[ernok]

I am the original author of this writeup.

Did this hack together with my brother twenty years ago (look at the file dates)!

Strange to see my 1994 hack at #1 on hacker news twenty years later..

It was done with 64kBit DRAMs in a ceramic package. Descrambling the physical chip layout was a pain..

[zafka]

This is very cool. The kind of thing I expected to find on Hacker News. DO you still get much chance to play around now days? I wish I had done a little more playing 20 years ago, but I am trying to make up now. Nitinol,Rare earth magnets, Bismuth.....There are just so many toys available, and so little time..

[ernok]

I think nowadays you have even more possibilities to play around then 20 years ago. You can use a Raspberry Pi for example and do some even more impressing things with just a few lines code of your own - building on a lot of open source software!

I have about four RasPis lying around doing doing things which where very much unaccessible for a hobbyist then. Just look at my current blog at http://µc.net to see a few (it's in german alas, maybe google translate can help here too..).

[zafka]

Ha, 94-99 I worked at Siemens in Boca. RIght near the end I stared listening to German on tapes, but alas... I am still mon-lingual. I have two beagle bone blacks, and a multitude of Microchip PIC boards. My current job we designed in a dspic33fj256710. OF course I have a bunch of the prototype boards waiting for the right project... I will be off to checkout your site now..

[owenversteeg]

Impressive! I tried to make a comment that explained how to do it - how accurate is it? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7538035 I'm going to try and make one myself.

My main questions are:

1) how far from the RAM should I put the lens?

and 2) is the lens I mentioned in my comment going to be an adequate lens?

[ernok]

We disassembled a "door spy" (door peephole?) and used the lens - if memory serves me correct..

Keep in mind that the resolution was only 64x256 pixel (we used one of four physical separate 64x256 bit arrays on the chip) so the lens quality did not really matter.

[sizzle]

@ernok: thought this might interest you being the author and all: http://dramclaims.com - $310 million dollar class action settlement going on right now. Hopefully you can get something back

[sizzle]

wow, did not see that coming when I submitted this, what a pleasant surprise! This is why HN is such a great community and why I will continue to submit interesting, in-depth tech hacks.

I look forward to the insightful discussions and sharing of unique ideas/perspectives, this is how innovation is born!