Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• The xenon flash problem with the Raspbrry Pi 2 board has been explained reasonably well on the Foundation site, by Liz Upton. Key seems to be that U16 is not a typical SMT chip encased in black resin, but a naked BGA (Ball Grid Array) chip, which allows light to hit the chip's silicon directly. HackaDay's Brian Benchoff says that a cheap green laser pointer will also do it, suggesting that the wavelength of light hitting U16 matters crucially. Hey kids, this is a science fair project: What wavelengths of light trigger photoelectric emission on an exposed silicon die? (Many thanks to Michael Covington for the link.)
• Adafruit has a nice benchmark page for the Raspberry Pi 2, which also provides detailed descriptions of the differences between the new board and the older boards.
• What's going on in the Martian atmosphere?
• There's a single SMT chip at the heart of the Baofeng radios I described recently: The RDA1846. I would love to see this on a cape/shield for one of the popular embedded boards, especially the Raspberry Pi. Not quite a true SDR, but mighty close, and I'd guess damned useful for radio tinkering. (Thanks to Bob Fegert for the link.)
• By the way, "Baofeng" and "Pofung" are the same company. It sounds like they were trying to make "Baofeng" easier to pronounce for Westerners, but in truth I don't think it was much of a problem to being with, and I admit I was confused when I first ran across "Pofung."
• Norse's real-time IP attack map is very cool in a War Games sort of way, but it takes some study to figure out what exactly it is that you're seeing. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for the link.)
• Here's a nice collection of homebrew radio projects from Jim McNutt WA6OTP, with pictures and schematics. Fine work!
• An interesting short introduction to the geophysical differences between Earth's north pole annd south pole.
• More crazy weapons, including but hardly limited to the Panjundrum. I've always liked the Triebflugel, which was a great idea until you had to land it, kind of like the XF-85 Goblin.
• That's not a monkey on that marathon runner's back. It's a tomato-dispenser robot. I guess we're in somebody's vision of the future. It certainly isn't mine.