XBox 360 DVD Region Hack

July 20, 2007 by 7 Comments


[XanTium] sent this in a few days ago, but I thought you guys would dig it. Here are the details straight from his email:

Hackers on the XBH forums managed to change DVD key and Game Region Code in the Xbox 360 ‘Key Vault’ (that stores on flashchip: console certificate(s), per-box private keys, DVD key, however NOT any code-related encryption keys).
However you should know the ‘Key Vault’ is encrypted with the per-xbox360 ‘CPU key’, so that means this hack is only possible on Hypervisor exploitable Xbox360s (kernel 4532 and 4548) for now. You will of course also have to read/flash the Xbox360 flashchip (by desoldering it and read/flash it with programmer or for example use the versatile Infectus dev chip)

You can read up on some more details here or get a login and check out the actual forum thread. The end result: play EU games on your US 360. (It doesn’t sound like the DVD movie region has been successfully changed, but modded DVD players are easy to make.)

External Laptop Battery Pack

July 19, 2007 by 35 Comments


This little hack was sent in by [andrew], he built it specifically for the long flight from Australia to the US. The idea is simple, but I wouldn’t have considered it given the cost of decent D Cells these days. H put together a 20 D-cell power pack, a regulator to keep it at 24v, and an eighth inch plug to power up his old ibook.

Update: I goofed and left out [andrew]’s name.

Automatic French Press Coffee Brewer

July 18, 2007 by 15 Comments

[Christoph] sent in [fingers] rather interesting coffee hacking project. (Use the fish to translate it to English.) Using various scrounged parts, he’s constructed his own automated french press brewer. A good french press is a bit of an art, so I can understand the desire to automate one. The grind itself isn’t too critical, but brewing time can vary with the roast and grind of the bean. Personally, I’ve found that decent brew temperature is the real key to a good press. [Fingers] machine provides a way to do everything consistently, but the custom aluminum brew chamber might be effecting the brew temperature.

Hack Some Bling Extra

July 16, 2007 by 8 Comments


I’ve been getting some good looking mods on the tips line, so I thought it was time for a bit of bling on Hack-A-Day.

[f00-F00] sent in his ever so lightly modded iPod. It’s a bit similar to his force feedback PSP mod, but in this case, the leds lighting up the clear case are music sensitive.

The not too shabby looking [flooky] sent in her latest use for the SEGA Dreamcast, a guitar. (Hopefully soon to have three more strings.)

[crait] decided to steal 5v to power a Dreamcast VMU from his PS/2 port.

Oh, and if you dig our logo, you might be amused by skulladay.

I’ve got my travel plans for Defcon 15 set up. [Eliot] will certainly be skulking around vegas, so we’ll see you there.

SMS Tracking With A GPS GSM Enabled AVR

July 15, 2007 by 20 Comments


[Alex] sent in some of his latest work. He interfaced some not so cheap components to give an AVR GPS and GSM I/O. For now it can read the GPS position and send text messages. Thanks to the GPS/GSM module, the schematic is pretty simple – anyone with basic soldering skills and a desire to put a dent in their credit card can probably build this. (Programming the AVR is probably the most difficult task)

Force Feedback PSP Mod

July 14, 2007 by 5 Comments


[F00 f00] sent in his latest PSP mod. By combining a voltage amplifier, a PIC controller and a cell phone motor he ended up with force feedback enabled PSP. He’s got the PIC set to enable the motor when it detects certain sound frequencies from the speaker via the amp.

The video is after the break.

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