parallel, serial, and specialized ports of old, “universal” is still a bit of an overstatement. With a variety of physical form factors and ever-evolving standards, there’s more to making a proper connection than simply plugging any cable in.

Making things even more complicated, just looking at a USB cable’s form factor isn’t always enough to tell whether it will properly power and transfer data to and from your device. Perhaps a particular Micro cable is only for charging, leaving out the data pins, and thus leaving you frustrated as to why you can’t program a certain board. Or maybe a cable is broken internally. To get to the bottom of these potential connection issues, TechKiwiGadgets has come up with the Arduino Cable Tracer.

More info is available in TechKiwiGadget’s project write-up, along with a wiring chart and Arduino code.

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Jonathan Pallant’s Neotron Pico Turns the Raspberry Pi Pico Into a Full-Size ATX PC Motherboard

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Based on the earlier Neotron 32, the Neotron Pico is an RP2040 home computer straight from the ’80s but compatible with modern cases.

Embedded Rust developer Jonathan Pallant is taking the popular Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller board in a new direction: a simplified home computer, complete with a motherboard compatible with ATX cases.

Released earlier this year, the RP2040-powered Raspberry Pi Pico has been a stellar success. Despite being designed primarily for embedded microcontroller applications, it’s found a home in a range of unusual projects — like a visual synthesiser, an interactive MicroPython-based computer for your desk, another for your pocket, an emulated BBC Micro, an emulated 80186 PC, and even a Nintendo Entertainment System.

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This RaspberryPi – Based Parking Lot Monitor Detects Unauthorized Vehicles

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For a university project, Codrin used a Raspberry Pi to create a system that detects unauthorized vehicles.

The United States is a car culture and most Americans have to own a car to commute to work and get around. As a result of that fact, parking lots are everywhere. You don’t just need a parking spot for your car at home, but also at work and every other place you go. In Jackson, Wyoming, for example, there are 27.1 parking spots for every household. Despite that, private parking lots are common and owners need a way to ensure that only authorized vehicles enter the lot. For a university project, Codrin used a Raspberry Pi to create a system that detects unauthorized vehicles.

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How Nintendo Failed Into Super Mario Kart | The Story Behind The Super Nintendo Classic

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Super Mario Kart went on to become a 16-bit classic and one of the best selling Super Nintendo games of all time. But Super Mario Kart’s origins didn’t even start as a Mario game. From an unsucessful two player F-Zero game to one of Nintendo’s longest running franchises, this is the story of how Nintendo failed into Super Mario Kart.