A Hacker’s Epic Quest To Keep His Son Entertained

April 13, 2018 by Tom Nardi 22 Comments

Little humans have a knack for throwing a wrench in the priorities of their parents. As anyone who’s ever had children will tell you, there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for them. If you ever needed evidence to this effect, just take a gander at the nearly year-long saga that chronicles the construction of an activity board [Michael Teeuw] built for his son, Enzo.

Whether you start at the beginning or skip to the end to see the final product, the documentation [Michael] has done for this project is really something to behold. From the early days of the project where he was still deciding on the overall look and feel, to the final programming of the Raspberry Pi powered user interface, every step of the process has been meticulously detailed and photographed.

The construction methods utilized in this project run the gamut from basic woodworking tools for the outside wooden frame, to a laser cutter to create the graphical overlay on the device’s clear acrylic face. [Michael] even went as far as having a custom PCB made to connect up all the LEDs, switches, and buttons to the Arduino Nano by way of an MCP23017 I2C I/O expander.

Even if you aren’t looking to build an elaborate child’s toy that would make some adults jealous, there’s a wealth of first-hand information about turning an idea into a final physical device. It isn’t always easy, and things don’t necessarily go as planned, but as [Michael] clearly demonstrates: the final product is absolutely worth putting the effort in.

Seeing how many hackers are building mock spacecraft control panels for their children, we can’t help but wonder if any of them will adopt us.

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Dumping Arcade ROMs The Hard Way

April 12, 2018 by Tom Nardi 13 Comments

Nostalgia is a funny thing. That desire we all get to relive past memories can make you do things that in any other scenario would be out of the question. The effect seems even stronger when it comes to old video games. How else can you explain buying the same games over and over every time they get “remastered” for the next generation of consoles? But what if those remasters aren’t good enough?

If you have a burning desire to play a 100% accurate version of certain old arcade games, you might have your work cut out for you. Getting precise ROMs from some of these machines is exceptionally difficult, and as explained on the [CAPS0ff] blog, sometimes requires nearly superhuman feats of engineering.

As explained in the blog post, less invasive methods of getting inside the Taito C-Chip had already been examined and come up lacking. Despite best efforts, sending the unlock command to the chip didn’t yield the desired effect. If you can’t read the ROM the usual way, you need to get a little creative.

The process starts by milling down the case of the chip until the integrated circuit is just starting to become visible. Then acid is used to fully expose the traces. The traces are then tinned, and some very fine soldering is done to get the chip wired up to the reader. All told it takes about three hours from start to finish to pull a ROM using this method. But it’s all worth it in the end when you can play that 100% accurate version of Rainbow Islands. Or so we’ve been told.

If you couldn’t tell, this isn’t the first time a chip has been flayed open like this on the [CAPS0ff] blog.

Building The Perfect Home Router

April 12, 2018 by Tom Nardi 43 Comments

When a favorite piece of hardware dies, it’s fairly common to experience a bit of dread. The thought that now you’ll have to go through the process of getting a replacement for the device can be very troubling, and is fraught with difficult questions. Is the hardware still available? Has it been made obsolete by something else in the time you’ve had it? But while it can be a hassle, there’s no question you can come out the other side better than you went in. Sometimes it takes the passing of an old piece of gear for you to really embrace what’s possible with the latest and greatest.

That’s exactly what happened to [Tyler Langlois]. When his trusty home router finally gave up the ghost, he was left with a couple of options. He could get another consumer router, upgrade to a enterprise-level model, or take the road less traveled and build his own router to his exacting specifications. Since you’re reading about it on Hackday, we’ll give you one guess as to which door he went through.

The blog post [Tyler] has written up about the saga of building his own router is an incredible resource for anyone who might be thinking of taking the plunge into DIY networking. From selecting the proper hardware to the nuances of getting all of the software packages installed, this is an absolute treasure trove. At the beginning of the post he mentions that the post shouldn’t be considered a comprehensive guide, but considering we’ve seen commercial hardware that wasn’t documented this well, we’d have to respectfully disagree on that point.

Some elements of his homespun may come as something of a surprise. For one, [Tyler] bucked the hive mentality and determined the Raspberry Pi simply wasn’t up to the task due (at least in part) to the single 100 Mbps network interface. He ended up going with an ESPRESSObin, a relatively niche Linux SBC that features an onboard gigabit switch in addition to a fairly hefty spec sheet. He also decided to forgo WiFi entirely, and leave the intricacies of wireless networking to a standalone access point from Ubiquity.

A router is often overlooked as just another piece of consumer kit sitting around the house, but it’s actually an excellent place to flex your creative and technical muscle. From adding a remote display to converting it into a mobile battle tank, there’s a lot more you can do with your router than stare at the blinkenlights.

Emulating OBD-II On The ESP32

April 11, 2018 by Tom Nardi 35 Comments

It used to be that you could pop the hood and with nothing more than flat head screwdriver, some baling wire, and tongue held at the optimal angle, you could fix anything that ailed your car. But today, for better or for worse, the average automobile is a rolling computer that runs on gasoline and hope (if it even still has a gasoline engine, that is). DIY repairs and maintenance on a modern car is still possible of course, but the home mechanic’s toolbox has needed to evolve with the times. If you want to do anything more advanced than changing a tire, you’ll really want to have the gear to interface with the vehicle’s computer via the OBD-II port.

But for some, even that isn’t enough. [limiter121] recently wrote in to tell us of an interesting project which doesn’t read the OBD-II port in a vehicle, but actually emulates one. Like so many others this hack was born out of necessity, as a way to test an OBD-II project without having to sit out in the driveway all day. It allows you to create fictitious speed and engine RPM values for the OBD-II device or software under test to read, complete with a slick web interface to control the “car”.

