4 ms·
Mystery Aircraft Parts and Atomic Clocks
- runjake 13y agoHas an NSN, so it's military. Also, it doesn't look like it was ever used (and/or recently-manufactured. although if they use the pseudo-standard serial numbr scheme, then it was manufactured in 97). The indicator light styles are kinds I have seen around in years on military a/c. That doesn't really mean much, though. Slightly interesting, nonetheless.
- joelhaasnoot 13y agoSo what would this actually be used for on a (military) plane?
- danbruc 13y agoIf I understood it correctly, it is part of the military HAVE QUICK frequency hopping system [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAVE_QUICK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAVE_QUICK
- HNLogInShit 13y agoToo bad it doesn't explain why it's called "HAVE QUICK".
- alecjw 13y agoThis seems about right. I found various components inside with date codes ranging from 1996 to early 1997. The indicator lights had no markings on them, but IIRC the bulbs inside were 28v incandescents. Do you know any more about them? I'd be interested to know what IP rating they have (IP67?)
- tekacs 13y agoI oftentimes find myself wondering what might be the equivalent of this sort of electronics hackery in the world of software. It's not uncommon for me to see engineer friends of mine working on these sorts of projects and to find myself envying the apparent complexity of such projects - nothing (kernel hacks, ATMEGA projects, large C++ (shudder) systems, crypto/security work, ...) feels as though it requires the same level of knowledge/expertise as working on even relatively simple engineer's projects like this. Might this just be a standard insider's view of one's own field? To put it in context, Alec (M0TEI) is a student of engineering at Cambridge and a friend.
- revelation 13y agoI think the software variant of reverse engineering still surpasses it. It's the infinite complexity. The "combination" of the two then yields reverse engineering chips. See SRLabs presentation on low cost chip microprobing for some of the challenges: http://events.ccc.de/congress/2012/Fahrplan/attachments/2247_29C3-Dexter_Nohl-Low_Cost_Chip_Microprobing.pdf http://events.ccc.de/congress/2012/Fahrplan/attachments/2247...
- dchichkov 13y agoIn terms of complexity, certainly. When you look at the assembly code from the inside, with something like IDA it branches out infinitely. In terms of fun. I'm not so sure. Say, finding and replacing some part in an aviation radio is a lot more fun, than spending time annotating insides of some executable.
- tekacs 13y agoI think that depends rather on who you are and your interests, to be fair - as much as I'm a fan of the former, the latter sounds like rather more fun.
- dchichkov 13y agoTrue. But a lot also depends on the context. When you are dealing with some binary, unless it is antique, most likely you are doing something nefarious. Like obliterating somebodies license check. And while there is certainly a feeling of some elation, when you are finally succeeding, it can't compare with the joy you feel, when some electronic component is coming alive after you've finally fixed it.
- tekacs 13y agoThanks for that - it's something that is actually pretty close to my heart but I hadn't thought to throw into the comparison.
- HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
- wrbishop 13y agoGreat Job Alec!
- rikacomet 13y agoGosh, I could never do this. some interesting stuff.. I'm gonna refer to this sometime in future. thanks mate!
- shabble 13y agoSomewhat-related: a teardown of a rubidium standard probably similar to the one mentioned in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymV9LwhD0W0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymV9LwhD0W0
- elf25 13y agoso, what's it good for?
- jacquesm 13y agoIt's not actually an atomic clock, it is an atomic frequency standard. The difference between the two is that an atomic clock outputs 'time' whereas an atomic frequency standard merely outputs a very regular square wave. You can easily build an atomic clock once you have such a frequency standard. The confusion probably stems from the electronics term 'clock' for square wave used to clock other digital circuitry but the general public would definitely misinterpret the term atomic clock to mean something different. That said, very nice find and very nice hack!
- Havoc 13y agoFair enough. I think its close enough though to warrant the use of "atomic clock" in the blog post - you need to simplify things just a limit bit if you want to audience to be bigger than 14 people.