Category Archives: helium

[Ben Krasnow] Gasses MEMS Chips, for Science

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

Why in the world does helium kill iPhones and other members of the Apple ecosystem? Enquiring minds want to know, and [Ben Krasnow] has obliged with an investigation of the culprit: the MEMS oscillator. (YouTube, embedded below.)

When we first heard about this, courtesy in part via a Hackaday post on MRI-killed iPhones, we couldn’t imagine how poisoning a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) part could kill a phone. We’d always associated MEMS with accelerometers and gyros, important sensors in the smartphone suite, but hardly essential. It turns out there’s another MEMS component in many Apple products: an SiT 1532 oscillator, a …read more

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Posted in electron, helium, iphone, iphone hacks, MEMS, mri, oscillator, SiT1532, teardown | Leave a comment

Helium can Stop Your iPhone — Maybe Other MEMS, Too

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Fernando Gomes

Sometimes hacking isn’t as much about building something, it’s about getting to the root of a particularly difficult problem. [Erik Wooldrige] was facing a problem like that. He’s a system specialist at a hospital near Chicago. Suddenly a bunch of iPhones and Apple watches were failing or glitching. The only thing anyone could think of was the recent install of an MRI machine.

Sure, an MRI machine can put out some serious electromagnetic pulses, but why would that only affect Apple products? Everything else in the hospital, including Android phones, seemed to be OK. But about 40 Apple devices were …read more

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Posted in helium, iphone, iphone hacks, MEMS, repair hacks | Leave a comment

Radiosondes: Getting Data from Upstairs

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Fernando Gomes

Ever since I first learned about radiosondes as a kid, I’ve been fascinated by them. To my young mind, the idea that weather bureaus around the world would routinely loft instrument-laden packages high into the atmosphere to measure temperature, pressure, and winds aloft seemed extravagant. And the idea that this telemetry package, having traveled halfway or more to space, could crash land in a field near my house so that I could recover it and take it apart, was an intoxicating thought.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods over the intervening years, but I’ve never seen a …read more

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Posted in helium, hydrogen, misc hacks, radiosonde, sonde, telemetry, thermometer, weather, weather balloon | Leave a comment