So what makes it tick? Surprisingly little, actually. At the most basic level, an ESP32-WROOM-32 is connected up to a SN65HVD230 CAN transceiver chip. You’ll also need a 3.3V power supply, as well as a USB to serial adapter to do the initial programming on the ESP32. From there it’s just a matter of compiling and flashing the code [limiter121] has made available in the GitHub repo.

If you’re wondering if such products don’t already exist on the commercial market, they do. But like so many other niche projects, the price is a bit hard to swallow for the home hacker. Compared to the nearly $300 USD list price of commercial offerings such as the Freematics OBD-II Emulator, building one of these ESP32 based emulators should only cost you around $20.

Unless you’re developing an OBD-II reader, you probably don’t have much use for an OBD-II emulator. But this project could still be useful for anyone who wants to learn more about OBD from the comfort of their couch.

1920’s Claratone Radio Runs Windows 10

April 10, 2018 by Tom Nardi 31 Comments

In the past we’ve mentioned how there are different schools of thought in terms of how to bring a vintage piece of hardware into the 21st century. You can go down the preservationist’s route, carefully grafting the original components with more modern ones, or you can take the nuclear option and blow all that dusty old gear out of the water. [Derek Traxler] clearly decided to go with the latter option on his recent conversion of 1920’s era Claratone tube radio to an Internet radio and podcast player. Not only is there little left of the original device beyond its knobs and wooden case, but he’s even managed to cram a Windows 10 computer into the base for good measure.

The core of the radio is a LattePanda, an extremely powerful Intel single board computer. It’s running Windows, and loads up a list of Internet radio streams and podcasts to play from a USB thumb drive that’s built into an old vacuum tube. The LattePanda uses its built-in Arduino to interface with the radio’s original front panel knobs, which now are used to switch between streams. A particularly neat effect is the static and cross-talk that’s artificially added when switching “stations”, making it sound like you’re really dialing in a station rather than just selecting between digital files.

On the audio side, the LattePanda is connected to a SX400 amplifier, which in turn drives the external speakers. While [Derek] mentions it isn’t quite perfected, a MSGEQ7 graphic equalizer chip is used to control LEDs mounted inside the original radio’s vacuum tubes. In the video after the break, you can see the tubes flashing madly along with the music, giving an interactive effect to the final product. Unfortunately it seems you can only see the tubes when the radio has its “hood” up, though.

If this egregious lack of historical preservation has brought a tear to your eye, never fear. We’ve covered some proper restoration work on vintage audio gear which may level you out.

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Space Garbage Truck Takes Out The Trash

April 9, 2018 by Tom Nardi 107 Comments

On April 2nd, 2018 a Falcon 9 rocketed skywards towards the International Space Station. The launch itself went off without a hitch, and the Dragon spacecraft delivered its payload of supplies and spare parts. But alongside the usual deliveries, CRS-14 brought a particularly interesting experiment to the International Space Station.

Developed by the University of Surrey, RemoveDEBRIS is a demonstration mission that aims to test a number of techniques for tackling the increasingly serious problem of “space junk”. Earth orbit is filled with old spacecraft and bits of various man-made hardware that have turned some areas of space into a literal minefield. While there have been plenty of ideas floated as to how to handle this growing issue, RemoveDEBRIS will be testing some of these methods under real-world conditions.

The RemoveDEBRIS spacecraft will do this by launching two CubeSats as test targets, which it will then (hopefully) eliminate in a practical demonstration of what’s known as Active Debris Removal (ADR) technology. If successful, these techniques could eventually become standard operating procedure on future missions.

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Cracking A Bluetooth Credit Card

April 8, 2018 by Tom Nardi 44 Comments

You might be surprised to find out that it’s actually not a good idea to put all of your credit card information on a little Bluetooth enabled device in your pocket. Oh, what’s that? You knew already? Well in that case you won’t find the following information terribly shocking, but it’s still a fascinating look at how security researchers systematically break down a device in an effort to find the chinks in its armor.

[Mike Ryan] of ICE9 Consulting has recently published an article detailing the work done to examine and ultimately defeat the security on the FUZE Card. From using an x-ray machine to do non-destructive reconnaissance on the device’s internals to methodically discovering all the commands it responds to over Bluetooth, it’s safe to say the FUZE Card is cracked wide open at this point.

To be clear, the attacker must still pair with FUZE, so physical access is required. But as pointed out by [Mike] in the blog post, handing your card over to a merchant is standard operating procedure in many cases. It isn’t as if it would be hard to get a hold of one of these FUZE cards for a minute or two without the owner becoming suspicious. Pairing FUZE to the Linux device to continue to the next step of the attack only takes a few seconds, as demonstrated in the video after the break.

Once paired, the attacker can simply send a BLE command to FUZE which disables the lock screen. It’s really that simple. The attacker can also send commands to dump credit card info over Bluetooth, meaning they could download your information even when the card is “safely” back in your pocket. The inherent failure in the FUZE design is that you don’t need to provide any sort of authentication to pair it to a new Bluetooth device. It makes the (very dangerous) assumption that the person holding it is entitled to do so.

Even if you know better than to ever buy a device like this, the post [Mike] has written up is really a must-read for anyone who’s ever looked at a device and tried to figure out what was going on in its little silicon brain. We especially liked his assertion that reverse engineering a device essentially boils down to: “staring, thinking, a little experimentation, but mostly staring and thinking.” We’re having an internal debate here at Hackaday HQ about making that the site’s tagline.

Incidentally, this is very similar to the Bluetooth gun “safe” that was cracked not so long ago. At this point, it might be wise to just stay away from anything with that little blue logo on it if you intend to trust it with your identity and/or deadly weapon.

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