One of the members of the SomethingAwful forum recently found a black project box on the street (as seen above), with no idea what the thing did. After (hopefully) making sure there were no explosives, [noapparentfunction] posted a picture online to see if someone could figure it out. According to them, this is what the chips are labelled as:
Center black IC: MICREL Y22758C; 0417
Long white DIP switch IC: CTS 206-12; T438
Small black microcontroller on right: 12C508A; 04/P1V6; 0437. Has a tiny “M-inside circle” logo.
From our experience, we recognized the PIC on the board, but without some more photos, it makes this mystery a little more interesting.
Right now their best guess is a garage door opener of some kind because of the 12 DIP switch part. Any HAD readers willing to investigate and weigh in? The game is afoot!
[thanks to Dave D. who sent this in]
Idk about all of you below…
But its a garage door opener remote connected to another device which probably changes the signals and my guess is .. Its used for hacking into someones garage..
probably a gag to open the door and then close every 10 seconds the person who the joke was played on most likely found it tore the batterys off then chucked it
possible.
its more likely to be some sort of garage door opener, perhaps with some sort of proximity activation (so it automatically transmits its code within range of another transmitter) to prevent interception of the code.
something like this would be handy as it could be fitted on a motorbike etc so even in the pouring rain it would still work and not require fumbling in the dark for a button.
If the power is supplied by a car and the little board pulses the remote a few times per second, it could be used to break into a house.
Flip the dip switch to a random configuration, drive around in a neighborhood and see which garage opens.
it looks like some thing called a flight recorder, they have in aeroplanes
it’s usualy orange to find in the wreckage
The Box has a light. It’s not meant to be hidden. Also someone with much less experience in electronics would easily be able to make it much smaller or more concealable. So I say it’s not meant to be a covert/test beacon. A ham operator trying to track signals would not want his beacon to be found by Joe Shmoe walking by. so:
1: It’s at least meant to be seen by the user while it operates.
It has no battery compartment.
And DIPs means there was a specific and known setting.
So it was hard wired, 12v, Pulse Tx, light to indicate it is working.
Does it have a hole in the top of the box for the user to press that button?
Is that the original DIP setting that’s in the picture?
I think that it’s an automatic tripping device. Garage doors, though, will usually stop upon detecting a second Tx, and reverse on the next Tx. So the pulsed Tx means that the device being tripped is something that is activated and stays activated for a short period of time. RF based traffic preemption? Maybe but:
Apartment complex, or parking garage gates do NOT stop or reverse on detecting further Txs, so…The best guess here is that it’s an automatic gate opener for someone that has to pass through the same gate or gates (DIPs set identically) many times a day.
Elementary my dear Watson.
It think that device is a garage door oppener, but (as seen in the SA forum), it sends the code every 10 seconds while powered.
If you put that in your car, you could make that the door opens each time you go to your house, and when you stop the car, the door closes. When you start the car again (the black box recives power), the door opens for you, and closes when you leave your house.
Isn’t that, a reasonable explanation?
This thread is kind of old, but I came across something interesting related to it that adds to the probability it is a garage door opener. This is a link to someone who opened their OEM garage door opener and found the mystery chip inside, along with the 12 position DIP switch. They were trying to decode the data stream on 390MHz with their scanner. http://forums.radioreference.com/general-scanning-forum/29203-programming-idea-use-scanners.html
THERE IT IS! WHERE DID YOU FIND IT!?
Can I have my garage door opener back please?
I believe if you held down the transmit switch of an un modified garage transmitter, it requires you to let go of the button after several seconds before it will re-transmit it’s code.
That’s why the pic cycles the transmitter.
What it’s for depends on where the receiver is, or rather hooked up to.
Since these can be found as scrap, it is likely not used for a garage anymore. Range of most (depending on the receivers antenna) is a short block.
If attached to the brake lights of a car, it could warn you: your folks are home. But not likely, this is not a “one of” as too much trouble went into silkscreening the board, not truely “home made”. And the silk’d production number under the PIC chip, is that search-able?
