[Michael Ossmann] rolled out some firmware that makes his IM-ME into a Spectrum Analyzer. He met up with [Travis Goodspeed], who authored the IM-ME flashing guide, at SchmooCon and spent some time hacking wireless doo-dads in the hotel bar. Once he arrived home the new firmware was just a few coding sessions away from completion. It scans one frequency at a time, displaying the results in a 132 column graph on the screen. He also added a ribbon cable and header to the debug contacts so that future hacking would be as simple as plugging in the GoodFET.
[Thanks Jared and Travis]
Why for girls?
Why not a spy version for boys too?
nubie – makes no sense what you say.
For girls? Because of the color? Get up to date, those concepts have to go.
Lol I for one can agree with nubie – if I walked into our lab with that thing I would get my balls busted for the next 52 weeks by my colleagues for using a pink spectrum analyzer.
With that said, that is one awesome hack!
halfd — maybe because it says “Girl” in the upper left hand corner. I think nubie’s ultimate point was the same as yours…
@halfd It kinda also says Girl Tech on the top left…
It’s a nice idea but not overly useful unless you have a spectrum analyser. :/
@halfd — I believe he is referring to the giant logo in the upper left corner that says “GIRL” on it.
@nubie — that’s just the device he used, he hacked the firmware and is doing something different with it from it’s intended purpose (of being a cheap texting device for little girls).
Oops my bad didn’t read the article properly, that’s a pretty cool idea, I might have to get one of them and have a play around (after giving it a new paint job).
Nice to see people working on geek girl devices ..
There should be more of that (both devices and geek girls).
I find it very funny that the only thing that concerns all of you is the color of the device. “Sorry sir, I wont accept that free Corvette because it is pink”. Grow up and understand that this is an excellent hack.
Now, would it be possible to program this device with the bus pirate? Hooking this thing up with a cantenna or a parabolic dish could get you snooping for wifi (or others) for reatively cheap (and not too suspicious , except for the antenna)
sorry for derailing the topic, I want one but can’t afford $30 right now, maybe a used one later if I find one.
lacquer thinner + krylon = shut up.
Would be nice if someone post how to reflash the device with another programmer, maybe a PIC or AVR programmer.
lol this is HACK a day. you got a
‘ http://tinyurl.com/goodfuckingdeal ‘, but it doesn’t have a built in webcam? theres a hack for that.
you got something with great potential, but it’s pink.. There’s a Hack for that. In fact, there are multiple hacks for that. The plastic that surrounds the something with great potential is pink. One method, which was useful for oversized walkmans and other 80’s/90’s devices, is the CaseMod. old electronics used to have an excess of spare room on the interior. probably to protect the internal components from damage, but possibly even because the designer was thinking ‘you could put your _?_ in there’. i once took a rather large sony walkman and slimmed it down, removing the unnecessary components (ie. tape deck) and gave it a new ductape finish, keeping the important parts(shiny buttons, LCD, tuning coils, switches, headphone jack, battery connections) and slimming it up to the size of a thin wallet instead of >1 thick wallet. once you have the circuitry fully exposed, you have the opportunity to make other modifications. in the walkman’s case, adding internal speakers, or wires for connecting speakers or headphones with severed ends in the future, which i guess i would call a ghetto pre-amp. since this device is already slim, you probably won’t have the benefit of shaving off extra bulk, but you still have plenty of options. For example: DremelMod; (followed by:) SharpieMod; or the Imanartist&iprefertouseatinypaintbrushMod, which is pretty much self-explanatory once you get past the lackofspaces. if you have sufficient equipment and motivation There is also the ‘take it apart and clone the plastic parts by methods such as DIY moldmaking/injectionMolding or just sand/buff/remove the finish and give it your own paintjob, or just completely replace everything that is plastic or pink. this is taking too long and getting real dumb, like the MachineyourownpartsfromMetalsotheCasecostsmorethanWhatsInsideMod. which i end with because i just wasted an hour or 2 writingdumbshit.
the IM-ME and the Zipit, plus Macgyver and a pack of juicyfruit.. could equal ARMAGEDDON, if it weren’t for Good-Ol’ Chuck Norris.
Anyone know how to rig this up with something that’s NOT a GoodFET? If it’s JTAG then there’s got to be some way of connecting my spare parallel-port programmer to the blasted thing.
@jeditalian
You forgot vinyl dye. Ben Heck used that to dye a xbox360 controller black while converting it to a ps3 controller.
@deyjavont
It doesn’t use wifi. It uses a 900Mhz radio to talk to other im-me’s.
@barry99705
I didn’t check the datasheet for the CC1110F32, but now that I have, I noticed that it is only good in 300-348, 391-464, and 782-928 MHz. I assumed it used a standard usb wifi for the communications (by the look of it). Still very usable though.
That looks as though it could be handy for Amateur Radio operators struggling to find a clear channel in built up areas when using 70cms.
A bit of code-rolling might make it possible to zoom in on just the relevant bandwidth if the resolution of the hardware is sufficient?
Hey, I know this guy! Excellent hack.
Hadn’t seen this mentioned, a few of us got together and put up some driver implementations for the PC side of this, means you can use it as a bash terminal etc.
http://im-megpldrivers.sourceforge.net/
Very very impressive.
Did you ever sneak into the movies when you were a kid?
Not necessarily the way I would think to use a spectrum analyzer, but very interesting nonetheless.
Shame theres no WiFi
So, I just read section 4.4 of P25 .pdf (Why Special Agent Johnny Still Can’t Encrypt) and I thought. I have to build something like this, but how.
And it looks like I found the precious source.
What a cool use for a purple and pink kids toy. GirlTech’s design and marketing has really annoyed me throughout the years — I put up my brand about the same time they started theirs. I’ve always felt that green+pink on black and lockpicking was a better way to subvert the other girls out there into the computer and hack scene, but I am totally enamored by the hacks that ya’ll have done on this purple quote unquote girly device. And next time I am required to babysit (doesnt happen very often, muahaha.) I think it’s going to be mandatory that I have one of these to bring along.
Guess I’m going to get started. . . .
Mad Props and Mad Love for feeding the fire!
Ivy aka GirlTech$ (The Original Gangster/Original Princess :P )