That's a serial port, except when you're playing Bad Apple
Sometimes I think I’m a smart guy…and then I read of people doing shit like this.
This is a truly fantastic piece of hacking, going by the original meaning of the word as used within the dawn of the computer era.
It's like a couple of years ago where someone showed a proof of concept of turning a HDD into a microphone
That said, newer ones can use authentication, which (together with a reasonably accurate local oscillator) can prevent at least trivial spoofing.
I just tried it on a clock that has only ever successfully synced once many years ago, and it's still in the same bad location that never seemed to get a strong enough signal.
Its crappy little LCD animation did indeed seem to dance in sync with when I would turn the signal on and off on my phone. It took a few minutes of trying but then suddenly the hour and seconds updated to the exact time. Had to set the minutes manually :/
WWVB clocks are great but aren't so good these days. NTP is pretty much as good as anyone will ever need in their home but this has the downside of usually requiring internet access. GPS clocks have been the standard for 30+ years for anyone needing precision timing.
Regardless, I'm excited to try this out next time I'm in the classroom. I'm a little confused by time zones, however. My clock has no controls on the back whatsoever (at least that I can find, I haven't opened it up), so I assume it doesn't know what time zone I'm in.
So do I need to set the time zone on the station emulator? There's an "offset" setting, but it says it's only for correcting "minor errors."
I find the WWV/WWVB droning soothing somehow.
I got my WWVB and WWVH confused!
There's a reasonable emulator here: https://wwv.mcodes.org/
Unfortunately it doesn't let you play both at the same time, which is what you need for the full experience.
I thought this was Boulder, but I assume not?
Me too. I had a Hallicrafter S-38 as a kid and used fall asleep by WWV & CHU. It felt like a private space that only nerds could find.
"This video explores LoRaWAN communication using a microcontroller without a dedicated radio chip. CNLohr demonstrates techniques to transmit LoRa packets over surprisingly long distances, pushing the limits of inexpensive hardware. The project involves creative software and hardware interaction to generate signals at unexpected frequencies."
Nonetheless, pretty amazing!
Which it did. The very first time it was plugged in, and then never again after. The clock also kept horrible time, it lost a couple minutes every month. Truly an astonishing piece of wtf engineering.
While the mains frequency is usually a great (long-term) stable frequency source, the bigger problem is that all microwaves I know lack a backup battery and require re-setting after unplugging them.
You have to specifically look for the feature. Most do not have it.
I'll have to test this out sometime, what a fun idea!
Then someone will respond: you’re just catatrophising- anyone could’ve done this years before now, and I’ll say no, because it wasn’t up on frontpage HN there with code so that anyone would think of it. Then they’ll say, well why did you tell everyone that idea then! It’s your fault! Then I’ll say that someone would’ve done it if it weren’t me. Then I’ll go have a beer.
