Month: July 2006

CVS Camera Software Unlock

July 24, 2006 by 49 Comments

http://www.cexx.org/dakota/

The meddlers over at the camera hacking forum have been abusing our favorite CVS product once again. You can now unlock your single use digital camera without any hardware modes. Last week [Sailpix] discovered that Pure Digital had left their FTP server wide open. He found an interesting app on it and discovered the way the challenge/response keys were generated. It was only a matter of time before other hackers like [BillW] were able to use a little brute force and create a software app to generate the correct response keys. You can download the app here. BillW wrote it based entirely on Sailpix’s description of the algo, not the original code. App works for the type-04 camcorder as well.

[thanks [removed by request]]

UPDATE: CameraHacking.com has removed the original thread at Pure Digital’s request.

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GP2X With Built In USB Host Port

July 23, 2006 by 23 Comments

gp2x usb host mode

Hacker [Sprite_tm] is one of our favorites. He continues to court our fancy with his latest hack, adding a USB host port to his GP2X. The GP2X is a Linux based handheld game system. It supports USB devices through its EXT port. Problem is: it doesn’t provide power and you have to use a dongle. The GP2X uses a MAX1566 DC-DC converter so Sprite_tm was able to get 5V from the chip that was otherwise unused. Once mounted in place all he needed to do was write a simple script to mount the USB device. The chip should provide 500mA, but it’s not guaranteed. High draw could lock up the GP2X so a powered hub should still be used if you are unsure.

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Aircrack Running On A Zaurus C1000

July 22, 2006 by 27 Comments

zaurus c1000

The Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 is one of the handful of PDAs that Sharp has released preloaded with Linux. With it’s full qwerty keyboard it’s pretty easy to use any program intended for a full size Linux box. Reader [Sonicvanajr] decided to make a video of his new toy doing a few tricks. Namely, running Aircrack-ng (key to WEP cracking) and MDK2. He compiled both using the OpenEmbedded tools. If you are looking for one of these tiny Linux boxes you might wan to try for the older 5500 model which was sold in the states. The OpenZaurus project is the distro of choice even though it does have a surprisingly steep learning curve for being on a fixed hardware platform.

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Improvised Wire Wrapping Tool

July 20, 2006 by 33 Comments

wire wrap tool

Wire wrapping is a quick and reliable way to build prototypes and one-off pieces of hardware. The multiple cold welded joints makes it even more reliable than PCBs in certain environments like high vibration. [Justin Jones] couldn’t find his favorite wire wrapping tool or anyone selling a replacement so he decided to improvise. He constructed a new tool using a pen tube, small screwdriver, and a bit of metal cut from a floppy disk. The only thing it’s really missing is a built in wire stripper.

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Saturn Controller For The Xbox 360

July 19, 2006 by 21 Comments

saturn xbox controller

With a slate of old-school 2D fighting games like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 3 being released on the Xbox 360 [twistedsymphony] thought it would be nice to have a decent old-school gamepad to play them with. His final interface board lets you use an unmodified Saturn controller with the Xbox 360. He used a chopped up Saturn cable extender to attach the controller to a PIC16F690. The PIC decodes the Saturn pad’s button presses. It then triggers a corresponding analog switch that acts as a button press on the actual 360 controller. He did it this way instead of the much harder task of figuring out what the 360 controller protocol was actually doing. Future plans include support for other system’s controllers. Here’s a demo video.

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Staples Easy Button Hacking

July 18, 2006 by 27 Comments

easy button

Hack-A-Day reader [al cohen] was pretty perturbed by Staple’s Easy Button campaign since nothing in business is easy. So he decided to modify their cute button (PDF). He replaced the guts with a cheap recording circuit from RadioShack. He also added a 1/8 inch jack so you can record directly from the computer. The new button doesn’t need a separate mic either; you can record by speaking into the speaker. As a final touch Al ground off the easy, polished it and made the button evil. You can watch a video of the button declaring his distaste for Spam. You might have seen Jeff Caylor’s previous abuses of the Easy Button on Make. My roommate thought it would be funny if someone wired it to generate the “shift+delete” key sequence.

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