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Amine Ben Hariz

Razer BlackWidow 2013: from dustbin to desktop

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Razer BlackWidow 2013: from dustbin to desktop

I found this keyboard in the flea market. To my surprise, it was a very expensive mechanical keyboard: the Razer BlackWidow 2013. Unfortunately, it was in a very bad shape. Some buttons were missing, and others were damaged. It looks like that this keyboard was exposed to heat source. The

Tetris Cube Part 1: Fixing

Tetris Cube Part 1: Fixing

This will be the first post of a multi-part article. The reason for this is that I want to include all the steps I went through: fixing, working the theory, writing scripts, optimizing. If you want to have an idea of what I'm talking about, here is a very similar

Weather Station : Adding Outdoor Temperature

Weather Station : Adding Outdoor Temperature

This is the second article in the "Weather Station Project" series. If you want to know more, please check the previous article [https://aminebenhariz.com/weather-station-indoor-temperature/], in which I explained how built the device. It has been running since then, and I'm satisfied with the result. Weather Station : Indoor TemperatureHaving

Benchmark: NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 -vs- SATA SSD

Benchmark: NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 -vs- SATA SSD

When I switched to Ryzen [https://aminebenhariz.com/ryzen-1600/] last month, I made sure to pick a motherboard with a PCIe M.2 slot. I wanted to replace my SATA SSD with the newest player in town: NVMe. In this article, we will be comparing: * TEAMGROUP MP34 M.2 NVMe

Switching to Ryzen

Switching to Ryzen

I sit in front of computers 12 hours a day: work, games, photo and video editing, internet browsing, etc.. My desktop PC was equipped with an Intel i7-2600 processor (2nd generation), released on 2011. During those 9 years, I had not felt the need to upgrade the CPU: Intel has

Solving the Soma cube in 3D

Solving the Soma cube in 3D

I bought this wooden puzzle few weeks ago from the flea market for 3 TND ($1). The build quality is quite good. It's composed of 7 different pieces that must be assembled in a 3x3x3 cube. Solving this puzzle manually is complicated. There is no apparent solution other than brute-force.

Weather Station : Indoor Temperature

Weather Station : Indoor Temperature

Having a weather station at home is very useful. The most important information is the indoor temperature. Required parts * WeMos D1 mini (ESP8266) * DS18B20: digital thermometer * MAX7221: LED display driver * 7 segments LED: 4 digits common cathode * 4.7 kΩ resistor: 1-Wire pull-up resistor * 10 kΩ resistor: LED brightness * Micro

WeMos D1 mini : Presentation

WeMos D1 mini : Presentation

The WeMos D1 mini was developed for the tinkerers. It's based on the ESP8266 chip. There are many cool DIY projects that you can achieve with this board. It's very similar to the Arduino, has a built-in WiFi, and much cheaper (around $3 on eBay). I currently have 2 of

PHILIPS AZ7481/00 portable CD player

PHILIPS AZ7481/00 portable CD player

This is the second device that I bought last week (see the KOSS KS5302 [https://aminebenhariz.com/koss-ks5302/]). This device is presenting no physical damage, and the PCB looks fine too. But, unlike the KOSS, it's partially working: the CD motor is rotating, the LCD screen has some faint scrambled

KOSS KS5302 portable CD player

KOSS KS5302 portable CD player

Last week, I bought 2 audio CD players from the flea market for 10 TND ($3.50). Here I'm presenting the first device : KOSS KS5302. Currently it's not working, but I'm trying to fix it. I noticed some alkaline battery leakage on the connector and also on the PCB (see

How I got my SteelSeries 6GV2 mechanical keyboard

How I got my SteelSeries 6GV2 mechanical keyboard

Few months ago, on a beautiful Sunday morning, I visited a local flea market. I was not looking for something in particular, but what I found that day was beyond my expectation: a SteelSeries 6GV2 mechanical keyboard. The vendor was an old man, and the items he was selling were