Someone at one time washed this in acetone to remove solder flux, that is what I believe the white residue around the pads is. But they still made some mods after that, as the crystal and two caps where there at some point and removed.
OR MAYBE, the crystal was installed where the capacitor holes are, and layed down in an early design, then removed, or external clock connected there. Infers THIS was the proto, for somebody.
Perhaps previous design used a crystal, and he found he didn’t need it, which he doesn’t.
Looks like the foil broke on side.
His iron is dirty since all the soot left behind removing the crystal, so it is on for long periods, and he is not a perfectionist, like a suit, more of a hacker, unseasoned.
The RF board is standard mass produced garage opener 315mhz is my guess from the loop.
The controller, well someone put their initials and it’s function on the bottom “KRP – JG”, which is initials, and which is function ???
I beleive the controller board was designed for this enclosure and this purpose as corners where allotted for on the PCB before fabrication.
PIC is from 2004 stock.
Parts are new, but the resistor bands are not oriented the same way, practicle before pride.
The soldering is sloppy with un-trimmed leads.
Who ever designed the board, did not assemble it.
What is IC2??
It is an announciator system. No diode before the regulator so DC is expected, and reverse polarity is not an issue, fine stranded wire, not a car, 9V battery.
With no arduino, this should never have been posted on HaD !!
Jeez. Someone ALREADY POSTED that it’s theirs!
I can tell you exactly what this device is – most of you were right: It’s a hacked up garage door-type transmitter, hacked to transmit at regular intervals as long as power is applied.
The device I have in my hand (a duplicate of what’s in the pictures) is part of a diesel exhaust filter at my fire station. The “black box” is mounted in the fire engine, wired to the battery switch. Whenever the battery switch (AKA “ignition”) is on, the exhaust-sucker powers up and the flex tube magnetically attached to the truck removes the diesel exhaust and routes it out the top of the station.
As soon as the engine reaches the door to the truck bay, the magnetic attachment drops out and the suction hose releases from the side of the truck. Once the truck is at the end of the block, the fans shut down automatically, because the “constant” signal is no longer strong enough.
The really scary part of this whole story is the system, made by a company called Niedrmann, is a high dollar system, and it’s actuated by a cheap-ass hacked up POS probably made by some engineer’s 12 year old kid, in the basement! I guess it’s easier (and cheaper) to hack up an old garage door opener than it is to put a modern device through an FCC certification process . . .
Ironically, I found this site when I was doing a search for the two DIP’s in the sender and receiver, and I haven’t been able to find ANY data sheets on either of them, so thanks to those of you who shed some light on what these two chips are!
It’s a scrambled garage door opener. The main board is a duplicate of my GDO. The small board is a signal scrambler.
I have this exact chip “Y22758C” on my Overhead Door Legacy 696 Garage door opener circuit board. This is the receiver side, so my guess is the device is also a receiver of some kind. Maybe it simply turns on the LED when someone clicks the remote. Maybe it is just some kid’s science project. Maybe it is a technician’s tool for checking that the remotes work, if the door does not. Maybe it is not as sinister as some of you would believe.
I can confirm that the left board is a garage door opener. I have one that looks exactly the same. It is powered by a 9V battery. The right board appears to feed directly into power.
it is a garage door opener. i just duplicated one for use in my
apartment garage. pics are on my twitter, have a look if it means anything. that weird coil is adjustable from about 1-5 uH and the dip switches key in the output frequency.
I know this is an old post, so apologies for resurrecting it.
I know exactly what that box is. It is manufactured by Nederman exhaust extraction systems, and is typically installed in fire apparatus in order to start the extraction system as soon as the ignition is turned on.
They are unreliable and cost >$400.00 US. Which is the reason I am doing the research at this moment.
This device is a Nederman Model TR1. It is typically used to start a vehicle exhaust system (like at a Fire Station) so that the trucks don’t fill the building with exhaust fumes. It typically operates at ~390.3 MHz.
Yes, this is definitely, Genie, I work for genie and found the circuit board among some parts, but couldn’t figure why a board would have a learn button and a set of dip switches so went looking on here . No one at work seems to know what it’s from.