Author: James Munns

114 Articles

Hacking The OnStar GPS V2

December 26, 2009 by 20 Comments

[Andy] has provided us with his new guide to hacking the OnStar GPS. Previously, we have covered a way to grab the GPS data from an unused OnStar system, however in recent years GM has added much more complex systems, which make it harder than swapping out a serial line. For the new version, [Andy] has figured out GM’s Controller Area Network (CAN), which they call GMLAN. He has also done most of the software snooping and sleuthing, and has mostly solved GMLAN’s method of announcing GPS data. There is sample code available to convert this information into generic latitude and longitude.

Unfortunately for the project, (and very fortunately for [Andy]), he has a child on the way and new job responsibilities, so he is offering up his results to the HaD community to finish up, double check, and provide a good how-to for everyone else. To anyone who decides to pick up this project and run with it, let us know!

Social Media HUD

December 15, 2009 by 9 Comments

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnPfnEWFie0%5D

After [Gregg Benjamin] read our story about a simple physical email notifier, he decided to test his skills and add some touches of his own. Rather than limiting his notifier to just email, he has added support for displaying Pandora Radio songs, Facebook notifications, and email all to a LCD. He even has included code for an optional motion detector, as well as support for text message notification. We always love it when our stories inspire our readers to bring their own various solutions to similar problems, so we hope some of you take the code he has supplied (written in python for desktop side, and Arduino sketches for the microcontroller side) and add support for your own interests. Might we suggest RSS feed support, or other social media such as reddit or Google Reader? Let us know if you add something cool, and we might do a follow-up!

[Gregg] doesn’t have a blog of his own, so we have posted the demo video to YouTube, and he has provided all of his related code and images to Megaupload (warning, file is ~115 MB). Sorry to anyone looking for a blog link.

BrickAVR: The Proto-brick

December 15, 2009 by 12 Comments

Sometimes, prototyping systems need to be robust, full-featured, and powerful. Other times, nostalgia and simplicity are much more appealing. Rather than buying a pre-made prototyping board, one of our readers grabbed some parts lying around, including an Atmega8, a SMD 16Mhz oscillator, and a 6 pin ISP header, and performed some circuit origami free-form soldering (thanks [Gilberti]!). After it was assembled, he realized that it fit in a hollowed out 2×6 Lego brick rather easily. After adding female headers to the pins, as well as a label and some hot glue to seal it up, he was left with a fully functional, and most likely very durable centerpiece to a project. We would love to see this worked into a Lego Mindstorm robot, just for the sake of fitting in.

Make Magazine – Open Source Hardware 2009

December 15, 2009 by 5 Comments

Former HaD’er [Phillip Torrone] has written an extensive collection of Open Source Hardware projects for Make Magazine. This impressive list covers over 125 projects and kits, broken into 19 categories including 3d Printing, Music, Robotics, and Wireless systems. A number of these projects have been either extensively detailed or mentioned on HaD, so there is bound to be something for everyone here.

[Phillip] is not only detailing these projects for people new to the Open Source Hardware movement, but is also calling for new and unheard of projects to be listed in places like this, as well as central locations such as the OSH Wikipedia page. We are sure that a number of HaD readers will be answer this challenge.

Thanks again to [Phillip] for sharing this with us.

Ask Hack A Day: Touch Screen Hack

December 3, 2009 by 33 Comments

Reader [Chad Essley] asked us:

“I’m wondering if the vast knowledge base of HackADay’ers out there might know of some way to turn almost any laptop into a touch screen of some kind. Actually, any surface.”

He has an older Wacom Tablet, and would like to be able to add resistive touch screen capabilities so that he isn’t forced to use the Wacom pen. Being an artist and part time hacker, he even summed up the question in a comic-style post.

Continue reading “Ask Hack A Day: Touch Screen Hack” →

Minimalistic Circuit Design

December 1, 2009 by 30 Comments

[David Terrill], whose exploits we have covered before, has shared with us his techniques for building circuits without a prototype or bread board. [David] managed to incorporate a Dual D flip-flop at the heart of the circuit, as well as an impressive number of transistors, diodes, and other passive components. Unfortunately, the circuit diagram is a little low resolution to really make out the real function, but based on the components, our best guess is a two-output blinking circuit. Maybe for an encore, someone out there will build a circuit built entirely around a battery so that it can be a self-contained system.

Let us know if you have a better copy of this schematic, or a guess at what the circuit does!

Uzebox In An NES Controller

November 19, 2009 by 6 Comments

[David Cranor] has managed to fit a fully working Uzebox system into an old NES controller. Uzebox, an open source gaming platform based on the ATmega 644 and an AD725 NTSC encoder, is one of a couple systems that are becoming more and more widespread and accessible. There are a number of ready-to-go Uzebox kits available, but for the more hands-on types, [David] has been very generous with his schematics and step by step instructions. These schematics can all be readily reshaped, and would easily fit into controllers with less fun applications and sentimental value.