Hardware
A detailed engineering journey of building a custom addressable LED backlighting system for a three-monitor video wall with 2,315 pixels, covering power distribution, controller selection, custom WS2812b protocol implementation on STM32, and hard-won lessons about signal integrity and galvanic isolation.
Hardware
A hands-on investigation into the Energomera CE207 R7 electricity meter — certified as "domestic" under Russian law and winner of a nearly one-billion-ruble state tender — reveals that its supposedly Russian microchips are Taiwanese parts with the labels scratched off and replaced.
Hardware
A hands-on investigation of three counterfeit USB flash drives from Russian marketplaces reveals devices claiming 512 GB that actually hold less than 1 GB. Teardowns, capacity tests, and tips for spotting fakes.
Hardware
Inside the iPhone's infrared dot projector sits a little-known safety chip called "MamaBear" that permanently disables FaceID if it detects damage to the laser optics — a legitimate safety feature that water damage can trigger by accident, spawning an entire underground repair ecosystem.
Hardware
A deep dive into how a tiny team of hydroacoustic engineers built 44 underwater communication and navigation devices from scratch, bootstrapping their way from a colleague's unfinished veranda to international exports.
Hardware
A detailed teardown and spectral analysis of three LED bulbs — a Chinese no-name, Russian Optogan, and SvetaLED — comparing their driver circuits, LED chips under electron microscopy, and spectral characteristics against incandescent and fluorescent alternatives.
Hardware
SIM cards are far more than simple flash drives — they are well-protected microcomputers with CPUs, RAM, and cryptographic hardware. This article explains their architecture, manufacturing, software, file systems, and the GSM authentication process.
Hardware
An in-depth look at the physical and technical reasons why hard disk drives lose data over time, including magnetic domain degradation, head crashes, firmware bugs, and environmental factors.