cm0002Palmer Luckey says he wants to 'turn warfighters into technomancers' as Anduril takes over production of the US Army's IVAS AR headset from Microsoft
bpcompI was briefly confused how an open source flashlight firmware had anything to do with this… then I noticed this post wasn’t in the Flashlight forum. So apparently Anduril is a war contractor AND a great flashlight firmware but are not related at all.
Why the hell would a flashlight need firmware?
I did a quick search, so I’m basically an expert now. imaginary hair flip
So, some flashlights have multiple brightness modes. I guess that’s controlled via a tiny, low power microprocessor.
And if it’s a computer, it can be hacked!
So the firmware does things, depending on the capabilities of the hardware in the flashlight, but you can set it to override defaults for brightness, change how many levels of brightness you have, add (or remove) a blinky SOS mode, sleep timers in case it’s accidentally left on, and even add a way to check the battery percentage via a button press pattern, that the flashlight responds to with a series of blinks.
No lie, kind of fascinating stuff. I like to hack other stuff, like smart appliances (replacing firmware so it doesn’t share my data, but I still get to use it as a smart device). I don’t think I would be into talking to my flashlight via Morse code, but I can see the appeal as both a hobby, and for folks who need flashlights as safety equipment.
Why the hell make it with a microprocessor when something simple like brightness levels and simple.blinking patterns can be made with much simpler digital electronics without the need for any programming whatsoever leaving the whole hacking-issue out of the equation.
Because you could design all of those feature in analog, and make custom boards for every change or have one board you update every few years based on supply, cost, and maybe power performance, but make and adjust features on a minute by minute basis if want to.
The driver, power source, etc can all be more easily separated from the logic too. It could be tiny, or massive. Same software, same controller.
JustEnoughDucksOr you use one GreenPak device and OTP it based on the model and have it cheaper and more reliable, any supporting circuits like drivers, FETs, bulk capacitance, etc… Would have to be designed per-model anyway on MCU based design.
Is there are particular GreenPak device hobbiest can use? They look interesting personally
SLG46826V-DIP SLG47115V-DIP SLG47004V-DIP
These are the breakout boards of their respective chips.
These chips are the 3 “multiple time programmable” chips in their line (if I have the right ones, I put them in my mouser list a while ago). Which means that once you program them, they aren’t burned in with those settings and can be reused.
There is also a “debug mode” where you don’t program them at all but program all the settings after boot so that the settings are cleared again after the chip is repowered. I have never used it, but that is what the renesas rep told us during our technical call at work.
They are super handy at getting rid of all of the logic needed for amplifiers, CC/CV circuits, etc…